The Mantis

4) Don't be afraid to drop players that aren't performing.  Duncan springs to mind.  Sure he came in to replace Black, but it was quite obvioius that he wasn't good enough and making too many mistakes.  Against St Mirren he was awful.  Hart should have been given a chance.

St Mirren was Duncan's first game for ages. He was fine in the first half. Second half he was knackered. At least he had an excuse, unlike the rest of the side who failed to show up second half.

Sure he could have been subbed but I can't see why you think Hart, an attacking right sided midfielder, can do the holding job that Russell does.

I'm more interested in hearing what's odd about the 20 work colleagues

What, Asterix the left-back Richard, never heard of him? Maybe we should just play your namesake as usual  :001:

Naw, he can afford about 6 secretaries for that. Maybe he should put one on forum duty.

I dare say most of that's true o silver one, but to me the main flavour is the, eh, malt  :001:

When I first came up with the future Mrs Mantis in 75 I was working for Brown Brothers Ltd who had the red brick building halfway up Castle St on the left.

Before that I remember staying in the old youth hostel on Culduthel Rd (I think) opposite the BBC. I suppose none of you locals would have seen the inside of that hostel though.

Mrs Mantis is the niece of Laurna and Sandy Macdonald who had Shetland Originals down on the corner of Bridge Street, now an Edinburgh Wollen Mill I think.

Your spelling's no bad for somebody that's halfway through a bottle. On the sabbath too......

I visited Bowmore in 94. Got the place to myself and the two guide lassies couldn't have been more helpful. Cycled there for 10am after a night on the sauce at Port Charlotte, and they sat me in a comfy chair with a big bottle of Highland Spring to work off my drouth while watching a video.

After the tour they recommended the Lochside Hotel for a bar lunch. It had a laminated malt menu with about 350 different malts on it.

Then it was back on the bike and off to Lagavulin  :003:

Not so sure about radical overhauls. Hibs beat us 2-0 in between slaughtering Hearts and Motherwell, and we created chances- the game was wide open till the penalty, and Killen was offside anyway if you ask me. That result looks nae too bad with hindsight, Hibs are the form team at the mo.

Never went yesterday, but Celtic are in a league of their own anyway. We're as good a bet for 2nd place as any of the others TBO.

Agree that Roy needs a rest, but McSwegan, apart from his drive at Easter Road 5 secs after coming on, seemed to be wading through treacle, and had a bigger erse than Shug Robertson in his Viccy Park days.

If people think his performance in the reserves was that good, fair enough. Try him in a home game, but not for away games. When all he gets is scraps, Bayne puts in the running, which sadly rules out Denzil too against the good sides away.

Yeah I joined the SMWS away back in the early days but lapsed. I was a bit skint back then with 2 young kids. I got Mrs Mantis to enrol me again for xmas last year. My enrolment bottle was a Clynelish/Brora, not sure which, not opened yet.

One thing that's really good is, in spring they do 'end of cask' parcels. This year I clubbed together with 2 pals and got a parcel of 3 for £100, but they were valued at about £170 in total, including the Caol Ila at £62. So next year I'm going for a parcel by myself!

My 'quality' bottle in the house just now is a 25 y.o. Caol Ila cask strength. It's nearly ersed now though.......

OK it's yours, not sure about the plans for next weekend yet though.

I've always been a fan of Iain Banks' fiction but I find his whisky book no more than an ego trip (boys with toys, loads of cars, he comes over as a big spoiled laddie), although it's an insight into just how autobiographical some of his characters are. I actually have 2 copies as I bought it myself up at Falls of Shin one day, then a mate bought me a copy for my birthday. So I've got one going spare if anybody wants it.

It's time we had another thread for all the old farts talking about our national drink.

I was at Tomintoul for a weekend in September and one of the guys had a bottle of malt from Lidl called 'Ben Bracken' which we scoffed fairly smartish. Somebody in the trade had told him it was really Tamnavoulin in the bottle and it was only £12.99 so I went by Lidl's on the way home and got 6 bottles  :010:

The mountaineering, obviously. Followed by a couple of drams of cask strength Caol Ila  :drinking08:

"Not that puff" I said dismayed

"Yes, but he's no puff" she cried

"He's more of a man than you'll ever be"

Well one consolation, if they were completely cut off, they would never have heard of Pavlov's Dog.

I go with the 2-3-5 BTW, it would take 100 years to get their attacking instincts bred out of them so it evolved into the crap ultra-cautious game we have now.

Yeah John Lees' BJH, didn't bother saying but I should have known there was an anorak out there  :001:

Nah, they'll make history their own way.......

.... by getting relegated  :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

Me & Naelifts (the oldest swingers in town) just back from The Zutons at the Barrowlands.....

and 2 weeks ago- Barclay James Harvest (who?)  :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

I just love being pedantic. The last trophy to come north was on May 15 2004 Sandy, not 4-5 years  ago but 2 1/2 :001:

Don't beam me up yet Scotty, I'm having a sh

then a big straight line going right up the wall  :001:

"Back in a minute' - Godot

2-3-5 you mean!

The fact it's feckin Clyde just about swings it I suppose.

Not sure how they would all know that though. It was the East stand all booing as if they were St Midden fans (well OK not quite)......