Fuctifano
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Posts posted by Fuctifano
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The £90k game TM
My already very low hopes of going up through the playoffs evaporated with Lawless' injury but the extra dosh for finishing 3rd could make a difference next year in a league where there's unlikely to be a prohibitive favourite like there has been for the past few years.
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Yeah that looks like same shape with MacKenzie playing on the right wing. Shame Robinson can't stay fit for ten minutes. I do not fancy that midfield at all and a bench with a 16 year old striker, a 17 year old striker, and an 18 year old striker on it is quite something.
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1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:
I’d be genuinely interested if we see a Championship team promoted from the playoffs in the next five years. I still think if it was ever going to happen it would’ve happened last season with Thistle. They may have finished fourth but unlike everyone else they went in with good momentum and basically a fully fit squad to chose from.
I actually think Raith might benefit from the week off you get for finishing second but I think Murray’s main issue is he overthinks and tinkers with the team too much. I really don’t think the signings of Rudden or Turner (whilst strong on paper) were necessarily needed.
Thistle aren’t nearly as strong as last season and their defence is woeful. I think it’s pretty even between them and Airdrie as to who will win over two legs. If Thistle dropped to fourth and went out at the first hurdle I think Doolan will be under pressure ahead of next season.
Airdrie are well worthy of a top four finish but I think they’ll get turned over by whoever they’d face from the Premiership. If they can hold onto what they have and add a bit more Championship experience then they can go again but I’d be a bit surprised if teams aren’t looking at McCabe.
I feel this bit has sort of become accepted but I'm not sure it's true. We only won 3 of the last 9 league games, and those three were against Arbroath Cove and a flatlining QP team.
Of the last 3 games we drew 2 of them away to a dreadful Accies team and on the last day in Kirkcaldy against a Raith team with one outfield sub and nothing to play for - in fact Raith had a decent chance in injury time which if it had gone in would have seen us finish 5th.
We then landed lucky by playing a QP team who were mentally shot, and still made heavy weather of the first leg, then a one man Ayr team where the one man was injured for the first leg and sent off after 20 minutes of the second (albeit the tie was done by then).
One advantage we had last year that the winner of 3rd and 4th won't this year is that due to the late Premiership finish caused by the world cup, the 3rd vs 2nd playoff was Friday - Friday whereas this year it's back to Tuesday - Friday.
I think the Premiership team will stay up this season, in the 9 years of the playoffs it's 4 Premiership wins, 2 championship wins and 3 draws which have gone to penalties (2-1 to the Premiership teams). For all we gubbed County in the cup I'd be inclined to write off the entire Derek Adams spell and think they'll have too much, and if it's St J then the Levein side will grind the life out of the Championship team over 2 legs.
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Decided what I'd like to see us try is 3-4-2-1
Mitchell
McBeth - Muirhead - Milne
McMillan - Neilson - McInroy - Ngwenya
Robinson - Fitzpatrick
Graham
Feel that has the least square pegs in round holes given what's available to us.
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Not hugely keen to go in to bat for Airdrie but what is the point of (the football parts of) this forum if its not to dredge up things to gloat over?
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This already has a processional feel to it unless his wife goes into labour.
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25 minutes ago, AllanJM said:
I really wasn't impressed with them when we played them. The game came during our really poor spell and I honestly think that if we'd played them at any other time of the season we would've won.
I expect them to lose a fair few players in the summer and without the Celtic, Rangers, Hibs and Hearts fans filling their stadium for them they'll have an even lower budget next season.
I think it's a safe bet that the run of relegated teams going straight back up will come to an end and I actually think they might go down 2 seasons in a row.
In the cup game against us Nouble was outstanding, which we already knew from his Arbroath days he could be vs championship players, but he'll be away and the rest of their threat came from having 5 massive guys at set pieces which we couldn't handle.
They must be thinking of keeping Martindale as there's no point in letting him go at the end of the season rather than now in footballing terms, they're clearly down. Unless there's a financial clause that means they have to wait until relegation is officially confirmed before letting him go.
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Guess it's "only" 9 games since we last won in Kirkcaldy though with it being 13 years it feel a lot longer.
Main issue for us is whether we react to the Lawless injury (which leaves us with one natural winger in the squad in Fitzpatrick) to a 3-5-2 which definitely suits the balance of the squad, but I'm not sure we've started a game with that setup all season, or if we stick with our usual shape and play someone out of position.
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Starting to look fairly clear cut for everything except 9th now after Airdrie's win last night, though both Thistle and Airdrie need a few more points to get over the line, obviously we play each other on the 20th. In terms of who finishes 3rd it's coming out about 65-35 Thistle at the moment though it feels a lot tighter in reality due to Airdrie's recent form and Thistle losing Lawless for the season, the latter of which can't realistically be factored in.
Target number of points for safety and promotion playoffs below.
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Saka did that dangling a leg out , less blatantly but still did it, for England's first penalty in the France game at the last WC.
Elliott also did it for Liverpool on Sunday, almost totally stopped his run and stuck his leg out to the side , albeit Wan Bissaka was so out of control he'd have taken him out regardless so it ended up being a foul anyway.
Just two examples off top of my head, refs fall for it all the time but with VAR at that level it should be obvious when the attacker has initiated the contact.
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3 minutes ago, David McGurns Left Glove said:
Ah i see, Cheers.
could not find a thing about it online. how bad?
Was supposed to be back for the ICT game at end of March but now just back to "making good progress"
36 minutes ago, Virtual Insanity said:Think 3-5-2 is the best solution to accommodate our best players assuming he doesn't see Mackenzie as ready to step up fully. I think Ngwenya and Mackenzie could cover at wingback and arguably suits them both better than full back. Midfield 3 of Bannigan, McInroy and Stanway or Robinson if you're feeling more adventurous. McBeth/Neilson also options if we locate any other fit centre halfs. Robinson and Fitzpatrick options alongside Graham up front.
Yeah I did try and line this up with how Scotland play with 3 at the back and thought Milne could play the attacking LCB role in the same way Tierney does (though obviously not to the same level) with Ngwenya as the LWB.
I still think it's far more likely we just see McInroy or MacKenzie shunted out wide and keep the same formation, especially when the defence has been relatively secure these last few games.
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Part of me wants to see city win everything they can until things become farcical and the governing bodies have to act to make football more equitable, but even with their financial budget it's almost impossible to see them doing it for much longer and also that bit about more equitable is fantasy land stuff
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Just now, I Clavdivs said:
Assuming we make playoffs and Ayr don't , is there anything stopping us from using Dowds for reamainder of season ?.If so the Diack backup plan for wee Stevie might work with a more direct line to goal mouth rather than skinning your man and crossing from touchline.....or am I just clutching at straws ?.
We can't recall Dowds now, it's window to window.
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Not signing a winger in January always looked a poor decision, the drop off to someone else playing out of position has been quite large (the livi cup game FFS) and also hasn't allowed us to rest or rotate Lawless and Fitzpatrick, our injury luck with those two being fit nearly all season has evidently run out but both have been poor of late which can't have been helped by playing every game.
McInroy might be the least bad alternative at right wing if we want to keep the same shape, alternatively we can go 3-5-2 with one of Fitzpatrick and Robinson playing beside Graham and the other as a number 10, but can't see Doolan changing shape this late in the season.
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Not much wankier than that "handball" thing EPL fans do every time a team touches the ball when a handball appeal is turned down?
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2 hours ago, Clangers said:
Can’t Airdrie still finish 9th if ICT & QP draw and then win there remaining games?
It's arithmetically possible but so is Arbroath finishing 9th.
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After a bad week for Airdrie last week a very good one for them this week. Thought Ayr's safety % was a bit high but suppose ICT and QP still have to play each other, and if that game was played today then Ayr would be at least 2 points ahead of 9th with 5 games to play compared to the 9th placed team's 3.
The numbers for safety are still 41 for > 50% chance and 43 for 90% chance. Highest total to finish 9th was 44 so Airdrie I would now say are totally safe.
For promotion play off it remains 51 for >50% chance and 53 for >90% chance. Highest total to finish 5th was 55.
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Been trying to find what the prize money differential between 3rd and 4th is for this year but it's not an easy google. Last year it was about £90k so that's a reasonable estimate, definitely worth hanging onto 3rd. Would be insanely optimistic to think we'll catch Raith now so them beating Airdrie in midweek is undoubtedly best for us. Think if we beat Airdrie in 2 weeks that would be enough to get 3rd.
Is McBeth suspended for that game? Today was his 6th booking since he signed which is quite an impressive feat for someone who arrived in January. I know in England you have to collect a certain amount of bookings by the first half of the season then it's doubled but again the only SFA rulebook I can find dates from 2017-18 and says 6 at any point in the season is a 1 game suspension but I have something in my head saying that's changed.
edit: Graham got 6 bookings in the league last season but didn't appear to miss any games because of them
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Guess a few folk on here do the football crossover grid games where you name someone that played for 2 specified teams etc, immaculate footy (horrible name, but USA) is the one I use.
Anyway I also try and do the NFL one and it doesn't half throw up some names in the archive when you check the other answers.
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(If the game goes ahead tomorrow) McInroy and Diack back in the squad. Sounds like from what Doolan said that Bannigan due back next week, O'Reilly and Sneddon in a couple of weeks and outside chance of Williams back by end of season.
Think McInroy will come in for Stanway from last week if so.
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1 minute ago, Walter said:
Other than Airdrie, that's a fine effort from Nostradano.
Forgot to mention their upcoming 30-point deduction in my original post.
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Last two Thistle players -I think, only checked the obvious ones- to score against a team in all 4 league games were Doolan vs Stirling Albion in 2010/11 (6 goals across the 4 games) and Alex Burns vs Motherwell in 2002/03 (5 in 4). As said above, Graham has this game plus the Ayr game to achieve that feat.
No real interest in checking who has done it against us though Owen Coyle would be the most obvious candidate.
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45 minutes ago, die hard doonhamer said:
Bills eating so much cap, and only getting a second for him plus a fifth and sixth tells you everything you need to know about how they viewed him. Clearly not a good guy to have about.
Yeah I think the only thing keeping him there was the huge cap hit, but all the other factors must have outweighed it in the end. He clearly wanted out and was a non-factor for the latter two thirds of last season, whether that was age or him not bothering his arse we'll find out next season I guess.
Between this move and the other releases of veteran players the cap hell has been more than cleared for 2025 and likely to have minimum $50m in free agency for 2025, so wouldn't surprise me to see a trade up for a WR with a view to going big in FA in 2025 (Josh Allen will still only be 29 at end of 2025/26 season) but I can't see them having enough capital to get to a position for any of the top 3 WRs in the upcoming draft.
McDermott has shown he can get a tune out of a defence but it's asking a lot of Allen for this coming year. That said, while I acknowledge Josh and Kincaid aren't Mahomes and Kelce, the Chiefs have just gone back to back without a star WR either season.
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Bills trading Diggs to the Texans. Absolutely did not see that coming even if he was unhappy, will be eating a huge bunch of dead cap.
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Golfers Thread
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Someone phone the course pretending to be his wife FFS