vikingTON

Celebration tournament on Orkney.

Not buying that tbh - the midfield was very poor but the full-backs were absolutely the most important cause of that defeat. In the first half all the space going forward was in the full-back position: which we could do nothing with to build on our lead The equaliser was a combination of atrocious full back play and the second comes from Pigniatello doing nothing at all to stop the play developing all the way to the edge of our box. We certainly weren't likely to win with both dreadful full back play and a midfield that was second best.

We don't have someone to replace Gillespie in his specific midfield role without compromising another part of the team. We could absolutely replace Blues on current form, because I'm not seeing any quality there right now. Crawford wouldn't be far behind either - he has been quiet for some time. Miller needs to show a better attitude because the commitment to win challenges wasn't there often enough and the dive summed that up.

^^^ fact-based analysis The lack of confidence spread through the team like the plague in the second half - and no wonder. Pigniatello is just out of his depth at this level and was treating the ball like a live grenade. King at least started the move for our goal by winning a high ball he was 30-70 to get to through determination, but his performance quickly went downhill from there. That left us effectively playing with nine reliable players, and then fewer as we made no progress and the heads dropped. Grimshaw was the only player who showed quality but he was making inexplicable errors by the end too. You need to take players who are having a stinker off the pitch. That should be the lesson that Imrie has to take from that game. While the midfield barely won a second ball, it's also notable that there was a literally enormous gulf in physicality between them and Arbroath's. We cannot have a bunch of wee runners and then not press effectively. The surplus of hammer-throwers* also meant that Arbroath worked out that they could use one to block or mark Oakley and a spare to sweep up every single high ball in the second half. *in the Sir David Irons mould

I'd be very nervous about the amount of times they're overrunning King's side of the defence. That luck won't hold. With Pigniatello offering nothing going forward I'd be switching to a back 3 and have Grimshaw/King as wing backs. Unless we get a couple more goals, this setup is unlikely to get us to three points. Edit: Or have King in midfield and Miller on the left instead.

Gillespie is the only holding midfielder in the squad. Many people - including myself - were highly sceptical about that signing in the summer, and yet Imrie has comprehensively proved us wrong. There's no benefit from being deprived of that option - unless you think that you know better than Sir Douglas. King has had plenty of chances and game time for a player at his level of ability and development. He's doing just fine - and if he was deserving a start every week on merit, then Sir Douglas would give him one. This white-knighting of *random fringe player to start next week* rather than simply accepting that a first team that plays 6/7 games away from home will not rack up wins at this level is getting pretty tiresome. The Arbroath game next Saturday is litmus test for any changes that are needed. This endless string of away games are nothing of the sort.

0.03 seconds v the 5 minutes to concoct a penalty to Celtic. Presumably no check at all on the challenge on Miller, that leads directly to their third goal either.

The third utter nonsense penalty given against us in three weeks. Get Uncle Neil up to Hampden for an intimate meeting with the corrupt cheats at the SFA.

This is correct.

Why should clowns like 'Duncan Williams' steal even more money for their 'contribution' to the sport than they do right now? Will they ever be sacked from their full time job for making egregious errors? Or will the SFA close ranks to protect their own? Unless we're offering salaried positions to competent officials from across Europe to run the games, then more money changes absolutely nothing.

Utter nonsense. A drag race between two cars is far closer to a dung, high-scoring game like basketball. The variables really don't matter much, because the general gap in ability is demonstrated over 200+ points every game. Football is not and never has been that sport. One single goal was recorded today, that could have been provided by a dodgy penalty for Hamilton, or alternatively the ball hitting the arse of their defender and going in their own net. In 2013 the worst full-time side in the history of Scottish football rocked up to Celtic Park and won 1-0. Which was the Lamborghini and which was the Ford Transit in your gubbins analogy (hint: Jonathan Page and Nicolas Caraux will never be international quality footballers). Any predictable minor variation significantly shifts the win probability of a game of football. And if you think that's not true, then try winning your fortune betting against the bookies, who generously price up away wins compared to home wins across every professional market.

If it "doesn't matter" then why do the overwhelming majority of professional teams have a better record in home games than away from home in any given season? Football is a low-scoring game and so small differences have an oversized impact. Home advantage doesn't turn a team into world-beaters, but whether it is knowledge of the local conditions (see Gayfield), the shiter of a pitch or plain homer bias from dung referees, those are the differences between a poor performance and a draw, and a rancid performance and a defeat.

Our last home league game was on November 12th. That's what has cost us. I'm not excusing a rancid performance today, but the reality is that happens away from home in this division. We've had plenty of them at NDP and Imrie's first unbeaten run came to an end twelve months ago there too. You need to make it a) an exception and b) cancelled out by getting the momentum of a home win. The big missed opportunity was the game against a very depleted Ayr side on January 2nd. An ideal opportunity to put a play-off contender to the sword, and go into this run of away games with full confidence. Instead the club (IMHO) dropped the ball by losing that game and now we've got 0 points from 6.

Critical 45 minutes for the rest of the season.

Trawling through some League of Ireland pub team's club forum, to check if the banjo-strumming fans were happy with their string of 'plucky' defeats.