Kmcalpin

Quote from the Official Site "In addition to the fresh faces, Vice-captain Keith Lasley was kept out of the side by Maros Klimpl."

I can't agree. IF, Klimpl proves to be a solution for midfield, and its a big if IMHO, then Keith would be the one to drop out. He (Keith) is an excellent man marker - maybe the best we've seen at FP for many, many years but no more no less. He lacks pace and has never ever been a box to box player. In most games Hughes would be the natural partner for Klimpl given that he's faster and more creative than Keith. You might change that if its a backs to the wall job though. Unless Keith was unfit yesterday, and given MMcG's comments that doesn't seem to be the case, then he was dropped in favour of Klimpl.

Charlie Richmond got this key decision totally and utterly wrong. Adam Rooney committed not 1, not 2 but 3 clear fouls in the lead up. Richmond ignored all 3 but chose to give the last, albeit blatant, one committed by Stephen Craigan.

Good to get a win today especially over a close rival. We played some decent football too, especially in the first half. That said its the first time in months we've been able to (Craigan back, Clarkson up front, O'Brien playing wider tight, more pace in midfield). The big difference today was a pacier, more mobile and wider engine room. We were never going to hold Inverness to a solitary goal and so it turned out. I felt desperately sorry for the lads at the penalty. There were 4 fouls on the trot in the lead up to the penalty and Charlie Richmond, in his infinite wisdom, chose only to give the last one. He saw fit to ignore the first three by Adam Rooney. ICT proved once again proved that we need to add much more physical presence to our squad as they bullied and knoocked us about for 90 minutes.

He had a good first half but faded badly in the second. Granted his crossing was nothing to write home about. However I'd make three points. Firstly he wasn't match fit - how many 90 minutes has he put in so far? Usually he's come on as a sub with 15 minutes to go. Secondly he added much needed width and pace to the team. Thirdly, is this the first time he's been played in his correct position of wide right midfield?

Coach has had a bad year and a large measure of bad luck but maybe hasn't helped his own cause at times. However he's paid the price and its time to move on and look forward to 2009. He can and will play a lot better in his proper position at right back. He was also badly handled by Mark McGhee in the summer. I agree we should restore the captaincy to him. Go on Paul!

Its all very well to say that we should play silky soccer, andI'm desperate for that too, but the hard fact is that we don't have the all the players we require to do it. Up FRONT we could have Murphy, Porter and Clarkson and thats fine in theory. However how many times this term have we played Clarkson or Murphy as out and out strikers? They need service. With the exception of Stephen Hughes who has been poor for whatever reason this season we really have no-one in the engine room to provide width, pace or creativity - exactly the service our front guys need. When we try to play decent soccer on the deck our breaks out of defence are at snail's pace and totally ineffective against rows of organised defenders. In short our current options are very limited indeed.

I don't disagree in principle but the problem is that we don't really have much of an alternative. Our midfield has no box-to-box type or pace or width. Breaks out of defence take place at snail's pace. Maybe a front three of Murphy, Clarkson and Porter with the long ball over the defence to turn them?

Couldn't agree more. In the past 2 games I've feared the worst as soon as the team sheet has been made public. Again, some unfathomable decisions with too many players needlessly out of position. We're also paying dearly for bad decision making in the summer. Certainly, injuries are not helping but many of our problems are long term. Mark McGhee rightly took plaudits last year but now that things are going badly he must take responsiblity. We're plainly on a downward spiral and he seems unable to do anything it. The most worrying thing is that we're now in a dogfight, without the ability to fight.

Again, looking at the team sheet, you have to ask where the ammunition for our strikers is going to come from.

Do we still have 11 players on the pitch? No red cards yet?

Well, with that line up no-one should be surprised if we can't score. No creativity or pace in midfield. Long balls OVER the defence maybe? Hope I'm wrong.

Thanks for being so candid Flow. As you know securing tickets for fans living a good distance away has been a long running problem for me and many other fans. Indeed I've just emailed Leeanne about that. I accept your explanation about the inherent difficulties and am prepared to leave it for the foreseeable future as long as I know the issue is being dealt with. I'm sure however there are ways to get round that and no doubt you'll identify them ie set up a database of fans living more than say 20 miles from the ground. These fans could then get telephone/online access (but not preference) in games where tickets are in short supply). I knowthat telephone calls can be very frustrating - I spent something like 25 minutes last week trying to explain to a colleague an extremely important instruction. Without such interruptions it would have taken perhaps 1 minute.

Exactly Wee Yins. A most peculiar statement from the SPL. Surely its the nature of the problem that is the important issue here and not the number of times games have been postponed recently? Last season, most if not all our cancellations were the result of poor drainage. On this basis, and in theory, games put off due to high winds would also be taken into account. This year its a frozen pitch. Now I could understand it if MFC was deemed to be negligent in some way i.e. there has been a recurring technical problem which the club has ignored or the club has not switched the USH on at all on several occasions. A further investigation may well be warranted but the SPL's published justification doesn't hold water (pardon the pun).

I still have a ticket if anyone wants it. Face value of course.

I have a spare ticket for Saturday if anyone requires it. Now unable to attend. PM me if interested.

Yes, Ms Dempster certainly seems as though she means business and good luck to her. I also will be writing to her about the plight of fans living away from Lanarkshire, as I know others have done. I've sounded off on the Boards out of sheer frustration but now is the time to be constructive. Perhaps she will start to address fans' long running concerns.

I've just PM'd you about a spare ticket Fal. Its yours if you want it.