Fearchar

Of course! That's the long-term gameplan: offer a bare win to Falkirk so that Pressley's public comments become even more obviously detached from reality, and Falkirk FC's morale sinks into the frozen wastes of Westfield. We also have an agent sent back to be grumpy and demoralising in his own right. One more potential competitor sorted!

Your signature is the most unlikely on this forum: the club's current top goalscorer was kept on the bench today, the forward who was substituted was the one that looked more likely to score, and numerous chances were badly taken by various players. Same old, same old.

After a two-year trial, a large majority of the stakeholders in shinty voted to move to a summer season. If anything, that game has grown since. Because I've watched friendly matches (football - people swinging chib sticks at each other isn't really very friendly) in balmy conditions in summer, and endured some of the worst that Scotland's climate can throw at spectators in winter, I'd vote for a season from March to November without any hesitation. If we're going to have to endure sitting down all the time, then it seems reasonable to me to move to warmer weather: sitting down in freezing weather is only suitable for masochists. It also seems very likely that the poor standard of football, dominated by taller players, head tennis and kich-and-rush could well be consigned to the dustbin of history along with the worst of our weather, if we move to take advantage of our climate instead of fighting against it. Sorry: I thought it should have been "kick-and-rush", but, of course, it should have been "keech-and-rush".

Be sensible, and use Firefox with AdBlock: no ads at all, and no bandwidth wasted.

My preference would be to punt Hodge before Flannigan. Hodge takes too long on the ball, and in this division that means he gets caught in possession, while Flannigan is one of the few that can take a man on and beat him. However, it may be that Flannigan is viewed as surplus to requirements once Bannigan returns. I just hope that choosing players doesn't depend on how they're named, as in the era of multiple Gibsons.

This discussion is amazing - and appalling. WJ, don't you realise that Manchester School Liberalism is supposed to have died - in the 19th century! Anyone got a stake? Back in the mists of time, when Margaret Thatcher came into office and replaced (Keynesian) economics with wishful thinking, I took one of these "useful" degrees - in accountancy and economics. In real terms, a few years after I graduated I was earning more than I do now, when I have a wife and family to support. Despite that, if I'd been smart, I'd have stayed where I went soon after, in Germany. Society there is better planned to avoid the periodic economic crashes that Britain uses to keep the plebs quiet. (However, health provision there is positively Byzantine: a centralised national health service provided by the public purse is way more efficient.) I have a son who started studying at university this year, and I would fight tooth and nail to ensure that he has the best possible education possible, both from institutions and from me. If it seemed that he'd be saddled with extreme debts as a result, my advice to him would be to move to another country after graduating. That's what heaping debt on students' shoulders does: it prompts the brain drain. As a national policy, this is suicidal, since we pay for the education of our most able youngsters and then give them a financial incentive to take their skills elsewhere. Certainly nothing new for Scotland, but very galling, all the same. My son had a classmate at school who comes from a very modest background. I suspect that no-one in his family has worked for decades. However, that young person was head and shoulders above all others in academic work at school, and wants to become a teacher. He has now gone to university too. If that extremely able young person had to pay extra fees instead......well, you can all figure it out. Perhaps a life of crime would have its attractions, or a career as a bookie. That, I'm afraid, is the kind of future to which a very able young person from such a background would be condemned, in our society as it stands. Fees for education? No, thank you - that kind of society is not civilised enough.

Has anyone suggested that you stay away?

Sorted that for you - just to even things up, you understand.

Surely the logo could be added if necessary.

Surely it's clear that the referees want the SFA to discipline Celtic for attacking referees' integrity while getting the benefit of their decisions? (It has been shown - though not in Scotland - that referees' decisions tend to favour bigger clubs.) The SFA doesn't have the cojones to it, though - any more than they would have enough to penalise the other cheek of the OF for amassing massive debts - "financial doping", as I believe it's called.

Do you mean to say that our games actually get Category One refs? Gulp!

I'm not sure it did work - some of the players looked a bit uncomfortable there. One of these days a referee will stop one for ungentlemanly conduct. Touchy-feely and Scottish football - please, no!

Whatever you do, don't take her to the game.

On current performance, we are heading for relegation. Despite the much-vaunted youth system, there seems to be a reluctance to give youngsters a run out. Even looking ahead to next season, can we really expect to have paid off most of our older players and then field an instantly successful team of virgin youngsters? Regardless of whether the team played in the First or the Second Division, that would be even less realistic than giving some of the youngsters the opportunity to win their spurs now. That's certainly what it looks like - McCall needs to buck up his ideas on motivation PDQ, or we'll just slide gracelessly and deservedly into the Second Division, to the gleeful amusement of the part-timers in Stirling and Cowdenbeath.

For some time now Thistle teams have aped the way that the opposition plays. So Morton plays with enough header to get everyone concussed, inching their way up the sidelines shy by shy and kick-and-rush - all of which is predictable because of the narrow pitch at Cappielow - but why does our team have to decide to try and beat them at their own game? It doesn't just apply to Morton, but to practically any opposition: so when we have good opposition, we rise to the same level, and when we have poor opposition, we come down to the same level. Is this team incapable of taking the lead in terms of play? No wonder we come off second best in most games.

I'd guess that there will be 11 against Morton, with anything from 11 to 14 on the Morton side, of course. :-D

Thanks for the interesting history, though. I wonder how old the Smelltick supporter is, or does that type have such a respect for "tradition" that he holds grudges for generations?

Can the penalty be added to because Dundee FC is carrying out a public campaign against the SFL while simultaneously participating in its appeals process?

Doolan was always looking for a goal as well as tracking back, and he is our top goalscorer. Buchanan was tired halfway through the second half, and should have been subbed instead of Doolan. Hodge was poor yesterday, and his only contribution was to place the ball in the net when it ricocheted out to him. He did not do his job properly: he didn't cover for Paddy Boyle at all, with the result that whenever Boyle came forward, a big hole opened up in our defence. That hole was where the Dundee forward movement came that eventually resulted in their winning goal.

Yes, but..... The team chosen was raddled with that unpredictable(!) affliction, er, age. The defence is far too slow to keep up with fast play, while the high balls pumped up the park play to the strengths of the likes of Dundee and Morton. Meanwhile, a good young midfielder who has already played in the first team, and distinguished himself in the reserves, is sent to get experience - in Ayr! We have slowcoaches like McNamara and Robertson in the middle, instead of getting McGeough in, and whenever Liam shows signs of flagging he's left on the park and our young top goalscorer Doolan is taken off. These are suicidal tactics, and if they continue, then we'll be relegated. Either youngsters of 17 or 18+ are capable of playing at this level, or they never will be. After all, Theo Walcott could play in a side at a much higher standard than ours when he was under 17. Are our youngsters too fragile? If so, they could hardly be worse than the old and not-so-old codgers in our first team - Archie, McNamara, Robertson and Hardie all collect injuries with ease, while Liam and Cairney still seem to be suffering the after-effects of not playing for a while.

If Dundee FC starts and/or supports a PR campaign against the SFL's ruling, while continuing to uphold their right to play under the rules of the same organisation and making use of the SFL's appeals procedure, surely this is worthy of another hearing before the SFL, and a consequent penalty. Surely the SFL should also be asking if it is appropriate for a club that has been receiving handouts from one man but not paying bills to receive huge financial support in the form of no rent or possibly a peppercorn rent from the owner of its ground. The administrator, at the very least, should be called to task for not stopping this outrageous bandwagon of hypocrisy: his job is to try to provide for a future for Dundee FC, and there can be no future for a company that refuses to recognise its past failings.

So polygamy is undermining Scottish football?

You can't do that! How could you leave one player the right side of 30 in the back line - he'd show up the others' lack of pace.

Absolutely: the screen aspect ratio of the video has to be set to fit the material.