CoF

I like him. He's been fairly solid since moving to right back and never hides, both of which is an achievement when you consider the bigger picture - team devoid of confidence, constantly changing backline (until Laing came in) and basically playing all over the pitch and only recently forming partnerships. Without being spectcular, I reckon he'd thrive in a better team. Regardless of quality, if every player in the squad had the same mentality as Josh Law we wouldn't be sitting 11th staring at relegation.

Ah, so the first team award is scrapped totally.. Got it, thought it was for Thomas's first team appearances.

Hmmm. I get the sentiment but has Thomas done more than Erwin this year?

Fuckin hell, canny believe I'm going to have to spell this out. Race, religion and sexuality (among plenty of other shit) is a stick to beat people with and is still a modern problem in Britain. It's an excuse for harassment, discrimination and violence. It greatly increases your chance of being a victim of crime. It divides societies and isolates people. It damages people - they live in fear. As a society we have decided that's completely unacceptable and to leave no gray areas, it's now illegal. You just don't do it. Obviously you disagree so you'll be thankful there's an election coming up. I think the BNP may help you in your struggle against this politically correct nonsense.

Yep fine line between funny and offensive. Only an idiot would struggle with this scenario though. It's not worse. It's on the very same level and lots of people would care. How are you not getting this?

plus Hutchy would stick his nut through the barbecue if meant winning the ball in a kick about with the weans. I'd love to think any pro will give 100% regardless of contracts, but I do worry that we don't have a personal and collective fear of relegation and desire to stay up pulsing through the team.

Serious benefit of hindsight I think? Aye, the squad felt weaker / unbalanced at the start of the season and a few were predicting we'd struggle, but how anyone could have predicted such a catastrophic season is beyond me. Last years squad was hardly the most dynamic or balanced, but we knew how to win. Half of your 'bad personnel decisions' are basically the backbone of the team that finished 2nd last year and took in a record points tally. Just look at the starts between 6 of them. Lasley - 37 Mcmanus - 37 Vigurs - 34 Ainsworth - 22 (+ 11 goals !) Ramsden - 18 Reid - 13 Every one of them played a huge part in our league success last year. We lost Hutchinson and Faddy - two really big players for us, and Hollis and Neilson - two of the most maligned goalies in memory. Were those changes enough to basically half our points tally and suck the winning mentality out of the team? I certainly don't think so. To me, the real blow has come from losing Hammell, Vigurs and the series of niggly injuries to numerous key players which led to a few losses early on and significantly changed the mentality of the squad. Are McCall / Black to blame for the injuries? Maybe, maybe not. Unlike many of the sports scientists on here, I just don't have the knowledge to make that judgement. What I do know is that we started this season with a squad that is better than 11th. It's too easy a stick to beat McCall when the problems are far more complex than probably anyone can fathom.

Huge accusation. Evidence?

The post was advertised with a fixed salary so no, he wasn't the cheap option.

Scores today are interesting. Who knows how County will take today's defeat - it's not unheard of for one result to knock the wheels off a good run. Similarly, St Mirren scudding Kilmarnock could affect the game after this as County play them and we play Killie. Late surge from St Mirren? That said, I worry that we need the opposition to be poor to gain points. The 3 good wins all involved the opposition being a bit shite and as soon as we've come up against a bit of organisation and endeavor we have struggled. Can't see County being that poor - can only see a defeat here.

This is it. I was so excited about the run in and I was fully prepared to enter the play-off's with heads held high if County and Partick maintained their form and we had given them a good battle. I was looking forward to being glued to the radio today and (hopefully) going into the County game expecting a big crowd with that 'cup-final' feeling. Could have been as exciting a few weeks for the club. Last nights result has fucked that. I can't think of two players who looked as if they had even played together before. After two weeks of unbroken training and with Johnson returning it's baffling how poor they were. What's more baffling is how we managed to create so many chances without ever looking comfortable on the ball.

Photo suggests players could see it. Display looked great despite empty seats around me. It's not hard to get in sharpish. Bop's initial post suggests displays were planned for every game. Doubt we'll see full stands now so in many ways it was probably the perfect choice for it.

Any photeez?

Yep, the first weekends fixtures are absolutely perfect for us as it gives us the best possible chance to close the gap right away. Could come down to bottle, which unfortunately Partick trumped us on the other week so I'd rather it's County who drop the points. Makes the following game vs us at home massive as we could go equal on points. Would it be mental to suggest these fixtures have been constructed in the hope the gap would be closed?

I'd like to see what the manager can do with ZFA, Vigurs and Lawson. Vigurs if used in the right way can be very effective however he's not exactly versatile. Baraclough obviously has one clear game plan, and that appears to involve pace, energy and pressing high. Not sure how he'd fit into that - depends how versatile Baraclough's game plans can be I suppose.

Why?

What's a cup again? I vaguely remember them..

Yep, me too. He's great at amassing points in the league but as we found out so often, knock-outs certainly aren't a specialty.

Not necessarily. If we put in a strong run (which I think we'll do) and still end up in the play-off's (which I also think we'll do) I don't think any team facing us will be overly confident. They will also have had an extra 2 / 4 games to pick up injuries and cards whereas Iassume we'll have had a break to recover and focus on the game.

Rangers are the one team I'd take. Yep, on their day they could gub us but they are also the only team I'd fancy to fuck it up spectacularly - as they have done so many times this season.

Priority and probability are two different things here. Ross County -3 points ahead with a game in hand against shite. 22 points taken from the last 24. Accies - 12 points head. 4 points taken from the last 39. On the balance of probability, I'd say we look closer to overtaking Accies than County.

I think calling individual predictions is difficult, points will be dropped by all teams and there will be plenty of more twists and turns. What I think is telling is when we look at how many points each team above us needs for safety. Our max points tally will be 46. For it to come down to goal difference this what teams need (assuming my math is correct)- Accies need 3 from possible 15. Killie need 8 from 21. County need 12 from 18. Thistle need 8 from 15. County are possibly the only team we can finish level with and be above on goal difference. Also points dropped by ourselves can be taken off the tally those teams need. I go to even the toughest of games full of optimism, but to me that's very grim reading.

Good post, this point in particular was blatantly obvious about 10 minutes in. Why we had Sutton chasing balls into the corner flag was absolutely baffling. With Hamilton and St Mirren looking like a guaranteed 6 points for Killie, St Mirren, County and Thistle, I worry that even 5 out of 5 won't be enough for us.

That second sentence is far more important than the first one. Too many players were well below par and starting with Thomas instead of Sutton wouldn't have made the slightest bit of difference.

I reckon County and Thistle are safe now. Assuming County win on Monday, both need 3 more wins to equal or better our max possible points tally. They are the form teams in the bottom 6 and look more than capable of doing that. Our best way of avoiding the play-off is now catching Kilmarnock (who still have Aberdeen and Celtic to play) or Accies. That mad scenario with Accies is now looking more and more like the only glimmer of hope here.... and the way they are playing it's not outwith the realm of possibility. Fuuuuuck