DoofersDad

In general it is pleasing to see that the vast majority of members use the system sensibly and are generally positive in how they use it. The fact that far more green dots are used than red dots is proof of that. The system is good because it gives members a very quick way to acknowledge agreement or disagreement. It also often highlights posts that are worth reading if you haven't time to read all the posts. If anyone is regularly abusing the system then I feel they should have the function taken from them but there is another way of dealing with the problem - if you see a post which you feel has been voted down unfairly, then vote it up. Simple!

Please enlighten us as to where you propose the top two in the SPL will go up to.

Great stuff. Go on, Ian, tell us what you really think. Can't see Rooney signing for Blackpool any time soon even if he is playing like a donkey at the moment.

Agree. As long as other players are playing well enough Fergie will pick players that want to be there. A downside of that is that if Rooney is not playing and playing well then his value to other clubs will go down. That might worry the club, it might worry Rooney, but it won't worry Fergie. Another factor is that unless Rooney recovers his best form, he will have the fans on his back - they won't stand for anything less than the best from a player who wants to leave. He also gets wound up easily and in his current frame of mind could do something stupid. Best option is to pretend he's injured (which Fergie seems to be doing) so that his poor form is not showcased. He then needs to get shot of him ASAP. There will be clubs who will take a gamble on him - signing any player is a gamble because they can pick up a career threatening injury at any time or simply lose form. A rejuvinated Rooney in an environment he feels motivated in will have him back as one of the world's best and I am confident United will still get silly money for him. Maybe not as much as they would have got last January but still an awful lot.

Invernesscaledonianthistle scores more at scrabble than rosscounty

I don't think even Strachan would have been stupid enough to do that. It's the sort of thing you would only do if you had another job offer in your pocket - mind you, perhaps Petrie had told him the Hibs job was his!

I can't understand why there seems to be nobody within a squad of fit athletic young men who can throw a football further than I can throw my mother-in-law. St Johnstone caused us a lot of problems from their long throws and a decent longish throw should be a basic tactic available in any team. If nobody is a natural then they should coach the technique - it's not difficult. But what is even more unforgivable is not making yourself available - yesterday Sutherland was actively making himself available when he came on but apart from that, only Odihambo seem remotely intersted in getting the ball. Frankly, if players aren't looking for the ball they shouldn't be in the team.

Our great run last season included some excellent performances, but crucially included several games where we learnt the art of not losing when playing poorly. In that sense, a point yesterday was a great outcome because far too many players were lacklustre with St Johnstone looking the best side - they put far more pressure on us when we had possession and where more inventive when they had possession. It really is important that we pick up points even when playing poorly. We are also up to 4th which is fantastic - 7 places higher than I would be happy with at the end of the season. But a big downside for me was Foran. He was generally lacklustre and only showed a bit of passion later in the game when he was pushed forward. As a captain, I saw nothing from him in encouraging the team - quite the reverse in fact. When the ball didn't break the way he might have wished he just seemed to curse his luck and give up rather than getting back into position. And later in the game a long crossfield ball was played to the excellent Shinnie who, under pressure, kept the ball in and put a firm pass to Foran who was unable to control it. Foran's reaction was to shout "what the f*ck was that" at Shinnie. He kept abusing the youngster as Shinnie shrugged and then ran back into position, meanwhile Foran was paying no attention to where the ball was. As a captain he should be encouraging the youngsters and Shinnie was actually showing a lot more enterprise and passion than Foran. Shinnie's pass was no worse than most of what Foran had contributed in the match. Foran was well out of order. I hope Terry will be letting him know in no uncertain terms what is expected of him both as a player and a captain because IMHO he fell well short on both counts yesterday.

I feel sorry for the England fans who turned out in good numbers to watch them play lowly Montenegro. Apparently it costs ?30 to park in the Wembley multistorey car park (presumably a modest contribution to Capello's obscene salary) and then as a reward they get treated to 90 minutes totally devoid of any inspiration from England's finest. England's play at the moment seems to be as hesitant and confusing as Capello's English. Don't suppose Jonny Hayes has an English Granny by any chance? France are on the up though - a 2-0 home win against the mighty Luxembourg.

And sometimes he even took the ball with him

A spirited performance with more ambition. It only goes to emphasise how wrong the tactics were in Prague. Much better to have taken at least a point off the Czechs and been gubbed by Spain than lose narrowly in both.

It appears from this picture that the secret to the Spanish teams success is team spirit. They obviously get on very well together. I think Levein should be telling his team not to let the Spanish get to close to them.

I don't think we have a key player. We are a team - that's the key to success.

Eagle scored again for Grimsby - and picked up his 5th yellow card of the season.

The most entertaining thing was someone describing the match as Tartan against Czechs. Sounds better than it reads but hey, we're scraping the barrel here.

Opinion seems very divided on this. All I will say is that had it been Zander Diamond making the tackle and young Nick Ross having the brittleness of his legs tested, I don't think there would be the same divergence of opinion.

7 "permanent" managers in 10 years means that there is a fair chance that the manager Hibs may want won't want to go to Hibs. It is not clear what the Hibs Board are looking for. They seem to make a habit of selling on their best players just when you think they may have a real chance of breaking the old firm stranglehold of the top two. Unless the Board can give a real committment to consolidating any success a manager acheives then they will be constantly getting managers who either do not deliver what the fans expect or who have the rug pulled from under them and who get blamed for underacheivement. Long may it continue!

Good first post. Yes I am sure folk would be very interested, It is great to hear about excellent performances likes this from the youngsters, as you say, the future's bright. A green dot to you and the lads..

You have my sympathies Highlandee. But it could be a lot worse. Bromsgrove Rovers, the local club I supported when at school has folded this year after a 125 year history. Having been 2nd in the Conference a few years back, new owners bled the club dry taking money out of a profitable social club and the club went into adminstration last year. The owners refused to talk to anyone to save the club and as a result a group of supporters established a new club, Bromsgrove Spoorting, in order to preserve football in the town. As it happened the lease on the ground expired this year and both clubs applied. Rover's application was childlike in its presentation and the owners even spelt the name of the town incorrectly! The Council gave the lease to Sporting which resulted in Rover's owners squatting at the ground and refusing to hand the keys over. Finally they left when it emerged that the ground and property had been extensively vandalised. This included some spiteful petty vandalism such as goal posts being removed and concrete poured in the holes - weed killer being splashed over parts of the pitch - fuses being removed from the floodlights etc. As a result, Sporting have been unable to play any home games yet. From the heady conference days of Rovers, Sporting are starting their life about 6 levels below in the Midland Combination Division 2. However, it is a real community club now and I look forward to watching their progress onwards and upwards in the coming years. Hopefully nothing so dire will happen to Dundee, but if it does, well...there is always another team in the city you could support!

Looks frighteningly like someone I know - in which case ?2 is way too high!

For who?

If there is anything worse than deciding you will not play for your country it is deciding that you will play for B'ham S*ity. Truly Ferguson is the devil's spoor.

Garforth owner Simon Clifford, most famous for his Brazilian Soccer Schools, said: "This is not a publicity stunt."I want him to be an inspiration to someone who might have depression or problems in their lives. He's walked through hell but he has kept on walking." The sad thing here is that Gazza is such an insecure and flawed individual that he is destined to fail. Rather than be an inspiration to others, Gazza will yet again be the subject of public ridicule and this will only reinforce the feelings of inadequacy which others with similar problems will feel. Hell, I sound as though I'm encroaching into IHE's professional domain here. I'd better get to the point. Feckin walk away from it Gazza

Hopefully he has a club card though. Every little helps!

There has been a lot of discussion in the past as to why we seem to perform better away from home. I am not going to be rash enough to express an opinion on this but thought it would be interesting to look at whether this seems to be just an ICT problem or whether others are similarly affected. The fact is that of 36 premier league matches this season, only 12 have been home wins whilst 17 have been away wins. Only Dundee utd and the 2 Saints have better home records than away records - ironically, our two wins coming away against 2 of those teams! The Old Firm have won all their matches home and away but the other 7 teams all have a better away record. Most notable is Motherwell who are 3rd in the league having only secured a single point in 3 home matches. So this does not seem to be an ICT phenomenom but it might well be a Scottish Premier League one. In all the other 3 Scottish Divisions and the top 4 leagues in England, there are substantially more home wins than away wins. The closest to the Scottish Premier League pattern is Scottish division 3 where there have been 17 home wins against 11 away. In all other divisions there are at least 50% more home wins than away wins. It is still early in the season but it does seem that the generally recognised advantage of playing at home is borne out by the pattern of results everywhere except in the SPL. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues and, if it does, if someone can come up with a good explanation.