Big Fifer

Did McTominay not play CM vs the Faroes and was absolutely dreadful the entire match? Anyway, good to get back to Hampden last night. Relatively feel good vibe about the place, plenty Polish fans in. Thought we played quite well but as someone mentioned above felt quite similar to the Austria 2-2 where we looked a bit rusty in some situations. Gilmour started really poorly but improved as the game went on. Based on what I see in a Scotland shirt of late it's a bit mental that Jonjoe Kenny/the reanimated corpse of Coleman still start every week ahead of him. McGinn, Adams, McGregor all good. Taylor is probably just too limited for this level of football but I wouldn't say he was that bad last night. We do move the ball really well now it has to be said, as much as the 3 at the back relies a lot on Kieran Tierney being fit I'd be surprised if Clarke moves away from it in a competitive game, he might take a look at something else next week right enough. Gutting to lose the goal at the end but it's a friendly and overall pretty happy with what I saw. Pie queue was dreadful at HT.

I honestly thought Hanley was injured! I was away when the squad was announced. In which case it'll be Hanley with probably Hendry on the right, Halkett can probably come on for Hanley at some point.

Gordon McSauce Hendry Tierney Patterson BG McGregor Taylor McGinn Che Armstrong Is how I suspect we'll go in one of these games, maybe tonight. Unless we experiment with a back 4 at any point I suspect Tierney will have to play the majority of both of these games. The other game I'd hope to see Hickey, Jack and Brown get into the starting spots with Stewart coming on for half an hour or so in both games to have a look, probably similar with Ferguson as he's been in the squads with very little minutes. I suspect he'll be away from Aberdeen in the summer and hopefully playing at a slightly higher level, would be good to get a look at him properly in a Scotland shirt.

Clarke was saying yesterday that Hickey didn't train and was feeling ill. Might end up the second game we see him.

Don't think it's sold out. They've just opened another section in the East Stand.

Perfect, thanks! Will take a look. The microbrands definitely of interest. Best to just buy them direct from their websites or any better online stores you'd recommend?

Anyone got any advice on what sort of brands I should be looking at in the sub £500 market? Very ignorant on the subject of watches so would be good to hear any recommendations on what websites to look around.

I'm forgetting we've signed Pollock. Never watched him in the cup games but seems to be quite well thought of at Hearts.

Season defining game for us. An absolute must win at this stage, I think even a draw relegates us, there's no chance we can produce a 6 point swing(7 really given the goal difference) without getting the win here. I can't make it back this weekend but might have time on Saturday afternoon to buy the stream. We definitely look better then we did under DY defensively, but as I said on the Montrose match thread, our central midfield is non-existent so it's really difficult for us to control any match and get forward without just lumping it. I hope Steele starts this one, for me he's our best centre half, not sure why he was dropped at the weekend. I hope Swanson can start this game in some capacity as he played a few nice passes when he came on at the weekend. Healy didn't get many breaks of the ball vs Montrose but a lot of our attacks were down his side first half. I'd maybe switch out Denholm for Swasnson this time around and go something like: Smith Mercer Higgins Steele Murdoch Healy Millar Blair Swanson Connell Wallace

I'm old enough to remember a time when "we" were all in it together during a pandemic, except certain portions of society just weren't giving a f**k as they felt it didn't apply/include them. Funny how things overlap.

https://theathletic.com/news/fifa-postpone-scotlands-world-cup-qualification-play-off-against-ukraine/SNZf1qGpYmke/ "The winners of the rearranged match will face the victors of the other play-off semi-final — Wales vs Austria — to decide qualification. That match will still be played on March 24, but the postponement of the Ukraine game necessitates that the play-off final will be also be delayed." ETA - I hope they confirm the date as soon as they can, summer is quite a busy time for folk!

Mad how much Montrose were dominating after going down to 10 men. Thought we just about deserved a point but I didn't enjoy the past 20 minutes at all. Unfortunately because our central midfield is so weak/non-existent, we struggle to really take control of matches and impose ourselves, the ball just goes from back to front and bypasses the midfield a lot of the time. You can see the difference when Montrose had the ball in the middle of the park. Would've been good to snatch the win yesterday but hey ho. Not sure when I can next make a game - hopefully we can pick up some desperately needed points in the coming weeks.

Well no, as I was 6 years old. Just not a fan of seeing exploded limbs when eating my bowl of soup - but if you feel otherwise, bash on!

Eh not to put too fine a point on it lads - think a lot of folk are using this thread to discuss/keep on top of things, but can we please refrain from posting photos/tweets of folk with their legs blown off?

Do folk actually think this is gonna go ahead? Obviously the situation is very volatile at the moment but I can't help but think there's more chance this isn't on than it going ahead.

Check you are ticking the right VISA Credit/VISA Debit box.

Hope folk have at least filled in the consultation on emergency powers. If all the restrictions are getting binned why on earth do they need the emergency powers extended and potential made permanent?

It's incredibly annoying to keep hear the line "Covid is, unfortunately, still with us". This statement is very likely to be true for, erm, forever? Stop fucking saying it.

FYI, before this is announced. This FOI request was released today around nightclubs/fitba games and the winter restrictions: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100240334/ TL;DR, they've no fucking basis whatsoever for those restrictions.

I don't think Clarke will make any massive changes like starting Hickey in a game of this magnitude, regardless of whether folk think he's the best option (he probably isn't). Admittedly my knowledge of Ukraine's set up is non-existent so, unless he amends our starting line up dramatically to cope with what they bring I'd expect something like: Gordon McTominay* Hanley Tierney Patterson* Mcgregor Gilmour Robertson Armstrong* Mcginn Adams The three asterisks being potentially Hendry ahead of McSauce though I'm sure I've seen someone mention he's not been playing due to a couple of red cards? O'Donnell ahead of Patterson simply because he's not played (though that's not stopped him before) and Clarke likes O'Donnell, and as much as I adore Big Daddy Dykes it's impossible to ignore how well Adams has been playing of late, I suspect he will go with the two off the striker in this game with Armstrong over Christie. Scotland 2-0. McGinn with all 3.

Aye. Unfortunately having liaised fairly heavily (oi oi) with my MSP the past few months, trying to explain to our elected officials that keeping things like masks when shopping in Sainsburys isn't "low hassle protection levels" it's a meaningless pile of nonsense considering they're not required, rightly, basically anywhere else, is the equivalent to banging your head off a moronic wall. "Critical thinking" not high up on the skillset of the standard MSP I feel.

I've a slight concern, what with ScotGov taking over ScotRail in April, that an attempt at shan mask restrictions in "certain high risk (lol) environments" will continue. Alas, I'll save any headsgone rants for the reality rather than the infuriating hypotheticals I've been dreaming up the past 48 hours.

Excellent performance tonight.

https://yourviews.parliament.scot/covid19/recovery-bill/ FYI, in case not already posted.