Ya Bezzer!

I'm sure it's no secret that I'm not Robinson's biggest fan. I think his footballing philosophy is well below the level that should be aimed at a Premiership team. I mean it's to all extents and purposes English non league anti-football. It belongs to a different age and level of football. Absolute basics like ball retention and off the ball movement seem to have been virtually abandoned. However calling for the managers head after two league matches is a bit reactionary especially when our last match last season was the Scottish Cup Final. That said I've always felt that Robinson was a bit lucky to achieve what he did last term. There was the odd excellent performance - notably the Aberdeen match in the League Cup - but they were few and far between - even during our cup runs. We will play Aberdeen 50 or 100 times before they are as bad as they were in that semi final. And wasn't our top goal scorer during the Scottish cup run Own Goal? Our run of form after the League Cup final, where let's remember Robinson dropped our best midfielder and not for the first time, was not only deplorable but absolutely soul sapping to watch. Despite attending 34 matches last season I went literally six months without seeing us win a league game. Now I missed two midweek fixtures that were both won but still I think it says something when a regular attendee has to go from November to April to see a league match won. For most of the second half of the season we were bottom two in terms of form and we became almost entirely dependent for set pieces to score goals. Our goal ratio over a sustained period is now less than a goal a game. Unfortunately Robinson has not addressed long standing problems, doesn't seem to give a damn about youth development, and has shown no inkling of changing this prehistoric tactical approach. So while I think he should be given more time this season I'm not confident at all that he'll use it to his advantage. We desperately need fresh ideas and frankly I don't think Robinson has them but that remains to be seen and I genuinely hope he surprises me. But honestly, I don't think a minor improvement in form, which may happen, is enough. When the club is asking more and more from fans in term of financial support we should at least be able to come to Fir Park and not be subjected to eye rape for months on end. If it's a choice between watching a better style of football and finishing 10th or watching the tripe we've endured most of last season and the beginning of this season and finishing 9th or 8th I know what I'd pick, that's assuming the tripe does better than 10th.... Basically Robinson has to adapt and rebrand his football.

Bigi. But even then I thought he looked lost second half.

I'm not saying sack the manger but if you think its about two league games you are way off. We are talking about 10 months of utter guff. Anyone paying any attention shouldn't be surprised by the start we've made.

The thing is far and away our best performance over that whole period was when the first team was rested for the cup final and other players - including Maguire, Turnbull and Maclean were brought in. Our youth team plays football that's miles ahead of our senior side.

Our last 30 league matches.

First half was almost like a training exercise. We completely dominated but instead of using that possession to create goal chances we used it to get a series of head tennis matches going some of which seemed to go on forever. Honestly, someone needs to take a stopwatch to the matches to see how much time the ball spends on the ground because it can't be long. Accies were as poor a team as you'll ever play at this level and yet we had one real chance in the 45 minutes when Bigi got a header on target. Makes you wonder why the smallest player on the park is the only one that can get a header on target but anyway. Early second half we created a few chances and everything went high, wide and handsome with Curtis Main being the main culprit. As all these chances went begging we looked increasingly panicky and desperate. Delivery into the box was so poor, there was no composure and, you guessed it, balls were pumped into no mans land or straight on to Accies defenders. Then the inevitable happened, all Accies, this desperately poor Accies side, had to do was to get a bit of movement going and our defence was all over the place. In fact although Accies hardly attacked in the match, they had all the clear cut chances and should have actually won about 3-0, I mean, they literally missed an open goal. Anyway, Miller was through on goal was he was taken down and the free kick that lead to the goal was scored. After that we just fell apart. On the odd occasions that Accies got forward they went through us so easily it was scary and at the other end we didn't look like scoring in a month of Sundays. Once again a negative line up, atrocious long ball tactics, a complete lack of composure and a total absence of any footballing skill was served up for a grand total of no goals and no points.

As I can keep telling people, people who possibly only turn up for the cup games, we've been atrocious for ages.

Accies have shown nothing and we have almost completely dominated the match but for all the sound and fury we've had one meaningful attempt on goal. Given the amount of possession we've had I'd expect us to eventually get a goal but there is a distinct lack of creativity and far too many lumped balls. Bigi has been at the centre of most of the good bits.

First of all you don't need £200 million to pass a ball so that's a non argument. It's quite possible to do so on our budget, in fact you only have to go back as far as our last league fixture to see that it is when we had ball playing youth players and a striker who's not a heid-the-ball up front. Secondly the managers preferred style of football has gleaned a whooping 6 wins from the last 26 league matches. Therefore it's open to question whether it's actually successful - especially this term when we have lost some of our stand out players (Moult, Kipre). Also the element of surprise is an important factor in this. Robinson won 6 out of the first 10 matches last season and then 7 wins from the subsequent 28. That's a win ratio drop off of 60% to 25%. Does that tell you? That maybe other teams have us figured out now, know what to expect and can counter it fairly easily?

The Accies team we beat 3-0 will be similar to the one we face at the weekend - ie, it was minus all the better players that Accies have had over the past couple of seasons. The December side still had a core of good players all of which are now gone.

I said last week the luckiest break we will get all season is having Accies in the second week of the season. With Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock all coming up it's essential we win this one and get some points on the board. This seasons Accies are as poor a side as you are ever going to play at this level, since last term they have lost Skondras, Devlin, Gillespie, Crawford, Brophy, Templeton, Lewis Ferguson and others, the core of a decent side, and replaced them with nobody of any note. They scored 1 goal in three league cup matches against Annan, Airdrieonians and Livingston and got pumped off Hearts last week. No excuses, I'm afraid.

Aldred did well last season but I agree that, outwith Aldred's own merits as a player, this is a signing with problems - the defensive balance, bringing Maguire through, an apparent commitment to playing McHugh in midfield, where it leaves Donnelly. For me Robinson is really backing himself into a corner here with his signings. Right now it looks the squad is not versatile enough and we don't have the personnel to play anything other than Robinson's favoured style - the merits and effectiveness of which remain open to question.

Mains has 2 league goals since the end of January, a run of 14 matches. All his appearances were in the starting line up.

Sammon played well alongside Bowman in the league cup. He also has played well when the style was less agricultural. Main on the other hand hasn't played well with anyone this term and his poor form extends back to last season. Right now I'd much rather see Sammon/Johnson than Main/Johnson.

It's a bit depressing to start a season and be making exactly the same points as I was a year ago. The midfield is atrocious and guys lIke Liam Grimshaw need chased. Moult bailed us out last season early in the campaign. When he left we became relegation form cloggers and we were lucky to have the points in the bag from the first round of matches. 4 wins out of 24 league matches was no where near good enough but relegation was unlikely and everyone had cup fever. Well this season we are playing without Moult. Robinson has to change his philosopy and if guys like Frear, Bigi and Johnson don't start featuring in the starting line up then you are guatenteed to get what we've been getting since last October - 1980's style dross. Don't give me all this nonsense that you need a £20 million budget to pass a ball. Teams in League 2 play that way and do it better than we do, as we saw in the League Cup matches. Luckily we have Accies next week. That's the luckiest break we'll get all season so how about using that opportunity to fashion a football team Mr Robinson.

Playing a 4312 or 41212 if you prefer. Thought both teams have been pretty sloppy but Hibs have certainly carried more threat than we do going forward. Perhaps unfortunate to go behind in those circumstances, didn't look like a deliberate hand ball, nevermind a booking, but if you have zero creativity going forward more often than not your going to go behind in matches. Poor defending for the second goal though. Scoreline flatters Hibs cos I don't think they've been great but going forward we have very little outside set pieces and until that is sorted out you are always going to struggle. Next goal will be huge.

Does anyone know how to play sweeper these days? There probably hasn't been any proper sweepers around since the 90s. The holding midfield is the modern incarnation. Anyway with the sweeper system you need full backs that can play comfortably as centre backs, we don't have those, and you need to bring the ball out from the back and build the play from deeper positions, not something a Robinson team is ever likely to do. Also the sweeper has to be technically accomplished and, eh, yeah I think you can see the problem there.

You guys know that Hibs conceded less goals than we did last season, right?

Top four spots are bolted on - Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hibs - and given Hearts hardly ever lose at home they should make it Top 6. That leaves one spot for the rest. I can see St. Mirren and Hamilton being the strugglers. I actually saw Livingston a couple of times last season and think if they can hang on to their best players (Pittman etc) they will do OK next season. Not much between most of the rest but in terms of league form in the second half of the season last term St. Johnstone and Kilmarnock were better than us and I'm a bit worried that none of our summer signings really seem to have significantly improved our first XI over the start of last season. In fact without Moult we are a lesser team than we were at the start of last season. Therefore I'd expect us to be somewhere between 8th and 10th with 2 places either side of that as best/worst scenarios. Cups will be entirely down to draw and performance on the day so it's a bit pointless making any predicts. Top scorer is a coin toss between Main and Sammon, I'll say Sammon based on what I've saw so far this season. Seasons wishes - better standard of football and the introduction of youth talent (Turnbull, Scott, Maguire)

Slim pickings. I might go for Danny Johnson simply for getting the goal that put us ahead in the tie - the single most significant action of the tie. However, don't think anyone was anywhere near the performance levels they need to be.

The whole thing is a little bit bizarre. First of all McHugh is playing in the middle of the three - where you'd expect the captain to be while Hartley is on the periphery. Secondly, especially evident last week at Stranraer when you could hear the players, it was McHugh that was giving all the instructions, egging the team, chastising, encouraging, telling players what to do. It certainly wasn't Hartley. Hartley's not leading by example or behaving like you'd expect a captain to do. So far at least he's essentially been a model for an armband.

We won and are in the next round but barely. Why the Clyde boy didn't shot at 2-1 when he was straight through only he knows. Otherwise an utterly honking performance. We look slow, laboured, devoid of skill, devoid of ideas, devoid of effort. Just didn't look anything like a professional football team. Anyone looking forward to Martin Boyle vs Peter Hartley next week? Should be a hoot!

Can't really argue with any votes that go to Carson and Sammon but for me Cadden was the MotM tonight.

Miles better at centre back. Been our best defender across the three games.

Against Stranraer we were rotten from the start and got a 'little' better in the second, at least in terms of attacking and putting pressure on the opposition goal. Edinburgh the game was won at half time and more often than not when a team scores that many in the first half they often switch off in the 2nd. Tonight, we were 2-0 and fairly comfortable and at this stage in the season I don't see talking the foot off as a big problem. One worry I would have though was defensively, against lower league teams, we've not looked great. Stranraer should have scored at least three against us on Saturday and had other chances besides while tonight QoS started strongly and three decent chances in the opening minutes. Once we took the lead they lost a lot of their puff but although we've only conceded 1 goal in the three games our defensive solidity would be the major concern for me at this point. Need to get the video analysis out and have a look at whats happening and how it can be stopped.