Andy_P

A return to winning ways he said hopefully....

Does his assist for the third goal in the Hibs game count? I agree that Tait is the best right-back at the club but he has yet to actually show that this season. I've seen catalogue photo shoots and loads of photos of what he's up to in the gym. I haven't seen very much of the form we know he's capable of however, whilst Grimshaw has done little to deserve being dropped since he got in against Accies. St Johnstone might have been an option for Robinson to "freshen things up" on the back of the County defeat and bring back Tait but Carroll has kinda knocked that one in the head for at least the next game so he can look forward to more "messing him about" on Saturday no doubt.

I think Robinson certainly got it wrong with the O'Hara for Polworth substitution. I'm slightly torn on whether he thought the points were in the bag so he'd give the new guy 20 minutes or whether he had sensed that the balance was turning into County's favour with their change of approach and wanted to freshen things up a little. Instead it upset the balance of the midfield and really just heaped loads of pressure on O'Hara as he attempted to get up to the pace of the game. And of course he was absolutely ripped to shreds for their winner. The Seedorf change I'd give him that. He has routinely been going off after around an hour and Hylton has come on and performed well on a few occasions off the bench so no issue there. I would argue that the Tait substitution was more sensible than not. Of course I wanted us to win but there comes a point where when you're down a man, the opposition are in the ascendency that you think maybe a point is better than none. I was thinking to myself well okay a point here today and the win last week, still kind of balances out what might have been expected. Totally accept that sounds incredibly stupid given that we subsequently went on and lost but more often than not, that change at that time of the game will result in that point being achieved. In today's instance I thought bringing on a full-back to give the defence more balance was the right thing to go as Donnelly was not looking comfortable in the slightest at left-back. What I would say is that I was a bit surprised that it wasn't actually Donnelly that went off. It still seems slightly inexplicable that after being ahead with quarter of an hour to go we ended up getting nothing. I don't think we played at our best but I was quite impressed with the patience shown throughout the second half in particular as we looked to break County down. That the breakthrough came from a lovely bit of football seemed just reward for that patience when in the not so very distant past we would have been increasingly panicky and resorting to hoofing it. Even before the equaliser though we did seem to be retreating back further and further after their changes. At first I thought it was a deliberate ploy to utilise the space and try to catch them on the break but it became apparent a combination of their changes and the desire to hold what we had meant we were much deeper than we wanted to be. The sending is difficult to comment upon being at the other side of the pitch but whether good tackle or otherwise it does not seem the most sensible thing to be attracting the attention of a referee when moments before you've got off with a yellow when on another day another ref might have given you a red. It's pretty disappointing that the momentum has been stopped, that we lost when we've had about 4500 home supporters at a home game for I don't know how long and that at its most simplest that a good winning position so late in a game has been allowed to slip away. This one should rankle with them.

Your thoughts and votes please...

It's not uncommon that when a support have become disillusioned and vocal about a manager and his style of play that the recruiting club goes for almost the exact opposite in style so as to distance themselves from the previous incumbent and as an attempt to appease. Whether he delivered it at Dundee is up for debate but in the mind of Neil McCann and many a sycophantic Scottish football journalist the free-flowing attacking football his sides apparently deliver might not be unattractive to a Hearts board looking for something visibly different to Levein's style.

I don't think it was unreasonable to pose the question how Hastie's career would progress after his whirlwind start. Nobody really knew if it was going to be a Ross Forbes style three months of excellence then fade or whether there was something sustainable after that initial burst. He certainly has got off to a good start in his loan spell though,

To be fair this style of article has cropped a couple of times in the past few seasons. Not so much last season mind... I hadn't realised Martyn Corrigan was working for the club again though, that is nice to see.

Having come through it and got the three points its a bit easier to look back on things and reflect on how good that was today. If we'd have chucked it away having twice been ahead by a couple of goals it undoubtedly would have been a different story but we got there, deservedly so, and can savour three fine points. It wasn't pretty for the opening spell. We looked pretty comfortable, save for the odd moment or two, but weren't creating that much. Gallagher was of course influential in changing that with the shot that was tipped over and the header from the resultant corner. It certainly seemed to give us a good bit more confidence and we could easily have added another couple before the interval. Donnelly's effort off the bar would have been sweet but the chance almost on half-time when Polworth, I think, shot when Cole was set for a tap in had you quietly wondering if we might pay for the misses in the second half. The second, and indeed third goals, were fantastic not only in terms of execution and the scenes they sparked but that we forced and then capitalised upon the oppositions errors and hesitancy. How often it feels like it's the other way. How refreshing. But we kept making it hard for ourselves, even passing up the opportunity to go 4-2 ahead through Long. In fairness we did see those last 5-10 minutes out pretty well. It was particularly amusing for that minute or so we were almost trolling Hearts by winning a throw in, taking possession and scudding off some random Jambo bodypart to win another throw in. Then repeat. Then repeat again. We also did particularly well to negotiate the full ninety with no red cards given Polworth and Donnelly were booked very early on. It will largely be lost in the focus on the win but that Ikpeazu managed to get to the 89th minute and then only got booked for dissent is an absolute nonsense. He must literally have been responsible for half of the fouls Hearts conceded. I didn't quite know what we were going to get. Yes, they've had their issues of form lately but they routinely dispatch us at Tynecastle and should have had the psychological edge having beaten us recently. We can be very satisfied I think however the way we've gone there and been physically and mentally strong and shown no small amount of skill to get the win.

Your thoughts and votes please...

But he does, so its an entirely moot point.

Aye, but similar other nations governing bodies welcome the use of all clubs B sides for youth development. Our nation's governing bodies are only really interested in B sides from two clubs only and solely as a safety net should anyone ever offer either of the two of them an "escape" route from Scottish football. Go down that route and sooner or later you'll be seeing Aberdeen, Motherwell, Hearts or whoever v Celtic B in the top flight.

Dickie Tait hasn't even been our best full-back this season far less being of international standard, regardless of how poor the current incumbents may be for Scotland.

On the Seedorf debate I see some parallels with Chris Humphrey with him. Whilst the physical attributes aren't the same Humphrey arrived with a similar burst of pace and an ability to find the net but with the same lack of nous and game intelligence that Seedorf has yet to develop. It took a good while for that to come with Chris but when it did we had a player. I think Seedorf is very much a work in progress and in time we'll see a smarter, more rounded player than the raw inexperienced one we have currently. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

I wasn't quite sure how this was going to beforehand so to come out with a 3-0 win at the end of it is an excellent days work. There were chances for both sides in the opening minute and that kind of set the tone for the first half. Gillespie had a couple of good saves and as well as the well taken goal from Seedorf we should really have scored more. We had opportunities to go further ahead early in the second half before Hibs had their best spell of the game with a fair bit of sustained pressure, albeit with not so many chances at the end of it. The substitutions gave us the energy we needed to recommence the high pressing game that had worked well in the first half and when we went two ahead Hibs looked like they had just chucked it. The third was the icing on the cake. A lot of good performances out there. Hartley looked like the commanding figure of his early days with us and the much lauded creative Hibs midfield didn't to dominate the way like thanks to the doggedness of Campbell, Donnelly and Polworth. Grimshaw had one of his best afternoons in claret and amber and for the second weekend in succession Scott impressed in an inside forward role. A good day!

No, not since it's been decided that any goals we score or games we win are down to the opposition being worse than us.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Why did you assume he was referring to you Yodo?

The sending off allied to us getting our second goal certainly changed the context of the game but even before then we were comfortably the better side. It helped us unquestionably but red card or otherwise on what I'd seen before it came I'd have been confident we'd enough about us to get the win. A couple of unexpected changes, presumably through illness, but it didn't seem to inhibit us too much and for once the surface looked to have only a marginal impact on how we were playing. We certainly seemed to be able to play the ball around more easily than we did at Livingston. We could have been ahead by the time Hartley put his chance away. Considerably better deliveries this week than against Hearts. A little like against Celtic very frustrating to concede so soon after we had scored. With the momentum all with us, the extra man and confidence flowing it looked set up for us to go to town on them but conceding so soon saw us play a little more conservatively. I wouldn't say our tactics were miles out though as you could see them repeatedly try to stretch Hamilton going from side to side and making use of the extra man. Not the worst idea on a hot afternoon when you're a man up. The second half was pretty professional give or take a couple of sloppy moments. Excellent goal from Long to seal it. A good run concluding with a pretty emphatic finish. I thought the introduction of Hylton going at their tiring defence might have created some further opportunities but not quite to be and 3-1 it was. I'd certainly have taken that beforehand. I think it's one that whilst you can't get too carried away by the same token there's a fair bit of credit due. We've rarely had as comfortable an afternoon over there and the response to Friday was everything that could have been asked of them. Three games in. Draw away to Livingston, loss to Celtic and win at Accies isn't a million miles away from what you might expect with a team that's still a work in progress.

Forgive me if my sarcasm wasn't clear...

Hopeless.

Your thoughts and votes please...

In contrast it seems to many, I'm quite optimistic. Yes, it was pretty horrible against Hearts but by the same token we dug in when required away to Livingston and played Celtic off the park for half an hour. It's not great but there have still been some positives. If their manager is true to his word that they will try to win more games this season by playing football then I think that might actually suit us better than being dragged down into the usual scrap.

A targeted increase, which again can be thrown straight back at us by the fact we have a Category A and Category B split so we can capitalise on a full South Stand when Rangers and Celtic visit. To complain about pricing in general seems perfectly reasonable to me. To boycott an away game over a practice which we engage in ourselves just makes us look a little daft.

Oh it definitely proves something. That those who do not rate or want Robinson out will find a negative to in any situation to offer a gloomier outlook. There's surely plenty folk can find wrong with tactics, formation, signings whatever without the need to twist every remark?

I tend not to make too many demands of our team but one of them is making sure you don't go out of Cup competitions with a whimper. You would be hard pushed to make the argument we down all guns blazing last night! I felt this would be the best opportunity yet to see where we are on our own patch with a side, although bigger, one we beat on their last visit here. There was no lower division opposition. No plastic pitch. No League Champions. And we were found wanting to a pretty worrying degree. Physically we just didn't look on the same level as Hearts and with that came a visible lack of belief that we could play through them and around them without being bullied or outrun. And Hearts sussed that very early on. Poor defending, poor decision making, slow predictable passes that allowed Hearts to get set pretty much all night. There was just so much that wasn't anywhere good enough. The first half an hour against Celtic suggests there is a level we can reach that is way in excess of what we showed through much of last night. I hope that as the team gel and become increasingly sharper that half spell against Celtic becomes the norm rather than the exception, otherwise tricky times may lie ahead. Some things to be addressed before Hamilton!!