King Kenny

Why does every team in the league look so much sharper and fitter than us? Too many miles off it today. Im like a broken record with Fitzpatrick but he’s going to waste his talent with his attitude, shocking today. Stanway breaks up play now and again but his passing and ball retention needs some serious improvement. Would like to hear Doolan’s thoughts about going to a back 5 against 10 men and as mentioned, running the ball to the corner with twenty minutes to go. A win and clean sheet are the positives but a dreadful performance.

3 points, clean sheet and Morton losing makes it a very good day for the Jags. Playoffs looking a lot more likely than they were a few weeks ago.

I've never got the hype about Spittal. As mentioned above, scores some great goals but used to go missing in so many games. Not the guy you want in your team when battling is required and not much has changed given Motherwell's showing down at Cappielow. To be fair to him, he might do well in a more attacking team like Hearts. Good move for Penrice as well, surprised how well he's done in his career.

Couldn’t agree more. He was poor against Raith but like the rest of his teammates his attitude and work rate was vastly improved today. We noticeably dropped deeper and stopped pressing high when he went off.

Much better today. McBeth has a real dig about him and slotted in to the defence brilliantly. Muirhead’s best game for a while as well, two brilliant blocks. Graham and Robinson are a great partnership, both well taken goals were the least they deserved. Morton are dreadful and we let them off the hook with some terrible decision making on the counter by Fitzy and Mackenzie. I think Zander got caught in two minds but it led to the Morton goal so hopefully a learning experience for him. Didnt think our subs helped much or that we needed to make so many. It may have been the plan but Bannigan coming on seemed to coincide with us dropping 30 yards further back. Taking Neilson off was also a mistake in my opinion. Yes, he was on a yellow card but losing his height against their set piece was costly. Still, plenty of positives and much needed win. Good to see wee Dougie lose his head at the guy behind the dugouts as well!

He’s celebrated every goal he’s scored like that! His body language is never the best but I think it’s a stretch to say he’s faking an injury due to a lack of game time

Agree on all points and even joined you in collecting a parking ticket to top off the evening!

We started ok, spent most of the game in their half before missing some decent chances. First set piece to defend and we concede. So predictable and tiring to watch. Raith didn’t offer much at all but didn’t need to, we had no idea how to break them down. Fitzpatrick may have been double marked but he showed absolutely zero appetite to try and work out a way round it. He’s got all the talent but sadly not the attitude to match. We just played in front of Raith, Lawless was nullified and McMillan is out of form. Our form is dreadful and Doolan needs to find a solution and quickly. Tonight was worrying, the players looked out of ideas and effort. A really poor crowd as well

A good point being made about our midfield not assisting the defence. I've noticed in loads of games that the opposition find it alarmingly easy to progress through the middle of the field leaving our defence completely outnumbered. We signed Wiiliamson, Alston, Robinson and McInroy who all play in attacking positions and we've tried them all at various times in a more defensive position which just hasn't worked. Stanway is ok but has a long way to go to be a regular starter in that position and McBeth might be the answer long term but needs time to adjust (which we don't currently have). Bannigan is clearly struggling but even at the peak of his powers he was never a defensive midfielder. It should be a worry that Doolan didn't see the need to replace Docherty in the summer. We would have struggled to match his quality but a defensive midfielder should have been high up on the recruitment list and not the host of more forward minded players above. McCall had a decent record of recruiting players but could also be guilty of overloading with similar players and trying to shoehorn them in. Kyle Turner played most of his time under McCall out wide and only under Doolan in a more central position did he show his true potential. It must be tempting when offered decent (on playing history anyway) players to sign them on the basis you might not get better. That is something Doolan will hopefully become wise to as he gains more experience. He is still very early in his managerial career and this poor run of form is concerning. It is up to Doolan to find the ways to rectify it and that might be making some harsh decisions on who to drop etc. Archibald was too loyal to many players and they ended up costing him his job. Doolan needs to find a way to overcome this or he will quite rightly be facing the sack. A big few weeks coming up for him and the team, lets hope they can find a way through it.

Doolan doesn’t know how to set up a team in any other formation from what we currently play. His philosophy has always been “you score 3, we’ll score 4”. Sadly our defence is so bad we can’t score enough goals any more. He needs to show he can change this and quickly, the rest of the league have caught us up very quickly. That back 5 can’t start again on Saturday. Even bring in another defender and play 3 at the back with McMillan and Milne pushed on. Anything but chucking the same 11 out again and hoping for a change.

Officiating aside, we’re just not up to much this year. Our defence is poor and our midfield offer nothing other than pedestrian sideways passes. Once Fitzy has been hacked out the game, that’s us finished in an attacking sense. Sideways passes until someone hits a poor cross in to the box and we start again. Adeloye offers nothing as a sub, can never get up to the speed of the match quick enough. We might still do enough to get to the playoffs but we’ll not be going anywhere based on the goals we concede. Stewart distributes the ball quickly but seems very similar to Sneddon and Mitchell. A poor night all round, less said about the officials the better.

Fair enough to Doolan for holding his hands up but it’s pretty basic management that you give things five minutes to settle down after scoring before making subs. They couldn’t cope with Lawless, to replace him with Diack was daft. He’s a good prospect but he’s not a winger, looked well out his depth. Graham made the defenders work, Adeloye does absolutely nothing in comparison. Our subs were woeful, Alston especially looked like he’d played 100+ mins. Just very frustrating, a chance to get to a QF and make some money and chucked it away against a very poor team.

This game was always going to be physical, the first half has gone as predicted after seeing our starting lineup. Far too soft.

Made far tougher work of that than required. Started very slowly (again) but worked our way in to it and deservedly took the lead. Shocking error from Sneddon let them back in it but we’d missed several half chances before that. Nicely taken goal by Fitzpatrick and a great header from Neilson who had an excellent game. I thought Muirhead was poor and the free kick for their second was rash from an experienced player. We’ll have enough for a playoff spot but can’t see us troubling the top 2 which given our summer upheaval seems fair enough. Graham and Lawless had good first half showings but were poor in the 2nd. Thought Bannigan and Milne had decent games.

This sums it up, especially in the first half. The standard of our passing was awful, constantly giving the ball away which just invites pressure. United pressed us but our movement was non existent. It was the same 2nd half vs Caley, players making runs behind opponents rather than in to space to receive the ball. Our only option is to then go long which inevitably leads to losing possession.