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dunning1874

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Everything posted by dunning1874

  1. Missed the first 15 minutes due to Warren Hawke's tremendous legacy of those fucking turnstiles, but of what I've seen we've been excellent. In total control of the game and the only criticism is not taking enough of our chances. With those attacking options you know Partick are going to open us up at some point so we really need to kill this off before they inevitably have a spell of pressure.
  2. I genuinely think only Hugh Scott has a worse legacy at this club than Warren Hawke. This is a shambles entirely of his making.
  3. https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/uefa-pro-licence-spotlight-dougie-imrie/?rid=13929
  4. Fantastic news. As well as we've done with recruitment with goalkeepers lately - we haven't had a bad signing for a first choice since Scully and even then we still had Gaston at the club so could drop him - it's great to have a quality goalkeeper signed up for the following season as well. In this division a good goalkeeper can genuinely be the difference between 4th & 9th, we would inevitably sign someone poor eventually if we're looking for a first choice every summer and at such a young age with all-round quality Mullen can still improve further.
  5. Mullen's firmly established as our number one now down to being better at the basics of goalkeeping, but the distribution is so useful for us as well. Having the option to use your goalkeeper to start attacks with passes like that makes such a difference.
  6. It takes about 15 seconds to check that in 88/89 Den Haag were in the Eerste Divisie and Co Adriaanse was the manager. So not Rob Rensenbrink as manager (a player who famously never went into coaching with any club), not competing for the top four of the Eredivisie with Ajax, Feyenoord & PSV, and by your own provided age and timeline you got this trial despite being 34/35 at the time. If you're looking for childish or immature behaviour, I'd say making stuff like this up for no apparent reason is a far bigger example than clicking a red dot when no one actually gives a fuck about their reputation on a forum.
  7. He hasn't had a bad game since Dunfermline at home, and as that time has gone on he's gotten better each week too, progressing from looking fine to having genuinely great games. Really didn't see this turnaround coming, but good on him.
  8. But it's not documented at all. Released players being dissatisfied with the explanations they were given or - whether rightly or wrongly - feeling they weren't treated well doesn't mean Imrie hadn't had a conversation with them about it and punted them without explaining why, it means they didn't like the explanation.
  9. Following on from Imrie's comments, the club have confirmed that Garrity is back with us now and King will be back from Monday, but is still with Cpyde for this weekend. Squad depth, what a concept.
  10. That was terrific yesterday. A superb performance from Muirhead in particular - happy to admit I was shouting don't shoot in the build up to the second with him being on his right foot - but all 11 of them played well. Wilson has been imperious week in week out lately. At the start of December I was saying we needed a good month to get ourselves in a realistic position to survive. I didn't in my wildest dreams think we'd be closer to 4th than 9th by January 2nd. A huge challenge coming up on Saturday but we've every reason to be confident with our current form. What's so pleasing about this turnaround is that it's not happened with any players being bombed out or anything like that, it's been players who weren't doing well a couple of months ago all improving and things clicking.
  11. Even with the poorer start to this season, he remains our best manager at this level since Tommy McLean. He's done a fantastic job and long may it continue.
  12. Garrity has 4 goals in his last 6 starts and has set up a couple in that time as well, so if he continues to contribute over the next couple of games you could be looking at a 21 year old attacking player delivering the kind of numbers in League One that turn the heads of Championship clubs if he was a permanent Annan player, for all a short spell like that could easily just be a purple patch. At the same time with wins changing the perspective our attacking options suddenly look a bit better than they did 10 days ago and you'd be hoping to see Quitongo back in January as well, but I wouldn't be averse to bringing him back in and giving him a chance with that form. No issues with King continuing to start every week in League Two as the best thing for his development rather than making a couple of 10 minute appearances a month here, but an update on Wilson's fitness should influence that decision too. If Wilson's fit at the start of January then we can be comfortable that we've got a decent bit of cover in midfield, but if he's out for a while or back to Queen of the South then there's an argument for having King back in the squad as a better cover option than O'Boy. Obviously that's dependent on what new signings are possible as well, but I'm comfortable enough that King getting regular games is the best thing for him if he stays out on loan.
  13. I'm sure we'll be paying up the remaining 18 months of Boyd's deal as well aye.
  14. That was terrific yesterday, the most impressive of three excellent wins in a week. The start was superb and we were unfortunate not to be 2-0 up, but there was a noticeable dip after Wilson's injury. No fault of Power or Gillespie, but the two of them together just aren't going to provide the same energy as one of them beside Wilson, Blues or Crawford and it let Queen's Park settle into the game a bit, for all that we were still the better team. The red card is a travesty of a decision, it's a textbook cynical yellow with no question of a red card. You wouldn't have thought you'd be seeing an even worse decision within 10 minutes, but the penalty award was an absolute disgrace. Luckily it was a terrible effort and justice was done but full credit to Mullen who had a great game. You naturally feared the worst needing to survive a whole half with 10 men, but what a shift every single one of them put in. Obviously you're on edge in that scenario, but ultimately they created just one clear cut chance with the free header they should have done better with, while it's inevitable they're going to get crosses in and someone is going to lose a runner once when you're under that amount of pressure. They also had the long range shot which saw Mullen pull off another great save, but again it's inevitable that one of those will go on target eventually when we're forcing them to shoot from that range as they couldn't play through us. Ultimately we looked as much like scoring in the second half as they did, and that's a huge testament to the defensive shift. Muirhead looked like he was done in after an hour but time and time again he would burst into life to take us up the park and eat up seconds winning throw-ins or corners. I thought that was Blues' best game for Morton as well, he was everywhere defensively. Time and again he was the one flinging his head in or getting his laces through the ball in our box. To suddenly be sitting only four points off the top four after where we were a week ago is wild. All three wins have been a bit different as well which is another really encouraging sign. You've had the game hanging in the balance at 1-1 at Arbroath where they've had their own chances to win it: earlier in the season we could easily have lost that, but we were the ones being clinical when our chance came and getting the win. You have the dominant performance against Inverness where we struggle to find the second goal, again you maybe get sucker punched if confidence is lower and you get desperate over failing to take your chances to kill the game, but they kept at it and eventually got that second, then held on once it went back 2-1. Then you have yesterday where it's proper backs to the wall to cling onto a lead, going a whole half a man down having played in midweek when our opposition didn't. Three different types of test, three games that could all easily have seen us only taking one point or even ending up losing, and coming away with nine points. That's absolutely fantastic and bodes very well. That we're still only two points from 9th tells us how urgent it was for the turnaround to start when it did, but we've got genuine reasons for optimism that we can continue this now rather than simply clinging to blind hope.
  15. We should really have won that by 3 or 4 on the strength of the second half performance, but job done regardless. Feared the worst when Gillespie went off so early but Power was excellent. That was like watching Morton of last season again, the intensity gave Inverness no chance really and Strapp, Wilson & Oakley were all superb. That Inverness defence is obviously there to be gotten at. All four of them were bombscares, especially Ujdur and Davidson. Imrie deserves massive credit for that setup as well, it was extremely bold to change the shape and personnel in dropping two of our best performers on Saturday after a first league win in a month and he was fully vindicated. I thought we needed 10 points from this month to get ourselves into a position where survival was realistic: we're already only 3 points off 5th with a game in hand and a trip to Airdrie coming up soon. The really encouraging thing is that they've not been smash and grab wins, we've been the better team in both games. The season can still be a mess from here, there are still obvious weaknesses and we need to be more clinical as we'll rarely have as many chances as that second half, but we've got a real chance to turn it round now with the three games left this month.
  16. Bold team selection and so far it's worked. The right hand side remains a concern defensively with French continuing to be a total bombscare and Blues being narrow and on a booking in front of him, that's where any clear Inverness chances have started, but the plan to make the midfield as energetic as possible has worked. The pressing really has Inverness rattled. We're so much better with Strapp on the left it's not funny. Wilson and Oakley have also been excellent.
  17. Shocked at those two being the players dropped, particularly Bearne who was excellent on Saturday. That could be 3-5-2 with Strapp and one of Wilson or Blues as wing backs, 4-3-3 with Crawford and Muirhead wide, or 4-4-2 diamond with Crawford at the tip behind Muirhead and Oakley. Not sure what to expect there.
  18. Strapp coming into the team is surely a no-brainer, which makes what to do with Wilson an interesting one. Despite a sticky 10 minute spell which included their goal on Saturday he still had a good game overall, particularly when he moved into midfield, and has been our best player lately, so you can't really drop him. You can move him over to right back and drop Blues, which would be pretty harsh on Blues. You can move him to midfield and drop one of Gillespie and Crawford, which again would be harsh on either of them after Saturday. Or you can move him into midfield and move Crawford up one, dropping one of the front four to accommodate. While you could argue for continuity in the front four after a more cohesive attacking performance, I think with the threat Wotherspoon poses playing in the middle of the park for Inverness we really want to have Gillespie sitting on him and the more sound defensive set up of Gillespie & Wilson sitting with Crawford in front, rather than Muirhead who doesn't have the same defensive attributes. That then leaves a choice of which of McGrattan, Bearne and Muirhead you drop. Muirhead's had a good season overall and I understand that he's a player who can conjure a goal from nowhere, but I don't think after how well McGrattan and Bearne played on Saturday you can justify dropping either of them. When we've struggled for an attacking threat all season and it's finally clicked for two of the wide options you need to persist with them.
  19. That was sensational to dig a win out in that situation. The wind in the second half was the most ridiculous thing I've seen since that Scottish Cup tie at Livingston in about 2005, it was Arbroath's best player pinning us back in our half and even at 1-0 it was already looking dodgy to hold on for a point with the extent of the onslaught it was causing. To withstand that, pick ourselves up after the equaliser and then be clinical with one of our few visits to their half was absolutely fantastic and a credit to the team to have that sort of mentality when they're having the season they're having. Two superbly taken goals. As cheap as our opener was from Arbroath's perspective, it was excellent from Bearne to thread that pass and McGrattan took it well. The second is outrageous from Oakley to pull a finish like that out of nowhere and above all other descriptions it's extremely funny that we scored from a Strapp long throw in his first game back.
  20. Yeah, main reason to hope Bartley keeps his job and a new manager doesn't have any other ideas. Looking at our own loanee, Garrity scored against Hamilton last night. That's now 3 goals in his last 5 appearances/4 starts.
  21. Every club can recall players in January if they want, regardless of how long the loan was agreed for.
  22. In our position I can see the temptation to just look for any player possible who might be an upgrade. Any improvement in any area of the park could be the difference between 8th & 10th, but I'd agree with being wary about adding another winger/number 10 type when it's the area we least need bodies and the potential signing has major question marks about ever having been good enough for this level. If you're getting someone with the pedigree to be an upgrade that's a different matter, but even at that look how well a player with a bigger reputation in Ali Crawford worked out last season. We'll definitely need to be adding more to the defence, with French almost certain to go back to Dundee. One of the big concerns is holding onto Wilson as well, we can't afford to lose him so we should probably hope for an upturn in Queen of the South's results so Bartley keeps his job, rather than risking a new manager there wanting him back.
  23. Would be shocked if anything other than the Fife Derby is the TV pick, although I suppose there's always the nauseating Glasgow love-in as an option. If they do want a game involving a non-league team, it's more likely to be something with a bigger chance of a shock like Dunbar v Alloa or a team who've already got a bit of a narrative around them from earlier rounds like Jeanfield. So near yet so far from a brilliant away draw, but a non-league team at home is still greatly preferable to another Championship team or Queen of the South for the fifth season running.
  24. In today's Tele that Harkness is injured long term and likely to be away back to Rangers without playing a game. The logical choice here would be to persist with Baird & French at centre back and deal with Wilson out of position at right back until O'Connor's fit then move French out there, but I have the fear that this now means Broadfoot starting every game.
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