Big Fifer

First game for me this season, good day out and always enjoy Ochilview. Thought overall we just about edged it but a draw was fair enough. We look much better on the ball than Stenhousemuir but we also never look that dangerous in the final third whereas, particularly the first half, they looked to be able to cut us open quite easily on the counter. I thought Millar, Healy and Mercer were excellent but big praise for Fleming in the goals, a few cracking saves and I was absolutely gutted for him when Stenny's second went in straight after he pulled off that nice left handed stop. Overall I think we are a decent outfit but left back and striker still an issue. We've never been able to sort out left back issue out, Williamson must be absolutely dreadful (and furious himself) that we keep shoehorning players into left back instead of him. Wasn't impressed at all with what we have up front, guys like Balde and Healy are great on the ball and are happy to go past a man but when the strikers are just standing still in that situation then there's always gonna be two or three centre halves blocking their path. If there was scope to bring someone else in I wouldn't mind letting Trouten go frankly as those who have managed to get to games more regularly than me said that was a fairly standard performance. Shepherd was slightly better but again, he's only ever really looking for the ball over the top so isn't making the space for the midfielders to capitalise on.

He was quite mistake prone initially when he got his chance but there's definitely promising signs there. As with most keepers it's difficult to predict.

Honestly so fucking sick of seeing the Tory "big hitters" over the past decade. JRM, Johnson, Truss, Coffey, Javid, Hunt, whoever, get them all in the fucking bin. Oh, and that livid Tory backbencher aswell, despite how entertaining this was:

One of the reasons people see independence= SNP is because those at the top of the SNP would likely be part of any negotiations were we to vote for independence, which is a little bit scary considering the quality within the party. Similarly, this idea that as soon as we're independent the SNP will disband and we'll be presented with a host of new parties in our new glorious democracy seems a bit fanciful to me.

Keep an eye on how much you're using vs how much they're telling you to pay. I'm currently paying £300/month for electricity (heating is electric also) because those values were in preparation for the October rise - I asked for a bill a few days ago and I am hundreds of pounds in credit at the minute. I am just leaving it as it stands but the £300/month still seems far too high (admittedly my flat has these old storage heater things which I don't think are particularly efficient).

I thought Jack was worse than McLean, particularly when you factor in McLean playing out of position. Otherwise a really enjoyable performance. Fair play to Hickey especially, his performances in the summer gave me the fear but he has been excellent, which was made harder last night because it felt like the Ukraine lads were told to absolutely smash into him at every opportunity.

Hi, Tom.

I see Tom Kitchin has deleted that tweet of him and the group from our squad given that Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes are both in the photo

I'm not even sure if this is the case. He didn't look happy with Christie at the time when he grabbed the ball and there was some mild negotiations - all laughs and smiles after when it went in of course.

I said the same thing on here after the Ukraine game. Some of our fans are ridiculous, we pass the ball 4 times and if we're not in on goal they're screaming their nut off. As others have said, the evening Saturday kick-offs definitely bring the worst out in some of our support.

I see Gordon had to stay up all night the previous evening as his wife delivered the baby. Certainly explains the quality of his distribution last night, some of his kicking was woeful!

Can we please just beat this lot ffs.

Never understood why Kevin Thomson has such a big reputation. He has managed for one season in a League where his squad's budget absolutely dwarfed everyone else, and he then left at the end of the season when his stock was at it's peak as it appears that budget is perhaps not quite as healthy this time around.

He's one of the names doing the rounds. Not sure myself, a new unproven manager also a gamble. Baring in mind, he supposedly left us halfway through his contract because he didn't like not being based closer to home which turned out to be complete nonsense given how quickly he seemed to rock up at you guys!

Not sure anyone is that distraught to see him go. Regardless, it does not reflect well at all on the boards recruitment strategy that the guy they appointed without interviewing anyone else has jumped ship within a year to be an assistant, despite at the time having been the apparent obvious candidate. Having seen us relegated, a team dismantled and a full recruitment strategy seemingly based on youth, we weren't that much of an appetising project in November 2021 and we're in a worse position now. Fingers crossed we go crazy and actually interview people this time. My cash is on Toro being appointed.

Worth noting that SSC (and maybe the general public also?) likely got the majority of the tickets for these games as part of the 4 game package that guaranteed a ticket to the playoff game, I think that will have had a large part to play.

Really enjoyed that. Thought the overall performance was really good from basically every player. Lots of complaints from those watching at home about Armstrong, I thought he was OK, he looked decent enough going forward in the 1st half but was on the opposite side of the pitch second half and apparently it was him that missed a couple of big chances? Sometimes difficult to catch in the stadium. Christie put a monstrous shift in. Despite Big Daddy Dykes coming on and doing the absolute goddamn business, I'd still stick with Adams on Saturday. How weird a player is McSauce by the way? He constantly goes from doing something that looks world class to doing something absolutely awful. So odd. I am also convinced a couple of his defensive runs in the opening 10 minutes were him doing what he did when he was at RCB and it just coming naturally, he was caught out of position a few times early on where he was tracking back in towards the centre halves then almost trying to make up for it by pushing forward immediately afterwards. I said last year I didn't think the back four would work with this squad. Since then I think we have progressed in a couple of areas - I think Patterson is an infinitely better player than he was so we now have a real player in that position, and Hickey coming on was really good as well. I was a huge critic of his after the June match but he looked really good. I also think that McGregor has continued to improve and him and McTominay (who I still am not convinced with as a "defensive" midfielder") link up pretty well in the middle. As someone said above, if we're playing that shape it'll be interesting where Gilmour fits in because he does feel a bit more luxury in a sense. Anyway, boring myself, just a couple of things from being in the stadium. Scotland fans are fucking morons. Honestly some of the worst shouts on the planet coming from the North stand tonight. The usual "get it forward", "do something with it" to be expected but some folk getting absolutely apoplectic with rage when we pass it more than 5 times and we're not in the opposition box. This was made more hilarious around the 10 minute mark where Ukraine passed the ball what felt like about 50 times over a 2-3 minute phase of play and created a good opportunity. We get the ball back and after 20 seconds of passing "DAE SUMMIN WAE IT". Ridiculous. Finally, VAR is fucking shite, and there is absolutely nothing that will convince me otherwise. From my angle at the first goal, basically in line with McGinn's running direction, for all I knew he could have been 5 yards offside. The 2 minutes after the goal with the Ukraine players surrounding the referee and the ref having his hand on his earpiece completely ruins any goal celebration for me. Rubbish.

That line up can easily become a 4-3-3 of sorts.

The game in Ukraine in June was one of the worst performances we've seen under Clarke, from pretty much every player. We didn't have Tierney at left centre half and their front three pressed our central defenders really high which, when it's Cooper filling in that role, ends with the ball going long. McSauce was also hung out to dry a bit on the right hand side as Hickey was constantly out of position (which wasn't caught on the cameras quite as much). Regardless I expect to see a better performance tonight particularly with Patterson in at RWB and Tierney back into the line up. If he does stick with the 5 I'd assume McSauce will be in at right centre half so that, if it is going the same way as June, we can change the shape. I know in attack/in possession we often see the shape change but I think defensively we might end up having to play 3 in the middle helping to protect a back 4 and to help the centre halves play out from their high press.

Do we really need another thread for this?

Really hope he doesn't go with two strikers. I am Big Daddy Dykes' biggest fan but the two of them up front together hasn't really worked, I'd far rather two of McGinn/Armstrong/Christie/Fraser playing off, more likely, Adams if we are sticking with the same system.

The past few years it's been fairly pointless buying the game at the start - always seems to be some sort of glitch that takes weeks to patch. What was the work permit issue in Scotland?

Cheers gents! It's in some random charity shop on Kilmarnock Road in case anyone fancies it!!

Pals just spotted this shirt in a charity shop - who is this?

I've stuck with the Redmi series ever since. I bought the Redmi Note 10 Pro when the 11 came out - still think it's excellent.