fizoxy

Campbell really sets a high bar for himself, and I thought he had a great game. As well as his usual work breaking things up he showed real composure on the ball when he had it. I think the only reason we still have him is his lack of pace.

It really is.

We capitalized on some hearts mistakes to make the game pretty comfortable. Having the pace we have is going to give us the edge in scrappy games like this. Cole and Long both had great chances which the keeper did well to stop, but we really need to be putting those away. Gallagher and Donnelly both had some good long range efforts too. Thought we handled McLean (who always scores against us) and Ikpeazu (big but shite) well, but we relied on hearts poor form on a couple of occasions where they really should have scored. Gillespie made some good stops too. Polworth and Campbell were excellent. Overall we were the better team and it was nice to exorcise that cup debacle. I wonder who will be the first to come for robbo out of hearts and hibs.

Cole for long the only change, O’Hara and Mugabi on bench.

I don’t think there’s anyone in the current lineup that I’d want to be left out, particularly due to our last performance. It will be interesting to see how the competition in midfield plays out as the season goes on. I am surprised by the lukewarm reaction Polworth has got so far, as I think he’s been excellent. Maybe it’s more a case of him being under the radar due to the wingers taking some of the headlines, and maybe that’s a good thing. That would be a shame if Hartley turns out to be injured, after finally forcing his way back in and performing well, but I was thinking more along the lines of Dunne being the player that Robinson alluded to since he was dropped for the last game when he’s hardly been terrible. oh and it’s a weird feeling knowing that we have just peaked in the player name stakes. We are never going to beat Bevis Mugabi.

Could we see Campbell rested for this one? He’s been busy. Other than that slight possibility, I have to assume that we field the same XI as the hibs game.

Tanner has a new job. We must have offered him peanuts.

The cool thing is that we’ll know what deals fell through in three windows time when we finally sign them.

Ellis plummer forced to retire at 25.

He’s an attacking midfielder. He converted to that when he joined Dundee and that’s what we’ve signed him as, as per our statement.

Disappointing we conclude the window with another midfielder, we do like to chase a player though. Apparently a couple of deals fell through. Hopefully the attacking options we have continue to show improvement and this overhead kick guy adds something.

We took a (probably inexpensive) punt at retaining a player who could do a job for us, whilst showing that we are a club that stands by its players. You’re right it is a business, and part of our business is trying to find ways to attract and keep players we might not otherwise get, that involves some creativity and also putting out a good image of the club. It didn’t work out and we lost a couple of months wages, but was a low risk attempt at doing the right thing.

We did the right thing since he got injured on our watch, but by all accounts he may not even have been ready by Christmas, so it probably works out well for both parties for him to seek a contract elsewhere. Also, I doubt the contract we offered him was worth much.

Tanner turned down his contract offer and has left.

Livingstone loan to Morton confirmed, to the end of the season with option to recall in January.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have some cover/competition in midfield, especially since it could be a while before we see Turnbull again (if at all). There’s going to be injuries and suspensions. Right now we have sloth, Maguire and semple as cover, so I’m wondering if management don’t see semple or Maguire as being ready yet.

Sloth and Manzinga both starting for the reserves today.

The twitter rumors have livingstone going out on loan (fair enough) and us losing out to Killie for Hendry (double fair enough). I’d be surprised if we didn’t bring in a striker tomorrow, and possibly a defender. However it seems we’ve had some deals fall through lately, so who knows what happens tomorrow. It’s Labor Day here so I can sit all day refreshing twitter in the comfort of my own home, rather than my desk.

He looked slow and tentative on the ball to me. There was a couple of times he took the sting out of our attack when he received the ball. Like seedorf, he’s showed glimpses, so there’s plenty of opportunity to prove me wrong. It will be interesting to see where we stand on the crop of wingers come the end of this season.

Seedorf was fine, he made a couple of mistakes but works hard enough and took his goal well. It’s good to see him grow in confidence and improve. he’s clearly still learning, and I’m happy to for him to do that if he can keep scoring goals like that. I’m more worried about Hylton who looked woeful despite the nice finish. Scott is on the verge of really breaking out, it’s easy to forget he’s just turned 19. I forgot to mention Polworth, who I thought was solid again, and is becoming a key player for us. Donnelly also improved in his general display, but the hibs midfield was only as strong as the paper they look good on, which may have been a factor. I’d echo the earlier comment that hibs look like a side that’s trying to get their manager sacked, and he’d probably deserve it for selecting Whittaker.

Hibs played some ok stuff without creating any chances, and I’ll put that down to our defense who all played well. Middleton and Allan might as well have not been on the park. I don’t think we had any standout performances good or bad, but Scott is gaining in confidence and is showing up well on the ball. Long’s movement is excellent, but he really should have taken his chances. Hylton came on and looked terrible, but fair play to him on the goal. Campbell is just fun to watch. God knows why that first one wasn’t a pen. It was a nice finish from Donnelly on the one we did get, was wondering when he was going to switch sides.

Problem is that half the time “good source” = on here or twitter.

I’m going to guess we’re hoping for one of the two keepers to bite on the contract offer. As for the outfield players he mentioned, the out of contract players in 2020 (who aren’t new signings) are - Tait, Hartley, Dunne, Donnelly, livingstone, grimshaw and Maguire. I’ll take a guess at Tait, Dunne and Donnelly. I don’t think any of our new guys are in the Kipre scenario of an immediate extension. It’s great so see us act early, which is probably related to the money we got in for the young players we lost.

Stevie May returns to St Johnstone, so that narrows the available striker pool by one.

Long, grant, Johnson, Thomas and Laing. What a cohort!