silver

Three defeats in 4 games now. Little point in beating Rangers to then lose to Livingston in the manner we did. Not good enough.

SJ away on the last day of the season. A big travelling support and what a game that could be.

The Alex Smith era

Reverse psychology. Works every time

14 years ago this week we beat Celtic for the first time in a magnificent display at Hampden. My youngest lad came to that game with me and it was his first County game. Fast forward 14 years and he was by my side once again as we managed to finally defeat Rangers. He has been a County fan ever since that April day in the glorious sunshine in Glasgow and he will always be a County fan. Win lose or draw. It moments like this that make football what it is, shared experiences that are never forgotten. It is such a shame that so many from the Highlands dont support their local team though. A flag in the away end said 'Dingwalls Chosen Few', what is that all about? Last week I thought we might be 7 points adrift of Saint Johnstone after this wekends fixtures. Thankfully its just 1 again. Onwards and upwards!

Dreadful season so far-again. Cant even be bothered to watch the highlights on sportscene. Wouldnt be surprised if we are 7 points adrift from 10th by the end of next weekend. Play offs it is. Is DC the man to take us forward? its a no for me.

Lots of people to congratulate. Firstly the referee, an outstanding performance. The VAR officials also deserve a special mention for bringing the refs attention to the carry on at the free kick. I am critical of the county team, but today they gave their all and left nothing on the pitch. It might not have been pretty at times, but they deserved that win by the sheer determination to hang on. Yan got a yellow card. I wonder if the cheeky kick at the Hearts player was a reminder to the Hearts fans that he isn't 'one of our own' just yet. Not said this for a long time, but we'll done to the players and management, that was an enthralling 90+ minutes.

A point is great, but... The second half was more or less one way traffic and all we could do it hoof the ball clear. Once we went 2-1 down I simply didnt see where an equaliser was going to come from. I really have seen no improvement in the quality of the football on display, if we get out of the relegation zone I will be amazed.

Well done to Hearts, and Motherwell, this weekend.

First 20 minutes and we were OK. After that it was almost all St Mirren. The three strikers didn't work. Wickens looked comfortable taking high balls.

Is Wickens a better keeper than Laidlaw? In my opinion yes. He kept us in that game yesterday, in particular saving the shot that was going into the top corner. From my seat he stretched every sinew in his body to reach that. A good signing by DA and we are lucky to have him. He will go on and do well in the game.

Pleased with the win, but the bottom team still managed to score two goals. Saint Mirren will be a tough test on Tuesday night and we must defend better than we did today.

With the season running down quickly now how much time would you give him?

How many times have we heard that this season-player (insert name) should have scored. We have scored just 20 goals in 25 games.

We have shipped 5 goals in 2 games and today we managed 3 shots on target and a paltry 2 corners, nothing has changed. This slide is only going one way in my opinion

Might not be a popular suggestion, but I think need an experienced head at the helm now.

Who gets the blame for the latest defeat?

I anticipate the following (or something along these lines). Tomorrows chant from the away end-'He is one of our own, Don Cowie he is one of our own'

'A plucky and rejuvinated County come close to Ibrox upset' 'Missed chances once again come back to haunt County' Get your headlines in for tomorrows papers.

Criticise players?, what like fans do? How many times have you heard at TGE players bood off the pitch at half or full time? Imagine several thousand people coming to your place of work and standing outside your office and them shouting abuse at you? Fans eh, dont you just love them.

Ah but saying what you said isnt towing the scottish football party line. One must not upset footballers, one must not say anything bad about scottish football. One must pretend all is OK and repeat ad nauseum cliched post match interview lines.

After the defeat I expect a reporter to say 'Don, that was a baptism of fire for you, you couldnt have got a tougher fixture to start your managerial career' Followed by a response along the lines of 'Our season isnt defined by games against Rangers or Celtic' Yawn.

Sadly Dereks third spell didnt work out, I really hoped he would revive our fortunes, but sadly it wasnt meant to be. I have a lot of time for the fella, and whenever I spoke to him I found him to be approachable, chatty and friendly. It was the same with his Dad. I wonder how many people who have derided him ever took the opportunity to actually speak to him, but instead just piled on him in a frenzy after his interviews. Yes the 100x better comment perhaps shouldnt have been said, but the repeated digs at him reflected worse on those who repeated the comment more than Derek himself in my opinion. Its funny how after the last 6 games his record as a manger at this club was swiftly forgotten by so many. Ask yourself this, without him would we ever have had our clubs name engraved on this this trophy and got out of the old 1st Division when we did? Thanks for the memories Derek, good luck with what you do next

An excellent performance by the goalkeeper. I suspect a lot of people are eating humble pie tonight for questioning why DA didnt play Laidlaw. It didnt turn out to be the mauling some pre match perhaps thought it would be.

You see I dont think he makes an 'arse' of his interviews. I think they are brilliant. His '100x better' remark in hindsight may have been regrettable, but other than that if what he says gets folk wound up, then thats their problem. He speaks honestly which I find refreshing, and I reckon there is method in what he says. I heard a well respected pundit on the radio today say as much as well.