Coventry Saint

We're not impervious to the economics of Covid. This fee could help keep the club ticking over until a vaccination is available (they're now saying the Oxford vaccine should get approval before January, with a roll-out in March ish.) I honestly can't see fans getting back in the grounds before then. As mentioned above, £250k ish for an injury prone player is great business. I personally don't think the sell-on will come to anything - this isn't John McGinn - but it's worth adding on anyway just in case, I guess.

Totally off topic, but just sorting through the loft and found this. I never really got Subbuteo, tbh, always thought it was a bit shit. But this is cool.

I think he's requested a four year deal knowing fine well he's not getting it. Or... He knows more about his injuries than he's letting on. Look, I wish him well. Hibs are a big club and he's played with half their first team before. He's hardly leaving as a legend: his contributions have been too sporadic. I actually thought making him captain was an odd move. We don't even need to replace him. Let's take the cash and move on.

Just catching up as the credits roll on Alba. Absolute gutter, that. As has been pointed out, our legs were gone and we needed to make some subs. I know Morias has his weaknesses, but he put in one hell of a shift tonight, and took a fair few (sporting) knocks, too. That point when Cammy knocked it down the line for him and he basically stopped. He gave everything and couldn't run any more. MacPherson pulled the strings for us all night, and was really very good. That said, we still don't create chances. McGrath is an odd player. He's literally capable of dribbling past three players, then blootering it long and hard for a goal kick (he actually did that). The passage of play that led to their equaliser stemmed from that fucking bizarre non-contested drop ball. It seemed to rattle us and the goal was inevitable. I don't know why our players didn't try to get a foot in. Anyway... Well done Aberdeen. Draw probably the fairer result, but the way they were coming at us in the end meant the loss wasn't entirely surprising. I did think we'd seen it out though.

Ooft. Fucking hell. He's been hung out to dry there, I reckon. The four subs thing is clearly a message. I don't think Jim will still be with us by Christmas. Right I'm checking out. Gonna do the Alba thing.

Our line up

I got 11/10 if I added on BTTS: No. Mind, last time I did that we took the lead against Celtic inside a few minutes. Definitely pay no attention to my bets!

I will say this: my early season optimism has been flushed right down the shitter now. I'm honestly not even sure Magennis was making that much of a difference this season: it's just the way we seem to be going about things feels a bit off. How are we even vaguely getting the players up for this tonight? The f**k does Jim's teamtalk sound like now? We're going to get completely rolled over.

I'm going to give it a go. Might as well. I'll almost certainly have more fun trying to avoid the score than I will actually watching the game, so there's always that. I reckon wheeling out our manager and senior centre half this week to praise the club for not selling our 'essential to the squad' club captain Kyle Magennis, immediately before selling him, is the perfect prep for tonight's game.

Nor can any of our managers. Everyone says he's best down the middle, but manager after manager has pushed him out wide. That's almost certainly where he was going to end up playing for us when he got fit again. I have to say, I'm not sure he's going to worry your first team at the moment, so I assume he's been bought with one eye on next season. I'd also (personally) pick Mallan ahead of him, if that helps. Others may disagree.

FFS. I've no issue with the boy going. I've no issue with Jack Ross trying to get him. I've no issue with us knocking offers back. I've no issue with Hibs. BUT: we knocked offers back, then spent the week giving interviews saying how it was the right decision and he was integral to our squad and he was the missing bit for this season... and THEN we sell him. That's fucking rank, TBH.

He also refers to Dylan Connolly not being available - he mentions it as if it's already been a thing, and not just brand new information. I wonder if he's either lacking fitness or carrying a knock as well. This passage made me smile, though - he includes the out-of-form Sam Foley as a 'missing' player. Which, to be fair, he has been. At least know Goodwin is seeing what we're seeing, to some extent.

See the St Mirren that you played in the cup last season? Didn't really do much; broadly disappointing, despite having taken the game to Motherwell in the previous round... that's who were are every game now.

He was great for picking up the ball and driving into dangerous areas with it. Defences at this level really struggle with that. I'd say the closest we have right now is Flynn, though he's not quite the same. McGrath should be doing it but maybe hasn't got the right movement around him to give him options/create space.

Not taking the piss, but I honestly thought that was common knowledge.

Real shame for Allan, that. Only 28; you hate to see it. Still, you don't take chances with heart defects, if indeed that is the issue. Not saying Magennis is at Allan's level right now, but that would help to explain why you've been sniffing around there. For background, it was widely assumed Ross would come in for Magennis when Ross moved to the Mackems, but Magennis was on a long contract at the time (he's been signed up till 2021 for ages now) and, as Netflix showed us, Sundlund had no money, so I'm assuming it was a non-starter.

Let's hope they're all still St Mirren players by then. If the Betfred cup games turn out to be a platform for Magennis getting fitness back then they'll be a really welcome break from league action. I'd also like to think they'll be a chance to remove the shackles from the midfield. On the flipside, if we happen to struggle in games against lower-league teams who've barely kicked a ball while we've played a quarter of our season, then the knives could really be out for Goodwin. Probably best to play a tight, counterattacking 4-5-1 just in case, eh? Realm shame about Dennis: as @djchapsticks mentioned earlier, he looked promising against Hibs. He was making space in the box, and moving in a way that our other strikers don't seem to. Only a snapshot, but enough to suggest he's got something about him.

We'd get circa £200k development fee next summer, as long as we offer him a new deal, which we would. So any offer now, while he remains in contract, would need to be significantly in excess of that.

Ew. Magennis is 100% going. We've only put that statement out to show we're playing the game, and to push the price up. I can imagine a swap deal of some sort taking place: £250k and Mallan for the season, or something like that. (Ok, Mallan is pie in the sky, but I'm sure we'll push for a player of some sort.) Edit: had a quick glance on Twitter and nobody (that I've seen) seems that bothered. Either that's reflective of Magennis' relatively poor season for us pre-injury last year, or, as a support, we're just on such a downer at the minute that news like this is just standard.

Someone said on here a while back he was away. Lucky guess or itk? Depending on what the definition of 'substantial' is, we should take it. Survival of the club takes priority in the current climate. Plus, the boy is injury prone. I still think our squad is heavy in the middle, and I'd rather see cheap/experienced defensive cover brought in.

Is the Hibs physio any good?

I might try and hide from the score and watch it late on. Though I hate non-live football. Trying to pretend you're watching it in a d world where the final score doesn't already exist just leaves me a bit cold.

Thing is, it's easy to mark someone like Durmus out the game if there's no movement inside. We've got to give teams more to think about than we have done. Re Connolly, he visibly took about five minutes to adjust to the intensity of the game on Saturday, (not blaming him) so yeah, get him on from the beginning. Tell him to run himself into the ground for an hour then swap him if necessary.

Yeah, that all seems fair. At this stage I honestly don't know what Connolly has to do to get a start. He looks genuinely capable of unsettling defences and is one of the quickest players we've had for some time. Even if he's only fit enough for an hour, that's fine. I've been giving a lot of thought to what needs to change in the way we play, and I honestly think it could be as simple as taking the shackles off one of the two midfielders. If it's Cammy, then great: make Foley sit and spoil (he's not good for much else on current form) and give Cammy licence to push on and support McGrath and Erwin. That's what the teams who've beaten us have done well (of the games I've seen): Hibs, United and Kilmarnock all had players pushing on from deep to support the front men. We have a) failed to deal with that defensively and b) failed to match it going forwards ourselves.

We're basically the Belgians at the start of WWI. Neutral/non-aggressive, no danger of us invading your territory, we might offer slight resistance, but it's a case of when, not if, we'll be defeated.