weeyin

I'm always willing to take on the Summer Football debate, because apart from not agreeing with it, I just don't see how it would work. The only month we don't play football in Scotland is June. Friendlies start in July and then it's full steam ahead until the following May. Every 2nd year, there is a World Cup and Euro Championship that takes place in the summer. With the ever larger expansion of those competitions, that means a 4 week minimum (plus mandatory FIFA/UEFA release time for players) shut down. Then you throw in the weather. If it's so crap to play in our winter months, when are the players going to have their pre-season? More importantly, where are they going to have their pre-season? For me, I'd much rather stick with a January shutdown, get a 16 or 18 team top flight (play each other twice) and get proper terracing back than be able to play 4 games in June every 2nd year. Oh, and I don't buy the "well they do it in Ireland" argument. The reason they tried it in Ireland is because it's about the 3rd or 4th most popular sport and they had trouble competing. Also, when they made the switch to summer football, the attendances did not increase. And don't get me started on what happens to clubs who manage to make it to the later stages of the European competitions Rant ends here. We now return to your regular programme.

Kris Boyd 1 - 2 Motherwell

The Academical Vaults (or whatever it's called these days) is close too.

Was having a guy in charge who was sacked by Wolves and Brighton any better? How about having a guy in charge who was sacked by Coventry and Sunderland? Or a guy that left Preston by "mutual consent"? Or a guy that left Bradford by "mutual consent"? Given that we don't pay money for players or managers, anybody we get is going to be out of work (which 99% of the time means newly sacked).

The Times said Kenny Black was putting a number of players through their paces while McCall was on international duty - with particular focus on the guys who haven't had much game time recently. "A mini pre-season" was the phrase used.

Must be a Fantastic Day.

There's where the creative accounting comes in. They will no doubt use the Hollywood bookkeeping method to generate a paper loss, and pocket the remainder. Simple

Aye, it's always a shame when the Chairman goes for the money rather than an increased chance of winning the tie. Unfortunately, the economics of the game these days mean it's almost inevitable.

We've set the bar the last few seasons on what can be achieved with a small squad and limited resources. Our rivals have worked hard to catch us. Now a few of them have caught us up, it's back in our court to see how we can respond. It's all part of the game and I look forward to see how we react.

It was Ian St John that kept Bobby Graham out of Bill Shankly's Liverpool first team. When St. John moved on Graham took over and knocked in 21 goals in the 69/70 season. St. John knew how good he was and brought him to Fir Park just as Wullie P was breaking through. 3 players who truly deserve the 'legend' tag.

My first football hero when I was a kid. And always happy to look back and see that he was even better than I could appreciate at the time.

Take it to Hannah Park. 4000 capacity. Sorted.

Would be good if they could be moved, but didn't they get allocated that spot so they could stand during the game without interference from the stewards and local constabulary?

Right on both counts.

I was concerned when we signed Faddy last season that he might be struggling with injuries for weeks at a time. Turned out not to be the case and he had a great spell for us. Unfortunately, so far this season, my concerns have been realised. It's a bigger worry this time around as he is one of the few creative players we now have in the squad and we are more reliant on guys like him unlock opposition defences. Of course, if there weren't these concerns hanging over him, we wouldn't have been able to sign him, so it's a double edged sword. Hopefully, his progress will continue and he'll get back to fully fit (and match fit) in the next few weeks. As for the game itself, it was an ugly win, but a great 3 points when we really needed it. From what McCall said in his post-match comments, it sounded like we had a number of injuries at half time (including guys like Carswell) so it was to their credit that they managed to hang on with a clean sheet.

It will make this thread more difficult to navigate through all the "We always get beat by teams who have just sacked their manager" comments.

He did. He said he was getting fed up with Anier drifting wide instead of feeding off crosses in the box so he brought McHugh on to try and do that. He said Faddy was going to be used in extra time. McLeish is in the frame for the Crystal Palace job. So McCall should be able to find a job down south if he needs it. I have no idea what some people imagined would happen this season when we had to disassemble a squad that took 3 or 4 years to build. But if they had any notion of being able to pick up where we left of last season, or even close to it, then they are delusional.

What we need to do is re-adjust our expectations. I said at the start of the season that, given the player turnover, it would be a successful season if we could finish top 6. I don't say any reason to change that point of view. When some fans were complaining last season, many of us pointed out that they should be enjoying what was on offer because sooner or later that level of performance would drop. It's inevitable. On the league front, I heard we have more points on the board now than at the same stage last season. That's pretty impressive given the changed circumstances. Bottom line is no team can lose the depth and quality of players we lost in the summer and perform at the same level out the traps. It took literally years to get that team together. McCall has made a decent start to re-assemble, but I think it will take another couple of transfer windows at least to complete the rebuilding. Of course last night was painful, but it's not even close to the most painful cup exits I have witnessed over the years (from Queens Park embarrassing us to losing on penalties to Celtic at Hampden). So "where we go from here" is keep moving forward, trying to get the right tactics for the players we have, trying to blood some of the youngsters, and picking up a couple of new faces in January, while trying to win as many games as we can along the way.

Also, even if Hollis was fit McCall said Nielsen was always going to play in the League Cup games.

Out of context he might, but in the full interview on MFC TV, he was at pains to point out he was joking and that when we did get penalties we missed them most of them anyway. And also went on to point out that the refs and linesmen are doing a good job.

Aye (and I think 'few' is being generous).

So many Susan Calman jokes we could make here - if only she wasn't a lawyer.

Maybe get a woman to stand in for you. I hear they can be just as good at any job

I'd like to see a couple of wide players getting at them too. I don't care what team it is, defenders don't like people running at them. Plus it creates a bit of momentum and gets the crowd going.

It's trolling because regardless of how well we are playing, he has come on here every week for years with the "We're Doomed" spiel.