Nithsdale Wanderer

Do you think that, Thomson, Tosh, McFarlane, McQuilken were 'journeymen' ? They seemed to do alright ! The point is, you need a balance to the squad in terms of youth and experience.

Also meant to say, agree with Rjc's comments re. the AJ DOUBLE WINNING SEASON. Exciting , attacking football - probably best I have seen in 55 years - and a great mix of youth and experience in a well balanced squad. Anyone fancy some of that right now ?

I am not saying anyone should lose their job right now, just joining the discussion about possible future candidates. Here's another to get people going - Jim McIntyre ! Took us to the play-offs and within a whisker of the Final. Very positive, enthusiastic and experienced guy. I have never understood the negativity toward him, what did he do wrong ?

Unless I misheard, Bartley seemed to indicate that apart from the goals that was a decent performance on Saturday. That is quite worrying. First half in particular we were poor all over the park. Not just shambolic defending but we could not string 2 passes together, midfielders being caught in possession and giving it away through poor passing. Add to that, shocking crossing and no threat from strikers I would have to say makes for a less than acceptable performance. Picked it up a bit 2nd half but no goal threat. Of course it was good to see shots from outside the box with a fine strike from Cochrane for the goal and an equally good one from Connelly but we need more than that. |Hopefully, we start to get some players back from injury soon to pick things up. On that note, I can't help wondering if the number of injuries we have - which don't all appear to have been sustained in matches - is linked to excesses in Training. Bartley seems to be a hard taskmaster, nothing wrong with that, but you have to strike the right balance and get players fit and ready to peak on matchday. Managers always say you have to train well in order to make the Team but if that is taken too far it may prove counter productive.

They had more than one effective player. Impressed with Tait, though not his temperament. They had pace, movement and cohesion every time they went forward. They were a level above us in that.

Absolutely. The left side of the pitch, in an attacking sense, might as well have been fenced off as everything was down the right side. very predictable and easy to play against. Mckechnie did though, get into some dangerous positions but his delivery was woeful. He did improve, , as did the team, 2nd half but we had no goal threat whatsoever. The goal and the shot from Connelly were fantastic but I do not recall us having any chances inside the box - aside from the one which was deemed offside but was a very poor effort anyway. As the quote above says we were lopsided and imbalanced . That should have been rectified much earlier when we were having good possession and pressure in the 2nd half.

I haven't commented before on the ' playing out from the back' strategy but after Saturday I feel the need to. That was the worst display of trying to execute that style of play - AND WE KEPT REPEATING IT EVEN THOUGH WE WERE SO BAD AT IT ! Ambrose was the main culprit, dithering every time and then either being caught in possession or making a pass under pressure that ended up losing possession. There is a possibility that , on occasion, others were not in position to receive the pass but I think that was in the minority of instances. I remember " in the good old days " Chris Higgins would receive the ball to feet and look to start something. Big difference being he would receive the ball further up the park - just outside the box - as opposed to around the 6 yard box like now. We immediately put ourselves under pressure and Hamilton exploited that to the full. As RJC says , we are not Man City ! I am not advocating suddenly hoofing it up the park with no purpose but we need to find a way to relieve the pressure and mistakes at the back. The Manager needs to have a plan that the players at his disposal can execute.

I don't know if it was traffic or not but this takes me back to a friendly - against Reading I think - can''t be bothered checking the date but it was when Jim Sinclair was right back and Captain I think. I was in the ground fairly early and the opposition were going through their prep as normal and there was no sign of any QOS players from about 2.15 to 2.50. Sinclair appeared about then to great applause - not normal for him - and then others appeared in dribs and drabs. I think there had been a bad collision on M74 which caused very long delays. I had travelled from Glasgow that day, quite early, but seem to recall it was very slow around Lesmahagow. At least we got a team properly warmed up and 'ready to go ' - or not - on Saturday !

Don't like commenting on games I am not at but that appears to be a repeat of the Alloa game. Wrong team selection by Bartley and wrong game plan if you lose 2 early goals like that. Good to see we revived 2nd half but we are giving ourselves too much to do. Will be nowhere near promotion if we continue to be 2 goals behind at HT and end up losing home games.

Quite sad to see you cannot give genuine credit where it is due. Even with the biggest budget and talent in the country you still have to bring it all together to produce results.

I hope this young man does well but we need to wait and see. There is a pattern over the years that some people get over excited at a signing - or squad player - without seeing what they can do at 1st team level then when it doesn't work out as they expect they get on the players back. For example, Stewart Kean. I always knew he was never a clinical finisher or regular scorer but more a worker and strike partner but when we signed him some seemed to think he was going to be prolific then when he wasn't they were on his case regularly. Slightly different example, Emilio Jaconelli. Scored for fun in reserves and clamour for him to be in 1st team but never happened for him when selected. Both examples of inflated , unrealistic expectations. So , let's give this young man a chance and see how it goes - he is not a Dobbie or Lyle or Andy Thomson yet !

Quite correct. Bartley was critical of squad size when he came in.

Allan Johnston 2012/13 put together an outstanding team/squad that was superb Won trophies, could match Championship and Premier teams in Cups.

Another possibility - Hibs appoint Martindale. MB could be tempted back as his assistant at a bigger club like Hibs OR Livingston may want MB as Manager, may not be too early for that.

I'm all for pace on the wings and firing balls across. I thought we had enough players already to provide that. The description of Raggett could well apply to Gibson, McKechnie and Walker. I don't have any statistics to back this up but I get the feeling that of them all, Gibson has provided the greater number of assists and quality of cross. I was concerned somewhat when Bartley said , end of last season I think, that Gibson had played a lot of games for someone so young and needed protecting from that. I seem to remember a certain Wayne Rooney playing regularly from 16 years of age - didn't seem to do him any harm ! I do hope Gibson is not marginalised for any spurious reason or moved on too early. I assume the longer we keep and develop him the larger the development fee will be when that time comes. We don't get real talent coming through that often, we should make the most of it while we can.

Todd noticed that too and was strongly encouraging - some might say giving pelters - to improve positionally. Some say Todd is too quiet for a Captain but was very vocal yesterday.

I don't think he was referring to fitness , more level of performance. We huffed and puffed first half with no threat. Annan looked more comfortable and in control with their passing. I thought Smith was very effective - still got a bit of pace - got in behind several times , held the ball up well and dropped deep to link up play. Their number 7 was also impressive.

Good turnout from them. Very few - less than six - left after the third goal.

As I said , there is much spin in Football.

This. In addition we have Mckechnie and Walker similar type of player not sure why we have signed another who sounds very similar. Was concerned last season when Bartley talked about LG being so young and having played so many games and would have to protect him ?? Surely if you are good enough then age does not matter. Mind you , " you will never win anything with kids " will you ??

Iain Wilson never gave less than 100% when playing for us and made a significant contribution when available. Unfair criticism in my opinion. |t is not his fault that he is injury prone - as the record shows. It seems to me that the Manager was concerned about his fitness from the off , which is understandable. For those that don't realise there is as much 'spin' in Football as there is in Politics.

I could be wrong - as we all are from time to time - but I thought we did see him in that dreadful last game vs Partick. For some reason GN saw fit to drop Wilson for Low who, I think, scored a crucial goal at home to Dunfermline a couple of weeks earlier. Thought that was a huge mistake when I saw Teams Pre Match.

Two words, one beginning with G and the other with N !

Not a surprise, it happens. We did it to Brechin 10 years ago when we had our first opportunity to win the League in fine style. Dunfermline were never going to let up today in front of a good crowd who had only come to see one thing. Congratulations to them. Thankfully, we know how it feels.

It is a rarity, but not impossible. Best thing McCall did for us when he wheeled and dealed and brought in Murray, Adams, McDonald and , I think, some sort of striker ! Never forget the Jan (H) to Partick after they signed. 4 up in dreamland but we still almost managed to blow it ending 4-3. That was the start of something for sure !