Swello

If what is implied in this statement is true - ie, that Celtic alone were given the chance to give input, it shows tragically poor judgement on the SPFL side if nothing else. What did they think was going to happen when that nugget got out? I mean if they let both cheeks in on it and no-one else, it wouldn't even be a story.

I think Friday is pretty crucial on how the season is viewed overall. If we can escape Cappielow still in the cup, then we'd be going into Tuesday in very decent form and maybe with a bit of confidence for the first time in months.... We've got a history of being better in the 2nd half of the season and there are some signs that we are ready to do that yet again - but it's early days and a loss on Friday could kill the whole thing.

I never got over the fucking cheek of him going and sitting on the front steps with his head in his hands so that he could get photographed doing it - there was 13,500 seats going spare if he wanted to get out of the boardroom.

You're spot on about 1923 though - and his Darts book is brilliant too (even if you're not into that). ETA - this is Ned Boulting that wrote these, not Pat Nevin, who's a wee w**k.

I think you're not allowed to say that when you win five-scud - it needs a County supporter to mention it (I thought he let Halliday off with an absolute stick on booking in the first half - but he was fine)

Still think this will be our toughest game of the week TBH - but last night was a bit of a stroll in the end and we came off the gas for most of the 2nd half, so I don't think Morton's free midweek will be as big a help as it could have been if we had a more testing game last night. Even before last night, we were going into this in better shape than we were in a couple of months back - we've been doing well recently but our habit of giving away avoidable goals early on in every game has been hurting us - and I'm not convinced pumping County will have somehow fixed that. Saturday's game against Killie was probably a better guide for this game and I was pleased then that we were quite physical and were mixing it in midfield as that is what we'll need to be doing in a cup tie like this. No idea how this is going to go - looking forward to being there.

There he is.

The thing is, it's complete word salad - nothing he says makes any sense, even by accident. It's as if ChatGPT came up with it. He'll currently be staring out the bus window at the Drumochter Pass, contemplating how to get a payoff and back to the seaside down south.

In amongst all the stand-out stuff - Nicholson put in another interesting cameo tonight - think he could be a properly good signing (is he just short-term/loan?)

I'm genuinely trying to think (us aside) if I've seen a more abject team performance at Fir Park in the last decade as County put on tonight - and I can't bring one to mind. There were acres of space for us to operate in and we obviously took full advantage. Spittal has the air of a player hitting his peak just as his contract is winding down (and he'll surely be offski as a result) - he put multiple great through balls tonight, scored 2 brilliant goals and is arguably our most important player at the moment. This is an interesting bookend to the 3-0 horsing we took in Dingwall in December where we had Connor Wilkinson starring in midfield and looked (almost) every bit as abject as County did tonight. The fact is that we are hugely improved from November/December and the squad is now looking serviceable. We've got a better team to play against on Friday night obviously but I'm feeling more confident for our trip to Greenock.

Liam Kelly doesn't know what's going on, does he?

Yes they are

Eric Nicholson would have an embolism

Hoping for the first - fear it's the second....

For the first time in about 5 years - the pitch isn't like a bowling green but I'm sure it will be perfectly playable tonight..

I would think he remembers what Craig Brown coming in at Fir Park was like and is looking for the same sort of thing..

See - I'm sort of the opposite here. I think McGinn and Butcher are when fit (and match fit in Butcher's case) first choice options. Casey has been poor by his standards this season (but on his best form would be a first choice) and I've yet to see anything from Blaney that convinces me he's better than anyone in the current first choice 3 - he feels every inch a squad player to me.

Just the capitalisation on that tweet has ruined my day.

Weirdly doing a shift as my postman at the moment. I'm trying to order a lot of heavy stuff to get him back for all the goals against us.

I don't think we should read too much into the fact that a bunch of young boys signed on Thursday night aren't pitched straight into an important game less than 48 hours later (and the team played reasonably well across the St Johnstone and Killie games - so it would have been weird to make wholesale changes.. We've got 3 games in a week, so I would be surprised if we didn't see them at some point this week after they've had some actual training sessions - and it's up to them to dislodge the ones that are getting picked. Nicholson I would hope would be close to a starter when he is match fit, I still think we'll see Gent and Buyabu playing in the same team - and Miller surely would be back to being a starter at the expense of Halliday.

Aye - that's going to be a really hard cup tie against them on Friday - quite a few days coming up

That basically got a cheer as loud as the goal - lovely stuff.

some clapped, less booed - when he gave a clap to the East Stand, he got a good response (which will annoy some). Everyone enjoyed his booking. It was noticeable that he went round pretty much every player who was with us last season and Kettlewell - so there are clearly no bridges burnt anywhere.

Surely you don't believe things that football managers say.