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I think Bene comes back in when fit, he's better than Fisher, Otoo and Comrie in the air (as is Breen). Muirhead won too many headers and was even able to bring long balls down too easily on a few occasions, including the Morton goal where Otoo doesn't do enough with Muirhead and Fisher falls asleep and lets Crawford run off him. That said, nobody deserves to be dropped after an excellent performance, if we keep these standards up it will be hard for the guys returning to get back in the XI.

Both teams will have strong XIs on the pitch, made up largely of players signed (or had their contracts extended) by both managers. Raith's larger squad should give Murray a few more options off the bench, but McPake will still have a few perfectly capable subs available, no excuses for either manager, it should be a cracking, close game, hopefully we need sneak it!

Aye, I think the amount of injury time was about right, the referee was useless for both teams, a draw was probably about right, although gutting to lose 2 points at the death. Lots to be positive about from our side, defence looks rock solid again like last season, we have O'Halloran and Summers who will need a few games to develop an understanding with the side, KRH, McCann, Todd, Breen & Mehmet to add to that squad....maybe a couple more signings. We didn't lose any ground at the top of the table either

Just a yellow for me as well, which was my initial reaction looking at it live. A cynical, tactical foul but not dangerous. Hamilton needs to spend less time chatting to refs, he gets too many yellows for dissent, that was probably why he was hooked at half time and we miss his bite in the middle.

O'Hara, apart from his pace and threat in behind doesn't offer enough for me, I can't se him being offered anything. I think Todorov will be away, but I wouldn't be totally averse to keeping him as impact sub. Hopefully Comrie stays, that he can be used in as RCB in a 3 makes him more versatile. Macdonald can dribble, is a useful squad player, but pretty limited technically, his crossing is usually dire, he just hits so many crosses once every blue moon he puts in a great one. I am not sure with him, as a backup he won't be a disaster. Mehmet has had an excellent season, he has been lucky a few times he hasn't given away a goal after fannying about with the ball, but he seems greatly improved at dealing with crosses and his shot stopping is excellent. I think he will stay. Of the loans, KRH would be great but I imagine hard to achieve. Fisher would be excellent, think we will get that done. I think Otoo could prove useful again. Mochrie started well, but confidence and form has dipped quite a lot, so probably he has not done enough. Mahon has a decent touch, looks to play forward but otherwise I just don't think he has much, doesn't dribble much, no great pace, crossing and shooting isn't special either. McGowan hasn't particularly impressed me, doesn't have the pace to play anywhere other than a deep lying central midfielder, and doesn't really have the range of passing or defensive quality to be of much use - but McPake seems to like him so he might reappear.

As above, it was pretty even for the first 25 minutes or so, Wighton's disallowed goal was a bit of a soft decision. Airdrie were gradually getting on top though, and after the goal battered us until half-time. The 2 subs after a 30 minutes were a big gamble, I guess it was designed to give the whole team a shake and it did work but until half time it looked like it had only made a bad situation worse. Second half we were great, Mochrie and Mahon helped a lot and we actually played with a bit of composure. Both defences were poor during most of the game, it is a good thing Airdrie didn't get forward much second half as we didn't look much more solid. The Airdrie keeper certainly had an interesting game, and the referee had a lot to do as well. 5-4 next Saturday?

Yeah Hamilton was probably booked for not keeping his mouth shut, he always in the referees ear, if he was the captain, he might get away with it more. He needs to cut down on this. That said, the most important thing was he played great, clear MOTM for me. It was a good game, Montrose can play and are pretty physical as well. We were pretty lucky to be ahead at half time, second half we were better and largely in control but Montrose kept plugging away and were always dangerous. A game of fine margins, Breen's excellent header and us surviving McAllister's double chance at the end of the first half the crucial moments that went our way.

Todd's biggest assets are his movement and his work-rate, tonight he was central, playing ahead of Chalmers and Hamilton, which suits his game, he can also do a job at right back/right wing back as well because that also gives him space to bomb forward. With those two behind him, he has more licence to burst forward and the balance of the team overall looked good, Wighton was also able to drop deeper because Todorov was keeping the centre backs busy, both wing backs were flying forward to good effect as well. 4-0 at half time was a fair reflection of the performance, it was excellent. What Matty did tonight was also hit two great finishes, as McPake mentions, if he is to be an attacking midfielder, improving his finishing is key for him.

Falkirk were excellent first half, we were lucky to be only 1 down. Second half was much better, the shape was better and we were sharper in possession. Falkirk played the better football overall, but second half we played some decent stuff as well. A bit too simplistic to say we played hoofball, looking for a bite with that. Fair to say we have a bigger more physical side (especially with Todorov & McCann playing) but despite this, Falkirk were more dangerous throughout from set plays. The ref was dubious, but not biased. The penalty was clear, Bene was lucky not to be sent off and there were a fair few other yellows missed. A really good game, both teams going for it and lots of chances, looking forward to the next one already.

Some pretty petty stuff getting posted on here now which is a shame. There was a lot of togetherness and genuine empathy correctly shown for Rovers fans two weeks ago, that shouldn't disappear now either. It's never that simple to change ownership. A lot of fans of other clubs (including mine) will have had morally bankrupt owners they have tried to get rid of, albeit not in such extreme circumstances. It would be more useful to continue to stand together and work for positive change across Scottish football.

Dorrans as a number 10 How's he going to pass the ball to our centre halves from there?

Don't all players aged16-20 need to be promising at youth level? Otherwise they wouldn't even be there!

The difference was getting him on the ball higher up the pitch and giving him good passes to his feet with him facing the opposition goal, that and us in general keeping the ball on the ground and playing better football. If we do that more often, he will always cause problems for the opposition, even if he doesn't hit those heights each game, as will Fraser Murray and Banks. For quite a few months now we've barely played any football, partly due to some poorer pitches in the winter, partly down to ever decreasing confidence and partly down to poor tactics/formation/team selection. So Thomas, and indeed the other wingers have been getting little possession, deeper in the pitch and normally when they are close to the touchline, facing it and with the full back right behind them - really difficult to do much from that position. I agree that's he better on the right than the left, but to me that's not such a big thing, he can do damage on the left as well - but again how often and where we get him on the ball is key.

McManus doesn't have the quality or awareness to play as a 'ten'. He either plays up front where he can be a nuisance, threaten in behind and he also holds the ball up a bit better these days. I am not sure with Dow injured we have anyone who is particularly effective in that role; Turner doesn't score or directly assist enough, F Murray I am not sure - might work, Banks possibly but I think he will be better wide, probably the same goes for Thomas. Very hard to predict what the line up will look like as we don't know who has been affected (and how much) by Covid. Assuming all of the below are fine, I'd go: ------------------------OFW (just) Comrie------Watson------E Murray-----Edwards --------------Whittaker-------Wilson -------Thomas------Turner-------F Murray ----------------------Wighton I'd be telling the 3 behind Wighton to roam around and swap positions a lot, we can get enough width with Comrie and Edwards bombing forwards.

I think Crawford is doing fine. Recruitment has been good and we've seen more tactical flexibility this season. Defensively we have been solid all year. We've had two bad performances recently, Ayr at home and Arbroath in that gale. Otherwise we have been quite unfortunate not to pick up more points, we did enough in the second half to beat Morton away, could have won at Inverness and deserved a point at Tynecastle (and may well have had all 3 had we got in front). If the forward players had been in a little bit better form, we'd have another 4-6 points. No that we have more options; Banks, Fraser Murray fit again and Wighton, we can drop guys that are hopelessly off form (Thomas and even Dow up until the Raith game). I think the criticism of the performances (of the team and individuals) has been too strong, it's too simplistic to say that if we don't win we were pish, and if we do we were brilliant. Some of the performances recently have been better than some games we won at the start of the season. I am not sure what people expect either in some of the conditions the players face in Scotland in the winter. I am confident we'll finish 2nd or 3rd and give the playoffs a good go, if we achieve that then we'll have met expectations. If we don't make the playoffs then it has been a poor season for sure, either way though, the time to review Crawford's position will be the end of the season.

An aggressive, solid, no nonsense defender. Can play anywhere at the back but at his best at centre half. Not the tallest but attacks the ball well in the air, hence a lot of goals at the beginning of this year from set pieces. A good leader, has done a fine job as captain for us this season. A many of many clubs having left Motherwell as a youngster. That said, without his goals, I don't know if his performances would stand out that much this season. He's not great on the ball so if you play out a lot from the back I am not sure he would be a great fit. Would/will be a big loss for us although I think Lewis Mayo could step up, we'd obviously need another centre back if he leaves this month.

It was a pretty good game, the coverage was excellent so well done to all involved for that. We started slowly but after we got in front we were good, we started the second half well and probably should have put one of our chances away to make it 3-0 and kill the game. Credit to Arbroath though, they kept at it and started to cause problems down the flanks, got a goal and then after that it was a much tighter contest. I also thought the penalty was very soft, I would need to see it again, but from memory, the defender was pretty close to Dow who blasted the ball off his hand - for me that's not a penalty (even if perhaps the new rules suggest otherwise). Overall I think 3-1 was about right. I guess its difficult for Arbroath, expectations only go up, and 5th last season was a great effort. I am sure if you get a result, more will follow, hopefully on Saturday!

Aye I'd agree, there seems to be more to his game that just being a nuisance these days, his hold up play is better than I remember it anyway.

A very good performance from us, everyone contributed but our central midfielders in particular were excellent and McManus did well in his normal 'being a pain in the arse' role up top. We need to defend set pieces better as we were lucky Popescu hit the bar twice when it was easier to score, but in general our defending as a team so far looks a lot more solid. It was competitive, Hearts had more possession, territory and a few other very good chances (Boyce & Naismith). We did have a few good chances on the break second half as well, so overall 2-1 was about right but it could easily have finished 2-2. I'd like to see us swap Thomas and Dow over more often during games, because with Thomas on the right, there is always a chance he can cut in like that and gets shots away. Anyway an excellent start to the season for us, will it enjoy whilst it lasts, no point in looking too far ahead, a tough game at Arbroath next weekend and then a top of the table clash with the wee team which is always a battle. We have a hard working, well organised team with some good attacking players who should be competitive in every fixture, you can't ask for more than that, we will see where that takes us.

I thought Whittaker did fine midfield and also at right back on Saturday. He is more aggressive than a lot of our players, a few times he won the ball back with his anticipation and he also got forward a few times - on one occasion he won possession high up the pitch, Turner played him in and he got the byeline (albeit the cross came to nothing). I haven't seen anything yet to suggest he lacks the fitness to forward from full back or from midfield, simply because he is older doesn't mean his immobile. On the other flank I can't remember Edwards getting up the pitch all that often, and neither Turner nor McInroy got forward all that often either in the second half. I am bit concerned Crawford is talking again about narrow defensively, I feel that we have invited teams on to us because of this on too many occasions. More encouragingly he did also state that we sat too deep against Queens in the second half, that's the one area from our performances so far that I think we can improve on.

I'd agree with this, defensively we are fine, forward wise unless one of McCann/McGill goes somewhere, we don't need another forward. Perhaps even one winger on loan would do it given that Thomas and Dow (hopefully) start most games, might be tricky to attract two decent loan options on the wing if their playing time is likely to be limited.

Yes, here in Romania we have this great 14 team top league system, with exactly that 6/8 split but with the added stupidity that all the teams points are halved after the split, essentially meaning that in the 'regular season' a draw earns you 0.5 points and a win 1.5! It is as good as it sounds! The system being largely designed (I guess) to ensure that the teams with the larger budgets can use the long winter break just before split (2 months or so) to buy a new team and finish as high as possible. Even more creatively, during the pause they have decided to introduce this to the 2nd division (The Championship) and have now created a top 6 playoff for the 2 promotion places, previously it was a simple 20 team league, play each other twice, top 2 automatically promoted and 3rd place playing a playoff with the team in 12th in the top league. As you can imagine UTA Arad who were top and 11 points ahead of the team in second are hardly ecstatic about it, their lead from the 6th place team Rapid Bucuresti is now just 6 points. I guess the wonderfully named Metalglobus in 7th are that happy either given they have they have the same amount of points as Rapid, no playoff for them, in fact no games whatsoever for the teams from 7th downwards as they have cancelled relegation to the 3rd division. When you get down to the 3rd division, the leagues are regionalised but they decided to promote just one team from the 5 leagues! Which just so happens to the biggest club Universitate Craiova....sporting integrity is alive and well here in Eastern Europe!