party politics

We will finish in the top 6.

The main VAR referee tonight was Greg Aitken, who after his retiral from reffing, is the main VAR referee for the SFA. He should look for a new career after not checking that handball, but no doubt the SFA will just brush it under the carpet. The clubs are paying good money to have this facility but it is not fit for purpose and neither are the people that are currently implementing it.

Totally agree that running a line is not easy and neither is refereeing, but week after week our "top" officials are not covering themselves in glory. Simple things, like indicating a free-kick or throw-in with their arms (there were times last night I did not hear the whistle being blown for a foul) seems to be to much effort for them. Trudging up and down the middle of the pitch and never coming wide are my own personal pet hates. The guys in the middle in our league must be on around £1000 per match now, so they should go back to earning it. Glad to see the club have appealed Bolton's straight red, as let's be honest McLean just wanted to follow his pal Robertson from the night before and go against the VAR recommendation.

Form table shows (for the last ten games) 7 points out of 30 and 5 goals scored. So a lot of room for improvement all over the pitch.

No argument from me, I was trying to be diplomatic! Next stop Billericay Town or Solihull Moors would be my guess.

I assume it was to use his pace to run at a very newish centre half pairing, not that bad an idea but unfortunately the 2 early goals completely killed this game plan. I am sure that the manager will be looking to move on at least 2 of our tombolo strikers over this transfer window.

Game over in under 10 mins was very deflating. Brave move by the manager to play 2 up top but that decision left CBM and Flynn chasing shadows in the middle as they were ran over the top off by McGregor and O'Reilly for the whole of the first half. I agree we need to get Gogic back into the middle of the pitch, I also don't think we need to play with 3 centre half's in all our games, as this puts all the pressure on the wing backs to deliver in every game. The loss of Strain in this position has certainly affected us recently in results and performance. If we do stick (which I am sure we will!) with the system hopefully Elvis will improve us on the right hand side. Hopefully the manager can do some wheeling and dealing over the next few weeks and get a couple of fresh faces in.

Another worrying performance, devoid of ideas all over the pitch. Even more worrying the manager keeps bleating on how we don't need to change anything. Does he not think that teams have now worked out how to play against us? Yet he sticks by the same old system week after week (albeit with different personnel). We have 6 or 7 options up front but being honest only 1 or 2 are fit to wear the shirt. O'Hara's captain's armband must weigh him down as he is nowhere the player he was on his current form. Though we could give him some help in there by replacing one of the three stooges up front and put an extra player in there. How about a good old fashioned 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 Robbo? As it cannot be any worse than the rubbish we have been served up since early October.

Sorry, but not buying that if he said that. Ryan was the best player on the park by a distance and was still looking the most composed player to create something on the break. Far to many players rushing and panicking on the numerous breaks we had towards the end of the game. If we want to maintain our position or progress next season the whole left hand side pf the pitch needs to be upgraded.

I wish I shared your optimism, you refer to one time costs in your posts. Do you have any idea what these are or are you just falling in line with the statement issued by the Chairman/Club when the accounts were published. Ralston, imo, does not fall into a one time cost as there will also be repairs and maintenance needed, which any company worth their salt, would have a budget set aside every trading year for this. Perhaps you could enlighten me to these? Very positive league performance - we are currently lying 6th and have just as much chance of finishing in 10th as we do of reaching 4th. Attendances - Definitely on the rise, great that the club has a lot of different initiatives on the go. Hopefully there is a lot of full paying punters among this rise in attendance. Multiple sellable assets - Remains complete conjecture, I would certainly not be running the business on that basis. The manager - Doing a great job for the club but speculation does not pay the bills i'm afraid. A loss of 1.6 million for a club of our size (whether on paper or in actual pound notes) is alarming and horrendous to say the least. I am struggling to see why there are not a lot more of our support concerned about this.

Very unfair on the the new manager, you point out all the positions at fault tonight, what manager was it that signed them? The time to judge the new manager is at least a year from now when he has had 2 transfer windows under his belt. Hearts have been a yard sharper in all positions in at least 3 of the 4 games we have played them so far. (hate typing that with their prick of a manager) We scored two crackers but were beaten (again) by the better team, if you want to lay that at the new managers door so be it.

He is sitting in the directors box next to their chairman according to the radio. (Out with a hamstring injury)

Knickerwetters out in mid August 😄 Man up FFS

My knickers are bone dry thanks, I was only pointing out that on the back of an average season, that it may have been more prudent not to reward the manager with such a lucrative contract. He is still a young manager learning his trade, so do not understand why he was rewarded so handsomely by our club. I only know this information because our CEO couldn't wait to tell the world that this was the case when the manager signed a new deal. Maybe there are some lessons to be learned by the CEO, or did he think a bigger club was poised to come in and steal him?

Pity we made him the most expensive manager in the club's history, so would assume if it does happen it would cost a small fortune.

All depends on what you count as success or failure, if success is avoiding a relegation scrap we should just about manage that. Midfield and forward has had no continuity or style of play for the majority of the season. As someone else has pointed out we have actually only played well in a handful of games all season. We have a manager who spends to much time worrying about the opposition rather than letting them worry about us. Our "success" this season has been built solely on our very reliable goalkeeper and the defence. We have turned JDH from a box to box midfielder into a very average holding midfielder and you could probably say the same about Ethan beside him. Durmus is asked one week to play as a wing back then the next a winger is it any wonder he looks lost at times. The least said about the right hand side of midfield the better, where Connolly and McAllister compete most weeks to see who can run about the most and contribute nothing to the team. We have a multitude of forwards and for me, they all fall into the "mehh" category, oh for a Somner, McDougall, McAvennie... sorry showing my age. Finally we have a manager that overthinks everything and seems scared to take risks and today was another perfect example of this. To summarise I feel sorry for the guys at the back, but going forward that is not a top six team i'm afraid.

Has been for weeks unfortunately, I struggle to see how the manager cannot see this.

Cannot wait to get back to the stadium, not to watch the football so much, but to get away from that commentator. If you had a season ticket next to him gibbering pish you would move seats for sure. Bla Bla Bla about heart disease, when the ball is ricocheting around our box while 2 of our players are lying flat on the ground. Do your sponsorship stuff at the right time ya fud!! Rant over.. credit as usual to the defence and goalie, thought McCarthy was a stick out. Midfield to front was pretty hit or miss as it has been for the bulk of the season. You certainly could not argue with the work rate today though, a very valuable 3 points!

Agreed but this was the managers decision to run this season with such a small squad. We have been lucky that the defenders have remained relatively fit apart from some early suspensions. Who knows what we do if we lost either McCarthy or Shauggnessy for a lengthy period? We have also played the whole season without a recognised left back. We shouldn't be in the position that we are playing players when only 75% fit! It also doesn't help we have a player on a 3 year deal that 18 months in cannot finish a game or if he does, is not fit enough to start the next game.

Or he could learn to use his right foot?

One of the few midfielders brave enough to show for the ball, so is going to get caught occasionally. I would much rather have his and Durmus attitude than some others who spend the game dithering, hiding or tackling with their wrong foot.

Injuries are now mounting up, so will need to find a formula that suits the remaining players for the next 7 games to secure 6th spot. This would be a tremendous achievement given the trials and tribulations we have faced this season. If we manage this I for one wouldn't care to much about the after split results as our squad maybe extremely stretched by then. Hopefully get at least a point on Saturday as they are average at best just now.

I think that is for challenges inside the penalty box only...outside the box is still the same as before.

A bit harsh on Foley, imo, a couple of not so good performances and we begin throwing the age thing at him. From memory did he not cover the most ground last year in most games? Just checked and his last game for us was beating Aberdeen in the cup back on 28/11/20.. not played a minute since. You can only assume there are some issues behind the scenes, or has been hit hard by the virus. (If he had it) As for your point on Mason, we would probably be better just starting with 10!

The worrying thing is he actually thinks we have a style of play, we are reasonable at the back but apart from that we are clueless. This is validated by being the lowest scorers in the league. Our most experienced midfielders cannot get a look in, which is even more worrying when watching the guys playing there. And if he thinks Mason put everything in to his performance today then....?