capt_oats

Obviously it didn't count but did he not put the cross in for Moult's (wrongly) disallowed goal last week as well? As yesterday it was clipped in with his left foot too.

Laing sent off in Notts County's 3-1 win. 2nd yellow.

Went for McDonald on the basis of the goal (and the questionably disallowed one) in that respect he affected the game & made the most of being shunted out wide left for a fair part of it. Cadden would be worth a nod but beyond that it's slim pickings, the only other candidate would be McFadden who actually made a difference when he came on.

Absolutely agree. If nothing else McFadden gave us a much better balance and shape with him out on the left rather than shuffling one of McDonald or Moult out there. We started to find passes in to feet much more once he was on the park too. Indeed arguably our best spell of the game coincided with him coming on.

Given the performance and the fact we gift-wrapped their goal I'm happy enough with a point, even more so given it has us sat in 4th for the moment. We were absolutely woeful though. Nothing stuck up top, for large periods of the match it seemed like we could barely pass the ball and as others have pointed out Azeez gave Heneghan & McManus a torrid time. For all that though I didn't see much wrong with the chalked off goal though if McDonald was off then I'll happily stand corrected. We probably finished the stronger of the sides and could have nicked it. Both McFadden & Ainsworth improved us IMO and when we did actually start passing the ball and played to feet we moved it around quite well. There's a positive in the fact that we played as poorly and still took a point and it's difficult not to feel that today was the sort of game we'd have lost over the past couple of seasons. The lack of communication across the back line and between defence and goalkeeper is a massive concern for me though. Hesitant and indecisive, we're an utter shambles at times. All in all though, I'll take the point.

They fixed the pitch and drainage issues over summer. I'd be surprised if there were any issues for tomorrow. Longer term who knows.

He nicked a goal at the weekend but other than that Lawless hasn't done much at all this season. Their form player by a mile has been Erskine & tbh I'd be more worried about Doolan getting a tap in when our centre halves lose him and Samson inevitably spills a shot. Having said that they're without Cerny, Osman, Doumbuya and Bannigan while their defence is as much a shambles as ours so there's every chance Moult, Bowman and McDonald could have a lovely old time on Saturday.

Cerny's out for them as well so it depends whether they stick with Scully in goals or they give Stuckmann a debut. The last few visits to Firhill have been eye bleedingly bad but I was encouraged by the shape McGhee went with yesterday and could see Bowman having a bit of joy against Thistle's centre halves as thus far they've been nowhere near as solid as the defence that pushed them up the league a bit last season.

Moult. Closely followed by Cadden who I thought was also superb.

Possibly. Though equally I suppose that could easily just be a stock photo.

In fairness we've only played one first team game since he signed. Though having said that I thought he might have had a run out with the 20s against United during the week.

When he arrived it was mentioned by various press agencies and the club themselves that he's a winger but he's definitely right footed. It's old footage I'll grant you but there's little here to suggest that he's a naturally left sided player. I'd say he'd be more likely to play in one of the channels and drift wide or deeper into a #10 role than start off as a winger. https://youtu.be/IbCUsIlQnxo Edit: Here's some more recent footage of him playing with West Ham, you should be able to pick him out for the most part. https://youtu.be/qgjim2aP-B8

Out of curiosity where has this idea that Belic is a left sided player come from? The footage I've seen of him he's playing predominately as a centre forward/#10 and is clearly right footed.

Going by McGhee's pre-match Lasley's fit & training, Chalmers is struggling a bit.

I'm interested to see if he starts Moult or brings him off the bench again and introduces him back to the team gradually, given the step up for Bowman switching those two after 60 mins could work for both in terms of getting them minutes on the park. Genuinely no idea what sort of shape he'll go with. Could be a solid flat 442 with Chalmers or a 433. I think with the players he has at his disposal now he could even go 4312 or a 442 diamond. I could see us going with that lop-sided 442 that worked quite well last season with Ainsworth as the winger, though in this case an inverted winger. Samson Tait Heneghan McManus Hammell Cadden Lasley Clay Ainsworth McDonald Bowman You've got options off the bench in Belic, Lucas, Thomas et al too.

Agree the quotes attributed to him are shambolic and make next to no sense. The suggestion that we're signing him but don't know if he can play in the shape we're playing. Whut? Lucas has been at the club pretty much all summer why discuss him signing and then immediately highlight a doubt about him? Having said that I do think if McHugh's going to be out for the foreseeable, as seems to be the case, then we are short in the centre of the park even allowing for Campbell who I genuinely hope gets his opportunity soon.

I think the realisation that McHugh (by all accounts a first pick) is out indefinitely, and even when he does come back will need time to get anywhere near match fitness, along with Lasley having picked up knocks has highlighted that there's probably a need for another body in the short term even if you account for someone like Campbell. Removing McHugh from the equation you have Clay, Lasley and Campbell for 2 central midfield positions. OK you could shift Cadden in one but for the moment he seems most effective on the right side of midfield. For all you can point to McGhee saying he looked at the bench and didn't think there was anyone there he could use, McFadden was on the bench in both those games and he's had no problem using him since. It's clutching at straws a bit but I can't help but feel his reluctance to use Lucas off the bench in a league game could have been tied to the short term nature of his deal and he was only really there to cover in the event of injury. Alternatively, he just made a bad decision in not using his subs. Take your pick.

Nothing on his Twitter to suggest he's moved on and his LinkedIn page still has him at the club.

I'm not going to pretend to know what the specific remit of a Marketing & Fan Engagement Manager is nor would I make any assumptions on what results the role should/shouldn't be judged on. What I would say is that the new appointment seems to have been highly recommended and judging by the positive comments to the club endorsing the appointment from people who have worked with him, he seems to be very good at his job with experience of having worked effectively in the same role at other football clubs. Picking bits from the article the club published on the official site, I really can't argue with any of this and think it's creditable that the club are acknowledging areas in which they need to improve; "Amongst many things, including improving the clubs comms and marketing, his remit at Fir Park will be to improve the fan experience, particularly on matchdays and help maintain and grow the clubs supporter base through interaction and engagement." "Chief Operating Officer Alan Burrows added: Ive been working to get Ryan to Fir Park for quite some time as I have always been a huge fan of the innovative, engaging work he has produced at his previous clubs. Ive been extremely keen to try and better how we communicate with supporters but also, eager to improve our matchday experience and what we offer fans when they come to Fir Park every second week. Ryan has terrific experience in that field and has been recognized for it. Over and above that though, his role will also encompass marketing and communications, database and CRM implementation again, all things he is very familiar with. He'll also audit and improve what we do from a fan service point of view, delivering what we say we will, something I feel weve needed to improve on for quite some time."

Aye, the 2nd from MacLean was an absolute beaut. Had to leave at half time as I was away to play 7s but 3-0 against a United side with a fair number of first team players (Dillon, Durnan, Donaldson, Fraser, Spittal) is a huge credit to the 20s.

Agreed. Goalkeeper is obviously an odd position in the sense that if you drop a 'keeper to the bench then it seems more of a statement than an outfield player but if a player (any player) is consistently making the same errors, regardless of whether it's costing points/goals or not then there's a legitimate question to be asked. In competitive games, with Samson in goals we've played 10 games and kept 3 clean sheets (2 of which were in the league cup against East Stirlingshire & Stranraer). It's hardly a stellar record, even when you factor in we've been bedding in a back 4. I suppose the question is whether or not Brill is a marked improvement on Samson (enough to drop him anyway), having watched Brill in the u20s game he played the other week he certainly made a couple of good stops but equally looked quite lumbering and by no means the most agile. It'd be a stretch to say it was a convincing performance. That said, it was his first game in a while and given the nature of the game he had a young back 4 in front of him. It wasn't a performance that filled you with confidence though again, there's a degree of context needed there as the back 4 were all over the place. As you say though he's a goalkeeper who's been brought in with experience, the current #1 is spilling shots on a game by game basis you'd hope that it's at least a discussion that's being had (and not just by us).

Agree in principle but can't really see him being dropped after a clean sheet and a 1-1 draw. I'd have thought if Samson was going to have been benched it'd have been for the home game vs Dundee after the 5-0, his mistakes in the St Johnstone game and the 2-1 loss at Ibrox. Right now I think it'll probably take a suspension or an injury to Samson for Brill to get a shot. What is clear though is that his apparent inability to catch a ball isn't just a one off, it's a legitimate flaw in his game. The fact that he's now 32 and it's been a consistent criticism from supporters of other clubs he's played with over the years suggests it's not one that he's going to rectify any time soon.

Just watching BBC highlights back there and Ross County's disallowed goal which was conspicuous in its absence from the club's package. 1. Definitely offside. The boy has his right foot on the 6 yard line, both McManus & Heneghan are a yard (maybe 2) off the 6 yard line. 2. It's yet another shot straight at Samson that he's spilled and could easily have cost us a goal.

According to the match stats from both Sky and BBC we committed 17 fouls to County's 10 so it'd seem we compensated for any physicality.

Nathan Thomas currently at Hartlepool. Edit: MelvinBragg beat me to it.