weeyin

Lafferty said last week he gets dropped because he never trains hard enough. Not sure that would sit well with the gaffer. I'd also need convincing that he can score goals because, despite his record against us, he's only had 3 seasons out of 14 where he managed double figures - and double figures has meant 11, 11 and 12 goals. Around 5 or 6 seems to be his average return in his other eleven season.

Utd are definitely chucking cash at the team this season to try and escape from that league. It's a high risk strategy (unless the new owner has money to burn on a hobby).

He was at Aberdeen for a while, but mostly loaned out to lower league teams. Wiki has him at 17 appearances for them with no goals. For me, he is still an unknown at the top level. We've seen plenty of prolific lower league strikers over the years that, for whatever reason, can't make the step up. Similarly, we see guys like Craig Moore prosper when they move down a division. Moot anyway, as there is no way we could have afforded him.

Moult starts for PNE today - lining up against Kipré.

Shape is going to take a bit of time to tighten up. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Betfred instead of pre-season means we set up to beat lower league teams where shape is less of an issue (because we are better). There are a a number of players in the team who haven't played against a team as good as Livi, never mind Celtic, that will need to get up to speed quickly.

Of course, just about everybody looking at this will see a different colour thanks to the wonders of monitor calibration (or lack of).

Looks very smart. Big job. Or just wee?

I see McGinn has just signed a 5 year contract with Villa. Not getting a move to Celtic was probably the best thing that happened to his career.

Nobody said it was sinister - just that is was deserving of a red card. There are a lot of red cards spotted by refs that are mistimed tackles, but there's nothing in the rules that says you only give red cards to well timed (but bad) tackles. And I doubt anyone will be getting demoted. The process is for the observer to discuss it with the referee after the match with the aim to improve performance in future matches. Historically, a ref has to repeat the same bad errors across a few games before they drop down the rankings. It does happen, though.

Spanish tackling from the 80s is a joy to watch.

The EFL allows loans after the window closes apparently.

Hope Ryan Christie takes a sore one that keeps him out until Monday. He was their main threat the last time at Fir Park.

So by that logic, nobody in the lower leagues will ever be punished by the Compliance Officer, as their games aren't on Sportscene, right? And it's only ever incidents highligted on Sportscene that lead to players being disciplined? I'm not claiming that if you appear on Sportscene you won't be disciplined. I'm saying that is not the ONLY reason players get disciplined. For example, there are UEFA observers at every game that write reports on the ref's performance (including missed red cards). That sounds like a much better source, and could even avoid the need for someone to watch the highlights - they could watch if they wanted to, but off the ball incidents, for example, often aren't caught on camera. As we saw last season, the results of the review, of course, are often skewed in favour of the Old Firm - but that is a different story. What would be great is an explanation of the decisions. In our infamous semi-final with Rangers, an ex Compliance Officer (Lunny, I think) gave an breakdown of all the incidents that would be reviewable, what wasn't reviewable (and why), and the explanation for each decision that was dished out. It was on the BBC website and made so much sense you can see why the authorities would never do it. Much too sensible.

I don't think the Compliance Officer just works from Sportscene highlights, despite what fans like to think.

It's the old "But everybody else was speeding" defence, to which the response is "Aye, but we caught you".

Aye, he misses Celtic and Hearts. Didn't read anywhere it was trial by TV though - don't most matches have an official "observer"? Whether others get off with worse or not, if you get caught you can't really complain.

It is (7am kick off for us East Coast Liberal Elites).

The plastic at Livi is much worse than the plastic at Accies. And they obviously prepared it to make it as slow and sticky as possible (which is where the FIFA rules about standards become a mockery). But don't believe me - Alan Preston in his match report commented that Livi's pitch should not be allowed. And the report from the Herald closes with: The stats of all the teams that "pumped Livi" there last season are that they lost 7 at home, 4 of them by one goal. And Gary Holt says it gives them a big advantage - but what he does he know?

I've no expectations of winning this (but always live in hope). Neither team's results from the weekend, however, will have much bearing on the match. From what I saw of the matches in the Betfred, St Johnstone have been uncharacteristically dire so far this season. While Celtic will be heavy favourites, we've a pretty decent record against them at Fir Park in recent times.

Swindon had a season in the Premier League when I worked in that region in the late 80s/early 90s, but went on the slide after that - or, returned to their regular form. That was shortly after their chairman was jailed for making illegal payments to players. (They also had a brief revival when Malpas was the manager). They are pretty much a middling League Two side these days.

Those 3 in the Premiership. Quite a few more in the lower leagues. Not sure if this is a definitive list, but I came across this: Airdrieonians Alloa Athletic Annan Athletic Clyde East Fife Edinburgh City Falkirk Forfar Athletic Hamilton Accies Kilmarnock Livingston Montrose Queen of the South Stenhousemuir Advantage or not (and given the league positions of Accies and Livi last season even that is debatable), it's the fact that players hate playing on them and fans hate watching games on them that should lead to their demise. The smaller clubs that still have grass offer a better spectacle most weeks than the bigger clubs with plastic. I watched the Dunfermline game last Friday and it was miles better than anything I've ever seen on artificial pitches. It will take a collective action from the fans, the players or the TV companies for things to change - but unfortunately I don't think anything will happen soon.

Ross County play on grass, so no comparison there. Also, from what I saw in the league cup groups, they play a bit of football. Accies pitch is bad, but not quite as bad as Livi's. They also don't play as direct as Livi - especially since Brian Rice took over. I agree teams need to adapt to some extent, but as it was the first SPFL game many of our team had played they literally had no idea what they were going to be facing. So nothing really to adapt to/from. Although it could be argued that we did adapt better in the second half. When we are in the unfortunate position of having to play there again, I'm sure last weekend's experience will benefit everyone involved. I also fully expect every team to struggle there as much as they did last season. It's the most anti "anti-football" I can ever remember seeing in any Scottish league in the 50 odd years I've been watching. As much as I enjoy going to watch games at any level, I wouldn't pay money to watch a match at Livi on my travels home even if it was the only game available.

Looks like the first half is up now. Fill yir boots.

I'll refer everyone to the comments that were posted about how useless Porter/Dunne/Gorrin (to name a few) were after a game or two before making judgement on any of the new signings. (And the comments about how great Bob Malcolm was going to be are equally hilarious and wide of the mark).

So far, the entire second half has been uploaded, as has the highlights video. I assume the entire first half will follow soon.