Kingsmills

Sounds like David Raven is doing what David Raven does best.

We are not good enough or confident enough to try to defend the lead. We need to keep doing what we have been doing.

Nick Ross will certainly be up for it. Maybe Vincent and Williams too.

Strictly speaking, if we win both of our remaining games, we can afford for Hamilton to pick up a point against Dundee. However, as has been said, it's us winning two games in a row that seems most unlikely.

Damn County...how dare they prolong the agony of our illusory hope !

A fabulous memory and shows what can be achieved by a highly motivated, moderately paid squad of players who are well managed. Get the team well managed again, both on and off the pitch, then we can look forward to another promotion party at the TCS in the future.

It's not our average home gates that support the Premier League wage but the additional income from TV and league sponsors as a result of being in that top division as well as regular windfalls from our numerous cup runs. Now that additional income from being in the top league has been lost and any cup run seems a distant prospect, our resources probably only realistically support part time football in the long term. We will probably survive full time in the Championship for two seasons with help from the parachute payments which will end thereafter. That is why we can't afford to let things drift any longer. The may we have being playing and managed is not good enough to be competing to be promoted straight back up. In fact, if things are allowed to drift and go on as they have been this season, we are more likely to face a successive relegation rather than a promotion just as St Mirren very nearly did this season until their board took decisive action and changed their manager. Our board took no action this season to try to preserve the Premiership status so vital to our ongoing financial health other than bringing in a coach, who appears to have achieved very little, far too late in the day. The chance to save our place in the Premiership has been lost due to inaction. If we are to have any chance of regaining it any time soon, that action needs now to be taken and well before the start of next season in what is likely to be a very competitive Championship.

No but he will know that, whatever divisions the respective clubs are in, he will be being paid more and playing in front of larger home crowds at Tannadice. A harsh financial fact.

Agreed, reflects our history and is so much better than the days when our strips could be easily mistaken for those of The Rangers. Let's stick with the stripes from now on. The more I look at the new away strip, the more I like it.

I would happily settle for pink with yellow polka dots if we were wearing it in the Premiership next season.

So very true and I am sure that the football authorities would prefer to have other sponsors but our game has been so poorly and incompetently administered and marketed for years and years that companies are hardly falling over themselves in their rush to have their corporate identities attached to and associated with it. Accordingly, when the bookies offer their tarnished cash it is greedily grabbed with both hands.

Can live with those, although I would have preferred black trim on the home strip. Pleased that we have got rid of the naff 'Pride Of The Highlands' logo on the club crest, especially as there is not a great deal to be proud of right now.

I can only partly agree. Gambling can be an addiction and those afflicted deserve sympathy and support. However, nobody is addicted to wagering on their own team to lose. That is letting down your employers, your colleagues and the fans for no other motive than personal greed which is unacceptable and unforgivable.

Something will have to give at the Lanarkshire derby next week but that is only significant if we can manage to beat Killie. To have any chance Ross Draper must start.

I resigned myself to relegation some weeks ago. It's this lingering hope that's getting to me !

Happy Relegation Day to one and all. See you all in the Championship....sorry Richie, that doesn't include you.

Be careful what you wish for

That won't be far off. A frighteningly tough league with half a dozen sides with resources similar or greater than our own. Personally, I think if we are going to have any realistic prospect of escaping at the first time of asking we are going to have to have a competent manager with experience of that division. Maybe someone in the Gus MacPherson mould.

I agree. It seems, sadly for him and even more sadly for the club, Foran, despite his best efforts, is turning out to be a very poor manager and it is probably better for there to be a parting of the ways. However, as OCG says, that is no reason to suggest that he was 'stealing wages' from the club when he was out injured through no fault of his own and desperate to play. There are more than enough issues surrounding the club to be concerned about right now without inventing new and spurious ones.

I would attach far more weight and credence to what the likes of Charlie and Barry Wilson say than what is posted these days on the increasingly deluded and out of touch official Twitter account.

GTF is too harsh for someone who contributed so much as a player. However, I do agree that no matter how good and committed he was as a player for us, he has proved to be a hopeless and clueless manager with no sign of improving. On the contrary, he is getting worse and worse and has to go or be made to go and go now.

Just out of curiosity, is there anybody left who still believes that Foran should stay and be managing us in the Championship next season ?

I owe a lot of fellow posters a profound apology. You argued that there should be change in January to save our season and our Premiership status, I argued that Foran had potential and should be given time to put things right. I am so very sorry, you were all right and I was entirely wrong. Foran is getting worse as the season goes on rather than better, It's quite clear now that he can't coach, he is no tactician and he can't inspire and that he is never going to be capable of doing these things. His attempt this evening to heap blame on the players rather than take any responsibility himself was contemptible. The players are good enough for mid table. The manager has proved that he is not good enough for the Highland League. The fight for Premiership survival is lost. Nevertheless, we can't drift for the rest of the season. Foran needs to be gone by Monday either of his own volition or at the hands of the increasingly discredited board. This season is lost and was a complete shambles. We need now to get someone who can manage in to start preparing for life in the Championship to give us any chance at all of recovery.

The sad fact is that this season County have emerged from our shadows blinking into the sunlight. This evening not only represents an opportunity to boost our prospects of Premiership survival but the chance to start to put them back in their place. As things stand, The Highlands are theirs. We need to restore the natural and proper order.

When someone who is devoted to the club and, without doubt, has it's interests at heart, goes public with such comments it is concerning indeed. Something is seriously wrong behind the scenes. There is no point in burying hands in sand. Until that problem, whatever it may be, is acknowledged and addressed it's unlikely that our free fall from the giddy heights of just two years ago will end any time soon. Get it sorted and do it now for everyone's sake.