StAndrew7

I absolutely think that Kettlewell is due stick for his selection on Saturday. Having your best striker do donkey work for 60 minutes to open up the game for the ones who aren't anywhere near as good for the last 30 minutes makes absolutely no sense. I'd rather have Robinson doing the 60 minute shift and Stama coming on to exploit the tired back line because he's a more capable footballer and has better movement. Or, y'know, maybe play them together? Bringing Gordon in made complete sense... if you retained an attacking option outside of Stama. We didn't and it was dugshite as a result. Sparrow gives you endeavour and runs in behind in the right set up; Saturday wasn't it, as there needs to be two forwards occupying the opposing defence for it to work. He was badly bounced about by their humpties because he had bugger all space to exploit. Changes for Saturday required; I'd like Halliday out for Maswanhise after his abject defensive display/lack of tracking for their second. Never going to happen, though. Maswanhise for Sparrow is what I'd anticipate will happen. A bad day at the office, hopefully Saturday we can get in Hibs faces and actually show some attacking intent, rather than launching 60 yard balls to a lone striker. Reeking fitba.

Aye, next year though, at least! We might have sold him for £millions by then. 😅

Aye, although you'd expect the team to head up tomorrow and stay over, so I guess if they're there, it can go ahead? I agree re: fan/travel safety, it'll be interesting to see what happens if it's as bad as feared if the team is already there and the pitch is alright.

Aye, I do have a bit of confidence now that Sparrow seems to be adding some forward thinking runs/passes to his game. I'm by no means a fan of Paton, but again, his desire to carry the ball and be more attacking than Halliday is welcome - the link between Miller/other DMC has been missing all season; if we can get that sorted hopefully it'll lead to us being more efficient in our attack. You could argue that the first half against St Johnstone was full of promise from that perspective; we created a fair bit and Stama and Maswanhise could be a really effective front two. The issue that came in the second half was them nullifying our most effective outball in Marv down the right and Kettlewell (surprise surprise) not really adjusting for it.

Provided the game is on, here's some thoughts on starting formation... We all know Kettlewell won't change the system from a back three/five and with Gordon being available again I'd go for this (with Balmer/Casey playing whichever side works best; Balmer appears to have some kind of left footed ability so makes sense to play him there): Ox Casey - Gordon - Balmer Kaleta - Miller - Wilson - Seddon Sparrow Maswanhise - Stama Wilson and Miller sitting and Sparrow breaking beyond the midfield to support the two up top.

Aye, I agree with trying that at some point, but I'd say you can't drop Maswanhise given his form. So would either need a change of formation (which we all know Kettlewell won't do) or playing one of them out of position. Would Watt at 10 behind Stama/Maswanhise... that bad?

Yup. County fan on P&B saying they've had more snow overnight, with more forecast. They're not sure it'll be on.

I think this one might get postponed, looking at the weather...

Don't forget to include the inevitable "left back switches to right back across the defence" initiated round of applause from our fans.

Aye, I'm also of that opinion. I believe Boyle was the one who was throwing the daft contracts about as much as Nevin was. He's said a few times that he had to talk Boyle down from splashing mental money at some players.

Unless we get rid of a forward or two I doubt he'll be back in January, as it's a season long loan I think? Better to have him playing regularly for Morton than warming our bench and getting the odd cameo, imho.

Aye, I think all of us are guilty of expecting new signings to come in and immediately set about playing every week and dominating matches. We've had it pointed out to us on several occasions just how shite the Australian league and the defending there is, so perhaps giving Stama some time to properly bed in and get used to the standard here before writing him off isn't a bad shout. Or, y'know, we could just decide he's shite and should head back home. Cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season but I do feel our next run of games are crucial, prior to the absolute car crash of fixtures over the festive period.

I don't think that's what they're saying at all. It was our first semi-final in seven years and if you believe some of the pish spouted on here, it's with our worst ever manager, squad and tactics. I think Kettlewell got his tactics wrong on Sunday but we competed with Rangers for the majority of the game. The issue is the massive gulf in quality makes it difficult to maintain that competitiveness, without adding in shooting yourself in the foot by making ridiculous/baffling/poor substitutions. I said it on another thread somewhere that Stama scored goals with proper supporting play; he was either always in a pair with wingers in a 4-4-2/4-2-4, or in a 4-2-3-1. We don't have the players fit and available to play any of those systems (yet). The clear difference in those formations is that they provide real attacking width. Our wing backs don't provide that as often as I'd like but I think that will come. Kaleta is raw but has capabilities that I think are similar to Gent. Definitely an athlete and with the right coaching could become a real threat. Seddon has quality in his delivery and I think him and Wilson down the left could be a real pairing if given time to develop more.

Aye, absolutely. All about 'forwards' nowadays rather than the strikers, Haaland and the two you mention aside. Although the supporting cast around him are so good he can essentially just poach like Lineker did in the bygone era etc. I definitely have issues with Kettlewell's tactics but I do think he's hamstrung by the injuries we have currently. I know it's an excuse but it's glaringly obvious we're missing Paton's ability to carry the ball into the box (something I never thought I'd type, tbh) and Nicholson's creativity.

I totally agree. I do think that's what is so frustrating about it; they were absolutely there for the taking and we stuck to a rigid counter-attacking style with a really ineffectual press on their defenders. They definitely went up a gear in the second half. They took Miller out the game completely by sticking Barron on him at all times and doubling up when he was on the ball. That completely nullified our game plan because we had no other creative outlet, particularly after Kettlewell's mind-boggling double sub.

You'd have thought with everyone being so well informed about how shite Kettlewell, the players and our tactics are, that they'd have been able to prepare themselves for the result on Sunday and not get too upset, eh? I do hope that all of the ACLs and other ligaments that have been ripped apart by the knee jerks heal up well. For the record, Sunday was pish. It wasn't season and managerial career defining by any means. He fucked up and he'll hopefully learn from it moving forward. Fifth in the league on goal difference with a game in hand on fourth, four points clear of sixth with a game in hand and two games in hand over seventh, a cup semi-final and all with a team playing shite football without a striker who's scoring goals.

Aye, it's definitely a step in the right direction but I agree with others that it does feel like a relatively minor one. It is, like I say, moving things forward and demonstrating the model can/will work. There's undoubtedly more negotiations taking place in the background as well. The app sounds like it will provide a lot of answers to questions people had about how they can manage their contributions, see what they've paid in etc. @Kmcalpin I accept it won't be for everyone but it will cover off a significant portion of contributing members. I would imagine once it's in place, there'll be a relatively straightforward plug and play into the back end of the Well Society website to replicate its capabilities for those who don't use their phones/are desktop based.

Aye, I feel for SODs; it would have been his first appearance with a club at Hampden in a game like this, I think. Might have played there in a league cup game.

Had a quick look on Transfermarkt at last season and the majority of games he scored in he played with a partner in either a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4. On the odd occasion he played (and scored) as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1. All formations which are set up to provide a striker with more support than we've managed to provide him with so far, I'd say.

Aye, I'd heard a rumour about the wrong stuff being ordered or something along those lines.

Or end up at Ayr in January; Broony signed him for Fleetwood, I think?

Slattery is Christmas for full contact/training and I think matches from January. Not sure about the others.

It was fine earlier in the season and you could argue that Kaleta and Koutroumbis especially deserve time to prove themselves. Granted, Gordon has been an ever-present just about. I made the point on P&B earlier today that I don't quite get the unease around Blaney; I think he's more than capable of doing a job and has always done all that's asked of him. e.g. he was absolutely outstanding at Ibrox last year and then was just... dropped. I don't think he'll ever amount to more than a stand-in as and when required but he's... fine. We're always going to have a drop off in quality eventually but right now, we don't.

SODs moves across to RCB and Kaleta or Johnny K to RWB. Or Blaney comes in as a direct replacement. It's nice having squad depth, innit?

He's not played a single minute yet that I can see; I appreciate the travel will knacker him when he heads home later today/tomorrow, though. If he doesn't play at all I wouldn't be surprised to see him start and get 60 minutes or so. Also, he scored last game; I think he has to start as it'll help him build confidence and hopefully get another on Saturday. You'd like to hope he's been on a decent fitness regime for the last two weeks so he may well be. Still a nice option to have come on with 20/30 minutes to go as well, similar to Moses. Cause some chaos/general shithousery. I think Kettlewell will go back to Casey; he only really drops players when he absolutely has to which is one of my biggest complaints about him, although a settled XI obviously breeds familiarity and confidence. As you say, it's a shame for Balmer as I don't think he did anything wrong against Hibs, particularly considering his throw in won us the game. Longer term, I do think Balmer is going to be an upgrade on Casey; I think his ceiling is far higher in terms of ability passing, reading the game etc. from what I've seen. He's also not prone to the brainfarts Casey can have. Like, I think Casey is a great player for our level; reminds me of Chico Dunne that way. I don't think he'll get much higher than that (see him pissing off looking for better and realising he couldn't get it) but I can see Balmer getting his chance and being sold for a decent wedge to a Championship side next year or the year after, a bit like Brédéric was.