Bill

Does anyone know how Ross Wilson performed in his previous DoF roles? Presumably he must have some kind of achievements under his belt before we hired him. What I'm hinting at is the possibility he's actually a very convenient whipping boy for certain others who are content to hide behind him while at the same time constraining his ability to succeed.

Has to be between Raskin, Jack or Cantwell all of whom had excellent first halves ... but Raskin faded as the second half wore on. I thought Cantwell was possibly the best player on the pitch but went for Jack because of his contribution playing several different roles asked of him, adapting from defensive to attacking midfield.

On the other hand, it was Raskin who disappeared from sight as the second half went on. Raskin is a big step up from the likes of Kamara but I suggest it will be a few weeks before he's giving a good 90 minutes.

How many qualify for Europe next season?

There were some players today who simply switched off at half time and stopped any momentum the team was trying to build. There's no better example than our captain who, in the space of five minutes, gave the ball away three times with atrocious passes straight to opponents ... but he wasn't the only one. Even when we weren't giving the ball away, some of the passes to team mates were so bad as to be virtually uncontrollable. I thought our midfield was imperious in the first half. Raskin faded slightly after half time but still had a very good game over all. Jack was excellent throughout but the star was Todd Cantwell who was at it right to the end. Because we got the team selection mostly right, we got 3 points today that in themselves will achieve nothing. Last Sunday we got the team all wrong and lost a trophy because of it. There can be no more talk of learning lessons, surely they've all been learned by now.

Quite right, no need to exert ourselves unduly. 3-0 seems the perfect score.

Would it be crowing to point out that our standout players have been Jack, Cantwell and Raskin, who have controlled everything ....n and to reflect on what might have been six days ago had they been selected. Colak, Sakala, Kent and Davies have done well and great to see Connor Goldson on the goal trail again.

If they weren't fit, what the hell were they doing in the team? I think it's more likely they were just shit awful on the day.

Interviewer: So Michael, talk us through your changes for the visit of Kilmarnock. Beale: Well, I've selected the midfield everyone knows I should have gone with against Celtic.

I'll never understand why

Should have started with Hagi and Sakala being his replacement. At least he's finally gone with Colak in preference to Morelos.

I’d shuffle the pack a little more…. GK McGregor DR Devine DC Goldson DC Davies DL Barisic MR Cantwell MC Raskin MC Jack ML Kent FC Hagi FC Colak

Cantwell and Raskin are certainly improvements but the goal is a better team and one or two additions won’t do it. Even in our leanest periods we have had some good players, some of whom went on to win several trophies, but we’re just nowhere near having the critical mass of real talent required for success on the domestic stage. Worse still, we seem to be building around a rotten core and continually made signing choices that beggar belief.

It's substantially the same thing. He's offering a negative assessment of his situation when we don't need to hear how difficult his job is, what we need to hear is what he intends to do about it, how he plans to be successful. Or at the very least we need to have reason to believe he has such a plan. If he has doubts about his ability to succeed in the job because of finances or whatever then he needs to say so and quit because there's little point being here if he can't show us he can win trophies. This club has made a habit of falling at the final hurdle and there is no one on Earth who should have a better insight into the reasons why than Mick Beale, knowledge that he had in his pocket when he asked for and took the job. A week ago I'd have been a lot less critical but then this manager showed us his plan to win the league cup and I haven't yet heard him tell us how he got it so badly wrong and what he would do differently if he had to play that game over again. Almost everything I hoped to see from Beale pretty much evaporated in the ridiculous team selection and his willingness to persevere with it after half time. This isn't just frustration at losing a cup final, it's despair at realising nothing fundamental has changed since van Bronckhorst failed ... and the present manager doesn't seem to have faith in his ability to induce the necessary changes.

Nevertheless, it's true. There's a world of difference between offering clear informations and your mouth running away with you.

The truth is irrelevant. Saying it out loud is not, it's inexcusable. Good leaders simply don't do this. It's like Churchill informing Britain he had a complex job because he was going to have to fight a war with a smaller, weaker army than Germany.

What the f**k is this? Getting his excuses in early? It looks like the entire Beale facade is going to disappear in a single week.

Too needy - wants to be 'liked'.

If I'd been a voter I'd have voted no. If I were Laura Fawkes I'd be too embarrassed to continue but I'm sure she'll just ignore the insult and carry on.

I can't raise the willpower to drive 350 miles round trip to watch another frustrating afternoon of passing across the back line against a ten man defence. Even if we score 6 it will only reinforce the absurdity of last Sunday. Seats handed over to a more forgiving offspring.

You're right of course. When we're reduced to calling Barisic one of our best players, we know we're in the shit. One of our basic structural problems is having two fullbacks who are appalling defenders and your point about defending the back post is spot on ... although I'd argue that Tavernier is even worse than Barisic. They both have to go. If we're sticking with Tavernier because of his goal stats then that tells me we need more potency elsewhere in the team. Time to leave the (largely unsuccessful) past behind.

As much as I don't want to believe it, this is a conclusions that's becoming harder to deny. It's very difficult for any of us to know where the problem lies and guessing about individual identities is always a dangerous game .... but any manager worth his salt should certainly know, especially one who has been here before. But that shouldn't necessarily stop us exploring the question.

I can't help thinking it's been a hell of a journey back from near-oblivion, only to realise on looking around me that this isn't our stop at all and our destination is still nowhere in sight. Worse still, I don't even know if this bus actually goes there.

Right on both counts. Many fans who said we don't get enough information are rapidly concluding that Beale says far too much. Talking doesn't get the job done. Getting the job done gets the job done.