mfc88

Went for koutroumbis - decent showing on his first start and didn't appear to tire like I thought he might given the lack of game time. And is it just me or was the formation more of a 343 as opposed to 352?

Would love that appointment for nostalgic reasons, but don't know much about his credentials tbh. Assistant at man utd for a few years so must have a bit about him. I know I'm the same, have always dreaded relegation but today is the first time I've thought fuck it, playing in the championship can't be any worse than this. Whoever the new manager is needs to be able to give the fans a lift as much as the players.

Game - absolutely woeful. Can't be bothered saying any more. Manager rumours - Michael O'Neill sitting in the stand. But is he not still NI manager? Probably a red herring if so.

Didn't hear it either, but I don't think Tam Cowan touting lennon will have any influence on the boards decision.... or if it does we have much bigger problems 😬 Edit: and by that I don't mean the next manager in charge!!

Yeah for sure... season 18/19 for example, we would have had campbell, turnbull, hastie and cadden all in the starting line up. I'm sure there's other examples of that as well, and I could be missing one or two players in that list. I was just trying to plot out what year they established themselves. Not looked into it any more than above, but as I said it feels like on aveage 1 academy graduate per season establishing themselves as a first teamer, which seems decent IMO.

If you look back over the last 20 years or so, we have probably averaged 1 academy player per season becoming a regular in the first team. Off the top of my head from the last 10 seasons (timings may be slightly off, possibly forgetting one or two also). 24/25 Wilson 23/24 Miller 22/23 Johnson 21/22 Cornelius 20/21 Maguire 19/20 Scott 18/19 Turnbull, Hastie 17/18 Campbell 16/17 Cadden 15/16 Hall I don't know how that compares to other SPL clubs but can't imagine any will be doing much better.

There's also the question of what have the club or WS done/ are doing about it? Other than taking one man's word for it and villainizing the fans, the vast majority who are innocent. He did get a few pelters at FT on sat. I didn't hear anything that I would have described as "personal", but I left pretty sharp. Perhaps it got worse, or perhaps that's enough for him which is fine, it's all subjective. Just feel the club could have been be a bit smarter here, take the sting out of it. We don't have a huge fanbase and pissing off what we have isn't a good idea.

Absolutely spot on. Well put.

Kettlewell was what we needed 2 years ago. He dug us out a hole then, and he can certainly take credit for good things in those 2 years. Unfortunatley, we've never really kicked on from his first half season, and his footballing philosophy for the club is no longer working. Good luck for the future Stuart.

Offended is a strong word, but it did annoy me. I'm assuming it was aimed at the fans... because if it wasn't, surely he would have clarified that? No fan expects SK to take their advice, because that would be mental. But when you have paying customers saying they're not happy about the product, you can't dismiss that. Can you imagine you bought a new iPhone and it was faulty, complained to apple and they replied with "well you've never made a phone before so....". No one would be having it. Something needs addressed and it's his job to figure it out. I hope he does but so far he's not, nor shown any signs at an attempt to. First half yesterday was an improvement from last week (not difficult tbf) but 1 up at half time and we reverted to type. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that saw an equaliser coming.

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.