Kingsmills

I could just about see the justification for disrupting the football schedule for the funeral of the monarch herself but for a consort surely today's silence followed by a similar show of respect on the day of the funeral would suffice. The death of a very elderly man is extremely sad for his family and those who knew and loved him but we have not postponed football matches for the sake of the 140 000 or so who have died in the past year or so either directly or indirectly from Covid and I am unconvinced that it is appropriate or necessary to do so next Saturday either.

Absolutely. Unbeaten run extended and no ground lost to our promotion rivals. Definitely a glass half full scenario.

HT; QOS 0, ICT 1 FT QOS 1 ICT 3 ICT; Todorov QOS; Shields

I have no wish to diminish the efforts John Robertson has gone to to benefit our club over the last four years but it seems apparent now that the interim management team are getting something out of the players that he was failing to.

..and mine. Another confident performance. Shane giving up his day job and reverting to full time football was a gamble for him and for us but one that is increasingly paying off. In his current form he is unlucky not to start but a wonderful asset to bring on from the bench. It's increasingly apparent that the fact that the start of our timely run of form coincided with bringing in Billy Dodds is no coincidence at all. Pity Dundee got all three points but, if we continue to play like this we won't have to worry about what other teams are doing.

This season.

HT; Morton 0 ICT 1 FT; Morton 1 ICT 2 ICT; Storey Morton; Oliver.

It was great to beat our rivals in the cup on Friday but this game is far more important. Vital that we get 3 points this evening to maintain our momentum towards a promotion play off place. Much much more important than a cup run as welcome as that is. We will probably survive another season in the Championship but would almost certainly be further diminished by it. For as long as a return to the Premiership is a possibility we need to be firmly focused on it and the players need to be every bit as committed this evening as they clearly were on Friday.

Away in every round of the competition but with the 4th and 5th round draws now complete, whilst we are in no position to be complacent there is a realistic route to the semi finals. Even without the income from gate money, the TV and sponsorship money from that would be a very welcome boost indeed in these troubled financial times as would the boost to morale and confidence which might well translate into the continuing improvement of our league form. This season is now shaping up to have some real potential with some wind billowing in our sails after spending the first three quarters of it very much in the doldrums.

Happy enough a tie that we are perfectly capable of winning if we play as well as we did on Friday even if St Mirren's defending isn't as atrocious as County's was.

It's amazing how, over the years when we are a lower division club playing a top division team away in the cup we come away with a 1-3 victory. That said, if County continue to defend like that they won't be a top division club for too much longer and, if we continue to play like that, we might not be a lower division club for too much longer either.

He'll be decidedly less happy when he leads the Tories into third place.

I have to profoundly disagree. It's not a slight pity, it's a great pity

Well deserved but credit to all. What a team performance. Never been a fan of Billy Dodds. Rapidly revising that opinion.

I actually think the team can afford to relax a bit for this game which may take some pressure off and help the performance. The neutrals will be expecting a reasonably comfortable home victory so the pressure will all be on them. Would love to be in Dingwall but at home with the BBC Scotland Channel and a couple of beers will be fine for now.

And, as for AS, he's not the Messiah. He's just a naughty boy !

I am a complete stranger to Facebook Twitter and any other social media unless Caleythistleonline counts as such.

Whilst I disagree with much, although far from all, that you say, I have never done so in a disrespectful manner. However, I would be interested to learn what on earth leads you to believe that a comment so clearly directed at the disgraceful and recent social media postings of Alex Arthur can, in any way, be taken as an attack on you or indeed anyone other than the former World boxing champion ?

We need to work to make the parliament more diverse and more reflective of society. So credit to the Alex Party, the semi literate, racist, vaccine sceptical, former bover section of society had hitherto had a very limited presence at Holyrood.

I think that, for this election at least, Labour will be more of a threat to the Tories than the SNP. The fault line in Scottish politics is the constitution and support for independence is circa 50% and, unless something dramatic happens over the next 5 weeks, the SNP are likely to get close to that figure in the constituency vote and will thus Hoover up all but half a dozen or so of the seats available in that manner. Whether enough for an outright majority remains a moot point. That leaves the remaining constituency seats and Pretty well all of the list seats to fight over. In 2016, under the astute leadership of Ruth Davidson, the Tories convinced more of the Unionist voters that they were the more effective barrier to another independence referendum than Labour who were then somewhat ambivalent on the issue. Anas Sarwar has made it abundantly clear that Labour are firmly opposed to a plebiscite on the constitution which, while it makes it very unlikely that his party will attract back many ,if any,of the droves of voters who have abandoned Labour for the SNP in recent elections they might be seen as the safer pair of hands in holding the SNP to account and trying to at least delay a vote on independence among those 50% or so of voters for whom preserving the Union is important. Especially so with the new Tory leader proving so immature and inept. As for the Lib Dems, they are at serious risk of becoming almost irrelevant both at Westminster and Holyrood. Even with the much fairer voting system we have here for Scottish elections they could very well end up the 6th largest party behind the SNP, Labour, The Tories, The Greens and the Alex Party and probably in that order. A sad and deeply worrying state of affairs for a party who were in government, albeit in coalition, at Holyrood in the early days of the parliament and similarly at Westminster even more recently than that. I am one of those sad geeks who sits up in front of the television until the small hours on election night until all of the results are in and digested. I will miss that element this time around when we will all likely have to wait until the Sunday to see how things have panned out. Finally, whatever our political leanings, I think we should all take a moment to reflect on the thousands of individuals who have worked and will continue to work both at national and local level to ensure that democracy continues and we can have a safe and fair election at this difficult time and, whatever we think of our mainstream parties and politicians we can be confident that, ince the dust has settled and the votes have been counted all will accept the result and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of these people rather than making dangerous and outrageous claims, based on no reality whatsoever that the election had been 'stolen' from them and for that we should all be thankful.

Just watched the first leaders debate. I thought that Willie Rennie, Anas Sarwar, Lorna Slater and Nicola Sturgeon were all impressive with the Labour leader perhaps edging it. However, dear oh dear, just how appalling and unpleasant is Douglas Ross. If that is going to be the tone and calibre of his contribution throughout the campaign the Scottish Tories are at serious risk of trailing in a very distant third and deservedly so.

HT; Ross County 1, ICT 1 FT; Ross County 2, ICT 2 ICT; D. McKay Ross County; Shaw Corners; 14 Fouls; 33

An inspirational signing. It shows ambition and demonstrates that it's not just the fans who still harbour hope of promotion. Well done to those who made it happen. If we can get both him and Doran fit between now and the end of the season our attacking and creative options will be greatly enhanced.

If we reach there, that's definitely where I'd take a succession of 1-0 wins or even 1-0 wins punctuated with 0-0 draws.

Leaving aside the matter of personalities, both, whatever you perceive their faults to be, are very shrewd politicians, probably the shrewdest in the country. It will not have escaped the attention of either that two recent polls still give NS very high net approval ratings among the public whereas AS, by contrast, at the time of polling at least earlier in the month, had a strongly negative rating actually worse than either Douglas Ross or Boris Johnson which is quite an achievement in Scotland. AS is far from daft, he will know from that that while, it might play well with s small minority of independence supporters and the majority of Unionists supportes to direct his fire at the, still popular current First Minister, that would prove toxic with the great majority of independence supporters which is the group that the Alex Party is trying to attract. AS is also well aware that an independence majority is entirely dependent on the SNP winning the very great bulk of the constituency seats and that doing or saying anything to undermine that is also undermining his own argument. The SNP, on the other hand, probably see electoral merit in focussing on the personality and motives of an individual who is very clearly revered by some but disliked and distrusted by very many more. Whatever the political leanings of the parties concerned, political life becomes very fractious during elections campaigns and the internecine battles are always the most cynically and brutally fought. Just as an aside, I wonder why Angus Macneil is taking so long to announce that he will be joining the Alex Party ?