houston_bud

I liked Shankland when he was at us. I actually thought we should have played him more last season, and I thought he'd be a decent addition to Morton. I'm not sure what's happened to him.

He didn't play much last season, I don't even remember him starting a game. Any time he came on he looked alright though. We can't afford a massive squad of top end Championship players, so guys like Todd who can fill in and will give 100% when they get their chance are good players to have, I think.

Aye, seeing an 18 year old boy, about to start his first full season in the first team, injured for 3 months is definitely what we want to see in a meaningless pre season game. I do take your point about trialists trying to impress, but i don't find throwing yourself into challenges particularly impressive. Also if a trialist injures himself in a silly challenge then I would imagine his chances of a contract would be somewhat diminished.

I agree with that, but it's clear that referees approach friendlies in a different manner. An early booking in Tuesday's game would have taken the sting out it, and I reckon there wouldn't have been as many heavy challenges - like the one that injured Magennis.

They should just referee friendlies in the exact same manner that they referee games during the season. If Tuesday night's referee had done that then Dundee's 17 would have been booked within the first 10 mins and I think the whole game would have calmed down. As it happened he spent the entire game gesturing at players - from both sides - to calm down. Players knew that they would get away with it so were throwing themselves into challenges. Dundee's 17 and 28 were both lucky not to be off, as was Stelios. The challenge that i jured Magennis was't actually a foul but it was a really strong challenge, that was totally unnecessary in a friendly.

He often wears a long sleeved polo shirt over a shirt and tie. I'll tell you what, there aren't many people (Scottish football managers or otherwise) that could pull that look off!

I'd be surprised if Ross was in the frame for the Aberdeen job. He had a good end to last season, and a good start with Alloa as well, but surely you'd expect them to be going for managers with more experience and a record of good results over a few years. Tommy Wright surely should be mentioned for this job.

That was your first mistake.

He wasn't a world beater, but he was as good a keeper as we had in our 10 years in the SPL. I'm not sure what available keepers would be better at this level.

I take your point about him being cheaper, but Gallacher probably hasn't even played 50 games in his entire career, Samson will have played as many in the last few seasons, and at a higher level. Samson is a far better keeper than Gallacher.

When he signed the first time everyone told us how bad he was, and he turned out to be excellent. I think he'd be a good addition to the squad.

Rumours of Samson signing. He was great for us before, that would give us one experienced keeper, and a pretty highly rated younger one.

So how much of the Jack Ross to Dundee story was completely made up then?

MacPherson was my choice before we brought Ross in as I felt he had more experience and would have made us harder to beat. I don't think he'd be the man for the job this time round however. I'm still skeptical that this Ross story is as far along as the papers would have us believe however.

Sounds about right. I always think papers and bookies just pick managers' names at random when a job comes up, with no actual substance. The bookies do it to make money. I'm not saying Dundee aren't, or wouldn't be, interested in Ross, but the the rumour came out almost immediately after McCann walked away from talks. I'd be surprised if there was anything in this at the moment.

The standard at that level is really quite poor. Until July I was living in a wee town in Andalucia called Torredonjimeno. I went to most of the home games of the local team who got promoted into Group 9 of La Tercera, the same division as Atlético Malagueño. The teams are all part time and I would reckon the level won't be any better than our League 2. That said this is the division above and Atlético Malagueño are top. Also I'm sure Harper has been signed with a view to progressing into the first team at some point, but I'm not sure how the registering system works in Spanish football and if he'll be able to move to the first team during the season. I wouldn't read anything into how many goals he scores at this level though.

Fair play to Morton for actually listening to the fans.

Have the old co actually been liquidated?

Cheers guys. Will probably just get some Kiwi Kids cleaner then.

Apologies if this is a really stupid question, but I'm needing to clean a pair of suede gazelles after a night out. I remember someone said sugar soap was good. Is the sugar soap that you would used to clean walls before painting alright, or do I need a specific type of sugar soap?

Ok, edited to include a spoiler, but I was talking about something that happened on the show. Agreed that it is still just a theory, but it is widely held as feasible, if not probable. The makers of the show know this, and it appears they are alluding to it. As I said, it makes me think they are deliberately trying to mislead us.

I quite enjoyed it. There's enough difference between the books to really keep me on my toes. Reek and Sansa could turn out to be an interesting story line

'Til the neighbours complained about the smell.