ictchris

I’m sure that the announcement will be the conclusion in the investigation into the Twitter account favouriting porn accounts. That or the first round of the Duncan Shearer Memorial Under 11s Seven A Side Tournament. 

3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Dennis Wyness plays his last ever game of professional football on Saturday assuming he is selected by Huntly at the grand old age of forty one.

One of the most talented and entertaining players ever to wear our shirt. His cheeky step overs will live in the memory forever and there was seldom talk of a striking crisis when he was on our books in partnership with Iain Stewart, big Brian Thomson and others.

Thanks for those great memories Denzil and enjoy your retirement from the game.

He only played with Stewart a few times in 2000 and he was never at the club at the same time as Brian Thomson.

He had his best partnerships with Paul Ritchie from 2001 until 2003 and then a purple patch in the SPL when he and Craig Dargo combined. Looking back he didn’t have the pace or power to make an impact as a striker at the top level but playing in the First division his touch and finishing ability elevated him to a different level. The guy was a joy to watch and fitted perfectly into our team at the time. The run we went on before Pele left in the winter of 2002 has to be some of the best football I’ve ever seen from us, bodying teams left!right and centre. Glorious.

Our league record so far against the teams we are still to play (Dumbarton, Livingston, Dunfermline and Morton).

P -11

W - 2

D - 3

L - 6

F - 8

A - 16

I think some people are underestimating how hard winning these games is going to be.  It's possible but I think it's very unlikely.  We haven't beaten Morton or Livingston all season.

If we win all our remaining games we'll have won eight games in a row, our best run since we won nine in a row in 2010 on the way to winning the First Division title.

It's a lovely thought but it's very unlikely.  We've barely won eight games all season. 

22 hours ago, RiG said:

(another Polworth assist - GIUY haters) 

Polworth now has 21 assists in all competitions this season.  He's also scored four goals.  We've scored 59 goals in all competitions, meaning that he has had a direct hand in 42% of our goals.  That's not taking into account other goals that he's had a hand in, such as the goal of the season against Dundee Utd at Tannadice.  I haven't gone through and confirmed it but he's probably had a hand in half our goals.

1 hour ago, DoofersDad said:

The problem with all this political correctness is that people can no longer speak their mind without being vilified.  Obviously some views will be unacceptable in any civilised society but we have reached a point where you are vilified for holding views which were the norm not so many years ago. A classic example is homosexuality which not so long ago was both illegal and generally seen as wrong.  These days, having a gay friend seems to be a must have fashion accessory to demonstrate what an inclusive individual you are.  But If you say that you think homosexuality is wrong, these very same people turn on you for having unacceptable discriminatory views, thereby demonstrating how intolerant they are.  Live and let live, I say.

I was thinking about the intolerance of those who claim to champion the rights of minority groups when I listened to the reporting of the death of Eric Bristow at the early age of 60.  The "Crafty Cockney" was a legend of darts and had a reputation for speaking his mind.  His friends may not all have shared his views but there was a mutual recognition that others have a perfect right to express their different views and they didn't let their differences get in the way of their friendship.   However, when they were interviewed with their tributes, one after another seemed to distance themselves from some of Bristow's views as though they would be seen by the PC Brownshirts to be guilty by association unless they did.  It was really quite illuminating.

I may not agree with much of what Bristow said but I certainly accept the right of people to express their views   I remarked to someone over the weekend that it was rather fitting that Bristow should have bowed out on a treble 20.  I was told that was a very tasteless and disrespectful remark by this rather PC person.  B***ocks.  I think the Crafty Cockney might have had a wee chuckle at the thought.

Oh!  And as a final thought, what about the idiots in Kent who want to cut down a fine old sweet chestnut tree at a school because they are worried that falling chestnuts may injure the children.  FFS!

Me, reading Charles Bannerman's posts

It's easy to say that we should've signed up our best players on longer term contracts but it isn't as simple as that.  You are assuming that the players would want a contact of that length in the first place - in a lot of cases players prefer two year deals as it gives them a lot more leverage and opportunity.  It also doesn't tie the club into deals that could end up costing a lot for a poor player.  Look what happened when we gave a manager a long contract, it ended up costing the club.  

Danny MacDonald was at the game on Saturday, wearing official club suit and in the directors box area. If he’s moved over to the football side then that’s a good move,  IMO. He’s got background that and did well that area previously.

when I was queuing for pies at half time I saw two fights break out. Firstly some guys were trying to sing Celtic songs while standing waiting and another fan shouted at them. They exchang d words and both parties waited for security to arrive before giving it the old “mon then eh” display, safely behind stewards so nothing could actually happen. There was then a punch up further back in the queue but I didn’t see what that was about. 

It was hilarious to be honest, fail to see why a statement has to be released about it. I was disappointed because I thought we were going to get an update on the investigation into the Twitter account liking porn or when we are going to see the Duncan Shearer Memorial Under 11s Tournament,

Get him on a forty year, Jim McLean style contract

Cup finals are games for winning. You have to win, that’s it. We won, thrillingly so.

The performance was typical of this season in its limitations and positives. It says a lot that a 16 year old got into better positions, created more chances and threatened their goal more than than our three starying forwards did the entire match. 

Be interesting to see how we play Mckay for the rest of the season. I don’t think we can start him but he should be among the first ports of call from the bench. The management will have to take a call on how well he can cope with first team football physically - guys like Harry Cochrane are playing every week at his age.

overall though, it was a great day, good to get some good feeling back in the club after some diabolical seasons.

The stuff about Harper being deliberately subbed off is typical of our club.  We are an utter shambles, on and off the park.  

Someone said that if we go down the club will disintegrate, it's already disintegrating.  The guys in charge have no idea what they are doing - Muirfield Mills are a group of ex-pats who wanted to stick some money into local sport and now they are running the club - they don't know what they are doing.  I've been told a few things about the shambolic organisation of the club and it all rings true.  We have a load of utter amateurs trying to administer the club, from the teamsheets, to the commercial side, to the finances, to player recruitment, to the pitch.

A few years back someone told me that a former board member said about Terry Butcher "we've created a monster!" because he basically ran the club, ran the playing side, ran the scouting, did a huge amount of media.  Since he left things have slipped - the success of the Hughes era (with Butchers players) hid it for a couple of years but once that fell away there was no disguising it.  Robbo is a positive guy but he's not managed to take us from a good position a couple of months ago to anywhere near where we need to be. 

If we stay up, which I think is doubtful, we need to try, somehow, to get an investor in who can back us for two seasons to clear out the playing squad, employ a manager who can recruit players of value and develop those we need to keep and give the club some organisation.  Sadly, it's doubtful we'll get any of that.

the way things are going our Highland derby next season will be with Peterhead.

Confirmed as McDairmid Park, Saturday 24th March, 4:15pm kick off.

Hilariously abysmal second half performance.

Good to see more #contribution from Polworth, two assists.

37 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Not quite. Football generally pays its players above, sometimes well above, their market value - hence creating, among other things, the need to bankroll that through TV deals with arrangements like 5:15 Sunday kick-offs. 

If players are being paid “generally” at a certain level, that is their market value. TV deals with different kick off arrangements aren’t evidence that players are paid above their market value. TV deals are one component of what gives footballers their market value.

This is the least attended competition in Scottish football, it’s an age since we qualified for the semis, it’s live on television, kick off is at a terrible time, there’s going to be a tiny away support. It’s going to be a shocking crowd, no point in going all pearl clutchy about it.

I doubt that we train three hours a week but at the same time there is a big danger in over-training.  I was reading an article about the new Leeds manager, Paul Heckingbottom.  As part of his team he has performance analysts who try to tailor training sessions to the players levels - you can't play for 40+ games at your best level if you just train the same all the time and don't manage your recovery.  Barnsley, where Heckingbottom had success, came from miles behind to get promoted from League One a few years back with a late season push.

Here's the article actually - http://www.trainingground.guru/articles/why-nathan-winder-will-be-key-at-leeds-united

17 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

Receiving compensation when a manager goes to another club is totally different from when a manager is fired because  he is not getting results.  I guess  adequate performance as a football manager is an extremely subjective thing.  If we had clauses as Kingsmills suggests then we would be having every manager who is sacked going through the courts to claim compensation for unfair dismissal etc.  It could cost the clubs more than just paying off their contract.  Foran's 4 year contract was just plain stupid  though.

The reason we received compensation is because we had managers under contract.  If we had contracts that specified we could pay them off with three months wages then we'd have had to release them for that, or less probably.

2 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Only in the world of football does this bizarre practice of rewarding failure exist. Managerial contracts should provide for a maximum of three month's salary paid on termination.

If the manager is at all competent he should find alternative employment within that time.

It isn't really rewarding failure - if you agree a contract with someone then you should honour it.  We've made hundreds of thousands of pounds in the last 15 years from compensation paid to release our managers from their contracts.

So we haven't played any games, held any press conferences, signed any players or basically done anything for two weeks?  What do people expect the Courier to write?

10 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

 Using your argument in another context, you might argue that the film review section  should use more space reviewing some foreign "art" movie with a single showing at Eden Court and which just happens to have won a prize at the Cannes film festival, than the latest Bond movie with multiple screen showings at Vue.  

 

That sounds fair enough to me - a Bond film would have coverage across the media but a single showing of a prize winning film at Eden Court is a specific local event.

When someone buys a copy of Charles' book something like this happens

We need to wait for the result of the Irish League Cup final.

Just now, RiG said:

Against teams who had largely downed tools and were playing reserves.

Though I agree with the general point that RC might well find themselves safe. McGregor has yet again splashed the cash #Fairytale

Yeah, that was the point - the final two games were certainly gimmes against sides who couldn't be bothered.

County are in a bad position but I wouldn't be surprised to see them stay up.  They have 13 games left and 10 of those will be against teams in the bottom six.  They are on a terrible run (12 without a win) but have played top six teams in seven of those games.  

The teams they are really likely to be up against in the relegation fight are Dundee, Hamilton Accies and Partick Thistle.  I'd say that Accies and Dundee have been significantly weakened in the transfer window - Accies have lost Michael Devlin, Greg Doherty and Darian Mackinnon, Dundee are down Jack Hendry and Scott Allan.  County have done their usual and signed a lot of players - if at least a couple of those work out they could be boosted and it's hard to argue they've been weakened.

I think the split does help teams who are marooned at the bottom - you get a chance to cut your rivals throats and peg them back and you also get games against teams that have basically chucked it for the season.  Consider how awful we were last season yet we managed to win three of our last four games.