Sao Paulo

Whether anyone else will have the series knowledge to come up with the 'You're a w****r' meme... That's the thing.

Petkov at that last yin. Gout.

We're the masons in disguise.

This is like Still Game does blighty's hardest boozers, this pish.

Love you too sweetie x

Couldn't agree more. I did make a post about Super Mo but a fellow supporter who was allowed onto the internet for the evening complained, explaining that I wasn't helping things, as though a post on a forum could make or break our fate on the park. I've said warm furry things about Petrie and Mo' since he took them over and got them promoted from league two. He's took to management really quickly, done some great recruitment, and has shown a lot of tactical smarts too. He's got a good future in management if he wants it I think. Mo' themselves have got a really versatile team; they can play a lot of different ways and there's nothing of a "rabble" about them, contra what my Ukranian colleague (above) says. Just the opposite: well drilled, good mix of young and old, pace and strength. All the rest of it. I think if the window is kind enough, they'll be in the running for fourth or better until late on in the season.

Magic m8, aw the best x

That's code, meaning: you are informed. Just come out and say that you're intimately familiar with the club's finances and politics. Alluding to knowledge is little better than trolling; I would know.

I love this club. A gang of punters with insider knowledge using it to beat those without it. All perfectly conducive to a unified support, free of in-fighting.

Ah well seeing as you put it that way...

Is your purpose on here just to be a club partisan then? You're the first to tell us how difficult it'll all be; I don't think I've ever read you even speculate on a way out; a solution, a trade-off.

Ooh, snap.

Tell them we can't afford to keep them, be pragmatic about helping them find them new clubs and negotiate low-to-no settlement for contract termination. If you thought I meant push them onto a plane, you've just convicted yourself of stupidity; no jury required on that.

Same way Harry Redknapp got Benjani away from Portsmouth and up to Man City, if needs be.

Ironically, it's our goals-for stat that says it all about us, not our goals-conceded stat. It's now the third worst in the league despite keeping an absurdly prolific forward on the books; and another pedigreed goalscorer in Smith. Of course, if you forgot the Stranraer game or assumed a Goodwillie injury, even they (Stranraer) could be relaxed about avoiding automatic relegation at our expense. Point being: our whole approach is heavily hedged in favour of protecting our defenders, all of whom - even those out today - play as though they've got gout. Some serious shopping and selling needing done in the window if we're going to avoid the backdoor.

Mo, mo... Super Mo...! ♫

He was actually part of our set-up as a boy, if it's Salim Kouider-Aissa you're on about. Scouting doesn't happen extensively outside the top six of the SPL - it's word of mouth, agents and ad-hoc stuff. I was actually at the game at Duncansfield, or one of them - as was Sir Kevin of Kilsyth - where Gardner Spiers scouted Michael Daly for QP. As I understood it, that was just a word of mouth thing and a local visit from a senior team's manager. Dougie Imrie? A recommendation by Tommy Coyne to Joe Miller. Half of Billy Reid's haul? His agent pal. John Brown, to be fair to him, had actually gone and watched a lot of the players he signed for us before taking the job when we were still full-time, effectively scouting them himself. Stuart Millar is actually a scout and signed a load of absolute dross...! But if you want a proper scouting network; the likes of which got Laudrup to Rangers and Larsson to Celtic, you'd need a fortune. A good scouting set-up for our level looks like good contracts and maybe some very willing and very loyal, knowledgeable bodies who'd claim back only their fuel and gate money. I mean, al dae it.

Big emphasis on clean sheets in the post-match interviews lately. Which is fine, but we should be mindful of the trade-off: we have and will continue to score far fewer goals as our set-up is a very stuffy one, designed to paper over the cracks which poor-to-average players create by fact of being our only options in some positions (e.g. McNiff at left back). Personnel is the problem: we need movement in January. If we do nothing, and those round about us strengthen, we'll almost certainly be looking over our shoulder at come Feb/March. On players, I think if Lennon could speak completely honestly - and you can't really, on this subject, as a manager - he'd say that some signings were made because nothing else was available for the dough. I don't think he thinks they're good players, in other words, but needs must.

U no nufing about it m8 x

"Not only did we lose two points, we also lost a baw..." - Alistair Love. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Ally Ally Love... Ally Love! Ally Ally Love! An' aw the rest e' it.

It's always that bit harder without Goodie. Would've converted the penalty and edged it on another day. Sacrificing a midfielder to put another player beside Smith would've exposed our ropey defence quite badly so I wouldn't be critical there. However, putting on a newly recovered Love to play with his back to goal in place of Smith who'd done - without great service - alright wasn't a good decision. Love should've come on in place of Lamont or Johnston; probably the former, with one of Johnston or Love taking up Lamont's role between the lines. Love's a lot better when he's got the game in front of him and Johnston had clearly put that fuckin' ring on a few times in the second-half, meaning he was as good as invisible out wide. Could've been worse of course. But we are, as Lennon said, very average or worse when we don't play 'our game', meaning a game with Goodwillie leading the line and the ball getting played through the opposition. I think it was Dick Campbell who, in a recent interview said: rin-tin-a-min. Broadly speaking, I'd agree with that.

Decisions in possession: that's Love's biggest strength. The right pass. Experience. Experience. Dick Campbell. Experience.

I think we're disintegrating now lads. Saying McStay was pish on Saturday is an utter fiction, he was very visibly bursting his arse to make things happen and to win possession, both of which he done well in so far as he put Johnston into position many a time and won plenty to start us away up the pitch. We might've done better to swap Johnston for Lamont in the hole as the former is that bit more quick to create - and in the hole is the area where we'd have stood a better chance of unlocking Sons - but I don't think Lamont was particularly bad. Dumbarton stopped us doing what we do naturally. If we're saying McStay was pish on Saturday and not Grant, we're just scapegoating; Grant barely had a kick. You can say that either player has had more prominent performances but they played as they did largely due to our inability to respond at a tactical level to Dumbarton.

Coaching theoreticians at the SFA stand by its efficacy; I'm almost certain it's taught as part of their C licence. The view is that 60% of the time it works, every time. I know I've been able to turn games around by the simple expedient of shouting that very thing. Science, init?