Andy_K_97

I don't consider myself to have a chip on the shoulder about many things in life. Wales being consistently better at international football than Scotland, however, was the one big thing that really irked me - especially since we knew that they were a largely ordinary squad with a very good player in Ramsey and a world-class player in Bale. Before we had them in the qualifiers in 2012 and 2013 I couldn't have cared much, but the way they embarrassed us before having their fans really rub our faces in it was sickening to me. I didn't mind seeing them do well up to a point at the major tournaments, although I'd have happily had them beat England at Euro 2020. As soon as Bale retired, we suspected that they'd start to fall down the rankings - but seeing them fall so hard and knowing that we're the best we've been for quite some time is so, so pleasing. I hope that we get a chance to play them soon, because I would love to see a Clarke team absolutely scud them and do what they did to us a decade ago.

Now you've got me excited! He knows what he's doing, so I have faith in him.

It's a 5.5-6/10 for me. Not a fan of the red in the Hummel logo or the pinstripe in the collar, would have been nicer in yellow or in gold. Apparently the third (bus seat) kit is being slightly tweaked as well as having the new sponsor's logo put onto it - perhaps a slight change in the colour of the wee chevrons/triangles? We'll see tomorrow.

Looks like we're interested in signing Matty Kennedy according to the P&J. I'd be happy with this.

I personally thought it was because the poppy-shaggers would think they would look a bit like poppies for War Christmas Remembrance Sunday.

That's an absolutely brilliant photo - sums up a completely bonkers day all round.

Hopefully a decent start to the window. Would love it if we could actually have a good window for a change, I can't remember the last time we didn't have a total stinker with January 2023 being the worst ever. How we stayed up with the squad we had is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

Go on Thistle - finish the job and get the racist the sack.

In bold are the ones I think McInnes will maybe keep - whether that actually happens or not is anyone's guess. If he'd played more, I'd have highlighted Sanders too, but the manager obviously doesn't fancy him since he's been on loan to you guys and then barely kicked a ball. It's a great shame as I thought he was brilliant for us in the Championship and would get the chance to kick on. In reality, I don't think many players will be sticking around but like Craig says most of them are about the level of the Championship so unless you can offer them an enticing enough wage I can't see them coming to Cove.

Glad that's over and done with. It's been a bit of a slog despite the good moments and landmark wins, but the target was to simply stay in the division and if you offered me 40 points and 10th place back in July I'd have accepted it. It's odd, because looking back at the final table in years to come people will think that it was comfortable enough having a six point gap, but at no point this season has it felt comfortable. Big clearout required now alongside a new assistant manager - I'm glad it's done and looking forward to a decent summer with plenty of distractions so as I'm raring to go come the middle of July. Over and done with, and we go on.

File under "statements that aged like fine milk".

I approached this game with a good amount of nerves - too many times this season we've had a decent result and fell flat afterwards. Given how things panned out, turns out there was no need to worry about any of that at all. Other than giving away a needless penalty, we played well and carried on the good work from Tannadice on Wednesday night. Every player did their job and played well, and it was far more comfortable than I expected it to ever be. Afterwards it was a smashing day out and a big outpouring of relief that a rubbish season with some admittedly good moments was over and done with, and we can all look forward to a rebuild. As for County, who knows? If Mackay doesn't get his good players like Dhanda into the game on Thursday night and Thistle keep their recent goalscoring form up then it could be curtains before the tie even reaches Dingwall. Fair play to the County fans who supported their team well - as someone who knows what it's like to be served utter dross week after week, I feel for you that you have to deal with a rubbish guy like Mackay in charge on top of all that. I hope that you manage to rid yourselves of him, even if that means going down to do so.

On seeing the team lines while passing Stirling I was fearing the worst. Can't fault any Killie players whatsoever though - for once, every man stuck to his task and gave everything. Vassell was excellent and he's showing how good a football brain he has with some of his touches and his effort from just inside the United half that Newman did well to put over the bar (side note: I believe Birghitti lets that one in if he's between the sticks). Chambers had a great game and McKenzie came into his own in the second half. Innes Cameron has shown that he's not up to scratch in the Premiership but I'm pleased for him to get a goal and get the applause from the fans too. I thought United were bad in previous encounters with us but this was an absolutely abysmal showing from their players. Had they come flying out of the traps after half time and actually had some pace in their team they could have caused us a lot of problems (especially when we went peak McInnes and made all the defensive subs) but it looked like they could have played all night and not scored. I don't know why Goodwin was so desperate to take the United job given the mess they'd been in under both Ross and Fox, but it's him who will have the relegation on his CV and not them. Sunday is a blockbuster now, and we have to make a flying start out the traps as if we play for a draw, we'll inevitably lose. Automatic relegation is off the cards now, but I'm nervous about the prospect of facing Thistle in the playoffs. One big push required and then time to rebuild in the summer - can we do it?

Heading up and I have the fear. I don't think anyone at all is confident that their side will do the business tonight - and with good reason, given how bad both our teams seem to be. I've been trying to be positive, but I can't do it and I also can't imagine going anywhere else tonight as if we're doomed I have to be there to witness it in person. Have no ill will towards United at all, but if it's a case of us vs them it's always us so I'm praying to all available deities for a Killie and St. Johnstone double tonight for an easy Sunday. ...not going to happen, is it?

I can remember on a couple of occasions that Gus MacPherson had to go in goals for us due to goalkeeper injury/Colin Meldrum being sent off and he was better than Meldrum. The recent tide of diddies in nets for us has me very nostalgic for peak Meldrum.

For years I thought I was quite lucky watching goalies like Drago Lekovic, Gordon Marshall and Alan Combe at Killie. Cammy Bell became a joke figure while at Rangers, but for Killie he was absolutely brilliant. Up until a few years ago, I'd have said that Francois Dubordeau was probably the worst goalie I'd seen for us, and that's not too shabby. We had Jamie MacDonald and Dan Bachmann during the Clarke era, and then things really started to fall apart when he left. I thought that Lary Branescu and Jan Koprivec were our worst two goalies ever while the Alessio/Dyer season was going on before the real OG of worst-ever keepers came along in Danny Rogers and Colin Doyle. I remember a game where we led St. Mirren 1-0 until injury time in the second half where Rogers caught a speculative shot and managed to walk it back over the line to award St. Mirren a goal and a draw. My dad said to me that those two points dropped could be costly - had we held on (pun absolutely intended) then we'd have finished 10th ahead of County and I have little doubt that they'd have kept Dundee at bay in the playoffs instead of us barely laying a glove on them. Doyle was easily the worst keeper I'd ever seen in a shootout as the SC quarter-final showed. I think my gran would have made a better effort at saving the penalties - actually, scrap that - a cardboard cutout of my gran would have at least dived the correct way once. I can say with confidence that Birghitti is worse than all of these keepers put together. I feel sorry for United fans knowing that he is the best they've got because having a dodgy keeper is a terrible thing for a defence. The Stevie May goal at Tannadice was the worst of the lot for me. Fair play to whoever his agent is, because he's done a tremendous job in convincing United that he was the goalie for them.

I hope you're right - we'll see on Wednesday night. Just you worry about Friday night my man

Kevin Van Veen saves Killie's weekend - it's as you were for the bottom three. It's in our hands and depends completely on who wants it on Wednesday and Sunday.

Bad day all round - only silver lining for us is Kevin Van Veen making sure it's as you were for the bottom three. It's in our hands now, but we absolutely have to improve quickly if we're to give ourselves the best-possible chance to stay up. Hope we see you next season to resume the meh derby, Saintees.

I really don't know how this one will go, and I'm getting more tetchy about it as the days go on. Yes, our home form is still good - but if we're as insipid as we were in the first half against Livi and Saints start like they did against Motherwell we might be in a spot of bother. I'd like to see us start the same 11 again and ditch the tombola - and I'd like to think that if we can get a win in this game we won't finish bottom. I reckon two more wins will keep us safe, but given the weird nature of the bottom six this season you can't be certain of anything at all.

I know it can change a lot from week to week, but the three points we gained against Livingston are massive and give me hope that we won't finish bottom now - I word it in that way because three weeks ago I was feeling great after beating St. Mirren in Paisley and last weekend I was very down about it all following our defeat at Fir Park. Having two of the three remaining games at home is massive for us because I absolutely would not feel confident about winning the games if they were away from home. One more win for us probably means that we don't finish bottom, and two will probably be enough to guarantee safety. I just worry that we go into the last match needing a win because that would fill me with absolute dread. Right now I think we might just edge our way to safety, but ask me how I feel about it this time next week and then a week on Thursday and I might give you totally different answers.

Agreed - and I have a feeling that there's going to be some more positions being traded next weekend. It's going to be awful close, but I'm much happier this weekend than I was last weekend.