Duck snort

Has anyone tried phoning the club for tickets today? Tried regularly all day and always getting McCall's office closed message. Between the 2 clubs this is a total shambles.

A little harsh. He got the injury in the early stages of only his 7th game with us, and 4 of those were the League Cup. It was only his 3rd league game.

I can't get on the website either. Too many Hearts fans watching?

Yes, Lesser Hampden isn't up to scratch yet. Work was already to be delayed before the pandemic because Hampden was to be used for Euro 2020. Assume that the work is going ahead now.

Same in baseball. Miami Marlins stopped playing for a week after 18 players and coaches tested positive after some players broke the bubble and went clubbing, and the St Louis Cardinals haven't played in nearly 2 weeks because some players went to a casino and they subsequently had around 8 positive tests.

I saw Cove easily beaten 3-0 at Elgin in February and they were dire. Megginson was out injured but other than that they were at full strength. Suspect they'll add to the squad before October but based on that performance they won't be a threat.

I'll continue going to away games, but will no longer be buying the food or half time draw tickets I previously did. Will buy extra half time draw tickets at home games instead.

According to reports a couple of weeks ago Shankland had narrowed it down to Hearts or Sunderland, although Dundee United are being mentioned now too.

I remember going to a reserve game many years ago one Saturday at Firhill when the 1st team was playing away. Beat Rangers 3-0 and Billy Thomson was in goals for Thistle. Think Colin Stein was playing for Rangers. The difference now is that the 1st team has 7 subs. In those days they had 1. Squad sizes are smaller these days too I reckon.

Was heavily rumoured a week or so ago that Miller will be Dundee manager next season. Hope that's true.

Just lifted from the BBC website. McDonald had 6 goals in 870 minutes from 24 attempts. More attempts per minutes than Doolan but McDonald far more likely to shoot from range.

2 seasons where the whole team has struggled and as a consequence the strikers have had a lot less chances. Kris didn't look quite as sharp this season but I'm convinced if he goes to a team that creates chances he'll take a fair share of them. Shankland and Dobbie have been the yardstick by which all Championship strikers have been measured this season so it's worth looking at the league stats: Shankland - 24 goals in 2622 minutes from 90 attempts Dobbie - 21 goals in 2593 minutes from 115 attempts Doolan - 6 goals in 2062 minutes from 39 attempts Stats don't tell the whole story but Dobbie's conversion rate is only slightly better than Doolan's. What's most damning from those stats is how few chances we created for Doolan. I'd wager that Henrik Larsson at his best would have struggled for goals with Miles Storey providing the "crosses" from one flank! Had he stayed I don't think any of us would have expected him to be the main man but he would surely have been worth a place as a squad man coming off the bench and making the occasional start. It's obvious from his comments on the radio tonight he wanted to stay and as someone who loves the club he would likely have been happy playing that lesser role while combining it with the coaching. Can you think of anyone who would be a better example to the kids in the academy? I think he's a major loss for the club.

Caldwell's comments at the time of the Mansell signing tended to suggest he's one for the future rather than playing a big part this season. It's only a loan but I'd guess he's likely to be available come the summer?

The Kane one was ruled offside so wouldn't count in the official stats. Had he scored VAR would have overruled the offside flag though. With regards to England. If you'd said beforehand they'd get to the semi-final you'd probably say they'd over-achieved. However, they went into the tournament at 12 in the FIFA rankings and beat Tunisia (21), Panama (55) and Sweden (24). They beat Colombia (16) on pens and lost to Belgium (3) and Croatia (20). Is that really over-achieving? Of the 12 goals they scored 3 were pens, 7 were from set pieces and 2 were from open play, 1 of which the scorer (Kane) knew nothing about. Well done to them for taking advantage of the draw but it's very difficult to predict if they will be able to build on this tournament. They've had a lot of success at the u21, u20 and u17 age levels so they definitely have grounds for optimism, but they need to find some creativity in midfield so they become more of a threat from open play.

Disappointing to get 2 teams we're already going to be playing 4 times in the league.

Still no updates? Maxi said in September they'd narrowed it down to a few sites and there should be an announcement soon. Anyone heard anything?

His contract with Hearts is until June 2019

Has there been any comment from Doncaster or anyone at the SPFL this week? I haven't seen anything. Probably sitting with their fingers crossed that Hearts get the go ahead tonight so they don't actually have to make a decision.

Watched Barnsley v Villa on Saturday evening and while Villa won 3-0 Liam looked pretty impressive. Did everything defensively with the minimum of fuss and played a couple of raking crossfield passes. Hope he continues to progress and we can start to collect the add ons and eventually a sell on.

What sort of moronic competition results in the team that wins a game, albeit on penalties, to win a group ending up being drawn away to the team they've just beaten! In general I like this format of the League Cup, but reckon the teams that win the 8 groups should be guaranteed a home fixture in the last 16. The 4 second place teams and the 4 that get a bye should play away.

That'll be summer football moved straight to the top of the agenda at the next SFA and SPFL meetings now. When the likes of St Johnstone, Motherwell etc are being pumped out of Europe in July by supposed minnows it wasn't a big deal, but now that it's happened to the mighty Rangers watch them act. Rangers don't even have the excuse of playing a team mid-season. The Luxembourg season hasn't started yet.

Keown signed on 2 year contract for undisclosed fee according to Graeme McGarry on Twitter. Great news if confirmed.

If you're a JH stand season ticket holder can you go into either the North or the Main stand?

To be announced at 11am tomorrow apparently. It seems that the fixtures were set earlier in the week bit they're waiting for Sky and BT to choose their live TV games.

I've had a look at all the fixtures for the top 6 and think they'll have to live with us having 20 home and 18 away games this season. St Johnstone are the only 1 of the top 6 who will get 18 home games if the fixtures are played as they should be, and that includes us going to Perth. Hearts are also heading for 20 home games but they are due to have St Johnstone at home so would expect that will be the fixture that will be switched. Rangers, Celtic & Aberdeen are all heading for 19 home and away games each. It is the SPFL though, so who knows!