Alloa

[JUSTaway]

Ok going to be controversial. Was at the game today. Really good support as usual. Was also the the two previous games down there. By a mile, that was our best performance of the three. Deserved a comfortable win and were on course to get it against a difficult Alloa side, when Siegrist came, flapped, and cost us the equaliser. Then started chasing the game and were done by a mazy run and great finish.

Siegrist: When will Deniz be back? A major step up on what we have.
Booth: best game so far. Linked up really well, positive, confident and a beauty of a free kick.
Frans: solid throughout. A keeper (if only he was a GOALkeeper &#128514
Murdoch: solid but was skinned at the second goal.
Watson: too light weight for me. Dangerous at set pieces, but primary job is to defend and he’s not strong enough I’m afraid.
Stanton: positive and ran most of our attacking play.
McMullan: had lots of shots, ran himself ragged but not good enough. Liked him when he first came and believe Neilson is getting the best out of him. Still not the answer unfortunately.
King: one of his better games, linked well with Booth. Frustrating as if he has an A game, is capable of winning games. Not often enough though.
Rachid: Head and shoulders best player today. Strong, vision, one who will do us a turn WHEN we go up this year.
Curran: not great I’m afraid. Had a real chance to make a mark today. Lack of directness I feel. He’s strong and relatively quick but never took on and beat a man.
Pavel: poor today. Bullied by the two centre halfs. One of his less memorable games.

Could easily have won today and the outlook would be very different. Very small margins decide these games.
As demoralising as the result today was, I still think we will go up this year. Looking like a second place finish now which will give us the semi, against either Ayr or Icy Tea, then a final against one of the piss poor bottom three in the Premiership.
Hopeful of new players in January, but even without them, I feel we have enough within the current squad to make it up this year.

Ok, I’ve set myself up as a huge target, now going to wait and be shot at (not down) by fellow Arabs 😀

Actually I agree with your assessment about the match today, but don't share your optimism for getting promoted.

The last two games highlighted why, complete domination/loads of possession against Falkirk and Alloa, two of the bottom six teams in the league, one goal to show for that from open play, and that a fluky deflection. And three defensive howlers conceded. Little creativity/goalscorers in the team, and always likely to flog one at the back, which in basic terms means our margin for winning games is pretty narrow, even when we control games. .

[JUSTaway]

We have almost completely changed our team for every season we've been in this division. The is no way, with this strategy, we were ever going to win the league.

constant fire fighting has got us nowhere, if we had built a proper 2 year plan to get up when we went down we might not only have got up by now, but actually gone up with a chance of staying up. Poor recruitment has seen us waste resources on panic last minute buys in the transfer window like Barton and Curran and replacing crap with crap.

[NostradamusArab]

constant fire fighting has got us nowhere, if we had built a proper 2 year plan to get up when we went down we might not only have got up by now, but actually gone up with a chance of staying up. Poor recruitment has seen us waste resources on panic last minute buys in the transfer window like Barton and Curran and replacing crap with crap.

Totally agree regarding the firefighting but hope RN is as savage as he feels when it comes to booting the ****e from our club. If it takes another year to recover from the Thompson family nightmare then fair enough as we've been phucked for many years now! I reckon we could do it EASILY next year with Robbie's squad.

[Chick A Saw]

constant fire fighting has got us nowhere, if we had built a proper 2 year plan to get up when we went down we might not only have got up by now, but actually gone up with a chance of staying up. Poor recruitment has seen us waste resources on panic last minute buys in the transfer window like Barton and Curran and replacing crap with crap.

I get the sentiment of what you write, but Barton and Curran were 2 of the first batch of players in! The last 2 in, Bouhenna and Safranko are probably our best 2 players.

[JamesMcClean]

I get the sentiment of what you write, but Barton and Curran were 2 of the first batch of players in! The last 2 in, Bouhenna and Safranko are probably our best 2 players.

What alarms me the most is that there is no one, not one, in ANY position breaking through from the youths who gives a glimmer of hope. Matty Smith? Allardice is on loan. The whole set up is a shambles and needs to be corrected. Levein had restored the youth system that Oor Wee Jum built. When the Snake contrived to sack Stevie Campbell that was undone with the stroke of a pen.

[geofoxposse]

The main issue is there is still too many players who seem satisfied with 'not winning' and a general acceptance of this throughout the club.

One if the most important jobs during the window will be to get rid of theses. Thats also where agents should be doing their job....

[JUSTaway]

The main issue is there is still too many players who seem satisfied with 'not winning' and a general acceptance of this throughout the club.

One if the most important jobs during the window will be to get rid of theses. Thats also where agents should be doing their job....

Agents are only interested in getting the best financial deal for their client, half the time they put this ahead of what is best for the players career.

Yesterday the team kept going for the full 90+ mins, they didn't in my opinion sit back at 1-0 like they have done in the past, by our standards we actually played ok yesterday, I think the result was purely down to a lack of ability and flaws in our team such as a goalkeeper unable to catch a ball and attacking players with little if any end product.

Too many average players.

[arabmark]

The fact that in 5 attempts so far this season we've only managed 1 win against part-time Alloa is embarrassing. Shows that the current crop of players are simply not good enough.

[Arabknight]

Possession is the most over rated stat in football, and is used for teams like us to flatter poor performances.

We were guilty under RM, CL and now RN of relying on this stat to cover the gapping chasims in our team.

For to long we have been knocking the ball around three quarters of the pitch without any end product, no penetration and no quality in the final 3rd! I know we have to have the ball to make in any gains bt due to our lack of attacking threat our style of play suites every team in the league and a lot of the time makes us easy to play against.

[Arabiatta]

Thought they sat in well and defended their box like their lives depended on it, counted their centre halves losing 2 headers the whole game yet we continued to try and beat them in the air and failed to find feet. Their Fullbacks minimised the crosses and nullified the threat.

Several players had oportunities to shoot first time but elected to move their ball to the other foot and get closed down by a very well organised defence and ended up laying it off. King for me was the key man today and didnt do enough.

What really annoyed me though was the pressing game wasn't there today, I think back to the first RN game at partick and we had everyone pressing immediately with loss of possession, winning the majority of 50\50's with a energetic hard working display (until Fyvie had to go off in the 2nd, not that that should be an excuse).

Lot of young guys in that Alloa team today, we dont need pedigree in this league we need graft, organisation and concentration.