EdinburghLivi

Will be interesting to hear from Martindale after the match. Hopefully he can enjoy that one despite the injuries we picked up during the game. I'm concerned about the Donnellan injury, hopefully it's just a hamstring strain rather than a tear. Show that pitch to any imbecile who wants us to get rid of the plastic - that's how ours will end up, if not worse. Thought we were brilliant for long periods during that. Should have been level at half time, I did not see anything to disallow the goal at the first half. Brian Graham is great at appealing for nothing, I assume it was a case of that. The goals we conceded weren't great from the goalkeeper, despite the first one being a good hit. McGovern is struggling to get down for low shots. I don't see it happening but hopefully Hamilton gets another chance. Otherwise, difficult decision for Martindale about whether to go for Mcgovern or George for the rest of the season. After that second goal, we looked so threatening on every set piece and counter attack. Hope Nouble can stay fit until the end of the season, we will be creating a lot of chances for Yengi, Anderson and Mackay to try and tuck away. Back to his best and was perfectly in sync with the equally excellent Brandon. Need to start taking chances in the league but if we can defend like we did today against a decent team, I'm hopeful that we can start getting results in the next run of games. Just need our goalkeepers to start pulling their weight.

That cheer for the winner was a long time coming after the absolute shite we've watched this season. First Scottish Cup quarter final in 19 years as well, can't believe that curse is over after so long. Thought we slightly edged it but couldn't have complained if it had gone to penalties. Nouble and Brandon were outstanding. So happy for the former that he's finally getting to play in a position where we can see how good he is.

Get in.

That's absolute bullshit. I have absolutely no idea how that was not a hand ball.

Get in. Great goal, well deserved.

Yeah, that was horrific officiating for our goal. It's a shame we had to use all our subs on injuries or I'd be taking Mcgovern off.

Fair play to Martindale for going out in January and finding the only available top flight keeper worse than George.

If anyone is in any doubt that Nouble is our best player that Martindale inexplicably played out of position for 6 months, show them this game. Milne should have been booked but presumably Walsh read this thread before the game and wants to overcorrect.

Pitch is horrible. That Donnellan injury is completely down to it. Looked like his hamstring which would be a disaster for us. Thistle playing nice stuff despite pitch. Good goal. We should be level though, dreadful decision from Walsh.

Great is a stretch but he was much better last night than in the dreadful games he played at centre back.

There's a very bad balance at the moment where neither of them look good at the same time. It won't take much to catch up to Ross County but we need to start getting both right at the same time soon.

Need to get Rachel Walkingshaw back on. Enjoy listening to her more than anyone else on co-comms.

Yengi was fucked but I think taking him and Mackay off and bringing Sangare and Anderson on gubbed us. Had absolutely nothing to aim at for the last 10 minutes. Didn't deserve to lose but that can happen when you don't take your chances. Think we missed Nouble a lot, Bradley just doesn't do it for me.

Unlucky not to score and we would have deserved it. Yengi is so awkward that he's causing a lot of problems but he's lacking in quality so far. Don't think Kilmarnock will continue to be this crap so we'll need to improve our final ball. It won't take much for them to score with their quality up top and our lack of quality in goals.

Back 5 with Mackay neutered at left wing back imo. George and Nottingham in the same team makes me very upset.

What's the point in playing these games? As clear a foul as you will see in the build up to that goal.

Said on a group chat that I think Martindale was way too complacent with the performances at the start of the season when we were picking up points and even in the games that we narrowly lost. As you say, we were very lucky to get points against County and St Johnstone after putting in pretty poor performances. Motherwell were down to 10 men so that was an asterisk. Dundee were the better team at 11 vs 11. In addition to that, I actually think that we've come out on the fortunate side of officiating this season, certainly compared to last season when a lot of crap decisions went against us. In my opinion, it felt like Martindale was allowing lower standards that had been the case in previous seasons when we've done well. From the beginning of this season, the budget chat felt very overplayed and may have been the start of a "oh well, we can't expect to compete anyway" despite doing so for the first part of last season with a very similar squad. If we go down, the most significant proportion of the blame should fall on Martindale with the off field stuff second and finally the players (with the exception of some absolute duds that should have repaid Martindale's faith with much better performances). I think Martindale probably deserves the season at this point but I think a lot of other managers we could have appointed in November/December would save this group of players.

Apparently missed out on another centre back who is signing for another team in Scotland, either Premiership or Championship I understand we are in a bad position but I can't help but feel that if Martindale had been less negative about the club and the budget in the press that we would be missing out on fewer players.

Nouble showing shoots of recovery after 6 months of being wasted in the wrong position but Martindale has absolutely ruined Anderson. Terrible man management of a genuine goalscorer. I'd be starting Guthrie or even Mackay through the middle every day of the week before Anderson right now. Lots of bad from that result but there's something in that system if we can just get a win over the line from somewhere. Mackay is a great player and if we can find the right combination of players around him (3 of Shinnie, Nouble, Guthrie and Stephen Kelly), I think we will continue to score goals. What needs to happen at the other end is Nottingham being dumped as far away from the team as possible. He is rotten. If Martindale doesn't fancy Donnellan there, I would be shelling out as much money as possible for any competent loanee centre back tomorrow.

Also Mackay should have been on at half time. One of the very few rays of hope.

You can start to have better performances but until you stop playing absolute donkeys at the back, you will lose goals and games. Nottingham must be the worst defender in the division.

Was watching out the corner of my eye but the lines drawn looked surprisingly close. I thought it was well onside too.

Nottingham is so shite and I fear McGovern might be too. That said, County's backline looks equally rotten so there's a chance we could sneak this. Terrible attempt by Bradley on half time to put us ahead. No idea how he missed the target by that much.

I'm possibly blinded by how awful we were when he went off, but he seemed to have a good touch and recovery in a few situations in the first half. I don't think we'd have given away that second goal if he'd got the ball where Nottingham did based on that evidence.

I'd probably agree with you in the sense that Nottingham probably understands his limitations better than Devlin who appears to still think he's playing better than he is. Nottingham won't try as many stupid passes as Devlin and is likely a better asset in the air. I'd try Donnellan next to Obileye (if he's not fucked again) next. If we're struggling with that, I'd potentially be looking at Ledingham rather than having either of them as starters again.