Sonny

I felt the Club did not defend Jim enough with the Neil Lennon and Derek Adams outbursts. They only came out after Dundee Utd had a media attack which was too little and too late (although there is no excuse for the arm out). Now a Sunday paper is printing something which is apparently not justified. The Club should be releasing a statement condemning this unwarrented attack. On phone-ins and media comments everyone and their Aunty is now having a go at him most who rarely ever see the guy play. Jim is hard but in my opinion he is no hatchet man. The attached link shows the current disciplinary records in the premiership. http://espnfc.com/stats/discipline/_/league/sco.1/scottish-premiership?cc=5739 There are three players with a worse record and one with the same but we never hear about them being described as thugs.

Do not disagree FTOF but the Club should have nipped this in the bud and not let it get out of control which it now has. Its now trial by pundit and journo. Jim does not help himself at times but the hysteria is now overwhelming.

It is now a witch hunt against Jim. I think the Club should have been far more outspoken in his defence when other managers had a go. Sproule committed possibly the worst sending off I have seen in the new stadium but the only talking point was Goodwin. The Club should have condemned Sproule and told Adams to shut the f**k up.

One thing I have not been impressed with is Reilly's attitude. In the pre-match warm-up routine he laughs, jokes and when the fitness coach isn't looking he stops doing what he is suppossed to do. Conversely Campbell last week was focused and gave total effort to the pre-match warm up not shirking any of the exercises. I think Reilly needs to go out on loan to see if he can even make it at a lower level and give him a realisation check.

Maybe Danny is just protecting John but when he raves about other players being worth millions who are not half as good as this lad I begin to wonder. John McGinn is the best young talent I have seen at the Club in many, many years.

My issues with Danny are twofold: 1. It took him long enough to find a system that worked for us with a string of good results culminating in that 4-1 over Dundee Utd.. But instead of keeping the formation and personnel he started to change things again to accomodate players like Harkins and Campbell resulting in another downward spiral. 2. Moving players into positions they are not comfortable with. We may have had no option when Teale got injured and someone had to play there ie Newton. For example Vanzy is never a central midfielder when we have McGinn, McLean and Newton in the squad. McGowan has to play behind a strikforce and not in front of a back row. Whatever job anyone does involves a learning curve. Nothing beats experience so mistakes will always be made while that experience is taking place. However over time people should improve no end from that learning curve. Has Danny? I really do not know. He has made a lot of mistakes over signings and formations in my opinion but I would always give him time to try and correct what is not working. He said on the radio yesterday that he had money to spend. I think the best option is let him spend it and make a decision in the summer about his contract. Binning him just now would cost too much and in my opinion there are no experienced managers on the horizon and within our budget that would instantly improve our fortunes. Think carefully about a Plan B over the next few months if Plan A does not work.

Corner!!!! Thommo ....

1 player booked so far. Guess who?

I see we haven't enough players to fill the bench.

The Dundee Utd fans were very happy to see the back of Skacel as his contribution to them was minimal. He's made 5 appearances for Slavia Prague since last January. Don't think I would be in a hurry to sign him.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/spfl/comeback-just-weeks-away-to-end-garys-hell-147841n.23138831

I believe he has started training this week so should regain his overall fitness by the end of the month but not his match fitness. Good news indeed.

Although they hit the post twce I do not think Kello had one save to make today in the first half. We played some really good football but were up against a defence that plays Champions League football and a team full of internationalists so to compare ourselves to them means there only will be one winner. They have a huge pool of players compared to us and brought back influential and international players like Adam Mathews and James Forest today and rested others. A luxury that us and every other team in the League can only dream about. We had Goodwin, Teale and Mclean all out - a big blow to our meagre squad. Yes, they ran over the top of us in the second half after the first goal went in but it was a huge test for all our youngsters today and they looked knackered and deflated after the first goal. Naismith and Kelly look exhausted and we ended up with 6 players under the age of 20 on the park at the end. Danny said on the radio that he hopes to sign more players during the window so let's see what comes in. I was disappointed we dropped points against Hearts and Killie but had no expectations today and was pleased at 0-0 at half time. We got beat by Celtic. Like every other team in the League. No big deal. We need a wee rest, new additions then continue our march for top six.

Celtic are undefeated in the League this season. Better teams than us cannot beat them so I don't think we should overly worry about not winning today. Ignore it and move on ....

Campbell is described as a striker/winger who has electric pace. Since Teale is out I would play Campbell there to see how it works out and allow us to use McGowan in the best position he plays ie behind Thommo. That would give us a lot more width across the park in attack with pace to burn. At the moment everything is through the middle with defences not being stretched. Campbell was ok at Killie but tightly marked by two players. Out right would give him more freedom to see what he can do.

I see Danny is having a go at other managers singling Goodwin out fo criticism. About time too Danny. The other managers would not be long in defending their players if Danny started slagging them off. Better late than never.

I would hope that Gary's going would mean that Gowser's position would not be messed about with again but I have a feeling Danny will use Campbell behind Thommo and make Gowser ineffective yet again. Please, please play Campbell wide right Danny and give us some real attacking options. Please.

Only now commenting on the game. When I saw Gowser moved back yet again to accomodate someone else (Campbell) my heart sank. Gowser's best position by far is behind Thommo and he cannot defend effectively when moved back one. IMHO Newton should have been played in front of the back four with Campbell playing wide right. Second observation is the team was a shambles when the substitutions were made. Like Lex I had no idea who was supposed to be playing where and neither did any of the substitutes. Young Kelly had his poorest game but he is a very good player so hopefully its a one-off. Reilly neeeds to get farmed out to see if he can improve and is any good for us. I really rate Newton but he was terrible. Hopefully his future gets sorted out soon so he can concentrate on what he is doing. A bad day at the office but we should have had at least a draw.

1. League Cup Final 2. Steven Thommohawk Thompson 3. Shetland Pony Gowser 4. Jim Enforcer Goodwin 5. Danny confused Lennon 6. Adams greetin' face 7. McNamara's greetin' face 8. NLennon's greetin' face 9. St Mirren's day 10. Marian Kello signs

Write to the Club about it. I recently have sent 3 complaints to the Club. Two featured emails that had received no response - a basic customer service action in any business to reply to paying customers. And another about the terrible service and attitude from the Ticket Office on a match-day. I suggested all staff receive Customer Services Training. If more people do not complain then nothing will be done about it. The Customer Service Levels from the Club are very poor and they need to do something about it.

We need some t-shirts for the Cup game to make it more interesting - 'We Are All Jim Goodwin'. Maybe a facemask as well (and for some of our support that is no bad thing either ) .

Two points needlessly chucked away today. Danny's substitution on Boxing Day got us 3 points. His substitution today lost us 2 points.

I do blame Danny for the loss of two points today however DVZ is never in a million years a midfield player.

I think there is now a witchhunt againt Goody that could ruin his career. Everyone seems to be able to mouth off against him with no action being taken. Personally I would like to see Danny defend him more when he can and I know that some of Goody's style is indefensible. However Adams had a prolonged rant at Goody after his team had two men sent off against us with one being a horrific tackle against Cheesy. Yet we do not condemn Sproule and laugh off the ghost comments. Maybe a complaint of bringing the game into disrepute would stop these outbursts. On Radio Scotland yesterday they were lining up to put the proverbial boot into Goodwin. I am not defending what he done but no-one got injured, maimed or even killed or had their career cut short. He struck out an arm and hit someone - should have been sent off - end of story. My other issue in all of this is the role of the Compliance Officer. Who is he? - he's the BBC Video Editor, that's who. In the game on Thu there were several controvertial incidents but only one was shown on TV and that is the only one being investigated. Either study the full 90 mins or ignore it all and let the ref do his job. Do not leave it to the editor in the BBC.

Very disappointed with Utd today. Their tactic appeared to be to get Goody sent off. Every player who went near him today fell over complaining at the ref. Good decision by Danny to sub him. Great display today and a world of difference between this game and the game against Well. Fantastic result and great play. Well done lads.