renton

Not a chance with our defence tonight.

Is that Aidan Connolly at left back, christ.

Said it on the Rovers thread, but feel like this fixture is a game too far for our threadbare defence. Not having Byrne available should force a change in shape else we will get over run in midfield.

Suspect this game may be one too far in terms of injuries and suspensions. The three options I can see are: 1. An entirely unfamiliar and untested CB pairing of O'Reilly and Corr, with Brown moving into midfield 2. Keep Brown at CB and O'Reilly beside him, creating a gap in midfield. 3. Move Brown into midfield, move Dick in beside O'Reilly and McGill to makeshift left back. I think option 2 is most likely, but would prefer we didn't keep the 4-1-3-2 shape as we were badly over run using Stanton in that role. With Jack Hamilton back fit, going 4-2-3-1 and moving McGill in besides Easton or Stanton would be my preference.

Aye, Dowds. He must really have pissed on Doolan's chips...

Still their player, they might need him yet. Well within their rights as annoying as it is for us. Hence the O'Reilly signing.

Not convinced of the merits of having that phrase on the badge, given Falkirk's popular nickname.

I believe it also made various appearances in UK Government and Ofgem publications over the years. Political value can still be derived from a percentage basis of how much of Scotland's energy comes from renewable sources, from absolute terms of how many jobs created, supply chains secured. And if the 25% value is ridiculous so is the Muppets at these islands contention that this is a disaster for the case of Scottish independence. We still have the same potential capacity today as yesterday, the North Sea is still a prime location and Scotland is still an early adopter and leader in installation of offshore wind. None of that has changed and is still relevent within the context of Scotland's industrial and engineering future.

So? The quote as far as I can discern was based on the number of EU countries in 1993, subsequently not checked and allowed to remain in various publications in increasingly abstracted and incorrect ways. Im not saying it isnt a poor and wrong statistic. I'm saying it's irrelevent. The only thing that matters, surely, is the modelled absolute potential. Unless i'm mistaken that hasnt changed. The economic benefits Scotland potentially stands to gain from renewables is the same today as it was yesterday. If it were the case that all the modelling was wrong, that Scotland could only produce a fraction of the power, that the costs sunk into supply chains would never pay back or produce jobs, and that it was all because of the Scottish Government, then I could imagine that being a proper scandal. I just cannot get annoyed that they divided a set number by one number but should have divided it by a bigger number for some literature.

Aye, not sure how much you can get exercised about them updating an ancient figure which is partly based on revising external estimates from elsewhere. The EU has gotten bigger since 93 so therefore the % share of wind potential will have dropped. The absolute value of potential wind power is still as it was. We didnt suddenly lose air currents somewhere. I mean, what is the actual issue here? It's not like we are anywhere near the 9% figure let alone the 25% figure so it doesnt impact on planning assumptions or long term policy.

And league trumps diddy cup.

We had Graham alongside Johnny Baird for a season, that surely must rank high in the greeting faced stakes.

As buzzing as I am from yesterday, it'd be nice to win a game 2-0 in a nice dull way. Score midway through both halves, spend the last 10 minutes scrolling through the Sky Sports app. Not sure how much more drama I can take.

He did play the 27 game season in the championship, where he was an extremely important attacking element of arguably the most successful implementation of McGlynnball. Whether the balance of his attributes means he aas overall better than Dick? Not sure, Dick to me still feels like someone who will morph into a CB over time. There is precedent for players like MacDonald though. Craig Wilson went from ever present, long serving right back in a team that had just finished 2nd in the 2nd tier to barely making the subs bench at Forfar to out of the game altogether in 14 months. Allan Walker was a solid championship midfielder who hardly made an impression at Brechin and then Berwick before chucking the game before he was 30. Say what you like about McGlynn, but he's always beeb able to get a tune out of players when no one else could.

Hopefully send out the U14s against Hamilton in the diddy cup, at the very least.

Frustrating from a Rovers point of view, ran out of players and ran out of steam

We had some decent early chances and scored a really good goal but we've been second best since the 20th minute. Airdrie can out pass us, but until we scored we hadn't really figured out a way of making the direct ball work for us.

Having watched the half time feature, it seems Morton have a bunch of othwr fruatrated artists..

World class booing.

Fancy doing a scatter plot in 5 minute intervals of goals for and against over the last three seasons? Wondering if you'd see a big spike in goals against in the first ten mins of the second half vs other times...

Aye, we had both halfs of the old firm, then got papped 3-0 by Motherwell as well. Looking back, it does seem like a knee jerk reaction.

Tens of thousands of voters across the country, all working in various organisations big and small, all with a litany of complaints about those organisation's structures and processes yet they expect Government to do better? No one should expect competency from Government, only managed incompetence. I do agree that they need to be able to sell an image of competency as a means of making their sales pitch more believable. In this case I believe its less the image of competency but actualy the image of criminality hanging over the upper echelons that's a real drag. I still think the fundamental issue is in not having anything to sell in the first place. No one really believes there is a path to an Indy Ref which makes voting for the SNP at WM harder since ironically everyone knows there is little power in the 50 odd seats to deliver much leverage. This at the same time as the Tory vote is collapsing and for the first time in 10 years the Unionist vote is coalescing around one party. Even if the SNP do manage a good core vote strategy they will still be in very tricky ground.

Westminster elections generally are "away" fixtures for the SNP. Everyone knows they won't have any real power at Westminster, especially given forecasts of a massive Labour landslide - a once in a generational mandate for Starmer. Previously, Sturgeon's personal rating and a sense of keeping IndyRef2 alive contributed to keeping the 2015 and 2019 votes high. In 2017 when they had a listless campaign that didnt focus on Indy, they were punished. Domestic policy only really counts for Holyrood. So it's pretty hard for the SNP to break through unless they are running a real core vote strategy, which might not be enough in the face of the fact that Yousaf hasnt got traction with the electorate or seeming conviction in his WM indy vote strategy. It could be a return to more of a world where the same folk vote differently in WM and Holyrood elections and in reality the real danger is Labour winning in Holyrood in 26 and systematically dismantling devolution, aligning all policy to WM and agreeing to a massive narfowing of scope in what Holyrood is allowed to do. Unfortunately a big Labour win in Scotland next year and with Labour still likely in a honeymoon period by the time the Holyrood election rolls by, they cant afford to write off next year entirely. I suspect they need to get in one of the new generation of Holyrood politicians: McPherson or McAllan. A clean break, more dynamism and a chance to refocus on a narrow policy platform emphasising Indy and the EU for Autumn.

It may or may not be accurate, but given Sunak will likely hold out until Autumn next yeat it's not especially relevent. Having said that, I remain convinced the SNP will end up having a new leader in the Spring (not Forbes)

Tory vote collapsing putting Labour clear in front. Seems unlikely that the Covid inquiry will do wonders for the Tories. No real boost from the recent conference and 12 months to go to the WM election. Gonna be a few big calls required from the SNP soon.