Bheasts v champions

[Frankie 8,383]

Agree with that - in the first half, the whole team's passing (or lack of it) was very poor so Smith isn't alone in that criticism.

 

I'll be disappointed to see him leave but understand his reasons for doing so. I think he'll recover his best form elsewhere with regular first XI football free of injury.

[calscot 0]

I think the criticism of the team is a bit harsh - it was a very difficult game to play in with Celtic players playing it like the most important game in their history. Neither team could settle on the ball for more than a second or so and while "total football" suffered, I thought the game was about as exciting and enthralling as it gets.

 

At the same time I thought the level of skill from both sides was quite high in the circumstances with the ball often being very quickly and deftly brought under control and up to running speed at goal.

 

The refereeing was poor with three key decisions all going Celtic's way - their second goal was a foul, we should have had a penalty and the sending off was a complete dive.

 

I thought we were quite unlucky, especially with hitting the post and it seemed Miller scored the difficult one and missed a couple of easy chances while Davis missed a sitter. After the first 25 minutes, I thought we were the better team - bar two minutes after our goal and a five minute spell in the second half.

 

In the end I think it meant more to Celtic than our player and with plenty of first choices missing, the result is just one of those things.

 

Let's just win the last game to give us a respectable total of 89 points - shame we didn't get to 90.

[craig 5,199]

I think he has a far better excuse for inconsistency of distribution with his length of absence. He done defensively really well I thought (other than his panicked clearance at the start of the second half) and was no worse than Papac.

 

You being serious ? He did his job defensively, which is exactly what Papac does. However, Papac offers far more going forward than Smith did. Papac' distribution is also far superior to what we saw from smith the other night. Papac also forces the opposition to think about him in an attacking sense as he does support his midfielder. Smith never once looked like getting over the halfway line the other night.

 

To say he was no worse than Papac is unfair on Papac IMO.

 

I am by no means a hater of Stevie Smith but, IMO, he did very little to suggest he would be worthy of a starting slot in our team. I will caveat that statement by recognising that he hasnt played much, was being asked to come in from the cold against our fiercest rivals and it could have been a one-off poor game.

 

It really is all about opinions I guess - but I would like to see the stats on his passing as I dont really recall him actually completing a pass - seemed to look for the long ball each and every time he had the ball and it ended up coming straight back at us.

 

He did have a few very decent saving tackled though.

[calscot 0]

I think Smith is well short of confidence which tends to make you make more mistakes and be more panicky about passes and clearances. The one he put out for a corner when he had loads of times really demonstrated this nervousness.

 

Hutton was a different player when his confidence was shot and when he rebuilt it, he was an excellent player. Smith could emulate that if he moves to another club where he can be a first team regular - a bit like Webster.

 

He looked a better prospect than Hutton a few years ago, so he must still have that potential.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

I never really bought that 'Smith was a better prospect than Hutton' line

 

Hutton looked a sensational prospect when he first broke into the team, and played against Celtic 5 or 6 times in his first 25 senior appearances. It was only his leg break against Kilmarnock that slowed his progress and it was only really the first 4 months of the 06/07 season where he looked anything other than a great prospect

 

Smith was a steady, unspectacular player who never offered the creative outlet of Hutton

[Danny 0]

So no-one else thought Stevie Smith played well?

 

Thought he had his usual performance tbh. Decently reliable but nothing special. That's been his career for us.