joewarkfanclub

No failures this week. Back 3 all solid with Mugabi outstanding. Slattery had a good claim for MOTM but when you get an assist and a goal on your debut, its hard to argue with the impact Biereth made from the bench.

Thought it was a poor first half today with both teams cancelling each other out. Defensively I thought we were pretty solid and we had the only real chance of the half with Big Casey unlucky to see his header come off the woodwork. Second half I though we were much better. With Slattery and Spittal orchestrating things. Big Wilkinson was much more involved after a pretty anonymous first half and probably just about deserved to stay on instead of Bair who put himself about without really being productive. The game undoubtedly swung in our favour with the introduction of Biereth. As debuts go, it was pretty impressive. Pace, power, touch and he can finish. Cant wait to see what he can do when fully fit! The penalty is unlucky. Not much Casey can do about it, but it has to be given. Thankfully it only spoiled Liam Kellys night. Thoroughly deserved 3 points and you feel there is so much more to come from this team, once everyone is fit and get to know one another properly. I think its safe to say SK might just know what he is doing.......

Cant argue with any of that tbf. And I will give you Theo Bair. Even I was looking at a that one and thinking "2 year deal?" He may end up still being shite over the longer term, but his performance last week was enough to remind me that I should just wait until Ive seen the player myself before I think I know better than the manager. He clearly thinks he see's something in the guy and on the evidence of last week, he might not be wrong.

Theres a difference between speculating and deciding its all doom and gloom. You used to he one of the more balanced posters on here but this season, for some reason, you have decided that Kettlewell has signed sub standard players and we look to be in trouble. Thats fine and its your perogative. I just find it strange as you are normally the one telling everyone to cool their jets and give the manager time. You could well be right in respect of this seasons signings, and I will put my hands up as being the happiest of clappers, but forgive me if I wait until September to decide if Bair, Wilkinson, Souare et al are any good or not. More than happy to offer opinion and debate their progress though, just so we have something to talk about. 😉

SOD is definitely a good guy. Really want him to kick on this season and show why he was considered Scotland class.......

Mebbes aye. Mebbes naw. Mebbes we should wait and see?

Aye Ketts didnt miss him either...... Good lad, we wanted to keep him, but he told us he wanted to play abroad...... Is Dundee abroad? 😆

No. Because that sends out the message that we are happy with what we have and that would send some of our fans apoplectic. He needs to let the fans know that he understands that the squad still isnt complete and would still like to add one or two. But he also needs to temper expectations and ensure fans understand its not easy or straightforward. #kettlespeak

I think Efford and possibly Lamie will be out the door. Maybe McGinley although we would be very light at lwb unless there is a replacement already lined up.

Yup. Didnt mince his words there. You dont even need to decipher "Kettlespeak" to understand he isnt happy with him. I like Efford. He has pace and that takes you a long way in this league, but if his attitude isnt right he needs to be moved on. Re Bevis. Comes across as a great guy, with exactly the right attitude. The QoS game aside, where he was paired up with Lamie, I dont think he has done to much wrong this season. I presume given he was doing the presser, he is keeping his place this week. Hopefully he can have another solid performance and build his confidence. He has the physicality to he successful if he can just keep it simple and eradicate the mistakes.

Thanks for that. Been a wee while since I watched it. Absolutely fantastic piece of television.

I think McGinley and Wilson look to be the back ups. Of course McGinley could always be moved on which would free up space to bring in someone else and it would follow the pattern of how SK has gone about his business this season, but I wouldnt hold my breath on that one. Soare will be fine. He looks decent on the ball. Just needs to get his fitness up having missed pre-season. He looks to be getting there and the 70 mins on Saturday wont have done him any harm.

Trying really hard not to bite, but its really difficult sometimes. Soare got subbed because he had just committed a professional foul and got yellow carded. Given his lack of pre-season there was every chance he was getting subbed at some point anyway. It saved him a potential 2nd booking and stopped him picking up an unecessary injury. As for him being a bombscare and not getting a pass from his team mates, you must have been at a different game from me. Theres no way he doesnt start against Hibs unless he is injured.

Different test altogether this week. Wouldnt be surprised to see Blaney making a re-appearance in the back line as he appears to be more mobile than Casey, and Soare will need some help dealing with Boyle. Be interesting to see if thats a straight swap or a shuffle across. Also wouldnt be surprised to see Davor coming in to bolster the midfield. Up front will pretty much depend on who is fit. Certainly some big decisions for SK to make selection wise. Hopefully a decent crowd and another positive result.

Was going to like this, but Ive run out for the day! Why does it do that? 😆 I think Caseys attitude buys him a lot of favour. Sure he makes mistakes, but he is an absolute unit and just loves putting his body on the line to defend. Thought Bevis looked a lot more solid yesterday alongside him and McGinn. He did well given how the ball was holding up. Very easy to make a mistake.

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.