Mike's Moan: Five Going On Ten

Now before any of the, how shall I put it, negative fans who frequent this website self-combust with anger not seen since Aberdeen supporters realised they are no longer title challengers, I should point out that the above paragraph was not serious. However, I do think the team deserve a lot of credit for the performance on Saturday and we should all applaud Malpas even if it is just for one game.

Kilmarnock did not play well and were extremely shoddy at the back but we still had to create and take the chances which we did very well. In fact, if we had taken all our chances in the second half we could have scored eight or nine. Craigan was immense at the back, Kerr put in his best performance of the season in midfield and Skippy scared the life out of their back four in attack. Let's just hope we can build on this game and knock in another five against the Pars!

Now for the down side.

Credit where credit is due; Colin Meldrum played well on Saturday, however I still think he is an accident waiting to happen. It is no coincidence that he was freed from Kilmarnock, freed from Livingston and was playing for Forfar before we signed him. He simply is not good enough and the quicker we get Smith back in goals to allow him to restore his confidence the better.

Time to put the better keeper back in

Our defence also looked distinctly shaky at the beginning of the game, with Reynolds in particular misjudging a lot of high balls. He has been one of our best players this season but he is not a central defender and it is unfair to rely on him continually to do a good job when he playing out of position. We either need to sign a centre half now or hope and pray Willie Kinniburgh comes back a new and improved player who cuts out the mistakes.

Paul Quinn had a reasonable game defensive wise, however his distribution going forward was deplorable. Even when he had time on the ball he passed it straight to the opposition, which on another day would have cost us. Coach has been in and around the team now for long enough, so its time to stop the mistakes and prove that he can cut it at this level.

Our midfield and attack played well. Brian Kerr put in a good shift and McGarry and Foran did well on the wings. Up front Skippy was great, although maybe a little greedy at times and Callum Elliot… actually I'm not sure what Elliot gives the team.

He runs around a lot, gives away a lot of free kicks, but doesn't really do much else. His touch is awful, his finishing is mediocre and his link-up play is poor at best. No wonder Hearts wanted to get rid of him. I'm sure Malpas has him in the team for his height but I can't remember him ever winning a ball in the air. We already had a decent headless chicken forward at the club and from what I have seen so far, Clarkson is a better player than the Jambo protégé. Maybe he needs time to settle in but with his loan deal running out in January I would say time is something we cannot afford to give him.

MM