Kmcalpin

Is anyone surprised at our performance tonight?

We've got a fairly attack minded team but we've got to win the ball first and the team isn't set up to compete or to do that. A midfield 2 is fine if we have possession, but not if the opposition are in ascendancy. Change in formation required.

Killie have a problem tonight. Who to target in Lennon Miller's absence. My money is on Manwhanise.

Every cloud has a silver lining. At least the sub zero temperatures will kill the weeds on the pitch.

Although we have a plethora of midfielders, most are injured, ill, or returning from long term injury so another midfielder will help , even if only to reduce the amount of gametime for those running on empty. No idea what kind of player Andrews is though. Welcome Kai.

Paton? Callachan: training on his own??

Killie don't like 65+ aged fans do they? £22 seems a wee bit steep.

Doubtful I'd think. More likely he's on the way out. We badly need to sign a big targetman, if only on loan.

He's a midfielder, but apart from that I know nothing about him. We're certainly short in that area of the team.

My take exactly. There were several worse tackles that went unpunished. I was shocked when a VAR review was announced.

So St Johnstone will be forced to open up their North Stand, seat by seat. Also noticed their insurance wheeze. They're following Dundee's example. Do we do this to PATG fans? I didn't manage to find out if it also applies to home fans in Perth. Seems this is becoming more common. A nice little earner.

How many does "our" section of their Main Stand hold?

Whilst I get the need to slow things down, I understand the shouts about Ox not releasing the ball early. On a couple of occasions when 10 man Aberdeen were fully committed to attack, we outnumbered them 2 to 1 on the halfway line and quick punt up the park to the likes of the expectant Maswhanise or Vale or indeed almost anywhere would have caused all sorts of problems for them. That's why some fans became animated.

I wonder what stand we'll be allocated at McDiarmid Park for the cup game on the 18th? Hopefully the North Stand. Tickets are meant to go on sale today and I used the link on the official site but this only directed me to the league game scheduled for the 25th, despite being labelled otherwise. Hopefully this is fixed this morning.

I asked around yesterday but no-one seemed to know whay Harry Paton was missing. Someone though did see him outside the ground. Given his "lights on but no one at home" performance against Hearts; his absence yesterday; and management comments about illness, I assumed it was due to a bug. Maybe I'm putting 2 and 2 together to get 6 who knows. Certainly a fit Paton was badly missed yesterday. Long balls worked up to a point but aerial bombardments proved totally fruitless, as we soon sussed before kick off. We lacked energy in the engine room and coped ok as long as we were on the ball; however when Aberdeen chose to attack through the midlde we had little answer and thats one reason why we struggled after the break.

Over the piece, we deserved our win. When the teams took the field, it became clear that we needed to keep the ball on the ground. Each team that visits us seems to be bigger than the last and Aberdeen had 3 lads 6-3 or over. Our line up seemed a bit weird but was no doubt influenced by injury and I suspect illness. We began slowly but after 1 or 2 scares, gradually carved out chances for ourselves and it was a great to see Ewan Wilson score his first goal with a rocket finish. Rubezic rightly saw red. He butted the annoying Watt and probably made contact. If that wasn't enough he feigned to butt him again and then shoved him to the ground. If that isn't a red I don't know what is. MOTM Manwhanise then scored a well taken second. He was a thorn in the Dons' flesh until he was retired. Unbeknown to most of us, Peter Leven and Richard Foster had a slight disagreement in the tunnell at half time and were red carded for their sins. Somewhat predictably, the second half was an anti climax as we sought to see out our lead. At the time I thought it was overly negative but in hindsight, SK likely had an eye on next week's game and told his charges to go easy until full time. Still it was disappointing to see a 10 man team create several chances for themselves, find space around our box and smack the woodwork. Aberdeen look to be a decent side albeit they can handle themselves physically and won't be bullied by anyone. It was encouraging to see the likes of Nicholson, Slattery, Vale and McGinn, but not Koutroumbis, get some game time. Tony Watt worked hard, made a goal but not much came off for him. The gamble of playing with only midfielders worked up to a point. It was ok when we were in possession but not when we were out of it. Halliday had a decent game doing some unglamorous work, but I thought Davor looked a like a wee boy lost. That said he was on a hiding to nothing. He picked up an early yellow card (?) and faced much bigger and heavier opponents. All in all a good result with some good football in short spells, but a few weaknesses as well. I've watched worse games at Fir Park and those who couldn't make it or chose not to, lost out unfortunately.

That was a red card all day long. It occurred right in front of us. At first I thought that Watt had actually been nutted. I've seen several such incidents over the years and the culprit has always been red carded. The culprit's comments to match officials in the aftermath wouldn't have helped his cause either. I suspect though that TW wound him up in some way. You simply can't behave like that and expect to stay on the pitch. Jimmy Teleen's comment afterwards that he didn't see it was nothing short of bizarre as it happened about 2 feet in front of him.

Safe journey back up.

That's correct. That was a red warning, but tomorrow is only yellow. IF game is postponed, what's the bet that we will be ordered to play midweek before the cup game at Perth?

Kai Andrews on loan from Coventry is the latest rumour.

I think we 'll see a few comings and goings but not a major rebuild. Candidates to be shipped out might include: Koutroumbis, Davor, Blaney, Callachan, and Stuparevic and Tavares. There's 6 names and even if only 3 leave either permanently or on loan, it clears some space. We definitely need a permanent defensive midfielder and maybe a loanee creative one. The midfield is far too lightweight as it is. The defence needs strengthened although SK doesn't seem to know how to go about it and I don't see much movement there. We're a wee bit lightweight up front. A big physical target man would be top of my list. In short 3/4 departures and 3/4 coming in?

That said, our defending both before and after the goal was very poor. Our habitual failings were again on show. An inability or unwillingness to prevent crosses; defending far too deeply and generosity in allowing opponents time and space well inside our box. Lennon Miller's presence would have made no difference whatsoever to these weaknesses.

Its all too easy to write today off as a bad day as the office and attribute it to injuries/flu virus whatever. However this is the latest in a long series of stinking results including Hibs and Dundee, and thats not taking into account stinking performances. It might be different if we were playing good football , but we aren't. SK won't be fired now but he won't last indefinitely if this trend continues

Next up Aberdeen, who are looking for some help. Despite that, 3 points are a must for us.

I can live with that to be quite honest as long as it produces results, but it doesn't, and thats the problem. We simply don't have the players to play like that. Its comforting to know thought that had Lennon MIller played we'd still have lost. Today was always going to be hard and I'm relaxed about the result. My big disappointment was in not beating Killie a few weeks ago. This was always going to be a difficult run.