Frankie S

Interesting to note that, for all the talk of our strikers being out of form, Ché Adams has a better goals per 90 mins scoring rate in the Championship, at 0.60, than the league’s top scorer, Blackburn’s Sammie Szmodics (0.59). If Adams hadn’t been unsettled, constantly linked with a move away from Southampton, and in and out of the team for much of the season, it’s reasonable to assume that he would have had a reasonably prolific campaign. Championship top scorers

While I was hugely encouraged by the first 70 minutes against Netherlands, the subsequent collapse in that game, albeit after a raft of substitutions, and the utterly dismal showing against Northern Ireland are raising significant questions about our prospects for the summer. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a consistently good 90 minute performance from Scotland, and it’s hard to believe that the vibrant team that swept Spain away at Hampden 12 months ago has regressed to the extent that we witnessed in that insipid performance on Tuesday night. It’s been clear for some time that, while we have a highly competitive first XI, if everyone is fit, we lack genuine depth in the squad. I was in Lille for the France game in October last year, and it was clear that some of our fringe players just weren’t up to it as a strong French team swept us away. It was 4-1 going on 6 or 7. Our performance against England, with a stronger team, was just as bad, and those games highlighted the chasm that still separates us from the elite. I’m disregarding any ‘we don’t do friendlies’ excuses - we were completely outclassed on both occasions. On any given day, if we play to the best of our abilities, and we have all (or at least the vast majority) of our best players on the park then we’re capable of competing with most teams, even if I suspect not quite all. We’re weak at centre back, and in the forward positions, and we have little cover at goalkeeper. We’re very reliant on certain key players being fit (Robertson, Tierney, McGinn, McTominay, Gilmour, McGregor), and you can now add Hickey to this indispensable core. Being overly reliant on a core of seven players (eight if you count Gunn, as while he wasn’t at his best in the Netherlands, the alternatives, in the absence of a match-ready Gordon, are significantly worse) makes it essential not only that every one of the core is fit, but that they’re in form and playing well. That’s a very tall order. Given our limited striking options, and the way Clarke likes to play, we’re hugely reliant on the midfield chipping in with more than their share of goals, which puts the pressure on McTominay and McGinn particularly. With the best will in the world, none of Gilmour, Christie (who it seems was moved deeper by Bournemouth at least partly in response to a lack of goals and assists while he was playing further forward), McGregor, or bench options such as McLean and Armstrong) are likely to contribute significantly to our goals tally. Ferguson might, though the jury is still out there. We have little or no natural width, or much pace, guile or creativity going forward. If McGinn or McTominay, or both, are having off days (and McGinn looks burned out to me after a long season), then we’re really struggling to score goals. It strikes me that Clarke’s natural conservatism and loyalty to his players, while laudable in some respects, is a double-edged sword. It seems almost as difficult to play yourself out of the Scotland squad as to play yourself in to it these days. Certain players are either in truly abject form with their clubs or just not getting game time (Dykes, Patterson, Kelly, Cooper etc), but Clarke seems very reluctant to drop them, or even replace them when they’re not playing well, as we saw with Patterson particularly, and Dykes to some extent, on Tuesday. Hoping that players can play through lack of form, or into match sharpness, is always a gamble at international level. It’s starting to look like this Scotland side has stagnated a bit over the last 12 months and while it doesn’t quite resemble Craig Brown’s aging favourites going into battle one last time at the 1998 World Cup (in the likes of Gilmour, Hickey etc we do have a few exciting young players), the squad is clearly in need of some ventilation and competition for places. The lack of players knocking at the door for inclusion in the squad is concerning, particularly given that it’s is already filled out with some flotsam. I agree with the poster (forget who) that recently suggested that Clarke should be a bit more proactive (i.e. make any effort at all) in his recruitment. He seems to have been stung by the Elliot Anderson fiasco, and while Harvey Barnes is exactly the kind of dynamic attacking player the current Scotland squad lacks, Clarke’s curmudgeonly ‘he knows where we are’ approach towards dual nationals contrasts sharply with Wales’ more active recruitment. Yes, I know Wales didn’t qualify this time round, but they’re constantly planning ahead, earmarking and recruiting future eligible talent, and I don’t think their decline in the post Bale and Ramsay era will be as steep as many assume. While no-one seems to know all the facts surrounding the Anderson incident, if the stories about him being singled out by senior members of the squad for ‘special treatment’ are true, it might betray a level of insularity, resistance to change, and perhaps even complacency within the current squad that could be counter-productive to our ambitions moving forward. Perhaps the players started to believe their own hype a bit after cruising to qualification from a difficult group? Whatever the facts of the Anderson matter, and however insular and resistant to squad ‘ventilation’ the Scotland camp really is, the conveyor belt of future talent looks under-stocked at best. This group of players might be both as good as it’s been and as good as it gets for Scotland for a long time. Let’s hope everyone raises their game in the summer, and that all our core players are fit and in form, as it would be a shame to squander the momentum we’d built up over a glorious qualifying campaign by under-achieving yet again on the big stage.

Looks very much like they’ve abdicated responsibility for sacking him, as well as abdicating responsibility for the mess the club is currently in. I agree they should have stepped down before, as the club has been drifting aimlessly towards the lower depths of Scottish football for years, with the stadium disintegrating before our eyes, and the fans drifting away. The board need to outline their succession plan ASAP, to remove uncertainty.

Up until our board collectively abandoned ship, I thought we had (just) enough about us to avoid relegation. Now we’re a rudderless vessel drifting helplessly towards the rocks, and given our collective lack of appetite for the challenge, I really can’t see us prevailing against the likes of Spartans, Dumbarton or Peterhead in a play off, if we do finish 9th. Brydon’s latest setback, after only recently coming back from injury, hasn’t helped, as he’s one of a handful of players we have that isn’t a complete waste of space, but overall, this is the most hapless collection of imposters masquerading as a football team that I’ve seen representing the club in many years. Bartley is clearly delusional and out of his depth, but he’s effectively been left with the keys to the asylum. What an utter dereliction of duty by the board to head for the lifeboats just as the iceberg looms into view. Nevertheless, the club needs cleared out from top to bottom - board, management, players. Hopefully that will happen in the summer, after our new board (whoever that is) takes charge. Sadly, it looks increasingly likely that their unenviable task of rebuilding the club from the wreckage will begin in League Two.

Have to agree with Monkey Tennis here. I, and I'm sure many others, will never forget the irony of a Rangers-supporting interloper on the Palmerston board castigating lifelong Queens’ fans for not being ‘true supporters’, after many of us expressed disenchantment with the club following the Ranger vote debacle. Back in the days when I thought nothing of jumping in a taxi to Berwick from Edinburgh because I’d missed the train down to some inconsequential midweek fixture in the depths of the then second division, if someone had suggested that an Ibrox season ticket-holder would join the Queens’ board and have the brass neck to pass judgement on which of us were ‘proper fans’ (because we didn’t support our board’s inexcusable vote to give the reincarnation of his club a free pass to the upper echelons of the league structure), I’d have dismissed it as either the ravings of a madman, or a surreal flourish worthy of Joseph Heller.

Lust for Life featuring Clem Burke, Glen Matlock, Katie Puckrik, Kevin Armstrong etc. at St Luke’s, Glasgow last night.

Indeed. This has all gone a bit Reginald Perrin now. If I were to suddenly promote, say, the cleaner or the HR person to CEO just because they happened to be on the payroll, and the current incumbent wasn’t doing a great job, it’s delusional to think that the cleaner or the HR person wouldn’t expect, and deserve, a sizeable increase in salary commensurate with their new position. In business, I (rightly) couldn’t get away with promoting an assistant manager to the role of general manager without ramping up their salary to the level of the previous incumbent’s (and above the level of other assistants - in workplace environments, staff are more or less aware of the approximate pay grades for each job on the ladder, and are fully aware that promotion to a role that involves greater responsibility and increased workload attracts greater reward), so I’m not sure why we should assume that football still persists with the delusion that ‘taking a loan of people’ is acceptable. If Dan were to be elevated to the role of manager, then he should be compensated adequately for his new job. That’s not to say that this is the least delusory aspect of the suggestion, but it’s certainly up there.

Not sure what exactly McTominay needs to do to elevate himself to the pantheon occupied by that triumvirate. He was played completely out of position for most of his early years in the Scotland squad, and he never grumbled, but just got on with doing the job the manager asked of him to the best of his ability, even if the role wasn’t a good natural fit for him. I’d say McTominay was the beating heart of the recent Euros qualifying campaign, more so than anyone. He’s just an excellent, talented, hard-working, ultra-professional, committed footballer with a great attitude. He’s also a player that is consistently underestimated, particularly by fans of his club, and, to an admittedly much lesser extent now that’s he being played in his best position (though I was constantly defending him to friends who didn’t rate him in the early days) by many fans of the national team.

I think that defensively at least, we have enough about us to stay up. Brydon, McLelland, Ambrose and new boy Kilsby (and keeper Stone, once he returns from injury) are all pretty solid for this level. It’s our lack of cutting edge up front and quality in midfield that concerns me. I’m not dismissing the possibility of relegation, but I’d be surprised if we went down, this season at least.

Well, that was an absolutely insipid performance in a game we had to win to have any chance of the play-offs. First half was dismal - we had plenty of possession in good areas, but our final ball was invariably terrible. McKechnie had the beating of their right back for pace, but his delivery was awful, and Reilly also squandered good opportunities to cut the ball back into the box from wide positions. We barely created a chance worthy of the name in the first half, and Doherty was typically blunt, but as has been the case in the vast majority of games I’ve seen this season, we just lack any quality in the final third whatsoever. Brydon and McLelland did quite well at the back, but that was about the extent of the positives for the first period. Edinburgh City were predictably poor, and they’re one of the few teams I’ve seen that have a more diminutive set of forward players than ourselves, with 7, 9, and particularly 10 (whose shorts came down to his knees) all tiny, although their number 18 in midfield towered over everyone else on the park. When Mumbongo finally came on for Doherty, he looked a handful straight away. Physical, strong, and puts himself about. He looked far better than the Hamilton fans had led us to believe, though that’s probably mainly down to our paucity of attacking options. He scored a good goal, threatened a couple of times, and put one header well past the post when in acres of space, that he should certainly have done better with. I’d be starting him every week from now on. The ref added on about a minute of stoppage time in a first half littered with injuries, so it was a surprise that he added on six at the end of an admittedly niggly second half that had a similar amount of stoppages as the first. I thought we were going to see it out, and we might just about have deserved the win, without ever playing remotely well, but conceding a goal deep into stoppage time, scored by the opposition’s 19-year-old keeper is just so Queens that I’m surprised we don’t do it more often. Anyway, a throughly dispiriting season finally peters out into inconsequence, and we can presumably look forward to more of the same next season.

Give it a rest! I’ve read this same post, in slightly different versions, about half a dozen times now. At least you left out the reference to sexual assault this time. You don’t like Walker. We get it.

That’s Craig Joubert levels of refereeing ‘incompetence‘ there. Scotland absolutely robbed...again. Underlines why I can rarely be bothered watching rugby. The officials have more influence over the result than the players.

Realise I’m a bit late to the party to post my 2023 movie highlights, but here goes anyway. I began 2023 intending to post monthly updates of all the films I’d seen, with rankings and short reviews, but as the year wore on, my work commitments were such that there were months when I saw almost nothing, and even then, I didn’t have time to write or post reviews of the few films I’d seen. Rather than try to catch up with the backlog, I’ll just post a list of the top 50 films that I saw in 2023, noting the platform, the medium, or the location. I watched a total of 79 films in 2023, probably a record low (and a pathetic effort compared to 115 films in 2022, 149 films in 2021 and 171 films in 2020), 16 of them in cinemas. These are my favourite 50 films that I watched in 2023. 1-La Haine (Matthieu Kassovitz, 1995) Criterion blu-ray 2-Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022) Amazon Prime 3-Cure (Kiroshi Kurosawa, 1997) Criterion blu-ray 4-Beau is Afraid (Ari Aster, 2023) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh 5-Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014) Netflix 6-Tár (Todd Field, 2022) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh 7-Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) with live orchestral accompaniment - Kino Babylon, Berlin 8-Watcher (Chloe Okuno, 2022) Amazon Prime 9-Only the Animals (Dominik Moll, 2019) Mubi 10-Holy Spider (Ali Abassi, 2023) Mubi 11-Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, 1970) Amazon Prime 12-Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) Criterion Channel 13-Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Sara Driver, 2017) Mubi 14-The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) Disney+ 15-Beast (Michael Pearce, 2017) Amazon Prime 16-Pacification (Albert Serra, 2022) Mubi 17-My Architect: A Son’s Journey (Nathaniel Kahn, 2003) Criterion Channel 18-Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019) Amazon Prime 19-Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris) Criterion Channel 20-Beyond Time (Alex Turnbull & Pete Stern, 2012) Vimeo 21-Flesh and Fantasy (Julien Duvivier, 1943) VSL blu-ray 22-Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022) + Q&A with director - GFT, Glasgow 23-Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Mubi 24-To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) Amazon Prime 25-Loving Highsmith (Eva Vitija, 2022) Criterion Channel 26-In the Court of the Crimson King (Toby Amies, 2022) Amazon Prime 27-Huesera: The Bone Woman (Michelle Garza Cervera, 2022) Shudder via Amazon Prime 28-The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976) Amazon Prime 29-Caveat (Damian McCarthy, 2020) Shudder via Amazon Prime 30-Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1947) Indicator blu-ray 31-The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934) Criterion Channel 32-The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978) Criterion Channel 33-Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971) Amazon Prime 34-Holiday (Isabella Eklöf, 2018) Amazon Prime 35-Penny Slinger: Out of the Shadows (Richard Kovitch, 2017) Amazon Prime 36-Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, 1945) Criterion Channel 37-Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, 2023) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh 38-The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1996) Criterion Channel 39-Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023) Vue Cinema Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh 40-Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse (Joaquim Dos Santos & Kemp Powers, 2023) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh 41-Antiviral (Brandon Cronenberg, 2012) Amazon Prime 42-Suddenly (Lewis Allen, 1954) YouTube 43-Les félins (Rene Clement, 1964) YouTube 44-Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022) Amazon Prime 45-Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kamel, 1971) Criterion Channel 46-Coup de Torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, 1981) Criterion Channel 47-Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Amazon Prime 48-The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) Criterion Channel 49-Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941) Criterion Channel 50-Messiah of Evil (Willard Huyck, 1973) Shudder via Amazon Prime

The board should either back the manager in this window or sack him. If we are to have any prospect of reaching the play-offs, we have to strengthen during the window. If we don’t, we’re resigning ourselves to another year of stagnation. If the board accept League One as our ’new normal’, then quite simply we need a new board. If they’re not prepared to sack him, then they should back him. Conversely, if they’re not prepared to back him, then they should sack him. Not sacking him and not backing him is the worst of all possible worlds. Leaving a dead man walking in charge that they don’t trust to ‘spend funds wisely’, until such time as they deem it cost-efficient to get rid of him, likely half way through next year’s (predictably anti-climactic) campaign, is condemning Bartley to inevitable failure, and the club to further incremental decline, to the point where just surviving in League One will be seen as the summit of our realistic aspirations (although I suspect we’re already there).

Made the effort to travel down to Palmerston for this one, and wish I hadn’t bothered. Pitiful crowd, and even more pitiful football, in a dreary contest between two dismal teams (although Alloa were certainly better than us for most of the first half). I thought McClelland played quite well again; Efe was ok too, although his distribution was a bit uncertain at times; Stone is a decent goalkeeper, and is reasonably good with his feet, which is useful as he gets passed back to a lot; Connelly tends to have good moments (rather than good games), but that’s about it for positives. MacIntyre had a fairly poor game, sadly, but he was far from the only one. Tbh, there’s no-one in that starting eleven that I’d be remotely bothered about losing, and the options from the bench weren’t much better (maybe Gibson apart). Bringing on Doherty to partner Hutchinson up front summed up just how threadbare our squad is - they must be one of the bluntest attacking duos we’ve ever fielded, and that’s saying something. For a full-time team playing at such a low level, we’re just utterly useless: lightweight, easily bullied, non-existent in midfield, blunt up front. Yes, we’re missing a few of our better players - Cochrane, Brydon, Mimnaugh and Reilly, but nonetheless, Bartley’s managed to assemble one of the poorest squads I’ve seen at the club, at least since we’ve been a full-time outfit. We’re clearly not good enough to challenge for the play-offs, and if we don’t strengthen considerably in the current window, the season will just dribble away into inconsequential anti-climax, once again. The impression I get from watching Queens these days is of a club withering on the vine - a collection of callow youths, presumably assembled on a shoestring budget, playing low quality and deeply unattractive football in a decaying stadium (at least the seat I booked for myself online wasn’t broken today, unlike at Dobbie’s testimonial), in front of ever-diminishing crowds, run by an out of touch board of directors that seem insufficiently interested to do anything to arrest the decline.

I was a Bartley supporter at first. I thought he was a refreshing appointment. I thought he’d do well. I’m now resigned to the fact that we’re going nowhere under his stewardship. His eye for a player (even taking into account the limited budget at his disposal) is at best questionable, and the brand of football he has us playing is stiflingly negative and hard to watch. It’s increasingly difficult to make much of a case for his retention. I suspect he has this transfer window to turn things round, and if we miss out on the play-offs, he’ll be gone by the end of the season.

Happy to make the game today to support Stephen Dobbie, the greatest player I’ve ever seen (or indeed likely to see) play for the club. The game itself was predictably a bit of a non-event - the waistlines or a few of the Queens team had increased exponentially, seemingly in inverse proportion to the recession of their hairlines. Jacobs and Stirling still looked quite useful, and Rankin was a surprising stand out for the Scotland ‘Legends’, though a few of the players (Graeme Smith, Rankin himself) barely got near the full team, let alone established themselves as ‘legends.’ Still, good support for Dobbie from ex pros, including former team mates, and the football wasn’t really the important bit - it was great to see Dobbie given the appreciation and send off from Palmerston that he deserves. An absolute class act, both on and off the field. We’ll probably never see his like again. That PA announcer though. Not sure what first name McFadden was given as the team names were read out at the start, but it clearly wasn’t James. ‘Goal from Queens ‘no. 9’ Stephen Dobbie’; ‘subs 15 and 4 replacing 10 and 5’; ‘Goal for Scotland Legends from No. 15’. He might just about make it as a bingo caller, but as a stadium announcer at a football match (a sport he clearly knows nothing about, he’s clearly unable to count either), he’s way out of his depth. How hard would it have been for someone to have given him a team sheet? Why wasn’t it the first thing he asked for when he reported for duty? Utterly inept.

Much as I like Gibson, he was almost completely anonymous yesterday. Of course, he was far from alone in that. No-one at yesterday’s game seemed particularly surprised when he was subbed tbh.

We did have 2 shots, both tame efforts well over the bar, by Gibson and Connelly respectively. Utterly insipid performance from Queens today. Been at the last two away games, against Stirling and Falkirk, two utterly dismal performances (though Falkirk were competent opposition at least - Stirling were rank), and can’t say there’s much to enthuse about. This team are a tough watch. No ambition, no urgency, no presence in midfield, no pace, no guile, no attacking threat whatsoever. For all its limitations, the defence isn’t actually all that bad. There’s no way this current squad are good enough to contend for the promotion play offs. We’ll need to strengthen considerably in the current window to have any chance. What’s more worrying is that we at least started the season with some attacking intent, but as the season has progressed we’ve got ever more negative, to the extent that we’re now truly dispiriting to watch. The players clearly aren’t good enough, but the style of play is stiflingly dull, and that, presumably, to some extent at least, comes from the manager.

We’ve played well defensively, with Ambrose and McClelland both excellent in the centre of defence. However, we’ve offered absolutely nothing in an attacking sense, with a seeming inability to string more than a couple of passes together in the opposition half. We lack pace, creativity and (seemingly) ambition going forward. We’ve looked weak and passive in midfield, often getting bullied off the ball, repeatedly surrendering possession in the middle of the park. Falkirk have had a lot of the ball, their wide players are quite useful, and they’ve slung a lot of crosses into our box, most of which have been capably dealt with by Ambrose and McClelland, but they’ve created very few clear cut chances. One free header over the bar, when well placed to test the keeper, towards the end of the half was about as close as they got. While a goal has never felt imminent, with the amount of pressure Falkirk are exerting, and with us giving the ball away repeatedly in midfield, the odds are that we’ll concede at some point in the second half, so a goal on the break would be nice, even though we really haven’t looked like getting one so far.

My wife is a part-time hairdresser and, due to the higher tax threshold having been frozen for several years, is now a higher rate taxpayer. She’s obviously not pleading poverty, but she’d be greatly amused by the suggestion that she’s just been admitted to an elite cabal of tax avoiders and overseas bank account users. Yeah, London apart, they’re much cheaper than Edinburgh house prices, that’s for sure. As ever, it’s all relative. 43.6k might represent a princely sum elsewhere, but in Edinburgh it barely gets you on the housing ladder these days.

He’s clearly not an upgrade on McGinn, Gilmour or McTominay, and no shame in that as they’re three exceptional players. That’s not in dispute. Does he deserve do be part of the conversation, alongside the likes of Christie, McLean and Jack? Absolutely.

1-Twin Peaks I prefer The Return to seasons 1&2, and season 2 oscillates from briliant (the Lynch directed episodes) to terrible, but, taken as a whole, it’s the greatest TV show of all time IMO. 2-Frasier (1993-2004) The classic 11 seasons - the current ‘reboot’ is awful. 3-Monty Python’s Flying Circus 4-The Twilight Zone 5-The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin 6-True Detective (season 1) 7-Better Call Saul 8-Fawlty Towers 9-The West Wing 10-Cheers Near misses: Brass Eye, The Day Today, Breaking Bad, The Thick of It, Succession, Jam, The Outer Limits, The Larry Sanders Show, Black Mirror

After watching that tonight, it’s hard to avoid the ominous suspicion that everything was above board and the Scotland team really are that bad.

That goalkeeper