DoofersDad

Scott Boden scored for Gateshead in the FA cup today. The match was live on BBC. I think that's about 6 he's got for them this season. Rooney, Fisher, Boden and Mckay all finding the net regularly. We need one of our current lads to do the same.

It's a no from me as well for two reasons. Firstly it would undoubtedly reduce the number of away fans at games. Whilst Don makes some fair points regarding travelling support, I think that away fans are important in improving the atmosphere at games and a good atmosphere makes for a better match day experience for all. Secondly, the future of the game depends on the enthusiasm of youngsters. Late kick off times when it is dark and cold is not going to encourage parents to take young children to matches. There is an urgent need to get more youngsters going regularly to matches. Many of us got hooked on watching football when we were in primary school, so anything which makes it less likely that that age group will attend matches needs to have some pretty compelling arguments to justify it.

If Bolt makes it in any way as a footballer it will not be because of his pace. Speed over 10 metres is more important than speed over 100 metres and Bolt needs a bit of time to get those long legs working. If he can head a ball then his height and physical presence will be an asset. He also strikes me as the sort of guy who will be very focussed and composed in front of goal. I've no idea how good he will be but I am sure some team will pay him good money to find out. It won't be us though.

Credit where credit is due. The chairman's statement on the official website gives a lot of positive detail. Some of this detail could and probably should have been communicated earlier, but better late than never. There also seems to be an uplift on the level of communication generally and hopefully this signals a change to a more communicative ethos in the Club. This coincides with the re-energisation of the Supporters Trust which bodes well for future engagement between club and supporters. A quick look at the new Trust website https://ict.supporterstrust.org/ makes it clear that the Trust's AGM on 6th December should be a much more positive event than in recent years and that the new Trust Board should be in a far better position than before to engage with the Club Board on matters of concern to supporters. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of what is in the past, there does seem to me to be an opportunity now to develop a closer relationship between Club and Supporters. I know there are certain specific areas where close relationships do exist but I am talking about relationships in a much broader sense with the views of the supporters being proactively sought by the club and the club communicating more openly. It is clear from the contributions to this thread that there are a lot of things a lot of supporters are not happy about. Not all of them will be things which can be addressed as those voicing the concerns may wish, but when that is the case, it is always good to receive a considered reason as to why. The club needs to get more revenue to increase the playing budget. And it needs more supporters through the gates in order to get more revenue. Supporters will attend games if they have a good match day experience and if they feel valued as supporters - if they are made to feel part of the club. This requires the club to actively engage with supporters and we all need to work together to make sure the relationship between the club and the supporters is as constructive as possible. It is great that the club are holding a Q&A session on the 25th of this month and I sincerely hope it will be a constructive and informative event for all concerned.

Brilliant news. An extension of a further year demonstrates the commitment of Robbo to the club and the Board's faith in him. Well done to both for reaching this agreement. With Robbo now contracted to June 2011 players will know there is stability at manager level and hopefully that will make it easier for them to also commit to the club if offered contracts. The club suffered a pretty drastic fall in its fortunes but Robbo has undoubtedly stopped the rot and got us going in the right direction. Onwards and upwards!

Presumably there is a reason why this is done but on the face of it, it seems daft on a nice green pitch after recent rain.. Does anyone know what the reason is?

So who decided that this significant police and steward presence was required, what did it cost and who paid for it? Sounds to me as though the Club needs an SLO to liaise with people and allow a bit of common sense to prevail.

I have some sympathy with referees when there is so much pushing and holding in the box.. They can't see everything and they do need to be sure before they award penalties. I'd like to see the Assistant Referees take a bit more responsibility for picking up on these incidents. On the positive side I thought Thompson was pretty good in letting the game flow and he wasn't blowing every time a Morton player went to ground after being tackled. He was a lot better than most of the referees we've had this season - mind you, saying that isn't exactly high praise.

I thought that was a much better team performance than against QOS. We started in much the same vein as we did last week and then some woeful defending led to their goal. But that seemed to galvanise us into a more positive approach and I felt we were playing pretty well across the team. I can't agree with Caley100's comments on Polworth. I thought he had a much better game than last week and was looking to be involved all the time. It wasn't his best performance by any means but he made a very solid contribution to the team effort. I'm not sure why Chalmers was subbed at half time as I felt he was having one of his better games. After the break I felt we missed his solidity in defensive midfield and that allowed Morton to have a significant spell of pressure when we just couldn't seem to get into the game. Doran didn't have a bad game but his replacement by Calder seemed to energise the side and we were much more threatening for the last third of the game. Had we not been up against a goal keeper in fine form we would have won that. He made 2 top class saves and generally commanded the box cleanly taking out 2 or 3 crosses lesser keepers might have stayed on their lines for. It is interesting that in his post match comments Robbo said "The unbeaten thing is annoying me now .... I just wonder at times do we get into a position where, instead of going on to win the match, we are happy not to lose it". There is maybe some truth in that but I also wonder whether he is picking a starting 11 aimed more at not losing rather than winning. We need a more dynamic approach from the first whistle if we are to make a push for promotion.

Or to put it another way, why did crosses constantly go to the back when White was always going to the front post? Players putting in crosses need to look up and see where people are rather than simply hit and hope.

I saw him saying that on TV and he actually kept a straight face. But the text could have been taken from a satirical comedy sketch such is the absurdity of what he is saying. He complains about Murrayfield not being a neutral venue when playing against an Edinburgh side yet he seems oblivious to the lack of neutrality when everyone else is expected to travel to Glasgow to play Celtic. Maybe they should play the Celtic Hearts game at midday in Aberdeen? Would that suit him better? After all, whilst it might be a tad inconvenient, at least it would be a neutral venue and therefore fairer than expecting Aberdeen to do the opposite journey to play The Rangers in a non neutral venue.

Had there been any proper objective assessment of his performance he would have had £110,000 deducted from what is, in any case, a salary well in excess of what the job merits. Why is it that the people who receive this type of bonus always seem to be the sort of people who are least deserving on them? The very least one might expect from people being paid these huge sums is that they accept invitations from the media to justify their decisions. Typically, none of the people involved in making the decision were "available" to be interviewed on Radio Scotland this morning.

Yes, but don't forget the Scottish Police Federation were not consulted over this. The SPFL will have discussed this with Police Scotland. Just as there seems to be a disconnect between the SPFL and the clubs, there is a disconnect between Police Scotland and the Police officers who will actually be tasked with policing the streets of Glasgow with 100,000 fans of 4 different clubs. If the senior officers of Police Scotland felt there was a significant problem with the arrangements they would have vetoed them.

When we had a similar situation a while back I wrote to the SFA about the situation. I said I wanted to be a responsible supporter and follow the police advice and make my way straight to Hampden after getting off the train. I informed them that the last train before kick off got in the night before kick off and I therefore expected to arrive at Hampden some time before 11pm. Given that it seemed unreasonable to expect me to hang around outside the stadium all night I asked if I could be let in and pitch a tent on the pitch. Funnily enough, I never got a reply!

Very disappointing performance in front of the back four. We created little and and seemed to be very lacklustre. we only looked as though we might threaten when Calder came on. I’m really not sure what the lad has to do to get more game time. I wasn’t at the County game but had been delighted to hear the good reports about Polworth’s performance. But where was he today? He was almost anonymous. Happy for us to come away with a point we didn’t really deserve.

They are making both ties on Sunday because both of the ugly sisters are playing in the Europa league. This is just another consequence of the farcical policy that you can get knocked out of the Champions League and then be given a slot in the Europa competition. But if it wasn’t for a team in both ties being involved on a Thursday, when on the Saturday would the semi have been played? There is a league program on that day so 3 pm is not an option. Whether before or after is not great for fans traveling a distance. Personally I’d put the Celtic game on at 5pm on the Saturday and the Dons game could have been played at 3pm on the Sunday. It is time the football powers that be stood up to the big two and considered the fans of other clubs for a change.

As long as its not like the Judean People's Front we should be OK.

In the same way that they don’t pay all the players in the men’s team the same. Just as in any business you tend to pay staff more if your contribution to the profitability of the business is more crucial. If women players perform at a level which brings in the the same level of income to the club as the men’s team then equality of pay would be appropriate.

It’s interesting to look at the situation in Wales. The big two there play in the English set up and so too do some smaller teams. This means the teams who compete in the Welsh league have a chance of European football and of winning a national championship which they otherwise would not have had. But as the Irn Bru cup has shown, the top sides in that league are at Scottish Championship level at best. Their crowds are dismal. Merthyr who play in English level 7 probably get bigger crowds than most of the Welsh level 1 sides. So whilst I don’t think that having 2 sides dominating a league is healthy, I don’t think allowing top teams to play in England would be healthy for the game in Scotland either. With more money in the game and with improved transport networks, I personally feel that the best way forward would be to have a British league with regionalisation at perhaps the 3rd and 4th tiers which might allow several Scottish teams to play against teams from the Northern half of England. Below that the tiers would be more local so a fifth tier would have a Scottish only division. This would bring Scottish clubs into the mix for the big TV money and give fans the opportunity of seeing a wide variety of other British teams. Promotion through the tiers would give all clubs the potential to experience the broader dimension I am sure this would be good for the game in Scotland, but the reality is that it will never happen for a variety of reasons related to vested interests and politics

The only certain thing is that they won’t take notice of your opinion if you don’t give it. You can only legitimately say you are being ignored if you give them something to ignore in the first place. As surveys go, it’s actually not a bad one. Well worth filling in in my opinion.

Adam Rooney scored again for Salford tonight. That is 6 in 7 games. Would they notice if we swapped him for our Rooney?

Interesting stats but as with so much of this kind of stuff, interpretation is difficult. For example, a high proportion of shots on target may simply reflect a tendency to hit the ball to the centre of the target where the keeper is likely to save it. Aim the ball just inside the post and you will miss the target more often but you will also probably score more. Having a low number of shots on target per goal would therefore seem to be the key. You won't score if you don't shoot so the number of shots at goal would also appear to be an important stat in principle. There are times when people take speculative shots when they would better off just working the ball or passing to someone in a far better shooting position, but more often it is a case of someone in a shooting position who doesn't shoot but who passes the ball and the move breaks up before anyone else can get a shot away.

Surely the manager gives instructions as to who will take penalties and this will include a fall back position for when the allotted penalty taker has gone off. When a kick is awarded that player should immediately step up to take the responsibility. There should never be a situation where nobody seems to want to take it or where players are arguing over the ball. Any issues with that and the captain on the park should step in and sort it out.

Particularly if you turn up for a game when there isn't one.

Alex Fisher got a hat-trick for Yeovil in their 4-0 win at Notts County on Friday evening.