DoofersDad

Whether or not we had won or lost yesterday it would have been perfectly reasonable to post about a memorable match which took place exactly 12 years ago. If you can't relive memories then what is the point of having them? And don't be so negative. OK, so it was a disappointing result yesterday and a tired end of season performance by the sound of it - but we're still in 7th place and set to equal our best ever finish. There is a lot else to remember fondly from the performances which have got us to be in this elevated position. Reflect back on those and be happy!

There is a possibilty of showers in London tomorrow and apparently a certain Mr Doncaster has written to the Palace and others voicing a concern that a combination of the rain and all the horse sh*t on the streets around Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey will make the streets slippy. He is concerned that someone in the crowd might slip and hurt themselves and is demanding that all weddings in the area scheduled for tomorrow be postponed for safety reasons.

It might be helpful if someone from the club explained what happened here. I personally have no knowledge of this at all but would make a couple of points. Firstly, the future of the club depends on nurturing the best talent in the area and we cannot afford to lose youngsters because of any poor management. Having said that, it is important to recognise that a number of youngsters will leave and moan about the coaches because they were not prepared to put the work in and keep the discipline demanded by the coaches and which is necessary to make the grade. All of us, but obviously the youngsters and their parents in particular, need to have an assurance that the organsation of the youth set up is of the highest standard in order to provide the environment for the kids to develop their potential. Secondly, if the kids are to develop their full potential it is important that they have faith in the coaching staff and other ICT staff they have contact with. It is therefore not particularly helpful to publicly criticise the coaches even if they have seriously mismanaged something. On the face of it, it would appear that there are issues to be addressed, but it would have been better to take them up with the club rather than criticise publicly. As I say, now the criticism has been made, it would be sensible for the club to make a statement. After that, things should be sorted out behind the scenes. A public spat will not encourage kids to stay nor will it encourage others to sign. That cannot be in the interests of the club. The fact that the lads reached the final at all does credit both to the youngsters and the coaching staff. That is really positive - let's build on that.

I think he's been a useful addition to the squad although I appreciate others will have see him more often than I have. Maybe I have seen him on his better days but I think he's done a good job in difficult personal circumstances and that he should leave with his head held high and with thanks and best wishes from the fans.

The Green Party's position is that the future prosperity, indeed the very survival of our society depends on a healthy environment. If you pollute the environment and use up all the planet's resources to benefit from a quick buck now, you will not have an environment in the future which will be capable of sustaining us. You can only acheive that by influencing the wider economic and social policies which impact on the environment. Environmental pressure groups are all well and good and can do useful work in protecting specific environmental sites but what are they protecting those sites from? They are protecting them from the environmental consequences of the economic and social policies of the Government of the day! We need a Government which understands that our long term health, happiness and prosperity requires a healthy environment. Economic activity needs to be sustainable and social activity needs to be in harmony with the environment. That's the function of government and it's why the Green Party has to be a mainstream party increrasingly shaping the policies of the day.

Here's one for the future. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=5gDuRHEY6Xs

Let's hope Terry doesn't sign this joker - the budget doesn't extend to a dresser. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=zpL9eQ6mm-k

I'm with Capitol Caly on this one. I think the SNP have done as good a job as any Government in recent years but the common sense the Greens bring to the political debate means there really does need to be one or two greens in the parliamnent. I disagree that either party should be considered one issue parties - the SNP have proved that in Government and if you read the Green manaifesto or ever listen to the excellent Green MP, Caroline Lucas, on Question Time, you will know that their manifesto covers the whole range - Green politics is not just about the environment, it is about respect. If you can respect each other and respect the environment in which we all live then that to me seems a good philosophy for life. As for AV, the problem with the current system is the risk that you can get people elected who have the support of very few people. If the 4 main parties have roughly equal support and the likes of the Greens and UKIP and perhaps an independent or two pick up a few votes, then some extreme single issue party can get elected with only about 20% of the vote even if they are the least favoured party of the other 80%. With AV the 2nd and subsequent preferences count if your first choice candidate is bottom of the poll so as candidates drop out voters' subsequent choices are added on to the remaining candidates. The end result is the person elected has some positive endorsement of at least 50% of the population even if they are not the first choice of many. Those opposing AV are actually saying they would prefer to have someone elected who does not necessaily have that level of support. It is mainly the Tories who are in favour of this and this is because they know that they will attract less 2nd coice votes than other parties.

I take it that by "that pointless screechin female" you are refering to Loraine MacIntosh who, IMHO is really excellent. Her singing, far from being screechy, is bluesy and soulful. Her vocals are always understated beneath Ricky Ross's main vocals which is really effective and gives the band their distinctive sound. Deacon Blue are playing on my PC at the moment and very enjoyable it is too.

Good post, 12th man. The club really has come a long way in a short space of time and this season we are on course to equal our best ever finish. Surely in the next 10 years we will make a little more progress and it only needs a little more progress to get a top 6 finish, to win one of the two major cup competitions or to get a place in Europe. There should be some great occasions for the club in the next few years but we need to be realistic and recognise there will also be some bad times. We need to keep behind the team during the not so good periods and if we do that, the occasioonal major success will come and can be celebrated. :ictscarf:

But they did us a favour today by beating Hibs. That helps our bid to be 7th which, despite the negativity of some posters recently, would be a brilliant acheivement. If Hamilton could also see their way to beating Hibs again, and St Johnstone, that would be very helpful.

Talk of a hovercraft! Isn't that just a lot of hot air?

Just seen the highlights. Only fair to give credit to Kilmarnock for their goal. Brilliant intricate passing movement, brilliant lobbed final ball and brilliant finish. If Barcelona had scored that the media would be raving even more about them being the best team in the world. On the other hand, I rather enjoyed the Andy Barrowman impersonation in the 2nd half - just to prove they weren't Barcelona in disguise.

Money shouldn't come into it. If Jonny needs an op then he should get it done as soon as possible.

He took his time about it though. If any of the defenders had been doing their job they just might have got back in time to block or at least put pressure which might have caused him to pull it wide from 2 foot. If i was a Queens defender i would be wondering why Hutton felt the need to take so many touches. He saw Barrowman close by and naturally concluded there was no threat.

He took his time about it though. If any of the defenders had been doing their job they just might have got back in time to block or at least put pressure which might have caused him to pull it wide from 2 foot.

A great shame for Rory but apart from that it was fantastic to watch. With just a few holes to play, any one of 9 players could have won it. There was the drama of Donald hitting the flag with his 2nd to the 18th and the ball richocheting off the green only for him to hole his chip back for a birdie and then the 3 aussies surging through the field only to be pipped at the end by the South African with 4 birdies in the last 4 holes. I don't suppose the Scottish Open will have quite the same drama but there will be a lot of good players on show and the excitement of the Masters should help to boost attendance. Get your tickets now!

I hope Rory can hang on to win, if not Rory then another brit. if not another bit then a european, if not a european then please not a yank but it if is a yank please, please let it not be bloody Woods.

I would like to think Caley D was right . However, I wonder if the situation in Wales is a pointer here. The bigger Welsh club sides of Cardiff and Swansea have always played in the English leagues (as have Wrexham) and despite now having entry into European competition, the teams that make up the Welsh league are dire. Quality and gates are low. There is an argument that if those 3 clubs returned to a Welsh league (the opposite of what we are suggesting) the interest in the league and the overall standard would rise significantly. Obviously they are not going to do that but I think the argument of what would happen if they did seems logical. It therefore seems reasonable to argue that the reverse process in Scotland could only lead to an overall drop in standards. Of course there are significant differences in Scotland. We have a bigger population and several significantly bigger teams than in Wales so there is a momentum to keep this going. Football fans in other towns in South Wales will tend to support the local big club because over the years they are in effect seen to be representing Wales and are not directly competing with their home town club. Also, Wales is more Rugby orientated and this reduces the football fan base. The big Welsh clubs playing in England undoubtedly makes the Welsh league weaker, but would the same be true in Scotland? I don't think it would and would certainly love it if we had the opportunity to find out.

Motherwell have won 2-1 so for us to beat them to the top 6 slot we need them to lose to Hearts and then get 7 points from the next 3 games. Possible but it is out of our hands now. If Motherwell get a draw we will need 3 straight wins. If they win its all over. With St Mirren winning Hamilton are all but down and with Dundee Utd losing Hearts are all but assured of 3rd. Once the top six make up is finally decided there will now only be which of the OF wins the title as anything worthwhile to play for. Serious anticlimax to the season unless Hearts can do us a big favour by beating Motherwell and rolling over against us.

Had the game gone ahead, there is surely no way sanctions would have been taken by the SPL. Had commonsense prevailaed with the agreement of both clubs and the TV company we would have witnessed a football match taking place on a beautiful spring afternoon - a slightly greasy surface no doubt but otherwise a perfect day for a game of football. The decision to have gone ahead would have received praise from the media and the fans. Any suggestion that the game was nearly called off would have been considered laughable. In these circumstances the suits in at the SPL would have to be completely barking mad to impose sanctions. Ah! Of course! So I'm wrong. There would have been serious sanctions!

County used to get games called off due to the state of their pitch whilst our games went ahead. Now it is the other way round. The met office is also telling us that for the UK as a whole this has been the driest March since 1953. Saturday's rain was heavy but not exceptional and it was not preceded by a period of rain which would have left the ground saturated - a fact evidenced by the river levels being pretty normal for the time of year. The tide theory is intersting but a red herring - the pitch is above high tide level and should have drained enough before the spring tides to allow the new rain to soak into the soil. Note that the exposed aspect of the pitch allows wind and sun to dry the pitch better than more enclosed stadia. Rain fell from the skies and the tides ebbed and flowed long before the USH was installed. We even used to have Bobby Mann compressing the ground but we didn't have these problems before the USH went in. Commonsense says the USH must be a factor here.

Right or wrong, this was clearly a marginal decision and a difficult one for the referee. It is often the case in these situations that there is just one area of the pitch which is causing some concern. It would be this type of situation where the cricket pitch type roller could come into its own. These bits of kit can shift a lot of water and would make short work of a small area of concern. But you can never win. If we had such kit it would be used in circumstances where without it an earlier postponement would be straightforward. There would be valiant efforts to get the pitch playable but all to no avail. A late call off would then lead to criticism of the club.

I wonder .... Do angry sheep break french windows?

The point about those who engage in violence and do damage at these demonstations is that it completely undermines the message that the vast majority of protestors are wanting to get across. It has three very negative effects. Firstly, it captures all the publicity so that the arguments the organisers want to get across is lost. Secondly it results in the cause and the genuine protestors being associated with criminal actions. Thirdly, the threat of violence puts people off attending either because they are geniunely fearful for their safety or because they do not wish to be associated with such acts. Those who engage in such activity do so much damage to the cause of the protest that I often wonder whether they are in the pay of those the protesters are protesting against.