renton

That was in the Courier, have we been linked to Heffernan? That one went right by me....

Any idea if it's likely to happen, or is it just a query at this point?

Good interview with dougie hill in the ffp. I think it does help show why we are looking more solid at the back

Best bloody hurry up if we are.

The other was a blistering top corner free kick against Alloa.

Some of my best mates are the guys I was in halls with back then, and subseuqently shared flats with in town. I loved Heriot Watt, yeah it was a bitch getting into town at times, and you learned to appreciate Edinburgh Uni's student union but HW was great for the reasons you give, also a damn fine Electronic Engineering course.

Weird one, I know he hadn't featured all that much for them last year, but he was banging them in recently (I think,anyway - we were all drunk when we were looking this up in the pub)

Full of Nazi gold?

Having said that he comes across well enough, no bullshit...

Listening to Malpas' interview at work. If your ever stuck in the biggest lingerie store in Ireland, and you need to make a discreet exit, pray you have Malpas with you.....

Yoss is a guy who's opinion I always look out for, for lack of a better word, he's a moderate, in so much as he doesn't go overboard either negatively or positively about things and tries to come to a rational, reasonable opinion. You've got to respect that. On Perry however, his moderation fails him. He was simply fucking awful.

Yeah, back four.

Absolutely gash, sorry. Positionally suspect, get's on the wrong side of his marker and his default setting is panic punt.

Their mothers always told them Baird was no good for them......

Small mercies.

Yeah, was he not at Ballingry when they went bust?

Does that not strike you as bloody idiocy on Baird's part. Falkirk's title/playoff ambitions aside he's swapping 18 months for 6 months job security. Were things really that intolerable at Queens? Was there really so little chance of him forcing his way back into the Queens team?

Some players just hit a cliff edge I guess. Another example is Allan Walker, who's regresssion from scoring 12 in a season, first name on the team sheet to worst midfielder ever seen at Brechin was fairly spectacular. Or even Craig Wilson, ever present right back in a team that finished 2nd in the 2nd tier of senior football - out of senior football altogether after barely getting a run out at Forfar Athletic in the 3rd tier.

You really have to ask?

Yeah, McKay is a luxury in that respect, Conroy isn't the quickest but does provide a wee bit more cover.

Incidentally, as some others have remarked, we've been seeing an upkick in performance since the Livi game (if not always in results). It may just be causal but I do think getting Ross Perry out of the team in favour of Douggie Hill has helped. Both Watson and Mckeown look more comfortable and we are more apt to retain the ball from defence when he isn't lugging it up the park every opportunity (when he wasn't getting the wrong side of his marker or missing ridiculously simple balls). So our defence is under less pressure, we are getting pinned back less and hopefully taking more confidence from that. I know it's not as simple as pinning the blame on one guy (and you can make a case for both McGurn coming back in and Murray restoring two guys up front, properly as improving performances) but I recall how Todd Lumsden used to look with Crisis Mcleod on one side of him and Paul Hilland on the other, and how he looked with Sparky and Marv alongside him and the difference, not just on the overall defence, but on the man's level of competence and confidence in himself - and you appreciate what getting those pairings right is to the whole team.

Last I heard he was at Blyth Spartans a couple of years back, f**k knows where he is now.

McGlynn did it for his first six months in charge before reverting to 4-4-2 for a whole season, starting the promotion season in the same vein before Jaun 'he's Spanish, he must be good' Gurrero's shiteness forced the fabled 4-3-3 onto him (though he did revert to 4-4-2 in the late run in). Incidentally we played the majority of the next season 4-5-1 with tade as a lone forward before Jamie Mole came in near the end, the seaosna fte rthat as a straight up 4-4-2 and the last McG season varying it a lot - for exmaple, 4-2-3-1 when we had all the Hearts guys, before finishing it 4-4-2. I'm talking about Murray's first season - we beat Morton 2-1 and drew with Thistle 0-0 in back to back games at Starks, playing a 3-5-2 - although in both cases we made tactical changes as Murray didn't have 90 minutes left in him, which is a shame as we were bossing Thistle up to that point. He's also played flat 4-4-2s when it was Graham and Spence, 4-4-1-1 when it was Graham with Clarke, a flat looking 4-5-1 and evena 4-2-3-1 as well. Basically, both guys are a bit more flexible, tactically, than sometimes given credit for. What becomes excrutiating to watch is the common little routines and habits that you see, less to do with the overall system and more about how players react with each other, whether it's a throw in routine or a switch along the back line, or a midfielder out of position, and sometimes it's not 'the basics' but something more deep set that Murray has to try and coach players out of.

He's done it before - back to back games against Morton and Thistle when those two teams were challenging for the league. Anderson was used as the third midfielder with Joe Hammil at left wing back and himself, Mensing and Hill as centre halfs. Worked quite well against two teams both using variations on a 4-2-3-1.

Don't get me wrong, I think Callachan has been pretty good during his run in the team, his style of play is built on his dynamism, same as Scott - they are quite similar and will chase things - often at the same time. Neither is a classic sitting midfielder, neither is positionally great. Moon is more measured but still quite combative (his use of the ball is generally a wee bit more imaginiatve as well). If anything, I wish Fox still had half a leg to run the length of himself, becuase he's the only sit in and knock it about kind of midfielder we have, he's just too slow at times to keep up with it though.