bobbybingo

We're the 3rd team in 7 days to achieve that feat against Rangers. Not an excuse, just a fact.

Martindale said he needs guys who are ready to go into the team now, and it's the same for us. No development players, no pet projects, no just coming back from a serious injury, no been sitting on their arse for months. Problem is, where do you find those guys in January? The obvious answer is, do what managers did in ye olde days - identify a decent player, then go and buy them. And then we all woke up....

I think we're about out returnees, player wise. I can't think of anyone we'd want to bring back and who would realistically come back. We gave it a go with Moult and it didn't work. Good luck to him, though he seems to be struggling after a good start in the Championship. By god, we could do with an Allan Campbell right now, but that really is just dreaming. The idea that we should be begging Stephen Robinson to come back as manager, as was suggested on here earlier, is obviously a non starter, for several reasons. The folk who are there now - or the ones who will be coming in - are the folk who will save us or not. I hope someone at Fir Park knows what the right move is.

I'll look out the Brasso and rubber gloves.

What he proved before years of injuries took their toll has little or no bearing on the here and now. He hasn't scored in 8 games against opposition that is, unbelievably, of a lower standard than we're facing.

True. But what we don't need are dreams of former players or managers getting us out of this.

What makes you think he'd be anything other than mediocre if he was playing in the SPL?

Then why sack him?

Ok. So what part does Robinson play in fixing this?

Sounds like a plan.

It's definitely 5 o'clock somewhere.

I think you need to forget about Robinson. He's gone and won't be coming back, so he's irrelevant to our current situation.

Did I say anything about them being awarded penalties? If you don't think there's anything weird about them being the only top tier side in Europe to avoid having a penalty awarded against them in their domestic league since VAR came into use, fair enough. And I'm not remotely interested in which school Jim O'Brien or anyone else went to. I'll leave that to the bigots.

No penalties against any side for in any league for 2 years beggars belief, especially in the days of VAR. You're right though, these runs do happen. Rangers went 44 games without conceding a penalty in the league 3 years ago. There doesn't have to be a grand conspiracy at play for certain teams to be treated differently to others in this country, just officials behaving like so many other people.

Does anyone seriously think that Rangers possess such quality defenders they were the only top division team in Scotland, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and the Netherlands not to concede a penalty last season - in fact, for 70 odd games? And have you written your letter to Santa?

Yes, McVAR hasn't spotted a single infringement in the Rangers penalty box, but its European cousin has been to Specsavers. We all know, because they've always had the benefit of the doubt at either end of the pitch. The incessant, pathetic whining that comes from their ugly sister doesn't change that.

We should ask for their advice on that. They've done none of those things for 2 years, apparently.

Very true.

I get your point - the club know far more about who is available than we do. Would that not suggest they are in a far better position to decide whether Kettlewell should be sacked or not than we are?

I'd like to know who was available/being considered before saying Kettlewell has to go. It's not at the 'can't be any worse' stage yet. Was Harri Kampman in work when he came here? If not, the last manager we took from another club was Tommy McLean, so I doubt we'll go down that path.

Unless I'm missing something, the managers who are out of contract at this point in time are currently unemployed. Can't you think of anyone you'd fancy?

You don't even need to leave the 'shire to find an example of one who did.

We know who you mean. So who in Scottish football would be good examples of what we're looking for?

Given those twin definitions, it would be interesting to hear who people think the professionals are in Scottish football.

If we want to play a clutch of 17 or 18 year olds in the first team on a regular basis, that's one way to go, but it would certainly be in the Championship, or lower, very soon. The SPL may be full of dross, but that dross would eat those kids for breakfast unless they were very special talents. I suppose that's the choice we need to make - is survival in the top flight the be all and end all?