DoofersDad

I think that there is an inevitability about this. As Caley D and others have outlined there are so many advantages that when the technology improves a bit more to iron out some of the remaining issues, this may well become a requirement for top level teams. At the moment there probably are issues around the height of bounce and the speed at which the ball comes of the surface but I don't think these should be seen as major obstacles. Given the propensity for grass football pitches to cut up, the more consistent surface of an artificial pitch should support greater skill. It is just a question of the players getting used to the feel of the surface - not difficult given the fact that the bounce and roll of the ball on a grass pitch varies from match to match depending on the firmness of the pitch, the length of the grass and how wet the grass is. Indeed, currently these things often vary in different areas of the same pitch as a result of drainage and shade issues. A further advantage of an artificial pitch is that it opens the way for indoor pitches which would make the prospect of watching an evening game in January rather more appealing than now. Whilst a roof over the TCS is not a realistic proposition, the ability to use artificial surfaces for a huge range of sports and the fact that they can be easily covered to accommodate concerts etc, means that new build stadia could increasingly be used in a very much wider social context. These other activities would provide the income stream necessary to pay for such good quality multiactivity complexes. In my view there will come a time before too long that the idea of playing a top level football match on a grass surface will be as unthinkable as holding a major athletics meet on a cinder track. The question must be one of when rather than if we get an artificial surface.

Am I the only one here who, far from wanting their bubble to burst, would like Aberdeen to win all but two games between now and the end of the season and, at last, break the tedious and damaging Glasgow stranglehold on the league title ? Far from wanting our bubble to burst, if Aberdeen were to win all but two games and we were to win all of ours, we'd win the title and they would be 2nd. Celtic would be 3rd at best. We can always dream, but certainly I would far rather Aberdeen won the title than Celtic.

Those are a couple of really top quality goals from Billy. It looks as though he has regained his striker's confidence and that bodes well for the future. I loved the determination he showed in winning the ball for the second and the composed and measured finish after his great run. Good supporting work from Nick too.

That's three times recently we have come back from a goal behind to win games (Hamilton, Dundee and now Kilmarnock). That is something we rarely managed to do in the past. Incidentally, in all three games it is Billy who has scored the equaliser. Whilst it clearly shows great spirit in the team to win games we've been trailing in, it rather disguises the fact that we have gone behind in 7 or our last league 10 games. In those games we have scored 15 goals with 3 in the first half and 12 in the second. Our opponents have scored 13 with 6 in the first half and 7 in the second. We seem to be very much a second half team at the moment. Anyhow, rather than analyse that intriguing statistic I'll just add my congratulations to the boys for a great comeback in difficult circumstances. After the penalty it became one of those games where you are happy to come away with a draw, but to get a win is just fantastic. It is this sort of result ground out during the year that makes such a big difference to the position at the end of the season.

Oh no! We're not heading for another marathon pun session are we?

Maybe. But in an interview reported in the Highland News today Hughes was praising Tansey's leadership qualities.

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 ICT Mckay Opp Magennis Time 8 mins

Texan bars - tell me about them! I once went for a drink in texas and got into a fight. When I came to I looked up and saw that during the struggle one of my teeth had come out and was wedged in the bar.

If that's true it is shocking. Maybe his agent hasn't passed it on

Some pictures of Fry's chocholate. The plain sandwich was a favourite of mine - spending time separating the layers made the pocket money last longer. Tiffin was good too. Some of these were well before my time and I can understand why the grapefruit cream has not stood the test of time although the basic Fry's Chocolate Cream is a classic which I still love today.

Maybe Marley should get rid of his agent and listen to Greg Tansey instead. Agents tend to get significant percentages from the deals they broker and therefore often act in their own interest rather than the interests of the player. I'm never clear why professional footballers see the need to have them. There must be a better way of arranging movement of players between clubs.

Technically Rangers have never been relegated either - they went out of business before a new club with a very similar name appeared in the lower reaches of the SFL.

Living OTB I know a few folk who watch county regularly. The general view seems to be that they have been playing some pretty decent football for the most part but have given away too many poor goals whilst not taking chances up front. In general they have not been worried by their lowly position, although if they're not worried now they should be. I am a bit surprised that McIntyre hasn't appeared to have made much of an impact yet. They might have expected him to bring an improvement which would have minimised the need for bringing in new players. It will be very interesting to see if they invest heavily during the transfer window because I'm not convinced that Uncle Roy will be prepared to invest as much as he has previously. They clearly need to find a goal scorer and I would doubt that someone who hardly ever scored for lowly Nuneaton is going to score too many in the SPFL. At one time I thought Arquin might be good for them but he has never lived up to his potential and now has left the club quietly after failing to bother himself for 33 minutes of the match last Thursday. If County go down I fear they will find it difficult to get back up. Derby games with County will become as rare as those between Celtic and The Rangers.

Good question. Before the Union, the Bank of England were bankers to the English Government and continued to act as bankers to the Government after the union. At that point (and up to the point it was nationalised in 1946) it was privately owned by stockholders and presumably it was entirely a matter for the Board of the bank whether they kept the original name or changed it to reflect the changed political circumstances. Changing the name on the nationalisation of the bank was presumably an option but I guess that the name was so entrenched and the role as the UK's central bank so well recognised that there was simply little point changing. I imagine also that the Bank of England is named in such a massive amount of legislation etc that changing its name would be a massive and expensive exercise. The notes issued by the Bank of England are UK notes and not English notes. It is understandable that they should be thought of as English due to the continuation of the bank's original name prominent on the notes together with the fact that several banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland can issue their own. It might make a lot of sense to stop the other 7 banks issuing notes so that we only had UK notes, although if that were to happen I would like to see reference to the notes being UK currency as prominent as the "Bank of England" is on the current notes.

I note that Celtic need to win all their remaining games to equal last year's points tally. Looks as though 3rd and particularly 4th and 5th could all end up with significantly more points than usual although the average points per game for the top 6 obviously drops off after the split. Totals may be high this year because there seem to a lower than average number of draws this season - or am I just imagining it? Interesting that best of the rest in 7th place last season got less points than 11th the year before. It also demonstates how grim County's position is. They are currently averaging just 0.55 per game. In order to get above the worst ever 11th place total they need to average 1.22 for their remaining 18 games and 1.72 to get above the best ever 11th place total. Round about 1.5 would probably see them avoid the play offs but that is the kind of form which as Sneckboy's chart shows, would normally get you about 4th in the league.

Fans are bound to link what they pay to the quality of recent performances so would this not be a pretty risky one for Sevco? No Income Tax, no VAT, no money back, NO GARANTEE. Cushty, you plonker! They'd probably get 20,000 IOUs.

Don't think anyone was jumping up and down, except maybe the bloke in Germany who couldn't get his notes changed. I was more interested in the fact that it appeared to be specific advice not issued until after the NO vote which theoretically made us "Better Together", rather than leaving it to the various financial institutions to make their own decisions as to what they will or won't accept, as had been the case. Having said that, the bloke maybe did what I always used to do on my rare forays over the border......changed all his notes for Scottish ones just to see what would happen when he tried to spend/change them. A lot of shops in England, on my trips over the border in the 80s, lost my custom due to their refusal to accept what they called "Mickey Mouse" money. The Committee of Scottish Bankers can accept what they like......doesn't mean the people carrying Scottish, NI notes(1 for 1 value, backed by assets) on holiday have to like them being refused (though I wonder if the restrictions apply to all non-English notes which circulate in, and may be carried outside, the British Isles, or just the Scottish ones)....not if we are all British and all of us outside England happily accept English notes. I wasn't aware there were any English notes. The notes issued in England are UK notes issued by the "Bank of England" which is the UK's central bank. English commercial banks are not afforded the same privilege as the Scottish and Irish banks and I fail to see why businesses in England and Wales should feel in any way obliged to accept notes that are only issued elsewhere. Businesses in England and Wales or abroad who refuse Scottish notes may lose a tiny bit of custom from a very small number of folk who refuse to pay by any other means, but in losing that custom they are only losing their profit margin. If they accept, in good faith, a forged note purporting to be a Scottish or Irish note they lose the full value of the transaction. It is often small businesses operating at the margin who are confronted with the dilemma of taking the notes or not and who stand to lose a little if they don't accept the note or potentially lose a lot if the note turns out to be a forgery. It is therefore perfectly reasonable for them to refuse these notes. If they are providing us with a service then surely the least we can do is afford them the courtesy of paying them in a manner which they are comfortable with. Actually, I have found that most places are perfectly happy or even delighted to take Scottish notes, so by all means offer a Scottish note but if it is refused, use some other payment without making a fuss!. As for deliberately ensuring you just have Scottish notes when you go to England in order to play political games with folk who are just trying to make a living.... words fail me! At least you said that's what you used to do. I sincerely hope that means you now have a bit more respect for other folk rather than you never cross the border these days.

How about collection buckets at the exits so that if people felt that the entertainment was worth more than they paid they could toss in a bit more? But no taking money out of the buckets if folk feel they paid more than it was worth!

Brilliant news!

If nobody wanted any of our players then I would be worried. We have to accept that other clubs can offer more money which obviously attracts the players as does the prospect of playing in front of much bigger crowds week in, week out .In the meantime the move towards getting players on longer term deals increases the chance of getting a transfer fee when they go. And go they will. This is still essentially Butcher's team. The test for Hughes will be whether he can replace players leaving with players who he can develop into the type of players who can keep us challenging for honours in Scotland's top flight.

My mistake, with Goodwin laid flat out after the goal I thought it was him. Quite frankly skinning Tesselar just doesn't seen quite as fun. From the highlights clip it appears it is actually McLean who Raven skins. But frankly, who cares who it was! It was a great goal and worth the admission money on its own.

I really don't know what the fuss is about. The UK Government's position merely reflects the difficulties foreign banks face when staff are confronted with notes they have never seen before from banks they have never heard of. Time is wasted both for the bank (and other customers in the queue) as well as the person trying to exchange the notes. In addition, a plethora of different notes is hardly conducive to anti-fraud measures. Before the Government gave this advice the Committee of Scottish Bankers readily accepted that Scottish notes were frequently not accepted by banks abroad and advised the public to use credit/debit/ATM cards to access cash when abroad. This, therefore is a piece of sensible, pragmatic advice which appears to be in everyone's interest. If the banks which actually issue the notes are happy with the Government's advice then it really is rather pointless for anyone else to jump up and down about it.

I'm sorry if anyone thinks my post was a pop at home fans and hope they can accept that it was simply an expression of disappointment about a situation and not one of blame. I certainly didn't see your post as "jumping down my throat" nor do I disagree with anything you say in your 2 points. As you say, what is the point of a forum if you can't express views without others who disagree with you being personally offensive in response? I've been in management long enough not to bother about some of the less pleasantly worded posts that are sometimes directed at me but it does concern me that some with less thick skins don't post on here because of the nature of the responses they see others getting. I've also learnt that attacks on the poster are often a defensive reaction of those who don't like or don't want to accept what the poster is saying. Better simply to let the post go unanswered. By the way, with reference to my original question of "after a large and noisy turnout at Dingwall, are we going to revert to a sub 3,000 crowd on Sunday with just occasional bursts of support from time to time?", the correct response was - "Yes!"

A generally disappointing performance but an absolutely superb goal to win the game - a superb ball from Tansey, brilliant work from Raven to cross for Billy to score with a clever finish. It was interesting that with Draper available, Tremarco continued at left back with Shinnie in midfield in preference to Draper. In my view Draper is better in the defensive midfield role than Shinnie whilst Shinnie is better at left back than Tremarco. I was wondering if this means that Shinnie's departure is imminent and the thinking here was to give Tremarco the opportunity to establish himself at LB whilst Shinnie is still here. Whilst Shinnie didn't have a particularly poor game today, it does seem to me that in the last few games he has lacked some of the intensity of performance that we have got used to seeing. Draper showed enough when he came on to show why he should be starting against better teams than St Mirren Also interesting to see Nick Ross start in preference to both Vincent and Williams in Watkins' absence. I thought he played pretty well - he had some nice touches and did little wrong but he rarely hurts defences in the way Watkins and Doran do. Williams looked more of a threat when he came on but by then, we had scored and St Mirren were chasing the game. I think Ross probably played well enough to start again next match if Watkins is still out.

HT 1-0 FT 2-0 ICT Mckay Opp McLean Time 32