CoF

"been told Ian was a deciding factor" , "finances have been increased significantly in player budget" ,and "touch wood 2 more to follow". Go to the top of the class Leanne as our best informed poster.

I reckon Collum actually saved us the point as I don't think we would have found that second half fight with 11 men on the pitch.

Countless times Law had his head up looking to pass with absolutely no-one anywhere near him and no-one looking for the ball. Not his fault if he has to go back.

Do you know something we don't?

My mistake. Point still stands.

Sounds like today we at least looked we resembled football team and started creating routes to goal, something that has been completely lacking in almost every game this season. Another defeat but could the positives build into something new? Particularly if we bring a few in and get some back from injury. Kind of takes me back to my first thoughts on this thread. It's impossible to predict. I'm sure every single person on here has followed a least one full season of football (duh). Surely you have seen enough to know that nothing is certain? Ross County have won 1 game in 10. St Mirren 2 in 15. They are as shite as us. The difference is we do have the backbone of a team that finished 2nd. There's is something deeply wrong with the psychological state of our team just now and it's taken us to where we are just now, but despite popular belief those players haven't become shite in the space of 6 months. Far too many are reactive on here and say things with a certainty that is baffling to me. The outrage over Faddy and Clarkson is the perfect example. Where are they now? Faddy out injured again and Clarkson 0 goals in 8. WIll Clarkson hit a run of form again? Who the fuck knows. Can things be turned around here? Absolutely. Will they? I don't know. But we're certainly not a stick on for relegation.

Have they? They seem as shite/inconsistent as always. Regardless of that, surely you have followed football long enough to know that teams go through good and bad spells?

Aye. And in this parallel footballing universe St Mirren have clearly turned the corner by taking 4 from the last 6 points, despite losing 9 of the 10 previous games and both our relegation rivals are clearly on course to scud us in every head to head, despite only gaining a grand total of 1 point between the two of them in the 4 games so far.

Honestly, it's not.

I'm not going to post in this thread because I really really don't care. Paradox.

I fucking love Anier. Despite playing injured for most of his time with us he displayed great strength, pace, composure, work rate and a real eye for goal. He won't miss many sitters. Even at that, I don't think we ever saw him at 100%. Great signing for united. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZTgnwVr_E

That's something of a myth about last season. Celtic and Dundee United had us in the bag - we only took one point off each last season however we took 7 out of 12 from Aberdeen, 9 from 12 v Inverness and 6 from 12 v St Johnstone. It's an incredibly competitive league and last year we simply knew how to win games. We took plenty from the top 6.

Can't see Baraclough bringing many in to be honest - possibly a loan or two to cover injuries. Firstly I'd be amazed if we have money to cove new wages, particularly given our cup exits and predicted low league finish, and secondly I think he'll be quite happy with the quality of individuals available to him - he said as much after his first week of training and as I've said before this is more or less the same group that pulled in 70 points last season. What he'll be focussing on is getting that spark that gets the most out of the players. Tough with such a small squad and limited competition for places but hopefully his faith in younger players pays off.

Bollocks. Inexperienced? Aye. Thick as fuck? No. He's played less than 90 minutes in the last 4 games and found himself with 3 great chances to score and a handful of half chances. Nerves and confidence are everything here. A thick as fuck player simply doesn't get into the positions that he does.

To be fair, unlike some naive managers who have come into the game and said similar, I didn't take it as true statement of intent. More just him emphasizing his positive nature. I always thought Mccall tried hard to manage expectations, which was fine with me but I understood when folk got a pissed off with it and took it as a lack of ambition. Looks like Baraclough certainly won't be one to talk the team down.

Yep. Also his comments about the value of keeping possession will hopefully put an end to us inviting the opposition to play 'have the ball and try to score', which we insist on doing for the last 20 minutes of every game.

Barraclough out.

The loan is to the club, not to the society.

Am I getting this right, he's loaned the money to the club to fend off the need for finding a buyer, and this will give the society time to find the funds to eventually own the club?

Surely getting the signature on paper is the most important part?

Quite a few on here with a 'short term gain for long term pain' attitude (which is what a rushed appointment would be). I'm glad the club have seen the bigger picture and taken time with this. We've got a history of very shrewd appointments and it would be a mistake to allow a couple of up and coming games to influence this process, especially when we've still got 60 odd points to play for. Honestly wouldn't bother me if it was another week before this was announced. Then again, I've got more confidence than some people in Black's ability to pick up results over the next two weekends.

If you are so convinced the players are shit then why are you slating Black? He didn't sign them, he only coaches them. You can't polish a shit. Don't let the fact it's the same squad that finished 2nd last year cloud your judgement either.

Weird game. We were fairly rotten and Celtic were pretty good yet through good goalkeeping, luck, shite finishing and some decent defending, we kept it to 1-0 and never looked completely out of it. Most notable negatives were how poor our passing was for the full 90 minutes, particularly from guys who usually have that as a strength such as Ojamaa and Vigurs. Also, our movement off the ball when in possession is absolutely terrible. It's been like that this entire season. So many times players were made to look shite because no-one around them was looking for the ball. One plus was that we did keep fighting. I've been critical of Ojamaa and Vigurs but they did cover some amount of ground when Celtic were in possession. I'm all for giving off-form strikers a run of games to find the goal that ends the drought, but Erwin looked excellent and really needs a run of starts ahead of Sutton now.

Why?

Absolutely. I remember we were all outraged when faddy wasn't offered a new contract in the summer, and I too can't fathom why he didn't dip into the infinite pot of gold to sign Clarkson as well as Ojamaa.