RiG

Here's an example.... Shop 1 I am a shop owner. I have two members of staff who are paid £1,000 a month. The average wage for my employees is £1,000 a month. My total wage bill per month is £2,000 a month. Shop 2 I am a shop owner. I have five members of staff who are paid £750 a month. The average wage for my employees is £750 a month. My total wage bill is £3,750 a month. Shop 1 pays a higher average wage but Shop 2 has a bigger wage budget. This is why we can't infer too much on playing budgets from a table based on averages. As HtG says you could perhaps speculate that on average Team A pays more than Team B but if the latter has about 10 more players than the former then you don't know who has the bigger budget overall.

The Saint Mirren fan who tweeted JD Sports has had a response saying incorrect information has been given out and an update will be provided first thing on Monday.

This is my reaction every time I see these figures. Figures for total overall spend on wages for season 13/14 or whatever would be better. Still interesting but not a way to gauge who has the biggest budget.

Probably ate it on the way back. It was a lot of work to get up all those steps to the back of the Roseburn.

We should focus on the positives of Saturday. The steak and ale pie was quite tasty. Erm...

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/aberdeen-fc/aberdeen-wright-mcinnes-inverness/ Based on these comments it seems the approach was made 'a few weeks ago' so it's not exactly a new story.

With Billy King also out, Meekings presumably not back in the team and El Alagui not signed I guess we will look at lining up along the lines of: OFW Horner Raven Warren Tremarco Tansey Draper Mulraney Polworth Doran Boden

What signatures are on it? I can make out: Robert Mann Paul Sheerin Davide Xausa Steve Paterson Barry Wilson Les Fridge (Mike) Teasdale Roy McBain (Richard) Hastings Gary Farquhar? Ian Stewart? Quite a few I can't decipher.

For some reason I seem to recall that when clubs have been asked about this before it's to do with policing and allows the police an idea of the likely numbers of fans so they can allocate resources appropriately. Absolutely no idea if that is the case but it's just something I think has been mentioned before.

I had a quick nosey at the ticket prices of the other Premiership teams to see what they were charging. I've attached the results here. There is a degree of variance in the prices due to differences between how some teams categorise a childs ticket (for example). Some consider a child to be U12 others go up to U16. Concessions are similar in that some clubs included students in this particular 'band' but others didn't (Hearts surprisingly didn't include any obvious information for student ticket prices or maybe I just missed it). I've looked at prices that would likely be charged for away fans based on my experiences of where we've been placed as ICT supporters. Where I wasn't sure there is a range of prices given (e.g. Motherwell adult prices range from £19 - £22). Some interesting points to note mindful of the above caveats - ICT have one of the highest admission prices in the league for adults (only Celtic charge more), our admission price for a concession is the highest in the league, tickets for kids are a wee bit better (cheaper than Ross County, more expensive than Partick and Killie). Shout out to Saint Johnstone who apparently let in U12s for free with a paying adult. Tickets.docx

I like Polworth but playing him at RM is not the best use of him. He constantly comes into the centre of the pitch and doesn't often come back to help out his full back. Look at how Horner was destroyed in that game v United last season. He had Polworth playing in front of him and received little support when United attacked down their left as Polworth had been dragged into the middle. I feel we often lose our shape a wee bit when we employ this set up. Regardless of that, there is no way we should be conceding a goal when it's simply a humped ball from one side of the pitch to the other. It was shocking defending but credit to Boyce for that superb touch he took to get back inside Raven.

Green dot for this line.

Has there been a Highland Derby where levels of enthusiasm for the game have been this low from both sets of fans? One day until the match and still no game thread... Anyway, our good run in the League Cup group stages is over after disappointing results against Partick Thistle and Alloa. Hopefully we will see Draper returned to the starting eleven and maybe even Doran as well after getting some game time under his belt. Doesn't look like Meekings is back any time soon so I suspect we might line up along the lines of: Fon Williams Raven Warren McNaughton Tremarco Draper Tansey Mulraney Polworth King Boden Fisher did more against Alloa than Boden for me but I think Foran will probably stick with Boden up front and whilst I'd like to see Doran start I suspect he will be left on the bench until his fitness picks up. County seem to be having a bit of a shocker just now as well. Based on reading their fans comments they seem very light in midfield, playing three central defenders seems to leave them somewhat exposed and they don't have much of a threat down the left flank. Hopefully we can get an early goal to settle any nerves and push on from there. No reason why we can't win this but we will need to seriously improve our attacking play. I'd like to see Mulraney and King hit the goal line and get some decent crosses in for Boden (or Fisher) to attack. Our wide play was very poor in the last two games. Andrew Dallas is the referee. He is garbage.

Farid El Alagui former Falkirk, Hibs and Dundee United striker.

I think he should be starting ever week. I wonder if he has a niggly knock and is trying to get his fitness back. Extra game time will help. Regardless, he's a must start against County on Saturday if he's fully fit.

Erm, Draper did play on Tuesday. EDIT: Can't believe I'm responding to an obvious WUM

Also, if we are going to play with more width I would like to see us use wingers who play on the same flank as their stronger foot. Both Mulraney and King have been constantly cutting inside and on Tuesday there was already a lot of congestion in the centre of the pitch where Alloa were stifling the game. Boden also played with his back to goal when this happened and didn't often look to run off the last defender like a Mckay or Storey. We seemed to have a wee bit more luck when King switched to the right flank and Doran was on the left and we started to get in behind the Alloa full backs a bit more and play crosses into the box for Fisher to attack.

Leaving Draper on the bench against Partick was a big surprise but as mentioned already we had just come off two very good performances in recent games. Saturday wasn't great but perhaps Foran thought that playing the same team last night would give them a chance to redeem themselves? Seems reasonable enough. That said, I would really hope to see Draper start on Saturday.

Not really much else to add other than we seemed utterly intent on trying to force the ball up the middle of the pitch which was bizarre given that we actually have wingers for the first time in forever to try and whip crosses in. In the second half especially, after Doran had come on and King was switched to the right flank (presumably to stop him cutting inside all the time from the left) we still tried to go right down the throat of the Alloa side and with Goodwin in there that was always going to be a tall order. Really strange that we didn't try and stretch Alloa more by playing with more width but given how excellent they were last night in a defensive sense I think they still would have held firm quite easily. The second half was like one of those overload training exercises given how much of the ball we had and how often we were camped in the Alloa side of the pitch. That said, it is also an exercise we would have failed badly at given how wasteful we were with the ball. Over the course of the 90 minutes I can recall a good shot in the first half from Polworth, a Vigurs (half?) volley in the second after a Fisher knock down and a late effort poked wide by Vigurs and that was it really. Fifteen shots on goal and only two on target. That's very poor. I thought Alloa were superb. You can argue they didn't offer too much in an attacking sense particularly in the second half but they were fantastic across the back completely neutralising our (limited) attacking play and their midfield dominated for most of the game although we got a wee bit of an edge back when Draper came on. Still, all the possession we had is only good if you do something with it. Our wasteful attacking play meant we didn't deserve to go through and Alloa rightly progressed.

I hear you're getting a lift from TSNY. Hope you're not in a rush to get to / back from the game

+ 1 RiG

Not everyone can afford or commit to a season ticket. For fans who have to pick and chose their games, for whatever reason that might be, these prices can only be off putting. I'd be interested to know how many walk up fans we have. If season ticket sales have remained steady then it certainly looks like the number of walk up supporters has reduced over the years.

He was injured / is recovering from an injury.