jm86

Drinan knocking in a few for Orient. Four in his last two games, I think. No chance now, but I would have liked him back.

The Partick game was, in a sense, a one off. Partick didn't play particularly well while we were only mildly horrendous. The defeat and its margin were down to one man. The Sean McGinty show. He was almost solely to blame for the first two goals by being totally unaware of the presence of the two scorers who simply ran by him to head in. He scored the third with a delightful wee lob into the far corner with his utterly useless right foot. He was only partly to blame for the fourth by missing his tackle on Graham and then joining the posse of about 6 players who escorted him across the edge of the box until he decided to pop it into the corner. Seldom in the history of football has so much shambolic defending been down to so few i.e. one. Take a bow Mr McGinty. If the rumours of Hopkin going back to Morton are true, then I hope the bold Sean is the first name on his signing list. He is obviously a good leader, given the number of clubs where he’s been captain. Hopkin clearly believes these leadership qualities outweigh his limitations as a defender. Feasible if the limitations weren't so extensive. The Hoppyverse is a strange and dark place when it comes to tactics and acquisition..

Scum who brick buses are yobs first and football fans second. If they're not bricking buses, they're in all probability terrorising their own communities. I have no evidence for this, of course, just decades of observing typical yob behaviour, some of which has affected me personally.

McGinty may well be a nice guy and clearly must have leadership qualities. He’s been captain at Aldershot, Torquay, Thistle and Morton before he came to us. But performances on the pitch must be the final arbiter, and at the moment it’s hard to justify him being in the team. Maybe needs rested. Anyone can have a bad game (like the other 10 on Saturday), but his performance was so catastrophic I think he has to be dropped.

Having seen the “highlights”, that performance was even worse than I thought at the time. Basically the Sean McGinty show. Four text book examples of “how not to defend”. The club should make a video of it and market it. Defensive coaches the world over would gobble it up. Could make us millions. Until Saturday I’ve actually thought some of the criticism of McGinty was OTT. He’s had a fair number of solid performances. But after Saturday I hope he never plays for us again. Even a defensive coach of Duffy’s proven ability can only do so much in producing silk purses from pigs’ ears. The main problems seem to be, (a) a total lack of awareness at crucial times, and (b) a right foot that seems to have a life of its own. It’s a weapon of mass football destruction. Never seen such a one footed player. That goal up at ICT was a prime example. First two goals, he lets a player run in behind him for a free header. Seemed to be totally unaware of their presence. Third goal, that lethal McGinty right foot produces a beautiful dink into the far corner. Pity it was his own net. Rudden was nowhere near it. The fourth goal he was involved again, gets easily beaten by big Graham at edge of the box. Then him, Baird and 4 others let Graham amble across the edge of the box without a single challenge and pull the trigger at his leisure. A ridiculous goal. So, all in all, a defensive horror show which was among the worst I’ve ever witnessed as a long standing Ayr fan. Even worse than the 4-0 away to Arbroath last season. Or the 7-0 home defeat to ICT a few seasons ago. And all superbly orchestrated by the amazing Mr McGinty. To be directly at fault for three goals and heavily implicated in the fourth can’t happen often in any player’s career. A career I hope he continues elsewhere asap.

Diego, Morton won virtually every header in their own box, specially big Lithgow. Not one of our numerous long throws led to a chance, as a defender, usually rising above McGinty by pushing down on his shoulders, invariably headed it away. They were not so good in our box, thank goodness. Our only dangerous efforts on goal were Tomi's first half attempt that just scraped by, and Maxwell's blast in the 2nd half. Was right behind the line of that shot and was certain it was going into the top right corner, then at the last minute it seemed to lift slightly and hit the top of the bar. Maybe an optical illusion as how that is physically possible I'm not sure. Maybe something to do with spin or the wind.

Notice from the highlights on B&W TV that both our goals came from gigantic hoofs up the park, one from a goal kick. The post hoof play in both cases was actually quite classy, with Adeloye involved in both. For the first he beat the centre half out on the wing,, ran inside and played Murdoch in with a perfectly weighted pass across the edge of the box. Murdoch, steaming in with a late run didn't have to break stride as he slid a pinpoint ball into the feet of Bradley who produced an excellent finish. A really well worked goal. For the second Adeloye showed fantastic control to chest the ball down to Bradley before turning and running goalwards. Bradley hit the ball first time into Tomi's path. He took one good touch before despatching the ball low into the corner. Again, a well worked goal. Young Bradley and Tomi involved in both. The difference between Duff ball and Hoppy ball, was that, for the first we had runners following up from midfield and for the second, we had Tomi with someone playing beside him to get on to the knockdown. Bradley has the makings of a really good player for Hibs. Rough round the edges and a lot to learn, but capable of moments of brilliance. He was having a pretty duff game, but kept persevering and trying things and finished up contributing massively to the win. Assuming he gets plenty of game time with us, he'll go back to Hibs a much better player.

It could come down to something as simple as personal finances. By all accounts Hopkin is pretty well of and could afford to swan off into the sunset rather than put up with the aggro. The others perhaps not in that happy position, in which case it would be daft to expect them to give up presumably fairly well paid jobs. Would you?

The CEBM do a lot of useful work. They’ve tried to bring a bit of objectivity to an area dominated by hysteria and ideology. Early in the pandemic, the guy that runs it, Carl Heneghan, was persona non grata with left leaning media outlets for his anti-lockdown stance. Now he’ll be demonised by right leaning media no doubt. That’s how ideologically polarised the debate has become. Why should this be, in an area where “the science” should be king ? Possibly because the science is fiendishly complicated and anyone can cherry pick bits that suit their political leanings. Who knows.

Was the Raith v ICT game at Starks not postponed last January as Raith said they couldn't field a team. If you have 11 players, anywhere in the pecking order, who can play, I assume you have to fulfil the fixture or Is there a minimum size for the bench? Can anyone enlighten me? Playing ICT with a weakened team wasn't great, but our full strength team might well have lost anyway. Playing Raith under-strength is more serious, as this is a game we would normally be more likely to get a result in.

"Patronising p***k" seems fair enough for North British in that post. Enlighten me on the current meaning of "moosh". Didn't know it had anything to do with toxic masculinity. Maybe being a bit past it, I'm out of touch with current slang.

To continue the pernickety argument as to where exactly Somerset is located, according to the system used by government for recording statistical information, it belongs to an area with the snappy name Lochside, Braehead and Whitletts – 06. Decades ago, I would have taken Lochside (an area to be avoided by outsiders) to be entirely to the North of Walker Road, so Somerset wasn’t in it. Also, Braehead was sandwiched between Lochside and Whitletts Road, so not in that either. And certainly not in Whitletts. Wallacetown was probably the closest named area.

Only 3 cubicles with a normal crowd could be problematic.

Looks like McGinty got caught under the cross and Muirhead let Boyce run in front of him.

Anybody know what Andy's 1st serve percentage was in the 3rd set? Must have been very low.

TNS involved in our loss of Todarov. By paying Dunfermline £60,000 for McManus, they facilitated him getting a better contract than we offered.

Any interviews on today's game from us. See TNS have already interviewed two of their staff on TNS TV re the game. They seem a very professional and well run outfit. Also had an interview with Declan McManus who cost them £60,000 (.and probably cost us Todarov. They made over £1,000,000 from their European campaign last year.

VFTT is one of the few shows on TV where lower league clubs get a look in. I know 2 of them are Hearts fans, but nobody’s perfect. The other are Raith and Stenhousemuir. Their knowledge of the lower leagues is good. Patter’s not bad either. And their guests aren’t just the usual suspects. Moff was excellent when he was on. I assume Ryan87 only watched it the once having gouged his eyes out.

McPake mentioned our 3-1 win at Dens twice. He managed to be totally condescending in the process. You know the script. “No disrespect to Ayr blah blah blah.”. Meaning massive teams like Dundee shouldn’t be losing to useless f***ing minnows like Ayr f***ing United.

Nine years ago that Parker goal. Video's a bit fuzzy now but watchable. Move starts at 0:27s His free kick before this goal wasn't too shabby either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ob2JToy8WM

Both those goals were excellent, even if it was v Albion Rovers. Zanattas sole contribution of the season. Slow Joe's v Elgin wasn't bad either. Struggling to think of any more. But McKenzie's must be the winner. The way he made space for the shot, then the perfect finish.

Been wearing the incontinence pads for weeks now. We'll lose our last 2 games anyway so the result at Gayfield hardly matters. But it would be of some mild interest to see Dick and Gus having a nice chinwag over a cuppa, occasionally shouting a coded message to any player who has lost the plot and looks like scoring.

Probably already been mentioned by somebody, but I can't be bothered trawling through the whole thread. A not unlikely scenario on Saturday is that Ayr lose to QOS, while Arbroath draw with Dunfermline and Morton beat Alloa. We would be on 27, Arbroath and Morton both on 30. So if Arbroath and Morton draw in their last game they're both safe. A nice wee 0-0 anybody? The other 26 possible scenarios are too laborious to analyse. .

Although we helped Queens towards their good run, it was actually at Raith they broke their duck was it not. We then gifted them the game at Palmerston by snatching defeat from the jaws of a decent draw. (Anything but our usual routine defeat down there counts as decent).

Raith, a full time team going for 2nd place, couldn't beat Arbroath, despite taking a 2 goal lead.