lady-isobel-barnett

We had a thread about this a few weeks ago and the overwhelming opinion is that Friday night football is a no-no. As I posted on another thread surely if there was ever the time for a Friday night game it should've been this weekend? Even at that I'd have said a Sunday game would have been preferable. Simple question, are there more folk that can make a Friday night game than can make a Saturday afternoon game? Also, as for away fans, if the game was at Cappielow on a Friday night are you more likely to attend than on a Saturday? I hope this isn't true as Morton traditionally bring a relatively large crowd. If they have to experiment with Friday night football at least try it against a team who only bring a handful of fans.

Where in my post does it say anything about playing on the Saturday of an international?

... and I know this Sunday has designated Challenge Cup games but wouldn't it be better playing a full SFL fixture card? Especially with the internationals being played at home. Altho' I'm not at all enthusiastic about Friday night matches I'd rather we were playing a league game now rather than a Saturday in January or worse, some Tuesday night in January. Play the stupid Challenge Cup games midweek then we'd have a choice of Friday night or Sunday to play our league fixtures. I'm willing to bet even at unorthodox KO times crowds would be no worse than any January Saturday. There also wouldn't be any SPL or premiership TV games to attract fans away from attending. Further to that, keep a Saturday in January free and any postponed game could be played then rather than some perishing Tuesday night. Come this winter we'll be no doubt be having the usual patter re summer football, winter shutdowns etc. With a usual lack of commonsense I don't feel the SFL help the case for the status quo.

I see Perdam Ardalany has joined Arbroath.

Be interesting to see if either go out on emergency loan to an SFL club. I'm not convinced they'd gain much more than match fitness playing at our level. Even if we had the dosh to finance a loan spell it could easily backfire. A lot would depend on the character of the player. Quality of football is all very well but first and foremost we we need players that get tore in,

I was embarrassed at the Robertson penalty claim at the time. Footage doesn't make me any less embarrassed. Didn't think Erskine's claim had much substance either but not so sure his trailing leg didn't get clipped. If he wasn't forever tripping over his own feet he might just have convinced the ref I think it's fair to say we go into the Ross Co game not due any luck.

So who else are we not getting on loan? I'd like to see us not getting Carl Finnigan from St Johnstone

Excellent stuff indeed Hope you make it back to Firhill soon

That's my view too. Bit surprised tho' that both BBC & STV have even bothered mentioning us. I can only guess that we may have been first in expressing an interest.

By sheer coincidence I've just had a couple of pints with Ronnie (who I think you met, Matt) and when asked about the Hihi he supported he said Jockey Robertson was the first Thirds guy that came into his head.

but surely not the son of?

Buggered if I know what you're on about, Allan.

Find myself agreeing with above more than anything. Lack of pace at the back tho' is a concern. It's hardly a unique problem at our level and is normally dealt with by having a midfielder lie deep, like Mensing for instance. Rowson is playing more up field than usual and let's be kind and say the jury is still out on Scott Robertson. I noticed Sinclair wasn't overlapping on Saturday. That may be due partly to a lack of defensive cover as much from midfield as from Archie.

Dundee Utd.......Paul Sturrock Aberdeen.........Willie Miller Motherwell.......Willie Pettigrew Morton...........Andy Ritchie Rangers..........Jack Glass Hearts...........Donald Ford Hibs.............Pat Stanton Celtic...........Billy McNeil St Johnstone.....Buck McCarry St Mirren........Frank McGarvey

Well if that's true when we win the toss we should shoot the other way and sub him at half time.

I don't feel MWM is far off the mark. We carried very little luck in the first three games but I can't say that for any lengthy period in any game we played well. Imo we were a fair bit better than Dundee and they certainly didn't deserve 3pts. But that's different from saying we deserved anything out of a game where we're playing at home and can't score in open play. Against Falkirk we played some decent football but too sporadic. A draw away from home would have been justified. Again Falkirk hardly put in a display worthy of three points. At home to Hamilton most folk, myself included, reckon a draw was about the right result even tho' we lost out on three points by an unforced error. A dodgy and then a missed penalty plus a daft error from Fox cost us four points where we perhaps on merit should have scraped 3 points from the first three games. Our luck certainly changed for the better on Saturday so much so that I'd argue it balanced up the three games prior. So we're sitting on four points (factually and imo about right on merit) after four games three of which were at home. Given that no team has played that well against us I find that most alarming.

I think that may be a different Strachan, Vom.

Thanks, Jim. Excellent as always

Well, he's left footed but I imagine his right foot crosses would still be better than that from the Maryhill Malefactor.

Thanks for that . btw Do Celtic not have a Hall of Fame? If they do I'd put Wee Bertie down as being likely the first to get the hat-trick (Jags HoF, another club HoF & SFA HoF)

Out of passing interest how would you rate Bannigan on your strachanometer?

Agree with that except on four points.

an idea for a separate thread Players who came back and were still as good or better. I've heard tell Tommy Ewing was better on his return but I only saw him when he came back.

I was slightly surprised to see Flannigan go off. As poor as he was in the first half he was playing well ahortly before being replaced. As it was it turned out to be just a case of fresh legs. A simple routine substitution. On the other hand the second substitution was more positive. I don't know in the short time he's played there if Robertson is a better centreback than Balatoni (suspect there's little in it) but Conrad had picked up a yellow and I don't believe a second yellow was that far away. Anyway replacing Robertson in midfield with Stewart was positive. With Stewart prepared to run down the left, Cairney back in the middle and Erskine being Erskine over on the right we eventually looked like a team trying to win the match. I'll leave the obvious question for now about why we didn't start without Robertson with either Campbell down the right with Cairney in centre mid or with Bannigan a straight replacement for SR.

...and he's been good this season as well. I only recall the one really bad error before today. It might be that with his team captain directly in front of him he's not as bossy as most keepers. Ideally I like the captain to be a holding or central midfielder and the goalie to marshal the back four. Difficult to tell for sure but it looks like Fox could do with being more vocal. I don't feel we carried any luck in the first three games but after today things have evened out. Queens will go away aggrieved they didn't get even one point never mind all three but no more unfairly than us with no points from the first two games.