HawkeyeTheGnu

Red and blue hoops? Now that would confuse the 'Rangers of the North' brigade!

Bloody weddings. Unless it's your own, don't go. In fact especially if it's your own don't go :D :P Ah. The sagacity of age!

Brasso - ?2.99 Cloth - ?0.99 Blowing a 15 point lead - Priceless

Richard Gordon to introduce. Jim Spence to commentate Robbo to summarise, and translate the long words for Derek, who will be sharpening his crayons.

Looks like a good crowd from West Yorkshire, Leeds, Pontefract, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Batley are all represented. And hopefully another 4 from Leeds!

Raith don't have nothing to play for. It is not beyond possibility that at least two of Airdrie, Ayr and Morton could overtake them and drag them into a relegation or play off position.

Precisely. As long as we keep taking care of business it doesn't matter what the other teams do.

At the time of writing, 70 is the magic number. 69 is the magic-ish number, as GD should be enough (but remember Hearts in 1986). I'm inclined to agree that 67 may well be enough, but as C*unty play so many games in the last week, we may not know it's enough when it happens.

A win on Saturday eliminates both QoS and Dunfermline from the title race mathematically. It also leaves us six points from the title, as we would have 64 pts and both Dundee and C*unty could get to 69.

Yes, the most points we can get to by 10/4 is 64, and even if all results were to go our way, C*nty could get to 65 and QoS could also get to 64.

All the teams in Div 3? At least twice.

The problem with analysing the table is all the games in hand. The fact that any of the top five think they are in with at least a mathematical chance, while Raith, Morton and Ayr are fighting to avoid the playoffs means that there aren't too many meaningless games between now and May, so there will be no easy points for anyone. Mathematically, we still need to win alln 6 to guarantee it. Realistically, unless QoS or C*unty go on a tear, 4 should be enough, as long as we don't lose to Dundee. Things will be a lot clearer by a week on Saturday.

If we win 5 and draw one, C*unty can still equal our points total. We would have a GD of at least +30, meaning that C*unty would have to win all 9 of their games by 3 goals to stand a chance of pipping us.

Yes, the clause states that they won't ever, ever(1) get relegated.(2) (1) ever! (2) subject to hell no freezing over

He wanted to go, so let him. I was spectacularly unimpressed by his challenge cup final appearance, and the last time I saw him play - QoS in Dec - he was trapping the ball further than I can pass it. If his first touch had been anything like, then he would have been some player - bags of skill. He clearly thinks that he's worthy of better than us, and gave the impression that he's rather be anywhere else.

Ian McCall is almost a cult!

Drew 4, lost 1 at home - 11 points dropped. Best home form by 6pts. Joint 3rd best away form (Clyde & St Johnstone were better, Falkirk the same).

I assume (dangerous, I know) that the one year promotion campaign was born out of the parachutre money - the club could sign players on one-year deals knowing that if promotion wasn't achieved then they could re-budget without having the burden of expensive contracts. What should happen is that the financial position is reviewed and the club offers contracts to a value it can afford. If we get promoted then that puts us in a different place, financially speaking, than if we are not. Regarding the January contracts, it may be that a degree of mid-season budgeting takes place. Anyone paying attention to Scottish football would know that the first division is a nightmare to get back out of. Even if you'd only been following ICT since they joined the SPL, a quick thought about what has happened to the teams that have been relegated during our time would tell you that. I don't think is was silly to advertise a quick return, and I'm sure our aim is/was to get promoted this season, but that is true of at least six other teams. To settle for a fwew years in div 1 would have been really sad and unambitious, and this is the season when we would have the money to create a strong squad. I can accept the club gambling money they have on a return to the SPL. I would be less happy about them gambling money they don't have.

It wasn't verbatim application of the laws that caused the problem. Muir officiated in an inconsistent and random manner, meaning that he very quickly lost control of the game. Had he applied the laws to the letter, we may have complained that he was over fussy, but the players would have known what was what. I'm sure it was the last thing he needed, but when he lost control he also had Chisolm trying to ref the game from the dugout as well. He put himself in that position by not asserting his authority.

Sadly, no. He's just banned from prowling the touchline and berating the ref.

I don't have the figures to hand but the 242,500.00 Euros would have been a heck of a lot less than ?211,918.81 if paid at the time of his transfer Around ?165-170k I think - basically ?40k less... Maybe we're stalling until the ? rallies against the € I always knew the board were a load of Merchant Bankers

Falkirk were never relegated according to your figures, so haven't returned back within your time frame. They did win SFL1 twice, but weren't promoted the first time, so we will never know whether they would have stayed up or not.

Pretty much par for the course. Lets hope he spends the time away from the touch-line reading a copy of 'Timely Substitutions for Dummies'.

If you want to be anal about it, Hibs were relegated from the last season the premier league was part of the SFL, and rebuilt significantly adding a combination of SPL quality players and experienced SFL1 lags to ensure promotion. SFL1 has always been a nightmare to get out of. There are usually at least 7 teams who could potentially win it, and the competition is utterly cut-throat.

When I watched it (and then rewound to watch again!) it looked like he just booked QoS's No 8 (which I then thought was why he sent Russell off - wrong no 8 and in perfect keeping with his general grip on the game). Russell's reaction to the yellow after the melee made it look like he knew he was going, so maybe he was booked in that earlier incident, but it wasn't clear to the observer. Watching the highlights only enhanced my feeling that we should have killed the game long before Foran went, and that Queen's no 4 should have had first use of the hot water on Saturday. The good ref is barely noticed. Mr Muir insists on being the centre of attention, is unclear in the intent of his actions and struggles to be consistent. The reader is invited to draw their own conclusion on his competency.