couttsy

Went to the website to buy tickets for Tynecastle on Saturday ..£29 (plus £1 for delivery), so £30...WTF. Did we not used to get 2 ticket prices for Tynecastle (one that was a bit cheaper) or am I imagining that?

Surely Tait can’t be fully fit.......he’s not had a great start to the season but he’s a million miles ahead of Grimshaw as a full back. Also think we may miss Dunne’s pace at the back....

James Scott, set the tone early as he went past the right back at will. Maybe he’s better suited to playing wide rather than centrally at the moment.

No doubt Gallagher has looked good so far, however as did Hartley when he first came..... Whilst I was as infuriated as most of the East Stand on Friday night with Dunnes passing, he actually defended pretty well and made a goal saving tackle in the first half. Bigger question for me is why we don’t have a midfield capable of coming and taking the ball off him to make the play. Unless Celtic are paying the vast majority of his wages then I think we’d be far better investing further up the pitch where I think we have far bigger issues to address......

Having had time to calm down a bit since last night and reflect on where we’re at after the first 3 games against teams at our level I think the goalkeeper and 1st choice defence will be fine this season, it clearly further forward where our issues lay. Gillespie has had a tough start to the season with a couple of mistakes (not terrible mistakes right enough) but let’s not forget he make a couple of decent saves last night that people seem to be forgetting and was man of the match at Livi in my opinion, far to early to talk about dropping him, manager needs to show some loyalty. Defence - Would be very surprised if a defence of Tait, Carroll, Gallagher and Dunne wasn’t good enough to keep us up. Midfield - Very concerning in my opinion, Campbell works hard and gets the ball but badly needs ball players alongside him to be effective. Polworth is a tough one, plays 3 or 4 nice passes a game but just doesn’t do enough in 90 mins. Donnelly is a trier but as I feared I just don’t think he’s good enough with the ball at his feet to play that position in our league. Sooner DT gets back the better, but unless Sloth is going to appear and be a presence in that midfield then we need a holding/passing midfield player. A big part of the reason we were watching Dunne shell passes over the midfields head last night was that none of them were good enough/confident enough to come and take it off him (in fairness to Polworth I think he did it once or twice last night) Forwards - Again, very concerning. There’s a player in Scott, as we’ve seen on occasions already, however it’s too much to ask at his age to play up there on his own against the experience/aggressive central defenders (like Berra). Should be making appearances off the bench or going out on loan until Xmas in my opinion. With Long and Cole it’s maybe a little early to tell give their game time so far, however neither looks to be the answer if we are going to persist with one central striker. The 3 wide players, Hylton, Seedorf and Ilic the early signs are not great. Hylton was truly awful last night and the other two have offered little more during their time on the pitch, however they need to be given a little time to adjust to our league and their new surroundings. I think we need to tweak the formation for Accies Away, playing with two under performing wide players would be very risky... I think we need a presence in midfield who can hold the ball and play passes, then make himself available again and build play and finally I think we need a strapping centre forward who can hold the ball up on his own and score goals. Can’t see us getting either on our budget but we can hope........

Tait was poor, agreed. However he’s been constantly asked to play out of position......and Tait is not the reason we lost tonight.....

Horrific 1st half. Where to start.....First pen looked dodgy, second looked a stonewaller. Hylton should be hooked at ht, (for Cole not Ilic) looks like he’s still going through a warm up. Donnelly like a missing person......Grimshaw awful....

Don’t agree re last season. Clearly not good enough to be a regular starter at this level in my opinion.

Consistently caught out of position, to the point I question if he knows how to play the position. Hopeless for Celtic's 3rd goal on Sat, a simple 121, Grimshaw sleeping. Regularly runs with the ball (usually in field) until he looses it......

Interesting to read the differencing opinions forming based on watching the same team over the same games!! As usual I suspect the truth is somewhere in-between finish 4th & 10th (7th or 8th would be my bet)! Agree with most that unless Cole can fill the number 9 role then we are going to struggle to put the ball in the net. Also, think we still have a weakness to our midfield that needs addressed and will be exposed by the better teams in the league. Just to finish the negativity, lets hope Tait and Carroll stay fit all season, Grimshaw is woeful at right back and will deffo cost us goals regularly in my opinion. Tonight will be tight and as usual the first goal in these games will be important, particularly with them potentially being a little low in confidence after their relatively poor start to the season. Whatever happens tonight I still expect us to beat Accies next week.......

Struggling to see Long or Scot (yet) as being the answer up front for us this season, however the during the short cameos from Cole I think there may be a player there if we can get him fit enough! Agree with others in that I expect we'll see a striker coming in on loan later in the transfer window....Really hope we're also still looking for a holding/passing midfield player, as I don't think what we have will do, all be it that yesterday was more encouraging on that front with Donnelly, Campbell and Polworth all having very good 1st halfs......

My take on today.....great 1st half and really unlucky to be behind. Polworth great for 1st Well goal....good strike from Donnelly.....Bain terrible..... Tait and Donnelly awful for 1st Celtic goal.... The free kick is very soft but he does hold him...stupid from Gallagher....Gillespie very poor Grimshaw terrible for 3rd goal (as he was for most of the game), then defence scared to touch Forrest in the box. Deffo hand ball in lead up to 4th, how the officials don’t see that is unbelievable ... then Dunne horrific. Donnelly awful for the 5th.... Bizarrely I feel more positive than I was going to the game, thought the midfield was good in the first half. Need to hope Cole can make the centre forward position his as Long doesn’t look good enough.

I worry after seeing yesterdays game that unless we get a fit Turnbull and/or Tanner back soon our midfield is nowhere near good enough to be thinking about anything other that just staying up.......it’s early days but Polworth looks weak and disappears from games (all be it he plays 2/3 eye catching passes a game) and Donnelly, whilst trying hard most of the time is simply not good enough with the ball at his feet to be the constructive influence we need in that position. Really hope we’re still in the market for a holding midfielder that can pass the ball, otherwise we’re in for a season of watching Dunne hit a lot of long diagonals straight out the pitch!

Gillespie, by a country mile. With very few getting pass marks.....

Unfortunately, as I suspected after seeing a couple of the league cup games the midfield is poor and weak..... Polworth disappears for long spells and Donnelly (whilst winning a few headers) is nowhere near good enough to dictate play in the top league. Campbell battling a way as usual but without much quality. Worried about Ilic stupidly getting himself sent off now he’s been booked....he should be booked at HT. Livi rightly leaving Dunne as the spare man when we get the ball, his passing the majority of the time is awful....Gillespie to thank for still at 0-0, big big improvement needed in the 2nd half or this is going one way.

Seem to remember Ged Brannan scoring a cracker that night...... Personal favourite of mine from over the years is the 1-0 win at Celtic Park, Kevin Twaddle cracker......seem to remember Sean Teale watching the 2nd half in front of me after being sent off...

Was a toss up between Gillespie and Turnbull......went for Gillespie, couple of good saves, took a few crosses and saved a pen.

Not sure it was the reason Saints equalised but, why oh why did we not have Livingston at LB, Tait at RB, Cadden RM and Frear LM at the end, instead of all 4 playing out of position?

Crazy crazy game...first things first, how good is Davie Turnbull? Thank god it’s Hastie and not him heading to Ibrox....Refereeing in the 2nd half was unbelievable. 2 or 3 fouls after Gorrin’s 2nd yellow that were worse or at least equally as bad not shown yellows, as for relying on the linesman who was 40 odd yards away at the penalty decision......inept, incompetent call it what you like but Clancy is up there with the very worst....

Aldred and Turnbull for me......Although if Tait gets POTY I don’t think any of us could complain...

Tom Aldred, an absolute rock again...

Went for Turnbull but was a close run thing between him, Aldred and Gorrin for me, all excellent. Gboly & Hastie having great 1st half’s and Grimshaw & Tait 2nd half’s.

Not even close, good old BBC. Hibs with slightly more possession I’d say.....Football has been better with Gorrin & Turnbull in particular trying to keep it on the deck. Both Gboly and Hastie looking really dangerous at times....Hibs struggling to get in behind.

This is spot on, was saying exactly the same yesterday. When the hell anyone thought we were good enough to star with two players who barely looked fit (Tait & McCormack), whilst playing with two wingers when we’ve played the vast majority of the season with none, whilst not having any strength/presence up front, when we’ve played nearly every game under Robinson with 1 sometimes 2.......Put that together with a Tenerife attitude and you get beaten by any team that’s competent and to be honest that’s all that County were. We managed to make Van Der Weg, Draper and Graham look like world beaters when we all know they’re playing in the championship for a reason. Can deal with us being poor (let’s be honest we’re all used to that) what really gets me was the lack of desire, fight, application, most of them looked like they couldn’t give a xxxx. We were saying after 25 mins that Campbell and Main should have been on for McCormack and one of the wingers.......scunnered to the point that Wed will be a chore due to having a season ticket rather than something I do for any enjoyment.

Usually fairly level headed after defeats but that.....absolutely disgraceful. Most of them looked like they were still swanning about on the beach....looked like they couldn’t give a sh1t. Whilst we’re all paying to watch it! Tactically clueless, players suddenly asked to try and pass the ball when they’ve be lumping it all season, unfit players picked...everything wrong. Gillespie the only player coming close to pass marks...