Plastic Pitch v Plastic Whistle

[full metal jacket]

Eremenko = class of his own

[Yambam]

Two of our defeats were with Balatoni and Muirhead at the back.

Aberdeen was meh.

Dundee hinged on us going down to 10 men but a point in retrospect was a good result.

Have you been at all, some or none of our games this season?

Also the atmosphere was non-existent at RP today maybe down to September weekend with a lot of auld yuns and young kids in the away support.

Sadly none of the singing section got together. Not one song sung.

Yeah i have been, not every game due to working away but when home i go. Their is no doubt the partnership with Muirhead and Balatoni doesn't work.

My question to you though is who picked the team? why did we not replace them even after last year when it was clear it wasn't going to work?

you can blame injuries all you wish however i don't think the players are motivated, (that's my opinion) they were truly horrendous against St Mirren and deservedly lost the game. They were stinking in the first 20-25 minutes against Caley.

Morton again was another very poor game. So yeah i have been but my question is why is it so poor? why do we stick rigidly to the system mcnamara introduced? even against St mirren it was like for like substitutions which says Archie thinks the system was working when again in my opinion it wasn't.

Get this right i am not shouting for Archie to go far from it, he criticised the players for not being able to see out games and not being street wise. The same can be labelled at him for not being able to change to counteract changes in a game.

[the west curve]

Eremenco is the best player in the SPFL by a country mile.

[Quitongo's Left Peg]

Eremenco is the best player in the SPFL by a country mile.

Never heard of him.

Although he must be good to be better than Commons, Van Dijk or Ciftci.

[Pie Of The Month]

< < < < < Verge of tears

An absolute doing like that was coming so at least it's come sooner rather than later. The only problem is that there's not much that can really be done to make major changes to prevent it from happening again going by the squad that's there. We're so reliant on Seaborne in defence it's unreal and Archie paid off one of our few recognised central defenders when apparently there's no budget to bring anyone in meaning we're left with Muirhead and Balatoni and no one else if Seaborne is injured which seems to be every 2nd game so far.

Carroll is absolute gash, genuinely dreadful. I'd forgotten what a poor left back looked like because we've had decent ones for so long but Jesus Christ he's not the answer. We'd be better served with McMillan at left back or if we're going to have someone who isn't up to this level then we may as well put Keenan in and at least it's not a complete waste of money and he's our own young player who has come through the youth system. McMillan has regressed as a player compared to the way he playing at the end of last season. The first goal was down to him letting Obadeyi just run past him with no effort whatsoever and then he gave Balatoni a bollocking for losing out on the header despite the cross being pretty much perfect for Obadeyi to get on the end of. Even then I'd play McMillan at left back because he's got to be better there than Carroll.

It's only going to get worse before it gets better, I can't really see us picking up any points until November looking at our fixtures.

Lawless has been in decent form recently, at least that's a positive and Elliott at least looked like he was making an effort in the 2nd half which is more than can be said of the rest of the team when they went 3 down.

[KisforKillie]

One of the big differences today was that the Killie players had an idea of where Eremenko was going to play the ball. All too often this season and last you'd see Eremenko play a ball through and none of the other players would be able to anticipate the move.

Shite crowd though FFS 3,230 of us? That's dire.

[mrcat1990]

WAT on meltdown again over Archie.

I wouldn't be sad to see him go.

I think the team has gone a bit stale from his tactics. Other teams know what we will do and how we will play, and we are too easily beaten.

He hasn't has much backing with money from the board but I don't think he has done very well with the guys he has brought in.

He's gambled with the Stevenson signing and it hasn't worked at all. Carroll isn't good, and BRE and Eccy are miles away.

The only decent work he has done is bring in Osman.

I have the fear from the Motherwell game. Sutton will totally dominate Balatoni and Muirhead.....

I was always one to give Archie backing but after the Saints game I lost faith. Today has affirmed that I now think he's done and has taken the team as far as he can. We don't seem to have learnt from any of our errors of last season and have started regressing. The squad has shown it's capable but we can't get any consistency due to avoidable and poor errors costing us desperately needed points.

[deadasdillinger]

Taking the young folk from work for a day out. Nae doubt we'll lose like we did last time, give the kids plenty opportunity to slag me

Cracking day out. Kids all loved it and one now considers herself a Killie fan, bought a scarf and all! Stayed behind the end to scream and mob the players at the end for selfies and autographs, which I'm sure was new for them!

Much better football than last season. Other than a flat spell after the first goal, I thought we were excellent - very comfortable and on another day could have been 4 or 5.

Great considering how close our games with Thistle were last season. Definite signs of improvement.

[Quitongo's Left Peg]

We seem to be progressing whilst Thistle are regressing. Could an argument be made to stick with Archibald and hope for an improvement? AJ's issue appears to have been the negative influence of Sandy Clark so could a similar situation be happening at Thistle?

Or has Archie just had his time?

[Slacker]

I'm fine with Archie staying. Something needs to change though. We've been 4-2-3-1 since we came up, maybe time now to go 4-4-2 and get Eccleston up top with Doolan.

[DuntoiRab]

Happy my prediction was wrong.

[Dibble]

Routine win for Killie without really hitting top gear. Eremenko was excellent as was the back four, where we look solid. We were losing 2 goals a game last season but look at us now! That's where we have improved significantly with Pasca and Connolly outstanding again.

Thistle were really poor, no plus marks other than the no8 who looked good with the ball at his feet.

Could have been a real doing if we had stepped up, as they had jacked it in with 20 to go. Would like to see Miller get his chance in the team now as all we are missing is an out and out finisher.

[P45]

We still play almost the same way as McNamara set us up 3 years ago. Archie hasn't really brought in any of his own ideas, especially on seeing games out.

Sacking him would be a bit shite but he really needs someone with a good knowledge of the game brought in as assistant to help out.

It's worked well for Killie.

[Snakebite]

Killie lost their best player after a poor season and correctly made a fair overhaul of their squad.

We fannyied about waiting for players to become available and gave new contracts to diddies like Christie Elliott, who couldn't even crack the 1st team in the league below.

Says it all really.

[Fuctifano]

Couldn't make it yesterday but possibly not a bad thing for me in terms of money saved and also for some folk in terms of getting their eyes opened. Whereas last season it was easier for me to keep the faith because we were playing decent football but not winning, this season to date has been dire. Apart from yesterday, the only competitive game I've missed has been Dundee, and of the others I'd say we looked good against County ( but that probably has to have an asterisk next to it) and for about 30 minutes against ICT. The rest of the games have been crap, including a scraped 1-0 over Morton.

I think it's becoming abundantly clear we've made a total f**k up of the last transfer window, certainly in comparison to yesterday's opposition. I would rate our squad as about on a par with our squad in the first half of last year, but obviously without the "newly promoted team" momentum, and markedly worse than the second half of last season.

Osman and Seaborne look like upgrades on the previous squad, although the latter appears to be made of butter given his myriad of injuries so far. Carroll is the very definition of a panic signing, we must have had more KBs than a 14 year old ginger kid with acne at a school disco from left backs up and down the country to end up with this joker- bear in mind we had that boy from Wigan on trial most of the summer.

Eccleston is still at jury's out stage although again seems a panic buy- he was available all summer and I refuse to believe he was our #2 target after Lyle Taylor for that position. Stevenson did seem on paper to be exactly what we needed, an experienced #10 proven at this level. Shoved up front for the first few games then back into his best position, still looks cumbersome and his passing is dreadful. Oh aye, and BRE, who we've loaned out for half the length of his contract.

So we added 5 to the squad, let 8 go, and we're told last week that we spent the budget already, despite also being told by our chairman in May that our budget would be vastly increased and we'd be able to compete with the other bottom 6 sides from last year. Suggests the new guys are on a fair amount. Also, what if we had paid a transfer fee for Lyle Taylor- would we have spent the budget even earlier?

As for on the field, same problems- can't hold a 1 goal lead, lose a high % from set pieces, discipline. I would at least say we played more of a 4-3-3 than 4-2-3-1 when Stevenson was up front but since Fraser got injured we've gone back to last year's setup, which teams know how to play against.

I could go on but I think we'll be doing very well to keep our heads above water this season- next week against an equally down Motherwell side will be important although i already have the fear about Sutton molesting the 2 CBs if Seaborne isn't fit.

[Ad Lib]

Seaborne was unlucky yesterday. A gash to the eye isn't exactly evidence of being injury prone.

[jagfox]

Spoke to Ian McCall at half-time yesterday. He made the observation that Higginbotham and Lawless weren't tracking back enough and this put more pressure on the defence and the full backs in particular.

Signing wise Archibald seems to have put most of his budget on bringing in Osman, Seabourne and Stevenson. I was impressed when we brought in Ryan but despite reaching for positives his overall play has been a disappointment. He shows some decent flashes of play and is probably one of the best passers of the ball in the team but he was very poor yesterdsy apart from hitting the crossbar. Archibald needs to get a performance out of him soon or its shoogly peg time I'm sorry to say.

On the other hand Osman has been solid and Seabourne has that physicality and experience that Balatoni and Muirhead lack. Muirhead is certainly lacking match fitness and he has struggled to get a run of games in the development team. I cam see him leaving in January.

[Ad Lib]

Not buying the "Stevenson is one of the best passers in the team" patter. His distribution has been chronic. I would put Bannigan, Osman, Fraser, Seaborne, Higginbotham, Doolan, probably Lawless and Craigan too, ahead of him on that particular list. Christ, even a crocked Sean Welsh could pass the ball better.

[Pie Of The Month]

It depends what you mean by better passer. Stevenson clearly has a better range of passing and is far more capable of playing a cross field pass or a ball 40 odd yards that goes straight to his teammate than probably most of the team except Fraser, Higginbotham and O'Donnell. Some of his basic short range passes seem to be a mile off though which if you're being generous you could attribute to the fact there doesn't appear to be have been any understanding built up between him, Higginbotham and Lawless yet and he was inexplicably played up front to begin the season meaning he's had 2 or 3 games in his preferred position.

I'd still stick with him purely on the basis the competition for his place is Craigen.

[Ad Lib]

It's at times like this that I really wish Sean Welsh was back in the team. We've been criminally unlucky with injuries to key players. Just about the only player in a sparse position never to have been injured for a prolonged period is Kris Doolan in the last 3 years at the Club.