rgreig

It's a great book. I'd recommend you buy it if you haven't read it. Even if you have absolutely no interest in Cowdenbeath football club, still read it and you will enjoy it.

It's rare to have such an obviously incorrect decision where I don't think a single person - opposition players, coaching staff, fans included - thought it was right. I would love to know if the linesman said anything to the ref or if it was so quick that he had already taken out the card before he could even say anything. For the ref, clearly people can make mistakes and we all do that in our jobs from time to time, but the other 8 or 9 red cards he has dished out this season - how many of those were debatable? Where is the feedback from the observers to help these officials improve? For the other incident - the challenge that saw Mullin go off - I didn't see it very clearly but was it just unlucky or was it a potential red card? Finally, although I don't think we have any chance of finishing top I do think we have enough to make the play-offs particularly with Musonda and Murdoch back. I think we were a lot better in the Raith game and continued that into yesterday's game - and hopefully we can continue that progression.

I'm watching the match and neither side is great to be honest but Dundee haven't created much - maybe some half chances. So unless there is a big change at half time I wouldn't assume Dundee will turn it around.

Anyone know what the team was? Did Musonda play again?

It was definitely a big improvement and as everyone else has said we were unlucky to have a penalty saved and then miss an absolute sitter. Raith are an odd team, they move the ball much better than we do in midfield but up front their decision making and finishing are both dire. McGinty did really well again defensively - the number of headers he wins is remarkable - but it is also so frustrating that he chooses to go long so often. It will be interesting to see if Musonda comes back in place of McGinty or Reading. The team with Musonda, Murdoch and Maguire in it will be good to see. Let's hope results go our way today and we don't fall out of the race before they are all playing.

I just tried watching it and had to close the browser tab. It's beyond awful.

Well, I remember we had over 8000 (including a very healthy away support of course) in the QF against Partick in 2000. I think if we do well in the league in the next couple of weeks we can build momentum and we should be aiming to get close to filling that stand. Plus I am sure we can fit a few extra into the tree.

Yes, I definitely wouldn't take him back because I don't think there is an opening for him but I don't really understand the negativity towards him. He undoubtedly did a tremendous job for us, getting us promoted and some hugely memorable performances such as the 5-0 demolition of Dundee Utd at Tannadice. I can still remember standing in the baking sun at Alloa just before he left watching us play the most entertaining football I had seen for a very long time. He obviously felt that he wasn't going to get us promoted with the resources he had available to him and Partick offered him an opportunity. The fact that his ability didn't match his ambition doesn't lessen him in my eyes at least, but does show that he wouldn't have been the manager to take us much further even had more money been available to him. What did people expect him to say - "It was an easy decision, I couldn't wait to leave"?

Agree with all this but I also thought that McKenzie made a difference too, had real tenacity that we had been missing. McAlear looks extremely defensive, rarely made forward passes although I did think he tried to get involved. Needs to spend time in the reserves before troubling the first team. As you say, I hope Bullen actually learns from this and the QP game and doesn't continue with this formation or we're going to have a poor spell. No idea if the McInroy rumours are nonsense but would definitely have him back based on what we saw today.

Exactly. It's a minimum of 150k, with the right draw it could be a lot more. This game is huge for us financially so there is no way I would be dropping the best striker in the Championship. By all means change things rapidly if we manage to go into a comfortable lead but until then we have to play our strongest 11 in my view. Elgin are going to come and try to park the bus so we are going to have to be at our best to get through a packed defence.

Yes, that number surprised me too. By way of comparison I just checked St Mirren and their last full set of accounts reported a turnover of just over £4m. Another interesting figure from St Mirren was a total wage bill of £2.9m which covers 75 employees. Roughly half of those were classified as playing staff. It's hard to derive much from that about the likely wage of top players there but if you assume that the non-playing staff have an average annual salary of £40k then it would not leave much scope for top earners having the kind of figure quoted earlier in this thread unless the bottom earners are really low. But I have made an awful lot of assumptions there so that could be wildly out.

I think this is a good point. For the player himself, I cannot see why he would now sign any contract that reduces his wages for the rest of the season. So we can't sign him now and I can see why Livingston would be pushing us to pay more of his wages given how big an impact he has had for us. If they do genuinely need to save every penny then I would hope that a compromise could be reached however. I don't think it's necessarily a huge amount of money. Let's assume we currently are paying 500 a week for him on loan (just making that figure up), and they want us to pay 1500. There are roughly 16 weeks of the season left so that would be 16k delta. I think the prize money delta between 3rd and 4th is 75k and based on his contributions so far I think he could be pivotal to that. More generally, it is clear that creative players like Chalmers and Mullin are going to challenge our wage structure. Bringing in players and being able to sell them on will be key to changing the level of our playing budget (e.g. Akinyemi but we need to see that happening more regularly).

You can also smash it, Greek style.

Yes, it's a fantastic incentive for both clubs. It doesn't matter who either club signs now since they won't be eligible to play but how many injuries clear up will be significant. How many regular starters are out for Cove at the moment?

Completely agree. The problem is that there is no explicit guidance about the wind speed above which a game should not be played. While some aspects of playability - e.g. waterlogged pitch - are more subjective it should be pretty straightforward to agree a rule along the lines of "if at 10am on the match day the wind speed at 3pm is forecast to be 35mph or higher then the game must be postponed". I have no idea what the actual speed threshold should be but a clear rule would remove the pressure on referees who currently cannot win as you point out. Although I thought Arbroath dealt with the wind better than us, yesterday's game was terrible to watch and the result was basically down to luck (although I would not want to take anything away from McGinty whose header for the equaliser was excellent).

I flicked between streams of both these games and I do think that if we strengthen wisely we should be able to consolidate a play-off spot. Although you would expect Dundee to be busy in the transfer window I didn't think any of the teams have built momentum. Caveat - I didn't see Dundee before the sending off so maybe I am being slightly unfair. I also agree with the other comments that the addition of quality is key for us and is a differentiator in this division. We have a large squad but the difference between our best players and the bulk of the squad is considerable. I'd happily get rid of Bangala and Ashford and replace with one player at the level of Chalmers or Mullin for example.

Does anyone know how he was thought of at Peterhead? Looks like he had a lot of game time which is positive.

Who is Yogi Hughes managing these days?

Exactly, was it not his complete lack of positional awareness coupled with no pace whatsoever that allowed McCowan to get through for the first goal? I think Dundee would have won even if Bangala hadn't been sent off, such was their superiority even with ten men. At least it is very clear where we need to strengthen in January in order to remain in contention for a play-off place.

I would be very nervous about playing Bangala at CB. He has looked totally out of his depth any time I have seen him, so having him beside McGinty would be a disastrous combination. I would be temped to play Mullin at RB if Ecrepont is out. I would be absolutely delighted with a draw tonight and I think we'll need a lot of good fortune even to get that.

Yes, it was actually embarrassing to listen to I thought. It showed the utter mediocrity and laziness of sports "journalism" in 2022 that none of them (with the exception of Crichton) could even be bothered to do any research whatsoever about the Championship despite knowing that the main focus of a programme lasting several hours was going to be that division. Bob Crampsey will be turning in his grave.

I agree on Ashford, but more generally I think the sign our squad is really a contender for the league is when we can move beyond hard workers and willing runners and have a higher technical bar. I think Bullen is improving the squad but given our resources we have to recognise it will take time. I think our title challenge will fade which is why we will likely be in a position to accept a decent offer for Akinyemi in the summer. If our player budget is currently around 800k, if we get 300k for Akinyemi that is a significant percentage increase and could - overall - improve our squad considerably.

Will be interested to see how Bangala does. I would not have changed the keeper though.

You are right. It turns out that there is now an additional clause about 5 years of education in the country that I have to say I had never heard of until I looked now. You can read about the various agreements and criteria over the years here: FIFA eligibility rules - Wikipedia That covers Sterling, for Barnes in interviews he has apparently said he thinks the English FA didn't actually realise he wasn't born in England (!).

I was trying to think of famous ones but my mind went blank!!