weeyin

Closer to nonsense, than insightful. Someone posturing as an expert analyst, but not really going into any more depth than a Sportscene pundit. If you are into full blown, geek depth analysis of formations, tactics, evolution of the game etc. Jonathan Wilson is the man to read. As well as his regular columns he has written a few books on the subject (he is also a guru on the game in Eastern Europe). Here is one of his more recent articles which, by his standards, is fairly superficial.

Selective memory - we all suffer from it! That's how stories like "We always lose to teams with a new manager" and "Any team on a losing streak always breaks it against us" become 'fact'. One of the one's that I fell victim to is that Wille McVie was sent off for handball in our famous 5-4 victory against Kilmarnock (coming back from 2-0 and 3-2 down). I was at the game and swear it was true. However, it turns out McVie was booked for handball and sent off later for a 2nd bookable tackle. What is they say? "When legend becomes fact, print the legend"!

I'm all in favour of giving our youngsters a run out in the first team, but a young keeper is a bit of a special case. Not many SPFL teams would be putting an 18 year old between the sticks, especially in a game that we had to win. Can you imagine the outcry if he had made one mistake that led to a loss?

Absolutely. Even at home I'd expect the opposition to be using the "kitchen sink" approach if they are a goal down in the closing stages.

I think so. Although I imagine keeper is the most difficult position to hold onto through the ranks. Sooner or later, they are going to want to play competitive games every week and young keepers generally don't get in the first team of top flight teams.

Saw him come on as sub the other week against Ipswich and he turned the game for Barnsley almost single-handed. Only time I have seen him since he left though, so pretty small sample size. Apparently he is 2nd choice to Paddy McCourt.

It may well be true. On the other hand he has said that a few times and soon after brought in a player e.g. Ojamaa and Faddy. I hope this is more of the same.

You'd break them all if you knew you wouldn't get caught.

We played some great stuff under McCall too as recently as last season. The problem right now is we don't have Brown's team or McCall's team from last year. The thread is about how do we move forward, not if you remember how good we have been in the past.

In Murphy's last season, this place was full of posts moaning about him being too lightweight, too streaky, not being able to play out wide, not looking interested. Far too many unable to appreciate what we have until it's gone.

It's the US 2nd Division containing an impressive 8 teams.

When I was a season ticket holder (which was during some of the worst periods in our history), the sequence for events for me was typically: - Watch a bad game on a Saturday afternoon - Saturday evening, vow I'm never going back - Sunday, revisit the horror in the Sunday papers - Monday, get the last of the reports out my system in the dailies - Tuesday, mostly over it - Wednesday, can't wait for Saturday to come around I understand why some people will stay away - especially these days with the cost involved. I never managed to get out of the "what if today's the day and I miss it" mentality.

I agree we lack balance, but I think that's down to players not performing rather than the makeup of the players we signed. Ainsworth was brought in for pace out wide. Vigurs was, presumably supposed to add some guile to the midfield as a ball player, and Faddy was presumed to continue his form from last season. 0 / 3 happening has definitely left us struggling. Sutton has been a decent replacement for Higgy (and would have prospered with equal service) and Anier filled a need at the start of the season - one which I can see Moore moving on to fill in the 2nd half of the campaign. We didn't have the budget to replace the players we lost, so are depending on cheaper alternatives. That usually means lower quality or less experience. Either one brings it's own problems. For all that, I honestly don't think any team can suffer so many changes in key personnel in key positions and not see a significant drop in performance. I wish it was different, but in all the years I've been watching football I can't remember any counterexamples. McCall definitely needs to earn his wages over the next few weeks and work out some sort of system to keep picking up the points (which to be fair we have been doing at home at least). But the key to what's left of this season is what we do in January. We need at least one body in the midfield that has some creativity and equally, if not more importantly for me, we desperately need someone from midfield who can contribute some goals. Our goal return from the current midfielders is woeful. If I was an opposition manager I'd focus on nullifying our front two and feel safe goals wouldn't be arriving from anywhere else.

I played this as a Game of the Week on FIFA 14 last night. Lasley had a stinker - could barely find a man with his passing - and Faddy was non-existant. However, Vigurs scored a peach from 25 yards and 'Well ran out 1 - 0 winners. So obviously I expect the actual match to be a repeat.

The only manager in recent memory who might have been able to rebuild the squad better was Gannon. And even he may have struggled to replace as many first team regulars as we lost given the fact we had a smaller budget this season than last (and much smaller than when Gannon was boss).

See from Official Twitter that Lee Erwin requires surgery and likely out for the remainder of the season.

Ross McCormack (I know, he falls into the 5 years and a few months category)

Now is not the time to replacing a manager. Only at Fir Park would that patter surface when we are sitting 3rd in the league at the start of a rebuilding process after the core of our team was ripped out. If any manager (including McCall) can work under the constraints of this season and get us a top 6 finish, they should get a medal. Where are all the punters that were mouthing off about "I don't care if we field a team of boys that gets hammered every week, as long as Sevco aren't allowed back into the SPL?" Well, guess what? While we aren't penniless, we are working with a smaller budget again this year partly due to the Sevco affair, and this is the result. The team isn't near as good as last year yet, but last years' team took 4 seasons to build. And even then we had a crap home record at the same stage of our previous campaign. I doubt McCall needs telling that some players need a rocket or the elbow, but the way the transfer windows work there days, you have to bide your time. It might end up that this is McCall's last season, or he might turn things around and have the supporters clamouring for more. However, I think he has at least earned some breathing space given his overall performance in the last couple of seasons. Of course he has made mistakes; some he has learned from a few he hasn't. But that's the best we can hope for at our level - and give me a McCall over a John Hughes or Pat Fenlon any day of the week.

I'm obviously missing the point here, but what actions? We haven't played any more games since. If your talking about previous times we have hit a slump under McCall, we have turned it around to finish, for example, 3rd and 2nd in the league. To be honest, I'm not necessarily expecting a quick fix from this group of players with their lack of guile in the midfield and obvious lack of confidence. Unless Faddy suddenly sparks some magic, we don't have an obvious game changer right now, so all we can hope for in the next few games is effort and focus.

Apart from "I quit", what do you want the club captain to say that he didn't in that article.

Nothing on MFC TV from the game apart from the 'highlights'.

You do realize you just made that up? I don't think budget means what you think it means or realize that a budget isn't a static pot of cash. Like every club/business/household it can be modified as circumstances change.

That's it. Looked great under the floodlights on a wet Wednesday night.

Aye, I always liked our white away strips - except they were home strips because the home team changed in those days. We had another good one that was white with vertical claret and amber pinstripe band.

With some Dutch courage last night I looked up the details of the Queens Park defeat. It was 1979 and they gubbed us 4 - 1 at home in the first leg of a league cup tie. I remember the score, just couldn't remember the exact year. We never looked like overcoming it in the second leg at Hampden, although we did at least win that game. That was my first real taste of feeble cup exits. As for the most recent Ibrox debacle, it was a sore one, but the 5 - 1 capitulation in the CIS Final was worse for me.