Andy_P

Aye, I saw Ray Allan play. A wee thank you from Alex McLeish in the Faroes for filling in for a month whilst he concluded the signing of Scott Howie.

The flip side to that is that if you haven't seen any details of our potential targets in public and don't know who they are then neither do any of our competitors. The manager said in one of his press conferences he had irons in the fire. That was repeated as recently as last night by the General Manager. That's good enough for me until the player(s) in question have commited and the club can unveil them. Until that point happy to let them quietly get on with their work in the background.

Replace Nielsen with Twardzik and your description isn't a million miles away from describing Dan's first six months at Fir Park. I'm not totally convinced that you are right in terms of Man City wanting to keep hold of him. I understood he was about to be freed, got an extra year because keepers ahead of him were injured and when they returned he was bumped. But that's a moot point, There isn't a huge amount in it between them. There are elements of their game where one is better than the other. It is often mentioned about Nielsen's terms being generally more agreeable than some, I have no idea if that is the case, but if so perhaps it is better that until someone better comes along, the younger player with greater potential for development and re-sale value and who has that extra year on his contract remains first choice. Particularly if there is a chance that Nielsen may move on before the close of the window.

We are where we are at the moment but aren't many of the building blocks for what lot of what people are crying out for already being put in place? We want investment, fresh ideas in the boardroom and new strategies to be put in put place to make the club financially stable? Aren't we just days away from potentially having that when Hutchison signs on the dotted line and his people come on to the board, begin to exert their influence and augment what we already have behind the scenes? We want an improved youth set to bring players through? Have we not in the last 18 months or so appointed an Academy Director and arranged a tie-in to use the facilities at Braidhurst to help with that very purpose? Of course the very nature of youth development is that it takes time for structures to be put in place as required and for the players to come through those structures. We want a manager who'll give youth a chance? Hasn't he already given debuts to Thomas, Watt and MacLean and given game time to Erwin, Cadden and Ferguson? We want the team freshened up? Well hasn't the manager said he's going to bring in one or two if he can, not to mention the aforementioned youths. Did he not also say that players are playing for their futures? But what he can't afford to do is alienate those who will be around to the summer at least and will have a part to play. Many footballers are clearly egotistical and much as many a fan would like to spell out some home truths, the manager has to strike a balance between the carrot and stick approach. Our season is eerily replicating Hibs last season but one thing we can do is avoid the mistake that Butcher made is by goading his players enough that they down tools (yes and I know plenty will say they did that some time ago). This is absolutely shite just now ofcourse it is, but I do have faith that it will get better. The short-medium-long term planning that people want is there. The changes in the team will come and we will be a much different side when we kick off next season. Easier said than done maybe but we just have to make sure that painful as it is at the moment we somehow get through this current challenge to push on with the restructuring and make the best of the opportunities that will come.

Your thoughts and votes please...

That's decent of you gaffer!

I know he likes to be positive and all but I think when the new manager refers to him as a colossus then he views McManus role in the team as more than someone he has to persevere with!

Thursday

I'm fairly sure there will be some movement before the end of January, if not indeed when January has come and gone. The GM said the manager had some irons in the fire and whilst Baraclough acknowledged we might need to be creative the suggestion of freshening up the squad wasn't dismissed. Where we might have some difficulty is those who you might have expected to be makeweights in providing the finance to do anything are currently injured - like McHugh or perhaps Moore, or have already been out on loan like Cummins. That seemed to be the part of the process that enabled us to get Anier permanently this time last year.

Outcome as expected, result not quite as bad as some feared and although the performance was certainly a bit better than Ne'erday, pretty much anything would be batter than Ne'erday. When it boils down to it the bare facts are that we've conceded a goal stemming from a mistake from us and a second stemming from a mistake from the referee. That's not to say Aberdeen didn't deserve the win - they did, that they didn't dominate possession - this they did also - and didn't have a hatful of other opportunities to score - this they did too. All the same I'm still left a little irritated. I wouldn't say we were exactly threatening the Aberdeen goal but the introduction of Thomas and Erwin gave us a spark and energy about us that was missing throughout the previous hour. I've seen plenty games like that today where one side has dominated but failed to kill the game and then inexplicably not managed to get the win they've deserved. I kind of had that feeling today the longer the game was going on. Collum didn't cost us the game, but he did cost us the opportunity of getting something from it in the last five minutes and has also potentially had a negative impact on our chances of securing a positive outcome in our next fixture too.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I'm not sure how much scope he has to make the kind of changes he might want to. There's quite a few injuries on the go just now that are having knock-on effects on other positions of the team. Take left-back. I don't know if Hammell was withdrawn as a precaution or whether he's goosed again but if he's gone, ZFA isn't fit and presumably now Ramsden is out also you're looking at Reid over at left-back. You might think of slotting Law at right-back then, but if the centre of midfield is going to be missing Lawson, Vigurs, Carswell and Ramsden then there's a decision to be made there. All it might take of course is the return of one player to open up some further options but if we don't get anyone else back that wasn't available before we kicked off at Hamilton then it seems to me bar perhaps the inclusion of Thomas from the start any changes we make will more likely be down to attempting to fill a jersey rather than through deliberate tactical choice.

I'm quite pleased that the Aberdeen game is so soon after yesterday's debacle. Yesterday won't be forgotten by supporters nor will I'm sure the manager allow the team to forget it - the implications of it will for some I suspect will be felt further down the line - but playing again so quickly after allows for the focus to swiftly change towards something different. I wouldn't say I'm overly hopeful of a result all the same.

Along similar lines was wistfully discussing their reported demands for no less than £3m for Cifti yesterday. If he had been at been Tannadice, had been named Michaelo Higdona or some such I'm almost convinced Dundee Utd would have got seven figures for Higdon.

Possibly Pepper was referring to the showing on Alba that started at 10pm? Fucked if I'm watching that or indeed the youtube highlights when they go up. In fact as much as it goes against the grain I've even got Match of the Day on instead.

I'm sure there will be, but at this moment in time it's difficult to remember too many more humiliating experiences than that. I sometimes wonder if the fact we've been so far ahead of the other Lanarkshire sides for decades means we don't quite fully get the derby thing as a club. The head to heads against both Airdrie and Accies are much closer than you perhaps might expect given the respective finishes and stature of the sides. Invariably whilst the opposition raise their game so often we fail to do so. It was obvious from the word go that Accies were really up for it today. They were clearly miles ahead but it was so so obvious that they had a desire and a determination about that was sadly missing amongst our team. We had a couple of things go against us certainly with Ramsden going off early and presumably Hammell was injured at half-time. The Ramsden one when we were already missing Lawson, Vigurs and Carswell in central midfield was particularly sore but that's no excuse for what transpired. They could have been a couple up before they'd even got their first and you shudder to think just how many they could have scored had they been a bit more clinical. We were abysmal. We seemed utterly incapable of tackling, passing, marking, shooting. Name pretty much any of the basics and we failed miserably at them all. We got a little lucky today that both St Mirren and Ross County lost but you worry about how much that will set us back. Even though it's next season's Champions League winners elect up next at least the game is only 3 days away so there's the focus will very quickly have to turn to that. Just all so very embarrassing.

Aye, well...

Well, Accies do currently say so on their website I noticed last night. That said they do suggest that any change to that would be communicated today. I would like to think that if the suggestions are correct and only 400 tickets have been sold for our end that'll be enough to spook them into changing it to PATG as it really should have been all along.

Thought it was quite odd that Higginbotham turned and applauded the East Stand at full-time yesterday. Obviously there was a quite a bit of animosity during the 4-3 game last season - I would argue largely down to some of his actions that day. He got it a wee bit tight off some yesterday, albeit to a much lesser degree, for not too much at all so fair play for the gesture given the circumstances and I would have to concede that taking the gesture at face value, he's gone up a little in my estimations

Another step along the road to recovery. Actually quite akin to a number of games from last season where we got in front, seemed to stop playing, found ourselves having to negotiate quite a bit of pressure but came through it and got the points. The disappearance in the second half was a bit of a worry. I thought we'd just about deserved our lead in the first half but there was no question it was all Thistle in the second. But if you want to accentuate the positives you could justifiably argue that when we did go forward we were much more dangerous than Thistle and that for the tonnes of possession that they have, Twardzik didn't really have much to do at all. So there are definite things to build upon. We viewed the Ross County, St Mirren, Thistle and Accies games as very important for getting back on track. If after Hamilton on Wednesday we've managed to remain undefeated in all four of them, then in the current context of the season that will have been a very respectable few weeks for us.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I seem to have a missed a fair bit that's been said about the intentions for Baraclough's backroom team. Or perhaps missed a bit that hasn't been said? As far as I have seen Black continued with the preparations for the Ross County immediately after Baraclough's appointment. He then continued in that usual role to assist the new manager whilst Baraclough really began his job in earnest after that game. Now I don't know where Baraclough has made the statement definitively saying he was going to bring in his own number two and or others, as appears to have been suggested, but I do recollect him saying he was comfortable with the continuity that the existing backroom would bring whilst he settled in. But from that first training session all I've heard Baraclough say about Black has been positives. About how the players are pleased he's still there (which Law also stressed in the Thistle presser) and particularly about how well they've worked together. The shot of them embracing in celebration at full-time at Paisley on St Mirren did not strike me as one that might have occurred in a set up where there was any bitterness or annoyance that Black has been somehow forced upon Baraclough as a result of finances.

It was vital in several respects to get the win yesterday. For one the new manager would want to get off to the best possible start and get his first win as soon as possible. More important than that ofcourse was taking the opportunity to address the current predicament. To have failed to see out a lead in the last 60 seconds of last week and then fail to do the business against the other direct opponent having played against 10 men for so long could have really sown some serious seeds of doubt. But by hook or by crook we got there, have that measure of breathing space once again with optimism for the fixtures ahead. As has been mentioned we looked from the off to play a much more possession based style. I thought we were pretty disciplined in the most part in sticking to it, particularly when you can consider we had a two on the left hand side playing on the opposite side from what they were used to and a laddie still bedding himself into the senior side and for the most part keen to play it safe. I'm sure it'll be particularly satisfying for Baraclough that it paid dividends in the end and we got the goal by playing football, And some lovely football at that, rather than panicking and resorting to some of the awful stuff we witnessed in the first half of the County game. There were other positives such the willingness to tweak personnel to bring a more progressive player on in Erwin as early as half-time and the introduction of Dom Thomas. That said we've so, so much improvement to come. For long spells we looked incapable of creating much at all, even against 10 men. But ofcourse it is very early days. Pleased for the maligned Law and Sutton combining to good effect for the goal. I hope Sutton can go on another of those goalscoring streaks that seem to have epitomised both his spells at the club. Was chuffed for Law too. He's deserved plenty of the criticism that's come his way certainly but I always felt he should have been due a little slack and patience whilst he tried to adapt to the game up here. He was exactly what many of his critics said - a former English non league player who has played the bulk of his career at right back. Not his fault he was suddenly expected to be a right-winger one week, left-winger the next, playing off the striker the next again. Last few games he's hinted that he can make a decent contribution. Early days again but let's see where it goes and if he can develop further over time. Onwards and upwards.

Your thoughts and votes please...

For me without having seen the full details of the transcripts that are being talked of on tweets and on the Well Society thread there a couple of things that come to mind. A question that kind of leads on to further questions I'm afraid. Sorry if that it doesn't make it very easy to ask! I was under the impression that the WS had spent the last few months seeking to attain soft loans to reach the undefined amount that would have satisfied John Boyle the fan ownership model was still a goer. Yet Les Hutchison's loan has apparently gone directly to the club. How so? And following on from that how will the repayment side of things work? Are the club liable for the loan? Is it the Well Society? Is it a combination of both? And what are the terms. Do we have five 5 years to accumulate the monies? Do we have to repay amount each year? Why is this so important to know? Well for me knowing the state of play should give everyone a clear indication of the strategies that will be required to get to the "takeover point" whenever that will be. Do we require funds urgently to meet a first repayment say or can a more measured approach be taken across the 5 years to reach the ultimate target? I'll fully understand if you take one look at that, laugh and go next!!