laukat

We're still some distance short of clicking into gear but there were some improvements from last week. Watt was much better, Stanway was getting into better positions (how he didn't get a penalty I don't know?) and the midfield shape was better however we seemed totally reluctant to shoot in the first half which made it all very predictable and slow around Ayr's 18 yard box. Thought McPherson was our best player. Personally I think Smyth has been very good for most of this season, he appears to have cut out the silly mistakes and was dictating the midfield for most of the game. O'Reilly's passing in the first half was poor however is headed clearances and defending in the second half was very good. We are asking a lot of Drozd and Fitzpatrick at the moment. Beyond providing the creative spark they are also being asked to play nearly a full 90 minutes each game so could do with Henderson and GMS back just to have the option to freshen things up. Dempsey helped solidify the midfield when he came on and played alongside Smyth. Ayr were not better than Queens Park in the first 45. They were better in the second 45 but we more than deserved our win. Like the new score board, are we are getting it in for VAR purposes on the assumption we will need it next season?

Hearts and Motherwell seem to be making very good use of analytics in recruitment of managers and players. My original understanding of Analytics was that it identifying playing statistics so you could get relatively unknown players in but improve performances and results. However I think it also gathers information on player contracts, market valuations and family history to understand the likely total costs of a player. I suspect the analytics they use aren't cheap enough or cover the markets we recruit in to be viable for a Scottish Championship club and we have decided to go with a Sporting Director as affordable interim step. So for Barraclough to be doing his job well he either need to have the information on relatively unknown players and/or have information on player contracts and costs that provide better value from known players. Someone like Dempsey was clearly a player Ayr wanted to keep and rumour was he wanted to go back south. So perhaps Barraclough's knowledge and influence brought him to us without a fee and at a lower cost that our management team would have had the time or knowledge to do? Drozd wasn't someone on most Thistle fans radar but he does look to be a good player, got decent experience at this level, secured without a transfer fee and probably not on huge money. Henderson also could fit the mould of relatively young, good experience at this level and again probably not on anything like the money of Turner, MacKay etc So maybe the value in Barraclough isn't just in finding and unknown from the 7th tier of English football, maybe its in securing the best known talent at a cost we can afford? To understand that probably means seeing the accounts 12 next year

We didn't play badly today just not incisive enough inside the 18 yard box. I do have some concerns that Samuel may have had the season of his career last season but now reverting to norm this season. I'm not convinced our midfield 3 has the right shape or balance. With Let'sosa, Stanway and Smyth we are playing almost a 4-1-4-1 which in the early part of last season caught teams by surprise. However teams are playing deeper so Stanway and Let'sosa are not getting the space to run beyond the opposition defence, that means we're only real option is to hope Fitzpatrick or Drozd can unlock the opposition defence. Thought it was strange taking off Fitzpatrick today particulraly when we didn't have a Henderson or GMS to replace him I think it may be worth look at a midfield of Smyth, Dempsey and Watt and moving more to a 4-2-3-1 as it would allow Watt a free role behind the striker. When we have so little goals in the starting 11, not starting Watt seems wasteful We could do with a striker and a more creative midfielder in however they are arguably the hardest players to find.

This was pretty much how I saw it. Bringing on Dempsey helped the midfield but Crawford didn't really add much. Let'sosa and Stanway were good first half when we were dominating territory and possession but ICT figured out that they leave gaps behind them and it left Smyth too much to cover. Thought Smyth was good again and has in the last couple taken away the odd mad moment. Would have putt Watt wide and left Samuel on rather than putting GMS on if we needed to take Drozd off. I think GMS only really works in games were we are dominating possession, not sure he's the guy to put on to hold on to a win Losing McPherson at halftime didn't help as we as playing really well and generally appears to be a more attack minded rightback than Ingram Loughrey was very good, as was Fitzpatrick, McFarlane and Samuel.

I think in any business you need to look and learn lessons from similar businesses. There are some relatively successful fan ownership models such as Motherwell and sometimes the emphasis can be to look at how we become successful rather than look at how to avoid thinking about what might make it unsuccessful as per Morton's case. From what I understand Morton are a bit smaller than us in terms of attendances and contributions to their fan ownership group (MCT) however they have had significant cash injection over the last few years via a sponsor (Dalrada). Whilst Dalrada have had seats on the board I don't believe they sold any shares to Dalrada. We on the other had had a significant injection from via Donald McClymont but gave up shares on the club to get that funding. So arguably Morton still have the option of selling shares to a wealthy investor/fan to get them out of their current predicament and therefore we may end up in a broadly similar ownership position. From talking to some Morton fans they have a lot of frustrations with MCT as they see them as being a bit like a "bowling club committee" and lack both the organisation and expertise to run a fulltime club. The discussions with Estrella and Monday's meeting to discuss that proposal underline that feeling that the club doesn't have a clear authoritative leader TJF and our current governance model appears to a bit more structured than Morton's but it would be silly not to see how we could end up in the same place One of the surprises for Morton fans at Monday's meeting was how perilous their finances currently are. They have already had to find a loan to address cash flow and without more assistance will have a problem come October. One perception of the benefits of fan ownership is that it will lead to success because the people that care most own the club. However I suspect the real benefits are more that fans have a greater level of transparency, information and honesty on the current financial situation and equally that the leadership can be more honest with the fans on what the club can afford, what its likely place is in the league structure and what it deems as footballing success in many ways they should have a clearer vision of what their club can/should be. Most Morton fans I've talked to know their club can't afford part-time football and really the opportunity with the Dalrada money was to support a transition to part-time, implement a all weather playing surface to maximise use of the ground and equally to fix the ground by demolishing some parts and having a smaller stand/terrace to maintain. However MCT didn't have that vision and it just seems to be that MCT have assumed that Dalrada money would continue or be magically replaced by some other source of funding. Whilst we are a bit bigger and right now not under any financial pressure we probably need to have more of long term vision of what a financially stable model is for us and set expectations accordingly

During the game yesterday I didn't see the handball in realtime but clearly the ref did. From every clip I've seen it does strike his hand So the part I can't get is why did VAR intervene? Were is the clear and obvious error form the Ref? My understanding was VAR would only get involved where it hadn't hit his hand or if it had deflected off the player onto his hand (I'll ignore the Crawford one v St Mirren!)

I am pleasantly surprised that the SFA have went for none of the usual suspects or names thrown about by media colleagues. However given the usual level of competence at the SFA I do wonder if they wanted Postecoglou and just made a few spelling mistakes

Will Bud Light be in goals on Sunday or are Hearts ok with McFarlane playing? I think Bud light will have appreciated the security of a 2 year deal. If he left in the summer in search of being first choice then he would probably be looking at League 1 and part-time football. If we get promoted and he gets even a few games in the premier league he's much more likely to get the opportunity of being a number 1 at a fulltime club. Also given he's only 24 there's every chance he improves and becomes our main goalkeeper

Not going to repeat comments made from other posters on how good we were on Friday but a couple of other aspects were worth mentioning. Out set plays were very imaginative and clearly well drilled. The corner routine with Fitzpatrick and Drozd posed all sorts of problems and leads to the second goal but it wasn't the only deadball were we tried something not seen before Drozd was very good and while I hope he can its unlikely that he can maintain that level all season. However were he may be an upgrade on Chalmers is that he can actually head the ball. Whilst Chalmers was a joy to watch at times I'm not sure that in the entire time of his spell with us that he won a header

Exactly this. I firmly expect the SFA to either appoint an ex-player (Naismith, Fletcher etc) or looks lazily at international managers and think someone like Martinez must be good because he's managed Belgium and Portugal rather than go and do the hard work of trying to find someone that would improve us even if they are not a recognised name. Asking Motherwell how their doing it would be a start

It would be interesting to see what the rise of season tickets is in each stand? My general perception is the JHS is the older season ticket holder wanting a better view of the game (that's were I am) and JLS the younger fans wanting to be in amongst the singing. Not impossible that we could end up with the JLS being all season tickets in years to come

I think the season ticket numbers are really encouraging. It used to be an achievement to get to 2000 but we may be looking at over 3000. Perhaps the kids go free and junior jags initiatives are starting to have an effect?

So you're saying it'll be a cheap round?

I have much the same feeling. @Jordanhill Jag has been shown to be proven partially correct with past issues and he has experience in these issues that should be listened to. However its pretty difficult to keep up on public forum and I'm not sure its the right vehicle for it as it rightly elicits a response from @Woodstock Jag and others that is about correcting the publicly viewable information rather than necessarily addressing the underlying point. Perhaps the forum should fund a drinking session for JJ and others to discuss and once they've got the terms of a way forward/ peace treaty they could just post that outcome?

Bud was there as well as Storey. Both were helping MacFarlane warm up particularly with his long kicking