lady-isobel-barnett

Fair enough, but the guy is just returning from injury, if indeed fit to play. What I wonder is if Sneddon has an average game tomorrow (no daft mistakes, no match saving saves) will he retain his position when Mitchell is 100% ready to return? Asking a similar question to whether Doolan will drop Graham or how poor Big Brian will have to reach to get dropped. I don't believe it's so much a loyalty issue with Doolan as more his value of continuity. So that said holding that value AND dropping his captain would be a major decision. My guess is Kris for another week at least will stick to his guns and pick, injuries aside, an unaltered starting XI

Think it would be fair to say McBeth will be reasonably match fit. Level of fitness from juniors to our division will be a big jump but he's been training with us for a few weeks now. Would reckon he'll play alongside Bannigan till he can be fully assessed. Whether he'll then be able to solo as defensive mid is of course a big ask.

Said it often enough, Harry is best header of the ball in the squad. That's both in the attacking and defending sense.

I think our main problem regardless of who we play upfront is getting a central midfielder into an advanced role often enough. Stems again from the lack of a ball winner in defensive mid. Two (usually Bannigan & Stanway) do the job of one. In turn the supposed advanced midfielder (McInroy/Alston) is drawn back, rarely able to get close to support our striker. We're fortunate that we're relatively strong in attacking wide positions as we're not too clever thru the middle.

Arguably Mitchell would be reasonably pleased with that assessment. Prior to joining us he'd only ever played a handful of games above League One standard. Personally I think he's an excellent back up keeper at our level. Sneddon really has to have an exceptional number of flawless performances to compensate for his poor/slow use of the ball. I just can't see that happening.

Neilson is a class player. Think he'll turn out to be too good for Hearts never mind us. Reckon he could already play middle of a back three for most top league teams.

....and in this instance a case of If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. 👍

Posted earlier that Dowds isn't being recalled.

Could you pleash posht in a bigger font. I'm having trouble reading this.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Thank God. We got beat 10-0 as it was.

We (and Ross County) were also handicapped by not knowing our league status till June. Raith for instance had a full month's start over us regarding signings re-signings etc. In fact longer than that as we had then still to await offers to a few existing players to either accept or decline. Many players Doolan may have earmarked for signing would be long gone, signed to other clubs. Kris has said so much for instance with regard to a defensive mid and a left sided centreback. The rumour that we were interested in Mulgrew to fill the latter was likely true, as I doubt there were any other suitable candidates remaining. The kinda desperate loan signing of McGinley further evidence. Given the relative time restrictions we were under I'm not over critical re Doolan's signings. I don't believe we significantly profited from the play offs. So it's not that we had extra money to burn. In fact we all now know just how little we had in the kitty anyway. Being third in the league, if not to be celebrated is I believe something to be appreciated.

Doing better than I would've expected back in June, but like above post I think a play off place is far from certain. Our points superiority suggests otherwise. However I find our goal difference of just +4 not exactly reassuring.

Well he's at least half right. We most certainly were on the ascendancy in the 2nd half. Albeit from a very poor first half.

I think you're spot on. Dundee United and Raith are the only teams that have beaten us with pace as opposed to relying primarily on counter measures. Others have rightly pointed out we often look anything from leggy to dead on our feet towards the end of a game. But this I reckon is less to do with overall fitness and far more to do with our lack of possession. It's generally accepted (and fairly obvious) that if you have two equally fit sides the team with less possession will normally tire first. As a game progresses we see so little of the ball and lose it so quickly we're bound to tire first. Obviously substitutions alleviate this to some extent but less so last night (and to a degree at Starks) when the opposition have the bulk of possession from the word go. And if we have to go long, due largely to having a fragile midfield, we need forwards (Lawless excluded) that can at least hold and control the ball, even just to give the rest of the team some breathing space.

For most of the game we played our normal formation tonight. Difference being we were up against a good defence and effective wide players. McMillan & Milne always have to push forward to assist out wide. We were chasing the game from 7 minutes. More to the point when a full back goes forward a defensive mid will cover for him. And there lies the so obvious problem.

That was close to where I was sitting. Didn't think it was on target but regardless at least one of our very few joiny up attacking moves tonight.

Probably did but I can't be that certain. Don't really want to start singling out individual players as they were more or less all drastic tonight. Just starting to thaw out. Fingers still too cold to type much. Only to say I don't believe we had a single shot on target tonight. Gave the ball away so many times that even if we had been at our best defending (we were far from it) we were always going to lose a goal.

Looks like the weather will be OK tomorrow night. Even for the time of year our last three games have been played under dreadful conditions.

Agree with much of that. What we've got to mind is the January window is rarely busy. Positions we want filled may not be available. Certainly naturally left sided centrebacks aren't exactly two a penny. I suppose if we can't get the player/players to shore up our defence the next best thing is to bring in a player that'll help us score more goals. Tiffoney probably fits that bill.

Clearly we miss Docherty. No doubt about that. I do tho' believe he's not the template defensive mid we require. Docherty I felt was just a tad lightweight. Often when he broke up play he required Bannigan close to him to recycle the ball. Put another way it often took two players to do the job of one. I feel we want a Rowson/Osman/Paton type to help free the more attack minded midfielders. And I'd jump at the chance If a competent left sided centreback became available. I'm positive Neilson would do a good job in centre mid. He's also got the pace to easily turn defence into attack. On the subject of pace I agree with laukat. If after we've attended to the defensive mid situation any further addition should be a pacey player.

As I understand it Tiffoney had signed a pre contract with Dundee sometime before the play offs. Turner on the other hand would've (could've) stayed had the £500K short term loan been in place a day or so earlier. As it was he turned down an offer on reduced terms after the play offs. Much as I like both Turner and Tiffoney I feel we'd be creating an overload in the midfield/attacking positions they play in. Always assuming defensive midfield is sorted we're then going to have one regular starter benched as it is.

Should this not be in the January Transfer Window thread? Is he any good?

..... and a big DITTO from me

Backline defence was fine today. Yet again the midfield lack any dig, but we already knew that. With conditions the way they were I didn't like seeing us give away so many corners. Thought it only a matter of time till we would get caught out. Even tho' we rode our luck I thought we still deserved a point. Fitzpatrick's low cross late on was maybe too good. Fair fizzed across the goalmouth.