Fearchar

Shooting practice needed. Erskine needs to practise shooting with his right foot, O'Donnell with his left and the rest with any foot at all. Doolan provides the goal threat, but the other options are untried. Dominance over another team at that level should result in a 3-goal advantage at least. However, job done, and grass pitches should be much easier for all the players to play on. They did seem to be getting the idea of plastic play in the second half, but it took the halftime talk to explain that to them.

I'm hoping for a long, slow decline - so much more difficult to reverse. A few more runs-in with HMRC, cash flow shortages, delayed payments to players, etc. would be like a constant drip, drip, drip till the message got home. Of course, giving up Ibrox would be a good milestone on the road to obscurity. On the other hand, a spectacular forced liquidation in the middle of the first season in Division 3 would also be very satisfying.

Well, you learn something new every day! I thought they had always been called Airdrie Onanists.

What happens when the zombies go bust too? More raps on the knuckles, and wringing of hands?

If it's work, then it should be paid, at least at the minimum wage - or you'll end up being chased by the same people as on the other side of the Clyde. http://www.bectu.org.uk/news/1326

"Rangers are a huge institution in Scottish football history". So were Renton.

The vultures and flies are circling round the corpse. It would be better off buried.

The official site has already repudiated all press speculation.

Doolan has impressed me for a long time, not because of what he can do, but because of how he applies himself to learning new techniques. When he came to us he was pretty one-footed: now he can shoot with either foot (even if he does favour his left foot); he is not particularly tall, but he has learned to jump so that he can compete for high balls into the box. I suspect that he's working on techniques on his own as well as with the club - and all credit to him. He seems to apply himself in a way that suggests he's a model professional.

I'd agree about the dig, but (from the perspective of the JHS), I didn't think he was tricky - just full of perseverance. That has been a problem with Chris all season: he seems to get lumps kicked out of him in every match. By playing him further forward most of the time, you'd expect to get more than a few penalties out of that misbehaviour, but the referees don't seem to be interested in protecting him. Any referees on the forum to suggest why not? Is he so gangly and unpredictable that they ascribe fouls to unintentional error?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/rangers-sold.2012052514 I just love it when a new Rank-gers owner says: "I can tell every Rangers fan now that whatever decision is taken they will always be told the truth." You just know it's the truth like "The Ministry of Love", The Democratic Republic of Wherever, the People's Republic of... etc.

In other words, Dundee's twin strategy of getting heavily into debt (again) and tax evasion will have been rewarded with promotion.

I don't really see what the fuss is: win a halftime ticket draw to compete at penalties, send Ryan the wrong way a few times and bingo - a free season ticket. Sadly, the older son and heir has decided to go and watch some minor foreign cloggers next season - the Bundesliga, I think they call themselves.

The strange thing about our colours is that they are designed to appeal to an ethnic Chinese section of the population - and where do most of Glasgow's ethnic Chinese population live? Practically on Firhill's doorstep! I have mentioned it before, but the club really is passing up a golden opportunity to capitalise on this feature; in fact, their faces should redden at the thought of omitting to do so. 沒有中文廣告的PTFC,為什麼?

From watching the text report as it came in, I got the impression that Accies capitalised on the few set pieces given to them, while we, as usual, rarely score from them, nor do we defend them well. I noticed great praise above for Paton's corner kicks, but where was the end product? Set pieces really are a very serious weakness in our game, and until they're sorted out we'll never be able to challenge at the top - not at this level.

Not at all! I think that at least one work colleague came to the game because I was in the final, while another congratulated me on Facebook. Ryan Scully must hate me now! After all, I've put 4 past him in about 20 minutes - although the Dundee mob couldn't put 1 past him in 90. By the way, a colleague did suggest that being half-German would win it for me. Maybe there is something in that.....

Here's some more food for thought: does the manager really matter? It may be that the throughput from scouts and/or youth teams means more to eventual success than whoever happens to be taking the training and sitting in the dugout.

The biggest need isn't for a particular player or position to be filled - it's for someone on the park that won't accept defeat and will keep the others trying. That could be a new team captain (although, in the past, Boab, who wasn't the captain, fulfilled that role), and Archie is the obvious one to be dropped from playing because he's too slow now. Even if he doesn't hang up his boots, next season will see him spending more time off the park due to injuries and bookings. It may be that Robertson takes his place as leader of the defence (neither Fox nor Scully does this), and even of the whole team. It would be unwise to rely too much on Rowson either, for the same reason: age will tell in the end. Yesterday's game showed just how soft-centred our midfield can be. It's extremely unlikely that MacNamara will leave, and although he has some learning to do the alternatives in Scotland look dire. He and Donnelly deserve credit for raising the standard of football, but as long as the bench is occupied by quiet men, then someone more abrasive and dominant is needed on the park.

No smeddum. Bannigan should be first choice at left wing back.

We're not direct enough in the box - there's no 'slightly' about it. Whenever you see Doolan moving away from the penalty box to support the midfield, you know we're in trouble. Even if he wins the ball back in midfield through sheer persistence (as he does from time to time), there's then no-one in the box to pass it to (and McGuigan is too slow to get into position). Why is our midfield apparently incapable of dispossessing the opposition (except for Cairney - but he then usually loses it immediately to an opponent)? Whether we like it or not, that's the way the game is going. If you look at how other countries cope with it (and I'm thinking in particular of Germany here), they substitute fluid play with excellent ball-control and admirable passing for the kick-and-rush approach favoured by so many in this country. Just watch how the German national side retains possession, passes into space ahead of the receiving player - and weep, because this is totally beyond the comprehension, let alone the abilities, of Scottish managers. And yes, it filters through to very minor leagues there, to the extent that the football there is played to a higher standard than in our top professional flight. In many ways that's down to referees being very pernickety and disallowing virtually all contact. Sadly, it's unlikely that referees here will ever be consistently strict to the point where the standard of football is raised. The background to this inconsistency is not just an old pals' act among referees, but kowtowing to the various footballing authorities, the sacrifice of the welfare of Scottish football on the altar of those deities we know as the Old S**m and the tolerance for the witterings and semi-literate comments of ignorant pundits in the media - themselves usually former altar-boys to those false gods. Not bad enough: Lucas Aikens - 'nuff said.

The stats don't lie. This team didn't deserve a goal because they (or their manager) can't figure out how to break down a team like Morton. After Fox failed to hold the ball, resulting in a goal for Morton, the Morton players were told to look out for similar opportunities, and chanced the odd ball directly at him. They were told to do this by an experienced manager. There needs to be a more decisive approach either on the field of play or in the changing-room. As matters stand, the players do well but there's no-one there to direct them how to bring about change in a game, and they just keep plugging away at the same thing, hoping that this time it will be different. A savvy opposing team or manager will figure this out and let them exhaust themselves going up a blind alley.

So that's why US television is infamous for being such crap! If the club (or anyone else for that matter) wants to hire broadcasting students, that's fine, but working for nothing for a commercial organisation is illegal under the minimum wage legislation. There are plenty of freelance broadcasters out there in need of work.

We're very fortunate to have another goalkeeper in Fox that can kick with either foot. What Tuffey also did, that I'd like to see more of, is throw the ball out to a waiting player: it retains possession, whereas a kick up the park is often just a lottery, since there's so much time for all the players to see where the ball will land and to position themselves accordingly. Scully seems to be a better shot-stopper than any other keeper we've had for a while. In a perfect world we'd have Kenny Arthur's penalty-saving abilities, Scully's shot-stopping and Tuffey's distribution (most of the time - although some of his long, low kicks out ended up going out of touch)! In the event, Fox offers the best combination of skills at the moment, while Scully is a good replacement. We're actually doing very well in cover for that position.

That's really cute! Trust me - you'll have your own child/ren (or even nieces and nephews) in a few years' time and then you'll really regret giving it away.

Doolan came to the club as a left-footed striker; since then, he has become very competent in the air (although he isn't so tall as many of this division's centre-back giants) and recently he has begun banging in goals with his weaker (right) foot. Obviousy, he doesn't just rely on the club's training, but concentrates on improving where he sees his own weaknesses too. I think he's a real find, and one that's worth investing in - to the point of getting his contract lengthened asap.