Relegation here we come ?

[texaco cup]

Very simple if you don’t know how to play against 10 men you will never win games. Last week Dundee Utd go down to 10 men and we play to hold onto what we had and nearly paid for it. Today we are against 10 men and go 2-0 down, get back in the game with a penalty. We then start knocking balls from back to front instead of playing balls out wide and stretching Hearts. We manage to get an equaliser and then allow Hearts to dictate the game. I hate to say it but honeymoon period is well and truly over for Stevie Hammell defeats against Celtic and St.Johnstone will leave us in serious trouble. Spitball can cross a ball without hitting opposition player. Others can pass a ball 10 yards We simply haven’t improved noticeably since Alexander went

[firparkUSA]

Gordon should have been sent off and result completely different.

[Handsome_Devil]

Blaming the ref for Gordon completely disguises the problem... losing two goals to 10 men was bad, suddenly sitting back and handing them the initiative again at 2-2 was absolutely criminal. The goal came from that attitude, they marched through unchallenged with a man less and tbh their response in the last 10 means they were thoroughly deserved winners regardless of the 50-50 80 mins before.

It's certainly the sign of a relegation side but remember the whole goal pre WC was not to be adrift and we've done that. It will all go right or wrong when the 'easier' games on paper restart when the window opens, as stupid as today was it doesn't really change much about our survival hopes.

[skippy91]

Oh yes it does, failure once again to take advantage of a golden opportunity, tells us a lot about the mentality and professionalism of our squad to play even at this poor level. We 're deep in the relegation sh@te even at this stage of the season. The only games we should be righting off are away to the ugly sisters , the rest of the league is really pretty poor and we're failing to take points too regular. We have improved under SH, but not enough to challenge the rest of the dross in this pi55 poor league. Another scunner of a weekend!!@

[Handsome_Devil]

Even if we lose next week we'll be plodding along at the point a game average needed for survival.

There was no realistic scenario in which Hammell took over 48 hours before the season started with a squad starved of recruits due to GA's impending departure and basically had us safe by the WC, absolutely none.

There was, however, the realistic fear we'd be adrift by this stage and totally rooked.

Being in a relegation battle is basically as good as it was going to get to this point...we may well go down but if we do it'll be because of what comes next, not what Hammell has done so far.

Throwing away points is frustrating but it also shows we're not a million miles away from being okay. It's not time to panic...yet.

[LawSteelman]

We may well go down but I’ve said since August that if we do then the blame for that lies squarely with Burrows and the board, not Hammell. They are the ones who allowed Alexander’s ‘through the motions’ approach to games in the second half of last season and his barely half arsed close season preparations to be passed off as acceptable, no doubt because we fluked a top six finish and then Euorpean qualification.

Anyone taking the job on in August this year with the squad we had, having had no pre season to work with, no proper opportunity to bring in his own players and who didn’t even know he officially had the job until the middle of the month was on a hiding to nothing. When you have a rookie manager in his first managerial job in that situation it was an almost impossible task to try and make things run smoothly.

I firmly believe that we have the worst squad of players in the league, man for man right now. Worse even than Dundee Utd who are having a nightmare season but they have players in their squad who you feel can step it up a bit and who would walk straight into our side and improve it.

[Well below the Equator]

Well fans tend to be split between realists and optimists, and I can see both sides of the coin. I tend to think we have been a wee bit unlucky, but the way we played in two matches against 10 men doesn't inspire confidence.

If we look at the goal difference of the three sides below us, there is a clear difference, so that should tell us we are better than them, but I agree, a couple of poor results in the next couple of games, coupled with one of the bottom three that hits some form, then panic can start to set in. No chance of anything on Wednesday, but if we can sneak no worse than a draw at Perth, it can give the squad some time in the WC break to get the squad fit and re-set. Trouble is, all the other teams will be doing the same.

The January Transfer window and especially the 2023 summer one, will be huge.