The Great Stagsby

Raring to go for this one. I expect us to line up something like this: Laidlaw Watson Hylton Charles-Cook Vigurs Lakin Tillson Paton Andreu Gardyne Shaw Subs: Draper, Kelly, 5 new midfielders signed between now and then. BRING IT!

“Hefty specimens” and now “agricultural” all in reference to St Johnstone. Someone’s playing Farm-reference Bingo for sure.

“A lot of hefty specimens in there”

Can't see anything other than more of the same here. Going to say 3-0 County, but wouldn't be surprised if we get 5 or 6.

I can’t remember how games tend to pan out when we score first / at all. Anyone?

So... we’re not in a good way, that’s pretty clear. I don’t know how much freedom Yogi’s going to be getting in January...? I also have to say that, for various reasons, I haven’t seen all that many games this season. So I’m wondering if folks wouldn’t mind sharing their thoughts on the current squad? If it was up to you, who would you keep, who would you chuck and who’s a maybe?

Bring it on. Celtic 3 - 6 County. All 9 goals to be scored by Coll Donaldson.

The time period this summary spans coincides exactly with the time I have been following County. During that time we have gone from old 3rd division to 2 spells in the top flight, winning a few challenge cups (yeah, I know) and a League Cup along the way as well as making that Scottish Cup final. Probably not many other “diddies” have won as much as we have in that time. Adams may have been in charge for some of the best moments, but I personally wouldn’t ultimately summarise every managerial appointment other than him as disastrous, or sentiments to that effect. ETA that’s not to say for a second that some of them haven’t definitely been disasters! Just to say that, during these past 20+ years we have had an awful lot of success, under various Roy MacGregor-appointed managers.

No, but as the winter solstice it is the darkest day of the year 2020. So it still fits!

I think you and I share the same thinking on a lot more than might be obvious. I certainly agree that Stewart and MacKay are class (and that doesn’t go away), but whatever the reason it’s very clearly not happening for us so far this season. Something needs to change - but what? I also agree regarding mistakes and gifts, an apparent lack of discipline and composure in various areas of the pitch is costing us over and over again - something needs to change - but what? At this point I’d certainly give Kettlewell the Hamilton game. Win that, he probably gets a bit longer. Lose it... well then it might (rightly or wrongly) come down to whether we progress in the cup against Livi. For me it boils down to this: SOMETHING has to change, or we’re doomed. If our performances and results change (starting against Hamilton) under Kettlewell, I will be the first to rejoice. If they don’t, the question really is how long can Roy wait for something to change, before changing something himself?

When we’re as bad as we are, can we really afford to put all our eggs in the “there’s another team (or two) about who are (possibly) worse than us, therefor we’ll be fine” basket? In the last 3 weeks Hamilton have drawn with Aberdeen and beaten Killie, both of whom comfortably beat us in that same period of time - one of them doing so with 10 men for 82 minutes. Team selection? Formation? Tactics? Game management? Understanding? Confidence? Motivation? Nothing guaranteed but these are surely some possibilities? If all managers are equal and the only thing that matters is what players you have available, what’s the point in managers in the first place?

Fair enough. ...then we’re still bottom of the league, having played a game more than some of the teams directly above us, conceding 1.9 and scoring 0.6 goals per game and having picked up just 7 points from our last 15. ETA As previously though, I hope you’re right!

Current bottom six teams' form over their last 15 games respectively: Livi 18pts Killie 17pts St J 16pts St Mirren 12 pts Hamilton 14pts County 7pts Naturally some anomalies in there with Covid punishments / bonuses / however you want to look at them, but the way things are going we are finishing WAY behind everyone if there isn't a shake-up of some kind.

2 months and seven league games on, I'm genuinely interested to know if at this point you still stand by this? There's still obviously time - and the unanswerable question of how many goals would actually be required to keep us up! - but neither have scored in the league in this time (we've only scored 3 goals in total in the seven games). I'm not in a position to say how many goal scoring chances they've had. Billy's obviously not played so many minutes, and Shaw started scoring before getting crocked. Is the rest of the team just not up to it? Is it the management's fault? Things are looking pretty dire.

As a County fan, I know exactly how you

Interesting. I can only comment based on my own experience, but off the top of my head I can only think of one County fan I personally know who also supports Rangers, and one ICT fan who also supports Rangers. (None who support Celtic). Also worth noting I’m friends with a lot more County fans than ICT, so in the world through my eyes a higher ratio of ICT fans also support OF than County ones (but thankfully a fairly low number over all). My “ICT & Rangers fan” mate is a real odd case - a perfectly reasonable and rounded kind of guy more generally, he clearly supports each team with just as much passion as the other, and always has (which I just can’t get my head round). However, whilst he’s more than happy to exchange banter / abuse with me re. the Highland rivalry, he avoids any Rangers chat at all with me, almost unwilling to openly admit to me his very obvious and well known support for them. But get him in a room with a couple of other Rangers fans I know (one from Lewis, the other from Thurso, ) and it’s clear for all the world to see.

Oh, dearly me. What have I done I suspect it’s not possible to ‘unstart’ a new topic, but I believe there’s an “ignore” function out there. Can somebody please tell me how to set it up. Help me, please! ETA Found it. Useful!

Somebody suggested this needs its own thread, and given how much attention the topic has been taking away from the joy of purely and simply laughing at Celtic, I feel they are probably correct. For what my own thoughts on it are worth: There’s always been a big part of me that has cringed at folks up here in the Highlands who support either of the Old Firm, but I also recognise everyone has a different story of how they end up behind one team or another. I still remember at primary school I really wasn’t interested in football, but almost all my mates used to ask “Who do you support, Celtic or Rangers?” (Rarely were other options presented). I usually responded with “Which one do you support? ...Yeah, me too.” Only when I went to secondary school, and a mate said “You should come along to the (County) game this weekend.”, did I do just that - and I’ve passionately followed them ever since. I took a year out between school and Aberdeen uni, working down near Stirling and ended up alongside 3 Aberdeen fans - 2 from Tillicoultry, the third I don’t recall where from, but also not Aberdeen! I don’t know the full story of how they ended up supporting Aberdeen, but part of it I believe was in protest at all things Old Firm (but possibly still with the hope of at least a little bit of glory...?) ANYWAY, influenced by those guys’ passion and knowing I was going to spend a few years in Aberdeen, plus with County still playing in the lower leagues, I adopted Aberdeen as “my premier league team” around then. That was fun, but it wasn’t forever and I couldn’t care less these days (other than that I would welcome anyone but the Old Firm winning the league some time). My mum being from Leicester and my cousins living there, I’ve always had a soft spot for them and loved them winning the league, but again it doesn’t bother me too much either way how they do. Finally I studied near Bournemouth for a while, and kind of adopted them while I was in the area as well. (Oh, the shock of seeing DEREK HOLMES again! ) Anyway that’s a bit of my story. And we all have one. Some (quite possibly most) of the “Not from Glasgow but support *OF*” are without doubt glory hunters, but probably not all. Finally I believe the “Who my dad supports” factor can be huge, and whilst there’s likely at least one glory hunter somewhere in the family tree, can a 5-year old from Tain who “picks” Celtic because his dad is mad for them and he’s never been presented with any other options really be accused of being a glory hunter? Discuss / be disgusted.

Iain Vigurs to be sent off just before kick-off. Laidlaw to take his eye off the ball, allowing a pass-back from the halfway line to trundle in for 1-0 after about 17 seconds. County to do “really well”, all things considered, having a few lovely passages of play, creating 3 glorious chances (at points in the game where a goal would have got them right back in it) but ultimately going on to lose 5-0 as stated above. (2-0 half time). Enjoy!

Bummer! Do we know the nature of it / when we might expect to see him again?

I take it Shaw is injured or something? Scored in 4 consecutive games didn’t he, then not in the squad at all. I ask as BBC don’t refer to any injury...

At Hampden?

Deal So what position do you play?

Can 6 corners / 3 missed penalties = a goal please? (Just for the away team). And can every 10% of possession count as a goal for the away team too? Please? You’d still win.