Diego

Over the last five months only Celtic have performed better in the Premiership than ourselves and seemingly out of nowhere we now have a pretty strong bench; let's give Motherwell a doing and start looking at the top six.

Sadly, professional footballers continue to throw their careers away by unnecessarily flaunting the rules. Folk like McMillan (and Lawless when he put those bets on) know exactly what they are doing and the consequences if their behaviour was discovered by the authorities, they have nobody to blame but themselves (and shadowy people who spike their drinks). Also, it's not football who view recreational drugs this way, it is the WADA code, of which it is nigh impossible to opt-out from without major repercussions.

Three seasons back St Mirren finished in what would have been the playoff spot with 41 points.

Braehead fans are great when their team's doing well, but they've been quick to turn when results aren't going their way. The Clan experience is not one I enjoy, the hockey takes place during breaks in entertainment, not the other way round. Far too much emphasis on giving away sombreros for Mexican restaurants distracting from the main event. The music is a bit too loud and the songs are absolute dross that is fit for a children's party, encouraging fans to put their hands up in the air instead of watching the game. I'd much rather have a North Stand experience than a Braehead experience, even though at Braehead you can drink beer from your comfy seat indoors while watching the game. I'm not sure I could spend a whole season watching the Clan, whereas I wouldn't have problems with similar arena teams like Nottingham or Belfast who have the right blend of entertainment and attracting families while keeping the focus on the sport. pt12fc makes a great point about the roof. If you pack an old rink full of 3,000 fans they can make an incredible atmosphere and you don't need to play "the wheels on the bus" to encourage them. I've seen games in about fifty rinks in ten countries and Braehead is the only one I've found cringeworthy. All that said, it's working. They've done a great job of attracting fans when there were huge doubts about hockey's viability in Glasgow at the outset. Hockey is a notoriously difficult sport to remain solvent in, especially in the UK and Neil Black and the Clan management are to be commended for a job well done, though other clubs in the league would love to have their levels of investment and facilities.

Derek McInnes has just gone up in my estimation

I'm firmly of the opinion that lowering gate prices will not result in much of an increase in attendance. A couple of months ago I went to see Roskilde vs Hobro in the Danish Cup, the tie being roughly equivalent to a present day meeting between Queen of the South and Dundee United. A local business sponsored the game to the extent where they paid for it to be free entry. The attendance ended up only a few dozen higher than their average. Letting the city in for free only resulted in a small increase in beer sales. Caley Thistle along with some others have experimented with "pay what you want" and I'm sure I would have heard had numbers vastly increased. I don't see how dropping the ticket price by a few quid will have a measurable effect on Thistle attendances. Back on topic, there was a time where I thought Archie was for it. I didn't want him to go but the table was looking bleak. If that poor run had continued into Collins territory then I would have understood if he was politely thanked for his efforts. Twenty points in the last nine is outstanding form which if kept up is the sort to win you a summer holiday to Yerevan or Podgorica. Archie is a relatively inexperienced manager and I feel that learning from your mistakes is one of the most important things anyone can do. I'm glad the board gave Archie the time to learn from his mistakes and I would be delighted if he's still making the odd error at Firhill many years from now.

The transfer window is still closed, hence why it's an "emergency loan". They would have to wait to get him on a permanent deal.

It's been a long time since I watched either programme regularly, so I stand to be corrected. Instead of the BBC prioritising the Old Firm over clubs like ourselves, Motherwell or County I get the impression that BBC TV covers the Old Firm to the same extent as STV but drops reports on smaller football clubs for stories about badminton players, women's cricketers and disabled swimmers.

Query: when's the last time the form table looked so good?

At the end of this season one team will be relegated from the Superliga and three promoted from the first division, making it a fourteen team top league from the start of next season.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the exact details, but I think it is/was in Europe's second tier ice hockey competition that they conducted a penalty shout out at the end of every group stage match, regardless of result, in case it was needed as a tie breaker at the end of the round robin. It's a bit strange seeing a penalty shoot out after a 6-0 pumping.

There was a study conducted on penalty shoot outs in (I think) German cup competitions and found that the higher ranked team won more often than not. Shoot outs are not a lottery, it's down to the skill and composure of the players partaking. These may not be the attributes that will best win a game over ninety minutes, but calling it a lottery is doing a disservice to quality goalkeepers and penalty takers who can put the ball in the corner or send the keeper the wrong way while under great pressure. That said, as we haven't taken a penalty in anger for a year and a half, I'm not sure it's the best way of awarding a bonus point.

The team I watch here in Denmark played their last game on December 3rd and aren't in action again until March 8th, so it is possible. St Johnstone were too busy getting pumped by Alashkert this July to have taken part in an early League Cup.

Wikipedia says Iceland.

I'm loving your maths; can't wait for us to pocket £3.6m for Doolan, and £8m for Gallacher (international caps count double, right?)

Thistle are great and all, but I think most clubs would have. Even Oldco kept paying* Daniel Prodan through three years of injury and he never even played a game for them. They had a similar story with Negri at roughly the same time as well if I remember correctly. *sorry, donating to his employee benefit trust.

I disagree. One of my, okay, my only trick when I was a lad (left wing) was that when a long ball was being played slightly behind me, instead of slowing my run I'd time it so the ball was about a foot behind me and then flick it on and over the defender's head using the outside of my right foot using a similar technique to Rogic yesterday. Usually, that way I still had most of my pace and the beating of the defender. With a bit of practice it's not a difficult thing to do and if I can manage it effectively then I'm sure a modern international footballer shouldn't have many problems. Firstly, they're not "so called professional athletes", they are professional athletes, it's a pretty indisputable fact. Secondly, that theory is not bullshit, there's plenty of data backing it up, though the effect is more pronounced in sports with more punishing schedules. The level of professionalism or athleticism is irrelevant, it's due to the tiredness relative to your opponents. You see the effect at the very highest levels of sport. Aberdeen and Hamilton will have a slight advantage at the weekend for having their mid-week match postponed.

Spot the ball:

I ******* love Stats Watch. Great to have it back!

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

I was beginning to wonder this as well as Turriff United are at my work this weekend for the start of their pre-season. Slightly surprised at the level of their preparations, quite impressive for a part-time non-league team.

Pretty sure someone is breaking the law there.

Not so cuddly anymore.

They're a hedge fund biased towards shorting stocks. The co-owner has some of his own art on display at the Smithsonian.