Fearchar

Same old same old. Even my other half - not a football fan - asks why they keep passing the ball back from the opposition half. What is wrong with THREE managers that cannot see the same mistake being repeated time and again, for game after game? Aside from Tiffoney, there is no pace - send it up the park!

Algeria is slow and offers no threat - like Smith. Doherty and Tiffoney are the goal threats.

Nearly 4-1. The constant passes back are suicidal.

So I keep getting told on here - too young, not enough service, playing against defenders trying to get him sent off. In the last game he had two opportunities on a plate, but we've yet to see him score. His gestures to the crowd in this game suggest a different kind of entertainer than a footballer.

Given that the pitch cannot be changed in the short term, I don't understand why none of the management team seemed to have realised that turning back and passing to a player behind was an invitation to the opposition to challenge for possession on that surface. Conversely, on the few occasions that the ball was taken forward, going past opposition players in midfield, it showed the problems for opponents trying to tackle without committing a foul on that surface - but no, the short pass back was persisted with, even after it had led to a goal being conceded. Turning with the ball and/or taking it past opposition players seemed to be beyond the wits of our players. That isn't even an argument for a long ball game - just avoiding one of the clear weaknesses in the team's play. Of course, maybe the management team are subject to some kind of groupthink, like convincing themselves that Smith and Alegría are up to playing for the Jags. (Tbf, Alegría was found out and hooked, to be replaced up front by a defender. He might as well pack his bags and return across the Clyde.)

Both teams looked honking , but at least Morton have the excuse that their pitch makes them dependent on the long ball (even from throw-ins), but hooking Jakubiak for Alegría was self-defeating - our most effective threat up front for the non-scoring loanee.

My sons and I all thought he was a dud - missed two chances and created none. Jakubiak was much more effective when he came on.

After Tiffoney went off, only one winger, Turner, was left. When he was hooked, the wing play was left to the full backs and control was asserted over midfield, with two strikers to put on pressure up front. (That much could be heard from the radio commentary.)

Smith: I can't see why he gets preferred to Murray, who works harder and has a better touch.

After looking at the on-target shooting and actual goals scored for the last 18 games (I got bored after that, as I wasn't going to set up a database - too much like work!), two things became clear: there doesn't seem to be any particular relationship between the number of on-target shots and possession, but high scores (2-4 goals in our case) occur when we have less possession than the opposition. This suggests that we keep possession but then don't use it effectively. I suspect that closer inspection might also reveal a lot of (unproductive) corners, but unless someone pays me, I'm not going to set up a database and import further data to prove the point. Maybe someone else has the time to do so. (BBC reports have adequate data for simple calculations.) How could we improve? If my guess is right, we have two options: (1) boosting our conversion rate from corners and crosses, by going the same way as pretty well all of our division, and getting a forward (or forwards) who is prepared to challenge the typical giant centre backs at our level and head the ball into the net; (2) alternatively, we could use our possession, and avoid letting the ball be shepherded out to the wings, instead bringing it into the danger area in front of goals. My hunch would be that the latter would suit the team better, but in any case the team seems to be playing with a confused gameplan - trying to play possession football and, at the same time, trying to get the ball out to the wing for crosses into the box. At the moment, we generally have plenty of possession but it's not bringing enough of a return.

Yes, along with the board that let that through.

Yup - and the groupthink among three managers won't let them see that.

Neil Scally's take: "We got down the flanks quite a few times and had plenty of the ball but...the final ball wasn’t there," referring to the first half. No s**t, Neil! The final ball wasn't there because it was being played down the wings to win corners instead of scoring goals. "You have to be clinical to win in this league and we (i.e. the players) weren’t clinical tonight" is just a cop-out: it was entirely down to the inept game-plan. After all, referring to the previous, similar game: "We controlled a lot of possession, we found some good spaces in the final third but we couldn’t turn that into clear opportunities." Those "good spaces in the final third" were where play had been successfully shepherded down the wings, out of harm's way. At least if he'd written, "We stupidly put all our effort into passing down the wings on a muddy park where ball control was never going to be the way to score," it could have been the start to aacknowledging what went wrong. After all, by his own admission, "[Morton] still didn’t cause us many problems," i.e. they were a poor team - but they knew enough about the game to get the ball into our penalty area where they might get a chance to score. Any time we had the ball, it was passed out to the dead areas on the wings, where nobody at our level scores from. Does our team of managers even read what they write? A thought for the future, in our ownership: at least if we employed one thrawn mismanager instead of three, we might have some money to spend on getting a half-decent striker - or even a winger, if we must revert to the 20th century.

It's astonishing to watch professional footballers and a clutch of managers apparently incapable of seeing the conditions and setting out to play appropriately. What are they all smoking? Never mind that it's the middle of Scottish winter with a cut-up pitch: we'll pretend we're at the San Siro and send players down the wings, and back and across - oh, and let's spend the extra time, when we must be 5 goals up by now, passing across the defence. For those of us freezing in the real world, the conclusion would have been: get the ball down the channels and into the opposing penalty box as quickly as possible, and use the slippy conditions to our benefit. And when you're losing in extra time, you throw everything into the opposing penalty box. Never mind! With these tactics we'll win on corners.

And he could have filled in as reserve goalkeeper.

Maybe Graham will see more of a future in pursuing the women's game, building on success there.

Our team seemed to allow ICT to use their main tactic, the long diagonal ball. I was mystified that this wasn't snuffed out by pressing: it was as if our players had been told to stand off the opposition. The result? Attacks to restore the score three times. Once would have been understandable; twice very lax; three times, cause for concern about tactics.

Not that I'd suggest we could ever approach the investment Schalke 04 put into the Veltins Arena, but it's an interesting indication of what can be done with a grass stadium: the playing surface can be moved away to provide a performance venue, and there is a roof, too. https://veltins-arena.de/en/veltins-arena/stadium-tour/ (Schalke 04 has ended up dropping out of the Bundesliga to the second level and was supported by the meat processing company Tönnies which earned a bad reputation for the conditions of its largely foreign workforce.)

To what extent is waterlogging due to inadequate waterproofing of or overflow from the canal?

If Tiffoney came through the centre at his pace, you just know he'd win free kicks and, more importantly, penalties. Even the referee on Tuesday evening couldn't have ignored Tiffoney being brought down in the box if it happened in the centre. As it is, on the wing he plays past one, two players and then is caught by the third - and it doesn't really matter whether it happens fairly or not, as it's not a goal threat on the wing (unless Turner is also on the field, due to his dead-ball skills).

Part of the problem for Scottish football is the constant comparison with the English game, which encourages styles of play discarded long ago everywhere else in the world - physical, the long ball, running hard, playing down the wings. (It may be exciting in one sense, but so, in its day, was kicking the opponents off the park! ) In England, that physical style is promoted with huge sums of money - much of which comes from dubious sources that wouldn't be permitted in, say, the Bundesliga, as the financial authorities would pounce on them. The English approach influences top players because of the financial draw of the top flight there, but some comments on, for example, the European championship final expressed relief that the entertaining, watchable play of the Italian team came out on top. If we want a promising future for the Scottish game, we have to broaden our horizons and, if possible, ensure that football from other countries is televised regularly as an example to players here. (It does become available on some channels, but in fits and starts.)

Raith Rovers must now surely be looking to replace the board and the manager, if they are to show a measure of contrition.

Willie Kinniburgh too.

Although looking him up did reveal a potential deal from Amazon, "Low prices on Erling Haaland - Amazon.co.uk official site" , according to other sources rumours (Hey, it's the BILD comic!) Bayern München could be looking to offload a Polish worker on its books in order to make room for him. Maybe we could offer a place to Lewandowski alongside Brian, to see if he wants to develop his skills at our level.

Tunji didn't commit a foul, but it was a bad pass to him, and the referee had shown early on that he was looking to penalise us. A pedestrian first half, attempting to play the Airdrie game of head tennis. By the end of the second half, when we were down a man, the team was beginning to string some football together. Tiffoney needs some shooting practice, though.