Bluegrass Bairn

Likewise not yet convinced Marsh; Longridge has clearly been trying his best, which should be a given, but will it be enough? am just hoping that his ineffectiveness in earlier games was due to lack of decent link-up coming from the wasters around him, and his much improved showing last week against QoS is more like what we'll get - regularly - in the coming months. Dunno if I'm clutching at straws, but we're living in hard, hard times...

its a funny thing though, neither Rakish Bingham nor Botti Biabi proved themselves in the Championship with Falkirk, and to be honest you're welcome to both of them, without any regrets here... Much like the Luca Gasparotto scenario - he was truly awful with us and has apparently already got the Morton fans more than happy to have him back. One team's sloppy seconds are another team's ambrosia.

Maybe shouldn't read too much into the signings of those two though, as both were outwith the window therefore Hartley's options were decidedly more limited then. Rumours of guys coming in from England, Hearts reserves & Celtic reserves are more like the sort of players we should be at least aiming for. We'll soon see...

Austin has been a chief culprit in totally under-achieving this season. Whether or not some folks think he should get a little slack for (a) having promise, based on last season or (b) not suited to the lone striker role, or (c) still quite young, he's been utterly rank and I'm not sorry to see him out the door. This season's performances are what he should be judged on, and for him that reads as a shocking lack of effort, application, or commitment to the cause; woeful ball control, and an utterly embarrassing desire to throw himself on the turf at any opportunity, including when within sight of goal. As GB said, wearing a pair of curtains to Hamilton Racecourse doesn't make him look anything other than a young twat who's more interested in playing the cool dude than applying himself on a Saturday. He's been completely ineffective and this season every other team's centre half could have played against him in slippers. Whether he comes back to haunt us, who knows; aye, possibly, but right now he's no use to us. Oh, and please take Hippolyte with you. 45 decent to good minutes every 5 or 6 games doesn't cut it either, whether we were sitting second top or second bottom. Another sand-dancer.

just glad the photo is on a bus, rather than a train...

McGhee likes a tackle too... If PG can get a bit of form back, that could 3/4 of a more respectable looking defence.

I’d keep Balatoni - overall he’s been worth it, but equally his experience could well help Grant get back to his best. And he also would be decent cover for any injuries still to come. Punting Grant would be just mental - he’s still young, talented, and more likely to come good again than not. All things being equal, he could easily be our captain for next season.

"Up and down the country, looking at players"... Just like a good manager should be. I genuinely wish December was over...Charlatans OUT!

Oh Pu-lease...Surely you realise the Cooper comment is firmly tongue in cheek? However, interesting that you don't seem too concerned about either Cusack or Arnott. Glad we agree on that bit.

Yet another bizarre wee quirk in this much-loved, on-going pantomime...While SSN was on in the pub last night, when it cut to their Dave King interview, it looked like he was sitting in the boardroom/trophy room. (I assume it was somewhere deliberately picked as supposedly grand enough for the King to grant an audience). Anyhow, clearly visible over his shoulder was a bicycle. Really? In the boardroom? Carried up the marble steps and into the inner sanctum? Just curious why it was there.. Either its (a) for a quick getaway from the utter shambles he's perpetuating (b) ready to go on eBay, to raise some cash for the war chest or (c) a trophy! (Tour de Govan perhaps?) Possibly the only one they'll collect in the foreseeable?

As GrangemouthBairn (and I'd reckon most Bairns who read it) immediately spotted Mr W, it was indeed Arnott and Cooper. You must be one of the younger fellows on here! At the time, Motherwell would be pretty much up there with the Fifers as the most disliked by us, outwith the OF. This is back in the days when Motherwell got to vote on whether or not they should be relegated, which even now seems absolutely... fair and reasonable, of course. Cusack was a nasty piece of work; Arnott a sly, off-the-ball cheat, and Cooper...well, if he'd spent as much time concentrating on the game as he did winding up the opposition fans, he might have been a decent player. There were other scoundrels in that Motherwell team, you'll be glad to know, but those three never failed to get the blood boiling. Happy days.

Ah, you young pup. There’s so many, many more older era panto villains you’ve missed out on. Booooo!

I like this game... but seriously - Lustig?? in the “Most hated”?? Really? An utter irrelevance in the grand scheme of the years of tossers we have loathed... ‘f’rinstance; 1. Dave Bowman. Happy to stick in despicable off the ball/studs up tackles against “diddy” teams, but nowhere to be seen when against the big boys. A cheat and a coward, in true playground bully fashion. 2. John Potter. Dreadful “hard man” swagger , per above. Why tackle fairly when you can hurt someone illegally & get away with it. 3. Noel Hunt. Cockney rhyming slang, obviously. 4. Nick Cusack. Part of the infamous Motherwell “gang of three”, but really led the way in GBH without remorse or censure. These days, makes Andy Carroll look like a legit option. 5. Barry Ferguson. The national side really, really reached a nadir when this disgrace of a supposed figurehead was made captain. His shockingly limited MO of safe, square ball passing was bad enough, but the puffed up, deluded sense of self importance was entirely counter- productive to the cause & meant we were practically a man short before we started a game. Ineffective wee nyaff.

Absolutely spot on PG... OK then, Pea-heart, assuming you are on the park today, we can now look for a big, big performance from you - hungry for the ball, pacy, beating the full back time after time and whipping in fantastic, teasing crosses just begging to be put away. I can’t wait!!!! yeah, right.

A perfectly decent post SD; we were over-performing and getting lucky at the same time, which was a combo that could never last. Plodding our way through 60-70 mins of half-paced, square-passing crab football ("containment" I think Houston termed it), then a bit of overdue width and speed with a couple of subs (out of desperation, in reality!) and a late, late goal courtesy of Sir Bob McHugh.... As a few Bairns said on here at the time we got second last time by default, due to DU & Morton falling to pieces on the run-in. Probably the comment from Houston that irked the most was him playing the victim with his "the team had 2 second place finishes but I only got 4 games into the new season.." line - the reason we were so fecked off was the gash standard of football we had to suffer, finishing second looks fine on paper now but getting there was awful at the time. Now, we're still plodding, and sinking fast.

just shows what a decent manager can do...

Hartley quoted Tumilty is “quick, strong & good on the ball”. Hope he’s right! Attributes we desperately need, that Kidd is not. (Nor Gallagher. Nor Craigan. Nor McKee. Nor Kerr).

Think you’re being harsh on the author, Mr D; Given it’s an article in a national paper it’s a detached, balanced and mostly accurate assessment of our many failures. You can nit-pick certain points if you like, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong in what he says. Eg his point about Kerr & Tiawo is true; we’ve all been banging on about not playing them together for months, so to critisise about them not playing for the last 5 weeks rather misses the point. Also, most weeks we’re lucky to get a couple of lines in the national press; or alternately, outlets like the BBC often canny even get our players names right, so to get a lengthy piece which bothers to look at our current plight, and most importantly pretty much hits the nail on the head, makes it well worth the read. Maybe a case of the truth hurts...

Gallows humour P, just gallows humour. Our clusterfcuk omnishambles state of upheaval has yet to level out, given that squad reorganisation has only just begun. And winning a game ain’t gonna happen this weekend, so keep them contributions coming...

Probably the most notable point to the whole Gretna circus was how they managed to become the most reviled club in the land outwith the OF in such a short space of time. Took some doing, but entirely merited. Personally, I would wish any other team in Scotland to win when they play the Govan rabble - yup, even Dunfermline - yet tellingly when Gretna were up against them I could only bring myself to hope for a draw, that way neither of them get the win...

PS - 12 is absolutely the way to go, but only assuming it’s for a bet. 1 looks tidy.

Gasparotto started off ok, & we had high hopes him & Grant would be our pairing for the foreseeable... However he drastically slowed down, stopped concentrating & started eating double portions - frankly he’s become a liability. It looks like a long way back for him.

LOL indeed I do

Likewise I thought Gasparotto was a really promising signing; looked confident and dependable when he played against us, so really frustrating that he's lost it. Its a piss poor show that he's got himself so badly out of condition.