McGuigan1978

Jamie Gullan played a grand total of 295 minutes for us this season, scoring two goals and assisting two others. Zak Rudden has played 611 minutes for us, and has three goals and two assists. Funnily enough, Rudden has played a grand total of 295 minutes since his last contribution, his goal v Arbroath, the same amount of minutes as Gullan. Since then, he has no goals, no assists, and in all honestly, probably no successful first touches. Aye, not sure it's a great swap to be honest.

Fair play to United. Worthy winners and I hope their fans have had a class day. It’s funny, as much as they haven’t had much credit this season, and I’ve felt that from their own fans, never mind anyone else, it’s difficult to quibble with what they’ve done this season. They never lost two games in a row, in fact, their longest league sequence without a win was two games, and in all circumstances that included a draw. They had more points, scored more goals and conceded fewer than most second tier winners. That’s pretty relentless It took Rovers having their best season since 2011 to keep touch with them, but regardless, they compare very favourably to the last two winners, Kilmarnock and Dundee, which augurs well. I’ve still no idea if Jim Goodwin is any good as a manager, and suspect they need a good bit more quality in their squad for next season, but regardless, they can worry about that later on this summer.

Definitely don't disagree that Dylan Corr could end up being a decent player in time, but I thought he was pretty shaky for a lot longer than 15 minutes, although I do think he settled down the longer the second half went on and had a really good headed clearance towards the end. Up until that point, I thought his decision making was wild, and distribution was wayward. The difference in quality from the Lowland League to the Championship is absolutely massive, and has to be tough to bridge for any player, never mind an inexperienced one, but I do think there's something there with him. Based on last night though, I can see why Scott Brown has been preferred in there all season, as right now he's a better option. That said, he was still considerably better than Zak Rudden, who is absolutely infuriating. I thought his first few games were pretty encouraging, but I can't remember the last time he done a single thing right for us. You basically surrender having any possession in the final third when he comes on, as he positions himself behind the centre half, so never wins any clearances, and even when a pass does find him, his first touch is astonishingly bad. He's the worst possible player to bring on when you're holding on to a lead. I'd seen it mentioned online that it felt inevitable that Duncan Ferguson would find a result that all but won the title for his former side on (almost) the 30th anniversary of his headbutt on John McStay, so it's very, very funny to win 1-0 in that manner when Inverness are struggling to stay up. Ferguson comes across as a bit of an oddball, and I suspect he's probably a terrible football manager, so fair play to Inverness for giving him a three year deal. Another Scott Gardiner masterstroke.

Inverness 1 Raith 1 Arbroath 1 Morton 1 Dundee United 2 Ayr 1 Dunfermline 2 Q Park 0 Partick Thistle 1 Airdrie 2

The SPFL Reserve League looks like a complete waste of time. There's only nine teams in it and they play each other once. I can't imagine there's that much extra benefit to participating in that, compared to just playing sporadic bounce games to give fringe players game time or get injured players back up to speed.

In fairness, I’d agree with the majority of this. Byrne has seemed less imposing of late. As for the other loan signings, Turner has only had a handful of good games for us, although in his defence, I’m not sure we’ve used him where he’s most effective, and ultimately, I’m not entirely sure why we brought him in in the first place Rudden seemed a decentish signing on paper, but he’s been really poor, and a downgrade on the options we already had up top. Throw in Lee Ashcroft going off on his debut and James Brown coming in for Ross Millen, and it all adds up to a January window that’s really not worked out for us at all.

Incredible

Morton 0 Dundee United 2 Airdrie 1 Dunfermline 1 Ayr 2 Arbroath 1 Queens Park 2 Inverness 1 Raith Rovers 1 Partick Thistle 2

We’re just so easy to defend against when we have two full backs who don’t get forward. Add in a slow, ponderous build up, and a weird decision to retreat when Airdrie had possession rather than press, and it made for an absolutely disastrous first half. Once we abandoned that and pushed right up it made a world of difference, but ultimately we’ve scored two goals v Airdrie in five games this season, which is atrocious. Anton Dowds has managed six against them on his own.

Based on what I’ve seen from McGill, and what I’ve seen so far from James Brown, I’d be starting the former at right back

James Brown is at best, very average, and that’s on a very good day. He even approaches the ball in an odd manner. I couldn’t believe what I was reading when folk suggested he was a 7/10 every week the other day

Probably the first good boo we’ve had at half time there. Every cloud I suppose

Not sure what my highlight of that game was today. Dylan Easton’s goal, or the South Stand Shot, where almost every ball ended up approximately 60 yards away from Roary Rover.

Airdrie 0 Morton 0 Dunfermline 1 Partick Thistle 0 Inverness 2 Arbroath 0 Queen's Park 1 Dundee United 3 Raith 2 Ayr 1

Going a goal down was bad enough today, but half a dozen folk or so throwing stuff at the United players was absolutely mortifying. Whoever was at it was a total arsehole.

Don't agree about hindsight being a wonderful thing. Anyone who’s seen us in the last few months must surely know that Hamilton is far better at holding the ball up, which is what you need in this scenario. That’s foresight, as is not playing Kyle Turner as a six. Mind boggling. In fairness, we could have started Shaun Byrne and Jack Hamilton and still lost, but there’s no chance we’d have been worse than we were today. To not lay a glove on a team which has been struggling for weeks is a massive opportunity lost.

Aye, not sure why Turner has been asked to protect the back four today. Again, very odd and didn’t work, and worse, I’m not sure why Murray thought it would.

Genuinely find it inexplicable that we start Rudden ahead of Hamilton. Rudden is about one third the player Hamilton is. You saw it when we played Partick Thistle away. You play it up to him and it sticks, and players are able to get around him in support. Do the same with Rudden and he doesn’t even touch it. In a game where we need to make as much of the possession we have, we’ve started a striker who gifts it back every time. Wild.

Ayr United 1 Airdrie 1 Arbroath 0 Dunfermline 2 Dundee United 1 Raith Rovers 3 Morton 0 Queen’s Park 1 Partick Thistle 1 Inverness 1

Aye, I logged into the website at 10:01 and couldn't get a seat in that first block.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm buying into the whole running scared/shitebags/tinpot etc narrative, but by the same token, putting aside your emoji laden, child like attempts at humour and deflection, why do you think United have brought the allocation down?

This whole situation feels like it was a least partly avoidable, and has ended up just creating a load of unnecessary aggravation for everyone. I wasn’t entirely keen on the tone of the Rovers statement on Wednesday night, and didn’t think United fans getting additional tickets for Stark’s Park, meant they had to do us any favours for Tannadice. We didn’t offer them an extra 600 for altruistic reasons, it was because we wanted their money, but I can see why people have taken umbrage at it. However, ultimately, United can sell them as they see fit. I’d presumed we’d be in the Fair Play Stand, hence the lower ticket numbers, however, once it became apparent that it was the stand behind the goals, and that they’d be dealing with sales themselves, the communication really had to be better. I was in at 10:02, and virtually everything was gone. I presumed that it was just the first section, but how was anyone supposed to know for sure? If there was a second tranche, what time were they going to be available, or was I just supposed to stare at a screen and refresh for an unknown period of time? Not ideal when most folk are presumably working. I eventually got them through good fortune, just as the second block was disappearing too, but what we’ve now got is people sniping back and forth, due to poor planning, poor organisation and rubbish communication. I’ll presume it’s due to people at Tannadice being bad at their jobs, rather than being difficult on purpose, but for the build up for what’s a massive match to start in this way, and at least 600 folk to miss out on seeing the game for reasons unknown, is a all a bit of a nonsense.

Aye, if we do stay down and Dundee United win it, I’m struggling to see how Livingston replacing them makes next season’s league harder

That was a really good laugh. Admittedly I’m already annoyed at Raith’s 3-1 loss to Queen’s Park tomorrow afternoon, but nevertheless, I’ll worry about that tomorrow.