joewarkfanclub

Lots of good performances today. Bevis, Casey & McGinn all looked excellent, especially in the first half. Thelonious had a good first half as did Wilkinson. Spittal had a good game, but MOTM for me was Slattery. Great close control on a wet pitch, some lovely interplay with his team mates and he kept running right to the end. Hopefully he can maintain that level throughout the season.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game today. Thought both teams put on a good show in testing conditions. Thought the first half was pretty even we looked solid at the back and we edged it by scoring a very good goal. Really pleased for Theo to get the monkey off his back first time out and he looked a lot better a player than we have been led to believe. Happy to eat my humble pie in that regard right now. Second half I thought we had more of the ball and looked very good in transition with Slattery and Spittal looking very slick at times, but defensively we were less secure and coughed up a few chances. Over the piece, a point was probably just about right, but it feels a bit like 2 points that got away. Those criticising our players need to get a grip. Ive not been a fan of Wilkinson so far as the games have largely by-passed him, but he stepped up a level today. He was much more involved and his footwork and close control on a difficult surface was excellent at times. Spittal is going to be a very important player for us this season. His workrate, desire and creativity are second to none. Slattery is looking much fitter this season and will push Spittal on this form. Soare looks like a player who has a touch of class about him but is short of fitness. He looked better today and the 70 minutes he got will have done him well. Overall I thought it was a decent perfomance in poor conditions with plenty of room for improvement. It keeps SKs unbeaten away record intact and sets us up well for Hibs next week.

FEED THE BAIR! FEED THE BAIR! FEED THE BAIR! Big slice of humble pie for me!

Not sure I follow your logic here mate. Zach scored 12 goals in 29 appearances in the Championship. Whilst that is better than Theo Bair who hasnt scored goals at any level, Im not sure you can compare that to Wilkinson or Obika. He is only 21 and he may turn out to be very good (and after this debate might rip us a new one today!) but I wouldnt be claiming up front that he is better than anything we have especially when we havent seen Biereth yet. That said, I will certainly be watching his performance closely today now, so thanks for highlighting him as one to watch!

I hope the weather holds here, for entirely different reasons! 😆😆😆

Whatever you think about SK, he talks well and exudes positivity! So far it hasnt been misplaced and it clearly rubs off on most of the players. Here's hoping it continues and doesnt blow up in his face. Was interesting to hear his thoughts on Bair, and he has nailed his colours to the mast on that one, so he cant complain on being judged on the success or failure of his signing.

Based only on how we navigated the League Cup group with half a squad and players in various stages of fitness, I think we will have a decent enough season. It would have been easy enough to make a rickets of that as some other clubs have done but we didnt and although it wasnt all sunshine and roses, we did well enough to deserve our seeding in the knockout stages. We look as though we will be set up difficult to beat and as long as we dont have to see Lamie and Bevis together at any point, I dont think we will be shipping that many goals. How far up the league we finish and how far we go in the cups is going to come down to how we do at the other end, but I dont think we will be in trouble of relegation. Slattery and Spittal look fit and in good form. Hopefully Davor gets up to speed and challenges young Miller for that 3rd midfield spot. I think Soare will come onto a game once his fitness improves. I still think we could do with someone to replace Max, but SODs will do meantime. Up front the challenge will be to keep Obika fit. He may not chip in with many goals but his hold up play is good and he brings others into the game. Big Wilko looks like he has ability, but whether he will get the pace of the game remains to be seen. Looks like its by-passing him at the moment. But willing to give him time to adjust to a new league. The Mika signing is the one that excites as he could be the quality that we are looking for in the final third. If he can hit the ground running we could have a good season. My predictions League - 6th League Cup - beat St Mirren but go out to one of the uglies in the next round. Scottish Cup - semi final.

This seems more like the kind of signing we should be making. We cant really afford this kind of quality anymore unless we develop it or sign it on loan. Hopefully he is as good as his reviews suggest.

Good point. These are the things we will never know. We also dont know what part of "The Project" SK sees Bair taking up. It would be hard to believe / accept that he sees him as a first pick striker ahead of Obika and Wilkinson, who already have their detractors lining up to proclaim them both failures. More likely he is seen as back up to Obika and is there to learn from him and try to develop into a more effective hold up / support striker. The difficulty I have with that is we already had Mandron in the building and let him go, so if that IS his role, than SK is gambling on Bair being a better (or maybe cheaper) option on that front. If we do in fact get the Arsenal boy in on loan, this transfer wont seem half as risky as it does now. But we need that or something like it to happen to take the pressure of and generate some additional hope/expectation going into the start of the season.

Peak Carson was definitely a better GK than Kelly. Its whether you would be getting peak Carson anymore. Both good shotstoppers and Carsons distribution was infinitely better. Certainly no resale value on him now so you would want to be getting a few seasons out of him as your no.1 if you were paying a fee. Not seen enough of Oxburgh yet to decide whether he will be our no.1 when Kelly moves on, but not a position we are desperate to fill right now. Agree it wouldnt have been a crazy move if Kelly was moving on right now and the net transfer fee was in our favour, but thats not wgere we are with talk of us extending Kelly's deal. Good luck to Trevor, except on Saturday of course.

I think its fair enough to question the length of the deal given the circumstances. Casey got 6 months to prove he was worth a longer deal. Something similar for Bair would have been palatable to most and far less risk to the club. Thats not to say he wont or cant be a success, but it does seem a heck of a gamble to give him a 2 year deal based on very little evidence that he is worth it. Hopefully he will go on to prove all the doubters wrong.

I think the frustration for most is that SK has been very astute in managing players out the door who werent going to make the grade in the SPL and streamlining a somewhat bloated squad. The expectation was that he would then replace them with players of a higher standard that would improve where we were last season (leaving KVV aside). Most of the criticism/debate appears to be towards SK for his signings so far and concern that we may actually be going backwards instead of forwards and I think that is fair game on a football forum. What I would say is that given where we are in the season and the various levels of fitness of the players, its far too early to be calling whether any of our players will be any good for us in the future. Lets see where we are in September and make an assessment then.

On the face of it, if he hadnt been at St Johnstone last year and come with negative reviews, this is the type of signing, I wouldnt have been enthused about, but would have thought, mmmm, wait and see. But given that St Johnstone had him and let him go doesnt really bode well. He is only 23 however, so Im hoping he cant be worse than Mandron and is a back up for Obika rather than someone to play alongside him.

"We are all Stuart McCall.........."

Not my recollection of the game at all. We played some very nice football on the night and were schooled on the importance of being clinical and taking your chances.

What games have they picked for tv? 😉

Not the best draw we could have had, but not the worst either. Rather play on grass than away to Killie or Livvy and the journey to Ross County is never enjoyable. Short travel distance should ensure a decent away support and the extra spice of all the ex Motherwell connections. Hopefully Obika is fit and we can see whether he or Mandron is the better player. A perfectly winnable tie for either side.

Without knowing the real ins and outs of youth development and with having no experience or knowledge of it whatsoever, it appears to me as an outsider that the development of youth players at national level is skewed towards producing the best elite players for the national team. While it looks like we are having some success in this regard with the first Project Brave graduates now featuring for the national team and enhancing our chances of qualifying for tournaments, the pathway for those that are late developers or not at elite level seems less clear. Probably deserves a topic on its own, given the importance of the debate to our game.........

I meant in respect of winning the group and seedings. But, yes, the 2nd place teams certainly have a beef. And of course its Inverness they play not Raith. My bad.......

This is absolutely the way forward for our club and any other fan owned club for that matter. It will take SK a few windows to get us there as he tidies up the contracts situation and assesses who is ready for the step up. It will be a gradual process and one he will have to manage carefully, because he needs to keep his job in the meantime. But hopefully we will start to see the benefit of the strategy as we go along.

So glad we didnt take the risk on him. No place for dewey eyed sentiment in football.......

The time added on, or not in this case, requires an answer for all the reasons discussed above. It hasnt adversely effected us on this occasion, but it could in the future. The authorities shouldnt be allowed to gloss over that. Also, why is the Dundee v Raith game being allowed to be played today? Again its not effecting things on this occasion, but it could have provided one of those sides with a sporting advantage by knowing exactly what they need to do to qualify/be seeded. I know Viaplay will have an input, but its generally accepted in other competitions that it cant happen.

Given this outlook, your negativity surrounding the club generally is surprising. Its not too disimilar than my outlook, which is why, Im usually philisophical with my expectations. Is your negative outlook purely self protection based on previous experience? Honest question.........

Glad to hear he looked sharper. He has the pedigree to be a good player for us if he can get the fitness.

👏👏👏👏👏