ALSY

Kencar mentioned on the 'red card' thread that Tokely is suspended for two games in addition to Munro being out. If this is the case, then presumably Proctor will go into central defence with Duff moving to right back and (hopefully) Duncan coming back into midfield. Once the defence is restored to full strength, I'd happily live the rest of my life without seeing Proctor play at right back again - I'd rather see him in deep midfield with Duff staying at right back - but I don't think TB sees it that way. For United, assuming Tokely is out, I'd go: Esson Duff Proctor Innes Shinnie Ross Duncan Hayes Sanchez Foran Rooney with TB prepared to throw Doran and McDonald in early if it's not working.

P&B is a good thing. It may be St Mirren-centric and 75% of the threads may descend into point-scoring, but it's still far and away the closest thing we've got to a barometer of what Scottish football supporters really think about the current state of the game. If you can train yourself to ignore the innumerable trolls and the (sometimes genuinely frightening) obsessive pedants and tin-foil-hat-wearers, it produces some really good threads - the 'SFL 1 in MS Paint' thread last season was approaching genius. I've got an account but I don't post much - we have excellent representation on the site from ICTChris and RiG, and in Sandy Cromarty and Sophia a pair of selfless rabble-rousers who draw so much hatred that the rest of us get away pretty much unscathed.

Maybe the story from those who were at the game will be different, but from the radio commentary it actually sounded like we played some decent football at times tonight and created several good chances without managing to convert them. That's better than the dog days of the Brewster reign, when we were creating next to nothing (anyone remember that horrible home 0-3 against Aberdeen in December '08?). All the same, the run is worrying: Richard Gordon was just saying that we've now equalled Hamilton in going on the longest run without a win in the SPL this season. You've got to wonder how much the slump is starting to prey on the players' minds.

Oh God. Heaviest defeat of the season on the cards here.

Proctor on for, I assume, Sanchez (missed what the commentators said). What on earth has Duncan done to **** Butcher off so much? B*gger. Rooney puts a great chance over the bar after making space for himself.

Yeah, I've been listening to that. Slightly strange logic from Allan Preston - when Chick Young said that he reckoned Rooney would be a worthwhile signing for Rangers (not sure I agree, tbh), Preston suggested that he wouldn't be because he is a 'lone striker' and Rangers don't play that way. Maybe this betrays my ignorance of the game, but I've never thought of Rooney as somehow generically a lone striker; rather, I've always felt Rooney has been asked to play this way because of the system TB favours and because of our squad limitations. Is there any reason why Rooney couldn't play in a partnership?

If TB sees him as a player that is ready to go into the first team - and if he is a genuine winger - it will be interesting to see how this might affect the starting eleven. Might he consider moving Foran back into a striking role alongside Rooney and playing two of Duncan/Cox/Duff in the centre, with one slightly ahead of the other and Doran and Hayes on either side? Could lead to a more of the end product that has been lacking recently, as discussed on other threads.

Malpas at centre half? MALPAS AT CENTRE HALF?! This is just so typical of the sort of armchair boo boys that come on here and try to tell the manager how to pick a team and pick holes when he's just doing an honest job, and then they go and make fundamental errors like this. It sickens me. It really does.

Baws.

Robbo not really bothering to hide his leanings on the radio there. Great to see Sanchez on the scoresheet.

Glad to see TB giving Odhiambo and Sanchez another chance - Odi was excellent on Tuesday and Sanchez had a decent first half. Let's hope they take the opportunuity to try to cement their places in the first team - if they can give Rangers problems, surely they can give Hamilton problems.

One of the Rangers supporters at my work (easy to spot - there are only 3 out of 1700 people)has just claimed that Rangers are interested. I suspect my chain may be being pulled...

We can take quite a lot of encouragement from that performance. It was maybe a good time to get a little experimental with the line-up - a game where a defeat wouldn't be considered a failure - and I thought it improved the team. Odihambo had a fine game on the right wing, running at and beating his opponents regularly and also working back well. His choice of final ball wasn't always great, but he's worth persevering with there for as long as Hayes is out. Sanchez also offered a bit of composure on the ball - he's not afraid to take people on either, and looked willing to shield the ball and try to make time for effective passes. If he tracked back a little more and was willing to put his head in where it hurts sometimes, he could be really effective playing behind a main striker. There was certainly a lot more creativity going forward today than on Saturday, and Nick Ross looked very solid playing in a deeper role alongide Duff. The defence also played well: Tokely had Weiss in his pocket for most of the game and Innes and Munro look very composed playing together. No glaring weaknesses for us tonight, although the final ball could have been better, but Duff needs to look up and choose his passes a bit better, and Foran wasn't as influential as he's capable of being. We were speculating about whether he's still carrying an injury: despite the header that was touched onto the bar, he's certainly not winning as much of the ball in the air as he did last season, although admittedly tonight he was often competing against a very good header of the ball in Andy Webster. Rangers created few real chances and got the goal at a very lucky time after we'd matched them throughout the first half. It was good finish from Davis, but it looked like we had lost concentration for a minute after surviving the previous attack, because no-one got out to close him down. Apparently Rooney was fouled in the build-up, but I don't remember the incident. Rangers definitely had more of the ball for most of the second half, but in the last ten minutes Caley Thistle were on top and there was obvious anxiety around Ibrox that we would get the equaliser and a geniuine sense of relief when the final whistle sounded. A decent performance and a dsiappointing result then, and although Hamilton will set themselves out differently against us, I hope Terry Butcher will give Odhiambo and Sanchez another chance on Saturday. Away to listen to this much-trailed interview and then to bed.

Ah go on. F*** principles. I'll certainly be in Brechin's beforehand and hopefully in the ground, assuming the saga of the ticket has a happy ending. Unfortunately it's not as easy to sneak over the fence at Ibrox as it was at Kingsmills.

It would certainly save me a lot of hassle. Due to a story that is too long and complicated to begin recounting, my ticket for Tuesday is currently residing in a tin of Victoria biscuits somewhere in the bowels of Fir Park... I blame Rangers for everything.

My word, that was a boring game. Pretty solid defensively, but we had very little imagination going forward: the punt is back big style, unfortunately. Nick Ross was our best player by some distance: the only one prepared to take the ball and run with it, and he tracked back really well too. A lack of service was the big problem for Rooney today, not a lack of commitment. Given how dispiriting playing that lone striker role must have been for the past few weeks, I was impressed with his work rate. Sanchez didn't make much of a difference when he came on, tbh, but I'd still like to see him start against Rangers because he is capable of finding that defence-splitting pass. Yesterday's was a decent result, but the team badly needs a spark.

Cheers for the heads up on this. Laura in the ticket office is usually pretty good good at getting the tickets out pronto. Guess this will be all-ticket rather than pay at the portakabin or whatever? Not a great date in terms of us bringing many supporters, nor if Hayes is still injured.

All bets are off then. Any player in his right mind would walk over hot coals to play for Steven Pressley...

Seems like years since he was with us, but I'm pretty sure he didn't sign until the summer just before our first SPL season - seem to remember him coming in at the same time as Ian Black. I thought he was decent too, if a little lightweight. I remember him coming off the bench to score an equaliser in a 2-2 draw against Killie at Rugby Park, and I've got a feeling he might have done the same thing against the same team in Inverness. Parratt's a player that intrigues me: I don't recall ever seeing him play for us, yet he went to Hamilton and was a regular in the team that got promoted, then I believe got injured right at the start of their first SPL season and never made it back into their team. Don't know what happened to him, but he can't have been too bad a player. Fetai came to us on loan from Rangers in January 05. Made 9 starts and never scored. My post was about Liam Fox rather than Fetai, Alex.

Seems like years since he was with us, but I'm pretty sure he didn't sign until the summer just before our first SPL season - seem to remember him coming in at the same time as Ian Black. I thought he was decent too, if a little lightweight. I remember him coming off the bench to score an equaliser in a 2-2 draw against Killie at Rugby Park, and I've got a feeling he might have done the same thing against the same team in Inverness. Parratt's a player that intrigues me: I don't recall ever seeing him play for us, yet he went to Hamilton and was a regular in the team that got promoted, then I believe got injured right at the start of their first SPL season and never made it back into their team. Don't know what happened to him, but he can't have been too bad a player.

I'll be there. You going direct from Edinburgh, or via Glasgow, Top Six?

2-0 Rooney - Sanchez involved again.

Can we now, please, see Sanchez getting more game time? I know it's only Elgin, but that is the second time this season he has come on and made the decisive difference.

Tremendous work, you great overgrown ned. I'll have the scarf round the wrist in tribute tomorrow - and Shang-a-lang on the stereo... One issue. The Jaggies did not 'sneak it' in 86-87 - we feckin romped it.

The home support gets a lot of stick for being quiet, but I don't think anyone could accuse it of disloyalty - in terms of numbers it held up far better last season than the supports of some relegated clubs have done (Livingston being a case in point). It's basically a case of location for most - I make a point of going to every away game now that I no longer work on Saturdays, unless it's Aberdeen midweek, but only make 4-5 home games per season. Many of the guys I travel with are in the same sort of situation. The guys I probably admire the most are those I see at nearly every away game, who I know travel from Inverness and also attend the home games - a lot of them are from the younger end of our support too, which is really encouraging for the future - and there are also the likes of Top Six Next Year, who make all the away games and also keep a season tcket and travel north frequently. For a lot of people, though, it just isn't possible, financially or timewise or workwise, to make every game home and away: degrees of loyalty don't come into it.