Kingsmills

When condidering individuals who have made a signnifigant contribion to the club we shouldn't forget that the person who made the largest personal investment in the club was In Fraser who ultimately suffered the biggest personal loss. Mr Fraser was seen, perhaps with justification, as being unreasonably obstructive at the time of the restructuring but his initial capital input did much to help get the cluboff the ground.

Uncle

I'm surprised that he hasn't taken the chance to get some first team football under his belt.

Lucre

Good performance, great result. Always happy to support any Scottish side in Europe.

I also think that Robbo might be a good outside bet.

The then PLC under the chairmanship of Doug McGillvray, although doubtless well intentioned, had undoubtedly dug itself into a very deep financial hole. Total liabilities were hurtling towards three million pounds and were increasing at the rate of over £300,000 a year and that at a time when total turnover was less than a million. That is a critical state of affairs for any company. Frankly, although doing their best, that regime was unsustainable and the existing board members had no clear idea of how to progress whilst servicing the debt far less making any inroads into it. Our high profile triumph at Parkhead was perhaps more signifigant than many supporters realise. In my opinion if it had not been for the windfall of being drawn away at Parkhead and the subsequent income from to two SKY matches against Aberdeen I doubt very much if the company would have survived that financial year. So perhaps we have the hapless John Barnes to thank for our current status almost as much as David Sutherland. E ven with those huge bonuses the company contrived to lose money that year and by the time David Sutherland came along our creditors, particularly the bank, were becoming distinctly twitchy. I agree with other posters that if it hadn't been for the bank's confidence in his business acumen and, I suspect, personal guarantees of the debt, they would have pulled the plug before much longer. Tht might not have meant the complete demise of the club but would have spelt the end of full tme football and any SPL ambitions perhaps permenantly. Many people, both on anf off the pitch, have contributed to our current success but probably none more so than Mr Sutherland.

Even if his last boking was harsh most of the prevous ones were justified and many completely unnecessary. Time that this otherwise talented young man began to mature.

French

the other

Frilly

McSwegan seems to be on a bit of a scoring run with the reserves but I suppose that Wyness is ahead of him in the pecking order for a place on the bench.

As Scotty has said, what I said was that they were reasonable claims for penalties of the sort that are sometimes awarded and sometimes not. Just because there is reasonable claim doesn't necessarily mean that the penalty itself is legtimate. What is clear is that a number of Scottish referees would award penalties to the Old Fir in these circumstances particularly at home while they would be much less likely to award a penaty to the opposition unless it was an absolute stonewaller. So I reiterate, credit to Mr Brines for having the courage to ignore his surroundings and making a fair balanced judgement.

Is it not just the St Mirren game that he misses ?

Mona

Having watched the somewhat abbreviated highlights of the match on Scotsport, I must, for a change, pay some respects to referee Ian Brines. It seemed to me that Rangers had two legitimate shouts for penalties and whereas either would have fallen into the very soft catagory I've little doubt that manyi n theScottish refereeing fraternity would have awarded one or even both of them especially in the circumstance of Rangers being one down at Ibrox with time running out. It's clear that many referees do favour the old firm especially at home whether deliberately or not. So, great credit for Mr. Brines for being fair and impartial on this occasion.

The Scotland result because it was much more of a surprise. Frankly, Iwas astonished that Scotland overcame France but only mildly surprised that we beat a mediocre Rangers outfit at Ibrox.

No great surprise there.

Strangulation

Despite their current mediocrity, it would be very pleasing indeed to be above the once mighty Glasgow Rangers this far into the season.

oh my !

:003: :003:

Paul Sturrock's best friend.

I doubt it very much. There wasn't even a signifigant increase in our first home match after that historic victory at Parkhead.

Sixth place would represent great success. A nice run in the Scottsh Cup would put icing on the cake.