Raith_Raver

If there's such a thing as voodoo then for years there's been someone in some wee room somewhere sticking pins in dolls wearing rovers colours.

We anounced Timmy Abrahams....

Didn't St Murn turn down Ronaldinho, or was that a wind up?

We are past masters of selling our best players for peanuts or even feck all, for decades we didnt even think about sell on clauses. Of all the shite pieces of business - and there are many - one of the worst was selling four of our best players to Livi after giving them a hiding at Almondvale, including Big Marv for £50K, an international player who went on to win Livi the League Cup, was their player of the year, sold him to Rangers for feck knows how much where he was even player of the year at Ibrox.

There's actual hatred involved with Falkirk fans after singing about what happened to Norrie McCathy. It's also a Falkirk/Fife thing - there's also rivalry between Rovers and Falkirk, and I've even seen it between the 'Shire and Cowdenbeath.

That's entirely apocryphal. Anelka thought the French 5th tier was better than our 2nd so brought over a load of duffers, (there was a short legged winger who could hardly run that sticks in my memory). However he did sign some decent players, like Hajovsky who went on to play in the UEFA Cup semi final for Plzen, and a Congo international centre half (who unfortunately spent his whole time injured) and a couple of half decent forwards. Unfortunately the capable players couldn't compensate for the duffers.

As has been well covered already Anelka and Locke were both near the top of the Richter scale. One thing that I sometimes reflect on is our decision to remain at Stark's Park and turn down the opportunity to build a new stadium to the north of the town, with great road access and parking. Instead we spent a fortune on the north and south stands.

I think we'll do better than mid table: once we settle with everyone back fit it'll be fortress Stark's Park and we'll be hard to beat on the road.

He's a decent Championship level player and bench warmer in the Premier. Many of us were hoping we'd have him for another spell.

Nah, it's only noticeable when there's a west wind.

That's a fair post. Sitting in and hitting on the break isn't really our style but a) I think McGlynn shored up the defence with an extra CD to steady the ship after the Accies debacle and b) because we didnt have Spencer who is key to our attacking play. We would have played our usual open game otherwise.

As he says, he wants to win every game. I still think he'll have one eye on the derby 'tho.

While I certainly don't expect him to employ the system we had at Kessock I'm intrigued at how he will set us up with Spencer out, which as everyone has said inevitably blunts our attack. He might try experimenting against the Dons.

I was expecting that comeback. We played a different style with extra defenders for that particular away game, a style we do not play at home.

Maybe McGlynn isn't stupid, but he'll know that Grant will see that Hamilton got three of their goals from crosses.

We're shite at set pieces; we can't cross for a start. I agree you'd think that midfield is likely will be where the game will be won and lost, and Spencer is a big loss to us, but I think you will go route one and pump high balls into the box at every opportunity and the outcome then might depend on who wins the arial battle between your big forwards and our big defenders. McGlynn will be well aware of that so I expect Lang to be in again. . But I would still make us favourites.

Hamilton were nowhere near worth a draw. Is the last bizarre 22 minutes really all you took from that game?

Nah, a draw would be shite for both teams. Even if it is a draw it's very likely there'll be goals.

Yes, a match fit Matthews would be a boost for the derby. My thinking on Vaughan is he's likely to come on as a sub, McGlynn likes to be cautious with him. Regarding Aberdeen, they were given a fright by that Icelandic team, and last season only a ref with red tinted specs got them through the Cup against Dumbarton, so they're far from invincible. But whatever, as long as we put on a decent show for the telly I'll be happy.

He's obviously made a big impression. King wasn't jobbies, he was just mostly the invisible man, and when he did get on the ball it was usually a sideways pass.

They have a knack of loaning their shite out, last season we had wandering midfielder King. It remains to be seen how Fotheringham does, but his brief showing gainst Accies wasn't great.

Is that baffy boots from United?

It was a freak game. As McGlynn said it wasn't like backs to the wall stuff as Hamilton got their goals, we missed as many chances as they did in that period, every time they attacked it ended up in the net. MacDonald hardly had a save in the whole game.

Ah, I needed to re read it. But nah, we're honestly really shite at crossing. I thought that with Armstrong away things would improve but against ICT there was no improvement whatsoever. Fancy football it has to be, if we have the players available to do it.

I didn't think you're capable of fancy football anyway. Our defending at crosses looked to have improved greatly since last season until that Hamilton debacle. We seem to have sorted that out at Inverness, and we have a new defender in Lang who looks a class act. PS - We could do with Musonda back tho.