PerfICT

Still shell-shocked and in a rip of a mood. First half, we were decent, but had that look of a team that had no confidence in front of goal, with hurried shots or taking too much time. Then the sucker punch, which was yet another soft goal. We were OK for spells in the 2nd half, but only created a couple of decent chances.....then.... WTF were the subs about?! Our best 2 players had been McCart and McNaughton....both subbed! Thee defence from then on was an utter mare. Cole's sending off was petty and stupid. Warren's in the tunnel is inexcusable and simply reflected his horror show for the last 20 min. The only good thing to come from today is that Foran will have to play McCart and Laing in a back four....but who knows what he'll do?! Foran should have fallen on his sword long ago if hereally loved the club as much as he claims. He is frankly deluded and clueless, but I'm afraid it is too late even of he were to do the honourable thing (which he won't). The game is up and my heart goes out to those that will lose their jobs as a consequence. If you add the youth academy to the likely list of casualties, the final link with the community will be broken. Things are so bad that I even think bringing in a certain Judas TB would be qoeth considering - and I absolutely hate him!

That'll be that then. Outplayed St J all game, then concede a soft one and now Cole sent off for backchat. Cannot buy a goal or a win.

The team I'd like to see: Fon Williams Raven Laing McCart Tremarco Draper Tansey Mulraney Polworth Cole Mckay The team I think we'll see: Fon Williams Raven Warren Laing McCart Tremarco Polworth Draper Tansey Mckay Anier

Sadly can't argue with any of that Caley100. Even the unlikely event of a Houdini effort to escape the drop will only paper over the cracks. Bottom line is we don't get enough through the gate - there was no bounce from winning the oldest football trophy on the planet. An annual basline loss of £250k ish can only be serviced by winning major trophies or selling talent. There's nothing left to improve the team or facilities. Community club here we come.

If you can't beat the teams around you, you'll go down. We've had a home win against Dundee and an away victory at Motherwell + a few draws against the bottom 6. Sure, we'll have one more pop at each of them, but I have zero faith in Richie to select the right team to win any games. The frustration is that there is a good team in there, but it has only been selected on one occasion on account of injuries and the Foran tombola selection policy. I'll be there to the bitter end, but more in hope than expectation.

Oh no - another late heartbreaker goal. County 2-1 up. Do you ever feel that things are not falling your way....

At least County aren't winning anymore. Still, 1-0 down at half time isn't so bad...cue IHE.

5 at the back and we still can't defend a corner.

That's County 1-0 up

Is that 3 CBs again?! No pace and no width, which is what killed us in the long winless streak. I'm desperate to be proved wrong, but that line up is a shambles.

There is a chance he'll rest McGinn - earlier in the season there was a hint that McGinn can't cope with 3 games in 8 days and I'm sure the Rangers game will be the focus.

King had a mare on Saturday - nothing went for him and he lost the ball in the back third before the penalty was awarded. Apparently Tremarco is fit again, which is a boost. I'd go Raven McCart McNaughton Tremarco at the back.

Fon Williams: 8. No chance with the pen and made 3 excellent saves to earn us a point. Raven: 9. Is turning into some left back. Was swapped with Brad Mckay to try to neutralise Jones...who then swapped to avoid him. Makes a pretty good fist of wing back even though it's not really his game. McCart: 7. Really solid. This guy has real potential. Laing: 6. Did OK at centre half, but looked a bit lost as CDM in the second half (if that is where he was playing). Warren: 6. One goal-saving tackle on Boyd. Distribution ranged from excellent to Beauly Firth. Mckay: 2. A horrible day at the office. Skinned time and again by Jones and conceded the pen. One to forget. King: 3. Nothing came off in attack and weak in defence. Rightly subbed. Draper: 4. Was doing OK in midfield in the first half, if not outstanding. Then seemed to be put up front as a target man, exposing his surprising weakness in the air. If a centre forward was needed, there were some on the bench! Tansey: 7. A good game from Tansey, despite being deserted in midfield in the second half. Great strike in the first half and some great skill in the lead up to Cole's chance. Cole: 5. Some good touches and a decent effort on goal, but I have no idea what position he was playing in the second half. Mckay: 7. You have to sympathise with poor Billy. Works his boots off, with only scraps to play with. No support today, but took his goal really well and could have had a second. McNaughton: 8. What a difference when he came on for Brad. Put in a power of work and always looked in control. Thought he'd need oxygen after one lung busting run up the line. Mulraney: 7. Won several free kicks with his pace and trickery. Sublime piece of skill to win a corner too. Needs a final ball and to not go down so easily. Polworth: 2. Came on too late to make any impact. Ref: 2. I think he got the pen call right - Mckay has held his hand up. Other than that, he got just about everything else wrong. Foran: 2. Really struggling in his rookie year. Persisted with 3 centre backs despite not having wing backs in the squad. Then changed it at half time by (I think) putting Laing at CDM and Draper up front. Tansey seemed to have the whole midfield to cover on his own! At least he got some of the subs right - McNaughton must start from now on. Keep Draper and Tansey in their best positions and play with Cole and Mulraney wide. Sadly, I think he'll keep tinkering and persisting with 3 centre backs, which could just sink us.

Fon Williams Raven Laing McCart McNaughton Draper Tansey Mulraney Polworth Cole Mckay Get guys playing in their correct positions (other than left back where we have no cover for Tremarco)! God knows what Foran will do: Fon Williams up top and Cole in goal? No more crazy than Draper at no. 9 and wing backs with no pace.

Agree with DD. Tansey was deserted in midfield when Draper was stuck up front. There was no lack of effort on his part and I applaude him for that. I'd play him at Aberdeen: we're not exactly blessed with players of his talent and I have no doubt he'll do his very best for us.

Penalty was a stone-waller. Mackay absolutely skinned, but didn't need to go to ground. Madden got that right, but agree that most of his decisions were shambolic!

I still feel we have enough in the squad, but the tactics have been the real let down all season. There were very few positives today, but McNaughton was excellent when he came on, even though he is nowhere near being a wing back - we don't have anybody who can play that role! Not sure what the formation was for the last half hour: Draper was playing as a striker, Tansey was given far too much ground to cover in centre mid. Where was Laing playing? CDM? What about Cole - he was quite effective until the team lost shape. Square pegs in round holes (or no holes!) all over the place. I have no idea what our best team for Aberdeen will be, but sadly, nor does Richie.

Oh dear. Didn't deserve to win today and Saints conspire to gift Hamilton a victory. Hardest fixture midweek and then we're into "marooned" territory.

FFS: 7-0 loss at home to Aberness for Dundee. Remember those dark days after losing 6-0 to Celtic in the cup? There are some other teams at least as bad as we are - let's take advantage and tear Killie to pieces. The only worry is that we play Aberness next....and Dungdee's next game is at County...

Dons doing us a favour - pumping Dundee 4-0 at half time. Dundee not out of the equation yet. Yes, I don't feel comfortable supporting the New Club, but needs must....

Josh is an excellent player and we've missed him this season. However, the repeated knee issue is a real concern and a risk to whoever takes him next year. As he said in the Courier last week, he is no use to anybody in the treatment room. It's just possible that we benefitted from the best of Josh.

I think this is a dangerous game. Killie might still be in the mix for the wooden spoon, but their recent away form is excellent, with 3 draws and 2 wins in their last 5. Presumably, their tactics suit away fixtures - against County, it seemed that they hardly had a shot at goal, but still won. If we want to win it, I think we have to go with guys that can go past defenders - we don't have the players to pass through a packed defence. Mulraney to start, if fit, with King or Cole on the other side. Let's really give them something to think about.

Graph now included!

Given our league position comapred to our recent successes, there is a senses around the place that we are underachieving this season. However, ask any supporter at any club whether they think their team should do better and most would say that they should be doing better. This begs the question: on what do football supporters base their standards, given all the inequalities in the game? One metric that we can measure success against is income, which is a function of crowd size. Just for kicks, I've therefore come up with the graph below which relates points per game to crowd size. In order to bring the outliers of Celtic and Rangers into the frame and to make the relationship linear, I have log transformed the crowd figures. The result is interesting and rings true to a large extent. The over-achievers compared to their crowd sizes (i.e. above the mean line) are St J, PT, Abdn and Celtic. Under-achievers are ourselves, Motherwell, Dundee and Hearts and Rangers. It is interesting to note that Hamilton are not under-achieving: I wonder how many Hamilton supporters would agree with that? Our level of under-achievement is modest at this point in the season - we're about 5 points down on what this model might predict. It would be interesting to do the same for the last couple of seasons to see just how far above our weight we were punching. This can be updated on a weekly basis - just where will we sit at the end of the seaso? another way of looking at it is: if we got another 50 people through the gate every week, it should be worth an extra 0.1 points per game (~4 points for the season). Like any model, this is riddled with holes, but given its simplicity, it is interesting to find such a clear assoication between crowd size and success. If nothing else, it helps to bring a reality check to our assessment of how well we're doing against what should be expected... Thoughts?

As I said back in November, we should have taken the cash when we had the opportunity: losing a player on the free was inevitable this year. That is not to say that I wanted shot of Tansey - on his day, he's as good as we've got. However, it is poor business to miss out on rare cash for a player, when it is inevitable that he will leave. The timing of this announcement is appalling, but I'd continue to play Tansey, with a view to dropping him if his form slips. As others have said, there were similar reservations about Shinnie and he was outstanding for us after signing his PCA.