Fearchar

In my opinion the club should be doing more to attract fans and to make those that attend feel welcome. We have, for example, the colours red and yellow, which are very auspicious in ethnic Chinese circles, yet never AFAIK have we even attempted to reach out to the many ethnic Chinese students from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and so on. It seems obvious to start from the cultures closest to home, and then move on to embrace more.

No idea - although there will be some funding for the signage, I imagine. Not treating some of your customer base as linguistic pariahs presumably has some PR benefits, but there are potential downsides if a shitstorm of racism is raised by it, as it could lead to loyal fans deciding that a toxic environment had been created that they'd rather avoid.

Funny how the attitudes of the two large Glasgow clubs contrast on linguistic issues: the Ibrox lot hate anything that isn't English, anyway (although they have supporters who are Gaelic speakers), but the soap-dodgers are divided between those that are much too refined ever to have heard of any other language, and those that claim Scottish Gaelic is just a dialect of Irish anyway. Sadly, both clubs have their following in the Western Isles, but it's not divided along cultural or linguistic grounds - and there are a few outposts of civilisation where our fans gather.

Iochdad! Less of that Leòdhasach stuff on here! (Clachan gaoiseideach - if you must know.)

If you buy a Bundesliga ticket, local transport is included in the ticket for some hours before and after the match. It makes sense, but what is surprising is that anyone here would see that and try it out: it doesn't work like that in Broken Britain, surely!

Partick Thistle is in the area with the biggest concentration of Gaelic speakers on the planet, and was the club of the late Johnny MacKenzie - AFAIK the only Scottish internationalist who was a native Gaelic speaker.

Eilean Bhòid - of course it's overseas!

This season ticket holder won't be at the game - for your benefit: I'm still testing positive for Covid (although the symptoms are all but gone now). Why mention it then? Because there is now no option to watch online, although infection rates are relatively high and are likely to stay so for the foreseeable future. The club said, "Streaming was introduced to allow supporters to watch matches when they were not able to attend in person due to Government restrictions, which have now been removed." Actually, the public health advice for infected people (from the Government) is clearly to restrict movement. Of course, I could attend the match and possibly infect others - but of course I won't. Surprise, surprise! The SPFL makes another anti-football decision. They just don't have a clue about responding to the need to maintain a fanbase.

Fix.

Now I can see why I dumped geography in school at the first opportunity!

Perhaps a certain supersub from across the Clyde would prefer to change his place of work, after testing the climate in Sevilla.

Just no heart - a cosmetic just where we need blood and snotters.

Who - if anyone - is doing the scouting these days? That may be even more important than the management team - certainly if players coming through from the youth teams only end up being loaned out and then released.

Aren't you being a little unfair on poor Alegría? For his final appearance, he actually managed to get a referee to give a free kick after throwing himself to the ground - the peak of his achievements while playing for us.

(Double posting due to weak connection.)

Alegría was the weak point in that game - both lying down in the vain hope of getting the opposition penalised and missing a sitter. Jakubiak won't score often, but bringing on Alegría put paid to any hopes of scoring. A suicidal substitution. Once Smith was on for Graham, the game had been conceded.

At least we've learned that match reports can compete with estate agents' descriptions: "The game then went through a bit of a lull in terms of goalmouth action with chances few and far between for both sides" = "Head tennis and the big boot took over". It looks as if the players' equivalent of "The board fully supports the manager" for managers is reflected in McCall's statement, "who I thought did well when he came on" - i.e. had two legs when he came on, although they didn't really contribute to play.

A far superior footballer, but the same problem, of tensing up when aiming at goal. (Actually, Jakubiak's trapping isn't bad, certainly by comparison with that of most of his teammates.)

My eyes hurt. For any young science-oriented scholars just now: obviously, there is going to be a big future in dementia care. Clearly, Jakubiak has the same problem that Simon Donnelly had in front of goal: he tenses up and miskicks. Why don't football clubs ever watch what their players are doing wrong, or at least consult a sports psychologist? As for Alegría, he is all show: falling over is his best trick. Even if we do make the playoffs, there is little likelihood of progress there. We should really be looking already at who to bring in for next season, as many of the current players are either going to be caught up by age or showing no improvement. Keeping them on will only encourage genuine talent like Sneddon to move on.

The number of young fans at the last game in Inverness (in seriously bad weather, midweek) surprised me. It may well be that the policy of allowing under-16s in free is paying back now, despite a dip in the slightly older ages.

This was how I saw it, too: the QoS players were used to playing on that pitch, and it showed. To some extent, that is always the case on a plastic pitch, as none of them is consistent. In that respect, they are no better than grass pitches, but often wildly inconsistent in a way grass pitches cannot be.

That's what it looks like to me, with the idea being to rotate Tiffoney, Smith and Graham. It's leaving us short in midfield, though, with Smith being his usual ineffective self up front.

The passing back is beyond a joke now - almost number 5 for the Pars. As for passing to a team-mate who is already marked.....

4-0 followed by 4-1. Passing the ball back into their own defence- even turning attacking moves into threats to Sneddon! These are embarrassingly inept performances, regardless of the restrictions.

Finally, Smith off.