lady-isobel-barnett

That's as I understand it. As a generalisation in my mind it further complicates what should be a simpler ruling. Often a very fine line in interpreting if a defender played the ball or not.

Difficult to know where he was supposed to be playing but I don't think Stevie Fulton was a defender. In fact he more or less hung around and filled the centre circle. Btw I don't think you could include Turnbull, Cargill, Santala, McGinty & Ntambe in your list. Piss poor as they were I don't think any of them arrived at Firhill under the fan enthusiasm banner.

Thinking along the same lines. McCall has previously said that he favours a system that includes a right sided wide mid playing down the left (Tiffoney) with a leftie playing wide right (still to be signed?). That makes sense as we don't have attacking full backs as such and we have to find width from somewhere. That clearly rules out playing two upfront if you consider Docherty, Bannigan Turner/Smith as automatic starters. I'd be shocked if McCall didn't start each match just now with both Rudden & Graham. So, yes, a front three of Rudden-Graham-Tiffoney makes a lot of sense. Turner may then have to provide a bit more width down the right to allow Rudden to get closer to Graham. Problem, fortunately a good problem, will be if/when we sign the left sided wide mid. Till then I'd definitely favour a 4-3-3 over the likes of Saturday's 5-3-2.

It's not that long since our Abdul Osman just needed to be on the team sheet to earn a yellow card, so I tend to have some sympathy with clubs who feel they get the wrong end of the refereeing stick. Poor officiating, particularly with consistency, tends to be the norm. However on Saturday I thought the ref tried to let the game flow, wasn't over whistle happy and appeared to get the big decisions right. Albeit from my low expectation perspective I felt he did alright and certainly seemed fair enough.

Above...... and also pleasantly surprised that the Big Man easily lasts 90 mins. I'd previously welcomed his signing but thought at his age he'd be good for an hour or sometimes merely an impact sub. He puts in a grand shift, helps out in defence and is just as liable to score late on.

I wouldn't trust the BBC too much but reflects how I saw it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57951141

We'll play better and not win this season but today was the type of game we'd have just have laid down to in the recent past. Worried slightly that we're still experimenting with formations and need to use more width but we're supposed to be signing a wide player and Tiffoney will probably be ready to start next week

Agree that's a bit much. Just like to point out that you're really waiting 1 hour 30 minutes. At 2.50pm there's a live appearance from Neil Doncaster, which will give us Jags fans an opportunity to praise and celebrate his achievements at the SPFL.

Difficult choice re goalie. Think maybe Murray or McIver will start ahead of Tiffoney.

He's also 28 year old. At an age when he should've been playing the "Old Heid" and guiding a younger centreback partner thru a game. Instead I got the impression the only way he'd possibly have a steady game would be playing alongside an experienced centreback. Signing for Kelty is maybe the best move he could make. When you factor in appearance and win bonuses he'll probably end up on better terms than he'd be on seeing out his contract with us. Hopefully in this case the "mutual consent" will not have cost us a penny?

Staying out of the rights or wrongs of the live stream argument. Think tho' it may be worth pointing out that nowhere near 100% of ST holders ever turn up for at a league match. Given it's the first game of the season and the added novelty value of attending games I'd expect there'll be a decent uptake, but I imagine it still won't be anything like 100%. I believe it would be wrong to then assume that the reason that those ST holders that don't turn up is down to Covid worries.

How can it possibly be "Under SPFL rules this season"??? The league season hasn't even kicked off yet and the SPFL only make up the rules after or during a competition.

A nice big to whoever bought Season Ticket No1971. Refused the freebie and in turn donated to a "worthy fan".

I doubt it's that much arguable anyway but I believe poor starts to a league campaign have been a drawback year on year since our promotion season almost a decade ago. Like everyone else on here I obviously didn't attend Sunday's game. But judging on the three previous league cup games and TV coverage yesterday I'd say we don't look like we're set up to hit the ground running on Saturday. In fact I've seen better prepared squads come an early cropper in recent years. Tempered against my pessimism is a belief we've a relatively benign season start. Perhaps we can amass enough points in the early stages without playing that great? Stark reality tho' is we've underperformed in the League Cup group stages. And even if you view these fixtures as no more than some sort of "competitive friendlies" I can't see how you can argue that the end product has been anything approaching satisfactory. Gut feeling is we'll assemble a squad too good to be relegated but not joiny up early enough to seriously challenge for promotion.

Re Hastie. I don't see much wrong, in fact I kinda welcome the manager making a wildcard signing. Besides a loan signing is less of a gamble. Senior players could be more problematic, there's the risk they could be disruptive, but Hastie's still relatively young. Could be a great addition to the squad. He's gotta a lot to do to regain the favour of his parent club and could bust a gut with us to prove his worth. Of course we could be talking about another Stevie Lennon. As I say nothing wrong with having one wildcard signing.

Mayo's left sided so it would make sense. He looked decent in the few games he played for us

Three additions to the squad to make the final pieces in the jigsaw.

You make a valid point. I just know that had Dumbarton not been able to field a side the another night I'd have felt kinda cheated only been awarded 2 points. In turn, and I generalise, that possible/probable(?) loss of a 3rd point could make a club's following game meaningless. Of course, as you could point out, under other circumstances an unfancied club picking up 3 points and +3 goal difference could make other ties academic. Anyone know what that renown double act Duckworth & Lewis are up to these days?

Being absolute sticklers for governance I'm sure the SPFL will have the relevant watertight rules in place.

I don't believe anyone could come up with a fair way of dealing with these cancelled matches. I suppose you could rank every team and have a sliding scale of outcomes. In the case of a higher ranked club forfeiting to a lower ranked club something along the lines of gianlucatoni's post. Whereas you use the current 3points/3-0 when the lower ranked club forfeits. Tho' that may be fairer it still rips the heart out of a cup competition and the outcome is still devalued.

Agree about Turner. Considering the job he's been brought to do he still manages to get stuck in. Perhaps what Fearchar was meaning was he's no replacement for Docherty. In that respect a central mid pairing of Bannigan & Turner is lightweight. There's no doubt in my mind that we're using these league cup games as kinda competitive friendlies, in so much as we're resting and rotating players and also playing about with different formations/line ups. If a league game, and say Docherty was unavailable, we'd have had Sena or McKenna (maybe even Bell) in the holding role joining Bannigan & Turner in midfield.

Lot of misplaced passes tonight plus some poor decision making in forward areas. Thought McIver was our best player on the park (certainly in the 1st half). Ironic as he was the one player played out of position until later on. Not sure why the ref was getting so much stick. He certainly wasn't whistle happy and seemed fairly consistent. Tried to let the game flow. Indeed his leniency may have spared Foster a straight red and maybe the Dumbarton keeper as well.

Sort of archivishy this. Was wondering why this got flagged up as Jags related till I read the first para. https://thecelticstar.com/match-report-bonnyrigg-rose-2-1-celtic-b-stand-outs-for-hoops-were-standouts-today-were-ewan-otoo-bosun-lawal-and-broady-paterson/ Btw No need to read beyond that 1st para tho' the 2nd is rather interesting.

Much as I saw it at the game. As previously posted I'd add the rearranged backline into the equation when talking about the improvement in the 2nd half. Secondary all the same to the intro of Tiffoney. McKenna at least tried to give some width down the opposite flank from Tiffoney. Even with the improvements we didn't finish the game looking a side two divisions up the ladder from Stenny. I don't even think we saw out the game that competently. The sevco friendly aside I've yet to see any real evidence that we're on track to hit the ground running when the league starts up. One positive however is Turner, tho' his contribution maybe be negated somewhat if we persist with two up front. Particularly like his corner taking. Maybe needs to vary them more but his stock corner is a low (ish) fast ball that'll give defenders difficulties. Complete opposite of the high floated ball that's easy to defend if you get my drift.

I thought the four half time positional changes across the back were effective. Can't say the same for the lopsided midfield. I imagine if we play a formation relying on a solitary wide midfielder against better opposition they'll just double up on that player and kill off any width. Fortunately today Tiffoney had an excellent 45 mins.