Kmcalpin

Absolutely. Ok I would debate Motherwell's population as I'd draw a larger catchment to include the likes of Craigneuk, Wishaw, Netherton etc, but the point remains the same. On a population basis, settlements like York and Gillingham should be capable of supporting teams big enough to be able to rival and perhaps exceed teams like Dundee United and Aberdeen. I know its easy to be brainwashed by wall to wall coverage of the English game but we really need to move on from that. Scotland is what it is.

Which teams are you referring to?

Nothing to compared to Dundee United fans. Watched the highlights on Alba last night. Killie seemed to have a midfield typical of a few Premiership sides based on power, aggression, competitiveness and fitness but little else. Most certainly they lacked creativity. In fact just the kind of midfield that has caused us problems these past few years. There was no way we were going to outfight them and thats an underlying concern. Yes, Killie had their chances but never looked like taking them. Our off the ball play looked poor but despite that the defence held firm and we had the means to hit them on the break. I don't mind playing that kind of game, most often associated in the past with Jim MacLean's Dundee United, as long as the defence remains resolute and we can take a single chance, when offered to us, by the opposition. Interestingly Mark McGhee said post match "It's my job to bring what I see to bear on the squad, to find a way of playing that best suits the players we have. So I'll continue for the moment to give people an opportunity and play about with the shape a little bit and with players in certain positions." So unlike Ian Baraclough, MMcG has admitted that just now we may not be able to play the way he wants but rather that to which the players are best suited. Yes, Andy, our late goal could well have been scored by the likes of Kris Boyd or Colin Nish - we saw that often enough worse luck.

Not at the game today but the result was the important thing and a win and clean sheet on an artificial pitch is no mean achievement. Mark McGhee will also have had an additional game to assess his charges. COYW

In case any of you haven't heard there's a Society/Mark McGhee Q & A evening planned for Monday 16 November. It'll be a perfect opportunity to air your views and ask those so far unanswered questions. This is your chance.

Agreed, but this legislation and especially its selective enforcement renders the statistics totally unreliable and virtually meaningless.

Mark McGhee went on about plastic pitches and rightly so in my view; they are installed for financial reasons. He also said that he'd have to achieve a balance between testing players out to get to know them and getting a result. Its helpful that he's clarified that and it makes perfect sense to me now. Given that, I'd expect he will want to see what both Leitch and Taylor can do. Neither fits the bill, in my view, for different reasons, but he may be able to improve the game(s) of one or both. The exception to that approach would be if he has seen/learnt enough off the park to discount one or both lads. We have to remember that its not our views which count here - he hasn't seen either player in competitive action so far, and there are more in that category.

The plastic pitch will be a big influence on team selection and it wouldn't surprise me to see Johnson sit this one out for example. The teams seem evenly matched but the pitch might just give Killie that edge over us.

Just as I thought - the proportion of culprits from Rangers and Celtic are a lot less than you might expect given the relative size of their crowds. As a few observers said on here a year or two back the Police will home in on easy targets. Its a lot easier and safer to collar 10 fans from a crowd of 500 than it is to collar say 200 from a crowd of 5,000. Police / crime statistics are notoriously unreliable.

A poor article. Does anyone have statistics on the number of fans arrested / found guilty / given banning orders broken down by individual club? That might prove interesting.

Pretty much agree with that. Craig Brown said at an AGM that when he first burst onto the scene he was a relative unknown to opposition managers (didn't say much for them did it?) and they weren't quite sure how to play him. However after the first round of fixtures they got his measure and worked out how to snuff him out.

Congratulations to our Ladies team who won their league title yesterday. Don't think they lost a single league game!

Never a foul in my view. Clangers comes out, hesitates and stops and has to jump from a standing start. At that point big John Jumps for it and yes makes contact with Langfield's body. Clangers knows he's made a mess of it and falls to the deck holding his face, despite being hit on the shoulder.

Yes, very much a grey area. I'd say though that if a player is in an offside position on the opposite side of the field to where play is taking place then he would clearly not be active. However if its within a few metres of the ball or where play is taking place or the goalkeeper, then he should be deemed to be active. On this occasion, as in many previous ones against us the Dons got the rub of the green.

So is a player only deemed to be "inactive" in relation to the ball? What if his sole intention is to deliberately distract the goalkeeper or interfere with his sight of the ball?

No problem personally, I'm happy to change the acronym I use. Does everyone else agree?

Happy with a draw at a potentially difficult venue. Whether Aberdeen played well or not is of no consequence whatsoever; historically they've won more than their fair share of games against us despite being played off the park. Maybe we're starting to see some progress now.

John Gray,Ramsay Bryson, Bobby Russell, Craig Baillie, John Murray, Junior Burns, Bernie Grant...better stop there.

The same could be said for Ainsworth and Lasley. Officially, all three were rested or dropped (delete as appropriate) as Mark McGhee said that he knew what they could do and he wanted to observe players about whom he knew little. He did not single out any one of the three.

I doubt even if the Society had done more to promote the event that the attendance would have been much more. Its own events have also been poorly attended. What I would say is that the event was first advertised fairly late in the day. Such evenings should ideally be promoted say 2/3 months in advance to give folk time to put it in their diaries. Its very difficult to get folk out of their houses or out of their normal activities midweek. Many folk will have had more important things to do (in their eyes) like 5 a sides, the pub, watching TV or whatever. For yet others they won't go to a pub because they can't drink and drive. Thats the reality of it. For my part it would have involved a 3 hour round trip, otherwise I would certainly have gone. Still good luck to the guys for promoting the event and I'd say give it another go post Christmas but advertise it well beforehand. Even then cold weather will keep folk indoors, irrespective of what its like on the night.

Absolutely. Suts was a one dimensional player. If we were on top in a game and could get the ball into the box then he'd do the business. However if we had to play counter attacking football or he had to play up front on his own then he didn't offer much. Latterly he just didn't suit our style of play.

Unfortunately religious sectarianism runs much deeper than that in Scotland. I'm not defending Police Scotland here but if they took action serious questions would be asked at Holyrood and pressure brought to bear on it by by politicians. In the great scheme of things Police Scotland is simply a pawn in a much larger game here. For various reasons sectarianism is just too hot a topic for our establishment to deal with. In this regard Scotland is still living in the Jurassic age.

What really got to me was the accusations afterwards by embittered United fans that Ally Maxwell was trying to con the ref and match officials in an attempt to blacken the name of John Clark and gain an unfair and unsporting advantage.

A strong looking side defensively, but Moult would be kind of isolated up front and we might find it difficult to put Aberdeen under pressure.

Ah I'd forgotten about that. Vic Davidson was quite a player in his day.