Lex

Winning a game would be the first target, remarkably we haven't won a single game at a major tournament since 1996. Second target is just not finishing bottom of the group. The dream is to qualify from a group stage at a major tournament for the first time ever, which is doable but will be tough. Based on our current terrible form and lack of tournament experience compared to our opponents, we are certainly more likely to finish fourth than anywhere else

Will there even be a vote? You got to admire his brass neck if he does go to the floor as first minister knowing he’s relying on Ash Regan and the goodwill of the presiding officer sticking to convention to stay in place. If he does win by one vote, what then? Does he expect to continue as a unelected First Minister for the next two years, knowing he’s just a falling out with Ash Regan or yet another SNP defection away from another vote of no confidence? It would be the Ash Regan parliament, with him in her back pocket at every turn. It’s impossible to run a credible administration like that. His authority is gone regardless of this votes outcome. He should either resign and let the SNP try find a leader who the Greens will have confidence in, or go to the polls as FM himself and ask the Scottish public for a mandate. However, given his clear delusion, I suspect he won’t do either of those things and he maybe even genuinely believes he can be FM for two more years and lead the SNP into a May 2026 Parliamentary election. Back in the real world, the chances of that happening are zero.

Eh? There’s 65 MSP’s between the Greens, Lib, Labour and Lib Dem’s, not 64? There’s 129 MSP’s, 64 votes is not enough. I’m tempted for the bet now because you’ve obviously miscounted before you offered it, but I don’t know what the Greens will do, and certainly wouldn’t bet on weasel Harvie having the backbone to bring down the SNP government. He’ll decide though, cause the Greens will vote as a block one way or another.

There will be a vote of no confidence next week, Tories have already confirmed it will be brought to the floor. There will be certainly 63 SNP votes of confidence and 57 LIB/LAB/CON votes of no confidence. There is eight green MSP's and who will decide the outcome of the vote. I don't know how they will vote, I bet Patrick Harvie doesn't know how they'll vote yet either. Ash Regans one vote for Alba will be unlikely to matter. The question the Greens will be asking themselves is if they want to see the man who just sacked them from government after backing down on a climate pledge continue as First Minister while they sit in opposition. I assume you think they do want that? Maybe they do, we'll soon find out.

Alba for one will be licking their lips at this today. They will rightly see themselves as the next natural coalition partner of the SNP. They’ll want an election cause they’ll believe - rightly or wrongly - they can increase their vote share and get into government as the junior partner to the next SNP administration. They’re the potential biggest winners. Maybe the Greens will vote for that they do have confidence in the first minister who back tracked on a climate promise and then threw them out of government when they called them on it, but I doubt it. The no confidence motion will be brought to the floor soon enough I’m sure, so we’ll soon see.

Be funny if it was Paddy Harvie who brought a motion of no confidence in the administration and brought the house down with him as he leaves government. There are more non SNP MSP's than SNP MSP's in the chamber after all, it would certainly pass if the Greens voted for it. Time to go to the polls.

This should - in theory at least - lead to a snap Scottish Parliamentary election. The SNP running a minority administration under an unelected First Minister can't be sustainable for another two years. I suspect Humza will try and brass neck it for as long as he can right enough, before the inevitable happens.

I’ve convinced myself we are ‘due one’ against the bigoted two this season. In almost all of the seasons we have been in the top flight we have taken something from them at least once, even if it was just a point. So far this season, in a season where they’ve both been dropping points all over the shop, we have played them seven times, lost seven times, scored 1 and conceded 16. So, we must be due something, right? And where better to get it at home to a stuttering Rangers. We are certainly out of form - just one point from our last four games, but so are they. They’re winless in three league games and in their last they’ve lost to lowly Ross County and - annoyingly for us - drew to Dundee. 0-2

You just need to look at this Misc other football board on this forum to see how popular English football is in Scotland. On the first page of that board alone we have the Barclays thread, the English football league thread, the English non league thread, the FA Cup thread, The Everton thread, the Carlisle thread and the Liverpool thread. A few years ago I got speaking to someone who worked behind the scenes in the broadcast media and naturally got to me moaning about how bad the Scottish football coverage was compared to English football. He said that he knew that, but MOTD has more Scottish viewers than Sportscene does. Dont know how we go about changing that but I don’t think it’s going away.

The title decider is tonight! Point is you'd be lucky if more than 1% of Scottish football fans knew this, you are that 1% I wonder if there is a Northern Ireland football forum where they bemoan the amount of coverage their game gets nationally on the BBC.

Taking that a step further, would you watch a Northern Irish Football League Premiership game on the TV? There is a decent title race going on there between Larne and Linfield just now, but I still wouldn't want to watch.

Yeah having spent a lot of time in England over the years I'd broadly agree with this. I've always thought that English football fans attitude to domestic Scottish football is similar to Scottish football fans attitude to domestic Irish football. They know it exists and they could tell you the names of some of the teams. If there's a bit of geekery there they might even know one or two managers and players. Beyond that there's no real knowledge of who's winning what or who's in what league, and like us about Irish football, they just aren't interested.

Shat it. Again.

Fifth guaranteed Europe then…. Surely we aren’t going to mess this up.

Don’t get those against Celtic. Celtic get them against you though.

The fiscal will absolutely have been involved in the charging decision. Will no doubt take years to go to court, but it very probably will.

Should be an interesting court case, if nothing else. I wonder if Sleazy Pete will take a deal to avoid the Nats dirty laundry being aired in open court.

FT 3-0 Another Parkhead pumping to add to the list. Good first half, shocking second and therefore well pumped. One point from our last four going into the split. Reminds me a bit of last season, when we were in a good position and ended the season with eight games without a win and finished sixth. Unless we start playing much better, that’s going to happen again.

What a player Foden is, B’Alon Dor potential.

Fair play for somehow making Hearts the victim here.

FT 1-2 Limped over the top six line with a loss again then, just like last season, thanks Saintees! Plenty happened second half at least. Looked like another Hemming howler to me for their second goal but will need to see it again. Gogic messed up twice that led to chances for Hearts, neither taken. Then a lovely counter attacking goal by Olusanya, which you don't often get at 0-2 down. Seemed that the VAR penalties would be levelled up when the ref got sent to the screen to check a foul on McMenamin. They always get given when they get sent to the screen, right? Wrong. Sums up our luck with VAR this season. Regardless, we were rubbish today and thats a really bad result at home against team with nothing to play for and our form poor form continues. We will need to improve hugely post split if we are going to get Europe.

HT 0-1 Been a rubbish game, wind is running it really. Both teams have been poor and there haven’t really been any chances. We had the wind behind us all half, cunningly decided not to use it to our advantage at all. Free kick on the half time whistle there and a chance to hang a ball up in the wind. Decided to play it short, messed it up, then it was half time. Summed the half up. The VAR handball penalty for Hearts is the only thing that’s really happened. Eyes on Easter Road second half, hopefully Saintees hold on. Can’t see us coming back to win this with the wind in our face second half - hope I’m wrong!

Hopefully we don’t get three goals wrongly disallowed this time.

Correct it is over. The Scottish independence movement will go the same way as the Quebec one. A slow and steady slide into obscurity.

Artificial how? The two of them have much more fans than everyone else. They've got over 100,000 season ticket holders between them, that's far more than every other Scottish club combined. Their income is considerably higher than everyone else and that's why they win everything, and will continue to win everything, regardless of league format or FFP.