Forfinn

He should never have been appointed in the first place. When he was appointed there should have been some meaningful attempt to address his reputation. There wasn't. He showed himself up over the Tam Courts SRtRC incident. The top six finish was a fluke and we've been turgid ever since. All things considered, I'm delighted he's gone, and doubly so that he was sacked rather than leaving on his own terms. I don't really care at this point who we appoint now, as others have said. It's not an instant fix though. A lot of bridges have been burned, it'll take time for the club to rebuild them (if they want to).

For all Ferguson might have faults as a CEO, the appointment of Mackay is entirely on MacGregor.

Presumably Wright was on Sunday Sportsound primarily to speak about Scotland v Romania on Saturday night, which begs the question of whether Kenny Miller gave his thoughts on the rugby?

An SNP MP has absolutely nothing to do with something put out by the Traffic Commissioners of Great Britain, an independent regulator that reports in to the UK Government's Department of Transport.

There are many and varied problems with this, as has been pointed out, but the lack of any sort of evidence base is a pretty fundamental issue. This is of course true, but you could substitute "football fans" for "rugby fans" or "shoppers" or "toddlers at soft play". Is the level of anti-social behaviour at football in Scotland so bad it merits special measures, relative to other walks of life? Maybe it is, but show us the evidence. Has it worked well? Should we just take their word for it? Show us the evidence. (and who defines what "well" means in this context?) Who's concerned? And "may be increasing"? This implies they don't actually know. Surely some research should have been done to determine that either way? Based on what? A vague feeling it might be necessary? In the age of devolution, simply having a "consistent approach across Great Britain" is not a policy justification. It may or may not be justified in England and Wales, but if they want to now introduce it in Scotland there should be a sound rationale setting out why that is an appropriate approach, based on the situation in Scotland.

Do you think they got a bulk-buy discount on those trainers?

£33 for an unrestricted view ticket. Anyone willing to pay that is mad.

While it's certainly true Victoria Park has a capacity larger than the population of Dingwall, Ross County's catchment area goes far beyond the town. There's a clue in the name (and even more than that - it's the "local" league team for most of the northern Highlands). You'd think Mackay would know that by now. He does, of course, he's just playing mind games, like you say. On a slight tangent, I've always found it a bit annoying when commentators and journalists talk about away fans "making the long journey down from Dingwall". I'd bet if you did a survey of the away end, Dingwall residents would be in the minority. A good chunk of our away support will be central-belt based so might actually have shorter journeys than some of the home fans, and others will be from the wider Highlands.

The best guess on that so far is that while the shirt is bespoke, the shorts and socks are out of the Joma catalogue and don't quite match. The Joma logo on the shorts is white (as opposed to black on the shirt) as well. Hopefully it'll all match up by the time the season starts... ETA: There we go: https://www.joma-sport.com/en_US/shorts-man-nobel-burgundy/100053.671.html

During a time of division amongst the Ross County support, it's impressive to see the club have managed to unite the fanbase with the new away shirt. I've never seen a kit so universally reviled.

It was either that or have the same argument again for the 1,057th time, which I agree would be tiresome.

I can't believe someone submitted an FOI request on this. A waste of police resources having to answer it, but it's good to know Thistle fans only have themselves to blame.

I'd resolved not to get involved in this debate for the umpteenth time because so much of it is subjective and we all have our positions that are not going to change. However, it's worth bringing some clarity on the FA point, especially as Roy himself tried to muddy the waters here by saying he'd been found "not guilty" and "exonerated", which is, at best, misrepresentation of the facts. The FA investigation did not result in disciplinary action as, to that point, it was not their policy to bring charges “in respect of private communications sent with a legitimate expectation of privacy”. However, he was “spoken to” about the “inappropriateness of terms used in the messages”. Following the case, the FA instigated a review of how similar cases should be treated in the future.

You won't be saying that after being at the new Meadowbank, but worth doing once for the novelty value.

That's a remarkable statement from TJF. A couple of things stand out for me: It's a bit odd to preach about financial responsibility and transparency then immediately commit to funding you admit you don't have, but also not say how much of a shortfall needs to be made up. Is that figure readily available from elsewhere? It's surely not helpful to have a fan ownership group so lacking in grace and decorum? At a time when you need everyone to pull together, including lines like "we hope that no-one involved in almost ending that 147 year history of our football club ever shows their face at Firhill again" can't be helpful. They seem to have had a massive chip on their shoulder all the way through the takeover process. The official club statement seems much more measured. It looks like that collapse against Ross County could prove to be a real sliding doors moment for Thistle.

You see, the fans have been most vocal on the subject of the mutual consent statement. "Where is the mutual consent statement?" "When are we going to get the mutual consent statement?" "Why aren't we getting the mutual consent statement now?" And so on. So please, the mutual consent statement.

I did not expect that today. Football, bloody hell etc. For all I've got my issues with the club, that was a hell of a rollercoaster ride. If tomorrow we can have the new kit launch and a statement about the manager leaving "by mutual consent to pursue other opportunities" then that'll be the perfect end to the season.

Ironically, with season tickets not being valid today, there might be some trying to become walk-ups when they find out that's not the case on arrival. Are we trying to guard against a mass-infiltration of ticketless Partick fans? It's the only logical conclusion I can come up with, because it's surely not a sell-out, and you'd want to get as many County fans in as possible.

County presumably confident of a sell-out given they decided to announce just before 12pm that ticket sales would stop at 2pm, 2 1/2 hours before kick-off. Huge, if true.

Looking at the number of seats available on the County ticketing site, you might be in the majority.

He's moving to Brora Rangers?

I was listening to the pre-match build-up on the radio last night before switching to the TV for the game itself. Stuart Kettlewell was one of the pundits, and 30 seconds after saying Fergie is his best friend (which was nice, but also establishes he's still well-connected to the club) went on to say that he didn't think he was "telling tales outside of school" in saying that County are operating with their biggest ever budget this year, more commensurate with the top six finish from last year. That was interesting to hear as it makes a difference to how our performance should be judged. It's one thing struggling at the bottom if the manager is working on a reduced budget and expected to perform miracles. It would seem that's not the case. I guess the likes of Dhanda and Purrington, probably even Hiwula (which is scary to think) were enticed north on decent wages. Makes it all the more baffling that Mackay wasn't sacked during the season.

*Monday. Very bold timing, but that aside, it looks like Joma / whoever signs off the kit designs has finally realised less is more. It looks very promising, with no unnecessary red.

For all Mackay's attempts at mind games this week, I think County will be delighted to leave Glasgow with a draw, tbh.

Owen Coyle was also a former Premier League manager living off long-faded glory. Coincidentally, his previous job in Scottish football was at Ross County where he was an unmitigated disaster. I'd suggest he fits the profile perfectly... I'm speculating, but the rumour is Mackay is leaving at the end of the season and Queen's Park have been mentioned specifically. For the reasons I set out a couple of pages back, it's a move that would tick a lot of boxes. And since then, the fact you haven't announced a new man, and that our season is still ongoing, it starts to feel quite possible. We didn't think our board/chairman would be daft enough to appoint him either, but here we are.