Lions v Spiders

Arachnophobia anyone?

After Tuesday night we have to wonder what we will be served up tomorrow. After Tuesday night I am not really looking forward to this other than I think it will be the first time I’ve seen us play QP - strange but true.

Hopefully QP play like the tiny wee red “money spiders” that we don’t see anymore rather than the funnel web variety. I fear the latter.

Not sure what to make of tomorrow tbh.Surely the tactics board will have taken a tankin after the midweek debacle that unfolded.Watching the highlights was cringeworthy at best.You can bet Calum Davidson will have his lot up for this,and will have had us watched.Hopefully we get a response from the players.Home advantage might get us back on the road again,but I wouldn't put my house on it‍�.Mon the Lions.

Chance at least to open up a wee gap on Ayr again, after they lost 2-0 to Raith tonight. Now if only Falkirk would be so good and drop pts too.

Can't see us changing our tactics, which is fair enough as it has got us a decent first quarter in the league, but if it isn't working again we must surely look at a plan B, and not just playing the same way when we're getting mugged and can't get the ball out our own half. We need to move it quicker and get it out to the wings, so we can get an attack going, against Dunfermline we were far too slow and didn't look for an out ball, just kept passing it back to Prior.


Anyway, going to be a tough game, we should've nicked it against them in the away game, but they're a well organized team and pose a threat breaking up the pitch, they working the wings well too.

What tactics? Pass it about and hope that something opens up so we can punt a hopeful ball towards the forwards? We have played poorly all season and somehow managed to stay unbeaten until Dunfermline wiped the floor with us. The unbeaten run only papered over the cracks.

We have the potential to be an entertaining side if we play to the strengths of the likes of May, Muirhead & Sole… but until that happens we will continue with the passing for passings sake that goes nowhere that Martindale thinks is clever.

Think this is going to be a slog for us - our play has deteriorated week on week.
Last home game - Raith kept us pinned in and we were extremely lucky to win - it was a hard watch.
Spiders pre match Davie talking about being the aggressor - really that will be a first.

Only half looking forward to this - 1 - 1

livikev wrote:Think this is going to be a slog for us - our play has deteriorated week on week.
Last home game - Raith kept us pinned in and we were extremely lucky to win - it was a hard watch.
Spiders post match Davie talking about being the aggressor - really that will be a first.

Only half looking forward to this - 1 - 1

Prob the 2nd half.

Falkirk blowing away Morton, think it's safe to say we're playing for 2nd place.


Notts was a lot better today when he came on for an injured Wilson, pretty solid and his passing a lot better too. We prob should've won this, May having a 1 on 1 after good pressing won him the ball, and Yengi having a header from the 6 yard box, in what looked like an open goal, a point isn't bad though, QP are a top 4 contender and a tough team to play. Going down to 10 men prob didn't do us any favours, because they dropped deep and started time wasting, looking to take a point, we couldn't get clear shots at goal, there were that many bodies in there.

I was a bit pissed off we didn't beat them but being pragmatic, it's going to be between us, Ayr, Partick and QP for the 3 play off spots, and we're sitting 2nd, which still gives us the best chance of winning the play offs. Just accepting we aren't going to be challenging Falkirk makes it less annoying when we draw games, and knowing 2nd place has to be our target, and we're in pole position.

What i will say though, we should be utilising Sole more, and we also need a FB to be working overlaps with him and not leaving it to Sole doing it all himself, Brandon just wasn't interested in getting past him for an overlap, we'd be hitting the byline a lot more if we did. We also seem to work it down the left more, leaving Sole standing twiddling his thumbs.

All I can say about the game is that it was better than Tuesday.

We are playing a 4-3-3 but we couldn’t attack a fish supper. With 3 forwards you’d think they’d be able to help each other but all too often 1 of them has ball and the other 2 are nowhere near. So the guy with the ball has to try to do something on his own and gets crowded out. Same thing happens when Sole comes on. The basic principle of Guardiola’s ‘tiki taka’ is work the ball until you create a 1v1 or an overload 2 v 1 or better, but we invariably end up in a 1v 2 or 1 v 3, lose the ball and face a counter attack where we are outnumbered.

Today we worked a good goal but had to work to do it and then give up an equaliser to a hopeful ball up to a forward on his own. And it looked to me that we got out of jail with their potential winner being disallowed, didn’t look like there was much wrong with it to me.

When they went down to 10 men we seemed to up the tempo… for about 10 minutes and then reverted to our usual sleep inducing, paint drying brand of possession.

Wee Davie was saying earlier in the season that he hoped and believed the fans were seeing the style we wanted to play… I’ve now decided he was saying that because he couldn’t actually explain what that style actually is because here we are a third of the way through the second quarter of the season and the only style of play I can see is pass it about at the back then ping it long and then defend.
We are a million miles off playing in such a way that the opposition is concerned about what we are doing.

Spoke to Davie as he left the stadium last night, and he was visibly shaken.He knows he shouldn't have reacted the way he did,but said emotions were running high at the end of the game.He pointed out weve only lost one game this season and possibly some fans should wind their necks in and get real.He apologised and said he's trying to give the fans what they want and to get behind team.Then he drove off.To the game itself.Had we taken one of the three chances,especially Stevie Mays through on goal,would be a completely different conversation.Steven Kelly looks to be going through a bad spell recently that continued yesterday imo.Credit to Queens, who could have,even with ten men sneaked it at the end.A frustrating game,but I suspect there will be many more of those to come.We move on.

Start of game we really looked up for this - raised tempo and pushing forward - then slowly normal service resumed.
Its not good to watch - it works some of the time - we don't seem to have a Plan B or C
The number of times Sole created / had space and no one would pass to him - instead passing to players that where closed down/ tighter marked.

We may have only lost one game - but the enjoyment/entertainment value is slowly being sucked from it.

Troy…what incident are you referring to? I didn’t see anything. Or did he just react to the booing?

Some fans do need to manage their expectation levels however I don’t think most of the fans booing were doing so because we didn’t win, I think they were booing at the style of play or lack thereof. As Kev has pointed out the enjoyment/entertainment value right now is not good. The unbeaten run was a good run of results but the performances (maybe a better word would be style) were a hard watch. We somehow got results that we didn’t really deserve on the balance of play; both Raith games were undeserved victories as we were outplayed in both for large chunks of the game apparently the second half against Ayr was similar, our win against Hamilton was never a 3 goal margin based on performance over the 90 minutes but we got two late goals playing the way we all want to see us play.

Davie acknowledges some of these things in his after match interviews but nothing changes. He also will occasionally say that the slow start to games is not the message they are giving the players… so why is it happening every week? Why do we put on players like Sole and then avoid passing to them when they are in space with a chance to do something?

Why is he critical of individuals for missing chances? At least they are getting into positions to have that chance. The problem is they aren’t getting enough chances because of our slow tempo in building attacks and inevitably have to drop deep to get the ball. By contrast the opposition regularly move it more quickly; Falkirk swarmed us but the defence held firm; QP moved the ball quickly to score the equaliser, Raith did the same to score the opening goal as did Dunfermline, who also created numerous other chances without taking them.

Yesterday there was booing at half time and full time and while I have never booed the team personally (only ever booed the match officials) I can understand the frustration of seeing the team playing like they are shackled to a game plan that isn’t working particularly well.

Yes it is difficult to break down a team that parks the bus but you need to up the tempo and get them moving by getting our own players moving. The fundamentals of tiki-taka is ‘take the ball, pass the ball’ but it also involved constant motion of players moving to receive the pass or to open up space for others. The players were usually fairly close to each other but would utilise a long pass if it was on. The only part of our team doing that is the defence. If we want to play with wingers, different methodology, get the ball to the winger quickly, especially if he is in space (like Sole was yesterday but he’d have been as well sitting on the bench for all the passes he received) & let him take on his man with support backing him up & get players and the ball into the box. Of course the opposition will try to prevent this from happening but at least we’d be having a go at them instead of passing it around at the back letting the opposition defend with ball in front of them, that is playing into their hands.

If we want to play with a target man, get players up alongside running off him to get the flick-ons rather than have him ploughing a lone furrow; and vary the methods of attack, keep them guessing but if something is working (like a winger having a full back on toast) utilise it more.

All easier said than done I grant you but at least we’d be seen to be having a go and that’s all most fans really want. Look at the Aberdeen fans at Hampden yesterday, their team was destroyed by Celtic but they tried and the fans applauded them regardless of the scoreline. We can handle not winning but what we get frustrated about is a lack of urgency about the play which gives the vibe that no one is bothered; up the tempo, increase the sense of urgency, show you care and fans will generally applaud the efforts.

L/F the incident im referring to was right at the end off the game behind the home dugout.Theres pictures on social media showing it.Davie singled out a fan who's been giving him dogs abuse for weeks.Kinda handbags at dawn scenario.Thankfully security and Dave Black ushered Davie away.Emotions got the better of him though tbf he's apologised since and has said anyone is free to come and talk to him..

Tbf we did create enough chances to win the game comfortably, esp after they went down to 10 men, Yengi missed 2 sitters, one headed against the bar and the other seemed to hit him on his face and go over the bar. One was also cleared off the line, and we had a couple of scrambles in their box but it just wouldn't go in. As well as the one May had the 1 on 1 with the keeper earlier.

The Sole issue is we need to hit a cross field pass, like the one Shinnie did in the Airdrie game, so he can run into acres of space with the ball, but we pass it from the left wing to the right wing, moving the game over from one side to the other and he's then being marked. We also need a FB/WB to be running past him for overlaps, Brandon wasn't doing that, so instead Sole had to turn and take on their player, which he did a few times, but the overlap would give us much more runs down to the byeline.



Yengi should've made it 2-0 and game would've been over for QP.

I’m not saying we aren’t creating chances, I’m saying we aren’t creating enough chances. No player on the planet converts every chance. Good strikers will score 1 in 3… May scored 1 in 3 yesterday… lesser players need more chances, Yengi had about 2 but needs 6 to get 1 goal. Muirhead didn’t really have a chance yesterday.

Notts scored 1 in 2 chances last weekend, Yengi had the best 2 chances of the game and missed both, the one that hit him in his face was laid on a plate by May, honestly it was easier scoring it than putting it over, if he'd tried to miss it he'd have struggled.

We've actually scored more difficult goals to win games this season than the ones we're missing. Brandon's against Raith away, Shinnie's against Airdrie at home, both belters from outside the box. We missed a sitter against Partick away to win the game, another against Morton at home (think it was Notts hitting the bar and bouncing onto the ground and out, it actually looked in but the ref didn't give it), QP away too. Might be more, i can remember one that was an open goal, sure it was Clarke, but can't remember the opposition, could even have been Airdrie and we won it anyway with Shinnie's goal. Point is though, we seem to score worldies to nick wins and miss absolute sitters to end up with draws.

Found it, here's the one Clarke missed, was the one against Morton that we should've won.



And Yengi's 2nd sitter yesterday.

To be fair to Yengi the ball hits him rather than him meeting the ball trying to score. Notts getting 1 in 2 is simply an exception, normally he’ll miss every chance he gets. Great players miss sitters because they mistime the connection, they are human even when they are the GOAT. Sometimes everything they hit goes in other times not so much. Hence the 1 in 3 stat, players like Messi are probably closer to 1 in 2 or slightly better. The point is they are getting into scoring positions but not enough times to ensure one of them goes in.

Auld Nick wrote:To be fair to Yengi the ball hits him rather than him meeting the ball trying to score. Notts getting 1 in 2 is simply an exception, normally he’ll miss every chance he gets. Great players miss sitters because they mistime the connection, they are human even when they are the GOAT. Sometimes everything they hit goes in other times not so much. Hence the 1 in 3 stat, players like Messi are probably closer to 1 in 2 or slightly better. The point is they are getting into scoring positions but not enough times to ensure one of them goes in.

But too shite to score.

I was trying to be polite