All about getting through

[steelendhibs]

Beat Dundee and we are through. Performances haven’t been great, but there are mitigating factors for that. If we get to the semis or even the final, iffy performances in early rounds and the group stage will be forgotten. I remember us producing a bit of an insipid performance against The Rovers in Jan 2016, and we all know what happened later on in that competition! Hope the Forfar lad with the bad injury gets well soon.

[JimBHibees]

Fair chance even if we lost to Dundee we would still qualify as one of 4 best second places however that would leave us unseeded which we wouldnt want to be at this stage of the competition.

[calumhibee1]

Yup. We’ve pretty much qualified with half a team in every game. Job done.

[Smartie]

Hmm. Minimum expectation achieved, fine.

It would have been nice to have a few fringe players stake a serious claim for a place but that really didn’t happen.

You then get onto what we learned, and that is mostly negative. Gullan - never a lone striker but looks a great prospect coming in off the left. Our squad lacks depth so we’re going to need to pick our best team give or take a player or two and get lucky with injuries - and we’re already very reliant on Nisbet. The ageing defenders are showing their age.

Credit where it’s due - they find ways to win games in difficult circumstances - missing players, horrible pitches, stuffy opposition you’re expected to crush. It wasn’t pretty but maximum points is maximum points.

My final negative - I’m not convinced you can get a tidy midfield unit with Stevie Mallan in it. He clearly has something but you almost need to pick a team of 10, let him do his thing and hope he gets corners, free kicks and doesn’t get in our way too much otherwise. He frustrates the life out of me. I thought the “off the striker” position might be his best, as he played against Brora and it looked good early on - until he dropped deep to “get involved”. He’s had so many opportunities in a key position in poor team performances that I’ve almost lost patience with him.

[duffers]

Fair chance even if we lost to Dundee we would still qualify as one of 4 best second places however that would leave us unseeded which we wouldnt want to be at this stage of the competition.

We could still beat Dundee and be unseeded if it was to go down to goal difference. Us, hearts, St Johnstone, Dunfermline and Livi all looking likely of getting 12 points. 1 would lose out, and at the minute, our goal difference is joint lowest

[Sir David Gray]

We could still beat Dundee and be unseeded if it was to go down to goal difference. Us, hearts, St Johnstone, Dunfermline and Livi all looking likely of getting 12 points. 1 would lose out, and at the minute, our goal difference is joint lowest

On the plus side if we were unseeded I'd expect us to beat all of these sides with a full strength team.

I'd also expect us to beat this season's Motherwell side.

I'd really only want to avoid Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen.

[Since452]

We'll beat Dundee too. Probably use some of our second string again.

[Keith_M]

On the bright side, we've only got one more of these games left.

[Northernhibee]

I'm actually quite pleased with the results we've had, if not the performances.

We've had players who've never had a start at senior level have to get involved, players who haven't had a start in nearly a year because of injury and the like so we've been fielding a selection of players rather than a team who've had a chance to play much together. Despite this, three games, three victories.

It would have been much easier than a lot of people are giving credit for that we could be facing going out of the cup just now because although it's Cove Rangers, Forfar Athletic and Brora Rangers, these are teams of players who are used to playing alongside each other and have a degree of understanding. For us it's been learning as we go with players like Gray, Hallberg out of position and we've come through it.

[The 90+2]

Hmm. Minimum expectation achieved, fine.

It would have been nice to have a few fringe players stake a serious claim for a place but that really didn’t happen.

You then get onto what we learned, and that is mostly negative. Gullan - never a lone striker but looks a great prospect coming in off the left. Our squad lacks depth so we’re going to need to pick our best team give or take a player or two and get lucky with injuries - and we’re already very reliant on Nisbet. The ageing defenders are showing their age.

Credit where it’s due - they find ways to win games in difficult circumstances - missing players, horrible pitches, stuffy opposition you’re expected to crush. It wasn’t pretty but maximum points is maximum points.

My final negative - I’m not convinced you can get a tidy midfield unit with Stevie Mallan in it. He clearly has something but you almost need to pick a team of 10, let him do his thing and hope he gets corners, free kicks and doesn’t get in our way too much otherwise. He frustrates the life out of me. I thought the “off the striker” position might be his best, as he played against Brora and it looked good early on - until he dropped deep to “get involved”. He’s had so many opportunities in a key position in poor team performances that I’ve almost lost patience with him.

Very good post.

Job done. Happy with this given the circumstances but also concerned very little of our second string or subs are up to anywhere near the same level as the first team. The goalie and hammer look very sound mind you.

[truehibernian]

Hmm. Minimum expectation achieved, fine.

It would have been nice to have a few fringe players stake a serious claim for a place but that really didn’t happen.

You then get onto what we learned, and that is mostly negative. Gullan - never a lone striker but looks a great prospect coming in off the left. Our squad lacks depth so we’re going to need to pick our best team give or take a player or two and get lucky with injuries - and we’re already very reliant on Nisbet. The ageing defenders are showing their age.

Credit where it’s due - they find ways to win games in difficult circumstances - missing players, horrible pitches, stuffy opposition you’re expected to crush. It wasn’t pretty but maximum points is maximum points.

My final negative - I’m not convinced you can get a tidy midfield unit with Stevie Mallan in it. He clearly has something but you almost need to pick a team of 10, let him do his thing and hope he gets corners, free kicks and doesn’t get in our way too much otherwise. He frustrates the life out of me. I thought the “off the striker” position might be his best, as he played against Brora and it looked good early on - until he dropped deep to “get involved”. He’s had so many opportunities in a key position in poor team performances that I’ve almost lost patience with him.

No doubt Mallan is a talented player but he needs to be braver on the balll and dictate games more. When he is, he is a game changer with some good goals and quality assists. The old cliche ‘confidence player’ is easily thrown about but there’s no doubt he falls into that category. Maybe also worth mentioning he’s coming back from injuries which takes time to get fully up to speed.

Good goals and assists in the two games though.

[Keith_M]

No doubt Mallan is a talented player but he needs to be braver on the balll and dictate games more. When he is, he is a game changer with some good goals and quality assists. The old cliche ‘confidence player’ is easily thrown about but there’s no doubt he falls into that category. Maybe also worth mentioning he’s coming back from injuries which takes time to get fully up to speed.

Good goals and assists in the two games though.


I actually felt that he was determined to get his hat-trick against Brora and took some chances to score when it would have been better to lay it off to a teammate.

Can't fault him for the assist for the third, though.

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

These games are usefull run outs against teams with nothing to lose an everyting to gain. That game against Cove Rangers could well have been a meaningless friendly on another day, but they were well up for it.

[scoopyboy]

We could still beat Dundee and be unseeded if it was to go down to goal difference. Us, hearts, St Johnstone, Dunfermline and Livi all looking likely of getting 12 points. 1 would lose out, and at the minute, our goal difference is joint lowest

Not so sure St.Johnstone will get full points, they have to play Dundee Utd and Peterhead (who also can get 12 points). They've edged out Kelty 2-1 and hammered Brechin.

I would be surprised if we beat Dundee and aren't seeded.

[G B Young]

These games are usefull run outs against teams with nothing to lose an everyting to gain. That game against Cove Rangers could well have been a meaningless friendly on another day, but they were well up for it.

Personally I'd have been fine with this tournament being cancelled for the current season, but as you say it has provided some benefits. I'd be happy to see it perhaps amended to become more of a reserve event in future. With European place up for grabs it's struck me as a bit of an also-ran event for a number of years now.

[scoopyboy]

Personally I'd have been fine with this tournament being cancelled for the current season, but as you say it has provided some benefits. I'd be happy to see it perhaps amended to become more of a reserve event in future. With European place up for grabs it's struck me as a bit of an also-ran event for a number of years now.

The secret is to qualify for Europe and escape the groups.

I wouldn't want to see it being devalued as realistically it is one of two we have a chance of winning.

[mal]

Premier Sports has a 5-year deal to cover the League Cup. I would imagine that downgrading the tournament would put us in breach of that contract.

[wookie70]

It is about getting through as a seed in my view. Given the group we had that should have been easily possible and we have put ourselves in pole position to do so, Good chance to get another semi final and start to get those regular Hampden semi and final visit back on the calendar. They are huge in terms of revenue and giving fans exciting days to look forward to. The league cup is loaded in favour of the bigger clubs and we need to take full advantage of that by getting into Europe

[The 90+2]

The secret is to qualify for Europe and escape the groups.

I wouldn't want to see it being devalued as realistically it is one of two we have a chance of winning.

Yep. It’s extra incentive for the whole club to avoid this in the future.

What I would add is the winner of the the league cup should be automatically avoiding the group **** the next season as there is not a European place.

Imagine going through the groups, winning it pumping the old firm and then having to play in Annan again the next season because concentrating on the cup meant you lose a few games in the league and miss out on Europe while Aberdeen and Motherwell pumped months ago in Europe get free weeks and a bye.