capt_oats

Aye, I'm mindful of seeming like I'm taking a shot at a 16 year old laddie. I'm not a complete dick like. I agree he was fine but at the same time it definitely felt like a lot of the reason United were able to get on top in the first half came from that space in the middle of the park. I think both things can be true and fwiw, I didn't pitch up on Saturday expecting him to run the show. Dunno if it was just me projecting or not but it didn't feel like a coincidence that we picked up in the 2nd half when Slattery and Obika came on. It kind of reminded me of that end of season game vs Dundee a few years back when we gave Jimmy Scott a start as the #9 but there was a noticeable difference when we chucked Curtis Main on to play the role - the ball just stuck better and you could tell that the difference in experience/physicality was a big factor in that.

Being polite, I'd say it would have been a good learning experience for him. You obviously have to factor in him being 16 years old and making his first start but I felt it kind of answered the "wHy dOnT wE pLaY yOuTh?!?!?!?!" types. I guess it goes back to Robinson's rationale re: Turnbull and why he didn't just chuck him in 6 months before he did. He needed him to do the dirty work etc. It's even more the case with Miller given his age - Turnbull was 18 when he made first start. It felt like there was a bit of a hole in the midfield with him there, as @dezz mentions above he was a bit tentative and from where I was sitting he had United midfielders running off him which put a bit of pressure on the likes of Spittal, Goss, SOD and McGinn covering for him. Having said that he clearly has a bit about him and there were times when he got on the ball he used it well. I mean, if we're not going to use that sort of game to give him a run out then what's the fucking point?

Reader...I'm absolutely gone at this.

Agree with that although as you say about McGinn talking about pre-season along with ML1's premier empire biscuit maker announcing he's here for another year - it seems like there are a few have either had options taken up or deals extended on the QT, which is kind of unusual for us. That said, I'd imagine if Casey, Goss, Cornelius and Johnston had re-signed then we'd have made it known. I've mentioned Goss before in so much as it's felt, to me, like what we're getting at the moment is Peak Goss. There's always a feeling that he could revert back to the mean - I'd have thought that in this vein of form he'd want to cash in and trade up. Absolutely fair play to him - he's been fucking brilliant to a level I don't think any of us saw coming even when he was in his first purple patch under Grezza when he was holding our midfield together. Genuinely curious to see what direction Ketts goes though - it's a very weird rebuild given the way the contract situations land.

I mean, I'm extremely here for the schadenfreude but also, in my alternate timeline, Goodwin absolutely relegates us so it's probably just as well he seems to have thought we were a lost cause.

Got there in the end...

2025 apparently.

I thought that was someone being a bit snide tbh. Put it this way it looks like he was in a motor with Bevis and the bold Riku at the start of the month (unless that was an old photo of course). https://twitter.com/chan2yan/status/1653694695720251393?s=20 Don't disagree on the point about making an assumption that Danzaki was fluent but it does raise the question about what precisely was going on with those Zoom meetings Hammell was saying he'd been having with him.

I don't disagree re: Casey but to me yesterday really amplified how important Butcher is in making the defence work. Needs must and everything with Butcher on crutches and Lamie having had surgery but we were asking Bevis to do stuff he's just not comfortable with. Ironic, given Kettlewell's whole blueprint recently has been getting players to focus on what they're actually good at.. It showed - he looked fucking terrified every time he got the ball and the indecision had a knock on across the back line. Is this it? https://twitter.com/Mon_The_Well22/status/1662898644427722752?s=20

Women’s POTY - Lucy Ronald Top Goalscorer - Kevin Van Veen Goal of The Season - Callum Slattery (vs. Kilmarnock) Coaches’ POTY - Calum Butcher Players POTY - Kevin Van Veen Young POTY - Max Johnston Player Of The Year - Kevin Van Veen

I could be wrong but I think he gets/got a lot of grief from United fans. He had a lovely time today.

OTD

It was implied we have a sell on aye. This was the wording when it was announced he was signing with them.

I mean, he's made 47 appearances for them this season.

Some laugh that between Campbell and Turnbull it's Wee Al who's in the Barclays first.

And dishing out empire biscuits.

#Grezza gets the MK Dons job.

That's what I was wondering tbh. I get that United had just effectively been relegated but I thought that Goodwin's vibes seemed well off. He seemed pretty much flat out resigned to the fact that they're down.

Aye. I think these games can go either way. We either turn up and everyone has a nice time and a good laugh while Ciftci takes Accies apart or Turnbull shows up in the big daft game against Livi or everyone just chucks it - see the 3-2 final day loss against ICT or the 2-1 against County after we went up inside 10 minutes in an empty stadium. Ironically, those two losses saw both Robinson and Alexander lose their shit afterwards and the resulting GTF lists were a lot more brutal than I think many were expecting at the time. Given the number of players we have either on short term deals, loans or heading out of contract it kind of feels like it's more likely to be the latter. I know Ketts is doing his best to make sure everyone is still invested and on it but equally from a player motivation POV it must be pretty tough not to look at Casey, Paton, Butcher et al all picking up injuries and thinking "f**k that" for the sake of a league place and £65k - that we may hold on to anyway depending on the St Johnstone v. Livi score. It's as a case of 'job done' given where we were a couple of months ago (11th - on the same points as United in 12th) and where we are now (7th, 16 points ahead of United). One interesting wrinkle as a result of our injuries is that it's giving Kettlewell a look at his squad depth in terms of what other players can/can't do and whether our back-ups allow us to play the same system.

Yeah, @Derry Alli mentioned this way back on page 2395 which seemed strange at the time as it was February 19th which meant Kettlewell was only in the door 8 days as interim and we were still only 6 points off the bottom of the league after the St Mirren and Hearts B2B wins. Seemed a weird time to be confirming PCAs. Like @Swello above, I'd file it in the 'sceptical' category. As a kind of sidenote - Don Cowie was one of Kettlewell's signings in his first season as County manager so as a move adding an experienced head to the group is something that he's done. I've also noticed that we still have Clarkson cutting about the dug out on a matchday so I guess Ketts still feels there's a spare coaching role - I'd be surprised if Clarkson combining Academy Director and first team coach was viewed as being sustainable long term.

We beat United 1-0 when Watt was sent off.

With Shields it kind of feels like for all his confidence was shot and getting him out to Queens made sense for everyone concerned his loan at QP has really just confirmed that the Championship is probably his level. To that point I could easily see another Championship club being willing to take him on loan. I noticed that Ketts was asked about him the other week and he referenced the point that he'd spoken to him and his understanding that part of Shields pushing for the loan was that he wanted to play as a central/main striker rather than being stuck out wide (as he had been under both Grezza and Hammell) which is entirely fair enough. He got that opportunity but - Queens fans will probably have a better idea than me - it doesn't feel like he kicked on in the way that you'd expect someone dropping down from the Premiership would. He certainly didn't have the same impact for them that Simon Murray did. You can probably make the same arguement of Maguire dropping down to Dundee. I'd imagine that when Kettlewell has his chat with the players next week there will be a few that he's going to point out that while they have a year left, and that's fine, they're not going to be starting so it's up to them what they want to do.