GaryMc93

Fair play to Aaron Muirhead who is seemingly becoming a better CB in fan’s eyes every time he doesn’t play there. The harsh reality is that all 4 are bang average at this level and that no combination is particularly strong. Compared with our defenders from 18/19 and 19/20 we had at least one from Smith, Rose and Harvie who looked capable of making a step up. Currently no other team in this league would bite your hand off for any of them never mind any of them being capable of making the step up. However the actual issue particularly on Saturday with O’Connor missing is the midfield we’ve got isn’t strong enough to assert themselves in games either defensively or going forward and so the defence is left to soak up pressure and eventually it leaks. In January we need a ball winner alongside a more creative CM that can make passes and get us up the pitch unless someone down South wants to sign a short term deal until January like Shankland did to put themselves in the shop window.

The list of unemployed Scottish managers contains either unrealistic targets or people that would underwhelm like Hopkin did as soon as he was appointed. However I don’t believe by waiting until the end of the season to appoint a long term manager (if that’s even the plan) would mean candidates of a higher calibre will suddenly appear out of nowhere. By choosing to not advertise the job this time around then we more or less limited our options to those out of work as no manager/assistant/coach currently employed is likely to throw their name in for a job that appeared from the start to be Duffy’s to lose. Going forward I do wonder what Smith’s vision is for the next couple of years and the next managers ambitions compared to the expectations of the fans, which I imagine will vary.

It's on Prime Video if you've got it under Moselle Open and replay of yesterday should be available. 3rd singles match on today so should be on about 5/6pm.

Murray through in 3. Serve was really impressive today. Pospisil up next.

I don’t think Duffy is the right manager for us long term but if we get a couple of decent results in the next 2 games then he’s probably shown enough value to be kept on as part of the next coaching team. If it’s not John Hughes then I wonder if we go for a younger manager like a Brian Gilmour type that’s starting out but would be happy to learn from and work alongside Duffy (+ Timmins or Joyce if they wanted to stay). No ideas who matches that description and it’s more based on no one unemployed being that appealing. Provided we get kicked out the cup on Monday then getting someone in after Partick might be ideal to give them time. If not it's Duffy until the end of the season.

Murray draws Humbert in the 1st round in Metz next week. Tough match although he always did like playing both lefties and Frenchmen. Needs a better service performance if he's to stand a chance though.

Looking at the Land Register it shows 3 purchases between 2010-2011 for the house, car park and shop and office space. All 3 were then purchased this year presumably by Smith so going on the basis he would give Kirkwood or whoever owned them the money they paid back and add in the £50k for the land behind the North Terracing then it's £405k in total. He clearly has invested a lot fully aware he won't ever see a full return on the money but if a refurbished boardroom, kitchen and players lounge helps makes us more professional for players and staff then it can only help in the long term. That's before you get on to things like the hub and trying to improving the experience for the fans. He does mention looking for training facilities and given he talks about more involvement in the community I doubt a return to Glasgow is an option. Since a replacement for Dam Park is currently being built I wonder if that could be an option. Not sure what the day to day intention for it is but the current one isn't exactly busy during the day, unless he is intending to build one himself.

I think Reading playing LM for Scotland U21's says more about Scot Gemmill's tactics than his actual ability to play there. Twice he played there on the other side the RM was Nathan Patterson while people like David Turnbull didn't make it off the bench. Sound familiar?

Everyone will want a piece of her in the next couple of months so hopefully she's got a strong enough team around her as she comes across as a girl who just loves playing tennis. Also given she's barely played any tournaments at tour level and isn't defending any ranking points until next year's Wimbledon she could even drop back down to the Challenger level until the Australian Open to get away from all the media attention.

Some have obviously won a Grand Slam as a wildcard but until now the best a qualifier had done in a slam was the semi finals.

Having another look I realise we would play the first 3 rounds all away from home. Not sure a Tuesday night trip to Cove is that appealing in November. Although we would have home advantage against what would likely be a championship team in the semis.

That's right. Alloa then potentially Cove or Albion Rovers in the quarters.

I feel like that was a problem with the Hopkin appointment. Smith was more or less in the door as chairman and sacked Kerr but didn't have the football contacts to reach out to anyone others than the guys that applied. Then appeared to appoint Hopkin with no real vetting and purely off the interview. Slight difference this time in that if he wants to offer advice then Duffy must have more contacts than the last caretaker group combined that consisted of White, Stillie and Tait.

Mark Roberts at least initially talked a good game, the issue was he abandoned the style quickly as his signings were hopeless. Probably similar to Kerr in that neither replaced themselves well enough meaning they were still good enough to start for us but both wanted to be the manager. Even though they were friendlies and about 9 years ago the 4-0 over Motherwell and 1-1 draw with a recently relegated Bolton is still more memorable than anything Hopkin managed therefore Hopkin was worse than Roberts for me.

If either of those formations would use actual midfielders in midfield that can create chances then it's still an improvement on what we've watched.

Duffy appeared to be in charge of the training sessions so I'm not sure much will change on that part. A positive about Duffy taking over just now is he mentioned when covering the Partick v Morton that it was nice to see a team play a simple 4-4-2. The negatives are as they are Hopkin's men the style might not change and they'll try and prove the fans were unreasonable and that given time it would have worked. Also Duffy is a man who had Shankland taking long throws when he was at Morton which doesn't seem like a masterstroke.

Think his lack of time playing in Scotland and Annan's location shows in his signings as most seasons it's either youngsters released from QoS or Carlisle. Not really the market we want to shop in. He was also only here when we were PT and I'm sure car shared with Greg Fleming so doubt he'd be willing to uproot his family from Carlisle to take the job. Although if we lose on Saturday and Smith makes his twitter private then obviously Hopkin is here to stay.

Exactly the reason why I thought it was winnable. Raducanu coming out and playing with zero pressure whereas Bencic struggled with being the heavy favourite and was beating herself up once behind in the set and ended up passing up opportunities to get back in. Same reason you’d prefer her facing Sakkari in the semi-final as no doubt Pliskova is the more difficult of the 2 with her experience in these situations.

Given how highly the ex Morton players spoke of Hopkin when they signed hopefully we aren't heading for a Neil Watt situation when the Stranraer boys chucked it after he left. Otherwise it would be a long road ahead as I'm not sure much will be available in January. Difference in this case is a few of them are still young enough to make a move up so after a few weeks will hopefully forget all about Hopkin and maybe even remember how to control a football.

At this point provided he turned up with Stephen Kelly I'd even accept Curtis Woodhouse. Smith would be as well just advertising the job on Linkedin as the Scottish managerial merry-go-round doesn't fill me with much confidence. Not that it matters as he'll probably hold off paying off Hopkin, Timmins, Duffy and Joyce in the hope they quit themselves so no doubt still be here Saturday.

Bencic up next which is also winnable. Obviously in decent form with the gold in Tokyo but never really had consistent runs to the latter stage in the majors especially with some of the draws she's had. Raducanu does seem to show the same competitive streak and will to win as Andy and appeared to have most of the crowd support today. Only question is how long until she's English when she wins and British when she loses.

No it was Crawford I meant. Looked decent off the bench, started the penultimate game against Airdrie and won MOTM then disappeared and didn't play a minute in the 4 play offs game. We also had Scott Taggart on loan from Hibs that season but don't remember thinking he'd go on to have the better career like it's turned out.

Quite liked the last winger we had on loan from Hibs although hopefully this one has a better attitude. If we start to use the wide midfielders like Maxwell, O’Connor and Bradley as the ball carriers with the full backs overlapping then a centre midfield of Muirhead and McAllister would be fine if their only job was to win the ball back and move it on. It was obvious when Smith left last season that it left McCowan as the only creative player and he was being marked out of most games by the end of the season. I think Hopkin needs to move slightly away from the hard working line up and start attacking games as I’m still not convinced we’re that good defensively to sit in and soak up pressure.

The club do give the impression that they don’t like to admit when they’ve got something wrong or hear any negative feedback and would rather just double down. From the quality of the streaming service, to Black and White TV being launched with the intention to start charging money for it from February 2021 only for it to not work and the club making no effort to ask for feedback on issues. 10 months later it’s not improved and appears to be left to limp on with less viewers than the highlights on Youtube ever got. Now we've got Hopkin with his tactics and belief that the ex Morton players would improve us, to Smith desperately waiting for Hopkin to come good rather than admit his first managerial appointment has been a disaster. On the commercial side given the shirt sponsor is whatever venture Calvin Ayre is up to and the Burnley partnership originated through Hopkin, I imagine the commercial manager must do something else other than arrange photoshoots with dogs or he wouldn't still be here. Suppose only the club know if it was him or Smith's connections that brought in the new trackside boards and the Jewson deal. On the bright side I see someone finally realised the official website should have a current squad list.

Since the computerised ATP rankings began in 1973 only two men, the last being in 1998, have become No. 1 without having won a Major. WTA is a higher figure with 7 players but they’ve all been between 2003 and 2017. Once the Big 4 or at least Novak retire we might see majors spread out and the above more likely to happen. A combination of the younger guys not looking comfortable on every surface and the fact they (usually Zverev) get dragged in to 5 sets in the early rounds against some absolute jobbers gives the impression that the top 20 in 5 years could all easily beat each other.