pretzel

All about the Bair.

Goal 1-1

1-0 Hibs

He was out injured for most of his Firhill spell. I think he still might be.

I don't know if he is injured or such, but Maguire last played for Kidderminster on the 11th November, if his loan isn't extended then we will be stuck with him for the rest of the season as he will have played games for two clubs this season. McGinley hasn't kicked a ball for Partick so we will be stuck with him also.

Mark O'Hara racking up the penalty misses. Terrible one against Aberdeen today but he did get on the scoresheet. Jermaine Hylton apparently got into a fight with a team mate last week at Arbroath.

Blaney looked to be suffering an injury right at the end of the half. Mugabi been called in.

I'd imagine Souare will be turfed out in January. We were usually kind with players who were injured by offering them a contract but after a few decided to leave when they got back to full fitness I'm assuming we have changed our ways as we let Carroll go only offering him training facilities.

I sat next to two tadgers in the POD against Morton a few years ago and when they scored in Extra Time to go 1-0 up they got up cheering and appaulding as the player celebrated in front of us below. Then they left, thankfully we turned that tie around but it was totally weird behavior.

They have always been given the benefit of doubt, just look at some decisions in recent times, this season at Ibrox for instance Spencer was denied when through one on one for an apparent foul on Tavernier, why the ref doesn't play on then review VAR surprised me, not to mention the penalty incident in the first half. Then last season you have Cantwell feigning an elbow to the face and an incident where Leon King scythed down McKinstry when he was running through on goal plus that offside goal where the two lines were flipped on VAR but they gave them it anyway. We could probably keep rhyming off incidents, it's hard enough to play them without them getting every soft decision. It's like you compare the shirt pull penalties they have got recently to the ones other teams have been denied and it just emphasises the case. As for the game I'm hoping for a real Christmas miracle, I suspect we will need to score more than one to do it. It was refreshing last week to finally get our first clean sheet in many months. While we may not have got the results we have wanted our better performances this season have came against the much better sides. What I would do to ruin Christmas for these bigots.

The guy blinks morse code. He is just raging his side conceded well into injury time. The ironic thing is, when Derek Adams was the County manager he would set his team up to frustrate opponents from the get go by slowing things right down and time wasting.

Apart from the initial John Boyle splurge and the brief run under Les we have always been skint. The club managed to dig themselves out of a hole under Chapman when I first started attending games, it always seems like a crisis is never far away i.e. Admin and Dempster overspend. Only a few seasons ago we were celebrating being totally debt free, took in some great transfer fees (one being a record) in the process. You can't help but worry what's going on behind the scenes the last few years as many notable staff have left without being replaced. Tbf looking at other clubs in the league similar in size to us if they were in our position at the moment then it would be panic stations for them. St Mirren were overspending last season which has continued this year a similar route we went down with Dempster looking for success, I think they posted 1.6 million in losses back in January. Livingston was recently taken over by a new chairman but they have some legal issues going on over a missing sum of money. Obviously they will be given notice, but with the impeding vote on getting rid of plastic pitches happening soon and the universal dislike for them you will imagine that will be a massive bill for Livi and Killie to foot as they will also have to invest in under soil heating. St Johnstone similar to us had their budget slashed massively, the owner wants out of the club but he has valued McDiarmid park at like 20 or 30 million so it's unlikely they will sell soon. Even McGregor at County has curbed his spending in January when he generally has to rescue them.

It's a funny one as Stephen Robinson seemed to set that trend with us where we were either sugar or shite for long periods with no in between but this has carried on with the likes of Alexander and Kettlewell, but it's a trait Robinson has also continued at Paisley. St Midden had a solid start to the season but they have started to stutter as of late, I think they have only lost once at home and that was against Rangers. No doubt it'll be a tough one but it would be tremendous to arrest our run against those smug pricks. I thought we were more robust last week but a brain fart cost us, hopefully we can eliminate these silly errors as I genuinely feel we have a decent enough squad.

It was probably way back in the Dick Advocaat era when they were signing the likes of Caniggia from Dundee, Dodds from Dundee United and McCann from Hearts. I'm sure Hearts mentioned yesterday they wanted something like 5 million for Shankland, no doubt they would accept much lower but I'd imagine Rangers would want to source a better quality striker for the dosh quoted. As someone else mentioned if Van Veen does return to Scotland it would likely to be a city club due to his wages. I can't see a Scottish club paying a fee for someone at his age but with Miovski and Shankland possibly leaving their respective teams then VV would be a good shout as a replacement.

According to the BBC VAR had a quick look. Those bigots Always get the benefit of the doubt.

Derek Adams always freaked me out in interviews as the guy blinks morse code. I always remember him saying in one of his first interviews that he had hoped Aberdeen would have signed him as thats his boyhood club, well he eventually got his wish as he alongside Steven Craig moved on by signing pre contracts back in 2004. Adams took a lot of stick here but he particularly done really well in the admin season and the one that followed, he scored a stunning goal in a friendly against Accies.

I did have high hopes for Wilkinson, I remember reading on social media that Walsall fans were raving about him when he joined us, but it was mentioned that he had come back from a bad injury. I wonder if that has affected him in any way as he is sooooo slow, but in fairness to the guy the goals he has managed to score were all lovely finishes.

Just came through the youth ranks here as did his father but both never made an appearance for the first team.

Ross County have sacked Malky Mackay for his 1 win in 9 games or so the headlines go.

I wonder what is classed as an accidental handball these days. If we go back to the County game the ball hits the outstretched hand of their player which then falls kindly for him to set up Brophy for the goal all this right under the nose of the lineman and ref. I understand the reasoning behind Wilkinson's goal being disallowed against St Johnstone despite the ball being blasted at him in close proximity. Long story short, on Saturday Bair had the ball blasted at him at close range and the ball hit his leg and then arm then fell kindly at his feet, and just as it looked like he was going to set up a 'Well player for a shot at goal the ref blew for a handball but if a defender were to do that in his box it wouldn't be a penalty or such.

One compliment I remember saying about Kettlewell when he took over last season was that we were quick out of the blocks. We scored 7 goals in the first ten minutes in 14 of his games.

I remember reading a post on Pie and Bovril from a County fan when Kettlewell took the reigns, he was complimentary on the guy in general but he mentioned that his signings lacked imagination he always spoke a good game but when stuff when wrong his selections became a tad erratic, which marries up to what we are seeing. Its scary to think we started the season looking solid enough, we were unfortunate with the loss of the forwards early in the campaign and maybe I'm just being naive but I thought the return of them plus Butcher would have been the answer to our problems. We have we from playing some nice neat and tidy football to putting in some real honking performances. It's funny cause earlier today a graphic popped up in the Rangers vs Livi game about goals conceded from set pieces, obviously we were on it but I think each and everyone has been conceded in the last three weeks. Sadly we will highly likely lose to Celtic at Parkhead, so by the time the Dundee fixture comes that'll be three months without a victory.

It'll certainly be interesting to see what he does. Come the summer I think he will turn 25, by all accounts I'm sure it was mentioned when he moved to them that a massive appeal was that got a big move and still managed to stay closer to home and would likely feature instantly opposed to what Norwich were offering. Has he ever been a regular in the Sellick team as he always seems to be a name on the bench whenever I watch one of there games. I have my doubts we will ever see any further dosh.

Confident that's not a pen then with his track record for us against St Mirren. Spittal had a similar appeal against County the other week that never even got a look at. Looked like he was already going down before any contact.

That wee fud ref Colin Steven is the fourth official on Saturday, I wouldn't have expected to see his ugly mug so soon. I actually feel confident we can get a couple of goals against Hearts, I just hope we stop gift wrapping them at the other end. It would be most welcome to go into the international break with the three points.