mfc88

Na no worries at all mate, no need for apologies 👍

It was just a throwaway statement to end my post tbh. I get your point but football management is a volatile career in the public eye, and going to be open to scrutiny. SK knows that. I don't think it's unreasonable to discuss the team or manager constructively from a fans perspective on here, as long as its in the right manner. I note a few posters mentioning overly aggressive words directed at him on social media - I tend not to pay attention to that, but 100% that is not on. For the record, I don't want to come across as disrespectful towards SK, and I've acknowledged the positives of his reign in previous posts.

Has SK done good things with us? Yes. Is SK going to get us relegated anytime soon? Probably not. Is he the man to take the club forward, next season and beyond? Not for me. Our performance in most away games this season and also (the one that hurts the most) the semi final is basically the blueprint of why not for me. Set up to contain/ not lose and surrendering 65+% possession each game, regardless of opponent. Feels we are simply making up the numbers i.e. doing enough but with very little to shout about. Compare the SF this season to the two SFs and even cup final performances in 17/18 - they are world's apart. I think most would agree on the first 2 points. I'd be interested to hear why he is the man to take the club forward? And what can we achieve with SK in charge? Its all good discussion btw ✌️

That's kind of taken out of context - my point is where are we headed? Well we have just played the team rooted to the bottom of the league in front of a massive away support and didn't lay a glove on them. We have no given right to win yesterday, but that was unacceptable and a repeating theme particularly away from home. It doesn't matter where we are now if we're 11th come may. Can't disagree for the most part. For the record, I'm not saying knee jerk sack. Relegation is an unlikely scenario just now, so it would be prudent to wait before any change when better/ more candidates are available. But questions are rightly being asked of the team and manager right now because of our repeated and currently failing approach to games.

Just as well!!

Regarding the first part, surely it's less "whether", more "how long does he get to show it"? That's 2 years at the helm now and he turned around our fortunes when he came in. Kudos for that - absolutely. When SK came in, he made a big thing about going back to basics, doing the basics right, then adding in layers after. What were the layers and when were they supposedly introduced? For me, we have gone backwards in the last 18 months. I don't buy the "but we're sitting 5th" argument. We will be where we will be at the end of the season, and on recent showing it won't be 5th. It worries me if we are accepting of a good start, then failing to build on it but "its okay because we have enough in the bank". That's not the attitude I want from those running my club. I am completely accepting that we will lose games and go on bad runs, but how we rectify that and improve is what will define us season on season. I'm not seeing anything that suggests a collective or sustainable improvement, or even an attempt at that, over the last 18 months - its been treading water in the league while the product on the park goes to sh1t.

Ah, I had it in my head that it was a year extension for some reason.

The conundrum is that SK will probably see us to safety again this year. Reality is we're probably only 7-10 points away from that. And if things go our way, possibly top 6 spot but I doubt it tbh. He's not getting sacked barring a disaster, but between now and the end of the season the board really need to decide what we are as a football club. Are we a club that is happy trudging by each season, picking up enough points in the league and making up the numbers in the cups? Or do we need to be more than that, giving fans something to get excited about? And yes, you can have both. My worry is we limp by to the end of the season and extend SKs deal. I do appreciate the positive aspects of SKs reign, but I just don't see that we're going anywhere under him now - he steadied a sinking ship and has taken us as far as he can, but now its gone stale and fans are dissipating... fast. We preach about being a community club - so give the community a club they believe in. It's getting harder and harder with each passing week at the moment, especially away from home, it's fucking woeful stuff. This is almost a copy & paste of GAs tenure.

Anyone with insider knowledge know about the lennon miller injury? Official website just states that he's seeing a specialist...

That is insanity. In addition, we continually hear "clear and obvious"... the moment you have to start drawing lines when the two players in question are next to each other, is the moment you can conclude its not "clear and obvious".

For me, the frustration around the butland goal comes from the way the game was reffed in general, with clancy leaving pretty much everything else yesterday to var, yet taking the decision there and var having to overturn it. It's not one they were going to overturn whatever the on field decision IMO. Personally I am fed up of var. Players can't play the game in slow motion, a striker cant time a run to millimetres, yet the game is now being judged frame by frame and not in real time. Yesterday we had about 17-18 mins added on time across the two halves, mostly due to var stoppages. It affects the entertainment value spending 10-20% of a football match waiting on officiating. A better way of using it needs to be implemented before people start walking away.

Yeah teams budget is an important point in the big picture. But its not as black and white as that, and had we given a good account of ourselves, I'd accept that point. But we didn't play in a way that made us test rangers as best we could to make them earn that game. That is our failing in my opinion, and we shouldn't use rangers' budget as an excuse for our failings, otherwise we we are beaten before a ball is kicked. I can totally respect a different view of the game, but that is how I see it. As i said, other recent finals/ semis I've seen us lose out on (thinking of the 2 celtic games in 17/18 as the freshest in mind), I have left the stadium with a totally different feeling of disappointment... not with the feeling that we fell short tactically.

Not posted on here in a while but needed a bit of a vent. Overriding feeling is total disappointment and disillusionment. Have seen us play at hampden several times now. Win and nothing else matters. Lose and I've come away with several emotions - annoyed with refs, individual errors, or in the case of the 2018 SC final, just that we lost to a better team. But yesterday was the first time I've come away thinking what is the f**king point. Rangers didn't win that game, we lost it. Say what you like about budgets, this, that the next... valid if rangers play in a way that merits a final spot. Did they?? Continually use these excuses and we are there to make up the numbers, not compete. Can't fault the players for effort, but instructions given to them and the way we set out to compete was pathetic. Out of possession, we stood off and let them have the ball. Rangers are not operating as a good team just now, so we needed to get on top of them. Don't do that, and they still have good individual players who will eventually carve something out given time and space. In possession there was no strategy for ball retention. It was almost always a lump up the park and hope something happens. Bread and butter for souttar and balogun, who dealt with it all day with absolutely nothing else to think about - I don't even remember us winning a header in their half and no one near our strikers to compete for the second ball or shut rangers down when they won it, and it just ended up coming back at us. I wasn't best pleased with our approach first half, but somehow find ourselves 1 up, fans are on their back, they are low in confidence - all boxes ticked so far. Now, a 15 min break for a calm down, reset, recharge and we had 45 mins to simply not let certain individuals play, but it was more of the same and the managers strategy of riding our luck ran out. I do like Kettlewell on the whole, but the way we set out was all wrong and once our luck ran out we needed a change in approach to win that game and it never happened. I can't help thinking had stephen robinson been in charge, the way he sets up to play the OF, we win yesterday. Mentions for kaleta who was excellent and wilson who conducted himself admirably for a young lad playing out of position. Wilson has gone under the radar IMO with the hype around lennon, but hoping he continues to progress and apply himself the way he has been.

It's been reported that we're looking at Connor Smith of hearts. Apologies if already posted here.

Credit where its due and that is Kettlewell digging us out a hole last season. However, we are rapidly spiralling into that hole again. This run must be comparable if not worse than the last 12 games of hammells time in charge. Last season only banks so much credit - there's no point getting us out a mess to find ourselves right back in it the very next season. No clue of the answers but how long does he get? December? January? 5 more games in December ending with bottom placed livi could be a disaster if we don't start racking up points starting this weekend, but right now it's impossible to see where a win is coming from. A rejuvenated st Johnstone followed by a tough St mirren side then rangers, and Aberdeen away. I want him to succeed as much as the next well fan but if we don't win this weekend it's difficult to see any other fate for Kettlewell.

Don't quote me on it but I am sure we went 11 games in the administration season we finished bottom, before going on to thump hearts 6-1 at fir park. Certainly up there though as far as bad runs go but I am weirdly optimistic we'll get a result today.

Might be a good tackle 30 years ago but nowadays you can't fly in like that "win the ball" and in doing so endanger an opponent. Mikas out for 3 months, and not because of an unfortunate landing or otherwise, so there's no argument he wasn't endangered there. Sickener but now we have to deal with it...

The worst thing about the throw in incident for me is that, whatever you think of it being contentious or not, an accident, a mistake, whatever, it was an obviously dubious moment at the time. Easy to see and an easy decision to give before the play continues any further. Had that throw been retaken at the time, no one in the world would have questioned it. Let it go to var and f**k only knows what comes of it. But the point is it didn't need to, it was the easiest decision for collum or linesman to give at the time, why the f**k did they not??

Delighted to be in the top six and what a moment to make it. I would not have left the game happy if we had ended up top 6 by losing but other results going our way, so glad it played out the way it did. Didn't think I'd say this a year ago but lamie is by far our best defender, sad to see him leaving and he has proven to be very professional since signing PCA with Dundee. But it does concern me to watch the third first team regular sign for a rival in 1 season. Can't lie it has been a frustrating half season. The sale of watt for a few quid could have ended up costing us a hell of a lot more. The omission of slattery was baffling, his return is the reason we are where we are now. The repeatedly flat midfield. The dropping of woolery as soon as he hits some form. The defensive errors have been comical. Saving subs till 80+ minutes. I could point to many other frustrations which make it easy to see why so many are calling for the manager to go. Had we not been in this position, I would be too. This buys him some time for me, but mistakes need to be learned from. For his flaws GA does have other good management qualities which kept us up last season and got us into a great position up until the last few months and let's not forget managers can learn and improve too, we need to see this though. How we perform the end of this season and start next will be critical in that sense. We got away with it this season but we can't go a full round of league fixtures picking up 5 points and expect to remain in the league. As it happens we are where we are. Weird that we're there but hey ho, let's see what we can make of it. Hopefully now the pressure of a poor league placing is off we can try a few things, set up and play a bit more freely. 4th is very achievable.

I'd add o'donnell to that list but agree, it's going to be one hell of a rebuild for GA. Not sure what fringe players are out of contract as well, but there's that to think about too.

Contemplating that a point and no injuries would be a result tonight. Dont think I've ever said that before an accies game but we have been rotten every time we've played them this season. 9 of their 27 points have come from us

Would love to see a fully fit dunne of the 17/18 season play for us again. Sadly I don't see that happening after the length of time he's been out. I hope I'm wrong. When did he last play for us out of interest? Must be well over a year - year and a half?

How beautiful is this by the way. Can't help thinking a reversed away version would be awesome too. Hopefully a sponsor wouldn't be overly intrusive if it became a reality. It's funny how looking back to the 90s era, a sponsor was a big feature of the kit, part of the attraction. Whereas now it tends to take away from it. Or maybe that's just nostalgia.

Several options today, but credit where its due, lamie was excellent. He's come in for a lot of criticism but if he can maintain the level of the last couple performances he'll give Alexander the good kind of headache when we've a fully fit back line again.

Absolutely brilliant performance. Would have taken a point before the game if I'm honest, so didn't see that coming. Brilliant from Kelly to keep a clean sheet, he really is a class act.