Tattie36

Shame that had to end, great entertainment for a neutral. Morton would be at the pointy end of the league if they'd played all season how they are now. Even though they lost to us at Gayfield in December, I was impressed with how they played.

I'll get stick for this from some but I fucking love Scottish lower league fitba. At times it's like watching a cross between real fitba and shinty, I don't think this sport exists anywhere else. Seriously, what's not to like about this? limited quality at times but exciting, up and at them, total committment, shit conditions, playing at a stadium that hasn't changed since Andy Ritchie was a la(r)d. Friday night, watching on tv as a neutral with a beer - ace. Give me this over the sterile EPL any day.

Superb isn't it. Would love us to go for really simple, retro inspired design.

Yes. Pretty much every game day this season so far has been good weather. The only games where it’s been what you would call particularly windy are the Ayr game in October and the recent ICT game. Oh, and Morton in December where it was a pea-souper, wasn’t windy though. A few Killie fans and some of our cliche ridden, shit media seemed to think our Friday game in September was windy, even though the game was played in near perfect conditions and the flag was hanging limp for a lot of the game.

Just noticed the club have posted on FB that he’s joined Stirling Albion on loan for the remainder of the season. I really like what I’ve seen of him so far so would have liked him to have stayed. I wonder if this means there’s another loan imminent? If not then our squad is very thin - only 18 players I make it.

The BBC are terrible for online forecasting. I always thought they got their info from the met office but it’s always different so they must do their own or source it from elsewhere. The best one for inaccuracy I remember was about 5 or 6 years ago, sitting in my office looking at the forecast on screen for the whole day as being cold but with bright blue, sunny skies with light winds and 0% chance of precipitation - a perfect winter day. I looked out the window and it was a complete white-out swirling blizzard, you couldn’t see the cars in the car park right outside, there was about 3” of snow and it had been like that for a few of hours. I think they just make it up sometimes, for Scotland anyway.

Hope that’s not how it pans out, there’ll be no game if it is. More positively, the Met Office forecast is saying 20mph winds with gusts of 35mph at kick off, with winds getting lighter as the day goes on. I think that BBC forecast must be in Kmph as that’s pretty much what 35mph is when converted, and that’s only for gusts. I know it says it’s mph but that would be approaching 95kmph winds at midday. You would be struggling to walk anywhere outside in those conditions, never mind play a game of fitba. To put it in context 58mph (at 12:00) winds equates to over 50 knots. On the Beaufort Wind Scale that’s well into what’s classed as a storm, “which will see trees broken or uprooted and severe structural damage and is seldom experienced on land”. I would have thought that there would be warnings in place if this was the genuine forecast.

Seriously, do you have comprehension issues? That’s two replies in a row to my posts where you can’t seem to see the bigger picture. It’s all these points added together not in isolation. Crap weather on its own - not a problem, dry trains - not a problem, early ko etc etc etc. Add it all up though and it starts to become a bit of a shit day oot.

The St Johnstone game was on a lovely summers day with the standard early season optimism all round - St Johnstone coming off their best ever season and us happy with another year in the Championship. Direct trains from Perth c40 miles away. Contrast this with if you’re a Hibs fan - your team are playing shite; if you’re going by train it’s an early start (have to build in loads of extra time as who knows what the replacement bus service will look like), on a dry train to Dundee; wait for replacement bus - how many will there be? How long will it take? 20 minutes someone said which is ludicrous. Even if you get off the train and straight onto a waiting bus that leaves immediately (all highly unlikely), it would take probably double that to get from Dundee train station to Arbroath train station. So you get to Arbroath, how long do you have for a pint and maybe something to eat? You’ve got to try and “make a day of it” as it’s been pretty shit so far. Post match (miserable after getting pumped oot the cup ) you then have to repeat this journey home. You likely have work tomorrow so can’t really get too pished and don’t want to get home too late. Add in that it’ll more than likely be freezing and possibly wet and windy. The train costs a fortune and you have to also factor in the match ticket cost, and food and drink - likely we’ll over £100 for the day. Or You could watch it on the TV for free all dry and warm, in the pub or in your hoose. Of course there will be plenty of Hibs fans who will be happy with that but to think the early Sunday kick off with no direct trains won’t have a big impact is daft.

If you actually read what I said then it’s a combination of all of those points that may make people think “f**k it, I’ll watch it at home instead” I never said any one thing in isolation would stop anyone going although it definitely will, especially Hibs fans.

This decision will have a big impact on the attendance. Supposedly no trains from Edinburgh to Arbroath that day, terminate in Dundee. Are trains from the north similarly impacted? If so then I, and I’m sure others, will have to change plans Sunday tends to not be a good day for fitba for many people for various reasons. Fans less likely to make a day of it for the aforementioned. Live on TV. Time of year, likely to be cold, possibly windy and wet. Season tickets not valid. All of this combined means I think we’ll be lucky to get 3k to a game where it would have been around 5k normally.

Plenty free parking around the ground and nearby streets. There’s a grass area right behind the away end which is used as a car park on match days, probably your best bet.

Listen guys, if you don’t want him just give us him back for the rest of the season, that ok?

Don’t understand the need for this at all. We’ve only got a squad of 19 and although it will allow more players to get game time, it definitely benefits the teams with larger squads and more strength in depth.

Aye, we all need to just try to enjoy this as much as possible at the moment as we know deep down that the bad days will return. Hopefully not to the level we were at at our worst but we’ll certainly be kicking around League 1/2 sometime again in the future. We will look back on this era as the best in modern times so must endeavour to enjoy every minute.

Hate quoting myself but even I was surprised that we went with this exact starting lineup and subs (minus Low obviously). Another positive point to note from Saturday was that all 3 goals were setup by attacking players - superb play and pass from Wighton for the first; Bobby turning their defence inside oot for number 2 and a combination of Linn and Donnelly for number 3. Keep doing that and laying them on a plate for Hamilton and we’ll see a plenty of goals as he’s a natural finisher.

I’ve been following his channel from his very early videos. What I love is that it doesn’t matter what game he’s watching or what stadium he’s at, he treats every team and game with the same respect and excitement. He can be at English Premiership game or Ibrox/Celtic Park/Beechwood/Cappielow/New New Central Park/Starks Park etc etc and he’s in there with the fans getting involved - singing, cheering, chatting and speaking about the teams and fans with not a hint of patronisation. I wish everyone was so positive about Scottish fitba as he seems genuinely in love with it.

If you read my post again you will see that I said we would (obviously) lose a large chunk of our squad if we went full-time not that I could ever see that happening, or indeed don’t think I would want to see it happening. I didn’t say we would lose them if we got promoted as I think we would go hybrid.

There’s no way we could stay fully part-time if we went up, unless of course we were happy to come right back down again without much of a fight. If we want to go up and stay up for a bit then I would suspect we would have to go with a hybrid setup. A mix of part-time and full-time players, it’s been done before and would give us the best of both worlds - access to the best part-time players in the country combined with a mix of young and experienced full-timers. We would also need to increase the squad size and possibly re-establish a youth setup. To think we could go up and realistically compete while staying fully part-time is fantasy imo. I’m not sure if I think this is a great idea but there would be no real reason why we couldn’t even go totally full-time eventually. The massive financial increase - level of investment, sponsorship, increased gates, TV money, SPFL money etc etc would probably make it feasible. If Hamilton, Livingston, Ross County etc can do it then why couldn’t we? Obviously we would lose a large chunk of the current squad if this happened and I don’t think it ever will.

It seems to be the “on trend” tactic that is being coached at the moment. Even my 11 year old son’s team do it - at goal kicks, the full backs drop wide and very deep, to pretty much the goal line. The goalkeeper passes to one of them and there then follows a period of panicky passes around the back before the opposition score or one of the defenders lumps it up the park or out of play in panic. It very occasionally works but if your playing a team with high energy that presses, then it’s a very dangerous tactic. There were a few times yesterday when that exact thing happened and the defender ended up blootering it anywhere in panic. Teams like Man City can do it as they have the players to execute it but it doesn’t really work when your full backs have limited footballing ability and a lack of calmness. I think it’s a tactic that will disappear fairly soon. I suppose teams think it’s a way of getting guaranteed possession from a goal kick but that means nothing if you’re on the back foot immediately, in a very dangerous area. Not suggesting teams should launch it up the park but the defence needs pushed 20 yards further up.

Wrong site? didn’t you mean to post that on Grindr?

It definitely seems odd. We obviously never saw him in the flesh last time round and I was expecting him to be as Livi fans have been saying. However in the games I’ve seen so far he has been anything but lazy, slow and uninterested. Played the full 90 again today and was still buzzing around the park right until the end. There was one instance where he absolutely burned their full back to win a through pass, making up a 5 yard deficit in about 30 yards. Looks very sharp and committed. Nouble’s obviously great but a totally different player to Hamilton, he’ll create a shit load of goals for you, might not score many though.

A bit of a stroll in the end although Darvel looked tidy enough, they certainly tried to play football. The result was about right although we could have scored another couple and Gaston never had a save to make. As has been said, the three Hamiltons were excellent today, Colin seemed to be on a goal scoring mission for a while in the second half with a couple of great attacking runs. Chris superb in midfield and what can we say about Jack? Brilliant striking performance, a natural goalscorer and loads of energy and physicality today - can’t believe Livi fans doubted his commitment and effort. Wighton played well too and deserved a goal. Don’t want to speak too soon but there could be more goals in that partnership than Nouble/Dowds. Bobby’s introduction gave us that bit of a push when we were starting to look a bit flat. ToB, Little and JT solid as usual. I can see why Darvel are doing so well but imo they showed incredible niavety in continuing to try and play out from the back. Our biggest strengths are our physicality and energy and we’re also top scorers in the league so not the best approach for them. They got away with it two or three times but they were just constantly playing themselves into danger. I’m not suggesting they should have lumped it up the park, they don’t look like that sort of team, but missing out the full backs standing on their 6 yard line and going straight to the midfield might have been a better tactic. Also hope the fan who took unwell is ok. I was standing close to him and he looked in a bad way. Aberdeen away please.

Aberdeen away please. How fucking good is jack Hamilton? Wighton also good today and deserved a goal.

Another issue that is a problem for Cove’s growth going forward is the Rangers name, blue kit, lion badge, mini *** type feeling about them. Obviously, that doesn’t sit right with the majority of fitba fans in the city. I always though they would do better attracting support if they changed their name to simply “Cove”, played in black and gold (Aberdeen’s original colours) etc.