Skyline Drifter

Says who? It's undeniably been a shambles of a season. We should as a minimum, have been in the promotion playoffs and not still looking over our shoulder. The idea we have a bigger budget than Falkirk though sounds nonsense. I'd imagine we'll also be behind Hamilton.

What lines are you reading between? I dont think you're reading between them very well. The player himself came out last week and said he still harbors hopes of playing for England. @2426255 has provided the quotes. There's no evidence at all that Barnes is just waiting to be asked. There's plenty evidence of Clarke going out and getting others (Gunn, Anderson, Adams, Dykes). Why are you so convinced he hasnt reached out to Barnes? As @craigkillie said, there's no real benefit to either side in publicising such overtures have taken place if they bore no fruit.

Dykes back starting for QPR today. QPR are basically rotating their front players at the moment.

Congratulations. Not really looked in much trouble all season apart from that fortunate 2-2 at Edinburgh of all places. Enjoy.

It was a ridiculous justification in response to someone quite reasonably telling you it's been debunked before. It got the response it deserved to be honest. I apologise if you took offence at it though. It wasn't meant offensively, just as a humorous response to the "I read it so it must be true" notion.

We need to "bear it in mind" for Adams but not for Dykes? I don't think either's had a great season to be honest, but Adams is part of a far better team so his stats are better. Dykes is under contract at QpR so if they go down (which they may well do) then he may go with them. Or they may try to punt him. Or he may have a clause that lets him leave if they do. I don't think he'll be interesting any Premiership clubs with his current form but pretty sure he'll get a Championship club if he leaves QPR. Adams has had a wee run of form lately but he's very much second choice to Armstrong as a striker. When they both play Adams is playing wider or deeper. There's a chance he'll be back in the Premier next year but I'm far from convinced he's done enough to warrant multiple interest. Previous interest was pretty much only from Dyche at Everton (who are from from certain to be in the Premiership next season either pending their next points deduction) as far as I know. Adams and Dykes are different players in style but for me are much of a much in level. Adams is a better goalscorer and probably a little quicker. Dykes is more physical and far better in the air. Shankland's the one in best form of the three but there will always be questions about his pace for international level.

Meh, he might. He nearly moved to Everton in the summer window. As much as Southampton are having a decent season though, they're unlikely to get automatic promotion and the playoffs are a bit of a lottery which one of Ipswich / Leicester / Leeds will be favourites for. He's started just under half of their games and is very much behind Adam Armstrong in the pecking order. I don't think it's a given that he'll be back there. Burnley tried to buy Dykes in the summer and were also interested the previous year. Albeit they'll likely be back in the Championship next season. Oli McBurnie and Jacob Brown literally ARE at English Premiership clubs right now.

I read that a World War 2 Bomber had been found on the moon (C) Sunday Sport late 1980's. It doesn't mean one actually was. This McTominay started as a striker nonsense has is a classic modern day someone said it once on the internet so everyone else repeats it and it becomes a fact story. The player himself has said it's nonsense and in his career he played a couple of games up top in Man Utd's 18's when they had a few injuries but had never previously played as a forward. And yes, it matters. The idea that you would rather take somebody who is clearly doing a terrific job in the position he currently occupies and shove him into an unfamiliar role because you don't rate the others who currently play there is complete folly.

The latter was just to give him some time on the pitch in a game that didn't matter though. That's a bit different to them actually having needed to use three keepers.

Yeah, you dont. I appreciate that. I was talking about the previous system. In case I had to download a pdf from an email on site. Though appreciate I could just have stored a photo in advance anyway.

Given Tuesday wasn't a sell out, were they actually selling paper tickets on the night? As well as potentially printing for those who couldn't sort it themselves.

On another point, how long does it take them to update the points on your account normally? Certainly haven't added the Dutch and Irish game points yet.

Yeah tend to agree. I'm assuming now that this game is out of the way those who had issues with the app or their new ticket account will have got them solved eventually and over the next few games it should be easier to get hold of someone again. Chances are someone who doesn't use smartphone technology isn't going to go to the trouble of buying a ticket in first place now given it requires an online account rather than being able to physically buy a ticket. To be fair, I'm a bit 'old school'. Up to this week I simply printed it and folded as instructed and used the tickets on paper. Never had any issue. I'm fine with using a phone in principle but I don't trust my phone's ability to get any sort of signal in the Hampden area as I barely can even walking up an hour before and I'm always concerned I need to download something. However, the app worked fine and I didn't even have to do anything.

Yeah I get that. My friend did this on Tuesday as he had his own ticket and his son's on the same phone (son does have a phone but he was worried about him draining his battery before they got there so kept it on his own phone). He simply passed the phone back to scan the other ticket once the first one was through. However, that only works if you are actually going with someone else or if you meet outside / travel together rather than meet inside. If my dad wants to buy himself a ticket for a Scotland game I'm not going to how does he do it? I take it the short answer is "he can't"?

Thats a fair point. In this modern world there's an assumption everyone has a smartphone but thats not true. My dad doesnt and isnt interested in having one. He doesnt go to Scotland games either but if he did whats he to do? Is there actually a solution for such people? If they are going with someone else they can have their ticket on someone else's phone. Otherwise?

I was surprised he didn't play a different keeper last night. I'm not sure what seeing Gunn for another 90 minutes added, although I accept he missed the last three games so maybe Clark feels he saw enough of Kelly and Clark in those. To me he was avoiding the issue of sending signals about whether Gordon was likely in or not. Personally, if he's seriously entertaining taking Gordon to Germany then I think he should have played Northern Ireland as Cooper did. Not that he'd have seen a lot action anyway but just getting him involved competitively again and adding to his caps total. I'm concerned that not playing him suggests he decided he wasn't ready.

Ticket scanning was no bother at all. No different to scanning the paper one we had previously but obviously the pest is being reliant on battery life on your phone to an extent. Tightness of the fecking turnstiles on the other hand.......... I need to go on a diet!

I don't think he's "fine". He went off injured and the Liverpool press are suggesting he needs a scan and faces another spell on the sidelines. However, I'm assuming as it appears to be ankle ligaments and he played on for 10 mins or so, that it's probably not all that bad. He may miss 2 or 3 weeks but it's surely not the kind of injury that makes him a doubt for the summer.

You said Souttar was an absolute certainty for the squad and should be a first choice. He's neither. I was slightly exaggerating with "best centre half available" granted but you said he should be starting. You're entitled to think that about Dykes. The paragraph above is fair enough opinion. Suggesting he could still be playing now and not have had a shot and comparing to Shankland having three (which didn't seriously threaten to go in) in 15 minutes when the latter was playing in a front two against an encamped defence, isn't.

Yeah again, you're just making things up and not helping the cause of your own argument one bit. A bit like your steadfast refusal to accept that John Souttar just might not be the best centre back we have available. Indeed your view is somewhat contradictory on that where you would have us ignore the evidence of his last Scotland game because he's better than he showed but not apply the same logic to Dykes. And even if Shankland should be ahead of him (debatable), the suggestion that Adams did anything more significant than him last night, or any Scotland match in the last 18 months is spurious. We get it, you think Shankland's better than Dykes. You may be right. Wild takes in incomparable circumstances are not evidence however.

You're comparing apples and pears though. Dykes played 60 odd minutes as the sole striker in a match that Northern Ireland at least bothered to occasionally attack in at that stage. Shankland came on to make it two up front in a contest by then being played in the final third of the pitch pretty much exclusively as Northern Ireland had ceased any ambition to add a second. And he didn't come close to scoring with his three efforts. I'm not knocking Shankland. I think he did reasonably well in the Netherlands. His run of form in the last 6 months has taken him from a situation where he was competing for the 3rd striker role to one where he's comfortably clinched that and is now in a debate for whether he's 1st or 2nd. Which he might be. Last night's game added not one thing to that debate though in either direction.

Really? I've heard nothing other than he's going for a scan to see if there's ligament damage but the fact he played on 5 - 10 mins after doing it implied it wasn't seriously damaged surely? Although Reece Mimnaugh played on 10 minutes having done his cruciate earlier this season I suppose! It was a long way away from me in the ground and I haven't seen any replays. Almost two seasons. Not sure the relevance of the comment though? One of three (or four) ex QoS players in the current set up depending on whether you count Robby McCrorie. Five if Max Johnston makes any late reappearance.

You weren't but some went on to discuss as if it should be

What does this actually mean though? It's typical HR buzzword territory but what are the consequences for not achieving it and the rewards for doing so. What about mitigation? If this isn't all set out in advance it doesn't mean anything and it's just ambition stuff that still needs judged on its merits as the contract approaches potential renewal date. At the start of this campaign, I'm not sure qualification should have been the minimum expectation, though it was certainly a realistic aim. Are we saying if he doesn't achieve it then the contract can be cancelled or something? Does he trigger an extension or bonus by achieving it? What if we need a point in the last game to qualify after a reasonably successful campaign (say we don't get the 2nd goal in Norway) and then McGinn gets himself red carded five mins into the last game v Norway and suddenly we're up against it outwith the control of the manager. We put in a decent 85 mins with 10 men but lose a heartbreaking deflection in the last minute. Thanks very much Stevie but you've failed in our metric time to try someone else? It's fine for the SFA committee / Ian Maxwell to set realistic targets and talk to Clarke about what they expect. I don't see that kind of thing as a contractual issue though.

We'll have to agree to differ here I think. The ball was camped in their half the whole game and we did the square root of hee haw with it. That's not something that can be blamed on one player, it was a collective thing. I don't think Harry Kane would have shown up much better for us last night if he'd played instead of Dykes.