Afro

If you’d said at the start of the season we’d come through unbeaten against the Edinburgh teams all whilst playing no strikers, you’d have absolutely taken that. After seeing the pair of them this week, I’m livid we’ve not taken 6 points. Our away form (or horrific lack of) is totally mind boggling. Playing the likes of Odoffin and Tiffoney certainly doesn’t help but it must be a mental thing within the squad.

McMillan is adequate, and no more than that. Done well against Celtic but doesn’t offer the same threat that Devlin does down the right; would like to see more of Savane but I’m assuming he may be slowly introduced to the team as Lawson was last season. Really disappointing that Erskine seems very injury prone as he has actually looked very classy in the current 4-2-3-1 formation. I was extremely dubious when he signed and thought he was done when I first saw him at wingback against Motherwell, but he was outstanding against Killie at home last season in the lone striker role. His composure alone is a massive asset in this team. Menga won’t be back. Tiffoney reminds me of when Danny Mullen first broke into the team. Decent turn of pace to him and looks to get on the front foot, but lightweight as hell and generally doesn’t look cut out to operate up top for us. Don’t know if a loan or a tonne of protein would do the business for him. Desperately need another striker or results/performances like Saturday will sadly become commonplace and may well cost us come the end of the season.

Home team desperately needing a win against a team with one of the worst away records in the league. Only one outcome - draw.

Really doesn’t sound promising re: De Vita. Not really sure where he’d in here now as we’ve far better options at #10, he doesn’t have the pace for wide left and he’s not played as a striker in ages. Would be happy to keep him around in a role similar to Miller’s but I’m sure he’d probably like to keep playing at some level regularly. Would take Penrice back in a heartbeat if Partick end up shit creek come the end of the season.

We weren’t very good but it’s a lot more telling about where Hearts are at the moment that they played 45-odd minutes against 10 men and never really looked like winning the match. Bizarrely we seemed to get a bit of a bounce after the red card and looked the better side for 20 or so minutes. Have never seen a sub as bizarre as Odoffin being thrown on up front but it seemed to work up to a point so fair play to Holt for that one. Lack of strikers really killing us, as without Dykes we seem to continue the same style of play despite replacing him with a short arsed midfielder. We’ve already proved that we can play some football this season so why revert to type, especially against this Hearts team? Greg Aitken is an awful, awful referee. A truly laughable sending off today, and was drawn in time and time again by big Uche. You’d be a wise man to bet on a sending off for us next time he’s officiating one of our games.

Have a feeling our inability to square away teams whilst we are in the ascendancy of a match will come back to bite us again tomorrow. Genuinely can see this being a re-run of the Aberdeen game. If we can produce the same performance level that we did against Celtic then there’s no doubt we can win this one. That’s a big if though.

Well, that was certainly very unexpected and absolutely deserved. Thought it would be a re-run of the recent Aberdeen and Rangers games but fair play to Robinson and Dykes - both ably proving themselves as players for the big occasion. Dykes deserved his goal and it’s mad to think some Livi fans still didn’t rate him as recently as a month ago. If he is here next season I’ll be astounded. Celtic could have played all day and still wouldn’t have scored. A lot of pace and cute build up play but could not break down our defence at all. Long live the plastic pitch.

Didn’t think Pepe didn’t too badly at all when he came on, certainly looked a lot more focussed than any other time I’ve saw him. Really rate Jacobs and some of his play during matches is spot on, but would like to see Lawson or Crawford take that spot for a spell. Pittman has got to be in behind Dykes for me. I think we would definitely have got something out the last two games with him in the side. Encouraging signs and I really hope someone is in for a doing in the coming weeks, transformation in style and the confidence to play football this season has been very impressive.

Probably several thousand from the Deans Loyal alone. f**k them.

Much like Saturday it was very much a case of probably deserving more from the game, but again being culpable of ensuring that we didn’t. Two turning points in the game were the Helander incident, which I thought at the time was a red and, shortly after half time, Devlin bursting through and screwing his shot wide. That seemed to jolt Rangers into action a bit and we visibly tired after that point and we were just chasing it from then on. Holt’s move to 3-5-2 with 5 minutes to go should’ve came a bit earlier to give us more of a chance but apart from that can’t fault the effort from our side. Rangers must wheel out clones for their European games, because the difference between them and their domestic showings at times is bizarre. Didn’t think they were all that great, maybe says more about how well we played. Quite why Rangers fans consistently have to chant, in large numbers, regarding the geopolitical situation in Ireland over the past four centuries, is baffling to me. Weird behaviour, it’s football ffs.

Our inability to sign any striker other than Dykes this summer has haunted us today horrendously. A lot of endeavour and some nice play at times but no cutting edge whatsoever. Could have feasibly had three by half time. Aberdeen seem to have gotten worse every time I’ve seen them in the last 2/3 seasons, but McInnes seems to be at Levein levels of untouchable. From their perspective, lucky not to have sold Cosgrove as they looked bottom 6 material for 85 minutes otherwise.

£29 for us at Ibrox weekend. That, coupled the Armed Forces Day pish the **** pull at the this time of year means it’s a no from me. Anything beyond £25 is poor fare, and even at that, £25 at our bit to watch Livingston vs Hamilton isn’t going to entice the casual fan along. The main argument for clubs of our size, who do rely a fair bit on actual gate receipts from game to game is that, is that the price is maximising what you’re likely to bring in. The fundamental issue in all this pricing debate is that football clubs don’t have a clue about their customer base and don’t seem to make much effort, if any, to either try to research this in any great detail, or innovate.

I think my last trip to Ibrox was the season we went down from the Championship, and it also coincided with “Armed Forces Day”. A very cringeworthy event, topped off with the match ball being delivered by a trooper abseiling down from the roof of the ground. Surprised a Chinook helicopter hasn’t been commissioned to land in the centre circle prior to kick off and the ball delivered like the nuclear football. One thing is for sure, though - Marvin Bartley will be the only tank at Ibrox on Saturday.

If the likes of Jacobs and Robinson are back fit off the back of the break, we would be in a great position to make a real go of it. Saying that though, I’d happily take a doing here if it meant we won the cup game in a few weeks. This one’s a free game, free hit, etc. etc.

Craig Curran has looked like a donkey any time I’ve seen him, no thanks. Somehow can’t see Frans or Dorrans joining, we’re fairly well stacked at the back and in midfield. Really could be doing with another striker but any decent options are long gone.

Unless it's a ludicrous offer for the club, I can't see Pittman leaving for anyone in this league. He's not quite of the calibre to start at any of the traditional Big 4 + Aberdeen, and I can't see his own personal situation changing too dramatically whereby he'd move to a Dundee or a Dunfermline who could maybe offer more money, for example. The mooted interest from MLS is a bit of a non-starter, IMO. I make it 26 if we're assuming Menga is indeed off to Angola. As far as I can tell, Pittman, Jacobs, Lamie, Robinson, Odoffin and Miller are all injured (I'm assuming McMillan will join this list after today). Only players who I'm unsure of are Sibbald and Lawson - assuming there is more than meets the eye with this pair as they're too good to leave out of a match day squad, surely?! Could definitely do with another striker in as I'm not sure Tiffoney is the correct profile of player to replace someone like Dykes, and it looks like Miller and Robinson won't be available for selection for a whole season.

As I said pre-game, that's a cracking win considering the circumstances. Totally dominated the first half and was pleasantly surprised with some individual performances. Second half was a totally different story, St Mirren coming flying out having previously been quite conservative in their play and the only real shock for me was that it took them 20-odd minutes of the half to score. After that though for all the ball they had, didn't seem to do much, if anything, with it, even given our obvious issue at left-back. Mullen coming on just seemed to utterly stifle any sort of vibrance they had up front and just muddy the play. Pleasing to see us see out a victory as opposed to chuck it in the second half but that really is an issue which will haunt us in other games to come this season. Would imagine Saints would be fine this season on the evidence of today but the lack of goals must be a concern - took a wonder strike today to get them off the mark and both Obika and Morias looked a bit headless. Two wins and two draws in the league so far is an excellent return all things considered, could easily be sitting with maximum points without too many complaints. Iron out the dip in the second half and we'll be fine for the rest of the season provided there isn't any more injuries to add to the catalogue.

Pittman is a monumental loss. I quite like Erskine but he doesn’t have anywhere near the same energy as him. Big shoes for Crawford to fill today too. Wasn’t too impressed with him during the cup games but he looked not bad against Forfar. A win today would be a great result considering the circumstances.

In fairness, 4-4-2 doesn’t suit him at all. Can break up play not too badly in a two but doesn’t have the skill to get the ball forward to the front men without someone taking the link from midfield to the attack (Pittman). Looks like it’ll be a struggle for the Dee this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see McPake out on his arse by Christmas. Wonder if Kenny Miller fancies the gig...

On tonight’s evidence, glad Jordon Forster opted for Dundee over us - has looked every inch the Championship haddie.

Similar story to most of the games I’ve seen us this season - carve out plenty of chances, don’t take many and then let the opposition back in with some woeful defending. I like Dykes and he puts in a power of a shift but he is never going to be goalscorer that we require to be any sort of success in the top flight. There were actually several instances in the second half where Robinson was challenging up to flick on high balls to Dykes, ffs - Dykes would utterly excel at the support striker role with someone else up top with him. Forfar played some really neat stuff at times and certainly made the last half hour very uncomfortable viewing. Pleased to see Marc McCallum doing well after a bit of a torrid time with us. Not much to base on having only seen them and Falkirk, but would be surprised at all if Forfar were comfortably top four/pushing for League 1 this season. Good luck Loons, hoping for a home tie for ourselves next.

Really shouldn't have searched him on Twitter, not getting much rating from Walsall fans at all. Sounds like a bit of a carthorse truth be told. Really don't know it was an attitude thing with Byrne in the end or if Dundee genuinely are just firing relatively silly money at everyone. In a strange sense if Byrne had kept his spot nailed down following New Year and hadn't lost out to Steve Lawson I'd have actually banked on him taking up the captain's armband. It's a funny game at times. Over and done with now, guy's earning a decent wedge at a level he's proven himself at, and good luck to him. I'm a bit more concerned how Steve Lawson's went from one of the most impressive performers (if not the most) since the turn of the calendar year to nowhere near the match day 18. If he's injured fine and dandy, give him time to recover, but you'd be foolish to suggest a player of his talents isn't in this side on merit.

Excellent. Really looking forward to seeing him and Dykes up top as a pairing.

Can see Jacobs being dropped for Crawford next Saturday. Bartley is a guaranteed starter for me, and if everyone’s fit then Lawson has to be in there too IMO. We desperately need another striker in as a minimum, possibly even two, the lack of any rumours or news on that front worries me a bit. Have some good goal scoring talent in midfield but we really need something guaranteed up front.

I’ve accepted that we’re never going to win an away game at this level ever again. Won’t have a better opportunity than today and we still managed to make a total c**t of it.