MelvinBragg

If this isn't a night to give Miller and Ferrie minutes, when will be..?

I did just see that and laugh. Took a penalty to be fair though..

Ross County on Saturday looked like a team that could play for days without scoring...

Where are Goss and Cornelius off to?

That I did not know. Cheers. Then Arfield to Hearts makes sense. Although as Dave pointed out in another post, it has that feeling of a signing Dundee would blow a large chunk of their budget on...

The obvious clubs would be Hearts, but they already have Snodgrass, or Dundee United if they stay up, but they already have an unsustainable wage bill. Hibs? Maybe.. Aberdeen, I suspect are going younger. Would I sign him? Not sure. Spittal has been doing well as the most advanced of our midfield three so Arfield might seem like an expensive luxury. But I don't think he'll be outwith our price range...

Like it or not, our Premier League status is precarious at the start of every season. Therefore our main attacking threat should always have a reasonably large price tag...

I find it hard to see Van Veen ending up at another Scottish club. If the rumours are true that we turned down around £700k for him not long ago, you have to figure that's the kind of figure we're looking for in the summer. Who in Scotland can pay that? Neither Rangers nor Celtic will be interested. Hearts? May have the money after European football and may have the need if the rumours are true that they're ready to cash in on Shankland? But if you're Hearts and you're going to be spending that kind of money, I highly doubt it'll be on a 32 year old with little chance of recouping any of it. Aberdeen? Aye, very good. Similar story to Hearts other than the fact that I'm not sure they have the cash...

And even that wasn't as good as the first time back heel pass into Spittal's path. That was ridiculous...

Butcher is contracted for another season...

Don't be tempting fate now...

I do wonder about this. It feels to me like we've had quality attackers more often than the other clubs of a similar size like Killie or St Mirren. Our list is impressive McDonald Higdon McFadden Sutton Moult Murphy Van Veen McCormack Porter and there are others I've probably forgotten (Jutkiewicz and Blackman suddenly pop into my head) over the last 20 years. So we've seldom in that period gone without at least one good attacking player...

He's not in the matchday squad because he's rubbish. Do the club need to announce this every week? He probably wants to leave, we want him to leave, he's under contract, the transfer window is closed. The 'silence from the club' is because there's nothing to say...

Every single one of those clubs has had relegations in the time since we beat Rangers in the league. So I'm tempted to say that I'll settle for beating the other nine teams more consistently as it's worked out for us in the long run... And we did beat them in the two games that really mattered...

You wonder if Livingston benefited from being used to playing on that type of surface. Although I do know there is a variance in how those pitches play...

Booooooooooooo! RESIGN KETTLEWELL!!!

So you'll drop Spittal, one of our best performers in the last two matches (I'd argue over 180 minutes, he's been the best)? I like McKinstry and I was puzzled when Hammell was refusing to start him in a 433. But to suggest starting him ahead of Spittal right now is a headscratcher...

I disagree. We won at St Mirren first day but didn't play well at all. We then showed our glass jaw against St Johnstone. Then followed Pitoddrie, one of two good wins under Hammell. We huffed and puffed to a win against Livi before again showing weakness against Killie. We didn't look good under Hammell initially. He got two good wins, at Pitoddrie and Dingwall. Whether Kettlewell is the answer, I don't know. But can people stop making out that Hammell was getting a tune out of us due to some new manager bounce...

If he's already shouting and organising then he doesn't need that wee bit of cloth round his bicep. A more interesting question regards Butcher is what we do once we have more centre halfs fit. He was signed to be a midfield shield for the defence but he looks at home in the back three. So do we keep him there or play him in midfield..?

I think that's just a modern football thing rather than an indication of instability at a club. Before Alex Miller in 1983, St Mirren had 8 managers, including him they've since had 18 or 19. I'm guessing a few other clubs would be similar...

Kettlewell wouldn't be my first pick. But if it comes down to him or Holloway (if McCann decides it's not for him), it has to be him. Holloway has disaster written all over it... If we're down to that, I tend to agree with Dave. Have another look at the list of candidates. At least avoid the impression (right or wrong) that whoever has got the job has got it simply because every other person on the shortlist dropped out...

Assuming Spittal played under Kettlewell at Ross County. So you'd hope he might know how best to use him...

I don't disagree that he didn't chase any balls down or win a header. On the first issue, not really his strength, no point having a slow striker pressing. On the second, Obika is 6ft tall. Gallagher is 6ft5 (I think) and Taylor is 6ft2. As soon as we starting playing the ball to his chest, he was holding them off and laying it off to Johnston, the midfield and Van Veen. Was he fantastic? No, but he wasn't dreadful either...

I'm sorry, big man, but you are having a laugh. I was really unimpressed to see Obika in the lineup, for me he's offered nothing any time he's played so far but tonight I thought he and Van Veen linked well (particularly in the second half).I think the key is to give him the ball to his chest. Number of times he took it and held off a defender before giving it to a Motherwell player... And as for Spittal? He set up the first goal and had another couple of good balls cut out by defenders. Did he misplace a pass or two? Aye, find me a player who didn't... I know we all see the game differently but come on...

Probably best ignore rumours in the papers. How often have they got it right in the past..? How many people lost money to the bookies when Baraclough was appointed..?