forameus

We were swept aside equal parts us being utter shite as them being great. If we turn up, or even just try and take advantage of a keeper that looked terrified, that's a much closer game. I don't think it was that crazy to feel like we were slight favourites before a ball was kicked.

Half time they did the usual man of the match stuff, then offered you a vote for "lion of the match" which was the best Ukrainian player. Think all votes proceeds went to charity but still, its a fucking important game, and a lot of people seemed to forget that in the run up. Know who didn't forget it? Ukraine.

After that debacle you'd have to imagine that Ukraine are favourites to at least get ahead of us, and you'd imagine to win the group. Could well be that they lifted themselves higher for tonight given the importance, but we need to make sure this doesn't send us into a tailspin. Just because they've been tacked onto the end of a disappointment doesn't make the Nations League unimportant. For countries like us, they couldn't be any more important.

There shouldn't be any call offs, as I imagine they're in serious danger of losing a lot of the good will they've built up with the fans over our run. But I imagine in the coming days they'll start dropping, and we'll probably be fucking shite in the game. As long as it's shite and win

Aye, I think we shaded the first 3 minutes, then Ukraine had a bit of a wobble around the hour mark where they started playing like they were us and misplacing passes. I wondered if they'd just hit an emotional wall and would tire, but after riding out us trying to doorknob shag them, they reasserted and never really looked troubled. Even when we scored it never really looked like we would scam a 2nd.

We should maybe stop thinking about where the next superstar is coming from and start asking why the likes of Waled and Northern Ireland (in recent years) can put out teams of absolute jobbers and still outperform us. We don't have a superstar coming through. We don't even seem to have an improvement on what we have now coming through. So where's a David Healy or a Hal Robson Kanu? Or how can we make someone shite into one? Because if we had a chance like that 95th minute goal they scored tonight, would you back anyone in our squad to score regularly?

Well, at least it wasn't Wales... I'd honestly like to know what the plan was there. If they played to the gameplan, then I can only assume they were told to be incredibly passive and essentially wait until Ukraine made mistakes. Then make a vague forward pass to either Dykes head, or for Adams/McGinn to fall over. Absolute shitebag behaviour from pretty much everyone on the pitch, and Ukraine must've felt like all their Christmases came at once. Its hard to say just how bad we were without feeling like I'm being harsh on Ukraine. They were great, or at the very least, just as good as they needed to be to beat us. They probably should have gotten at least another couple. All in all, this felt like a game we'd never win. All the talk in the build up with everyone going lol mawkish and competing to see who could come up with the most fawning take, all summed up at half time, while we're 1-0 down and struggling, being asked to vote for "lion of the match" from the opposition, who are about to put you out the world cup. It summed up the atmosphere around the game, and indeed the attitude and performance. Ukraine, on the other hand, didn't need or want our pity. They'd just rather go out and kick f**k out of us on the pitch. Good luck to them. I hope they pump Wales.

I'll let you know about 10 on Wednesday night...

That's some job. A bit of an awkward trip in that - at least the one we got - decided to do a big loop around Hampden and then drive away from it, abandoning everyone further up Cathcart Road - but it was a great alternative to having to get the train. To charge for that, and more than you'd pay on the train, isn't it? That's fucking robbery.

That's some update. "Just letting you know, we're utterly shite at what we do, so if you actually want to get home, you cannae. Soz" Biggest game in fucking ages and we can't even really guarantee people will have options to get home outside of Glasgow.

WWE's policy of only going after stadium shows is going well. MITB was supposed to be at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, but looks like that Iraqi sympathiser Sgt. Slaughter has struck again, as it's been moved to a relatively tiny venue. And in an even bigger f**k you, looks like they've already sold more tickets than the new venue will hold. So...full house I guess?

Tierney being out isn't exactly a surprise, but it's a massive fucking blow. Not much we can do about it though, beat Ukraine and we can punt the leek munching c***s up and down their own midden.

I played in that Firhill Cup last week. The pitch is a fucking embarrassment. Wouldn't even put a patch of it in the garden bin.

Given they're hardly likely to show Thistle games, I hadn't really had much exposure to Premier Sports, just hearing how bad they were. Watched the recent Old Firm Cup games with Mother-in-law's partner when it was on and fucking hell it was dreadful. Free-to-air TV shouldn't be allowed to get away with that kind of coverage, let alone a paid service.

If it's any consolation, you can probably say similar about MGS5 too. I liked both of them, but both are really missing that extra step to push them up to being great. Cyberpunk because CDPR absolutely shat the bed, and MGS because Konami fell out with Kojima. Would say though, you're in the loooooooong cold open now by the sounds of it. It does get a bit better once you get out of that and into the larger open world. Can still feel empty at times, but the upgrades you can get at least add some variety to the combat and make it a bit less bullet-spongy.

When they announced it, I was absolutely sure I'd be going no matter what, and might have even stretched to some "good" seats too. On seeing what it would actually cost to even get shit seats...nah, you're alright. It's a shame, but hopefully - given this will almost certainly sell out - it means that more shows start popping up. I expect Wembley will almost certainly get one, but maybe before Drew McIntyre wanders off we'll get a Hampden date. Unlikely without a roof I suppose.

Hasn't Sasha got a bit of history of this? I'm sure she walked out post-WM one year because of plans around the tag titles. She clearly cares an awful lot, but remains to be seen whether her doing it is going to make the blindest bit of difference. Going by that statement, where they've seemingly pretty much made up shit, seems a long road back.

What's the away support going to be like? Obviously I can't imagine there'll be much chartering of flights out of the country for it, but as with a lot of matches we tend to have, there'll be Ukrainians dotted around Europe in a better position to travel. I'd like to see us do something prior to the game as a show of solidarity towards them. That'd be nice. But then, of course, we should absolutely fucking end them in a footballing sense. In all seriousness, I think we're narrow favourites. I doubt we're going to go out there and pump them - although that'd be nice - but we should win. I think realistically it'll probably be a narrow, nervy win that does no-one inside of Hampden any favours. It's always been that final - should we get there - that really worries me.

I'll be there, will let you know on the day whether I can describe it as "playing" on the day...just out the back of Covid so it's going to be an adventure in seeing how fucked I am now.

From the 2018 vintage, it was doors at 9:30 then first fixture at 10. Should be a good wee day.

I think it's become a lot harder to do. Despite the fact that the product is very much sub-par, it's still a very hard thing to get it to the point its in now. Particularly match engines. EAs version should be a lot better, but they've had a long time working on it, and it's...fine. It's arguably better than Konami who have had similar time on it. If a completely new developer decides they fancy a shot - and I think taking all the technical stuff out, there's an opportunity there - then they are starting out chasing a moving target that's already several miles away. By the time they've gotten to the point EA (and Konami) are at now, they'll have moved further away. And there's always the fact that even when Konami did provide a better product to play, people still stuck with EA. A new developer would have to bring a product that was fun to play, with a satisfying presentation, with something that brings them above the experienced developers. Given that, I'm not convinced we'll ever see someone take that risk.

The only party it's really huge for is EA, as they'll now be saving a fucking huge chunk of money with little risk. Konami changed their product name, and how many people still call it PES? Or Pro Evo? For how long were CM and FM interchangable? People will still refer to it as FIFA, and I think we're well past the days of your Granny Ethel going down to HMV to pick up a present for Little Timmy and getting confused. Vast majority of people will pre-order for the bonuses and won't care what it's called. Worst part for me was the marketing blurb that came out with it, talking about how they believe in innovation and the like. c***s haven't innovated anything other than growing their bank accounts in years.

Barely got beyond "good" that one. There's a lot of effort on show, people working hard, putting on good matches, but there's nothing particularly exciting in there, or anything that really matters. They seem like they're intending to move towards pretty much doing stadium shows all the time - if that's true, then they are going to really need to start putting on shows that are actually worthy of it. Is it also just me, or are they really, really averse to doing anything stipulation based unless they absolutely have to because of the name of the show? Maybe it's just because it's coinciding with the product being a bit more boring than usual, but the likes of ladders/cages etc are very, very rare. You'll get "anything goes" at a push, but even they're rare, and when you do get them - and like the I Quit match last night - they're just a bit reserved.

They're not glorified friendlies. They were literally our route to qualifying for Euro 2020.

He's seemed like an absolute liability at Thistle with his temper. Proper wee arsehole that if its not going his way he'll just have a shot at snapping someone. Shitebag behaviour, but at least it's actually towards a fellow player. Any idea what was said?