Vs Brechin 21/09/2010

[Steve Diggle]

Who cares, a win.

 

Potentially, problem #3

[weesacs]

we scored - they didnt or we're through and they're not!!

 

however, as i mentioned earlier, i would say Brechin played the better "football" - their no 5, certainly put ours to shame.........always wanting the ball, getting it, and finding a man

 

however, I'm not slating Craigan - i'm a fan of his........he has 50 international caps, the Brechin no 5 is a nobody!

 

i've got to agree with a few posts above :

 

1 the best football we played was 1st half v hibs - a joy to watch

2 hateley still needs to prove he is a centre mid and can cut it as 2 man, rather than the anchor man in gannons 3 man - jenno and las are far better together

3 forbes - i dont know what to say or where he can fit in, he just doesnt do it for me ( i find him so frustrating)

4 someone mentioned about wide left position.........i think thats where we'll see murphy play

5

 

this is what i think is our strongest team, i'll try and put players into their position, but when you watch us, players seem to move all the time

 

randolph

saunders craigan reynolds hammell

 

jenno las

 

humphrey gow murphy

 

sutton

 

no hateley.........IMO cant play in the middle when theres only 2, and saunders deserves to keep his place in the team

blackman - i think Humphrey just nips in ahead of him, however for blackman to come in, means he goes up top, sutton goes left and murphy to the right

forbes - just doesnt fit into the team, he is so frustrating

 

 

well seen i'm off work!!!!!!!!!!

[Wellfan1984]

Sometimes I think I'm on the Real Madrid/Spanish league forum when I read these match threads. It is almost exact same. With people moaning the fact we won a game but didn't play football "the right way", "on the ground", "tippy tappy" etc..

 

@thisGraeme... As for Hammell, I still find it hard to believe Dixon is better than Hammell, late into the game last night Dairylea was still ripping the pish oot of him!

[weeyin]

Sometimes I think I'm on the Real Madrid/Spanish league forum when I read these match threads. It is almost exact same. With people moaning the fact we won a game but didn't play football "the right way", "on the ground", "tippy tappy" etc..

You do realise that playing good football and winning games aren't mutually exclusive?

[milo]

It is at least comforting that others share the concerns I have about our season so far.

[fatcalf]

It is at least comforting that others share the concerns I have about our season so far.

 

Same concerns as last season, not just this. We knew we'd have to concede attractive fitba' to Granpa's cautious philosophy and if that gets results it will keep enough happy not to be an issue. However it is an issue to many, especially now that we've lost points we really shouldn't have due to that outlook. We're good enough to batter teams, Hibs should have been put to bed, and Aberdeen, comfortably. Frustratingly we're holding back, sitting on a lead which we're obviously not too well equipped to do.

[Wellfan1984]

You do realise that playing good football and winning games aren't mutually exclusive?

 

Aye, but the fact is we are winning games. We've not looked out classed in any game we've played. And the fact we've played good football for a sustained period of time only really once in the last 5-10 years and by god, despite what some will say here that was not under Gannon. In fact alot of the football we've played under Brown was much better than Gannon to every think of playing - unless you count 2 centre backs (whoever they would be as it would not have been Reynolds and Craigan) and our full backs (whoever they may have been as it wouldn't have been Saunders or Hammell) passing it between each other for 45 minutes or until the other team get bored of waiting for us to look like attacking and press us into submission!.

[KirkySuperSub]

Aye, but the fact is we are winning games. We've not looked out classed in any game we've played. And the fact we've played good football for a sustained period of time only really once in the last 5-10 years and by god, despite what some will say here that was not under Gannon. In fact alot of the football we've played under Brown was much better than Gannon to every think of playing - unless you count 2 centre backs (whoever they would be as it would not have been Reynolds and Craigan) and our full backs (whoever they may have been as it wouldn't have been Saunders or Hammell) passing it between each other for 45 minutes or until the other team get bored of waiting for us to look like attacking and press us into submission!.

 

Mr Diggle must be away for lunch.

I'm pretty sure he'd have responded sooner to this otherwise.

[Lobey_Dosser]

We were playing the long ball last season. The difference was that we had Jutkiewicz up top who was phenomenal at holding the ball up. His ability allowed us to bring the midfield into the game further up the park and we were capable of playing some pretty incisive stuff at times.

 

Unless we change our style of playing I reckon that we will struggle to break teams down at FP this season. Should we persist with the long ball tactics though, we really need to make the most of set pieces. For that reason, it was encouraging to see Page convert 2 corners on Tuesday night.

 

While it's not the best to watch I'm fairly content to go along with what we have if it puts us in the hunt for a decent cup run. The one thing with Brown & Know offer is that we are capable of matching up to anyone on our day.

[Welldaft Mk1]

We're good enough to batter teams, Hibs should have been put to bed, and Aberdeen, comfortably. Frustratingly we're holding back, sitting on a lead which we're obviously not too well equipped to do.

 

In a nutshell....it was very evident against Aberdeen (1st 10 mins 2nd half) that we were content to sit in and see what Aberdeen could do. The quick answer was to score an equaliser

 

In many respects Paw B must look at what happened v Hibs when we opened up and were repeatedly hit on the break. But surely even he can tell who is likely to do that and the teams that are not. IMHO we should have put Aberdeen on the back foot as soon as the 2nd half started.

 

Still it is all about points and as long as we keep picking them up and look to a top 6 finish I will be more than happy. You just need to look at where Falkirk, Dundee, Partick and Dunfermline are to know we have been doing more than OK in the last 3-4 years.

[Guest]

@thisGraeme... As for Hammell, I still find it hard to believe Dixon is better than Hammell, late into the game last night Dairylea was still ripping the pish oot of him!

 

You're probably right at the moment to be honest. I do football commentary at weekends and spent a couple of seasons ago at just about every Dundee United home game and that season Dixon was fantastic. I don't think he's been fit for six months running since then, so thats probably why. Point stand though, theres not much better!

[Kmcalpin]

However it is an issue to many, especially now that we've lost points we really shouldn't have due to that outlook. We're good enough to batter teams, Hibs should have been put to bed, and Aberdeen, comfortably. Frustratingly we're holding back, sitting on a lead which we're obviously not too well equipped to do.

 

Pretty well sums it up for me. I never feel comfortable when we sit back in our own penalty box and invite the opposition to have a go at us. It only takes a mistake, a bad refereeing decision, a deflection or a freak event and the balls in the net. I prefer to defend well up the park - make a mistake there and you've time to recover.

 

What was worrying on Tuesday evening was that in the second half we retreated to form a packed defence that sat deep and Brechin still managed to find glaring spaces and create several chances.

[mjw]

Sometimes I think I'm on the Real Madrid/Spanish league forum when I read these match threads. It is almost exact same. With people moaning the fact we won a game but didn't play football "the right way", "on the ground", "tippy tappy" etc..

 

@thisGraeme... As for Hammell, I still find it hard to believe Dixon is better than Hammell, late into the game last night Dairylea was still ripping the pish oot of him!

 

If people are paying good money to watch football where is the crime in wanting to be entertained?winning ugly might be ok to some but it won't have people flocking to fir park every other week to hand over £20

[weeyin]

Aye, but the fact is we are winning games. We've not looked out classed in any game we've played.

The fact is we lost to Hibs at home, lost to Celtic at home, lost to Odense (twice - once at home), drew with Aberdeen at home. There's not a lot of 'winning games' in that list.

 

Again, it's ok to win playing good football, and we have the players to do it. I don't see many that would outclass us if the players we have keep it on the deck. What was the point of signing a player like Gow if all we want to do is lump long balls up the park?

[Al B]

In addition to that, (and I know it's only been two games), I keep wanting to apologise to Alan Gow...saying I know you didn't expect it to be like this...we are actually not too bad I promise. You'll get the ball in a decent area soon. I hope.

[steelboy]

In addition to that, (and I know it's only been two games), I keep wanting to apologise to Alan Gow...saying I know you didn't expect it to be like this...we are actually not too bad I promise. You'll get the ball in a decent area soon. I hope.

 

 

in the the three years before he came to us he won 10 games that he started in.

 

07/08: played 2 games for the h**s all season. both against 3rd division teams in the cups.

 

08/09: plays in 17 games for blackpool winning 3. then goes to norwich where he gets relegated.

 

08/09: 6 months at plymouth (later to be relegated) where he racks up two wins. he then moves to hibs (this is the best bit) who as soon as they sign him go from potentially spliting the old firm to the biggest joke in the country, their terrible run that keeps getting brought up started exactly when they signed gowser.

 

not exaclty ronaldinho.

[Steve Diggle]

so there we have it folks, the stats categorically prove that not only is Alan Gow a shite player that drags teams down. He has a 'Damien from The Omen' ability to start their descent to oblivion.

 

Here's me waiting to see what he's like if he ever gets the ball at his feet.

 

Stats for a team define the ability of an individual player??? Well I never.

[Kmcalpin]

I sympathise with you Steve. On Tuesday night he was played out of position (what would we think for example if Steve Hammell was played in right central defence?), he was at times marked by 3 men, received appalling service, oh and to cap it all he isn't fully match fit.

 

He might not shape up but, we should give him a few months before we condemn him.

[postiejim]

I think if we had an attack minded manager who liked his teams to play football Gow could be a decent signing, but if we are just going to hump the ball up the park then its going will be difficult for quite a few players.

[Kmcalpin]

I share your concerns Jim. The problem is that our central midfield deficiencies limit our options. We can play it quickly up the wings, using Humphrey or Gow or we hump it up the park to a combination of Blackman and Sutton. Another option though might be to play Murphy just behind a front two.

[postiejim]

Why did we sign Casagolda Dave, complete waste of a wage when you consider our lack of personnel in other areas ,or what about giving a young player a go ,Ive been going on about young Jamie Pollock for some time he could play central midfield no problem.

[steelboy]

so there we have it folks, the stats categorically prove that not only is Alan Gow a shite player that drags teams down. He has a 'Damien from The Omen' ability to start their descent to oblivion.

 

Here's me waiting to see what he's like if he ever gets the ball at his feet.

 

Stats for a team define the ability of an individual player??? Well I never.

 

all i was pointing out that he's not exactly being setting the heather alight for the past few years so i don't think we need to tug forelocks and apologise for not being good enough. al b's post makes it sound we've brought in someone from barca with false promises of free flowing football when the reality is markedly different.

 

if the guy isn't delighted to be:

 

(a) playing

 

(b) playing for a team that isn't getting pumped every week

 

© playing for a team not managed by john hughes

 

then he's a clown.

 

i'm not making any judgement on gow as a player, just the idea that's he taking a step down.

[Al B]

I never mentioned it being a step down. My point is whats the point in signing a footballer who, regardless of his previous clubs situations and performances, is much more capable with the ball at his feet than most players we'll see at our club....and then completely missing him out of the equation on the park.

[Wellfan1984]

Gow will be a good signing for us, but his best season as a footballer was his season when Falkirk had him and Stokes up front. His job then was to be the foil and the knock down guy. He was the target man in that team. And despite what the media would tell us Falkirk didn't play free flowing football either. In fact, they were a bit like us last season the back 4 having like 85% pass completion rates due to passing it forward 5, sideways 5, backwards 5.... long diag ball to Gow... ball into box/knocked down for Stokes to score

[Kmcalpin]

Why did we sign Casagolda Dave, complete waste of a wage when you consider our lack of personnel in other areas ,or what about giving a young player a go ,Ive been going on about young Jamie Pollock for some time he could play central midfield no problem.

 

I don't know Jim. Ok he's injured just now but he wasn't making the first team before even as a sub. He's not exactly a raw youngster. We can only hope he comes onto a game once he's fit again.

 

Maybe Jamie Pollock is due his chance. I've only seen hom once and that was last season against Celtic. Only thing that concerns me is that he's on the small side and would take a battering and buffeting from SPL midfielders. Still if he's good enough give him his opportunity.