Stewarty

Good stuff. There are a lot of positives to be taken from this game, beyond the obvious positive of securing all three points. We created a load of chances and should have been three up by half time. Seaborne and Lindsay put in assured performances; Dumbuya and Booth were solid defensively and a threat going forward; Bannigan was excellent, providing cover on the flank and drifting inside when required; and Pogba never gave their back four a moment’s peace. Dumbuya in particular put in an almost flawless performance. He was so good going forward that it led me to wonder whether he could be deployed further up the field, in front of Miller, who is a more defensive full-back.

I actually thought today's was a much improved performance. We looked bright for the first 30 minutes and created several chances. Should have been ahead by half-time. Dumbaya looked lively and took up positions higher up the pitch, stretching the play like SOD used to do. Muirhead also had a decent game, even though he faded in the second half. I'm not denying that there is a lot to work on, but on another day we would have won this comfortably.

Happy with that. Just hope the midfield is able to get forward quickly enough and support Pogba. Don't sant to see him flicking the ball on to no-one like against Falkirk.

Cerny Miller Frans Hendry Booth Welsh Bannigan McDaid Stevenson Lawless Pogba Either this or move Welsh forward and bring in Osman to play alongside Bannigan, with Stevo being rested. This would probably be more solid defensively but I'm a fan of Stevo and think some of the criticism of him has been a bit OTT recently.

Would like to see McDaid or Wilson start but I wouldn't want us to make wholesale changes. Looking forward to this one.

I thought Miller had a pretty solid game defensively. I haven't re-watched the game on TV but at the time I thought he was unlucky with the challenge that led to the goal. The ball could have gone anywhere.

That was pretty grim. Like others, I felt we were far too timid and nervous in the first 30 minutes. We seemed to lack belief and as a consequence resorted to the doomed strategy of hurling long balls towards Stevenson, who didn't stand a chance against Van Dijk and Boyata. After the first goal, when we started to play the ball on the deck, we looked better and grew in confidence, but we never looked like getting anything out of the game. There were, however, some positives to be taken from the match: Welsh was our best player in my opinion. He was composed, retained possession well, and tried to press higher up he pitch. Osman did a decent defensive job. I feared for Hendry and Lindsay but, aside from the odd sloppy pass, they rarely put a foot wrong. I liked that Hendry started to step out of defence with the ball, particularly in the second half; he looks a real prospect. Pogba looked a handful when he came on. Also, Gary Fraser looked good when he came on. He consistently looked for a forward pass rather playing the safe ball across the pitch. I really hope he can play his way back into contention for a place in the starting eleven.

Cheers.

Folks watching on TV: was it a handball in the box? Couldn't see it from where I am.

Also, I'm really looking forward to being back in the main stand for a game. It's years since I was last in that stand.

I'm quite optimistic about this one. Like others I'd be inclined to play Osman, Bannigan and Welsh in the middle of the park. The danger is that without a more attacking central midfielder like Stevenson, Doolan/Pogba may end up quite isolated. I can see Archie playing Stevo on the flank for this one.

I think there's a difference between being prone to injury and being extremely unlucky. Welsh's time on the treatment table was largely due to unrelated impact injuries, no? If so, it could happen to anyone and the term 'injury prone' may not be entirely accurate.

I've never been convinced by the portrayal of Welsh as 'injury prone'. Most of his absences have been due to unrelated impact injuries caused by bad challenges. Hopefully he's had his share of bad luck and will enjoy an injury free season. He's a class player when fit and on form.

Encouraging open training initiative. Sorry, that's only four. Makes a change from my usual verbosity though.

I quite like it.

It's a while since I've been on this thread. I'm about a quarter of the way through Consider Phlebas, the first in Iain Banks' 'The Culture' series. It's pretty good so far.

It's great to see so many of the squad signing new deals. Would love to see Higgy put pen to paper.

I thought playing an attacking 4-4-2 left the defence really exposed. Doolan was playing deeper than Taylor, but only slightly. I didn't get the impression that they players weren't trying though; more that they were initially frustrated, then ultimately deflated, by one of the worst refereeing performances I've ever witnessed. Nowt went for us this afternoon.

Saturday's game was a strange one as we weren't at our best but didn't need to be. I agree with the majority of posters: Bannigan and Booth were both excellent and the defence looked largely untroubled aside from the comedy mix-up moment. It's great to see Bannigan making those driving runs from midfield again. Higgy and Taylor struggled to make much of an impact but they worked tirelessly nonetheless. Stevenson looked off the pace but made up for it by scoring the crucial opener. Archie deserves a lot of credit for having secured our top-flight status with games to spare. Hopefully our current form continues until the end of the season. We'll need to strengthen the squad in the summer, as next season is going to be tougher, but I'm confident that the manager will bring in the right players.

It wasn't pretty but we got there in the end. Just. The lads put in battling performance and defended well. It was a scrappy game with the ball spending plenty of time in the air. ICT's strategy was clear: sit back and hit us on the break. This created problems for us, as we're not great at breaking down teams who arrive with a defensive mentality. I thought Conrad and Frans were solid, with the former deserving his motm award. Bannigan had a decent first half but the midfield was increasingly bypassed by both teams, who were playing a fairly direct brand of football. No one had a particularly bad game. I still think that Osman slows the play too much and Stevenson's tendency to drift inside meant that we lacked width at times, but the main thing is that we secured three points against a team whose league position is considerably better than ours. Well done, lads; I enjoyed the 'two in a row' chant at full-time.

Let's look at the quote in question again: The point being made by Dan is quite clear: the fact that Archie expressed disappointment was worse than if he had simply subjected them to the hairdryer treatment that managers often resort to. How this one comment can be interpreted as disrespectful towards the manager is absolutely beyond me. Ask yourself: if Dan didn't respect or believe in Archie why would the latter's disappointment bother him so much?

Absolutely yoda, I don't disagree that in terms of confidence and fight County were very much superior and can therefore be thought of as inspirational. My point was more specific, as you indicate at the start of your post. A team that's joint bottom of the league can't be used as an argument in favour of 4-4-2 unless one biases the sample and focuses only on the last few games. I realise that you're making a different point though.

This.

Just watched the highlights from the Man Utd match. They were almost as awful as us. Almost.

Only if you ignore the 23 games that landed them in the position of being joint bottom of the league.