Durnford

That's better than I'd expected. As a rule of thumb its about 250 seats in each segment. This is a bit of a nothing game for Saints isn't it; they aren't mathematically safe but its unlikely the bottom 3 can catch them.

That statement was a bit of an oxymoron but, depressingly, I know what you mean.

Apparently he's going back to England to be with his family so the whole thing is a bit academic .

The thing about our corners that really does my head in is when they go sailing past everyone (no-one on the far post) and likely as not end up as an opposition throw-in.

He wasn't so successful in getting Kouda Aisha or Goncalvez fit though? TBH I'm not sure Snodgrass's issue is fitness at the moment; he's 35 years old and simply put he's slowing down; not able to turn or react as quickly as he could; that's not his fault; just life. His real benefit at the moment is his ability with dead ball and set pieces; something we haven't really had consistently for a while. With regard to Shinnie; he's undoubtedly a skilful player but running around in circles and achieving not very much isn't something we need at the moment.

We signed Ambrose after Bartley didnt we?

Its the Livingston way!

No Brendan Rodgers?

The season that keeps giving and giving. Hibs playing managerless Hearts next week - will Hearts go on a new manager bounce or fall into the mire?

Was thinking the same - raising false hope again.

Cant help thinking that a number of players have lost their focus once it started to be known they probably wouldn't be here next season.

Is what we've budgeted for this year really relevant? Effectively we're losing money and continue to do so. This will impact our budget for next year unless we get a cash injection from somewhere.

So basically we need to pin our hopes on Dundee United stuffing Hibs tomorrow then?

BBC seem to think Bradley's in defense?

Agreed - even a 10% sell-on clause would make thing a lot more positive.

When we were explaining the non-use of VAR against ICT in the cup; Martindale said we couldn't justify the £10k per game that it cost. Seemed a lot to me at the time but pretty sure that's what he said.

Actually I think I read if we got into the top six we'd have both of the Old Firm at home (to equal out the 19 games at home and 19 games away anomaly of the split).

All good points but the undeniable fact is that we had and continue to have consistently poor home crowds. Rarely is the West Stand catering for more than about 1600 (probably nearer 1200 when you remove hospitality and away team family and friends allocation}. This is at the backdrop of a club that has been consistently performing in or around the top half of the top division in Scotland. This is even more galling when you consider there are possibly 5 teams in the championship with better home support. The free tickets to schools idea worked well almost quarter of a century ago; but, in order for it to be effective, it needs to be persistent i.e. maybe half a dozen games in a row to build up the habit. I doubt whether a game here and there has made any impact to the PATG numbers for the following games at all.

Well I believe there's a difference of about £300k in gate receipts between top and bottom six placement; that's before you take in the difference in prize money. This year there's the cost of VAR to consider as well (isn't that about £200k?). Also we haven't had anything that resembles a cup run. Unfortunately, as a proposed "selling club", the last decent transfer value we received was Lyndon Dykes in August 2022. Last season we finished in the bottom six; didn't have a cup run or transfer value. This season, if we don't win at Motherwell on Saturday, should be significantly worse - actually I'm surprised the forecast is only £400k

In my opinion the first one was pretty clear cut. The second on though, in real time, it looks like it hit both Main and Holts arms and, again in real time, the Referee could be excused for being unsure. The first one though was really strange; the law is now quite clear that, if it hits the arm of a non-old-firm player, in the penalty area, then its a penalty. It doesn't even have to be away from the body by much to qualify.

Hmmmm... George, Boyes, Fitzwater, de Lucas, Devlin, Holt, Shinnie, Pittman, Penrice, Nouble & Guthrie. Subs - Hamilton, Brandon, Montaño, Omeonga, Stephen Kelly, Bradley, Bahamboula & Anderson. Any thoughts on the lottery numbers for tonight?

Us scoring first hasn't necessarily boded well of late; we go to sleep and sit back in the second half. Even more though; I'm worried by this being labeled a must not lose game for us We don't do well playing cagey for a draw; I'd far rather we came out and went for the win. We may still lose but it wouldn't be to an 87th minute mistake.

Didnt John McGlynn used to do the stadium plumbing?

I don't always agree with Martindale's substitutions however the most salient point are: Can we afford a better manager for the money we have available? - I certainly doubt it. Is there a better manager available for working on such a shoestring budget? - Extremely unlikely; there are managers who will have a good season working with practically nothing (Dick Campbell with Arbroath last season for example) but very few can do it season after season. I suppose it might be interesting to see what Martindale could do if he had the budget.