DoofersDad

Couldn't agree more. I understand her wanting to spend more time with her family but she has made a commitment to her constituents, The answer should be for her husband to support her in the commitment she has made and which, I assume, he supported her in when she made it. Could he not be UK based and still manage Metallica? Or does this have more to do with rates of taxation than with family togetherness?

Could the police split the fixed penalty charges with the club? We could then put notices up on the verges saying "Away Support Parking"

Absolutely. Old Rangers wound up with over £100million of debt and new Rangers spend freely in the transfer market just to show that now that they have re-emerged as a debt free club, they have more money than the rest of us. Potential investors who would not have put their money in to subsidise the debt of old Rangers can now feel confident that their money can be used to take the club forward. I understand this is the way company law works but it doesn't make it right.

Even if Guy did punch Draper full in the face with a closed fist, to lie on the ground like he did was a bit OTT IMHO. If the punch was hard enough to knock him out then OK, but if Guy can deliver a punch with sufficient force to knock someone out when the video shows that it is not even obvious that he is throwing a punch at all, then Guy should give up football and take up boxing - he'd be world champ within a year. And that is not in any way defending Guy who will hopefully get a lengthy ban, it is just saying that Draper's reaction seemed somewhat inappropriate although not as inappropriate as the likes of Samaras last year.

That's encouraging. It seems there is a more positive approach generally this season. I look forward to the Kilmarnock game with anticipation.

I wasn't at the game so can't comment on how we tried to defend the lead in the last few minutes but what I can say is that we have conceded late in a lot of games and there must be a reason for that. Too often the tactic is simply to pack the defence leaving one at most up front. That doesn't make sense to me. Hoofing the ball up the park to clear the pressure simply gives the ball back to opposition who come at you again and again, players are out of position, get in each others way, get put under pressure and make mistakes. Opponents are given new hope and are roared on by their support. Better is to make sure you keep possession as much as posible. That doesn't mean you throw yourself into attack but if you can keep the ball in the opposition half as much as possible it means they get fewer chances to put pressure on. That means they are under more pressure to make it count when they do get the ball. If they over commit then they are vulnerable themselves. This retreating into a defensive shell is like handing a mugger a knife just to show you are no threat to them. If we do that, is it any wonder we get mugged so often.

We're top of the league. Can the season end now!

Risky for the blokes but it has a different effect on the ladies. For example, there was Victoria Pendleton this evening - got disqualified but was still smiling half an hour later.

Someone who's a basket case?

Well, an 18 year old getting up before 9am to go for a walk in the woods sure sounds suspicious to me.

I'd echo that. But what is really remarkable about Wiggins' victory is the margin of victory. He won by 41 seconds in an event lasting just under an hour. He could have stopped and signed a few autographs and still won.

Regardless of whether you would expect the team that played tonight to beat the HL champions the point here is surely that we should be putting out a side that would be expected to beat them. Playing in this competition is an opportunity for a few fringe players to play with some first choice players in a competetive environment and to improve the bonding of the team. Playing a few games in this competition would also have helped to give match practice to one or two players who may have limited opportunity later in the season but will be thrown in the deep end if and when their chance comes. By fielding a team that was too lightweight, we have lost that opportunity. If we are going to field a makeshift team that is likely to go out in the first round then I seriously wonder why we bothered to enter the competition in the first place. No :clown: etc on this post, Oddquine. This is seriously disappointing. There has been a big misjudgement on team selection tonight because we need competetive games outside of the SPL.

I know what you mean .....

In my post above I refered to Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum. I am sure everyone has been far too polite to point out my error. His name is, of course, Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. I have been advised I need to correct this dreadful error if I ever want to fly Emiratres again.

I would agree that if folk pledged to renew their season ticket if the club voted to keep newco out, they should ensure they keep their word. However a lot of people who have pledged support were not season ticket holders before so cannot be criticised for not buying them. Some have bought season tickets even though they know they are not going to get to too many games and that is a brilliant gesture which should be acknowledged and applauded. Many others have simply said they will try to get to more games and support the club that way. As we haven't had any league matches yet those folk have not had the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. There is a difference here which is important to recognise: those who didn't have a season ticket before but who go to more matches are putting extra money into the club whereas those who renew their season tickets are not. Whilst it is really important to try to persuade as many season ticket holders to renew in order to maintain a previous income stream, it is also important to persuade the less regular attender to attend more often. I don't know if anyone has done any research on this? I would be interested to know what the make-up of a typical crowd is. What percentage are season ticket holders, what percentage pay full price and what percentage pay concession rates. That's the easy bit. The hard bit is do some research to identify how often the non-season ticket holders actually attend matches and to find out what makes them decide whether they will attend or not. For the sake of argument if in a crowd of 3,500 there were 1,500 home supporters who were not season ticket holders, then my guess would be that some of those will only go to one or two matches a year whilst some will go to most and there will be everything in between. What is certain is that it won't be the same 1,500 every week. There may be 5,000 or more who go to at least a couple of games a year and who are not season ticket holders. The key to getting bigger crowds is to get these folk through the turnstiles more often - and to bring someone with them. So the next bit of reseach would be to find out what would encourage them to attend more often. Without doubt the quality of the entertainment on offer will be a big factor here and for this reason we need to see a more entertaining style of play if we are to get more bums on seats. So whilst it is annoying that some who have pledged to renew season tickets haven't done so, the real need here is to attact others to the games more often. If we do that by playing a more entertaining style of football then the season ticket sales will look after themselves.

One of the two, Heather Stanning, is a former pupil of Gordonstoun and has connections with Lossiemouth where her parents still live. That was a great performance! And of course the other big local interest is our own Mhairi Spence, Inverness Royal Academy FP (I think a couple of years ahead of Doofer) and world Modern Pentathlon champion. That on the last day of the Games, August 12th. Zara Philips also went to Gordonstoun although I don't think we could claim her as a local. A third former Gordonstoun pupil competing at the Olympics is Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum who was the flag bearer for the United Arab Emirates and is competing in one of the shooting events. Perhaps the club should write to him and ask if he would like to make a small investment of a billion or two in the nearest Premier Division club to his old school. Renaming the TCS at the Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum Stadium would go nicely with the fact that we have the longest club name in senior football in the UK.

"Green and Black's" Fairtrade Football All our players are ethically sourced with no dodgy loan deals.

I think the antics of Giggs and others is just another example of whty football should not be included in the olympics. Giggs would clearly rather play for Man Utd than his country and simply does not have a clue what performing in the Olympics is all about. The Olympics is about being proud to represent your country and performing to the very best of your ability. Giggs is doing neither. Giggs gets paid vast amounts of money for playing his sport whereas others train every bit as hard as him, earn nothing but some modest sponsorship and are immensly proud that they have this opportunity to represent their country in these great games. For many it is the one and only time in their careers that they have a chance for the wider public to appreciate the committment they give to their sport and the acheivements they have made. What the Olympics do not need is for these fine young men and women to have their moment of glory upstaged by some whinging overpaid footballers. Early this morning, for instance a couple of British rowers set an Olympic record in their heat in the women's pairs. That's what I want to watch and applaud in the olympics but when the olympics are over I'll get back to watching football and not rowing and table tennis etc. Do us a favour, Ryan - make sure you lose the next 2 games and then we can all focus on sportsmen and women who understand what it means to represent their country in the olympics.

Is his contract just for the one seasoning?

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there? Maybe the cause of the North Korean walkout was the Hampden "hot dogs" not meeting their expections! And the Colombians joined them when they discovered the coke was something you drank.

Proctor

I see the Olympics got off to a great start at Hampden this evening when a video during the warm up showed the South Korean flag instead of the North Korean one. The North Korean women's team duly walked off the park and the match was delayed by nearly an hour. Considering that:- a) Football should not be in the Olympics in the first place and b) It is a disgrace that the Olympic authorities will not allow the Scottish flag to fly at Hampden as Scotland is not an Olympic nation I find it highly amusing that there should this "genuine error" at Hampden on the first day of action. I think a gold medal should be awarded to whoever put that video together.

It all sounds a bit worrying. An SPL side should be able to pick the weakest XI from the squad and beat a team like Wick comfortably. Is this season going to be like last season - riddled with inconsistency? I know you can't read too much into these pre-season games and the diddy teams are all pumped up when playing a bigger side, but all the same, anything less than a comfortable 3 or 4 goal stroll in the park is not good. At least the Coventry game shows we can compete at a higher level so lets just keep the fingers crossed that players can stay fit and we can get a bit of consistency in the side. Players need this if they are to play as a team and develop the confidence that is required in front of goal.

loan

This seems to have arisen because Sky have removed the slot from their schedules. There is now nothing where there used to a TBC entry. If they were pulling out I would not have thought they would remove the fixtures from the schedules before making a statement. The other way of looking at this is that they are just about to confirm the schedules. There are also rumours floating around that South Africa scored 637 for the loss of only 2 wickets against England, that Ernie Els won the Open and that a British rider has won the Tour de France. All just fanciful nonsense, of course.