The Great Stagsby

"Lively start here ON THE SHORE OF LOCH NESS..."

We should obviously be confident (and with respect, Livi probably shouldn't be), but unless I'm mistaken we have lost our last 5 in a row on the road... Something's not quite been clicking! This might not be very popular, but IMO a draw here would constitute some degree of improvement and maybe not be a complete disaster. With our recent home form and St J's over all form, I still think we'd have every chance of overhauling them over the remaining 4 games. Having said all that, I'd not be surprised if we did win this one. Livi are poor. We appear to have significantly improved of late. 'Mon the Staggies.

It's a lovely gesture, but: A. You've misunderstood what kind of pens they expect to be awarded, and B. Even with the the Rangers, whilst they can be very, very late, in order to count they do still do have to be awarded before the final whistle is blown.

I was in an Inverness cafe this morning and got into conversation with a local lady who works there and turns out to be a The Rangers fan. That in itself proved enjoyable, but the icing on the cake was hearing that her nephew - also a The Rangers fan - flew up from London especially for the game. THE CHERRY ON TOP OF THE ICING ON THE CAKE was hearing that salt was rubbed into his wounds when his flight back to London was delayed by 2 hours, meaning he only touched down around 1am.

VID-20240414-WA0002.mp4

Me and my dad took a friend's young son along to that one, his first ever football match! Talk about setting expectations...

Can we play you nevery week?

I'm inebriated by the exuberance of your verbosity!

Can people PLEASE stop writing stuff along the lines of "Aberdeen there for the taking". I'm pretty sure every time we've played them recently, that's very much been the case, and they've very much destroyed us 4-0 without fail.

@frankthetank22 I'm sorry you had to read that.

What (if anything) would you say we deserved based on the 90-100 minutes performance?

Didn't see the game and actually don't feel like I've seen much of us at all in at least the last couple of months, so this is a genuine question as opposed to a rhetorical, loaded one: Are you being serious?

3 wins in all competitions (including v Livi and Alloa) in their entire previous 5 months of football already had it firmly in perspective, in my opinion. Edit: Take their recent demolition of us out of the equation, noone even bats an eyelid that Morton beat them last night.

What a way to reach our 1,000th page...

Maybe not, but ultimately a very welcome pan of see you later (I'll leave now...)

He'd save more face by firing him, though...

4 home defeats (to nil) on the bounce. 2-2 draws at Heart's and Livi with a narrow Celtic Park defeat in between. For some reason, we are definitely performing better away from home recently, and this gives me reason to be relatively optimistic about this one. By which I mean, I wouldn't be too surprised if we manage another draw. About which, I would probably be neither devastated, nor over the moon. (Could following County actually feel more 'meh' right now...?!)

I’m not sure how well organised these thoughts are going to be, so please bear with me… The above is a perfectly valid position to take on the subject, but I think it’s possibly a little lazy and there’s a few angles it can be looked at from. (Considering the strength of negative feeling among many of our support towards either of the County managers he has played under, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some would take more of a “Shows what he can do under a decent manager!” type stance, as one example that quickly comes to mind…) A few of my own thoughts, for what they’re worth: 1. First of all, full disclosure: I’m a big fan of the boy. On the pitch, I think he brings something no one else in the team currently offers, rescues complete lost cause situations, often creating opportunities out of impossible situations, an absolute nightmare to play against. I also suspect he’s a great guy to have around the dressing room, with some great leadership qualities. 2. I was as frustrated and disappointed as anyone at his goal-scoring record, not least in light of some of those opportunities he did so well to create in the first place. 3. I’m not in the “we shouldn’t have shipped him out on loan” camp – I think it makes complete sense. 4. Having said that – I’m not as convinced as some, that he was given enough of a chance to prove himself here. I don’t know his numbers – and maybe someone who does can shed some light for me. But in my head, he was mostly getting the last 10-15 minutes of games, and even if you get 10 or 15 such run-outs, it’s not the same as 2 or 3 run-outs of 45 / 60 / 90 minutes. So going back to “found his level”… 1. Some might agree it’s that simple. However, if (yes, IF) he continues the way he’s started at ICT, a few more games and those watching him currently would be completely justified in starting to claim, “This guy should be playing at a higher level!” – and who would really be able to argue with that? 2. Looking at the wider picture here, how much difference even is there between the level he was at with us, and the level he scored 3 goals at yesterday? There’s nothing between the bottom few teams in the Premiership. Last week, we got trounced at home by Partick Thistle – who are 7 points behind the team he just scored a hat-trick against away from home. He just scored a hat-trick, away from home, against a team who could quite realistically be playing in a higher division than us 6 months from now. I think (but am open to being wrong) that most of the County support felt his main shortfall was his finishing. But given 2 full games with ICT – including against a team arguably of similar quality level to those around the bottom half of the Premiership – he has apparently shown himself to be a perfectly capable finisher. I still think the verdict is out on what he is capable of / what “his level” might be. I think in the right environment, a positive mood and settled, balanced team, there’s definitely a chance he could cut it in the top flight. Sadly, I’m not especially confident County are going to be in a position to offer that any time soon.

Bring back Euaingeliou Oikonomou!! P.s. what did you actually mean here...?

Possibly along with the whole of that Scottish Cup run / 40 unbeaten in the league-era squad. Goodness me, we did have some good times under DA...

A "there for the taking" Aberdeen must absolutely love seeing County approaching on the fixture list. Wins don't come much easier than that. Howfin'.

I always thought this was an absolutely outstanding goal - County's second equaliser in the 'first leg' of our sensational Scottish Cup Quarter Final win over Hibs back in 2010. Gardyne had to get absolutely everything perfect in order to score this: The way he keeps track of the ball whilst not losing track of where the goal is; the adjustments he makes to his run in response to the flight of the ball, in order to be able to hit it first time; the composure and quick thinking to take it first time; the technique to hit that on the volley as it's dropping out of the sky effectively from behind him / over his shoulder; the placement into the far corner. (Not the best quality video - I just fired up the highlights DVD of that cup run, filmed it with my phone, uploaded to YouTube... If anyone has a way to produce a better quality version, please feel free to share!)

It hadn't even crossed my mind until you started denying it Now I'm HIGHLY suspicious (although I believe the terminology you're looking for is "big team"). As for the game, I sadly also expect nothing other than a Rangers victory. I won't be reading much into it whatever the scoreline - although it'd be fascinating to see how folks would react / process it if County somehow managed to pull off a positive result!

A lot of unnecessarily twisted knickers, in my opinion. It's Derek Adams being Derek Adams, and Scottish football is immediately a more interesting and entertaining place for it. Anyone who thinks that interview does our game damage probably massively overestimates Adams' influence* and hasn't enough faith in our game themselves. It MAY turn a few heads outwith Scotland. South of the border most people already have their minds made up, whether informed or otherwise, but if it gets a few people checking our game out then great: More attention on Scottish football, and the product will speak for itself far more effectively than a Derek Adams rant. *Just because he lives rent-free in the heads of a great many Scottish football fans doesn't mean anyone beyond our borders gives a hoot what he has to say - if they even know he exists.