Fearchar

Although, like everyone else here, it seems to me that our Glasgow neighbours are just one continuing financial car-crash, it's worth bearing in mind that there is commercial value in making losses - for certain types of business that are less fussy than most about their ultimate sources of funding. (Today's Herald on Sunday has a list of this kind of business, but surprisingly has omitted the obvious one, football clubs.)

There also seemed to be a very large police presence - but what for? There's always the suspicion that it's about getting overtime or justifying hiring people.

Do we get told at the end of the season how much has been raised for youth development? It would be interesting to compare with the previous season's income and with the external funding from the Weirs.

Both Higginbotham and Doolan were obviously so disappointed with tonight's result: the former made his feelings clear on BBC ALBA, while you could get a flash of Doolan's face at the final whistle. In their different ways, they're both a great credit to themselves and the club.

Higginbotham will rightly be praised for the cross that led to the goal, but Doolan did marvellously well to get into that position in the first place, and secondly to place the ball just beyond the keeper's reach. He really has been on fire lately.

If you look at the "foul" that led to the penalty, the St Mirren player decides to go down in the box as soon as he's challenged. Anyone caught unawares and falling forward on to the ground puts out his/her arms for protection - without even thinking about it. A player not doing so, but splaying the arms instead and hitting the ground with his torso is acting. , but the last time I can remember seeing that given for diving in the box was a particularly blatant one in a cup game at Tynecastle, when Kenny Arthur did not touch the offender at all. Strangely enough, about 88 or 89 minutes in, another player was brought down well inside the penalty box - only this time it was a Partick Thistle player, brought down by the goalkeeper. (I wasn't particularly aware of this, but my other half spotted it on TV, and sure enough, it looked like the player had been brought down deliberately in the box.) We often complain about the low standards of play in the top-flight game in Scotland, and also about inconsistent officials: could there be a connection?

A big goalkeeper carrying a large slice of luck - at both ends.

Because I had to go north at the weekend, I took in the Inverness Caley Thistle v Aberdeen game. As I thought that maybe a few pointers can be picked up from the top 6 in our division, here are a few notes on how we could improve. Firstly, there is no doubt that the kind of football that wins in this division is something we’ve lacked. In particular, we’ve missed the hard, bumpy surface that makes it so much easier to confound goalkeepers: who knows where the ball will bobble to if it’s skited goalwards. So this is the first improvement I’d make at Firhill: get some livestock on to it during the summer; maybe some police horses could be given grazing as a public service. Secondly, midfield is where the game is won or lost tactically. It stands to reason that that’s the place where no goals are scored, and so it serves two purposes: by having a hard, bumpy surface, it helps players to get firm footing so that they can jump up for those bouts of head tennis that sort out the men from the boys in the Scottish game. Never mind all the namby-pamby, tippy-tappy passing stuff – this is the future if you want success. Oh, and picking a few giants, or at least players that can jump and elbow with conviction, is a must. Also, the midfield serves not just as the launching pad for possession, but also as the flight path to goal: balls must be launched quickly to cover as much distance as possible to reach the opposition goal area. It stands to reason that with the element of surprise, this is the quickest, most efficient way of putting pressure on the opposition. Get the ball to fly up to the opposition penalty box, and you might get a free kick or a scramble in the box or, if you’re really lucky, a penalty. With some big, predatory strikers up there, the game is as good as won if you keep following these tactics. Of course, there’s a lot of space up front where the ball might bounce: so you really do need your strikers to be good athletes – the kind of muscular athletes that can chase down loose balls and put the frighteners on goalkeepers and big centre-halves alike. Finally, as we all know, set pieces are generally where the Scottish game is won or lost: clearly, players have to be aware of how and where to fall down in order to multiply the effectiveness of the free punts in the general direction of the opposition penalty box. These free punts don’t have to be taken from close to goal – just in the opposition half, so that a long blooter can get those big strikers to intimidate the goalkeeper. In fact, if they are taken from close to goal, they tend to be treated as moonshot attempts by the kind of muscular athlete I'm recommending here. As mentioned above, the unyielding surface contributes to making this a success. So there’s the plan for next season: sort out the playing surface, evacuate the midfield and remember how efficient kick-and-rush is. Sorted! See you in Europe next season. (Note for football fans: these thoughts occurred after watching a match that cost £21, and frankly was worth, at most, £6. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the concussion of ex-players doing their punditry resulted, in this case, in the observation that there was a passing game going on. Maybe that was when I nodded off.)

Lucas Akins was worse - although, to be fair, he was no good with his feet either.

If you can't figure out when the juxtaposition in my comment is ironic, I'm afraid it's doubtful if I'm the person you should look to for guidance.

Many people in all lines of business know when to say a great deal without giving any information away at all. As you said, Ian, it's part of the job. Of course, it could be argued that it's refreshing to have the people in charge saying, effectively, "I don't have a scooby what's going on."

Sorry for diverging from the main point of discussion, but Balatoni turns like a battleship, while Piccolo is much more proactive in dispossessing the opposition - as well as being very adept at heading the ball clear.

Maybe, but both the team captain and the manager put on record that they didn't know what happened. It's surely not unreasonable to go on what they are reported as saying, rather than assume they're deliberately lying. After all, they had the option to keep schtum and confine their comments to the dressing room.

Gallacher's distribution tends to be poorer, but his shot-stopping is better. Fox tends to catch the ball more, making it safe from rebounds, etc. Fox is younger and so has more potential. As captain, Gallacher admitted he didn't know what went wrong in the game against Hearts. Fox is less vocal.

Are you suggesting we should now buy them out, Billko? Nice stadium, I suppose....

Both the lack of fight and the apparent inability of either captain or manager to understand what went wrong. That bodes very ill for the future: how can you put anything right if you don't even understand what's wrong?

What Woodstock Jag says is the way I saw it: I'd have taken Fraser off long before halftime and put Buaben on. That said, I think it's much easier to see what's going on from the stand than from the dugout.

Could this thread be moved from the football forum, admin?

Official site: '[W]e asked him if he could account for what he had just witnessed from his team? “No I don’t think that we can."' A rookie manager, but he's going to have to learn fast if that's the best he can do.

Buaben should have been brought on instead of Fraser after the first quarter-hour or so. I was surprised that switch wasn't made at halftime.

The players that made an effort? Gallacher, McMillan, Piccolo, Mair (poor performance), Bannigan (also poor), Erskine, Doolan, Buaben and Higginbotham. The rest wanted to collect their pay for appearing on the park.

If they'd bothered their shirts and got the necessary goals in the first half, the defence would have been irrelevant. Several players convinced themselves no exertion was needed and they should "go easy" on Hearts. Amateurs masquerading as professionals.

IMHO they sat back after scoring the first goal, thinking they didn't want to be too hard on Hearts. That's stupidly naive in any competition, but doubly so in the relegation zone. On that performance, we deserve the drop.

Fushionless shower! A leader is needed on the park.

Absolutely! Doolan is just the perfect professional.