Lex

Dunfermline away first game of the season IIRC.

HT 0-2 And down to ten men. Can we just blow for full time now? This scoreline ain't getting any better. Let's all go home early and go on a winter break. We've been terrible all over the pitch. That midfield trio of Flynn, CBM and Kiltie looked like one that would get over ran, and so it transpired. Not a tackler among them. Defence all over the shop. Probably going to finish 0-6 or something.

What a banterrific club the Dons are. We had lost six away games in a row before this one, in our last two home games we had lost to Kilmarnock and drew with Motherwell. We still go up the road and pump them three zip in their own midden. Please never change, and please never sack Barry Boy. Easy.

FT 0-1 No complaints, beaten by the better team. Second in half in particular a big disappointment, needed a big rally; but we were hopeless. Dont think anyone gets pass marks really. Baccus and O’Hara two ghosts in midfield, Ayunga’s still not the answer. We are a team devoid of ideas and confidence and we have been for months. Pittodrie and Celtic before the break then. I’d be surprised if we were still in the top six after those two.

HT 0-1 Yeah Killie been better team deserve to be ahead. Think the keeper should do better at the goal. Apart from the disallowed goal we haven’t offered much. Our midfield can’t get in it at all. Big improvement needed

Got to hand it to Ketts. He’s a clearly hopeless manager but he’s good at the PR side, which seems to count for more.There’s not many managers in world football who can go 15 games without a win and not be bagged, but he’s managed it. Managed it despite his only other managerial role being a failure. Probably end up getting another Premiership gig after he gets emptied too.

Hearts sustained financial doping over the best part of a decade certainly allowed them to sign players they shouldn’t have been able to afford, and Skacel was one of them. It’s been no surprise to see their rapid regression since they had to stop cheating. They’ve had two relegations and zero trophies in the years since their administration. Pesky living within your means just ain’t as fun! As for the game, we’ve lost five away matches in a row, so it’s hard to expect anything different here. But then again we have won at both Easter Road and Tynecastle since April, so maybe our awful form on the road doesn’t count as much in Edinburgh. 0-0

This made me chuckle, from a Hearts fan too! In the Scottish Premiership alone - the infamously financially doped up Hearts went into admin, Rangers have went into admin and then been liquidised, Dundee have went into admin twice and Motherwell once. That's five admins out of 12 clubs in this century alone. I don't know the admin rate for the EFL, but I bet it is less than 41.6%.

No surprise to see Aberdeen shit the bed, pretty pathetic performance from them, especially after going one down. Back to the relegation mire for them, they’re hopeless.

Can only assume we will be getting another apology for this VAR error.

Let’s not get carried away, if we score that penalty we win the game. We could still be playing now and The Well wouldn’t have scored. And the reason they get those chances post penalty is because we are pushing the defensive line for the winner. If the penalty goes in we are much deeper and they don’t get any of them. Huge chance of three points not taken by the captain.

FT 0-0 Second half was quite good fun actually, plenty happening. O'Hara took a terrible penalty and messed up the rebound. And we got an indirect free kick for obstruction which we messed up too. Motherwell had four clear cut chances, one on one with Hemming. Messed them up every single time. If they had someone half as good as KVV we'd have lost that game, they don't, good. All in all a fair enough result really.

HT 0-0 A tough watch indeed. Conditions playing their part for sure, it's wild out there. Not really anything has happened, no chances of note for either side. Kiltie mishit one that bounced over the bar and short arse Kelly had to tip a dipping ball over instead of catching it. That's been it really, no side can string together more than a couple of passes. Don't think the ref is having a great game either, whistling a lot and generally contributing to the brutality of it all. First goal the winner.

Lads, it’s Motherwell.

Got to say winning that group is pretty impressive stuff. Can’t be many teams that have got one point from six against the fourth seed and bottom placed team and still won the group. Odd, but there you go.

Definitely a good few empty seats inside Fortress Parkhead tonight #TGFITW

Eight extra minutes Absolutely corrupt. Lucky to get half that if the score was reversed.

FT 2-0 Yep well deserved three points and the good home form continues. Back to third as it stands, what crisis? First goal was a lovely stramash OG from a corner that ended up a foot over the line. Needed one of those to break the duck. Bizarrely wasn't given on field and needed a VAR intervention. Second goal nice ball from Tanser and low strike by Ayunga, looked like the keeper should have saved it to me but he didn't and it went underneath him, good. Saw it out pretty comfortably after that, County had a couple of half chances but never looked like getting back into it. Think Nahmani and Ayunga should start against Motherwell next week, they worked well together. No new manager bounce from them I hope.

HT 0-0 Yet another half without a goal. Actually not been as tough a watch as I've been expecting, to be fair. We're playing okay, had some nice passing moves and created some good chances. Kiltie hit the bar with a lovely flick. Ayunga gets himself through one on one and should score, but as you'd expect from someone with his goal record, he does not score, but the intent's definitely there. Nahmani looked lively and had some good touches, got a shot off that forced a decent save from Laidlaw. As with the St Johnstone game during the week the lack of a finishing touch is our downfall and another sucker punch goal from County wouldn't surprise anyone. Probably finish 0-0.

And Nahmani does start, good! Certainly won’t do any worse than any of our other ‘strikers’. Still no place for Baccus and McMenamin in the starting 11, I guess its Small at right wing back.

If Ross County win this they would be two points behind us having played a game less. This is a team whose early season form was so bad that they sacked their manager. Certainly puts our great start into context and shows how quickly things can change in this turgid, attritional league. However, I don’t think we will lose. For all our overall form has been awful recently, we’re still pretty good at home. The only team to beat us in Paisley this season in all competitions is Rangers, and that was only after we went down to ten men in the first half. A goal would be a nice starting point, none of our players have scored in any of our last five games. Start Nahmani please. Like all of our games over the last month, I’m expecting another tough watch. 0-0

The glaring issue is the lack of goals from our strikers, and we seen their struggles again last night. On our early run of form our goals were mainly coming from Strain and Tanser. Strain’s out and teams have worked out if they stop Tanser they will probably stop us scoring, it was never going to be sustainable. Our strikers league goals this season: Olusanya 1 Nahmani 1 Mandron 3 Jamieson 1 Grieve 2 Ayunga 0 (2 from open play last season) They’re all getting minutes too, barring Nahmani they’ve all started games. There’s a different starting combination of two of them in almost every game and there will be again on Saturday. We have one goal in our last five games, which was an in-off own goal against Livingston. The last Saints player to score a goal was Jamieson against Hibs over a month ago. We’ve scored zero goals against Dundee, County and St Johnstone since then, that’s blanks against three teams you’d expect to finish in the bottom six. We have consecutive home games against Ross County and Motherwell now, two of the easiest games you’ll get in this league. We’ll know more when we’ve played those two, fail to win either and we will likely be in the bottom six by Christmas. Four or more points and all is fine. As for the starting striker selection tombola i hope Nahmani comes out of it on Saturday. Why not, he can’t do any worse.

City below Villa in December, same amount of games played aswell. Great stuff, we certainly have a title race.

I wonder if Data Dave is asking the Killie chairman for permission to speak to Del right now.

FT 1-0 Can have no complaints. Second midweek in a row we’ve turned in a brutal performance on the road and lost 1-0 to a late goal. Feel for the fans that have made either or both journeys, horrible. We are on quite the slide. Familiar story of us being hopeless upfront and not much better defensively. Thats us got one goal in the last five games, and that was in an off own goal against Livingston. No goals against Dundee, Rangers, Ross County and now St Johnstone. Scary stuff. This home game against County at the weekend looks very important now.