Us v Jambos.

Only guarantee today is a soaking.Expecting nothing from this,anything else would be a bonus.Had written this game off before the last two must win games.Saturdays shambolic display gives me the fear with Halket Forest coming back to haunt us,not to mention Shankland.Hopefully get this out of the way without the increasing booing and condemnation from the stand.Fully understand the frustration from a section of the support,but as far as todays game is concerned, get real.Hearts are way too good for us.Weve put ourselves in this position, and I genuinely can't see a way out of it.Hope I'm wrong.Mon the Lions.

On the face of it they look way too good for us but they struggled to get a draw with Ross County on Saturday. Anything from today’s game would be good. In a sense if we accept we are down then the pressure is gone because we are not expected to get out of it.

So forget about staying up and just go out and express yourself, give your all and see where it takes us.

The difference was night and day in comparison to last weeks debacle.Been waiting for that kind of performance for weeks.Worked their proverbial socks off and deserved to take something from that imo.Two sucker punch goals eventually saw us off,but fair play to them for going right to the end.Will have to see Guthries disallowed goal back,was to far away to make judgement, though some on other forums saying he was a bawhair offside.Felt for Jack Hamilton as I thought he had a decent game including his pen save.Big Yedi looks decent too,could be one Davies better signings.Trying to be positive after so long.Hope they enjoy their trip to Turkey and come back to give us a chance of doing the impossible.Just to add,was pleasant not hearing all the abuse at FT despite the result..

Auld Nick wrote:On the face of it they look way too good for us but they struggled to get a draw with Ross County on Saturday. Anything from today’s game would be good. In a sense if we accept we are down then the pressure is gone because we are not expected to get out of it.

So forget about staying up and just go out and express yourself, give your all and see where it takes us.

Looks like they took your advice Nick. Though playing the likes of Brandon and Bradley, and in their proper positions helped too. Hamilton for Shamal and Parkes for Nottingham looked better as well, but we could also be doing with dropping Devlin, his lack of pace is costing us goals/points. Tete looks good, big guy with quick feet, quite like Nouble used to be, hoping Donnellan looks as good when he gets a game. Having MacKay back in the squad is good to see, he has plenty of pace, and with this new look Livi, playing the ball forward on the deck, he'd be an asset. Once St Kelly is back from an illness we'll be cooking by gas.

Biggest concern now is if Martindale will stick to being sensible and stop playing Nouble for the sake of it, sticking him in stupid positions, which meant we were leaving Brandon and Bradley out. If he starts picking players on merit of performance and gives the younger ones a proper chance, we could have a hope of staying up. No more negative tactics and fitting round pegs in square holes though, we're way past being able to afford the luxury of experimenting. He needs to get the best players playing, and in their proper positions.

He still made a daft substitution when he took Parkes off at HT… why stick Montano in as left CB when he had Nottingham on the bench? Then when he finally takes an obviously injured Devlin off he does bring on Nottingham on and switches to a back 4.

Devlin’s lack of pace is concerning. We were being exposed down the right regularly until they got 2 up.

Couldn’t understand the offside on Guthrie but my lad thought he started offside and came back onside to head it, so maybe that is what it was.

Also didn’t see much contact on the Hearts pen but it may have been the follow through after clearing the ball. Couldn’t see the incident for our pen and didn’t see anyone claiming it.

Thought Hamilton did well, no chance with either goal but a Broto-esque pen save with his feet.
The outfield lads all put in the effort and most played well. Even Nouble looked better when he came on and Yengi looks like he might be decent on the deck. Guthrie had another decent game as did Penners so hopefully his injury isn’t serious. Holt and Pitts were back to making good tackles and hunting down and for once I agreed with the MotM award, Shinnie was very good today and took the pen well.

Downside, we now have a break and never do well coming back from breaks. Cup tie against high flying Raith will be difficult and I’d go as far as to say it wouldn’t be a shock to lose that one. Which might prove to be a good thing to let us concentrate on the league. Still just a couple of wins adrift, so not a foregone conclusion, but the longer the winless run goes the less likely a miracle escape.

Up till today i gave us no chance against Raith, but that performance, along with a look at one of our new signings, and MacKay back on the bench, i'm looking forward to seeing how we do against them. They're flying in the Championship, but their defence is pish, bit like Motherwell's though, and they score lots of goals, so we'll need to be a lot better in defence ourselves.

Something that is really pissing me off still, the height we have in our team, and another couple of tall players signed in Jan, Donnellan 6ft 2, Tete 6ft 5, how the feck are we so poor getting goals from set plays.

Guthrie was just offside turning round as Shinnie played the ball in, so unlucky for him as it was a nice header into the net.

Much better offensively, but there are still problems in defence, with Devlin in particular not being good enough. Montano played Vargas onside for the first goal too, didn't have a good game but playing as a CB isn't his position, which is another part of the problems we've had this season. Need to be using either Nottingham or de Lucas, though Parkes played well, so i'd have him as first choice playing there. His past history of picking up injuries will mean we need one of the others as back up.

Devlin could've/should've dome more for Shankland's goal, he needs to get in there and close him down, just stands waiting on Shankland picking his spot, then turns away making his body smaller to let the ball go past him, that shows for me, lack of commitment, we need players fully committed, taking one for the team, like Parkes did against Celtic.

Yeah, my lad spotted it at the time. He never even moved when the ball went in. Guthrie finished it well but “came back from an offside position”.

I’d actually like to see that rule changed. If you are offside but come back to an onside position to play the ball make it onside rather than offside but I can see it being harder to “manage” for the officials.

In ice hockey you can be offside if you go across the line into the attacking zone before the puck does but if you are in that area and skate back out before going back in after the puck you are onside.

Anyway, Guthrie was unlucky as it was pretty close. Agree that Devlin has been found out a bit, he started off reasonably but as the season has progressed he has gotten slower and doesn’t react quickly, but of course he has been handed the captaincy too, so he is unlikely to be dropped unless he is injured.
Montano isn’t a CB and did a lot better after Nottingham came on and we went 4 at the back.