fat_tony

Dodged a bullet with those 2 hibs rejects I think. As for Billy Mehmet, please god no - he's just a shite Vin Diesel!

Steven Pressley's lovechild?

Where did you hear all that mate? I certainly wouldn't risk anyone for this game. As important as it is, I would hope that even a below-strength team should be able to deal with Locos. No disrespect to them at all but we should beat them.

I think it's just the way McGhee likes us to play. Get everyone back to defend, means we have more people defending than the other team have attacking. We have a bit of pace in the side with O'Brien, Clarky and Klimpl and can break out quickly so I don't really see it as much of an issue. We've long had an issue with set pieces so McGhee's trying to counter that by beefing up the defence against them.

The radio last night reckoned he'd gone off with a groin injury. Hopefully nothing serious but I probably wouldn't risk him against Inverurie, maybe get Sutton in to partner Clarky up front. I'd love Porter to stay but I think we have to be resigned to losing him as he's too good to stay long term! Hopefully we can keep him until the end of the season and his goals can leave us with a decent parting gift. It was only when I saw his stats yesterday that I realised what a huge impact he's had for us. I thought he was a cracking player anyway but his strike rate's something like 28 goals in 58 games!

Klimpl for me as he seemed to be marking every single Hearts player at the same time! Jim O'Brien had a great game as well, seems to be becoming more effective as his match sharpness improves.

I'll hazard a guess at it being number 11 as the ICT match was 10.

It looks like I'm going to have to get the 1826 which gets into Motherwell at 1931 then just horse it up to the station. Can't make it up to Waverley any earlier.

I've got that to look forward to as well. Getting a lift back to Edinburgh after the match though thankfully!

According to sky sports news this morning, Kingston might not be fit. Either way, I'm sure Krippler Klimpl would have a thing or two to say to him

I'm not saying that McGhee won't give any of the younger goalies at the club a chance. If they prove to be first team material then I'm sure they'll get their shot. However, I'm saying that I can understand McGhee's thinking in not signing someone on a full time contract when they may never get a game. There's no point in throwing a loan signing in just for the sake of giving them a game, especially when Smith is performing as well as he has been this season. If anything, I would think that gives the young lads even more chance of breaking through to the first team squad as there's not a recognised second choice goalie on a permanent deal.

Just out of interest, that's not in the Scotsman is it? Obvious unsettling tactics and hopefully Ports will silence them with a couple of goals tomorrow night!

I'd be absolutely delighted if we signed Don Cowie. Talented midfielder with an eye for goal and really stands out at Inverness. Good to see us getting a goalie in for cover and I'd agree with the comments made earlier that it looks like we'll only ever have one permanent keeper. It makes sense I guess though, it's cheaper to get someone on loan than have a full-timer on the books who never plays. Speaking of which, depending what happens with cover in other positions (defense, midfield) I'll echo what's been said earlier that it could be time for Malcolm to go. Definitely one of the top earners, he's just not meeting the required standard and we can't really afford to be keeping him on the bench. How long a contract did he get, was it a year?

Our defence has been boosted by the return of Craigan and the big plus is that Hearts only have big Nade up front and he ain't a footballer. We'll have to watch their midfield though and it might be tough to create something, especially considering we haven't been taking our chances lately. However, we're due a rub of the green after the amount of penalty shouts we've had turned down etc and I think the team are definitely pulling in the right direction. Tough one to call really, think I'll go for a 0-0 draw.

From where I sit in the Cooper Smith had every right to go for the cross ball, he just forgot to shout for it. Had he done that he would have gathered it easily. Honestly thought the defence looked much better with Craigan back and Klimpl moved up the pitch. I'm disappointed as well that the midfield don't get more goals but they are beginning to have a pop at goal from outside the area now, something they haven't done much of since McGhee took office. It's only a matter of time before Hughes gets one on target!

It's the old Alex Ferguson approach. "We'll always score one more". Makes for some heart in the mouth moments but can generate some exciting football. Disappointed to lose 2 goals yesterday but the plus is that they weren't from any huge problems. A breakdown in communication from the goalie which he won't do again soon and a dodgy pen. Certainly not going to be calling for any heads for those.

Porter will be a huge loss if he goes. Granted he's not really been amongst the goals this season but a lot of that's down to the type of football we've been playing and the poor quality of the chances he's been getting. We've struggled anytime he's not been in the team and we most certainly won't get anyone near his quality should he go. I think he's better than Forest though, could do a job at a higher level IMO.

With the option of a fully fit squad, going 4-4-2 I'd perhaps try: Smith Saunders - Craigan - Reynolds - Hammell Quinn - Lasley - Hughes - O'Brien Clarky - Porter Over the past few games, our best moments have been when a player gets out wide and gets the ball across the box. Given this, I think if we're to go for width, O'Brien desrves a shot, provided Hammell is instructed to support him. Quinn did enough on Saturday to stay in the team and Craigan and Clarky have to slot straight back in as soon as they're fit as we need their presence in the team. Going for a 4-3-3 I'd be looking at: Smith Saunders - Craigan - Reynolds - Hammell Lasley - Hughes - Fitzpatrick Clarky - Porter - Murphy Quinn and O'Brien out due to the need for less width and more dig in the midfield, leaving Hughes to do his thing. Murhpy and Clarky to overlap up front, creating space and playing off Porter. Any way that McGhee goes though, I reckon it almost doesn't matter what the teams is, it's the attitude that will make the difference.

We haven't really had MOTM polls this season, I guess because the teams hasn't been performing but I thought I'd post one up a) to try and get them going again and B) to guage the feeling of today's game and whether or not we can still take some positives from an otherwise gutting result. Porter gets the nod from me. He always looked the most likely to create something and put his usual 110% into the game even though things weren't going his way. Still the most valuable player in the team IMO and a big loss should he go in January. Special mention also to Quinn, who coped well with a strange position and threw himself into everything today. Also to Saunders and O'Brien who show signs of promise.

Reynolds will benefit greatly from Craigan coming back I think. He seems a bit lost without an old head to help him through the game so hopefully we can get Craggs back sooner rather than later. Hammell just doesn't seem confident at all going forward and the lack of good crosses into the box is really showing in our goal scoring (or not) record. It's an issue that's brushed over most of the time but I have always been of the opinion that we really miss Jim Paterson on the left hand side. He always looked to get to the bye-line and fire in a cross, something we're crying out for these days, especially with 2 big men up front.

I only really have 2 main complaints in relation to the club's communication, specifically regarding ticketing anyway. 1. It's very hard to get a hold of anyone at the ticket office for any information. Either it goes to answerphone and you never get a call back or you email and never get a reply. Obviously the staff in the ticket office work very hard and have a lot to deal with but I think that something needs to be looked at to resolve this problem. 2. I haven't received any correspondence from the club since last season, despite checking that my address was correct several times. This includes never receiving re-allocation tickets or letters about ticketing schemes such as the one for the ICT game. This really isn't acceptable. ST holders have their details registered with the club and there really should be some way to ensure that each ST holder gets the required correspsondence once and once only but at least on time. The past 2 or 3 old firm games, I 've had to phone the ticket office or try and get someone to go in on my behalf (as I live in Edinburgh) to get a replacement ticket. I'm not really sure what the solution to that would be but with the number of ST holders in the same position, it's obviously something of serious concern. But otherwise, I think the website is very high quality and has good value content, much more so than the other SPL sites (perhaps except Gretna's old site, that was really decent). Hopefully with the appointment of Leann Dempster and the offer to communicate openly with her and via the trust there will be a positive improvement over the coming months.

O'Brien showed enough potential today to warrant a start next week in my book. If we're playing 4-4-2, we need natural width and O'Brien was consistently getting into decent positions down the left. The only reason he couldn't make anything of it was a complete lack of support from Hammell, who just doesn't seem to want to get forward at all at the moment.

Not very good today. We really need to take a look at our defence and IMO Craigan can't come back soon enough. Reynolds really seems to struggle without him and from what I've seen of Klimpl (granted only 2 games) I think he'd be more suited to playing in midfield than centre back. I thought there were some decent performances today, Porter for one, Saunders looked a bit more comfortable and I'll put my tin hat on here but I thought Quinn was decent in an unfamiliar position and didn't hide from the responsibility. O'Brian (sp?) looks like he could be worth a start I reckon, he was made to look worse due to the complete lack of support from Hammell. I lost count of the number of times O'Brian had 2 or 3 Hamilton players marking him and was looking for Hammell to show for the ball only to have to go it alone. As for Murphy, I thought he was doing well and was a bit baffled by the substitution but on the radio after McGhee said that he gave Murphy a job to do which he wasn't doing so I guess that's fair enough. I can understand the players just moping off the pitch at the end of the game but credit to both Sutton and Porter who took the time to give the fans a hand. We do need a bit of a change in luck but I guess the good news today is that with Caley losing they're going to be as lacking in confidence as we are. Hopefully the road to recovery can kick off next week.

Looks like somebody's rounding off an epic night with a couple of posts on the boards! It's a shame there aren't more tickets available but as far as I see there's not much the club can do about it.

Certainly seems like she's trying to be straight with the fans and really improve on a number of areas. She's certainly saying the right things and hopefully she'll continue to move the club in the right direction. Best of luck to her and hopefully we can take positive steps to repair some of the damage that's been done to the relationship of the club and it's fans.