Frankie S

He is indeed, (a song called ‘Queen of the South’ features on his 1986 solo album ‘The Man’), though Spurs are his main team. I went to the Cup final in 2008 with Bill. He was mildly intrigued by the suggestion of investing in Queens, though he’s got several kids from previous relationships, so maintenance payments to his ex-partners might have had a preferential claim on his funds, along with the fact that he genuinely did set fire to a million quid. It was a defiantly absurdist gesture watching (much of) the material gains from a successful career in the pop business go up in flames, and I admire him for that, but you have to live with the consequences. It certainly didn’t prompt him to go back to the coal face in the music industry though, and he’s been spending his post-KLF years engaged in uncommercial projects, such as visiting folk whose houses stand on ley lines to make them soup, before embarking upon a decade-long World Tour entitled ‘Best Before Death’, which has seen him shining people’s shoes, baking cakes and building beds in locations from Lexington, North Carolina to Kolkata. Perhaps his modus operandi is changing though, as I notice KLF have just announced a world tour for 2323, with a (revisiting the scene of the crime) date at The Boathouse, Isle of Jura on 23.01.2323.

Nonsense. ‘The chances he did get’ number exactly two appearances for Scotland, both in friendlies. I was at the Scotland v Canada friendly (1-1 draw) at Easter Road in 2017 and while no-one particularly distinguished themselves that night, Cairney was clearly one of the better players on the park. He set up a good chance for Chris Martin, who failed to take it, and his shot was turned in by Naismith for our goal. The Daily Record player ratings (Cairney was the top Scotland player rated with 7/10) and the report on the BBC website both agree with my assessment. The suggestion that he ‘looked like couldn’t be any less arsed’ stuff is just rubbish. Ability-wise (as 80+ appearances in the EPL testify), he was clearly good enough to have earned more than two caps.

To think I brought my Leith-born 14-year-old son up to support Queen of the South instead of the team all his pals support. Tales of Queens in cup finals (even the Mickey Mouse Challenge Cup ones) and Europe just seem like cruel taunts now, when contrasted with the pitiful facsimile of a football club passing itself off as Queen of the South these days. Whatever we think of Bartley, that interview is an excruciating embarrassment for the club, in every respect. What an absolute shambles of a club we are now, from top to bottom, from boardroom through management to the dressing room; from our dilapidated decaying ‘stadium’ to the imposters masquerading as professional footballers that purport to represent us. Just send the bulldozers in and have done with it.

I felt the same after the Rangers vote, and particularly after a certain temporary incumbent in the Queens boardroom, apparently a Rangers season ticket holder, characterised (without any sense of irony) those of us who expressed disapproval with our board’s forelock-tugging obsequiousness towards the entity masquerading as the reincarnation of the Govan half of the Old Firm duopoly as ‘not true fans’. It took me several years to venture back to Palmerston after that, having supported the club through (very occasional) thick, but mainly thin and thinner, for more than 40 years prior to that monumental misjudgment. I eventually gravitated back, because you can’t pick and choose who you support, or at least I can’t, and old loyalties are hard to shake. I also wanted my son to grow up supporting Queens (even though I’d moved away from the area decades ago), rather than one of the Edinburgh teams that surely would have been a more convenient choice, being Leith born and bred. My view was that the board, no matter how strongly I disagreed with their vote on the Rangers issue, are not the club. They’re just the club’s temporary custodians. I thought then, as I think now, that it would be preferable if the board moved on, as I don’t think they’re taking the club forward, and I don’t think they have any intention of making a (long overdue) serious investment in the stadium, or in the team. I think the board have got off rather lightly over the last few seasons, as we’ve had a succession of under-achieving managers who have attracted much of the flak, and some of our support still seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that the board have given the managers significant backing. There is a common denominator here, and it isn’t Marvin Bartley, or Willie Gibson, or Allan Johnston. I remember sitting with my son at the Kelty away match at the end of Sept (which, due to work commitments, is the last game I’ve attended, though my son was at the Falkirk game with his mum) and thinking the (abject) standard on display was probably not much better than the Lowland League, and that the Queens team that day, stuffed full of callow youths as it was, was probably little better than Hearts ‘B’, and Kelty likely no better than East Kilbride. I’m genuinely not sure that this Queens team would win the Lowland League, let alone contend for promotion to the Championship. As we’ve seen in recent years, a bunch of teams have come up from the lower echelons of the pyramid and thrived immediately (I’ve seen Spartans a few times over the last couple of seasons, including the play-off first leg v Brechin at the end of last season, and frankly, on balance, I’d back them to beat this Queens team), and a few of our former league rivals have sunk without a trace to the bottom half of the Lowland League, some of whom may not even have bottomed out yet (once detritus like Gretna 2008 and Edinburgh Uni eventually gets flushed out, it wouldn’t surprise me if East Stirlingshire is next in line). With a number of ambitious clubs still temporarily stuck below their true level in the pyramid due to its inherently anti-meritocratic structure (I noticed recently that WoSL Clydebank had signed Nicky Low, a player who would stroll into our current midfield), then the gradual cull of moribund league clubs is likely to continue, albeit at a more sedate pace than might be the case if the pyramid adopted a more progressive / dynamic promotion and relegation structure. At the moment we might feel comparatively insulated from the sort of precipitous fall from grace that has befallen the likes of Berwick, Cowdenbeath, Albion Rovers, East Stirling et al, and now threatens the likes of Clyde, and in a dead wood competition, there are still a few rotting husks of formerly healthy league clubs in even worse shape than ourselves. However, I see very few vital signs at Palmerston, or much hope for the future under the current board’s stewardship. and it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re potentially sleep-walking towards oblivion.

Yeah, we’d been at the Atomuim (right beside the King Baudouin stadium) during the afternoon and noticed Swedish fans around, then realised there was a game on.

As we were in Brussels anyway (en route to Lille for tomorrow’s France v Scotland game), it seemed like a such a good idea, at 5.00pm yesterday, to get tickets for last night’s Belgium v Sweden match. Eight hours later, when we were still to get back to our hotel, well…not so much. We passed right past Boulevard d‘Ypres on the tram to the game, approx 20 mins after the incident. Noticed a heavy police presence at the Sainctelette stop. Didn’t know then what the reason was. We found out at half time when we discovered that the teams weren’t coming back on. We were finally let out of the stadium at around midnight, after a more than a two-hour wait, and with all public transport suspended, we faced a 7km walk back to our hotel. Fortunately, we managed to get a taxi about 2km from our hotel, just as we were about to pass through the area where it happened. Not entirely sure how decanting 35,000 fans into the suburbs at midnight, miles from the centre, with all tram and Metro services suspended, and leaving them to their own devices to get back was the optimal strategy, but I guess it was what it was. Thoughts are with those unfortunate Swedish fans who were caught up in this terrible business.

I’ve lived in Leith for 21 years. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it being a rugby hotbed. You live and you learn….

Glasgow Rocks don’t exist any more. They’re now called Caledonia Gladiators and play in East Kilbride.

Elliot Anderson, perhaps surprisingly, not named in the England Under 21 squad today, so perhaps this one isn’t settled yet. Clarke being understandably tight-lipped about the matter, but perhaps John Carver is still working the back channels on this one. Tino Livramento included in their Under 21 squad though.

I really like Bartley and I think he’s got great potential as a manager. He’s intelligent, articulate, ambitious and knows the game inside out. His team is a work in progress, but I’m less impressed with the squad he’s assembled than with the man himself. We’ve assembled a very young inexperienced squad, with the emphasis seemingly on potential, and future resale value, assuming we can develop some of these players. That’s not a bad template for a smaller League One side on a modest budget to follow, though it likely won’t result in immediate promotion back to the Championship. It depends on our expectations and aspirations. In terms of returning to the Championship any time soon, I think we’re a country mile away from that level, so, if that’s the goal, this squad probably isn’t going to get us there, this season at least. Some of the loan players we’ve brought in look a bit undercooked to me. McClelland may develop into a decent centre back, but he’s raw and prone to mistakes at the moment. He seems to play whenever he’s fit, but I don’t know what the terms of his loan are. I might have been tempted to pair the returning Brydon (our best defender) with Ambrose yesterday. Oscar MacIntrye has ability, but he’s looked like a wee boy lost at times in the left full back position. It isn’t always easy for kids, coming in on loan from Premiership clubs, to hit the ground running even at League One level. They’re up against battle-hardened experienced pros. Kelty are a team of lower League One journeymen, and they’ll likely finish bottom half, but they had more than enough to deal with us fairly easily yesterday. That should send alarm bells ringing. Last time I was at Kelty, we got skelped 3-0 back in February, not that long after Bartley had taken over. The mitigation then was that he’d taken over a very poor, demoralised side and you couldn’t expect instant magic. Eight months later, and I have to say, that performance yesterday wasn’t much better. Yes, I know we’ve suffered a load of injuries of late, but the team that we put out yesterday looked lightweight and uncompetitive. We looked like an academy team rather than a League One team. I imagine it would be a similar experience watching Hearts B play East Kilbride in the Lowland League, and in truth, the standard on display yesterday was unlikely to be very much better than that. We have a few players with nice technique, but more often than not, the League One journeymen we face week in week out will prevail against a callow lineup like yesterday’s due to their greater physicality, experience and nous. In the long run, a few of these players might come good, and a few years down the line have decent careers in the game, but in all probability they won’t be at Palmerston then, and that’s not going to help us get to where we want to go now, assuming promotion is the aim. The frustrating bit about yesterday was how insipid the performance was. I’ve been at most away games this season, and at Queens Park, Edinburgh City, Patrick and Cove, (though to a much lesser extent at Falkirk) we always looked a threat on the break. At Kelty, we posed no threat whatsoever. We were powderpuff in attack, with no pace on the counter, and a complete lack of supply to our lone striker. I can only assume Walker is one of the players who Bartley has pinpointed as not doing enough tracking back, as his pace was a huge part of that counter-attacking threat away from home, but the manager has shown a marked reluctance to even bring him off the bench of late, even when the team isn’t playing well, and his squad is depleted due to injuries. During the first half, we played the ball around nicely at times in the build up, but never remotely stretched their defence, and there were times when I was willing anyone just to have a go rather than take another touch, or look for another pass. When McKechnie did finally have a shot, it came back off the keeper and Hutchison netted the rebound. Unfortunately the lead was short lived and we conceded what looked like a softish penalty soon after. McKechnie, Brydon and Cochrane were all ok yesterday. I’d be hard pushed to give many of the others pass marks. Johnstone and Ferguson might become players, but made very little impact yesterday. Hard to tell with Hutchison as his service was terrible, but he took his goal well enough. Gibson wasn’t really at his best. Once again, as at Falkirk, I was bamboozled that Bartley took so long to introduce Walker, which must surely be down to the tracking back issue alluded to above, as in terms of attacking threat he offers a lot. Walker had an (almost) immediate impact, curling in a dangerous cross, more or less the first of the match, that resulted in a collision between two Kelty players that resulted in O’Ware being stretchered off. We certainly posed more threat in the last 15 mins, and for a while an equaliser looked likely, though Kelty sucker-punched us for the third in added-on time. If away performances had been highly promising in the early stages of the season (admittedly, our defence isn’t great, but we were always a threat on the counter), the last two away games (Falkirk and Kelty) have seen us offer little in an attacking sense. The players look to be lacking in confidence. The tempo has dipped and we seem to be trying to set up more cautiously. There was absolutely nothing about that performance yesterday that gives me any encouragement that we’re a serious contender for promotion. Yes, we’ll be better and more competitive when the injured players return, but IMO, the current squad is unlikely to get us back to the Championship. I don’t think Bartley is in any immediate danger, and I do think he’ll eventually come good, but the next transfer window will be a big one for the club.

Both teams look like the absolute definition of bottom half of the table League One dross. I know we have a few injuries, but this Queens team is poor in defence, lightweight in midfield and powderpuff in attack. They look like a callow bunch of youngsters playing against men. A lot of nice touches and absolutely no presence, experience or edge. At least Brydon is back in defence, though I’d probably rather see him partner Ambrose than McClelland. If it takes Harvey Walker 73 minutes to make an appearance from the bench for a team this bad, then frankly he’s wasting his time at Palmerston. He was on the park for about 3 minutes before we saw the first decent cross into the Kelty box all game. Tbh, this team looks like it’s sleepwalking towards missing out on the playoffs again, and becoming firmly established as a League One nothing club, with little assurance that we’ll even retain that lowly status in the future.

He clearly doesn’t know the meaning of the word “refute”.

Despite being the better side overall, Falkirk looked vulnerable on the counter-attack, and their defence looked shaky at times, but we never really looked like taking advantage. The game (and the width of the pitch) looked tailor-made for Walker’s pace (Morrison was causing havoc on the right wing for the home team, and they were threatening down both flanks), and when it finally looked like Bartley was going to bring him on, after getting him stripped and ready to come on with 15-20 mins to go, the manager dithered and hesitated, not knowing whether to stick or twist, looking like he was settling for a point (at one point Walker put his training bib back on). MacIntyre and Connelly were both having ‘mares (MacIntyre was posted missing on the left side of defence for much of the match, looking like a little boy lost, and almost nothing Connelly tried came off, often electing to take an extra touch when better options were available), and it was glaringly obvious both needed replaced with 30 to go, with the 3 points seemingly there for the taking, despite a sub par performance (we were slightly better in the second half). When we did finally make the subs, Bartley hedged his bets by bringing on McKay too. Not sure bringing on McKay ever helps the defence all that much. Falkirk deserved to win, given their overall dominance, but it felt like we gave them too much respect and set up the team too cautiously, scared to have a real go at them, or to let the game really open up. Perhaps understandable due to recent chaotic defensive efforts, but it feels like an opportunity missed.

Much like the Patrick game, McClelland is getting dragged out to the left a lot to deal with the opposition’s right winger, and is failing to do so. We’ve had a couple of half chances, but Falkirk have been the better side by a distance and should have been ahead. Hoping for a better second half.

Dropping like flies. Mimnaugh off injured before half time, replaced by Todd.

Similar to last week at Patrick, Falkirk are targeting the left side of our defence. MacIntyre has been brought in, presumably to shore things up a bit, but their right winger Morrison is enjoying acres of space down that flank and has floated in a series of dangerous looking crosses, one of which resulted in a header going wide when a goal looked likely. It’s been all Falkirk so far, and with McKechnie and Walker not starting again, our counter-attacking threat looks diminished. Edit: McGuffie has just gone off on a stretcher, (to be replaced by McKechnie) hope it’s not too bad an injury.

Agree with most of this, apart from: Bellingham was their best player by a country mile, absolute quality, and with the exception of Gunn, I don’t think anyone in a Scotland shirt (including McGregor) did themselves justice tonight. Agree on Barnes (and Anderson, though that particular horse might have bolted) though - anyone who doesn’t think he’d improve our squad is deluded. We have some decent players at the moment, but our squad doesn’t have the depth needed for us to really compete at the top level… yet.

Being reported in various media outlets today that Clarke has said that he has already spoken to Barnes, albeit a while ago. (‘I am not going to say I haven’t spoken to Harvey, because I have.’) Clarke is playing it cool, as you’d expect, but you’d have to assume that if Barnes genuinely wants to play for Scotland now, then it will happen.

I don’t think this has come completely out of the blue. As I mentioned a while back on the Is Newcastle Scottish thread, it was reported last season that Clarke and Carver had attended a Leicester City EPL match (may have been against Palace, IIRC), which was notable by the fact that Barnes was the only obviously Scotland-eligible player on both sides. At that point, I fully expected Barnes would be named in the next squad. As it happens he wasn’t, but I doubt Clarke and Carver would have been there if there hadn’t been some intimation that Barnes was open to switching, or at least an ongoing attempt on their part to persuade him to do so. I think Barnes has been on Clarke’s radar for a while.

I was surprised to see us start without both, especially Walker who was outstanding against Edinburgh City, and in the first half against Cove, but the general consensus so far seems to be that he’s been disappointing at Palmerston. I rarely get to home games, but try to get to most away matches, when work permits, and Walker’s pace has looked a real threat away from home. Gibson is a player I like a lot, and was probably due a start. He doesn’t have the raw pace of Walker, but he has lots of other qualities, and always seems to chip in with goals and assists. We’re a good counter-attacking team away from home, and the pace of McKechnie and Walker is a big part of that, so, if I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Walker benched, I was surprised to see both of them dropped from the starting XI today. Nevertheless, I always thought we looked a threat when we came forward today, as we did at Queen’s Park in the League Cup, confirming that we can cause the better teams problems. However, we rode our luck defensively, and Lawless absolutely tormented the left side of our defence. Gibson didn’t offer an awful lot defensively, and McClelland is very raw, and tbh, looked out of his depth against the tricky Lawless. The game could quite easily have finished 6-4 to Partick, and I doubt we could have complained about the result if it had. Partick had much more quality (on the flanks in particular) than any team we’ll meet in League One, so that’s a mitigating factor, I guess. On the basis of what I’ve seen so far this season, we look a more dangerous side going forward than we have for a long time, but the defence is still utterly hopeless. Ambrose steadies the ship a bit, and must play when available IMO, but even with him on board, the defence is still a weak link. I can foresee lots of goals at both ends in our matches this season, including at Falkirk next week. I doubt anyone will rival the aggregate scorelines of our matches this term, and we’re well ahead of the pack already with 22 (12-10) in 5 league matches to date. It makes for entertaining, if nerve-racking viewing.

We should have had a fourth there in a fast break with some crisp passing, ending with McKechnie’s low shot with only the keeper to beat being well saved. Hutchinson has looked quite useful since he came on.

Looks like we might have stolen a late winner completely against the run of play in the second half, in which we’ve been hanging on for dear life. Ambrose’s back flip after the goal was a sight to behold!

Happened down the other end from the Queens fans, who are in the far corner of the Jackie Husband stand. Might well have been McGuffie tbh. Wave after wave of Thistle attacks now.

Relentless attacks down Queens vulnerable left side of defence (which has obviously been targeted) at the start of the second half leading to an almost inevitable equaliser. Thistle’s keeper pulls off a good save from a dipping Gibson shot up the other end.

Two very well taken goals by Queens, with Mimnaugh’s unstoppable volley for the first being the highlight of the game so far. A lovely cross from McGuffie setting up Reilly for the headed second. The score could have been anything at half time though: Lawless on Thistle’s right wing is turning McClelland and Gibson on the left side of the Queen’s defence inside out - both must feel like they’ve been on the waltzers. Thistle struck the post towards the end of the half and the Queens defence have been hanging on more by good luck than good play at times. Feel like we need some pace on the counter in the second half, so hopefully we’ll see Walker and McKechnie at some stage. It’s a very open game, and more goals are practically guaranteed.