David Stevenson

I wouldn't worry about what Dundee fans say. Or United fans for that matter. Erskine, like Higi, will take the ball and turn towards the opposition goal and that opens up opportunities to score. In the games before his arrival we tended to look as if Paul McStay had occupied the collective mind of the midfield. His form waned as the season progressed but I think a new start at Firhill including pre-season would do him and us good. Time will tell.....

Do you really want to see a 60ft high brick wall running the entire length of the pitch on the Firhill Rd side? The accepted planning permission is for a mix of housing, office and dressing room space at the City end with the possibility of a miniature stand containing a single digit number of rows behind the bye-line. It looks ridiculous. Long may the property slump continue.....

CGMB: Fair enough, but I'm not sure that what you are suggesting is much different from where we are at the moment really. The Club has volunteer helpers in a number of roles and the JT has donated cash to specific projects when requested by the Club. OneThistle has been a conduit of support also. None of these gain influence with the BoD or management and I would see a "vote for a project" situation as a sop. If I have understood JJ correctly from previous contributions, he sees TAG as a means to gain such influence by showing willing and providing cash and support. I'm far from convinced that will be successful. Re the CF, I'm not sure the facts have ever been unequivocally laid out, but it has been implied/stated many times that the previous Director associated with running the scheme took a wage of £35Kpa. For running a sweep, badly. I saw it as a donation to the Club and found the implication that i was effectively just making a donation to a Director more than a bit galling. Despite that, I have not yet got to the stage of cancelling, but when the well of sympathy for the Club runs dry, the cash will too. I really would rather it was spent on something more constructive and that was why my donation was originally an 1876 Fund payment which transferred to the CF.

Was Albert Craig or Alan Lawrence your postie?

Yes, it is good news. Long time since young Scotland teams made any impact. Probably the Dorrans era. And not many of them really made it big: http://bornoffside.net/2012/04/whatever-happened-to-the-2006-scotland-u19-squad/ Here's hoping for better!

A few years ago, I believe "cash for influence" was the direction that a number of members wished the Jags Trust to take rather than the "cash for nothing" situation preferred by the BoD. To the former end, the 1876 Fund was set up by the JT. It built up quite nicely, though on a modest scale until it was subsumed into the Centenary Fund as a result of a voting "coup" within the Trust orchestrated by Club Board members and some allies within the JT. Part of that arrangement was that the Trust was to be allocated extra shares. That has never happened and says a lot about the trustworthiness of those involved on the Club side. In parallel, the Trust has been completely sidelined in terms of influence. It is sadly shunned by the Club and also by many fans. I imagine membership is on a one-way track downwards as a result. Whatever ones views of the Trust, that situation is not serving the fans well and is possibly what the BoD had hoped for in the first place. We also have half our stadium hawked off to Propco. The only thing which has allowed the stadium to remain intact has been the financial and property collapse since 2007. The planning application which was ultimately accepted by the City Council looks appalling. On the other side of the country, Hearts fans are in the position of having the opportunity of owning their club, lock, stock and barrel (no pun on their departed manager intended). They need to raise £6M over 5 years to do so. A tall order, no doubt about it: equivalent to £120 a year from 10,000 fans. We don't have that number of fans unfortunately, though as JJ pointed out elsewhere, the aim is to ultimately have 5000 registered fans in TAG, so I suppose if we raise our sights, it could perhaps be done. TAG really doesn't attract me though. As far as I can see, it is a continuation of the cash for nothing principle with a wee pat on the head for being daft numpties and continuing to sign up to it. I currently donate £120 via the Centenary Fund for no return (bar a signed shirt that I didn't collect back in the McCall era). Given the crap we often have to put up with from the club, it is seriously grudged. If there were 1000 fans capable of directing £120 to a "purchase" fund, we would be on the same footing as the Hearts fans (in respect of the amount of cash that Propco generated). Jambos will get something for their money. We don't. In fact, we get taken for granted and viewed as an inconvenience. It may always have been thus for football fans, but perhaps those days are coming to an end.

Unveiled as the new Director of Communication....... I really would like to see Barry Ferguson get the St. Mirren job though!

If this is the real rationale, it is insane. It is utterly ridiculous to view about 20% of your regular customer base as an inconvenience, but that seems to be where customer relations are at the moment with Firhill management. In this case it is easy to call them out on it. There are very simple solutions to this problem and unless one is adopted, ST sales will be lost, possibly also Centenary Fund memberships as well as other income. E-mails and letters to that effect should be sent today.

Excellent. Wish the BoD were as good as this....

Even if it is Tannadice.....? I am not suggesting it is, btw...

PT: I don't think you should spare Maxi full exposure of the rationale he offered. It's not your job to save his face. The "it's a business" line is so utterly patronising, not least because of the appalling customer care doled out by the business Ian Maxwell is charged with running. Unimpressed by the "strategising" too, but at least the timing gives the fans the opportunity to use season ticket renewal (or not) as leverage. Tried signing one of the petitions and something went wrong. Will try again.

I sat in the Main stand for the first Sellick game with some Burnley-supporting friends. Aside from us getting beat, we all enjoyed it though the facilities are sub-standard. View was ok with the obvious proviso of the pillars. The facade on Firhill Road is what makes Firhill look like a football stadium rather a Meccano kit. I would be gutted if it were to be substituted for such a construction, but that won't happen under a Propco development: it would be something much worse. The planning permission which was ultimately accepted by GCC looked absolutely awful and inferior to the originally rejected plan for the City end of the ground.

Money talks. If fans withhold their cash, Clubs are likely to respond. STs were already purchased when the decision to vacate the North Stand when Sellick visited was taken. Timing of this means it can be challenged. Hopefully common sense prevails. Alienating your own support is insane.

Thanks for your reporting over the season, Billko. It's good to know that the young players are developing well. There will always be attrition as teams and players move up the age groups. Hope your boy is kept on the Jags system.

Was at the Jags Hall of Fame night when Danny was inducted. Spoke very well and has a very good track record as a manager. Far from perfect (e.g. Djemba Djemba and that French guy who stepped off the plane and into the team to play us!), as he would be the first to admit, but definitely "in credit". Just ridiculous that his position is in question but overly demanding fans are not exclusive to Paisley.

You might not rate the Bairns or Queens, but they are better than Raith Rovers and they beat Hibs 3-2 at Easter Rd. Even Stranraer took 3 off them, though they shipped 5! That one victory got Hibs into the League Cup QF!

It's all margins. We only had to be a little better and we would have been comfortably 7th. Everyone knows what needs improvement. Hopefully Archie can enhance the squad and improve organization at the back. If he does, we should be able to cement our place in the Premiership.

At least it is in the public domain BEFORE ST renewal. It would have been outrageous to reveal that kind of information afterwards. Like last year. It does also give the fans leverage, though that would be better exercised in a collective and organized fashion. Easier said than done given the state of organization among our support, a situation that you could argue has come to pass through the influence of the BoD.

Have to disagree, Billko. In isolation, defeat yesterday cost us £150K. That is a HUGE sum in our context. With that cash, we could strengthen our squad significantly. As it is, County have that money now. I have lost count of the cheap goals we have conceded over the season. Stop that and we will motor up the Division.

Yes, but as hinted at above, it would be difficult to make it worse. "Customer care" has been piss-poor over the past year and communication (which could potentially smooth some of that over) even worse. Hope there really are improvements.....

Tried to get a ticket on-line for tomorrow's game and can't get anywhere. Has anybody on here tried this today and had the same problem (or in fact succeeded in getting a ticket)?

Dear Duke, you are so right.... Poor wee Trotter will have to wait AGES to make his next snide comment. It is tragic... Over the piece, the players did really well tonight. We shipped 2 bad goals but hit back with 4! Over the season the players have done a great job given their experience and the resources available. One more big effort could be enough to finish in our best position for decades. Here's hoping that Archie, Shaggy and the players have it in them to make it over the next line. There is room for further improvement and development but I am confident they will work to achieve that. Hasta la Victoria! Siempre!

Or taken our chances against Killie in regular season. Or given Hibs the duffing they deserved when they won 1-0 at Firhill. And not shipped a late goal to Hearts at Firhill early season. Or not given away ridiculous goals to County when we were 3-1 up. Or not given away a mad penalty against St. Mirren the other week..... Or buried ICT at Firhill when we ought to have..... Or had a ref who noticed Jim Goodwin's blatant handball..... There have been more games where we ought to have picked up points than games where we were lucky to get them. We're still in the mix and could still finish 7th. With marginal improvements and better concentration, we could be in a far better position than we are. If the players can make those improvements, and the squad is strengthened, we can have a more successful season next year. There's still till a lot to do to win top Division stautus, but it's in the hands of the players. Collectively and individually, there have been mistakes, but there's been a lot of hard work and good football too. I'm sure they can do it. Hopefully tomorrow night rather than Saturday! Absolutely must play better than they did last time out against Hearts, though!

Not a foul, but hardly merits the descripton "powderpuff defending". Balatoni was back-pedalling and Collins was going forward. Collins was obviously favourite to win it and he did.

He played a few decent passes in those highlights. Hopefully more tomorrow night if he gets game time.