MrCaleyjag

armchair

Starts tonight live on Sky Sports 2, anyone watching it? Do you think anyone will be able to defeat Phil Taylor and take his title?

I'm not sure but the UK open showed that there are a few decent players coming through and there were a couple of upsets. I am looking forward to watching it and seeing Gary Anderson, tonights games see an early appearance for World Champion Adrian Lewis and also Mark Webster, wonder if he can find his game.

The season starts in one week and the transfer window closes in about six/seven weeks so do you mean that if we don't sign anyone else before next week we are going down or close to the bottom anyway? If you are what about the four weeks after that, do they not count?

I have no doubt that we will see another couple of players coming in before the end of the transfer window and if you had been reading the comments made by the big man over the last week or two you would have realised that he recognises the need for another two or three players to be brought in and as such is working on doing just that.

As to what positions he brings players in that is another question, we'll just need to see.

I suppose the way to look at it is this is our 3rd game in 5 days, one more so for generating match fitness so in that regard you could say that there may have been some tiring legs out there. I think fitness wise it's the only thing you can take from the game by the sounds of things and from what I have read along with Nick getting on the scoresheet again. I think we'll see him push up the park much more this season.

Still slightly concerned about our defence especially RB, hopefully we'll manage to bring another few in by the end of August.

We haven't lost a pre-season freindly yet so hopefully we can step it up in the second half and keep it going, sounds like we haven't played at all in the first half so will be an indication to TB which players he can rely on to step it up when they are asked to. It's only a friendly but I am sure TB and MM will be expecting to see a better performance in the second half.

As long as it isn't us I'll be happy, I really don't think we will be but we said that 3 seasons ago and look what happened.

Like everyone else I think Kilmarnock will struggle and will certainly bei n the bottom half of the league all season and may even boot their manager if things don't go as planned, St Mirren and St Johnstone look to have brought better players in compared to what they had but they also lost a lot so you can never tell. I don't really see that Aberdeen will improve so drastically as everyone thinks they will but they won't be drop material. I didn't see enough about Hibs last year to think they would push for top six this year and if Colin Calderwood doesn't sort out his uncertain future then they could struggle to finish anywhere higher than 8th.

My money is on Dunfermline or St Mirren

Honestly the way the government and police are going anyone can be in the firing line, it would be foolish to attribute the problems to only Rangers and Celtic as I am sure most sets of fans are guilty of something that someone else doesn't like, whether it is sectarian or not is another thing.

Salmond has spotted an opportunity to cover up our societies flaws and blame just about everything on sectarianism that no one is safe now and must really think about anything that is sung, that includes the use of phrases like 'gypsy b@~tards' and 'sheep sh~+@ing b@#tards' as this could very easily be construed as sectarian even though in the loosest term it is really not. It is all to do with how people percieve things. I mean they were even discussing the merits of arresting people for singing the national anthem depending on when it was being sung, Rangers fans sing God save the Queen at the end of every match, does that mean it's ok for 34 games of the season but not in the 4 Old Firms because it is seen as inflamatory? What if other fans sing Flower of Scotland against Rangers, is that seen as inflamatory as it is in retaliation to them singing God Save the Queen, it has got silly now.

I do however feel that it is the Old Firm that have to watch as they are clearly on the radar more than other teams however Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen fans to an extent have a lot of watching to do as well.

The other problem with our society is that every parasite of the media and journalism profession love this sort of stuff and the minute something is sung or said they jump on it in a shot and make it twenty times worse and bring it to the fore even more, only in Scotland do we attempt to make things worse rather than trying to help the situation.

Sectarianism is nowhere near as bad as it was in the 70's, 80's and even the 90's and yes the Old Firm have made huge strides forward however it is a problem in society as much as football and sadly will never be fully eradicated, it happens all around the world it's just that Scotland is a smaller nation that does nothing to help itself and I includes governments and organisations like the SFA/SPL in that as well.

Myself and Caleyjag have to declare ourselves out unfortunately but we will be sitting at home with the radio firmly on

Can you tell us how to do that? I always have troube with the radio falling off or at lest sliding away. How do you put it firmly on?

lol, not got a response to that I'm afraid

Nonsense, he was MOM against forest, no one could break them down for first 20 minutes then in 10 minutes Proctor broke them down 3 times with his passing and direct running and we were 3 0 up. Fine against Clach, team were rubbish against Livi and he did a job out of position at LB.

If there is one common factor about most of our games this pre season its that Proctor has been ripped apart in almost all of them. Was never the best player but was always reasonably solid, he seems to be struggling though.

Forest???

I presume you mean Forres!!! Glad however your optimism of the Livi game has shown through from your post, excuse me if I take what you say about Procs with a pince of salt judging by all the other posts that tend to follow the same general consensus which is the opposite of yours.

Myself and Caleyjag have to declare ourselves out unfortunately but we will be sitting at home with the radio firmly on

From his point of view though he will say that he never asked ICT to do all that for him, most clubs tbh would have just ceased their interest in the player when he got injured to save some money and focus on other targets. I guess by doing all they did they were trying to show him what sort of a club they are and how they look after their players which would stand out more as he wasn't even contracted, however meaning he can do what he wants.

Yes maybe not the smartest thing to do but again goes right back to how much did the player want to come to us anyway. He may well have been a good player for us, we'll never know, but I would rather have players playing for us who want to be here rather than feel they had no where else to go or no better options.

I expect the players to give their full, 100 % in every game and expect the management team to work hard and make the team knit together. If they do I have a realistic outlook for the coming season and can see us having an extended cup run and emulating last seasons 7th place.

I have found over the years that having an expectation on a league finish or cup run only leads to disappointment so I take it a game at a time, for instance, last season I went to Ibrox expecting nothing and we drew 1v1 and I was delighted, I went to Parkhead expecting nothing and we pulled off an amazing 2v2 draw and I was over the moon feeling like we had won the game, first game of the season I was happy even though we won as I saw a lot of potential in the first half but if I had expected us to win the game then I would have been disappointed and annoyed.

For everyone on here that wants a top six finish, good cup run or both is it through hope or through expectation? For me it is through hope and not expectation.

I refer you to your own point, that's my thoughts on it... I didn't say anything negative about anyone comments... and yes it is a lot like Adams, n who thinks its wrong he went to brum...

I wasn't saying anything other than you could equate what you said to any thread on this forum, I didn't say it was negative nor did I portray it as being negative. I just thought it was a rather strange thing to say on a fans forum where the majority don't know the full details on most subjects like this but come on to discuss as fans, that was my point.

I totally agree with the decision by the club to retract the offer, he's had long enough to make up his mind, the fact he had to have time to think about it shows his heart wasn't at ICT.

we are making judgements about someone and something we know nothing about...

You could apply this theory to just about any post that is on this board, it is a discussion which everyone is all allowed to have thoughts about and as fans I think we are all justified in talking about this subject along with any other on this board that we may not know anything about.

This is almost the same case as the Adam Rooney situation and there was a thread going for months about that.

All in all I think they did an excellent job with the course considering it's a relatively new course compared to the major championship lynx courses of the British Isles which on the whole are on the coast and are generally battered by winds and weather that come off the sea and have been around for decades. Castle Stuart is on the edge of a loch which is pretty secluded taking into effect the peninsula's of Fort George and the opposite near Fortrose. The usual battering winds and rain coming from the sea are limited after coming down the loch compared to the likes of St Andrews that sits on the coast of the North Sea.

St Andrews is in it's own way an expansive course with huge fairways and massive run off areas around the greens, the difference is that the rough is more challenging, the greens are huge and the fairways are very dry making driving for players easy if they can keep it straight. Very rarely do you see pros taking a driver off the tee at a championship lynx course due to how far they would hit it and also lack of control. the difference I saw with castle Stuart was the lack off battering winds from the coast, I am sure over the coming years the course will be improved and will host many more championships.

It is also worth noting that it is a course than any Joe Bloggs can go and play unlike the major courses around the country that we can only hope about playing so taking this into account the fact they were able to host the Scottish Open is an amazing achievement.

The way things are going with trialists and potential new signings we could do a lot worse than re-signing Stuart Duff.

I would agree with you however that isn't what is in question, it is the length of time that he is taking to decide whether he wants to stay or not. Like I said before if he really wanted to stay he would just sign the deal and be done with it instead of waiting.

The club should force his arm and just tell him he's got 'x 'amount of days to decide otherwise the deal will be withdrawn and then see where he stands with that.

At least your SKY engineer arrived!!! Firstly they tried to charge me ?65, then they say engineer will be here between 8- 1pm. Still waiting...

They were going to try and charge me that as well until they realised I had been a customer for over 3 years so I got it for ?40, I couldn't be bothered arguing with them I just wanted it fixed. Has the engineer not phoned you yet, usually they do. If not I'd be on the phone

Shades of Adam Rooney with this one, seems to me like he is waying up his options and holding out for a bigger club or a better contract offer from elsewhere. With a squad like we have we need everyone on board so we know where we stand to allow us to focus our efforts on other targets.

If he really wanted to stay he would have signed a new deal by now. He's known for how long that his contract was running out? No excuses in my mind, get it signed or go.

Uruguay 1v1 Chile

Peru 1v0 Mexico

Brazil 2v2 Paraguay

Venezuela 1v0 Ecuador

Not the greatest of starts they would have had in mind especially not for Rangers, knowing what their fans are like McCoist will already be under pressure from some of them..

I'm sure all teams will use it constructively and say it's all about match fitness and not so much the result.

Anyone watching the Scottish Open this weekend? I've been watching it both days so far and am a bit peeved that I can't get up for at least one day as it's a great day out and the weather today looks good.

It's great to see that the area can attract such a prestigious tournament a week before the Open and also take it away from Loch Lomond.

I think we all knew that the squad was quite thinly spread and an injury or two in different positions would see us struggle but didn't imagine that we would have so many at once.

As Kencar said getting injured in pre-season is worrying as it will take weeks to get to full fitness once they have recovered. It has only been highlighted further because of the earlier start to the season than previous years.

I suppose the good points are that Jonny has been passed ok to start playing again and that TB recognises that we still need more players in, I am still hopeful that we will bring in a few more players before the start of the season.

Where about was the Sky engineer from? Was he teuch?

I watched that game in a pub in Leith and spoke to some real, actual Glasweigan Celtic fans outside. One wee wifie I spoke to said she that game was the only one they feared post-split and there was general consensus among her buds that they were going to lose. They were Celtic season ticket holders, not people from the north pretending to be Celtic fans. Maybe there's a difference?

You could be right with that tbh, I'm from Aberdeen and as far as I know he was local. I think it will vary from fan to fan but the true Celtic fans know they were out played that night and they have no excuses, the ones that say they were rubbish and it's the worse they played all season are only looking for excuses to cover up the fact that they were outplayed.

Half my family are Celtic fans and concur that they were outplayed rather than the other way about but it was still funny to get one over on the Sky guy

Ok so I know we are all looking forward to the start of the new season and all have our opinions about were we should be and what we may or may not be doing wrong but this really brings things into perspective.

A tradegy of the highest order that I am sure will rock the football world, my heart goes out to the worker who lost their life and the casualties who were trapped and hurt as well as the families of those affected and of course the club.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...europe-14063640

Bolivia 0v2 Costa Rica

After two games each in group C it's still anyone from all 4 that have a chance of qualifying for the quarter finals, Argentina will no doubt be wanting to prove a point in their last group game after being booed off the pitch against Columbia.

Tonights games:

Uruguay v Chile (KO: 2315hrs BST)

Peru v Mexico (KO: 0145hrs BST)