2018'19 Game 2: Hamilton Accies (H) Saturday 11th August

[ropy]

Ach, we are a cup side

[weeyin]

6 minutes ago, ropy said:

Ach, we are a cup side

Except for the "winning a cup" bit.

[underboyleheating]

53 minutes ago, weeyin said:

Except for the "winning a cup" bit.

Winning is so 91. 

[sbcmfc]

I wasn’t at the game on Saturday, but based on the highlights Main looked like he was involved in everything up front and on another day could’ve had 2 or 3 goals. I don’t think he managed anything on target, but if he gets a goal or 2 he’ll be off.

[numpty]

2 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

I wasn’t at the game on Saturday, but based on the highlights Main looked like he was involved in everything up front and on another day could’ve had 2 or 3 goals. I don’t think he managed anything on target, but if he gets a goal or 2 he’ll be off.

The trouble is, he hasn't managed much on target since the cup semi final.

[sbcmfc]

3 minutes ago, numpty said:

The trouble is, he hasn't managed much on target since the cup semi final.

This is true, but he showed enough around that time to warrant some patience.

Hearts fan in work was absolutely slating Sammon, I was hoping he’d be like John Sutton (shite at hearts, good for us), but seems optimistic based on the reviews of his performances so far.

[Lukemfc1]

It was great to see a very healthy home support of about 4,500 on Saturday. The problem is many of these folk who don't turn up regularly will now be totally turned off coming back anytime soon. I like many encouraged some armchair supporters along and the football on display was nothing short of embarrassing. I like to talk up the SPFL and I genuinely think we are in a better place than we have been as a league for a while but that was very low quality shitfest football. I'm not a footballing purist by any means but the style of play just now isn't good enough.

Early days yet but I think our recruitment needs to be questioned. We seem to have brought in numbers rather than actual quality. We clearly have a very limited budget but I feel like we would have been better spending money on one quality player for a position rather than three really average ones. At the end of last season I felt the young boys Maguire, Turnbull & Scott could be strong coming off the bench but none of the young guys looks likely to feature anytime soon. Instead we've brought in guys to sit ahead of them that aren't any better. To me, from the end of the last season it was pretty clear what we needed but we don't look any stronger in terms of the first eleven or even options from the bench. Aye, the way we are playing is the main root of the problem just now but with the attacking options at our disposal does anyone really see us scoring enough goals? I think it's pretty clear from any evidence we have to go on Main, Sammon and Bowman are not going to get us enough goals. Johnson potentially could but he is an unknown quantity at this level. Johnson could be the next Moult or Wes Fletcher. Scott isn't going to get a chance by the looks of things. I understand comments about us being somewhat bloated in that position but scoring goals/creating chances does look to be a clear issue just now. A player of some sort of technical ability in a forward position would be really welcome. I guess this goes back to the recruitment of Connor Sammon, perhaps a useful option at times but with Main and Bowman already on the books we should have recruited someone with some sort of creative/technical ability up front.

The chat about 'dominating the game' from Robinson is nonsense as far as I'm concerned. Having the ball and launching it 30 yards then doing absolutely nothing with it to me does not constitute any sort of dominance. Make no mistake, Accies are absolute dross but they are good at what they do. They sat in, defended well, competed well for the ball and wasted time. That's what they do. Launching the ball on Saturday totally played into their hands. I'm convinced if we had the right players on the park and actually played basic passing football we could have easily outplayed them. Fair to play Accies though, we didn't deserve anything from that game.

In terms of individuals not really many plus points for me. I thought Aldred looked good for having played so little football that's about it.

Defensively Hartley looks sluggish to me, I'm not convinced he is fully fit. In midfield I thought Campbell had an unusual off day and was correctly taken off.  Cadden was pretty awful, as he has been for some time now. Rose done little and Bigi apart from the first 30 minutes or so done what he has his full Motherwell career flattered to deceive. Still it was refreshing to see someone with decent technical ability in the middle of the park rather Rose/Grimshaw from last week. Up front I thought Sammon actually contributed more than Main but that's not saying much.

[Welldaft Mk1]

45 minutes ago, Lukemfc1 said:

Fair to play Accies though, we didn't deserve anything from that game.

Not sure I agree with this at all.   We were so  comfortable up until the goal and looked the more likely team.  I am not saying I was at all happy and we flattered to deceive for the most part but Accies were 2nd best until they scored the goal. Pretty much 2/3rds of the game.

As for the goal - it was a belter.  Fair play to the lad but he could try that another 50 times and it will not come off. They could and should have scored a 2nd but we were chasing the game at that point.  A draw and probably 0-0 would have been about right given the way the game was going but sh1t happens. 

 

[Kmcalpin]

Our problem, as it was last season is trying to prise open packed deep lying defences. Against such teams if you score first you can then afford to sit back a bit and deploy fast runners to catch them on the counter attack.  On Saturday we didn't have a clue how to open up Accies parked bus.  We weren't able to hit the by line and didn't have the calibre of player to create meaningful chances for the strikers.  Against such teams players like Frear and Cadden  are of limited use.  Who else could have deployed or could deploy in similar situations in the future?  Possibly Johnson up front and maybe Gorrin and Turnbull in the middle.  We can't rely on the likes of young Turnbull yet but he does have the ability to sling in precise crosses and set pieces. 

Lets hope that Livingston are confident for Saturday and have taken heart, but not learned lessons, from our defeat on Saturday.  We'll have more of a chance if they feel able and confident enough to play an attacking game.  

[weeyin]

The worst possible tactic to play against a deep lying defence is the long, high ball.  You either need to play it wide and hit the bye-line, or find a through ball. Both of those tactics require someone in midfield capable of passing a ball on the deck - either out wide, or to find someone in the box.

That will never happen while we're trying to earn the right to play football. Deep lying defences give the midfield time to create. You see good teams probing and playing short one-twos in and around the box. The opposition has invited you to play football - no earning required. We just aren't smart enough to do it.