HawkeyeTheGnu

Have 20 teams been relegated since 1998/99? There were two seasons with no team relegated, despite these two finishing bottom Aberdeen in 1999/2000 Motherwell 2002/2003 Even if you take Rangers into account, I make it 19. Also, Gary Locke at Hearts in 2013/14 had a better winning percentage than the two teams that finished above them - it was the 15 point deduction that did for them.

Double post

No thanks.

Just done a quick look back - there is one missing. St Mirren finished bottom of a 12 team, 38 games league with 30 points in 2001. Of the 17 seasons of the current format, 34 points would have been enough to avoid bottom place on 7 occasions. On one of those it would have been enough to finish above second bottom too. On three occasions, it would have tied second second bottom.

Interesting stats, but a more pertinent figure is what was the tally of the second bottom team, as that would give a better guide as to how often we would have still finished bottom with 34 points.

Agreed. Never seemed to give less than 100%, and missed when he was not available.

Don't know about bad apples, but Foran would seem to be a prize plum.

This should be just another nail in Foran's coffin. Wrong team, wrong tactics, wrong management style, wrong man for the job.

Can we get County to buy them?

Portsmouth (Cup in 2008, relegated 2010) and Hearts (Cup 2012, relegated 2014) spring to mind, although both of these were precipated by financial implosion and administration. An answer (but maybe not the answer) to a number of your questions is "money" The two big mistakes were not allowing Hughes to speak to (and then subsequently move to for compensation) Dundee Utd, and not cashing in on Tansey. I think that knocking United back started the souring of Hughes relationship with the Chairman. That, and Hughes not being half the manager Hughes thought he was. That meant that we were in the market for a cheap solution when we decided to pay off Hughes, and converting Foran's long playing contract (possibly another mistake) into a managerial one probably made financial sense. That also meant that Rice had to stay, irrespective of what Foran wanted. The rest is a matter of painful record.

We need a solid defence for next season. When not obsessing about the Old Firm, a favourite fact on Sportsound is that we were shipping on average 2 goals a game. Given how difficult we found it to score for large parts of the season, that was never going to end well.

Yes. Given the goals he has scored since Foran decided to actually play him, the decision to ostracise him during our long run of bad run of results looks more and more stupid.

I think I thought we were going down when we lost to Hamilton. The intervening period saw wild swings between believing we could survive, and believing we were doomed. I still didn't quite believe we were still in it at the start of today's game. Ultimately, if we hadn't lost that game at Hamilton we wouldn't have finished bottom, but having said that, there's no way I would have believed that we'd win two games back to back to finish the season.

I was trying to work out who they were based on selection policy. Unfortunately, based on who has fallen in and out of favour, that would suggest about 17 bad apples.

I don't think he will walk. It's up to the board now.

Again. Sums it up nicely.

Can't really argue with any of the above. Sort it out behind closed doors. Don't air your dirty washing in public as some kind of justification for your own shortcomings.

I'm guessing (and it really is a guess) that an unsettling influence can be any age. However, it is surely the job of the manager to identify and deal with such issues at the time, not moan about them after the fact.

We spent large parts of the season bemoaning the fact that we didn't have a goal-a-game striker. Turns out we pretty much had one all along. That fact on its own should be enough to see Foran handed his P45.

How annoying is Liam Macleod's commentary?

A couple of massive half time talks needed now.

Yup. The decision not to play him for a large part of the season looks silly at best. True. Mind you if he could score the simple chances too, he'd probably be playing for Real Madrid!

We can't control what happens in Hamilton, but we can make sure they feel the heat by doing the business on Saturday.

Jeez, go 2 up in 10 minutes and then hold on for what feels like several days! Can't really believe we are still in it - let's have the performance of the season on Saturday, please!

What do I know?