Sneckboy

satellite

It was his post before the Shinnie one I was referring to.... " I think more than 6,000 people watched a Highland derby in Third Division. That number now can't be matched in top tier. Also telling." Edit: As he's clearly 'allowed' to edit his tweets, I'll also edit this - he's now amended his figure to read 5,000 as opposed to read 6,000. Which conveniently just fits his claim, as there were indeed 5,017 at one game in the 3rd division. But fortunately, I took a screenshot of his original post!

He may be right, but he may be wrong! It's always easy to remember when somebody has 'called' something correctly - but the 'wrongs' are easily forgotten! His cheap dig at Inverness and County is off-the-mark. He's trying to claim that our derbies were attracting more fans in the bottom tier of Scottish football! 6,000 in tier 4? I don't think so!

A great start to the New Year - fantastic win yesterday. It's so refreshing to be at the half-way point in the league and into January and just 5 points separate FIVE clubs!!! And Celtic aren't top! No time to rest-on-our-laurels though, with still another 6 Premiership games this month! It's often January that shapes many clubs' seasons. We're really well placed for top-six - but won't look any further than that for now. County look in trouble - even Jim McIntyre was sounding a little down beat - almost resigned to the reality. They have a fight on their hands - but St. Mirren are just as poor so they might be okay! And I thought Motherwell were going to sort themselves out but losing 5-0 to Hamilton suggests something's very wrong there - so all is not lost for County. I enjoy the derbies so, from a personal point of view, I hope they stay up. With a 'big' team likely replacing them, I doubt our club would feel any financial loss from a potential County relegation. I'd certainly prefer games against County that Hibs, Hearts or Rangers!

Dougie Imrie (Hamilton Accies 5-0 Motherwell) Stuart Armstrong (Dundee United 6-2 Dundee)

gatherings

Has anybody got any proof that the pitch is narrower? I think it's an urban myth or an optical illusion! Although pitch widths are allowed to be of varying size, all penalty areas are the same dimensions. With that in mind, and using Google's (or others) overhead views, it's apparent that the distances between the edges of the penalty-areas to the touchlines are virtually identical in both grounds.

Crikey! If I used Twitter, I could have saved myself the bother! But I got the fun out of doing it...I suppose.

That's a really interesting post RiG. It must so difficult for a manager to know what to do when players are nearing the end of their contracts but haven't yet commited, particularly when on a limited budget. I suppose you have to assume that those not signing are going to be moving on. If Shinnie and Billy agree to pre-contracts, at least it 'buys' us time. Obviously don't want to lose them but I fear we're going to lose somebody this window.

Noticed on the BBC website that they have compiled a calendar year English Premier League table. I thought "what a pointless exercise'! But, was still curious enough to do one for our Premiership! Fortunately it was straight forward as all the clubs have played 18 games this season and most had played 20 matches from the start of the year to the season's end. There were 4 teams whose final fixture last year, (around 29th December) was included to ensure all clubs had 38 games played. The relegated Edinburgh duo plus promoted Hamilton and Dundee obviously haven't competed in the top flight for all of 2014, so are excluded. Obviously hypothetical, but these are the actual points accumulated over 2014 and 'although' 5th, we were tantalising close to 3rd...or certainly 4th - refereeing decisions in Perth, anyone!

No Meekings? No Shinnie?!

chairs

Marius Niculae has returned home to join Dinamo Bucharest. It'll be his third spell at the club. Recently he's been at clubs in China, Ukraine and Turkey. He's likely decided to call time on his 'globe trotting' and return to where it all began. At 33 he'll still have 2 or 3 years to contribute.

"we need to get more streetwise"! What does that mean? Trying to fool refs? Haven't we just spent all week berating the St Johnstone striker for doing just such!!!

Heavy pitches? Why would that only affect us?

But perhaps, instead of looking at the Xmas difficulties, we should look at 2014 in perspective as the curtain now falls on the year - in my opinion, our best ever year! A first cup final and our highest ever points total in the top-six. Yes, it's finished on a low - but over the year, we really can't complain! My 'wish list' for 2015 would be 4th place and Scottish Cup semis!

I've also looked at that, Yngwie - it is true, we tend to perform badly at this festive time of year! Could it simply be coincidence? Or are there other factors at play - even subconsciously? The impending transfer window in January providing an unwelcome distraction? - In August, nobody's going anywhere, they're all in-it-together up here - but in a few days, certain players may have offers in for them, don't want to get injured and perhaps are 'only' (as I say, subconsciously) operating at 80%? However, it didn't appear that any of the guys were anything but totally committed today - It's a mystery!

Exactly the same thing happened last month when we beat Hamilton to go top - the Scottish football headline on the radio was '...in Scotland, Hamilton miss the chance to go top...'!!! Never mind Inverness who have actually gone top!!!

Interesting to see Maurice Malpas returning to football in the role of 'Director of Football' at Raith Rovers. This type of job, in the background and away from the limelight, tends to suit him. I think the Butcher/Malpas days as a managerial duo are finished, although I felt that was the case anyway, after the Hibernian debacle!

Have you been at the Christmas sherry, Oddquine! You're the last person I would have expected to have a wee leaning towards the Union-flag-waving Ibrox lot! But joking aside, I see what you're getting at, from the legal perspective. Obviously, It wasn't his 'fault' he was on a reported £800,000 per annum in the 4th tier. If my employers were daft enough to offer me that... The wages being paid to McCoist and the players during their time in the lower leagues was utterly ridiculous and just part of the gross mis-management that's been on-going since the club was rebirthed. As creditors were left in the lurch when the club's debts were written off in liquidation, the new Rangers had a clean slate to start from. They squandered an opportunity when the 'newco' was launched - and haven't learned from the mistakes that saw the demise of the old club. It still irks me when journalists report that, after liquidation, they were demoted to the Third Division or 'relegated' to the bottom tier. It is against business law for a phoenix outfit to masquerade as being the same-as-before, after a liquidation event. They simply were 'accepted' into the vacancy that had arisen in the bottom tier after one of the member clubs disappeared! There's really no grey area - that is what happened - despite this being against the rules of the Scottish League which require clubs to prove their financial viability by submitting three-years of auditable accounts. They should currently be in the Lowland League, seeking to enter the SPFL via the Pyramid play-offs at the end of the season. Strayed a bit off-topic there!

Adam Macleod requires surgery on a knee injury and will miss the rest of Strathspey Thistle's season. Seems to be the same-old-story, with injuries blighting an otherwise promising career. He was a youth player for us at every age level from U10s to U19s and was reportedly the club's leading scorer for each of those 10 seasons. (I'm happy to be corrected if that 'stat' is an urban myth!)

It would probably be setting a dangerous precedent for games to be replayed or points retrospectively deducted - it would descend into farce. It really would open the proverbial can of worms. The season would end sometime in July with all the games backlogged. You'd leave a game not knowing if what you'd just witnessed was the 'proper' game or will it have to be replayed. Imagine the following scenario with David Currie in the Sportscene studio "And now the classified results. Aberdeen 2 Kilmarnock 1 - this is a provisional result as Kilmarnock are contesting the penalty awarded to Aberdeen. Celtic 2, Dundee United 0. This is also provisional as Jackie McNamara is convinced both Celtic's goals were offside. St Mirren 2, Motherwell 3. Provisional. St Mirren are convinced that a Motherwell player handled the ball in the lead up to the 'winning' goal. No point showing you the Premiership table on a Saturday afternoon - those days are gone - the table is published now on a Wednesday evening after the match videos have been scrutinised!" Yes, it's a daft example but that's where we could end up. Results should be left alone - even if a team's been 'wronged'. Like in all walks of life, sometimes there are 'injustices'. Every club experiences incorrect refereeing calls and human error will always be part of the game. I'm actually pleased to see a mechanism in place that I wasn't aware of - the retrospective citing of players by the Compliance Officer. This should be applauded, but perhaps a longer suspension for simulation is needed. It's a cancer in the game and is so deeply entrenched, as is any attempt to gain an unfair advantage. You all too often hear of mangers, pundits, ex-players, current players, journalists and fans talking about "he was too honest", "he should have gone down", "that was a 'good' foul to give away" etc. Who'd be a referee?!! I'm over this incident now. Going to enjoy Xmas and then look forward to the games coming thick-and-fast until the end of January, while keeping my fingers crossed we can escape the transfer window intact. There's a lot to play for at ICT, we can't afford to dwell much longer on this. Merry Christmas!

Fantastic news! Plaudits where they're due to the governing body.

I guess this (and the Christie rumours) signals the start of an uncomfortable five weeks of speculation and sweating until the end of January. Unfortunately, I've a feeling we're not going to escape unscathed this time.

I suppose that's 'proof'' that league tables don't lie!