ascender

Unless there's serious investment which gives us funds to buy players who are significantly better, then there's no quick fix to this. Under Smith I'm hoping that he steadies the ship and assembles a team which can mount a challenge to Celtic next season and at the very least make sure we get 2nd place comfortably. While we've been standing still, other SPL clubs have closed the gap on us. We've got the basis of a good young squad, but that squad needs to be supplemented with a few experienced players and one or two special players who will cost more, probably come from Europe, but who can turn games for us. Given that the wage budget is now well under control, if we had the money to buy a couple of this type of players, we are now in a position to pay them without killing our finances. Of course, we'd have to persuade them to come to Scotland as well.

I think the way to get the most out of Boyd will be to get a Hateley-like figure alongside him. And possibly for Boyd to lose half a stone.

Is this the same Russian who was mentioned during the summer I wonder?

I think he has to start every game because of his goal-scoring. But, if we had other players scoring regularly, I don't think he'd be an automatic pick. He clearly needs to work harder on and off the pitch, but at the moment we can't afford to be without him. We simply don't have the luxury of another striker who can finish with composure.

Sounds like the early goal killed them off, but to be fair they had a couple of chances at the start of the second which might have changed things a bit.

And now Hearts have handed out bananas and nuts to the journalists at Tynecastle today. Bizarre.

Speaking to a lot of Jambos, they're delighted by this. They reckon he's just saying what all non-OF fans have been thinking for years and what other Chairmen are too scared to say. The paranoia and conspiracy theories by Jambos are incredible and are getting way out of hand. Recently even the official website took the mick out of what they see as "monkey" journalism and now the guys at my work are getting wound up by this: http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=258782007

Apart from the odd mistake, which all keepers make, he didn't seem to inspire confidence in the back four. Of course, it works both ways and we hardly had great centre halves, but at the end of the day its still confusing as to why Klos wasn't given a decent chance. That obviously depends at which point he decided he wasn't interested any more though.

So I'm assuming that the reason the loss wasn't greater is because of further cuts in the wage bill and fees received for players?

I know I'll get pelters for this, but a keeper who continues to make superb saves on a regular basis is David "Calamity" James. I'd be interested to see what his stats are like, as even with the odd howler, he must have a pretty good record.

No, I meant we should have been using him from when he was fit last season. We can't just drop McGregor, but our defence was shaky as hell with Waterreus and I think Klos should have come back. But properly, with reserve practice first and not just thrown in against Celtic.

At what point did Klos lose interest to the point where he just couldn't be arsed any more? I'd be really interested to find this out as up until the thing with Wattereus, Klos seemed to be happy here, enjoying life in Scotland and looking to end his career here. So why the big turnaround? I was firmly in the camp that supported Klos for a long time and I think he's head and shoulders the best keeper we have on our books just now and in recent times, probably since Goram left. Niemi could have easily made it as our number 1, but he was here at the wrong time for him. When Klos was fit, I thought he should have played and I agree with Gribz, the guy is on ridiculous wages, so we should be using him. The way his position was handled by McLeish was a joke when he brought him back for the Celtic game with little match practice and then effectively blamed him for both the goals before dumping him again. I know his attitude was questionable at that time, but why wasn't McLeish stronger with him? If he wouldn't play in the reserves, then surely we could have booted him out for breaching his contract? I really don't think we've known everything that's gone on here and its a shame, because he's a world class keeper who would be worth points to us over a season.

Gordon is one of the most over-rated players at Tynecastle, lots of Jambos regularly say he's the best keeper they've ever seen, but I'd say he's got a long way to go yet before he's at top Premiership standards. They're also convinced he's going to Arsenal, but I'm not sure one of the top clubs would take a risk on him and I could see him going to one of the mid-table clubs. He's got a hell of a lot of potential but is way off being the finished article. Also, look at the amount of promising young keepers in England and also the standard of some of the other keepers, even at clubs in the bottom half of the league down there. If he's really not happy, why don't we sound him out about a move? We need another keeper and maybe if he's that fed up, he'll come here as he's young enough that he could still make a move to the Premiership in 4/5 years time if that's what he really wants?

On yesterday's showing I think we'll miss Ugo's stature at the back more than Thomson. Fergie or Hemdani could easily fill the same role that Thomson had against Killie.

Thomson was injured before the game but wanted to play, so Walter gave him the nod. As for Ugo, WS thinks that these injuries happen sometimes when players start training on a new pitch for example.

Even better than that, apparently Barca are interested in him....

I thought he looked dangerous too, but unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of end product yet again. He looked well up for it though, if only he could start putting some good crosses in to the box.

____________McGregor_______________ Hutton____Weir_____Ehiogu______Murray _________Hemdani__Thompson________ ____Burke________________Adam_____ ________________Fergie______________ ____________Boyd___________________ So, will this formation stay, or is it a case that this formation will be used until Prso is fit and we've signed his replacement? Bit strange to see us with Hemdani and Thomson in there, its almost back to the start of the season when we played with two holding midfielders. The one thing that was clear from yesterday's game was that our midfield badly needs someone with a lot of energy and positive attacking mentality. I can't believe how slow and negative our midfield has been this season. We had loads of time and space yesterday and should have killed the game off, but no-one took advantage of it.

Forgot to say, there was a nice wee clip of Ally heading the ball in for Boyd from the touchline.

Played OK that half I thought. The officials are absolutely shocking though. There was no way our penalty should have been given - wasn't a foul and was outside the box. Then we had a perfectly good goal chopped off when the linesman went to sleep. Good second goal following a great cross by Hutton - is this finally a sign that he's working on his distribution? Seem to be playing a 4-5-1 with Fergie playing just behind Boyd, but he still has a tendancy to get drawn back towards the defence. I wouldn't say anyone's really stood out for us yet and while Killie have had a couple of chances, with McGregor making a good save at feet near the end, we look pretty comfortable. I'd like to see our midfield try and make more of the time and space Killie are giving us. Ehiogu has gone off injured which is a shame, as it was really refreshing to see our centre halves getting stuck in on the ground and in the air, although Svensson looks to be taking a bit more of a no-nonsense approach since he came on.

Is McGregor fit? I see that Klos is supposedly injured now, is he on a huge appearance fee on top of his large wages?

I think Hemdani is an excellent technical player, but something is stopping him being truly effective in midfield. I still think he was more positive at coming forward and beating players when he was playing from defence. In the midfield he seems to be stifled. Not sure if its by players around him or if he's just not suited to the SPL, but while he's been one of our best players, there's not been much end-product or truly positive play IMO.

That's a bit of a bummer to be honest. Not so much on the park, but its not going to help him find a new club and will mean we're paying a lot of money for no return. Which is pretty much what we've been doing since he signed come to think of it.

What's the point though? The lad was a striker and we've not given him a chance in the first team. God knows we've been crying out for more strikers so I'm really bemused as to why PLG never gave guys like Stanger and Ashikodi a run-out. Good luck to the lad, but I really wish we'd stop signing these young promising players and then punting them on without ever giving them a chance. They can't all be that bad can they?

2-2 draw, Gow scored our second. Scotland B: Gallacher, McEveley, Brown, Greer, Broadfoot, Clark, Maloney, Beattie, Thomson, Pearson, Mackie. Subs Not Used: Gow, Adam. Goals: Maloney 11, Gow 64.