zurich_allan

Here just now and about to tuck into my soup and toastie, looks good!

Anyone know who the trialists were?

And out with a whimper. Disappointing from start to finish from the team today, no imagination, no attacking threat, and to be honest no real intensity to our play. Very poor.

I'm enjoying the fact that in the thread on our boxing day game, a few posters on here were slating Obika, and one or two (you know who you are) were saying he wouldn't hit double figures for goals this season. Yet here we are, still in February and he's on 11 (and should be 12 given his goal at Ross County was onside). Best way to prove the doubters wrong is to keep banging the goals in.

So looking at the freezeframe for the second then, it actually WOULD have been offside if we hadn't played him on - although his feet were in his own half, he was clearly leaning forward over the halfway line, and it's any part of the body, not just the feet that count. We played him onside.

My take on Obika, he has no pace, but has strengths in other areas. His hold up play and distribution is good, and he can actually turn, take on and beat a defender. The problem is because of how we are playing he's often doing this on or just past the halfway line rather than at the opponent's 18 yard box. He's actually scored 6 legitimate goals this season, not 5, because his goal against Ross county earlier in the season was onside but incorrectly chopped off, so the stats only show 5. He will get double figures easily if he can stay fit. Think otherwise if you want, but you'll be wrong. I actually like the Obika / Morias partnership. Thought Morias was excellent yesterday, one of our only players who actually presses and forces opposition players to get rid of the ball. I think these two should be the starting forward two when 4-4-2, and Morias kept in the wide position when playing one up front like yesterday.

Completely irrelevant when with 11 minutes to go we're on level terms. Whatever way you look at it, to then lose the match 2-0 is poor.

Yes, but that was the case 2 months ago against Celtic too then nothing afterward. Horribly, it's not just fight we need, but the ability to pick up points to go along with the fight. We've yet again thrown that away today.

So now, unless we somehow luck a goal, all of that effort for 79 minutes is utterly meaningless.

It's okay Doakes, I have more legal knowledge in my little finger than he has or ever will have in his lifetime. And that's fact, not opinion. I've also been a company secretary in the past and have a pretty good idea of obligations. That's why I feel utterly comfortable with what I originally said, and stand by it.

Here's the thing. I get the club wanting to check a banner to make sure it isn't something that could be regarded as offensive or criminal in nature, but beyond that it is none of their damn business what message the fans want to project, they have absolutely NO business taking any action or confiscating a banner like this. None.

On another point from last night, our club's organisation relating to the car park was an utter disgrace. Fans with passes not being left in a queue of cars and missing kickoff because they let in too many pay on the day vehicles leaving not enough for those that have paid for annual passes. The club needs to look at this seriously. I missed the first 5 minutes of the game because of them (and in case anybody says I should have left earlier, I was within 2 minutes of the ground at 7:15pm, it was the police and stewards that caused the delays and holdups through incompetence.

I see the second half differently to a lot on here. I believe it would have been nothing other than stupidity to have gone attacking against the 10 men, because Celtic playing on the break or against an open and non-compact Saints would, in my opinion, very likely have nicked a goal or two with their strength and speed. We needed to remain compact and use the extra man not to attack, but to continually use two men to press the Celtic player in possession whilst WE continued to play on the break trying to make runs if they left themselves short at the back, and with luck get a chance or two to nick a goal. That is what Kearney set the team out to do, and he did it successfully. The reason we didn't get two or three more direct chances to score were NOT because of the formation or tactics, but because when we did get forward, which we did on three or four occasions including the free kick, our players either took a touch too many or didn't play an obvious pass when they should have. It was a great job all round, both from the set tactics, and from the players in executing them.

Hoping for the breakthrough performance of preseason and a comfortable 5-0 victory. I'm hoping so anyway since I had a dream last night that we made it to the final... (Unlikely I know!!)

I missed the original call otherwise I would have bid for a place, will try to come along with my son though!

Absolutely love Laurel and Hardy. About 30 years ago my grandmother gave my brother and I two VHS tapes of some of their oldest stuff. One was called 'The laughing 20s', I can't remember the title of the other one, but I adored both of them.

With Anthony Ainley a close second in my humble opinion!

I thought everyone was tremendous today. Just a couple I'll single out - personally I'd have given Stelios the MoM today, thought that literally one or two passes aside he was outstanding. And Baird, who in my opinion has been our most improved player this season, he was very composed and in control at the back. The only gripes I'd have today are the decision making in the final third, which was suspect throughout, and the lull for 15 minutes at the start of the second half where we stopped closing down quickly and were too static. The majority of the game we were excellent.

They need to go back to the 1980's shorts...

Result was what mattered today after last week. For info, Morton squad are currently drinking the bar dry in Glasgow Airport. Wonder where they're off to.

I have to comment on one thing, in defence of Stellios, as I've read a lot of really negative comments about him that I think are incredibly unfair for two reasons. First of all, our defeat today has nothing to do with going down to ten men, as really it made absolutely no difference to how we played. Our defeat was down to: Atrocious control and passing. Constantly lingering on the ball, being very slow to release the ball, and often not looking up to see who was looking for the ball. Not competing physically. Being second to every ball. Panicking on the ball for absolutely NO reason several times. Trying to play a long ball game instead of getting the ball on the deck, even though we were being beaten in the air to everything. Constantly slipping and losing possession when trying to do too much with the ball needlessly. Essentially, we were terrible all over the park in every position at even the most basic of football technique today from start to finish. The ONLY player that should get pass marks today in my opinion was McShane. Nobody else. As for the actual sending off, it happened right in front of me, I hadn't looked away, was looking right at it. There was contact, but it wasn't his elbow, it was around his forearm, and was absolutely unintentional. It should have been a booking, it absolutely was not a sending off. Again, it was right in front of me, I saw this very clearly, and unless I see video evidence that shows me something I somehow missed, my opinion won't be changing on it. Never a red card.

Well, that wasn't very good...

I'd expect better from you Oaksoft. You're trying to oversimplify a complex issue. Of course young men cause most accidents. However this is due to conscious and objectively dangerous / reckless driving behaviour. The type of accidents, of which there are a significant number, discussed in this thread are sadly unconscious behaviour. The former is a huge culture in driving behaviour that is very difficult to influence. The latter on the other hand, whilst impossible to stop completely, might be able to be reduced through implementation of a capability / reactions type test at a particular point where it can be established that there is significant reduction in capability on average. Remember that research can be both inductive and deductive. Peer review might or might not exist, but that doesn't automatically invalidate the hypothesis either way. Especially not when trying to compare two different problems...

Not legally classed as a hate crime. Would be classed as a hate incident.

So only 2 points from the last 9 available. Very much still in there to fight it out for the title, but equally only a single loss away from potentially dropping to 4th or 5th. Next two games away to Inverness and home to Dumbarton are vital.