Roque

Yep, the 9 consecutive seasons in the top flight was a tasty soundbite, but when you consider that in our second season back up we finished with a higher points tally than they had in any of the 9, you came to realise it was a flawed rhetoric. Then again, they did win a cup during their 9-year stint, an achievement for which a lot of credit is due.

By that logic every game in the league is a 6-pointer, and therefore we shouldn't be talking about 6-pointers.

Apparently had a falling out with John Hughes, and is signing for Troon in the Juniors (assuming he has a job lined up as well, otherwise the timing of it all would be bizarre).

A club of Dundee United's size losing £1.5m in a year is staggering in this current climate, where teams (Rangers aside) have generally realised the need to operate far more responsibly than they were all doing a decade ago. Looks like they tried really hard to not get relegated last season. Were probably paying guys like Kawashima, Sinama-Pongolle and Demel an absolute fortune.

No trialists allowed for competitive games in the top two tiers.

I don't think the (former) Caley striker's name has anything to do with it - it's spelled 'Doumbouya'. Muzzy's name is definitely spelled 'Dumbuya' but any time I've heard the name said by someone related to the club, be it the PA on matchdays, the management team in interviews, or just fans in the stand, it does seem to be pronounced 'Doombaya'.

Welsh's biggest issue on the field since our promotion to the top flight was that he often wanted too much time on the ball, and was regularly robbed of it as a result, often in dangerous areas of the pitch. He had been much better in that regard in the past few months, and as we all know he's a very reliable passer of the ball. He's even chipped in a couple of goals and assists this season. Disappointing news.

It's been happening for years, and like yourself, I've no idea why.

I could be wrong, but do the police not prefer to have home & away fans in different stands wherever possible? As in, it's easier to segregate by the away support having a stand of their own. The corner of the JH next to the North Stand could easily hold plenty of away supports in the league, and I'd be all for doing that with the likes of the 250 fans we get from Accies or St Johnstone or the 100 from ICT or County, but I wouldn't agree with that idea for the likes of Hearts. We could squeeze 1,500 Hearts or Aberdeen fans in there (if it's the same number of sections we gave when we used it), but I think they're the sort of supports we should give the Main Stand to.

I know it's trivial in terms of the attendance benefits, but I really hope this is something we can get funding for. The bing is an absolute eyesore. It's actually embarrassing when our highlights are on and someone scores a goal in front of a bunch of scaffolding. Yeah, it's an aesthetic issue, and therefore something that I'd guess will be pretty far down the list of priorities for the club (which makes sense), but I really hope we can get something done about it in the next few years.

Our attendance figures are extremely disappointing, but I'm not sure if there's much we can really do about it. We've got as successful a team on the park as we've had in a long, long time, but our average home gate is almost identical to what we were getting when we were mid-table in the First Division for years. Obviously playing at a higher level is negated by the fact that the prices have had to rise, and there just isn't an economical way around that. When you look at similar sized clubs (imo) like Falkirk and Dunfermline, whose home gates are considerably better than ours despite being at a lower level, and in Dunfermline's case not even playing well at that level, it's very frustrating. Even St Mirren get probably about the same number of home fans through the door, and they're absolutely rotten right now.

Yeah, they are, but what does that matter? They're in the league on merit; not based on their crowd size. If anything, the fact they are where they are with such a small support (which, as you said, is 2nd/3rd tier standard) makes it a bigger achievement.

Since we were gubbed 4-1 by Ross County at home, I vowed never again to return to watch us on natural grass.

I wouldn't imagine it would be the untested Banton if we needed an emergency WB. If someone is required to play out of position I'd guess Archie will go with someone with a bit of composure and positional awareness, like Welsh or Barton (playing them on the right side with Dumbuya at LWB), or even the likes of an Edwards who we know would put a shift in, although I'm not sure he'd be the most sensible choice for that role.

Think Greece fans were unhappy when they won Euro 2004? I seriously doubt you'd be unhappy if Scotland did the same to win a Euros, or more specifically to this forum, Thistle did the same to win a Scottish or League Cup.

You want to play St Johnstone three times in quick succession? Kidding. I'd take that as well.

Of all the things I could criticise Ziggy Gordon for, his attitude would probably the very last thing on the list. What a bizarre thing to post.

You do realise we had a trialist playing for us in Spain today? It's a perfectly reasonable expectation to make that he could be out there with the team if he was on a trial. Thankfully, the story appears to be a load of shite and he's not.

That would be my exact starting 11 as well.

Paton left before we were promoted, but even if he didn't, he is absolutely nowhere near Osman as a footballer. I'm not sure what he's done to suggest he's more influential on the team than Abdul either. Totally agree with the suggestions of Muirhead in the worse XI. A class act throughout our promotion season and looked like he'd easily make the step up, but he got injured for a while pretty early into that season, and when he returned looked a shadow of himself. Became a hoof-merchant and was clearly terrified of guys with pace running at him. I thought he really struggled.

Even less useful following them than Thistle right now, seeing as the Japanese season runs from February to November.

Watford seem to have pretty much phased out red over the last few years, which is disappointing. Umbro have done some cracking tops for Lens in recent years. This is the current one, which again would be much better than either of next year's options:

The first goal against Dundee came from a free kick that never was, so in that sense you could argue that this week did even itself out. The Hamilton decision was a shocker, no doubt, but I don't think that overall we're particularly left at a disadvantage through poor officiating - the referees and linesmen are consistently bad for everyone in this country. With the exception of two certain clubs, despite what they think, but let's not talk about them.

His set pieces are really inconsistent (varying levels of poor, mostly), but we've scored from 1 in each of the last 2 games so I suppose if that continues then no reason to take him off them. But I hate that for every decent corner we'll have 3 that don't clear the first man, 1 that'll be too deep and another floater that's easily headed away.

Didn't realise Cerny was that close. Will be good to have him back, but it's just good knowing that for once we won't have to rush him back in.