Fearchar

Another slightly off-topic point: by getting club employees to work the turnstiles, entry to the ground was much speedier. More of this sensible approach, please!

Nice to see the opposition goalkeeper unable to do anything but pick the ball out of the net. (He made a stunning save later on, though.)

My guess is that they adopted it in order to avoid using the subjunctive mood: that way, they don't have to think when to say "might", and just replace it with "may" all the time - the wooly thinking of typical journalese. (E.g. "He may have scored that goal but the keeper made a fantastic save.")

Bugs due to browser incompatibility? A password unrecognised despite being logged on? I don't know, but without even an error message (just a blank where the payment button should be - alongside a message asking to log on when already logged on) isn't user-friendly.

Once again, the club's woeful approach to online interfaces fails: log on, but no option to buy one of these tickets. ☹️

Not only that, but the sideways and backwards passing when the other team is ahead is simply poor game management, as it runs down the clock, increasing their advantage. When it gets near to the end of a half or full-time, then it's suicidal: at those times in the game, the ball has to be put into the opposition box, or the advantage of possession is just being given away. How often do we see this, though? The tactics at these points in the game are self-defeating. (Louis van Gaal understood that in his last game in charge of the Netherlands, when he subbed to introduce tall players and told his team to keep putting high balls into the box - not usual for his teams, but appropriate in the circumstances.)

By then the players were showing they're not fit. Presumably this lies behind the absence record.

Managing absences is a vital part of running any set of employees, perhaps doubly so in professional sport. The former management team failed do so effectively. Curiously enough, one of that team had already shown the same inability to manage absences when in charge. The word on the street is that running a football team depends on results - not imaginary wins conjured up by willing injured players on to the park. I'm no football manager, but I'm at a loss to understand how this point could be ignored by professionals in the game.

Employee sickness rates are a major indication of how well or badly an employer is managed. It can be argued that these particular employees are exposed to more physical challenges, but they also have expert care for their physique (or should have), unlike most employees. It was increasingly looking like the latter end of Archibald's management until, out of the blue, the players could all turn up and turn it on for an even more challenging game at Ibrox. 😲 IMHO Gerry Britton's time at the club has also run its course. At the very least, he should not have tolerated the return of Archibald. It smacks too much of an old pals' act, and this club can only afford to stick with Scottish football's trends if we are prepared to accept it becoming the very minor, fourth club in Glasgow - the way of Clyde FC.

What we seem to be witnessing is a coaching team in meltdown because they refuse to accept how professional sport must be played now - using statistics and data analysis to support coaching. Poorer teams are capable of coming to Firhill and winning because they aren't led by dinosaurs trying to pretend the meteor isn't there. Time for the board to make difficult decisions, or the only trajectory can be downwards to the non-professionals.

Mullen is a waste of space - given the ball at his feet, he can't/won't shoot or square it. When the ball is sent into the box, he's posted missing. It's so bad that Fitzpatrick drives into the box and Turner feel obliged to try to score from distance. Sneddon won't be here long if his amazing performances are spotted. Without him, we'd be 2 or 3 down instead of 1.

McCall's troupe are never going to work out how to defend against one-touch passing on plastic, are they? ☹️ We'll all have come away with a dose of bird flu after visiting that disgusting coup, but if you really want shivers down your spine, just read the (free) online QP programme, which outlines the professional services they employ. (They aren't two extra coaches.)

Is it a matter for concern that Aero, Banzo and Stevie Lawless, all members of McNamara's promotion team, are returnees to the team? Does this betray a lack of initiative among our managerial group?

Graham should have been hooked in the first half: he just wasn't going to score - as he rarely does when opportunities are laid on a plate for him.

Unquestionably independent of the board - presumably nursing a (justified) grudge for being maltreated, something which guarantees that independence.

Although we may all feel frustrated at losing the final goal, all credit to Inverness Caledonian Thistle for sticking to their task and providing not just the competition which made the game enjoyable, but keeping playing in an entertaining way. Let's just hope that at the next meeting we don't concede, though!

You probably meant to refer to the PTFC Trust, but mentioning the Jags Trust brings an earlier board's unsavoury behaviour to mind. The Jags Trust was outmanoeuvred (Remember the board's call for a "Leap of Faith" as the successful fans' fundraising was brought under the control of the board?) - and the then board managed to get some fans to blame the JT for the board's mendacity. Other dubious features of board duplicity stir themselves in the soup of my memories, like board members having shares in another Scottish football club, but there was no effectve means to challenge such actions, just as there is presumably no external oversight of the executry of the Weir legacy. Pity that our club board only seems to attract snakes in the grass. AFAIK the Jags Trust still has the only independent fans' holding of shares, albeit diluted by the board's preferred means of share issues. The Jags Trust might yet be the only vehicle for the TJF to apply some leverage on the board, even if only as a minority shareholder.

Is there some kind of groupthink affecting this set of managers? I've forgotten how many times we've played Hamilton Accies on plastic in the past, but I certainly haven't forgotten seeing at New Douglas Park how a team has to play on plastic - keeping the ball moving between players and, when out of possession, not allowing the opposition any time to dwell on the ball. What does our lot do? Pick the slowest player we have, Graham, to lead the line and leave the fastest players, Tiffoney and Weston, on the bench. All of Stevie Lawless' skills won't count for much if he's abandoned by his teammates to be bullied off the ball by bigger, stronger players. Then the defence seemed to stand off all the time in the box and on the wings, allowing the QP players to send the ball into our penalty area. The substitutes were effective but - typical of McCall - much too late. Some other traits seem to be returning, too, such as throwing in to the opposition. Although Mitchell couldn't be blamed for today's performance, after last week's farce he should have ceded his position to Sneddon - just to make clear that failure has consequences.

The team looks as if they're playing a game for grass - on the plastic pitch. Dwelling on the ball far too long, instead of keeping it moving.

Isd, thu! Laideann cuideachd.

It wouldn't be difficult to rig up a web-based payment system similar to the online one, but in a booth with a printer to print out the ticket with a QRC. The disused turnstiles on Firhill Road could be converted into an in and out gate where payment cards could be used either in a slot or on-screen, discreetly away from prying eyes.

In some ways Tiffoney is the perfect foil for him - fast, determined and small. In many other sides, these two would be the attack in a 4-4-2, but Scottish football likes to play wingers and even turn effective goalscorers into wingers instead.

Last season we tended to win when the opposition had most of the possession.

A team that repeatedly passes across the back, passes back into the defence and passes back to the goalkeeper will inevitably lose goals through errors, never mind through the opposition being quick-witted, because all the defenders are human - not machines. Keeping doing those when the defence lacks key players, instead of getting the ball up the park, is illogical.