LA-Don

In a 16 team league you'd have games/runs where you can blood youngsters for extended time plus try to develop a partnership of Rooney/Stockley. In our current set up every game counts since we rely on games vs the old firm for extra dosh so need top 6 and rely on Europe and cup runs for money. Every game matters is exciting but it comes at a cost. If we cared about Scottish football and development we'd have a reserve league again and a 16 team league. I get that a 16 team league would have 'meaningless' games at the end of the season but that's where you develop youngsters and partnerships.

Made the effort to watch him today. His link play is good, real pain in the ass for defenders, and shows good skill sometimes. Don't recall any scoring chances though other than from a cut back that he fired in and Rooney got a touch for the keeper to make a save. Thought he had a good game. Rooney is struggling. Another game another overhead kick....

Anyone else having issues with red tv today?? Keeps freezing.....

I'd assume we made offers to Jack, Taylor, and McGinn. The nature of the offer will reflect how much we want to keep them. I'd expect Pawlett and Taylor got offered a very average deal for the player and influence they have on the team. No loss to see PP go, gives players like Wright the much needed opportunity.

This is the last line of the article....RE Robbie Neilson "Now he’s keen to get Pawlett’s signature over the line as he looks to step up his rebuilding plans." Think it's pure speculation, pretty sure he wants to stay, especially with the doubt surrounding McGinn and Jack, there may be an opportunity for him with us.

Thought Stockley put in a good shift yesterday and I agree with people's Pawlett comments. I think when he heard everyone singing 'Peter Pawlett Baby' it went to his head and he thought he was bobby big time. The fact that his contract is expiring and he's probably getting little interest from teams at our level, plus having Maddison and Christie come in who pretty much play his position, he seems to have got his shit together. He's certainly working much harder as a result, and performance has improved.....finally.

I'd predict Lewis Logan OConnor Taylor Considine McLean Shinnie Christie Pawlett McGinn Rooney Doubt we'll ever see Shinnie back at LB unless we have major injuries. He'd be a wing back in a 5 but pretty sure he's a full time midfielder and a much needed player in midfield for us.

Well, now that Hayes, Reynolds, and Jack are out, plus Stockley is injured, we're at the stage where DM proves he got the squad right....... or not. Do we have strength in depth or are we paper thin? This is where Pawlett proves (or not) whether he's worth a new contract - scoring a couple recently is one thing but now he needs to bring it and dominate games like Hayes would. Time for Storey to prove he's worth keeping and produce off the bench, time for Ash to show he can be relied upon, and time for O'Connor to prove he shouldn't have been dropped in the first place. Time for McLean to prove he can be relied upon when we're stretched in center mid. Going to be an interesting few weeks...... we've finished poorly the last three seasons, can we do it differently this time around? Time for players and the manager to really prove themselves.

Oh well, that was a game we could have easily won 5-0. Run is over, all about how we respond and nothing better than a cup game to get back on track. We rode our luck a little against Killie and County, 2 games we could have lost, luck ran out tonight. Taylor at fault for the goal (again), you attack the ball and it's a headed clearance ......by a guy who is clearly in the team for his arial ability. Hate to say but the finger tends to point at Taylor far too often. To me Storey was level with the guy on the near post, but you can't really see him on the TV coverage because of the other defender. Onside and 1-1. Is what it is, we'll play worse and win games. Still 6-9 points ahead in 2nd place and I'm sure the huns will fk up more games.

Huh? Questioned if we ever needed Shinnie??? Don't recall that, all I heard was people wanting Shinnie at LB. It's only since it was pretty much clarified by DM that Shinnie was staying in center mid plus the consistency of a starting lineup that Considine has been accepted by most at LB. Consistent squad player and a diehard don but, much like Brian Irvine in his day, limited in ability. Slow on the turn and struggles with speedy forwards. Still a central defender to me.

Well, a game we could have won, drawn, or lost. Both teams had and missed chances. Still, luck is on our side at the moment and I'm a firm believer you create your own luck. 3 more points and 9 ahead of the comedy club. Interesting to note that the huns, Hearts, and St J all lost. We really should pull away and finish second by double digits. I certainly voiced my concerns pre Xmas that we failed in the summer transfer market, and again in January. However, DM finally playing a settled team has helped McLean and Jack find form and the team has been consistently performing. We still have a thin squad but with the huns and Hearts imploding that's certainly helped our cause. Hopefully we stay injury and suspension free and push on for second and a strong cup performance.

Let's not talk about changing the line up too much. 9 wins in 10 suggests we've got it right. Our run started when DM stopped fanning around with lineups. I would have brought Shinnie in but understand keeping the Motherwell lineup. Always a challenge to play well after such a spectacular result so let's not jump to silly suggestion time. Unless we have injuries I'd say Shinnie's in from the start for Christie next weekend, all else sticks. Good that Pawlett and Stockley did well today and of late but this team has produced over the last 2 months.

Well, this is what we were like a couple of years ago, never thought we were out of it until the whistle. The good run began with DM playing a settled and same team after the cup final. Reward wins with the same team, did that with Christie today. Still think stockley and pawlett are best off the bench, come in and apply effort they'd just not be able to maintain for 90 mins. Win while playing poorly is the sign of a good team. Starting to believe. Rooney and Shinnie extend, the drama of Hayes then DM, has this bonded the team? Hopefully McGinn resigns and we push on for second and a cup win to finish the season strongly for once!

How did Ryan Christie play? Sounds like he scored a good goal. Anyone know if we have agreed an option to buy or is he very much like a Danny Ward and James Maddison loan that he'll be gone regardless of performances.

Potential banana skin here. We're usually gash without Shinnie in midfield. Time for Jack and McLean to really step up and prove their worth.

Well, based on the season to date I'd say Lewis should be the next one after Hayes and Shinnie to have his contract extended. Have to think he'd be happy to do so and show some gratitude to the dons for helping revive his career. Worth doing now before the attention to him increases and championship clubs come sniffing. Given the keepers we've had definitely worth the club investing. Best in Scotland in my biased eyes.

Interesting indeed. McInness is not exactly a Rangers legend, played as many games for them as Ben Thornley played for us! I cant see him going, he's built a lot here at a relatively settled and stable club, and convinced the likes of Hayes and Shinnie to stay of late. Don't think he's ready to leave us just yet, plus Rangers is a shit show. No clue if DM is a rangers fan but just can't see it happening.

Switching Stockley for Rooney is not switching like for like. Two totally different players and means a change of tactics which isn't necessary.

Why change a winning team? Excluding the Celtic game when we finally stuck with a settled team we've done well.

Get McGinn signed up. I don't see replacing Jack, Considine, or Taylor being a difficult task. Think Considine will stay as he's a don for life. Wouldn't be surprised to see Jack follow a similar path/career to Chris Maguire, Zander Diamond, Michael Hart and the likes...

Didn't watch much of the game but thought Christie looked up for it. Appeared to work hard defensively, couple of tackles, and well taken goal. Bit tougher/more physical than Maddison which I think we need.

Eh? Scotland aren't playing? You mean egg-chasing? Do you have a beard? Are you a closet poof? Did you go to one of those fee-paying "public" schools? Were you shite at fitba? Do you think it's funny to all stick yer dick into the pint of the guy who went for a piss? Do you get a hard-on in a scrum, your hands grappling with man-flesh, your face almost up the hairy arse in front of you, the smell of sweat and beastliness? I don't like rugby by the way. Rocket, that's your best post ever by far!!!!

Can't agree more. Bottom line is tactics mean fuck all if we don't believe we can win, don't display any confidence in attacking and having ago, and don't prepare and motivate the players to win. This is purely DM. Our attitude against Rangers wasn't much better and we should be blasting them out of the fucking sky.

Good window??? We're worse off than we were a month ago. Lighter squad, even lighter in center mid, and less competition for places. Celtic strengthened/added, as did Hearts and Rangers. Yes we kept Hayes and McGinn but that's like saying we played well because we didn't concede. I want to score and win.

Defensively in the first half I thought we were very good. We pressed them quite high up the field and you could see that we played with 2 forwards (Rooney and McGinn/Hayes) cutting off the distribution to the fullbacks. This meant often the central defender was bringing the ball up the field. We didn't really pressure him because he did little as an attacking threat but it took time and allowed us to organize. No surprise they didn't break us down. In the second half we did this way too deep so we got stuck in our half much of the time. Our problem is in attack. We had zero attacking play. We're a fast team and need to get the ball to Rooney to hold up and link with the wide guys. We didn't do that. As a result we went sideways but Celtic pressured Hayes and McGinn so we ended up dropping the ball back then most often lumping/clearing the ball forward. We need to hit our forward and support at pace and we didn't do that.