CoF

A few clips of Murphy last night got me wondering - who was the last ex-youth player to appear on Match of the Day? McCulloch?

Yep, I was surprised he wasn't included from the start. Fisher out wide was just a weird one.

Im sure he was involved in the goal and had an 'assist' of sorts for the pass leading to the penalty. He hasnt been doing that every week, but if he does now then it's exactly what we need.

Bryan Owman aka "The Gamechanger"

Frear has been badly missed the last few games. His delivery's are outstanding and even when he's not having his best game he tends to pre-occupy two players because of his pace.

This is absolute quality and deserves a thread of it's own - (sorry can't seem to save pics to put straight on here) https://twitter.com/thewellshop/status/898845202206601216 Made by https://twitter.com/brickstand

Depends what you mean by good. Heard on the radio Killie's service (on the whole) to the strikers was awful. Sounds familiar.

Refereeing is like a performance sport - punishing them for individual mistakes would be a major step backwards and would do little to help them make these split second decisions under already considerable pressure. I'm fairly certain consistent bad performances from the same referee would see them gradually moved down the pecking order however the assumption there is that there is a better referee ready to step up. I doubt that's always the case, so same old keep getting the big games. I genuinely don't think any ref goes out there intending to make poor decisions but the problem is that these guys are the best we've got. This makes me think there's either a problem with the training they get or there is a problem with recruitment. I'm sure the SFA are capable of putting together a pretty robust training scheme so maybe the problem might lie in the fact that no-one wants to be a ref. Can we blame them?

Good post - I'd disagree with this bit though. The numbers folk come up with for our players don't come from watching MFC players in isolation, it comes from seeing other teams shift players (who might only be marginally better) south of the border for hefty sums. We don't seem quite as savvy in that market yet - either that or we're getting the market value but fans tend to see our own boys through claret and amber tinted spectacles.

Doubt it. That's unlikely to be punitive and not necessarily an admission that they got anything wrong. Referees are fairly frequently taken out of the limelight for a couple of weeks while a controversy blows over. That'll be about protecting the refs as much as anything.

Given that we're relying ond folk pausing highlights to check the decision I don't think giving the call that Carson was out of his box is wildly unreasonable. What I don't understand is the straight red. Why was that given?

Even if Carson is out, why is it a straight red?

What a weird game. We certainly weren't great but I didn't think we were as awful as some have made out and I didn't think St Johnstone dominated us in any way. They barely got forward however when they did, they looked dangerous (or rather, we looked unorganised). I thought the biggest miss was Frear. Without him we looked unbalanced and had no real attacking threat down one side, leaving marking Cadd's out the game fairly easy. The pace and intensity of previous games was gone however I wonder if Wednesday's exertions played a part there. On the cards: McHugh's will go down as "excessive force". It was meaty and he won the ball but went through the man. A great tackle a few years ago but not allowed these days. Carson - even if it's outside, I'm fairly certain that's not automatically a straight red unless he was denying St Johnstone a goal which I'm not sure he was. Need to see it again. Dunne's - on the radio it's saying he did clip their man who then took another few steps, stubbed his toe on the pitch and fell over.

Fair point. Still a weird and unbalanced ruling. The assumption that a penalty restores the goalscoring opportunity is flawed as many chances; such as in this case, was much more certain to produce a goal than a penalty kick is.

That's mental. Even if it's Carson who got the touch, focus purely on Dunne - he takes a runner, barges the boy in the back and is nowhere near the ball.

Yep. We're a lot better served than many other premiership clubs.

Cheers. Missed the game and was told it was over 12k. We'll have lost a few due the opposition as well.

What was the attendance? 12k +? Must be the highest for years.

Always thought Robinson had a bit about him. I don't think folk using his time at Oldham as a stick to beat him with fully considered the facts around his time there. Also the Baraclough 'talks a good game' stuff never quite rung true for me. Baraclough talked a great game at first but very quickly sounded like he'd based his entire ethos around a book he once read about positivity in management. Robinson is far more balanced and comes across as a straight talker. Still early days for him but so far he's proved he can plug a leaky defence, made some shrewd signings, got us playing an actual style of football, has shown he can change a game with substitutions and has a team which looks full of fight, character and spirit. Really looking forward to seeing how the next few months pan out.

That makes no sense. If he's so shite that Robinson wants rid then why show the world how shite he is?

Brilliant!

He's not rapid in a foot race, but over 5 yards aye he's quick to the ball.

I've seen enough of him to say he's got pace, strength, fights for everything, good first touch and holds the ball up well (on the whole). It just doesn't always come together at the right time and he tends to have minimal impact on the points that actually turn the games.

Disagree about too many changes. We won and Robinson got the chance to see what half the squad were made of. Better to see those performances against Edinburgh than top flight teams. Now he knows who he is dealing with. Also, fair to play to Robinson. Made the sub who won the game for us.

So in 3 competitive games we've scored 11 goals with 7 scored by players who aren't strikers. Great to see such a spread across the team however I'm starting to get that wee creep of concern that's already been highlighted by a few folk that we'll struggle if / when Moult goes. If the goals keep coming from all over the park then there's no problem, however we all know it won't be that straightforward against better opposition. I do think we've got the potential up front - I'm a big fan of Bowman and think he's got all the attributes to be excellent for us, however players can only sit in the 'got potential' camp for so long. Fisher I thought was a great signing however I've seen very little in the three games that he's featured in to suggest he's carried on his form from the tail end of last season. 2 goals between them in 270 minutes of play against lower league opposition isn't great. If the goals dry up from elsewhere (which they inevitably will for periods), we'll need these guys to be chipping in with more than that.