ONeils40yarder

Maybe I'm being greedy but I want more from a striker than effort, I also want a striker that doesn't get bullied by the centre backs he is up against.

Ah right, I get it thinking now. Because I pointed out the flaws in suttons game I should be happy with any striker who runs aabout a lot?

See I thought this was a man of the match thread about the Aberdeen game? I'm happy to give moult a chance but I thought he was shite last week...ran about a lot and only won headers against a tiny full back. Heard he scored yesterday so hopefully he ends up a good signing

Lee Erwin was apparently on buttons while he was with us...I'd imagine he is on significantly more at Leeds and I'd also think that he would have signed there thinking that he'd be able to handle the standard. Time will tell if he done the right thing

He seemed to impress a lot of folk because he ran about a lot and beat Shay Logan to 4 or 5 headers.

Do Accies have a striker called Moult as well like?

Kennedy give away both pens?

2-1 aberdeen

Moult for fuck sake? He ran his arse off? Won every header (other than everyone against Taylor and considine)? I'm all for giving the boy a chance but he showed little in the way of quality

1st time I've been online since the match... The way the media bump their gums about Aberdeen, I was expecting a team with the style of play as a cross between Bayern Munich and the Brazilian 1970 team. In actual fact, what we got was a reasonably competent team, with a really solid formation (which was further solidified by the introduction of a 3rd centre-half in the 2nd half). When they passed the ball around, we struggled to keep in touch with them, but that was because we were out numbered in the middle of the park. When we got in their faces, they made mistakes and I really dont think there was much in the game at all. Both goals were highly preventable and for me the Goalkeeper was at fault for both but in each instance wasnt aided at all by his defence. I'm Wee Dans biggest critic, but so far Ripley has looked decent but has made some costly errors in my opinion. It is so obvious who other teams see as our weak link, with almost every attack coming down our right side, often over the top of Laws napper. Last season I tried to defend the performances of McManus by pointing out he didnt have a competent player on his left hand side. Unfortunately, Louis Laing has a similar issue with Josh Law, and is being made to look daft by continually having to cover for him way out of position. We need to try someone else in there. Hammell didnt have a great game, and if that continues I'd suggest giving Chalmers a shot, but Hammell deserves a chance to redeem himself. The midfield were outnumbered...I lost count of the amount of times Ryan Jack dropped in between Taylor and Considine to gather the ball from his keeper under no pressure at all. Taylor was very quiet, lets give him a chance before we say he is shite though...Lasley for me though played a season too long last season, let alone this one. He was always a midfielder that was about energy and endeavour, not the best passer in the world and even worse at shooting, losing the yard of pace and energy with age has left him without much at all to bring to the table. The two wingers will bring frustration and joy in equal measure this season, with pace to burn, we need to play to their strengths and get the ball in front of them. On Saturday, neither of them were at the races, Ainsworth tends to hide when he is having an off day, whereas Johnston is still willing but seems to get flustered ie lobbing aimless balls into the box when had plenty space and time. I'd have had Dom Thomas on for either long before Johnston was eventually replaced, he looked lively and offers something other than raw pace out wide. It was good to see Skippy right up front, for me he is never a midfielder player...attacking midfield or otherwise, I just dont think he has the footballing intelligence to play in the 'hole', and he should be deployed where we know that he has caused damage in the past right up front. The ball needs to be played to his feet though rather than this lump up the park we are prone to playing. Now onto Louis Moult, he seems to have caused a bit of a discussion about his abilities on here. For me, he looked out his depth on Saturday and was knocked about like a wee boy against Taylor and Considine. Now, you could consider that his game might not be as a targetman and that is a failing on our part, if so. He made one or two runs that looked decent but werent picked up by our midfielders, he also won every header against Logan when he was told to move out left. He had one howling miss, but at least he got there. As a huge critic of John Sutton, I can say one thing he'd have buried that chance. All-in-all, I thought Moult was poor on Saturday and would have replaced him with Clarkson earlier but I hope we play to his strengths going forward.

Not looking forward to this one. Last Saturday against United we played well for 15-20 mins, after that we were shite and the gaffer made an incredibly strange substitution with 20 to go. By all accounts Wednesday was just a horrible 90 minutes, and the gaffer got his tactics all wrong. I reckon we have enough good players to be a competitive team this season, but the manager needs to sort his tactics out for this weekend or he could start to come under some pressure.

You are taking a stab in the dark at how much these players are costing us though...for what its worth, I've been told that the plan this season was to drop the wage bill drastically, 'more in line with the likes of Partick Thistle'. This may, or may not, be the eventual case but I'm going to take a guess that we are paying less this season on players wages than we were at the tail end of last season, the squad size of the 1st team is drastically reduced for a start. Players Out Players In Bob McHugh Chalmers Ian Vigurs Laing Paul Lawson Kennedy John Sutton Clarkson Fraser Kerr Moult Zaine Francis Angol Fletcher Simon Ramsden Ripley (on loan) Lee Erwin Taylor (on loan) Stuart Carswell Gunnar Neilsen Adam Cummins Tony Straker (loan expired) Mark O'Brien (loan expired) George Long (loan expired) Craig Moore (on loan to Ayr) So 15 out, in one way or another and 8 brought in. I think its a fair assumption to believe that Sutton would have been on more than we have given Clarkson. Kennedy (brought in from Leicester youths), Fletcher (end of contract with York), Moult (plying his trade with Wrexham) and Chalmers (released by Celtic) will not be on Kings ransoms and again I'd do what you are doing, and guess, between them they will be on less than Vigurs, Lawson, Neilsen and Ramsden. The only other permanent signing is Clubber Laing, who I'd imagine wouldnt have been short on offers, so may be a higher earner, but again having let go more than we have brought in (see McHugh, Kerr, Angol, Cummins, Erwin and Carswell) I'd still expect us to paying out less than we were last season. On the loan signings...we have got not one iota of evidence to suggest that we are paying a single penny to Middlesbrough or Reading for the services of Ripley and Taylor, we may be paying their full wage, a fraction of it, or fuck all because the parent club might believe its in their interests for their player to gain competitive experience at a higher level than they've been playing at, which might make sense given the fact that they were both fired in to the starting line ups at 24hours notice...'we'll pay his wages, if you guarantee him game time' type scenario. At worst, we'll be paying no more than we were for the use of Long, Straker and O'Brien. Skippy and Ainsworth have both renewed their contracts from last season, at this stage we have no idea if these contracts were an increase or a decrease on last season. As an aside, i take your point about 'our own talent' potentially being stunted by young players from England, but the most important thing for me is that the guys we bring in, and play, have some sort of re-sale value and in Chalmers, Kennedy, Laing, Fletcher and Moult the potential at least is there, they may not be good enough but time will tell. Clarkson obviously bucks this thought process but we cant be so rigid in our signing policy that we can't make the occasional signing that doesnt conform with the norm. If our own guys are good enough and have the balls, then they will displace the likes of Josh Law, Lasley and (in Dom Thomas case) Ainsworth.

I'd suggest that height is a far greater asset to a keeper than a midfielder. Baraclough obviously feels he same

No Idea what height has got to do with anything and no idea what height this boy is

Have it on good authority that we'be made a very good signing and that the boy is capable of playing right across the midfield

Haha...being caught up field after being instructed to go up for a corner by his gaffer in the 92nd minute? Away ye go

Baraclough said something along the lines of 'his parent club have agreed but we couldnt get it tied up for the united game so it will be early next week'... ...sounds like a loan deal to me which would rule out Brobbel and probably Bulger as well

Honestly wouldnt bother me in the slightest...

Yip...felt a bit sorry for the auld fella as his mrs tried to work out what they had done wrong

Haha...I overheard an old couple on the way out of the East talking about folk complaining about their drum

? What were Ripleys errors today?

Ripley believe it or not

We looked very, very good....for the 1st 15 minutes and then died a slow death from then on. Overall, the 1st half was played at a pedestrian pace which looked like a friendly match at times. I agreed with bringing Clarkson on with 20 or so to go, but to take off a central midfielder and leave Lasley (aye, the 36 year old Lasley) on his own, was complete folly. Granted, I thought Leitch struggled and fear that he could be out his depth at SPL level, but I would have taken the ineffectual Skippy off instead and kept our shape in the hope of taking at least a point but giving us a bit of fresh impetus at the same time. Fletcher looked handy enough, with decent looking technical ability and movement but Skippy was playing far too deep to be any sort of partner for him...Moult on the other hand, looked sluggish but time will tell if he was worth a 3 year deal. Chalmers to me looked technically very good, seldom gave the ball away and obviously has defensive qualities, but he offered nothing going forward, which meant that our only attacking threat came from Marvin who was playing on his weaker side and was no where near as effective as usual. Now, I know the reason why Thomas didn't start (his defensive abilities are questionable apparently), but I'm certain Ainsworth would have started if available and yet, he is the worlds worst for not covering his full back so what's the difference? All-in-all, I reckon we'll be comfortably safe this season but there is still some serious work to be done...starting with the signing of a centre-mid next week

Just back from a week in Blackpool...my 10 year old and 7 year old made a point of shouting '6-1' at every sevconian they seen (which was a fair few), their maw was not impressed at all...and even less so at me laughing at it each time. Fuck them...cunts that they are

We're going to win this fucking thing yaaaaaSS