Ya Bezzer!

Attendances always drop in the run up to Christmas, which is one reason I'd rather have a winter shut down in December than January. You could re-start the season with Boxing day games, but anyway.... Yes, our attendances have gone into steep decline in the last 2 or 3 seasons. Our European and Cup failures, I think got many thinking "what exactly is the point?" Even successful seasons have lost a lot of their appeal due to our complete inability to compete at even modest levels in European football. The achievement of qualifying loses something if you are then pumped out by part timers from Iceland. The Scottish Cup, which is probably the bright spot in any season, when fans dare to dream, has been a complete and utter disaster. I'll bet there are supporters who saw the Albion Rovers match and haven't been back since. In times past we've had a hardcore support of about 4,000 and that's remained the case for pretty much the whole time I've been coming to Fir Park, ie, the mid 80's. But now we are only attracting about 3,000 and that is quite a big drop from an already small support. How do we get fans back? I don't know. Despite all the media coverage, I think football in general is not as popular as it once was. Young people in particular have other interests and just don't seem to bother with it. We had five young lads just start in my work and only one of them follows football. In my day, every boy had a team almost without exception. So I think that in general football is, maybe not a dying industry, but certainly one who's virtual monopoly has been smashed. This is inevitable going to impact small to medium sized clubs ability to maintain supporter bases. As well as reasons particular to our club and more general reasons, I also think Scottish football has to an extent cut its own throat, with endless negative press and media moaning. The general impression of Scottish football is one of a poor product in continual crisis. Actually it's not as bad as 'we' make it out. Look at England, they have not let the falling standard there interrupt the hyperbole.

One thing that's bothered me recently, and this concerns both McGhee and Baraclough, is why we keep switching the wingers. Ainsworth is a right winger and Johnson is a left winger and when you have them switch sides they are both a lot less effective. If you are going to bring on Ainsworth, as we did yesterday, it's pretty pointless in my opinion to have him standing out on the left, half the time.

How about I disagree. Hammell's return, like last season, has been a huge benefit to the team. And for me the two best players on the park yesterday were Moult and Lasley.

First half was probably our best performance since the play off matches. 2-0 going on 4, 5, 6. Really the game would have been done and dusted without a couple of great saves and missed chances. Second half we looked a bit more tentative, like a team needing a win with a 2-0 lead to defend. We did still create chances but let Dundee come out towards more. When Dundee scored it looked like the old story of spurned chances but actually after a wee sticky spell immediately after, I thought we ran out comfortable winners. Looking through the team it was hard to pick out a failure, changed days from a couple of months ago.

Is that the same Roy McBain that was at Inverness? Must be some age!

Lot being made of Dundee's lack of recent wins but they haven't lost many either, 3 in 10 and two of those were against the top two Celtic and Aberdeen, so that doesn't suggest they are going to be easy prey. Not seen Dundee this season but looking at their team it seems to be a bit of a mix. I like the goalkeeper, full backs and forwards but I don't think they are the best down the middle of the park and that's where we are going to have to dominate. I agree to an extent with Capt Oats about not messing around with the team and formation after the last performance but maybe we could also do with a more physical striker (Wes Fletcher?) because I think they can be gottten at in the centre back positions. I've got a cold coming on so I'm putting my health on the line and probably an absolutely horrendous week at work next week by attending in this freezing weather so we better win!

Don't think that is a fair assessment or comparison. Luke Watt hasn't played any games this season, while Dom Thomas has come on and made a difference in matches. Not every match, but certainly some and showed that he has at least a level of potential that can be developed.

Any suggestion of the game being off? It has been raining non stop for about three weeks!

I think we have failed attrociously in developing youth players over the last 5 or 6 years but other Premiership clubs haven't done much better. This season there are only 10 U21 players who have come through their clubs youth system and managed more than 5 starts in the league this season and 7 of them come from 3 clubs (and 3 of them from Kilmarnock). Half the clubs in the league don't have a single player that falls into that category - Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Motherwell, Ross County and St. Johnstone. Meanwhile almost 50% (47%) of all the players in the league are non Scots. That level of player development is absolutely pathetic across the board and something really needs to be done. For the record the 10 players are Callum Paterson (Hearts) 21 Liam Polworth (Inverness) 21 Craig Slater (Kilmarnock) 21 Scott Fraser (Dundee Utd) 20 Sam Nicholson (Hearts) 20 Liam Lindsay (Partick) 20 John Souttar (Dundee Utd) 19 Greg Docherty (Hamilton) 19 Mark O'Hara (Kilmarnock) 19 Greg Kiltie (Kilmarnock) 18

Looked at the weather forecast last night and knew there was no chance of the game being on. You can't play football in 40mph winds, never mind the rain, it would be a farce. Everyone can support Kilmarnock this afternoon!

If we were to beat Partick and Kilmarnock beat Dundee Utd (at Rugby Park) we would jump above both Partick and probably Inverness (away to Hearts) and put 10 points between us and Utd. On the other hand if we lost, Dundee Utd would only be 4 points behind and the bottom of the league really starts to tighten up.

I'd read more into the fact that Partick Thistle have only lost 1 match in their last 7 in the league (4-2-1). Our record is exactly the opposite (1-2-4). Our away record at Firhill is also particularly bad over recent times. If I wasn't partisan I'd be thinking about sticking this down as a home win on the coupon. However our performance on Saturday should offer some encouragement and a win, dear we dream such a thing, would take us above Thistle.

I swithered about giving it to Johnson as he came off relatively early in the match but I'm going to give him the nod.

Anyone as long as its not a Premiership team. OK, maybe not Morton!

Lasley was excellent yesterday, but obviously not 100% match fit and tired. Hammell is on a completely different level from Chalmers. The guys that constantly chirp on about both of them are in for a big shock when they aren't there anymore because as we've already seen with Baraclough's signings, the quality of player we can afford now, or even bring through the youths, is nowhere near the standard of 10 or 15 years ago. Imagine Lasley wasn't there and someone like Taylor was playing ever week, that's the not to distant future. We aren't in great shape now but I really fear for us when these guys hang up their boots. I thought the midfield worked very well yesterday. Grimshaw isn't really a great player but he'll put a foot in and that gives us a bit more grit. Johnson had a rare good match and Pearson worked well playing further forward in the diamond formation, although again he tired towards the end but remember it was very heavy conditions yesterday and the Hearts team is pretty young, very physical and probably have more in their legs than we do, so you'd kind of expect them to rally towards the end. Even psychologically with Hearts being in good form and us not so much, the tendency would be for us to fall back and defend a result.

I thought that was a red card challenge at the game. We'll see what the TV pictures show.

Playing Pearson in a diamond formation worked quite well, until the second half when he was clearly blowing out his arse.

An enjoyable match and a decent performance from us although we ran out of steam towards the end and Hearts had become the dominant side. Create a lot of chances and might have scored more. Though the keeper was suspect for both Hearts goals, very slow to come off his line for the first, not exactly convincing on crosses either. Hopefully something is done about Delgado. Disgraceful cheating towards the end of the match there.

Minging' day and feeling pretty pessimistic about our chances. I'll be there though and maybe I'll be surprised. Maybe.

Celtic match aside our last four home attendances have been v Kilmarnock 4,136 v Ross County 3,545 v Partick 3,963 v Inverness 3,659 Hearts will probably bring a decent crowd on Saturday but with poor form, winter weather and Christmas shopping and bills coming up you can't see much money coming in from the turnstiles in the immediate future. We've never been a well supported team but even recently we used to be a 4,500 - 5,000 team, these days we are 3,500 - 4,000, basically we've lost 20% of our fan base. Our recent European 'adventures', and those of other clubs, have shown that Scottish clubs can't really compete at European level any more and therefore the appeal of challenging for a European spot has been ruined when most fans know what it really amounts to is a £30 home ticket defeat to third rate opponents. No one can win the league except Celtic and the whole league has become a boring procession and as we know at the other end the relegation struggles are pretty dire when they consist of heavy defeats in dark, soulless stadiums in the freezing cold. Is it any wonder fans are drifting away? Even cup football which might just be the last remaining bright spot has only seen fans completely alienated by some of the worst performances and defeats to lower league clubs you are ever likely to see. The thing that really worries me is that most of our problems are outside our own control.

If we had 11 players with the attitude of Dougie Imrie we wouldn't be where we are. Maybe it's why Accies have consistently been better than us over the last couple of years as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again Hamilton have recruited better players than we have with a quarter of the money. Fair play to them.

I don't know if McGhee will get us out of this but I'm prepared to support him until such time as I can make a reasonable judgment. 31 defeats in 53 league matches since the beginning of season 2014/15. McGhee is responsible for 3 of those to give it some perspective.

Kilmarnock, Dundee, Inverness, Partick and Ross County all picking up at least a point this afternoon, basically all the teams we should be competing with minus Dundee Utd.

Well Robinson came on so.....

Goes back further than that.