pretzel

Delighted with getting the home tie and a side we don't play often these days, but no doubt it will be a tough task as we have been beaten previously on numerous occasions to a Championship Inverness.

Out of interest who would you have in front of him? Maguire certainly marries up to your assessment but add shooting to the list. I could be wrong as I would rather forgot Thursday but was it not Slattery that put both Van Veen and Tierney through for decent chances.

I don't know if it's just hindsight but it's amazing to think that 2002/03 side finished bottom, many served us really well and the following season we lost Faddy and Jason Dair was his replacement on the left, not to mention Craigan, Burns and Marshall were the summer additions and we done not to bad that year. The 6-2 win over Livi was great when McFadden scored a hat trick, long amazing run the luck of the bunch. That must be one of the youngest well sides.

I don't think Sligo will be happy with us fielding 12 men though. I know what you mean though, i quite like the 4231 formation and feel it would suit us better. Maguire and Morris had a few pops at goal the other night and the ricochet left us light in midfield. As we all know however Alexander won't be deviating from his preferred formation.

Born and bred in Motherwell, grew up a stones throw from Fir Park, a massive Sellick fan. Not that I am taking Sligo lightly at all as we have been beaten by worse but I would have loved to have slung five or six past him tonight. Looking forward to returning to Fir Park this evening, hopefully get the season kicked off in a positive matter, away goals don't count anymore which a bonus. I fancy us to win the game, but I'm sure we will make tough work of it.

According to the Daily Express tonight, we are getting a keeper in trial, Aston Oxborough, who is highly rated by Andy Dibble. Also sounds like Woolery will be away as he was given permission to speak to the Turkish club. Interesting to see if he's getting turfed oot or if we are getting a fee of such.

The club have just announced that Mark O'Hara, Darragh O'Conor, Justin Amaluzor, Liam Grimshaw, Liam Donnelly, Jordan Roberts, Peter Morrison, Victor Nirennold and Cody McLeod have all left the club. Liam Shaw obviously heads back to Celtic and we have offered a new contract to Ricki Lamie.

I was always confident going into games against the Old Firm at Fir Park in the past but in recent years not so much. They have a few missing today as Ramsay (no surprise) and Roofe are out so that means Fashion Sakala will likely be up top again, can't say I've been impressed with him but no doubt he'll be made to look like a world class forward. Hopefully they have their eyes on the European game midweek, the Rangers fans on social media love to call us hatchet men and that, I would actually love it if we lived up to that rep today and we kick the utter crap out of them as they'll not fancy a 50/50 surely. We done well for 40 minutes at Fir Park last time but all the hard work was undone in minutes, three points would be marvellous but I'd take a draw. Nick Walsh is the ref today, he officiated the 6-1 game at Fir Park last time the teams met.

Always enjoy a video like that capturing the reaction of both sets of fans and the goal, even managed to squeeze in wee Davie Martindale. Funny how the keeper wasn't holding on the ball and feigning injury then.

Callum Davidson has tested positive for covid so Steven MacLean is taking charge of the St J first team.

I wouldn't go as far as that to tbf. The fact that it's had such a mixed response between 'Well fans, oppositions team fans and pundits over the last few days says it all really, I actually enjoy getting the different perspectives. Personally I've struggled to make my mind but having seen the tackle from the Celtic game last night it begs the question what was the difference in the challenges that merited one player getting a red and one getting a yellow for offences that would fall under the same bracket. Liam Donnelly was on the end of a similar robust challenge from Richard Tait only a month or so ago and not a word was spoken, I think it's the consistency from incidents like that which don't help matters. I had actually forgotten but Willie Collum isn't a stranger to an early red, as he sent off Michael O'Halloran off for Rangers after 4 minutes in 2017, sadly Mr McDonald put in a idiotic challenge 20 minutes later and also saw red.

I also love how Porteous after cheering the red card just steps over his team mate injured on the ground without checking on the poor guy, seconds prior he was screaming murder.

I don't think you'll be too far off the mark with that selection, I wouldn't be surprised to see him play Goss instead of Slattery and I'm sure he'll pick Efford as he has scored 2 from 2 in the last few games. It'll be a tough game, I know St Johnstone are desperate for points and with Dundee in action against Rangers I'm sure they'll see this as a must win as it would likely give them a nice 4 point cushion. Hopefully we can get a result here and enjoy a solid run up until the spilt, it's quite sad to think even a handful of wins in our keech run would have seen as sitting pretty. St J have plenty new additions since we last played them in December including Ciftci who is still searching for his first goal for them.

It's frustrating to say the least, I've said it in a few threads this season I have accepted our refs are pish but I just wish they would be consistently pish for both sides. I'm still undecided on the Mugabi tackle, I was leaning towards the yellow at most but it is worth mentioning it is Collum after all he has sent people off for a lot less, in the three games he's been at Fir Park this season someone has walked in each of them. Not to mention he is the ref we have won the most appeals against since that was introduced. I'm quite surprised he only gave the Hibs forward a yellow for the flying elbow, less than a month ago he sent off Charles Dunne for a lot less he received a red for an apparent elbow where his feet were on the ground and he simply tried to head the ball but this was overturned on appeal. I thought we done alright considering we played 89 minutes with the ten men, I feel we would have been in the semi finals had we had a full compliment on the field.

Yeah you're right if the the foul (pulling) starts outside the box and carries into the box its classed as a pen but the guy was going down outside the box defying physics in the process and landed in it as per TV pictures, so it's a nay.

That was utter torture to watch last night, two teams that would get football stopped. The Beaton penalty call was atrocious, everyone in the ground apart from the officials could see it was well out the box, I wonder if refs check things like that at half time as Beaton seemed to wise up to their diving antics, with that being said, Paton who was on a yellow managed to escape a further booking with two dives, a foul on Donnelly and kicking the ball away. The game reminded me somewhat of that Inverness cup tie in the early 00s where they scored an early wonder goal but just sat back and anytime the ball went near the box it was just blootered anywhere but here. It was hard watching all of those misplaced passes, we were culpable for our own downfall last night, County were equally as brutal but managed to stifle any dangerous attack we had outside the of the box, its really frustrating to think that they scored with their only real effort on target which was gifted to them. I can't believe that Charles-Cook is the leagues top scorer, he was extremely poor, keech first touch & wayward passing etc, he would have slotted into our 11 nicely last night tbh. Nice to see the improvement of Woolery in recent time def the MOTM from our side, however he should have squared his chance to Efford. No league wins in 9 games, to think we would be sitting pretty in 4th with just a handful of wins in that period. The leagues been weird since the Winter return, while certain teams in the top six struggled for wins a few below who were miles behind have enjoyed a fruitful period and are now right in the mix for a top six slot. Dundee managed by Mark McGhee is next up on Saturday at home, three points would be most welcome.

Shite, they changed tactics at HT and opted to play Broon in defence instead. He however went off injured later in the game.

Thankfully we can draw a line under league business for a week as we move onto our Scottish Cup tie with Aberdeen. Hopefully we see a nice bumper crowd at Fir Park as the games not on TV. Hopefully this is the turning point in our form, I wouldn't be surprised to see this game go into extra time, Van Veen has enjoyed fixtures against the Dons so hopefully this Saturday is no different.

It's been massively frustrating since returning from the Winter break, we managed to dig results out at the start of the season without playing well but as time progressed we actually started to play really well and it was particularly pleasing when we beat the likes of Dundee United, Hearts and St Johnstone without them getting as much as a sniff at goal, it seems like we have went right off the rails as defensively as we are giving away horrendous goals while at the same time we seem creatively bankrupt going forward. Its a real shame we have hit a bit of a rut as we had a real chance to go clear in fourth but instead its all became a bit more condensed, a few clubs have a game in hand and will be breathing right down our necks. I'm assuming Alexander has been changing the line up frequently due to the sheer volume of games as of late, I honestly can't wait to get February over with as it seems like it will be a tough few weeks.

I spotted this image on Twitter , it was a proposed new stand design for a potential ground based on Airbles Street. The plans were designed by architect James Bell and was dated 1890.

Van Veen, Tierney and Cornelius all on for Woolery, Roberts and Slattery.

1-0 Dundee United

Great chance early on off the bar.

Yeah you're correct, literally just seen Alan Burrows confirm this on twitter. Seems mad that we could potentially have 14 subs in a match now, highly unlikely I know.

You can make up to five subs now but you can only use three stoppages in play as was the case before, plus you can take advantage of the half time break. St Mirren made four separate subs which was weird, it would be strange to just give them an extra sub just because. I thought concussion subs were to be used strictly for that reason and they had two should they have needed it. I never saw what happened to Shaw but it appears he was suffering from blurred vision, I assume he took a head knock.