Paco

I genuinely hope the subject matter can be removed from the discussion around this.* It shouldn’t matter whether you agree with this legislation or not, the question now is whether it’s within the competency of the Scottish Parliament. My gut and a surface-level look tells me it is, but I’m no expert. Let the Supreme Court decide. *obviously it won’t be because the entire thing is being orchestrated to build dislike of the SNP/Scotland which could prove useful in an election, and a nice bonus would be to get a Labour MP to say a woman can have a penis. CON +4

There’s a middle ground with Frederiksen, both in terms of specifically shooting yesterday and overall what he can bring. People seem to be falling into ‘give him a shot’ and ‘he’s hopeless’ camps and I’m not sure either are correct I haven’t seen his decision to shoot but clearly it was the wrong one. But comments claiming he personally cost us the game are ludicrous. He didn’t play a Cove player in on goal, he didn’t give them one final attack. We were barely into injury time, Cove still have three or four minutes and Frederiksen gave their goalkeeper the ball. We conceded 90 seconds later from a corner. He was stupid and deserves criticism but there’s a lot of other factors at play. In terms of his general contribution, he clearly isn’t very good and in an ideal world we don’t start him in league games. But, he’s here and he showed against Dundee, albeit only for three minutes, that he could have a place as a late ‘carnage’ option. When you think to the Morton and particularly Arbroath home matches, it seems mental that we were dreadful but didn’t throw him on to try and get a winner, instead relying on Connell who came on and did nothing. I see him a bit like say Connor McBride. A squad player to come off the bench now and then, and probably only when things get desperate. With Connell gone we should see more of him, and for what it’s worth I think if he had Connell’s game time he’d have contributed about the same as he did.

Think we can kiss any vague promotion hopes goodbye after this run, a pretty kind run of fixtures sees us unbeaten in 5 but with only one win. We’ve taken the lead in all five, blown it four times Much tougher next 5 with bogey team Caley, Arbroath away and then three of the top 4.

Pretty odd interview. In isolation, presents a picture where Sim isn’t really arsed either way whether we get investment or not, everything is basically fine and normal, but it would be nice to have to get to the ‘next level’ (I think he even used those words). Seemed genuinely confused when Davie was pressing on players being moved on this window and kept speaking about next season and how it was the manager’s call. Unfortunately we can’t take the interview in isolation. The chairman was wittering on about selling players in the national media just last week and all word, official and unofficial, from the club seemed to suggest Sim wanted out and has had enough. All in all, a bit weird.

I’m never sure whether it’s the Scottish media to blame for bigging it up or the PM’s team themselves, but one of my pet peeves is the way the UK Prime Minister coming to Scotland is treated like some sort of occasion. A visiting dignitary to be welcomed, once or twice a year. The PM should be appearing in the towns and cities ten times a year basically unannounced, the way they do inside the M25. Instead they hide at a donor’s workplace, very very occasionally lower themselves to meeting the First Minister and f**k off after lunchtime.

I’d assume a couple of dumpy Cove style stands behind the goals for opening up? Otherwise you surely aren’t going there this season.

If the games were next weekend I don’t think it’d be unreasonable for Scotland to have Doak on the bench. Liverpool are one of the biggest clubs in the world and brought him on for Mo Salah last night with the match in the balance, in the only tournament they’re likely to have a chance of winning this season. The games are a long way off though. With Liverpool players returning from injury we might not see a lot or any of Doak in February and March, or he might be on loan playing every minute somewhere else. Anything can happen.

Yousaf is an idiot, but from a political standpoint the SNP are best at least letting him see out the winter before throwing him up as the sacrificial lamb. A change of health minister is going to achieve absolutely nothing in terms of NHS performance, I’m sure even his harshest critics will know that, so waiting until April before punting him is the clever move. I’m not convinced the SNP are ruthless or cynical enough to act like that though. Not with Yousaf at least, who has by any measure had a pretty inexplicable rise up the ranks.

To be honest we’ve been better without Stanton in the last two games. I’d far rather he was available obviously, and him coming on for Vaughan rather than Connell last night would’ve been immeasurably better, but after his purple patch in September/October he’s been fine at best for me. I don’t think he should be walking back into the team when fit. Speaking of Connell, I will treat him signing on a permanent deal as an act of war.

Hickey is back in training I think, albeit won’t walk back into a Brentford team doing very well without him. Patterson should be fit within 11 weeks too. No need to worry. Ramsay sadly isn’t quite at the Tsimiskas stage of being the clear deputy at Liverpool. A loan in January wouldn’t be a bad outcome.

Didn’t they vote against exactly that in the Covid crisis? Voted no to the 14-14-14 proposal which clearly would’ve been great for Raith Rovers - more likely to go up, far less likely to go down.

Not sure which unions you’re referring to but Unite is the largest NHS union and held a vote. Unison also did albeit I think they mainly represent ambulance staff and aren’t particularly large.

Also interesting that large unions have already accepted the Scottish Government offer. There’s no differentiation between nurses and other workers in the NHS Scotland pay bands, so I assume an overall deal is held up until the RCN strike an agreement? An agreement which would then apply to everyone? Strange times. I have a little bit of sympathy for the SG here, 7.5% is as good an offer as I’ve seen from the public sector, and 3% higher than the offer in England.

Haven’t seen it mentioned but the challenge cup game with Raith on January 11th was confirmed as being at Ochilview. So I think you can safely assume games taking place soon won’t be at the new ground. Fingers crossed we’re at the new place for the league match on February 18th!

A striker would’ve made little to no difference on Saturday there. Gullan, Vaughan and Connell all took a turn and none of them touched the ball. We are currently playing pretty much exactly the same way we played for the second half of last season, with almost the same players. Incredibly given we won 2 in 20 last season, we didn’t win on Saturday either. Who’d have thought it?

That’s a hell of a front page. ‘Civil service weather forecasters’ will be to blame when one of the richest countries in the world can’t power itself, Meghan Markle was to blame for a 96 year old woman dying, and you can get a free calendar of said 96 year old woman to bow to each morning of your miserable, power-free life.

Fatties generally die young which in the long-term saves a fortune on state pension, housing benefit and the inevitable slew of health problems that come with old age anyway. It’s a surprise I know, but a BMI-based cull won’t achieve a great deal.

I don’t think I’ve ever ‘booed’ myself and agree it’s counter-productive in the middle of the game. But it’s pretty hard to come to the conclusion the team didn’t deserve every single bit of it at full-time. We are absolutely shite. Possibly somehow worse than the second half of last season.

Falkirk making a good game of this, eh? Looking like John McGlynn’s first Challenge Cup defeat since August 2011. 4/4 wins at Livi, 9/9 at Raith and 1/1 at Falkirk before tonight.

We don’t really have a striker to speak of, still. Connell is absolutely rubbish 95% of the time albeit one of his two good games did come against Ayr, Vaughan has been played as a centre forward in our last two to predictable results, Gullan has barely played for months and certainly isn’t a lone striker in any case, and Frederiksen has had about ten minutes off the bench since his last start in October. Genuinely surprised to see Ayr fans saying they’d take a draw. Top of the league at home to 7th. We’ve taken seven points from eight away games (wins over the bottom two and a point at injury-depleted Caley). Unfortunately I suspect they’ll be fine.

Do the BBC have a particular slot? Linlithgow away being moved to a Monday night would be a bitter, bitter blow. Friday however would be fine.

I’ve always said that if we can’t get an outright ban on switching home fixtures in the cup, clubs should be forced to nominate their home ground ahead of the draw. Darvel would undoubtedly play every single club in the draw at their home midden, on a tattie field, with the exception of the city clubs. It isn’t fair to expect Livi to play on a dreadful surface in a tight ground, but others can get a nice cushy game at Rugby Park.

Banks O Dee just last season too. I’m a little concerned about our inability to turn matches around, lower league teams often get an early goal in cup matches. But overall I’m really looking forward to something a bit different.

Ian Blackford and Nicola Sturgeon have also called for a General Election twice in the last four months, if you needed much more evidence they don’t mean the ‘election is indyref’ stuff.