Fearchar

At 2-1 down on 60 minutes is the time for at leazt one sub. An own goal saved this team.

Except that I remember the strange 4-5 win at Hampden - strange because it looked as if both sides had decided not to bother with goalkeeping, defences or any of that newfangled stuff, and scored each time they took the ball up the park. Admittedly, that was not THE Cup but the "Ramsden" Cup. (League Cup? I've lost track of all these name changes.) Anyway, it was a very strange game.

Unusualy for Brian Graham, he scored with a header (as he was lost by his marker). Despite his height, he is generally ineffective in the air - in contrast to Scott Robinson, who is much smaller but very effective in the air. The cross was excellent. If only the team put the ball into the danger area more often and didn't keep taking the ball to the corner and the byeline, where it's much less of a threat to the opposing goal.

Midfield was a real problem, as it has been all this season, but kudos to a really stuffy defence that kept us in the game. Robinson was obviously not up to speed after his time out, but his presence is key to utilising Graham's skills (i.e. making up for Graham's weaknesses). Falkirk became frustrated after the first half hour and started fouling - a really good sign. Unlike some commentators here, I see a settled defence as key to winning a league like this. Sure, we all like to see free-flowing, high-scoring play - but this is a second-level league in Scotland. Tough defences win at this level. All we now need is to up our scoring, and we're on the right path. Frankly, if that means we end up bypassing midfield altogether, do we really care?

Our throw-ins have been awful for as long as I can remember: we are given possession with a player allowed to throw the ball (not even a miskick possible, and with no restriction from the offside rule) but seem to concede possession shortly after in far too many cases. It looks as if the most common set piece is never practised nor is it planned for - just on occasion one pair of players begins to see how to work together on it. (E.g. Lawless and McMillan last season.) I'm sure most other clubs practise both turning throw-ins to good use and even disrupting them, but Partick Thistle? No, that's too unsporting, chaps. (Tbf, Muirhead's longer throw has been used on occasion under Doolan, but in general it is the full-back that takes it, regardless of whether his throw-ins are effective or not.)

If they're going to keep pumping high balls into the box, why isn't Diack on?

Getting to the more competitive leagues outside Scotland should be the aim of aspiring young professional players here. (England's slim range of wealthy clubs hardly counts as much better than the situation here.) After all, if Girona in Spain and Bayer Leverkusen in Germany can rise to the top, those leagues are surely more competitive. As for styles of football, well, Luis de la Fuente isn't exactly innovative. Spain won every match in the Euros while playing old-fashioned wingers. You are right: that "most goals" should have been "more goals" - I was recalling a German article that cast doubt on the likes of Guardiola. After all, Xavi has broken the mould in the Bundesliga - much as we had hoped Doolan would here. Does approximately 1 in 6 goals scored from outside the box back up Guardiola's preference? IMHO it doesn't. A few years ago I watched the Scottish Under-17s being beaten by an inferior but more physical team from Norway, simply due to bad coaching. (The coach concerned was retiring: that was his final game.) Whatever the Scottish football authorities think they're doing, their innovations aren't leading to any obvious success.

Among other costs to this style of play is the loss of players' ability to turn with the ball: when in possession, a player fears the opposition approaching from behind and passes the ball back. It leads to a kind of ratchet, where going forward becomes more difficult, even for players in possession who (of course) have the opportunity to dictate play, since other players in their team just wait for the pass back. A mention (from MarciaBlaine) of the Euros brings a thought to mind: despite Guardiola's preference for shots on goal only to be taken within the penalty box, the media have pointed out that most goals in the competition were scored from outside the box. Perhaps the gurus of our own day just aren't in tune with what is most effective. While they can depend on being able to sign outstanding forward players, perhaps other managers should not seek to emulate them but to work to a different template that uses teams' resources more effectively.

The Aberdeen team was quicker and stronger, but the Jags women played a more attractive game. The latter's attacks were predictable, and lumping high balls into the box for headers was never going to look sophisticated, while the ball down the right channel for Lawton was repeated again and again. The subs seemed to be very effective, but what is really needed is a big, dominant centre back (ideally, two), especially since the goalkeeper (unlike her Aberdeen opposite number) is not the tallest.

There is a lot of sense in charging even a minimal price (or, for that matter, letting people pay what they want to), as the public attending then puts some kind of value on it.

I remember a certain Chris Erskine being signed as a superfluous midfielder when what we really needed was a striker, at that time in the form of Kris Doolan. Sometime you just have to seize the opportunity when it presents itself.

This isn't a novel problem: it has happened in Edinburgh (Easter Road), Dundee (Dens Park), Dingwall (Victoria Park - or whatever it's called now) and at numerous less auspicious venues. Time and time again, other clubs underestimate the numbers of visiting fans. It seems likely that our club passes on an estimate of how many away fans other clubs wi'll get, but there is a problem with that not being acted on - not just at the turnstiles but also in catering provision. I don't know what the solution is, but perhaps a list of the actual numbers of jags fans should be recorded and provided as real data, rather than the club just giving an estimate and hoping that the new temp in the other club's office won't just dismiss it as ridiculously over-optimistic. In an interesting contrast, the police seem to regard these large numbers from Glasgow as an alarming emergency, judging by the number of officers often drafted in. Don't clubs and the police speak to each other?

A good deal of naivety in defence at Lochburn, with central defenders failing to ensure the offside line was held and, at one point, two outfield defenders and the goalkeeper all going for the same ball in the box: the keeper really should be shouting instructions. That said, shortly after the break, when Hibs scored their second goal, the Jags looked dead and buried but they came out fighting and were close to an equaliser on a few occasions. Lawton (3) was the outstanding player, at right back, then moving further forward and scoring the Jags' only goal, but the first step to improved results has to be a secure defence, and her determination would have been better employed at centre back. In general, the Hibs players carried and shielded the ball better, and their passing was more accurate. At times the Jags players just seemed to launch long balls forward - initially aimlessly but later on to turn the Hibs defence, as the Hibs team was playing a pressing game. Their goalkeeper seemed tall for a woman (able to jump to and hang on to the crossbar).

If something like, say, men entering women's football teams started - and who among us would trust Scotland's footballing authorities to assert fairness? - then Graham would have a whole lot more to handle. Personally, I'd like to see Diack being eased into his position in the first team more often and, gradually, earlier in games.

Maybe he is actually the striker-keeper we've been lacking since Sneddon took fright and flight at the prospect of the new goalkeeper strips. 😉

Every single player in the first team squad has a given name that can also be a surname - yes, even Wasiri. Is this a record, or is there even some strategy behind it, e.g. to bamboozle officials? (Admittedly, they don't seem to need our help to be confused.)

This. (Out of likes.)

Any negotiation: you push to get what you can. The organisers have messed up, and know it. Perhaps more importantly, it is public knowledge. How are they going to fix it? Get their offer, and push them to increase it, whatever it is.

That's the point: all the changes (card, administration, etc.) have been introduced at the back end with no improvement for the customer. What should have happened? The new card should have been linked to the database entry for the purchaser, allowing entry to any match - whether league or cup, or friendly for that matter - paid for by that person. In an indication that the system designers haven't considered how football works, we now also have the dubious benefit of being able to purchase tickets online for Edinburgh City, and doubtless more clubs as away fixtures come up. Eventually, the app will become cluttered with the names of other clubs, while the new card retains the limitations of its predecessors. We are now on the third app for the club's needs. Will yet another appear in a year or two, or will the current one be revised or just reset (to clear out redundant records of clubs) each season?

Just for information, I bought a cup ticket for the Tuesday evening match and tried using the physical card (which arrived recently) at the turnstile - no dice. It's difficult to see why the unchanging QRC (the square pattern on the card) cannot be linked to the account so that all tickets bought on that account are applied to it. Progress, eh? 😞

Sometimes I wonder if football coaching is only populated by ex-footballers (who aren't generally known for their sagacity). It doesn't take a genius to see that drilling all players that they must NEVER pass back between the posts is the obvious thing to do. The ball can take a bobble, the keeper can slip....any number of mishaps is possible. Even in the Euros, a goal was stupidly conceded that way.

Great!

The new system promises that all tickets will be held on the one account (with Fanbase). If the physical card has not been issued yet, obviously it cannot be used before then. It's all very well to preach the advantages of keeping everything on one account, but if the only access is an app, there are limitations and extra hurdles for some (not to mention limiting access to one person, unlike the freedom to pass a card on to someone else) - and we're paying to use the card for ALL games rather than the ones chosen by the club.

All the basic errors for plastic - dwelling on the ball (allowing the defence to prepare for the turnover), tackling (usually a foul on plastic) floating high crosses (keeper's ball),... One-touch passing, releasing the ball as early as possible and shooting from distance (on wet plastic) are needed. Drawing at halftime, given the different levels, is shameful.

Same old same old... Nobody has reminded them how, time and again, Hamilton Accies came away with something against us: playing as if we're on grass instead of plastic. 🤨