CallumPar

Clark has 2 since Christmas - that’s double the number of Reilly. That’s despite wasting a month in midfield. Feel free to keep making up facts though.

I think we can now see why Clark has been starting as a striker most weeks. Ignore the ‘lazy’ stuff - he’s the only one that, when playing as a striker, hangs around in the box and creates the space to get chances. McManus is great, his work rate is second to none. However, you need that poacher, to compliment him. Ok, Nicky Clark seems to waste a fair few chances. But I’d much rather see someone actually getting chances, than the garbage we’ve had the last 2 games, when Clark’s been taken out of the strike force. We haven’t created chances, why’s that? Look in the box, when we have the ball in the final third. Nobody has been trying to create space, the way that Clark usually does. Andy Ryan has been terrible. He’s had his shot, now please put Clark back in his usual role.

Paul George?

Tom Beadling signed on loan, until the end of the season.

I could be wrong, but I think strict liability is in relation to clubs being responsible for the behaviour of their fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dunfermline do receive some sort of fine for not taking appropriate measures to prevent these items being taken into the ground. Guys clearly got in with bags/pockets full of them, which suggests real negligence of duties by police/stewards. Certainly, when we travel to Falkirk, a lot of fans are searched before entering the stadium. I don’t know if that was the case yesterday, for Falkirk fans or not.

This is seriously pathetic. This isn’t about point scoring. Why are Falkirk fans so intent on justifying this, by pointing out other cases of unacceptable behaviour? That Dunfermline fan is just as bad, I agree. But that’s a separate incident. Doesn’t justify what happened yesterday, just as what happened yesterday, or in any previous matches, doesn’t justify that man’s behaviour. These are completely separate issues that shouldn’t be used at all to try and defend yesterday. So many others bringing up Rangers, Celtic and now some St Mirren incident in a completely different era? Seriously, anyone that’s engaging in this whataboutery really needs to get a grip. That fan in the article you posted is being dealt with, it’s in the hands of the police. Hopefully he gets more than just a banning order. Let’s hope the same happens to the fans involved yesterday. People like that (both incidents and any similar incidents) have no place in society, never mind in a football stadium. Please stop using these incidents as some form of justification of yesterday. Also, those expecting/asking for a points deduction are foolish. After the Hibs cup final, the SFA announced that they can’t punish clubs for fan behaviour. They can not enforce strict liability on clubs, for fan behaviour. However, Falkirk fans had made clear of intent to abuse Shiels yesterday - on here and on social media. I hope any of you who spoke about Minion outfits/masks aren’t surprised to hear from your club and/or the police about yesterday’s events, as you’ve shown intent to commit a disability hate crime (which is what the police are calling it), at a football match where one actually occurred. I do feel like Falkirk could have done more to prevent this. They haven’t even released a statement condoning their players’ actions. Nor did they appeal these bans, suggesting they accepted the outcome of the tribunals. But their lack of action has certainly contributed to things reaching this stage. Yesterday’s statement was all you could have asked for, but it’s about a month too late. But that’s not enough ‘evidence’ to enforce any sort of fine against them.

But this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, whilst fuelled with alcohol, was it? It’s not like, in the heat of the moment, they found somewhere in the stand to buy these fake eyes. These were purchased in advance, in order to go to a football match and mock a disabled man at his place of work. Why should the media ignore this? I don’t know of any other one-eyed professional players. It’s clearly very rare. Can you please point me in the direction of any evidence that abusing the disabled has “been happening for years at fitba”? Dean Shiels should be someone that children with similar problems can look up to, and give them some belief that they can achieve their dreams. If incidents like this are dealt with appropriately, it shows that they have the support of the media, SFA, police etc. If incidents like this are ignored, it will probably put these kids off of trying to play in professional football, as they will be subjected to discrimination and given no support or backing. Also, throwing the fake eyes may have been a small minority, but there were a lot of Falkirk fans singing about Dean Shiels having one eye, mocking his disability. Fans in all sections were getting involved in that. Why do you think that was acceptable? Let’s face it, things like that have certainly encouraged these morons with the fake eyes, to think they’re behaviour is acceptable. Even after these started getting thrown on the pitch, there was a good chunk of the away end joining in this song. Have a word with yourselves. If you joined in with that mockery, you’re part of the problem.

In addition to prize money of £30k for being knocked out in the second round (notice this was already more than the transfer fee), we received around £175k of income from Ibrox gate receipts. This was not included in our budget, as we budgeted for minimal income from the league cup. In fact, the Hearts game had already ensured that we received around £10k more than we had initially budgeted to make out of the league cup. But yes, how dare we actually spend about 12.5% of the extra income we received. Scandalous indeed... Why have we not decided to post a £175k profit for the year, rather than spending a portion of that money, to be competitive?

Andy Ryan's longest dry spell in the league last season, was 2 games. His 23 league goals from last year, is greater than El Bakhtaoui's tally the year we won that league. When you consider Airdrie were certainly not as dominant, that is incredible. El Bakhtaoui also went through much longer dry spells than 2 games that year. These stats suggests that Ryan is a clinical finisher and will take chances that come his way - something our strikers were guilty of not doing last year. I may be wrong, but that's what I'd guess, based on stats. I'm not saying he's better than El Bakhtaoui, just thought it was impressive, when you compare his stats to our top striker, when we were at the same level. He looks like a great signing, let's hope he can live up to his reputation!

Sean Murdoch? Never been deemed good enough to be given a chance as number 1 anywhere else... Callum Morris? Great for us, struggled for 2 and a half years, came back and been great again.

Last season, Rangers v Peterhead in the league cup 2nd round, attracted a crowd of over 27,000. At £10 per ticket, 40% of those gate receipts would be over £100k. That's in addition to the £35k prize money for reaching the second round. Good bit of money to have (or at least know is coming), in the last few weeks of the transfer window!

Think it's fair to say that we are now the best penalty takers in world football. Last 10 penalties were all taken by different players and all scored.

In all seriousness, Nat has had some great performances for us. However, he's at this level for a reason. Other than M'Voto, he is probably the slowest player in the league. That's not an issue against certain teams, but has been against Falkirk. Falkirk's midfield easily overran him last season and that resulted in Sibbald getting the freedom of the park. We definitely need a 'plan B' against Falkirk this year.

We had one chance all match, and Hopkirk hit it straight at the keeper. Also back to making ridiculously basic defensive errors. Don't get me wrong, I think we should beat these teams, but not convinced we will. Bearing in mind that a draw means we get 1 point and the opponents get 2, it's far from a certainty that we'll be one of the top 4 runners up.

M'Voto played. He looked a lot leaner than last season, and didn't do too badly. McManus is injured though.

It was. Not hitting the panic button yet, McManus & Talbot were both injured and are both first choice players, plus AJ says we're hoping to sign 4/5 more. Thought we had a chance of progressing as one of the top runners up in the league cup, but not anymore. We need to work out our best team and get things 'clicking' in those 4 games now. One fit striker and 2 central midfielders signed to the first team squad, just 9 days before our first competitive game is worrying. But our defence collapsed tonight as well. The 4/5 we bring in have to be better than what's already there, rather than adding competition for places.

That was poor. We have absolutely no depth to our squad. No idea what our tactics were for most of that second half. Clark clearly didn't work as a lone striker. That was clear from the first 10 minutes, but we stuck with it. Thought Splaine looked good, but we had no midfield after he went off. Some good finishes, but Hibs goals split our defence far too easily. Shambolic all round. Dundee United, Falkirk, Morton, St Mirren, Inverness & QotS would beat that team without any problems, if we play like that. We didn't look like a 'team' at all.

Looks like the stripes continue on the back as well [emoji106] fantastic kit.

Meanwhile, other clubs with similar budgets, will be talking to more realistic targets. No?

Best as a holding mid, but has played attacking mid for our u20s. Looked like he had great potential under the McCann/Potter management team, and never got a chance under Allan Johnston. Huge step up for the lad, but there's a player in there somewhere. Given it took El Bakhtaoui a wee while to settle in at that level, I'd be surprised if he was brought in for your first team right away. Probably be loaned out somewhere, at least initially.

Is Paton still at the club? Haven't seen anything announced either way, but I'm sure he was out of contract. Still on our squad list, despite all other players that have left being removed....

Re: McManus... I remember fans of St Mirren and Morton telling us the exact same about McMullan last season. Different players suit different clubs. Football is a strange game. Reilly was great at Queens, but awful for us, at the same level. McMullan was poor in the championship, then came into form with us. McManus was excellent at league 1 level with Morton. He was quick and a good finisher. He had struggled so far at championship level, but is only 22. In prepared to give him a chance. It may not be a signing that gets me excited, but it's a signing that I'm willing to see how it goes. Have never seen Splaine play, so I'm willing to give him a chance as well. Don't understand people writing players off, before even seeing them play for us/in our system.

For tonight's away kit, going by the picture, I think it could be one of these 2...

It won't be. We get a bespoke kit each year, under the contract we have with TTL/Joma.

There's a player in there somewhere, but for some reason, things really didn't work at us. He looked incredibly low on confidence and uninterested when he was with us. A regular run in the team and a couple of goals, and you'll have a totally different player than we did. From what I can gather, he seems to have fallen out of love with the game a bit, and is sick of sitting on the bench. Instead of knuckling down and trying to prove himself at Dunfermline, he sulked, which meant he fell down the pecking order. When we won the new year Derby, he came off the bench late on. At full time, he was our only player, including subs, that didn't come to thank the fans. He just walked down the tunnel, looking miserable. That's when I accepted that he was not going to be any kind of asset for us in the second half of the season. Maybe this move will help him revive his career. Maybe he's had a bit of a reality check. If not, I'm sure he will soon - sounds like Ross doesn't accept poor attitudes from players. He's probably a stronger character than Johnston, when it comes to putting players in their place.