fat_tony

I took the "funny" part he was referring to as being the over the top whining and media circus as a result, rather than the fact Cardoso's nose was broken. Inarticulate and clumsy from the captain, but I don't think for a second he's suggesting that it's fun to injure fellow professionals.

Agreed, although he seemed to make the wrong decision almost every time he had the ball. But it's 1) pre-season and 2) he's what, 17? Enough to see a bit of something about him though. Certainly did well in his appearances last season. Like you say, it does feel like we need a bit extra up top.

Aye, very much a pre-season friendly. A couple of really nice first touches from Gorrin and Rose to pull down a high ball, and a few nice passing moves from Bigi and Turnbull, but little else to shout about. I don’t remember us even registering a shot on target...

Agreed. Still one of my favourite Well tops to this day. Just looked a bit horrendous as a full kit.

Did I imagine it, or did they announce him as "Turnball" on Saturday? (As well as not bothering to have photos for Aldred and someone else, who I haven't bothered to remember [emoji23]).

Yeah, GDPR requires "opt-in" consent rather than "opt-out" and a legitimate business reason for keeping contact information. It's not as easy now for companies to email you about something just because you bought something else from them that one time. Although having not seen how this was handled for the ticketing, they may be on top of this already.

Edit: nevermind, SCDave beat me to it. No surprises there really, except perhaps Demi moving on. Not because he was any good, just because Robinson seemed to persist with him.

The nice thing about this season's "rebuild" is that we're talking about enhancements rather than wholesale changes. Testament to the job Robinson did last summer. This summer is an altogether different challenge, but not one to be underestimated. However we've got a really solid foundation on which to build.

Despite the assists, I didn't actually think that Tait was quite up to his usual standard today. A few stray passes and not quite as assured as normal in possession. If anything though I'd say it's a compliment to how consistently good he's been this season that he can have a bit of an off day and still contribute three assists.

I'm totally expecting the three in the middle to be McHugh, Campbell, and Grimshaw.

Could be a number of options as most did well today without being outstanding. Delighted to see how much big Cedric’s goal meant to the rest of the team and all the fans. Overall though I went for Grimshaw. Much like the semi final he was pressing hard, chasing everything and added a little quality to boot. Campbell was similar in the second half but I thought was unusually off the pace for a lot of the first half. McGowan’s a decent player but what a wee arsehole he is.

See, not for me. I agree that the football is often very short on quality, but the character and commitment on show from the team more than makes up for it for me. We replaced something like 17 players this season (someone can no doubt provide the exact figure), and given the lack of foresight from his predecessor, Robinson’s first full season was always going to be one of transition, and building a core from which to build a team. He’s done incredibly well to lower the average age of the squad, secure key players on longer term deals, and add some quality. Next season we need to see forward progress, no doubt. But to make lasting progress there needs to be a solid base. If a transitional season brings us narrowly missing out on top six, a cup final, and chance at another, I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next season brings, when the manager has more of a chance to build on his foundations.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a MOTM vote on here where all the votes have gone to the same player. I’m not about to break the trend either, Main was immense today. The boy’s an absolute unit, and is showing that he’s not short on technical ability either. Superb.

I've not seen it mentioned anywhere, but I thought Cadden had his best half in quite a while in the first half on Sunday. Playing in a more advanced role it meant he wasn't receiving the ball with 60 yards to run, and I thought he looked really lively. Obviously not a direct replacement for Tanner, but I'd be happy to see him continue in there with Frear/Tait at WB.

Campbell for me. Totally bossed the middle of the park and showed Scott Brown how to play that role without being an utter shambles of a human being. Closely followed by Main, Carson, and Tait. Possibly would have gone for Tait were it not for his fairly shaky first 45. His second half performance was absolutely superb though. That last-ditch block where he came out of nowhere was incredible, and I thoroughly enjoyed him shoving Brown out the way while jogging back as well.

That's a real loss. Not sure how we adjust to cope for that as he doesn't really have a natural replacement I don't think. Bigi? Maybe drop Ciftci back and go for it with Main and Bowman up top? Seems far too attacking for Robinson and I don't see Ciftci matching Tanner's workrate. That's a tough one alright.

No idea, although Brown's page on transfermarkt (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/craig-brown/stationen/trainer/614/plus/1) shows 42 games, while Wikipedia had him at 45, so I'm not sure their stats are any better or worse than the club's. Regardless of whether it's above or below Brown, the point is that he's made us much more solid while rebuilding a whole team at the same time, which is no mean feat.

Just saw this tweet from the club marking Robinson's first 50 games in charge: Given the fact that we were debating whether he should be binned a few weeks ago, and some are still not keen, I hadn't realised how impressive the stats were. However you look at it, that's a superb record so far.

2013/14 under McCall was the epitome of that expression. I don't think we put in any great performances all season but just seemed to keep getting results. That smash and grab at Pittodrie summed it up perfectly. Still, the only stat from today that mattered was the result. Makes up a bit for losing last week while playing a lot better. Football's a funny old game.

Big Charles Dunne for me. He was excellent defensively and did play some nice passes going forward. I really feel for the big fella though as I lost count of the number of times he came forward with the ball today, pleading for a team mate to show for a pass and ended up having to launch it long. Yes, his distribution has been poor at times, but we really need to give players more options ahead of them when we play out of defence. On the occasions that Frear did run in behind, we got a lot of good balls across the box. Also thought Main was excellent, especially his chasing of lost causes that won the ball in the penalty area a couple of times. A mention for Andy Rose as well. Taking him off was the wrong decision as at that point he was thoroughly involved in driving us forward and starting attack after attack. I was rather disappointed in Bigi's cameo.

Frear, like Cadden I think, suffers when playing 3-5-2. It results in them playing so far back that theyre nullified as an attacking threat. Both are at their best when they can run into space and either drive into the box (Cadden) or swing the ball in from the bye line (Frear). Unfortunately, playing them at wingback means they usually have two men to beat before they can get into a position like that. Playing a flat midfield 4 is also suicidal against most teams in this league, so youre really only left with sacrificing one of your forwards. Main and Ciftci both seem more capable of playing the lone striker role (in different ways), but I genuinely think the only way to properly accommodate Frear or Cadden is to move them up the park, which means sacrificing elsewhere. Look at what a difference it made to Cadden on Saturday being pushed forward and having Tait behind him.

Kipper, hands down. Solid defensively and got forward well, including a couple of incisive passes in the second half.

Totally agree. While he did get caught out a couple of times, he was like a man possessed when we didn't have the ball, and was up for every header and stifling every attack through the middle. Did the donkey work extremely well today.

Not great from either team, no real quality. Kipre has been immense, Campbell has been really good too and McHugh has played really well, defensively at least. Nothing coming off for Tanner at all, and Cadden and Hendrie aren't getting forward enough to have any really impact. Quite a few times Campbell has broken with the ball, begging for a run down the right from Cadden and he's had to check back. Ciftci starting to come into it and Main's working hard but not coming off for him yet. Main was very unlucky with a brilliant chip but the Partick goalie just got to it. Other than that, very little for either keeper to do.

Yeah, the one thing that I find surprising still is that given Robinson's preferred approach of getting the ball wide and getting crosses into the box, we don't seem to have a lot of viable options in wide areas, especially on the left-hand side. Perhaps a symptom of the system we've been playing, in that our wide players are receiving the ball too far back to be as effective in attack, but I'd certainly like to see more of our players attempting to get in behind the full-backs and get the ball across, much like Rose did in the County match that led to the own goal (incidentally by completely crossing over to the opposite side of the pitch from where he was playing). As you say though, we're only starting along the rebuilding path. A long way still to go. It certainly feels like we're generally more solid than last season defensively, which has obviously been the priority. Fingers crossed Robinson is able to build more in the summer and add to our attacking options with a base upon which to build.