DoofersDad

I'm rather unclear about what Foran's thinking is. There does need to be tightening in the defence but I'm not sure how signing 2 new strikers sits with that. I agree with IHE that the signing of 2 additional strikers to join the 3 we currently have must herald a change to having two up front. But if we have central midfielders sitting a bit deeper and restrict the forays of the full backs in order to tighten the back, what's the plan for scoring goals? Are we going to hoof the ball up to the strikers in the hope they will win the ball and play off each other. If you play 2 strikers and have Tansey and Draper sitting fairly deep, then you can only play two of Polworth, Doran, King, Cole, Vigurs or Mulraney in between. It rather reduces the options for creativity. In this scenario I can see Cole becoming the key player for us for the rest of the season.

Sadly, there seems to be generally less interest in cup matches than league matches these days. In the season when we won the cup we only had a crowd of just over 2000 for our home QF against Raith. 4th round games against lower league opposition have generally attracted little over 1000. Whilst I think we ought to be able to sell out our allocation, the harsh reallity is that if we can take 1000 to Elgin then that will be a pretty good turn out compared to recent cup games.

How many mothers do you have RiG?

Should be a really cracking atmosphere and a cracking cup tie, but unfortunately I've got a prior commitment and won't be able to go. I should be OK for the replay though

Perfect day for a game of football today. No doubt winter will arrive once the winter break is over.

I can't see the Board sacking Foran. Having given him a massive vote of confidence by giving him a four year contract the Board would lose credibility by doing so. Ending his contract so soon would also cost money which would inhibit the potential both for replacing him with someone with a track record and investing in new players. It is not a question of sacking Foran, it is a question of how he can be supported at this early stage of his career so that he can begin to deliver on the potential they clearly see in him. I agree with much of what has been said about the reasons for us struggling this season but at the end of the day, the margins between success and failure are very fine and had we got a bit more of the rub of the green at times this year, we could be sitting in the top six and not at the foot of the table. Had that been the case, we'd all be saying what a good job Richie is doing. But we are where we are. We are not adrift at the bottom - far from it, but achieving safety does require a significant improvement in results. In most seasons, averaging a point a game would see a team above the bottom 2. We have 16 points from 21 games and therefore to get 38 points by the end of the season we need another 22 from just 17 more games. That is 1.3 points per game. St Johnstone in 5th spot are currently averaging 1.4 points per game, so that gives a measure of the standard we need to produce for the rest of season. I'm not going to comment now on what I think is wrong and how it might be improved, but what I would be interested in is what the Board's attitude to relegation is. We are not a club that has the resources to buy our way out of relegation every year and whilst I am sure there will be some resources available, any players available who are better than we have now will cost a lot. Foran's 4 year contract indicates a long term plan which perhaps accepts we may go down this season with time then to rebuild without over-committing financially. A club our size has absolutely no right to expect to be in the top flight year on year. Personally, I don't think relegation in itself would be a disaster. What would be a disaster would be to spend silly money in order to avoid relegation and then get relegated in any case. I do often wonder about the wisdom of saying that we need to strengthen. What it does is to say to the current players that they are not considered good enough. As I said earlier, the margins between success and failure are very fine and with a bit of good luck, a bit of improvement at the back and some improvement in tactical awareness I am convinced that we have a squad good enough to avoid the drop. Despite our lowly position, we have seen some entertaining football this season, and I have seen enough to be convinced that whether or not we go down this year, a future with Richie Foran at the helm for the next few years will be a very exciting one.

Good work. Always interesting to read.

Owain a manger.

I think the error here is to assume there is actually a correct way of saying any name. Just as people in different parts of Scotland pronounce things differently depending where they are from, so do people in Wales. It is not always simply the distinctive accents, but which syllable you emphasise. An example of that would be the name Lamont and, of course, with regard to place names, Balloch is pronounced up here very differently to the Balloch close to Glasgow. Surely the thing is to respect the way the owner of the name pronounces it and do the best you can within your normal accent to follow that. An exception to that general rule of courtesy would be if you were ever to meet a real life Hyacinth Bucket. Perhaps we should get Dean Brill back

Can someone point me to the SFA edict which states that when players are up against Lonsana Doumbouya they are allowed to pull his shirt, physically grab any part of his anatomy, push him in the back with both hands, put their hands on his shoulders when jumping for the ball, block him of with their elbows, kick him and trip him up? It happens week in and week out and referees simply ignore it. There are times when the poor lad looks quite bemused as to why he is not being awarded a foul.

An entertaining game. Given our injury problems I am happy to settle for a draw although we could have won the game and jumped from 12th to 7th. I think in the first half and the earlier part of the 2nd half we created enough chances to have won the game but the longer the game went on the more likely it looked that any winner would come at the wrong end of the pitch. We need a bit more composure in front of goal and we need better balls into the middle. We also need to be a bit more disciplined at times. Draper, who was captain for the day, nearly followed Warren's example in getting sent of for needless fouls. He got a deserved yellow for a pretty reckless challenge and was lucky not to get another one later. Mulraney needlessly gave away the free kick from which Hamilton scored. He was goal side of the player with the ball and rather than just stay goal side he lunged in when he was never going to get the ball. We also gave away 2 or 3 more free kicks in dangerous positions and it is this sort of lack of composure that is regularly costing us. It was good to see Cole have a good game. In some other games he seems to have been caught out by the pace of the game but he looked a lot more aware today and took his goal really well. It would be great if we were able to extend his loan.

There will be two or three playing through the pain today. If an outfield player is needed in goals my bet would be Drapes. ictfcsince94 is spot on that the players need our support today. I think Hamilton will be pressing us hard and be right in our faces. I can see us losing an early goal and that is when the guys will need our support and not have people getting on their backs. In the circumstances, I would be happy with a draw but a win would be a real morale booster. Forget the Christmas shopping - get behind the team!

Criticising the team on this forum is fair enough (I do it myself) but it would carry a bit more weight if people supported the team a bit more on match days. Let's face it, we don't exactly provide much encouragement for the guys on the park, especially when they really need a lift from the crowd. We've actually played some pretty decent stuff at home this year and it has been a good bit more entertaining to watch than last season. Yet crowds are poor, we make very little noise and as soon as the performance drops of a bit we moan like hell. I have to say I was rather embarrassed when Aberdeen's 3rd goal went in the other week and about half of the already sparse home crowd got up and headed for the gates. I know it was disappointing, but just what message does that give to the players! We are a small club with a small budget and a small squad which is currently badly hit by injuries. It's at times like this that the team really need to see and hear the support of the fans. Next week's match against Hamilton is now one we really need to win or we could risk becoming isolated at the bottom. Hamilton are also struggling having only won twice all season so this is a game we would normally be expecting to win. It will be depressing in the extreme if we lose. So let's get behind the team rather than getting on their backs. We want our team to do well, so lets give them a bit of help and show our positive support on Saturday.

Sounds like a very sensible decision to me. He has worked hard over many years to reach his goal in F1 and whilst some wish to continue at the top for as long as they can others prefer to quit whilst at the top. Good luck to him, I say. To defend his title he would be forced to stay at Mercedes with Hamilton as his "team mate". This has 2 distinct disadvantages. Firstly he would have to compete with Hamilton who is undoubtedly a better and more competitive driver. Secondly he would have to spend yet another year working in the same team as Hamilton who is not exactly the greatest person to have as a work mate. Rosberg leaves with the upper hand over Hamilton and I'm sure that denying Hamilton the opportunity to take the title from him will probably give him as much pleasure as winning it in the first place.

This sounds like really superb news for the club but I doubt it will have a huge impact on the club's day to day finances. Presumably we make savings in terms of lease payments but there may be more expenditure in relation to rates and maintenance. It is the AGM next week so perhaps we will then know a little bit more about what this means in practical terms.

Great news. Top player with a great attitude. A great example to the youngsters coming through the system.

It surprised me! I had no idea you could appeal yellow cards. I thought it was just straight reds.

Respect works both ways. Shinnie was a great player for us but by the same token, the club gave him a lot. There was someone in the crowd on Saturday who summed it up for me when he shouted out something like "I still love you Graeme - even if you are a traitorous wee b******d!"

It's not a striker we need to buy. It's a referee

Things started well with a delightful goal after absorbing some early pressure. Then it all went pear shaped. There is no disputing that Aberdeen were the better side and we were generally below par, but it really is sad to see a side resort to the level of gamesmanship that Aberdeen did today. Of course, teams can only get away with it if the officials let them - and boy did they let them today. I don't usually like to criticise referees because they have a very difficult job to do and have to make difficult decisions in a split second. Clearly they will get things wrong at times. But there really can be no excuses for Clancy today. Apart from his failure to stop Aberdeen's antics, he made the most appalling decisions in relation to two episodes in the 2nd half. In the first of these, Maddison was dispossessed deep in our half. He went down and stayed down. In fact it looked as if he was praying to Mecca. We broke forward with some of our best play of the game. We were heading towards the edge of their box with Aberdeen struggling to cover when Clancy decides to stop the game for Maddison. But although he stopped the game, he didn't call the Aberdeen Physio on. Maddison didn't need any treatment and soon trotted off without any sign of being hurt. If Clancy wasn't going to call the physio on to treat Maddison there was absolutely no reason to stop the game. Just a few minutes later, just inside our own half, Shinnie hacked down Mackay and Clancy didn't even give a foul. He waved play on and then actually ran past a clearly distressed Mackay to keep up with the play. Fortunately Aberdeen's attack came to nothing. OFW then kicked the ball out of play before Clancy took notice of our injured player. Unlike the cheating Maddison, Mackay didn't get up and trot off. Instead he had to be stretchered off. These two incidents are not simple mistakes, instead they represent utter incompetence. It is easy to to fault the players when they have a bit of an off day, but it can't be easy playing when you have such incompetent refereeing. Yes, we were 2nd best today, but it might have been a very different game with a different referee. Rant over

Regrettably I agree with everyone else here. There was a time he would have been my first name on the team sheet but he is generally pretty anonymous these days. Draper, Polworth and the oft criticised Vigurs have all been more effective this season. When he does get fired up he is more likely to lunge into a reckless tackle than deliver something positive. There was a time when he would give useful central support to the attack but he frequently sits too deep now. On current form, I can't see Aberdeen maintaining their interest in him. Such a shame for such an obviously talented player. Still the go to for penalties though.

The shocking thing about these figures is that the average pay of The Rangers players is £316,888 more than any of the creditors of the club that preceded them have yet been paid.

The question is surely more one of where he is in the UK all time list. There are some stand outs like Redgrave but for all his achievements, he competed in an event that very few people do and which really only gets publicity for a race once every four years. His success has also been helped by able partners. Tennis is played in a large number of countries by large numbers of people (or at least large numbers have played it at some stage and those with the talent will have had opportunity to emerge). It is an individual game requiring a challenging combination of fitness, skill, tactical awareness and determination. In addition, to get to number one in the world you have to demonstrate a consistently high level of performance. Murray may have just reached number one but he has been in the top four or five for some years playing in an era with 3 of the all time greats. Not only has he reached number 1, he has won slams, Olympic golds and the Davis cup. It really is a pretty impressive record. Who else in British sport compares? Personally I would rule the cyclists out. Whilst I agree that Hoy has been outstanding, several cyclists have come to the fore and I think that a lot of their success is due to the advantage of the technology and the conditioning of the team for the big events. They are not performing at a top level week in and week out. Golfers also compete in an internationally popular sport week in and week out and so I guess Nick Faldo with his 6 majors must be up with the best. Football must be the game with most players across the international stage but whilst we can think of loads of very good players (Best, Charles, Charlton and Law - to pick one from each of the home nations) I can't think of any players that would clearly fit the bill as a stand out player. It is difficult to look at any name and say that they are ahead of Murray on the all time British list. If Murray can maintain his number one status for a couple of years and win another 2 or 3 majors then surely there will be little room left for debate.

Armistice Day is the 11th of November. Wearing the poppy has become something of a competitive sport whereby sporting your poppy earlier than anybody else is trying to project a message that you care more than anyone else. I'm sure some of these folk dig their early poppies out of a drawer from the previous year which not only gives the "look how much I care " look but also saves them having to donate to get a new one. Personally, I'd prefer to see them worn during the limited period between Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. Back on topic though, whilst we retain our top 6 slot despite defeat to Celtic, we are 5 points behind 5th but only 3 points off the bottom. Our reduced bench yesterday is a reminder that it will be a very challenging season if we keep picking up these injuries and we simply can't afford to have players unavailable through suspension. Hopefully the international break (hopefully with poppies) will see a reasonably full squad to choose from.

No Raven either! Horner starts and no defensive cover on a bench of 6. Shows what a threadbare squad we have. Huge test today, but whatever happens, we've still got one more point off Celtic than anyone else this season.