Zamora Fan

Christ what a mess. Right decision but they probably should have wished the club legend striker well in the statement at least! End of the day we're a top flight premiership team (for now) and should never have been giving the job to someone with no managerial experience. Shite way to treat him and the shocking start we've made means whoever comes in has a huge job on their hands. Time for a Lampard/Jody Morris double act IMO

It’s wild McGowan isn’t being picked now we’re playing a back three again. He’s not a great right back and we have better midfield options but as a right sided CB in a B3 he’s miles better than Gordon, who has only ever looked good for us in the middle of a back 3.

f**k that.

Could we play it midweek?

Simon Ramsden and Gunner Nielsen special for our second goal. What a Saints team that is.

That Jenks goal against us is a good example. I’m fine with feeling aggrieved at the end of games like that and moaning in the pub about the handball, as it means the reverse - when we nick a dodgy goal at Pittrodie and get to go wild without Buzz Killington getting involved - stands too. Example that makes me shiver is that our equaliser against you in the Ibrox semi-final in 2014 would have been subject to a very lengthy check for a high boot from James Dunne. Could have went either way, I reckon they’d panic and disallow it. One of the best moments in our history and one of the biggest bounces I’ve ever experienced would have been basically ruined if it happened this year instead of in 2014. Is that what football is about?

The introduction of VAR without any consultation of fans by most clubs is just completely depressing to me. I’ve not lived close enough to go to more than a handful of Saints games a season for years, but up until this last year and a bit I still felt completely connected to the club and enjoyed watching games from afar. That connection has been gradually fading - it’s not all down to VAR but the way you now feel like every goal that’s been scored might just get disallowed and a phase of exciting play all be for nothing wrecks the drama, which is what you live for in Scottish football. I feel almost ashamed that as a collective we let this happen to our game, which could — I know I’m naive — have even marketed itself to football purists as an escape from the VAR nightmare of the top leagues. Instead we have an even more invasive version of the nightmare! Nothing is impossible, I’m sure lots of people in 2012 thought there was no way fans could make their voices heard on the Rangers stuff when money was such a big factor. This time round, if clubs listened to an overwhelming anger they would actually save money by scrapping VAR. The key thing to really kick start any kind of campaign to scrap it would be to demonstrate that anger is actually there. If clubs won’t do consultations of season ticket holders, maybe fan groups could? Maybe the Alan Burrows and Grant Russells of the SPFL who 100% read this forum could make the case for surveying fans about the tech? And if not possible, perhaps money could be raised to commission an opinion poll of match-going football fans to work out where opinion actually is. It is only here to stay if we let it stay.

Why is Nicky Clark our number 10?

Yeah I’d probs prefer he was suspended tbh. Olufunwa, Sam Mc and Considine would be my back three against Aberdeen, Gordon available or not.

It’s a pleasant 40 min walk through Letham, not bad IMO

Don’t know if these are good/worthwhile stats or not but quite wild how far ahead of the rest of the league Mitov is. He’s my main source of hope at the minute, keeps us relatively competitive single-handedly.

Can’t Costelloe play up top too?

Was thinking we’ve got a decent enough record against Rangers since they made it out of the seaside leagues, and that I always feel we have a result in us when we play them. This made for a bit of a depressing time looking back at the head-to-head as every memorable win or draw is sandwiched between several listless 3-0 defeats - but anyway here is that record since 2016: Wins: 3 Draws: 5 Losses: 16 Scored: 16 Conceded: 52 For comparison our record against Celtic over that same period is staggeringly bad.. Wins: 0 Draws: 4 Losses: 23 Scored: 12 Conceded: 78 Kane up top and Max in from the start for me please.

The only ‘strategy’ for the first half seemed to be getting the ball to Smith or Phillips, who would then make a big switch out to Costelloe on the right in the hope he’d do something with no support from Brown or May. Fair play to him for at least trying to take on the full back and not giving up, though we’ll obviously need to see an improvement in quality from him if he wants to keep his place in the team. Has Brown been told never to overlap the winger or can he just not be arsed? With him, May and MacPherson off the bench putting in stinkers again my main concern is still with the players who were already here before Maclean came in. No clue what to think about Carey tbh, who probably could be in that list too given how much we depend on him at the minute. But two assists isn’t bad going and they’re both good crosses in different ways. If he can keep up numbers like that I don’t mind all the other stuff.

Fair play to anyone expecting any kind of serious (POSITIVE) contribution this season from more than about two or three of those. Unfortunately think our fate this year will be determined by whether the players who were already here and underperforming can step up and stay injury free. Big seasons needed from Brown, MacPherson and Graham Carey in particular.

We really are assembling a team of regens aren't we? Might as well do this on Saturday Dave Richards Dare Olufunwa .. Sam McClelland .. Liam Gordon .. Luke Robinson Sven Sprangler Matt Smith .. Jay Turner-Cooke Taylor Steven ... Luke Jephcott .. Dara Costelloe

Mind when Davidson thought he was a ‘10 so didn’t bother playing him? Did us a massive turn given the circumstances. Hope we see him back one day.

Loads more, mostly all negative, in here: https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/dara-costelloe-signed-loan.6855/page-5 Seems like a complete punt, no career goals and main senior experience in Ireland and a brief failed loan spell. Top scorer for Burnley in the U23 league back in 2022.

Hahaha. From the Bradford forum "Whilst I'm never usually one for singling out players, this was an(other) awful, perhaps even shameful performance today. And not for the first time. Today he gave the ball away far too many times, never wins a header, never tracks back, poor body language, lack of attitude and effort off the ball, lack of movement, and worst of all he couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo on it when chances are presented to him, often on a plate. He should have been hoisted off in the first half, never mind the 89th minute. One must wonder if he has a clause in his loan deal that means he must play a certain amount of games because there are far better players on the bench that are not getting a sniff because this lad can't seem to be dropped. Probably the worst player i've seen in a City shirt this season." Edit: formatting.

Top 5 finishes since 12-13: “The big 5” Aberdeen: 9 Hearts: 4 Hibs: 4 Total: 17 Small clubs Motherwell: 5 St Johnstone: 5 Dundee United: 3 Inverness: 3 Killie: 2 Livi: 2 Ross County: 1 Total: 21 It’s a nonsense on any measure from folk (and the national broadcaster) trying to make out our league is less competitive than it actually is.

Completely agree with you that the number of free headers County got in the box yesterday was one of the many huge concerns. But can’t agree the shape doesn’t affect this — shape is one of the few levers Maclean can use to tweak things at the minute. Adding an extra centre half (Considine) into the mix means an extra defender charged with keeping track of world class strikers like *checks notes* Simon Murray and Jordan White, since LG and the other guy were completely incapable of that yesterday. And by dropping Ballantyne for a third CB you’d lose literally nothing further up the park.

Defence a total shambles at the minute and that’s with all the signings in the door + and the v limited Brown, Gallacher and Booth the only injured absentees. To protect the atrocious CBs as much as possible I’d be going, quite depressingly, with this at Parkhead as things stand. McClelland Gordon Considine Wright Gallacher McGowan Phillips Smith Jephcott May Literally the only aim is to keep it tight and hope you can get the ball to Smith to find Wright or May in space on the break. Jephcott in there to get him minutes more than anything else. If we don’t get pumped 5-0+ i’d keep it for Dundee too, maybe bringing in Carey or this mythical winger/forward/midfielder if they materialise between now and then. Edit: this assumes Wright and Gallacher will be fit in a fortnight. If they aren’t we might as well pack it in.

Hated this in the BBC’s live text yesterday. Top 5 a foregone conclusion is it aye?

As this half has shown, County are a poor Premiership side. In our current state we’d be a poor Championship side at best.

World Wildlife Fund?