lady-isobel-barnett

It's the footballing equivalent of a community sentence.

Aye take the scarf off him and he's fair cheered up. Grinning like a Cheshire Cat in this pic

Good luck to him. Unfortunately Clyde is a kinda graveyard for managers. Could be wrong but I can't recall any of their many past managers going back a good few years that are still managing. I suppose Ian at least doesn't have a lot to live up to.

Brian didn't mention any specific shouts at him. He did say tho' he lost it partly because his parents were in the stand. Club waiting to hear the full extent of any disciplinary charges over and above the red card. Looks like it could be valued at two reds. Straight red for his exchange with the Morton support and a subsequent second yellow re his reappearance. Usually hear quite quick about these sort of things but then again there's less urgency with no game this weekend.

He's probably got a built-in flash.

No, he most probably thinks we (the team) didn't play that well. But the emphasis is on "team". Was he disappointed with the individual displays is another thing entirely. Then again there's even some mitigation re the not so good teamwork, insomuch we had two enforced changes involving key players. Plus collectively poor but did at least put in a strong will to win performance that may perhaps not have been always evident this season. Sneddon did all that was asked of him defensively and along with Muirhead & Neilson kept a clean sheet from open play. Williams switching flanks with ease. McMillan getting more minutes than planned, queuing up to score if Alston missed the ball. Fitzpatrick (double marked most of the game) best player on the field. Excellent performance off the ball as well. Bannigan and Stanway working their socks off helping to retain possession (a rather rare occurrence). Lawless certainly did more than his excellent assist. So Doolan may well be being economical with the truth, but imo understandable given the amount of creditable performances.

We appeared to sit back deliberately, presumably to play for the second balls. Perhaps it's just as well as yon ref was going yellow card crazy. I'd sum up today's game as one where the opposition dragged us down to their level. These things happen to the best of teams. Fortunately we still had enough in the tank to grab a winner. Fitzpatrick the obvious star man but Stanway, Bannigan & Muirhead all did the "behind the scenes" stuff well. And Wasiri's stock continues to rise. Handled having to change flanks in his stride.

.....and an excellent assist from Aiden. Superb wee change of pace. Thanks once again, Camallain.👍

Get well soon, AJ 👍

https://scandification.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Scandinavian-Gnomes-1-1-scaled.jpg

Sorry if I misread you, exiledjag. Your suggestion about trying Wasiri in defensive mid has value. Aero has played in that role but not too successfully. Probably best suited would be NeiIson. I saw him play there briefly and he looked the part. He's got a turn of pace and regularly shows he's comfortable on the ball. The downside to that tho' is too much. Would mean breaking up the current centreback partnership, which is the best we got. A kinder way of saying playing Wasiri at centreback rings alarm bells. Williams did show at Gayfield that's he's not too uncomfortable with the ball at his feet. So he just could be a part answer at least to the midfield problem.

I'd stick by the same team/positions as last week with the possible exception of McMillan for Williams. But if you drop Bannigan surely he has to be replaced by another centre mid? We're weak enough there without going a man down in that area. Btw Young Stanway played very well at Gayfield.

Women's Cup HAHH HAHH AHAA AHAH 👍

Think most games just now will depend on just how combative our opponents are in in midfield. That, and just how we go about countering our lack of muscle in that area. If McMillan's back and firing on all cylinders then we've strength down both flanks and can really stretch Morton and nullify our main weakness to some extent. Think most times we depend on too many players being on top form and that's why our results are so erratic. Likes of Lawless, Milne, McInroy, Fitzpatrick are key players, all of whom we need to perform. We don't as a rule do the win ugly thingy.

Men's Cup HHHA AAAH HHHH HHHA AAAH 👍

Fair comment. To qualify that I'd alter it to "when he plays well in an advanced central midfield role". When McInroy is playing elsewhere thru necessity (wide v QP & deeper mid when both he and Robinson started) it's more a question of damage limitation. But yes, played higher up the park I'm sure his game is key to our performance, good or bad. It looks to me McInroy is the hardest/cleanest tackler we have amongst our midfielders, and he's still no way a dependable defensive mid. Arbroath's midfield looked themselves also rather lightweight on Saturday. Between them Stanway & Bannigan were able to cope defensively, still link up play and thus allow Kerr to play in his optimum position, where he was excellent. There lies the problem. Play McInroy in his preferred position and risk either not getting the ball to him, due to a midfield that struggles to win the ball, or dragging him back to cover. Play him in a deeper role where the chances of seeing more of the ball may be increased but we lose out in creativity thru the middle further up the pitch. Personally I think if Robinson is fit the we should play McInroy deeper. When he's unavailable then I guess a lot depends on the quality of the opposition in midfield. Far from an ideal situation. A situation that's very unlikely to be maintained till January at the earliest. It's anybody's guess after that whether we've the finances to bring in a decent quality defensive midfielder and even if we can afford one there's the question of availability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGal6wOMH3E

Alston for Fitzpatrick was the change in formation I mentioned earlier. MacDonald would've been a like for like sub. I don't know enough about MacDonald to know if he's good at keeping the ball. What I do know is our ball retention towards the end of the game was almost non existent. You may well then be raising a good point. Wingers are usually the better equipped when it comes to running a game down. Then again I suppose Blair Alston is an old head and should be useful when it comes to such situations. Jury out methinks.

Looked like our default formation today (4-2-3-1) with McInroy back playing the furthest forward of the three central midfielders. We ended up after Alston came on with what looked like a 4-5-1.

What was most pleasing was our attitude today, and right from the off at that. Very much a team effort and some decent joiny up defending. Possibly then shouldn't be highlighting an individual but Young Stanway put in a cracking shift. My one criticism, and it's a worrying and recurrent one, is our failure to see the game out effectively. Can't understand why we can't retain the ball much more. With a three goal lead it's not as if we've to be over positive in possession. Instead we're happy just to clear our lines ceding possession time after time. Nice tho' we had the lead to allow me my little moan 😀.

Please somebody tell me. What's a "fanboy"?

A win is setting quite a high benchmark given our form over the last few games, plus the fact today's opposition beat us 0-3 at Firhill not so long ago. Would probably settle for a draw but the team need to play to win and not adopt my attitude.

Probably the only away game I check just how windy it's going to be. Tomorrow will be fine, so no lame excuses. It's also a fixture where recent league form often means little. Travelling up neither confident or over worried about our chances. But going on our form a draw wouldn't seem an unlikely outcome. Arbroath haven't exactly been running that hot of late either. Result aside I'm looking for us to up the pace considerably.

Gotta agree with a lot of that. In fact spot on. However I don't believe that Muirhead's long ball unreliability is the crux of the matter. You've gotta ask the why and in my mind it comes down mainly to slow distribution. Muirhead is only a cog in a wheel that doesn't turn fast enough. He can't "take care of the ball" if he doesn't receive it early enough. His punts are partly damage limitation. Anyone can see that Neilson is faster and more comfortable on the ball. He's also got the added advantage of an out ball to Milne. If Muirhead's long passes are only 10% successful then why does he receive the ball so often? There lies the bigger fault. And that fault stems from at times receiving the ball ahead of Neilson or more likelier than not Neilson not receiving the ball quickly enough. To repeat I agree with what you say. How can we "take care of the ball" when we play long speculative punts too often? I just feel we need to look less at the poor delivery and closer at how it came about.

Someone who watched the game more intently will be better equipped to reply. From the little I saw Jai looked to be playing (assuming Clyde had a back four) at wide left midfield.