Lex

Andy loses his second round tie to Jakub Mensik, an 18 year old Czech kid. Another disappointing tournament.

Sure it’s been mentioned on here before but seen Aftersun for the first time at the weekend and still thinking about it now. Superb movie full of nostalgia, a great soundtrack and angst. Young Scottish actress Francesca Corrio is outstanding in the lead role.

You can certainly see why the club was willing to drive a coach and horses through the wage structure to sign Van Veen a couple of weeks ago.

FT 1-0 17 league games without a win eh? Last league win October 7th. Fear not. I don't think we can have any complaints about the result to be honest. For me there is three main reasons we lost that game. Firstly is the lack of quality in the final third that has been evident all season. We got into numerous good positions and had several crosses into the box, nothing from them. Secondly is the dreadfully taken penalty by Mandron. I was surprised when Kiltie was hooked shortly before it, I can only assume that's a fitness thing as he's not the player you'd normally take off when needing a goal. He scored a pen at Easter Road a couple weeks of ago and he'd certainly have taken this one. Alas, that was Mandron first and last penalty for us. He actually went on and missed a chance in the 94th minute that was easier to score than the penalty. A literal tap in at the back post, wide. Thirdly, is poor goalkeeping. The goal is Hemming's fault and he almost cost us a second right after the pen with a terrible kick, he got lucky the subsequent long range effort wasn't on target. Seen a lot of talk about 4th this week, the reality is top six is far from assured. Both Aberdeen and Dundee gaining on us this weekend and both have games in hand. If we keep playing like that both of them are capable of over taking us. Big game at home St Johnstone next, three points needed.

It was an obvious pen, his trailing leg quite clearly trips him. Matters not of course.

O’Hara and Kiltie are our penalty takers tbf and none of them were on the pitch. Looked like Jamison was about to take it, was there instruction from the bench that Mandron had to take it? Not unreasonable given he’s the top scoring player we have playing but that was powderpuff.

HT 1-0 Think we’ve been the better team but we are losing at half time. It’s a goal in the 48th minute from a corner which I think Hemming needs to be doing better with. All he can do is spill a shot it right infront of him and it’s tapped in. We’ve had plenty crosses in, especially from the left, but no real quality up top and that’s costing us.

No surprise to see Kwon straight back into the 11 and again no surprise it’s Baccus back to the bench to accommodate him. Good to see Kiltie making it, was rumours he was injured and he really would have been a big miss.

That overall run of form is quite something from the bottom six. Two wins out of your last 30 matches combined - both of which came against Del Boys County - is quite remarkable levels of collective shite. If any of the bottom two can win a couple of games then it's going to get interesting.

I think it’s going to be tough for Aberdeen to finish third from here.

They will win zero seats.

FT 0-2 Weren’t at the races second half and can have no complaints overall. Surprised it only finished 0-2 actually, out with a whimper. Disappointing because that is not a good Celtic team and we haven’t even ran them close. Felt we missed the physicality of Kwon in the middle of the pitch, he’ll be straight back in the 11 next week. No cup runs to Hampden again, there’s always next season I suppose.

HT 0-1 Ach frustrating. First half hour we were well on top and Celtic scored with their only real attack. We’ve hit the bar after that and Gogic forced a save with a spectacular bicycle kick. Must have had about ten corners too. Celtic’s had their chances on the break too aswell but I don’t think we deserve to be behind. Need a bit more quality final third and to avoid conceding the game killing second.

Nope.

33 years of hurt.

This has been trialled before I'm sure, it's certainly not a new idea, must have been talking about it for at least 20 years. Can't see it ever coming in, doesn't really work.

Absolutely got to be Yogi. He'd sort out those gid honest laddies and keep them up, again.

Yeah a scandalous decision which will surely be appealed. As with the last time Dundee visited Paisley, they got really fortunate with the refereeing decisions last night. And they still lost.

FT 2-0 Routine home win against bottom feeders. We only need ten men. Next.

FT 0-3 Easy peasy. Second half a non event, we took the foot off the gas and rested up for the game midweek, a good choice. That's eight goals we've scored in three games at Easter Road this season, and six points out of six, can we play there every week? That midfield pairing of Boyd-Munce and Kwon should be our first choice now, with O'Hara and Baccus in reserve, they were both excellent today. Also thought Mandron had a good game and took his goal well, he offers far more than Ayunga IMO and should be starting when fit. Kiltie, Tanser, Gogic, Fraser all their usual dependable 8/10 selves and it was a 90 minute stroll in the park for all of them. From a Hibs perspective that looked like a bunch of players trying to get their manager sacked. It has been a good few months since they last bagged a manager tbf, and they've got worse since Johnson left. Take it Monty will be out before the clocks go forward?

HT 0-3 Yeah most comfortable half of football we've had for a long time. If anything, we should be further ahead. Elvis missed an absolute sitter back post and Mandron could have gave us a fourth on half time. Like to thank Hibs once again for giving us Alex Gogic for nothing, what a signing he's been. Stuck the header in the net just lovely from a delicious Boyd-Munce to cross open the scoring. Gogic is just the type of player the stricken Hibees are lacking, thanks. One of those soft hand balls pens and goals and assists Greg Kiltie rolled it down the middle to get our second. The third was an absolute disgrace from a Hibs point of view. Corner from Boyd-Munce for his second assist and it's Mandron unmarked at the back post tapping it in low down with his foot. You don't often see goals like that at full time level, really odd defending. Boyd-Munce and Greg Kiltie have been outstanding, running amok. Absolute dominance. However, well aware that we were winning at half time last time we were at Easter Road and went onto concede three goals in the second half and lose… surely, not again.

Apparently we are signing a striker called Kevin Van Veen guys, according to his Wikipedia he played for you last season. Any good?

Yeah Baccus is going nowhere today, he will leave for nothing in May.

Guy who works for the club told me so I’m pretty sure we have. Whether he signs it or not is another thing, and I don’t think we’d announce anything officially unless he did. I imagine he will have offers from ourselves, Motherwell and a few others.

Apparently we have offered Blair Spittal a PCA.