Stephen1876

We have done really well to grind out results in recent weeks which gives me confidence we can be up there at the end of the season. However, three things which have been infuriating me all season were on display today: - Our pressing is abysmal. We make it so easy for teams to get out of tight spots by one man going to the ball and no one closing off the out ball. Arbroath hunted in packs today and won several turnovers in the middle of the park which they really should have done better with. Inverness were the same. - We give away far too many stupid free kicks around the box. Too many times, players are back to goal and going away from it and one our players bundles them over and provides a chance to put in a dangerous set piece (second goal today) - I was disappointed to see Cardle go but could see the logic of trying to upgrade in that area. However, we persist in playing Turner wide right where he is completely ineffective and worse drifts inside quite a bit leaving Foster or McKenna exposed. We seem to almost play him for his set pieces. I would like to see him play in the role Smith started in today. However, neither Murray or Hastie are an obvious upgrade on Cardle so we remain unbalanced. Onwards to Raith - get something from that and it’s been a reasonable first half of the season.

I don’t think Banzo lost the ball once all game - he is such an intelligent footballer who would have played at a much higher level had it not been for that freak injury at Tynecastle! Speaking of higher levels, how is Akinola playing in the Scottish Championship? His positioning, reading of the game and timing of the tackle are outstanding

It seems Sena is getting good reviews playing in midfield for Alloa. Don’t know if it is too soon for him or potentially damaging to pull back from loan, but potentially an option?

We’ve been a bit up and down but that is a vastly better team than the one we went down with. The likes of Akinola, Holt, Rudden, Graham, Tiff are a major upgrade on McGinty, Saunders, Robson, Jones, Mansell etc. That team still makes me shudder

I think we are now the highest scoring team in Britain on a goals per game basis. Fantastic stuff tonight. I was actually a bit surprised at the negativity after last week, where I thought we controlled the game but just weren’t clinical enough. In any case, it won’t be a dull season with this team, 37 goals across our nine matches this season I think.

A comfortable 90 minutes even if we weren’t at our best. Winning is all that counts in the cup and we were missing 6 players today, so job done. Sneddon was good again and Holt and Akinola are a good partnership. Sadly probably need to break it up next week to put Akinola at right back if McKenna isn’t fit. Never convinced of MacIver as a Championship striker but his aerial ability is excellent, times his jumps so well. Won several balls ahead of much bigger defenders today. Graham has to cut out the petulance. Had a kick out at a player at Arbroath off the ball, booked last week for throwing the ball into the ground in protest and got involved in a wrestling match today. His edge is part of what makes him the player he is but he needs to cool it at times. Onwards to QoS or Broomhill

The same penalty type O’Ware got sent off for last time and we lost 5-1

Not a single one!

We were unfortunate to lose that in terms of the balance of play. The conditions were awful and we dealt with them better than we did back at Arbroath in January. However, as noted above, concession of a single late goal shouldn’t matter and we are already 6 points adrift after three games which isn’t good enough. Some of our passing and our final ball was terrible. No idea what Gordon is supposed to offer, complete passenger most games, would far rather Cardle, Lyons or Murray. We also had two good chances to break and Bannigan turned back both times, let them get their shape back and passed sideways. Very sadly, I don’t think we will ever see the pre-injury Banzo driving from the middle of the park again. Pluses are that Wright and Breen look decent backups, Docherty dominated the middle albeit cost the goal from what I could see, Sena added physicality and Graham is a good focal point (but poorly supported).

The one redeeming point for Dundee is that the majority of their fans seem to be as seething as us about it.

If I was a fan of say Ayr, Airdrie, Inverness etc and my club voted in favour of this, I would be fuming. These clubs are in with a chance of going up and to be blackmailed into losing that would be awful as a fan.

And added to that they had Flanagan, Barker, Polster, Hastie and Jones playing, so hardly a poor side. In any case, I never read much into any friendlies

Very young Thistle team against a very experienced Clyde side including Goodwillie, Johnston, Lamont, McStay and McNiff. Sneddon was excellent, some very good saves, handling and kicking. Watson looked good up top, Sena ok in middle but beyond that didn’t learn much from it such as the gap in experience. Not sure why we didn’t play Austin, Robson, Mansell, Barjonas etc tonight to get them some match sharpness

1-0 Clyde at half time...which came from our favourite of failing to defend a corner Looks a much more experienced Clyde side. Sneddon with a few good saves

All ten players back and Benedictus gets a completely free run at it. The corner also came from Saunders just getting brushed out of the way as usual to concede the corner

Not a meaningful shot on target in 90 minutes

As soon as the fixtures came out, we should have known that there was a fair chance we would be playing in those conditions. When I got there today and seen the conditions, I knew we would lose because we have no fight about us. We had the bulk of the second half but Arbroath still pressed us hard and tried to get forward, unlike us in the first. Fox booting the ball out of the park from about six consecutive goal kicks was just embarrassing

I could be wrong but I think a couple of years back Thorsten Stuckmann was in January and we released him when his contract expired on New Years Day

I was wondering that too as Archie said in his pre-match preview that the return of Jones had allowed Miller to drop deeper and link play. I don’t feel that he is very effective at it though and is better up top, he had a decent goal return at the start

Whilst I don’t disagree, Jamie McDonald was absolutely outstanding today. No idea why he is playing at this level

He was excellent yesterday. Unusual because he is normally very poor. Was impressed by the fat he kept his cards in his pocket and let the game flow as best as possible in difficult conditions

Agreed, Ridgers was excellent yesterday, made a string of very good saves. He and Cole were having something of a personal battle. Thought we were excellent yesterday. Strange after getting the same ref in consecutive weeks against Cuikie and the Pars, we then had MacLean last week and this week

Absolutely terrible after a bright opening 10 minutes. If Robson was one of Falkirk’a better players, no wonder they went down. Jones (to be fair coming back from a long lay-off) looks like a guy who has won a competition to play and Saunders and McGinty are atrocious

Agree entirely, he looks a decent no nonsense centre half. Any idea what has happened to him - I thought the half time sub against Penicuik was tactical but he has not been in the squad since then, so presumably injured? (Although nobody has said). I thought the back 3 of McGinty, O’Ware and Hall against Morton is the most solid we have looked

Despite our terrible performance today, surely the most embarrassing moment was the Dunfermline player - at 5-1 up, against 10 men, most of whom are duds - ran the ball into the corner to waste time!