Alibi

Are you sure that was Joe Caven? I remember a goal like that scored at the Wee Dublin end but it was by Joe Mason (in the 1966-67 season I think). IIRC the ball was crossed in from the left, probably by Jim Kennedy at left back, and Mason backheeled it as you describe and as it dropped volleyed it across and over the keeper. One of the best goals I have ever seen. Mason was a great player for us. Pretty sure Joe Caven was our no. 9 and McGraw was no. 10.

Having watched the clip of the first penalty incident, that is as blatant a dive as you'll ever see. The defender is standing near Vaughan but you can see that he doesn't put in a challenge and his feet don't leave the ground, and there is no contact between the defender and Vaughan. Vaughan is a cheat, plain and simple. How the referee awarded a penalty for that is beyond me. Must have thought he was refereeing next week's cup game at Ibrox. Disappointing to lose after pulling back a 2 goal deficit, especially as I understand it came from an error in defence with no real danger, but we're going to lose some games this season and Raith away is not one of our easier games. At least we're scoring goals at the moment. Let's hope we can run riot next Saturday, though I won't be putting any money on it.

Utter pish. I'm just commenting on what we saw - the throw in thing was about ten yards from where I was standing - shocking by the linesman. If Ayr had concentrated on playing football, they might well have got something out the game. I don't think they're a poor footballing side, and I'm sure they'll do ok over the course of the season, but on Saturday they couldn't cope when we stepped up the intensity in the second half (and the first half was played at high speed too). I thought it was a cracking game to watch. Our first and third goals were things of beauty.

Pity the action happened behind that pillar. need to see what happened from another angle, but from the Cowshed live it looked to be a blatant trip.

Oh piss off. Jai stood over him shouting but he didn't stamp anywhere near his head - it was right in front of me and all Jai did was shout at him. It was a cynical foul and arguably a red card - it wan't just a simple trip, he seemed to hit him with an elbow as well and went in quite high. I like Murdoch, was a great player for us and sad to see him resort to that sort of thing. Ayr have a hard edge to them and are not averse to fouling or other cheating. Near the end one of their players picked up the ball right in front of the cowshed before it had actually gone out of play, and took the throw - the linesman should have picked that up as it's pretty basic stuff. Ayr also indulged in a lot of time wasting after they scored until Crawford's superb equaliser. Good to see the smile wiped off Sean McGinty's coupon. What Ayr are good at is breaking quickly. They seem to have plenty of pace and they'll likely be all right this season. Morton struggled against them last season but I think our settle squad, albeit handicapped by injuries, showed they are better than at this time last season. Early days, but in what was a hectic game, we looked decent and deserved the win.

Seems out of character for Murdoch. Never been a dirty player.

McDonald would be a solid replacement for Mullen. I wonder if the intention is just to cover this injury, or will it be a longer term thing?

This year is the 60th anniversary of us losing to this lot's predecessor club in the league cup final. Time to right a historic wrong.

"No Championship clubs in Ross County's group"? And he actually played for us...

I think Imrie is playing a very clever game. Leaving everyone else believing we don't have a credible title-challenging squad when in reality we're not that far off it as last season showed. Imrie has a pretty good record so far of getting the best out of our squad, and I'd expect him to manage the same this season. Last year we had a couple of duds (Kabia for example, and Easdale) and he remedied that as soon as he could. I expect him to strengthen when the loan season starts, but this year we have a far better initial starting point with a fairly settled core to our squad. Of course he wants more funds - we would all like that - and I'd trust him not to waste anything he does get, but I'm fairly sure he knows what he's doing. Let's see how the manager of the month trophies pile up this season.

Link doesn't work.

Looks like Partick bet the farm on getting promoted. I'm sure they'll muddle through but quite likely the standard of their team will be much reduced next season. Tiffoney already away and probably a lot more to follow.

QP might well follow the example of Arbroath last season. From title challengers to bottom three in one season. Never had any view about QP up till this season but you do seem to have a fair number of supporters who have already forgotten where you have been for the last 100 years or so.

Have you changed a tyre recently? Car wheels are so big now, and much wider than they used to be. It's practically impossible to lift them - and many cars don't even have a spare tyre, just a can of squirty stuff that's mostly useless. It's not 1973 any more.

We're actually still able to get 4th place depending on other results. i think technically third might be possible but very very unlikely. We need Ayr and Inverness to their remaining games (possible) with the game between them either a draw or maybe an Inverness win I think. Anyway, we definitely need to beat Raith or we're going nowhere. The reason we are not in the playoffs is Arbroath. Sad but true.

Keeper made a right mess of that shot.

Could have been about 6-0 in the second half. Credit to Hamilton though as they never gave up. Our subs changed that game within seconds of coming on. Suddenly we upped the pace and just blew Hamilton away. Surely Dougie can now see that McGrattan should be starting games?

Is Oakley definitely out? I thought there was something about two yellows means the suspension is not immediate. Or is that just for accumulated yellows over a period of time?

That's not good news. I do hope McGrattan gets a starting place as we seem to win most games when he's in the team.

We owned Dundee there. They huffed and puffed but we always looked the more likely team to score the second goal. Grimshaw bossed the midfield, Blues was exceptional and what a goal that would have been from him if Dundee's MotM, the keeper whose name I can't remember and certainly can't spell, hadn't pulled off an excellent save. Baird dominated the airways. We fully deserved that win - if only we could be as dominating against the Arbroaths and Hamiltons of this division.

Certainly like to see McGrattan starting. Every time I've seen him play and he gets subbed after an hour, we seem to get worse (usually replaced by Kabia, no departed). I'd be inclined to drop Blues to the bench as he seems to be a bit anonymous at the moment.

Is Strapp fit? Seemed to have got a bad knock last Saturday as he was limping when he left Parkhead. Could bring in King at LB if so.

On the left, he may well be. However on the right, he was having to cut inside on to his left foot. There's a player there but playing him wide right seems a bit akin to playing Robbie Muirhead at left back. I'm happy to give Roy a chance as that was his first game and I remember Grimshaw didn't impress when he first arrived,, although when I look at opinions about Roy when he was at Queens it doesn't paint a very optimistic picture. i'm sure dougie will get the best out of him in time.

Look at the highlights. That was never a penalty. The referee must have got confused because Gillespie cleared the ball towards his own goal line rather than upfield. If anything should have been a free kick to Morton - which is what the ref indicated at first. Shocking refereeing. As Ally Roy is only on loan, can we send him back to Glentoran? He looks as shite as everyone has said. We are a lesser team without McGrattan, and for that matter if Reece Lyon has recovered his mojo, he'd add something to our midfield rather than Annan's. Miller was struggling as he seems to have no right foot. We need a decent striker.

Are we not three points behind you with a game in hand, and the same goal difference so that if we win that game in hand we will be above you? If we've bottled the playoffs, so have you, ya stupid mutant.