I have to say that I think any moaning that would have followed the Hibs game would have been totally justified. 4-1 flattered us that day. Graeme Smith had a number of good stops one on one with some of the Hibs' strikers. We could easily have found ourselves on the wrong end of the same kind of hiding as the Accies' result that was mentioned in this thread.
I know it's long established that I'm not Mark McGhee's biggest fan, but even those who have more faith in him than I do admitted that 1-1 at half time was a steal for us. Sadly, and not for the first time in my opinion, the half time team talk seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect. For whatever reason, the same players who performed so admirably last season are performing poorly this season. This is not a form slump. Even in some matches we have won this season, we have been poor. In my opinion, it may be that some of the players have become complacent due to the nature of our small squad, and McGhee's apparent reluctance to shake things up by (just as examples) bringing in Darren Smith for McGarry or changing to 4-4-2 and playing O'Brien as a winger rather than play David Clarkson out of position. McGhee himself said last season that there were only around 13 players that he had faith in to start without the level of performance dropping. Perhaps the lack of significant development of the squad in the summer means that these 13 players feel overly comfortable in the knowledge that they'll be starting pretty much irrespective of performance. There are 6 or 7 players that we all know if they're fit, they're starting. This is good for continuity when the team is playing well. Unfortunately in our current form, it leads to first teamers not sweating over their place in the team and young players becoming frustrated at the lack of opportunities.
I await with interest the Kilmarnock game, just to see how three defeats on the spin and one goal in five games affects our line up. I'm afraid the answer might be not a lot...
