Tattie36

If this goes on much longer than mid-January then I will well and truly join the ranks of dissenters. We will have 4m+ boosted by then and if omicron is as mild as it looks there can be absolutely no justification for it.

Yes you can't play with no squad but that's got zero to do with crowds at the games when they go ahead. But it does. As I said earlier - players are members of the public and will mix with as many people as we all do. This will increase their chance of getting Covid or being in close contact with someone who has Covid and, under current (*imo ott) rules this means they are going to be unavailable for a while. Just like if we are in an environment with loads of others it increases our chance of the same. *I think the current restrictions are ott by the way but they are what they are and it appears that (all/most) governments are being ultra cautious at the moment. Hopefully in 3 weeks this will be over and we can all be pals again.

Yes I know, but under current restrictions/isolation rules (pretty universal btw, not just in Scotland) if they've been diagnosed with Covid then they can't play can they? That's my point.

Yes, I agree to an extent and, as I've said many times, I can't wait for us all to get back, but there is a big difference in these comparisons isn't there? You don't go to shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants etc etc to see a live show/performance that relies on there being fit participants? Any restaurant, even pre-covid, will shut if all or most of their staff are sick. My point in all of this (and it's already there for all to see) is - what's the point of unresticted crowds if there's nothing to watch? No matter how mild it is, with current restrictions in regard to isolation etc, the more people that get Covid, the more players get Covid, the less likely we are to get to go to games.

Whit?

Getting ganged up on by the three Covid deniers. Hilarious. Mate, it's you and your Covid denier pals that need to "give it a rest". Every thread ruined and politicised by your "F*cK sTurgeOn and sWinNey, tHey HatE FiTb@ fAns" pish.

They won't get infected every week though. Having 500 at the games or 5000 isn't going to make any difference to the pandemic. This view absoltely boggles my mind. Fitba players are members of the public too, ergo the more infected people there are in the general population..... do I need to go on? I would love as much as anyone to have unrestricted fans back, and I believe we will soon, but to act as if there's nothing wrong and we just need to "get on with it" isn't a realistic option for the next few weeks. I truly believe that by mid Jan, we will have 4m+ boosted, and omicron will have peaked and will have (definitely) been found to have been comparitively mild. Doesn't change the fact that at the moment teams can't even get players on the park and having unrestricted crowds would definitely make this even worse e.g. see what's happening in England.

Tell me who exactly these unrestricted crowds will be watching then? About 50% of games in England are currently being canned due to Covid in the teams. You can have as many fans in the ground as you like but if the teams can't get enough fit players together then what?

I have a degree of sympathy for Dundee. That game should never have gone ahead with your situation. Will be interesting to see what Hamilton had available in comparison. We weren't far off for our game v Morton with a bench consisting of our 49 year old coach Rab Douglas (who was also standing in for the Campbell's who were both out of the dugaout with Covid), Nicky Low who isn't fully fit coming back from inury and two fit outfield players - Harrison Clark and 38 year old Gavin Swankie. Having said that, some of our support think there should be unrestricted fans in the ground (just because that's how it is in England.... for the moment) and, no doubt, would be happy with infected players on the park. Not even realising for one minute that this is the sort of reckless BoJo "freedom day", nae masks populist type crap that is prolonging this entire shit-show.

Good point.

I think/hope that everyone who applied should get something. I reckon a good few hundred won't have taken up the offer for various reasons - logistics, family, Covid etc etc. If we have, say 1100 season tickets and around 700 available over the two games then you would have to be very unlucky not to get a ticket. Still nothing for me though.

Nothing for me so far. Put the ICT game as my first choice so here's hoping.

I believe the rule is that as long as you have 13 available players, including a goalkeeper, then you play. As WHM said, we were bare bones v Morton but still had to play

Not quite sure why some people think he’ll be loaned out again by Livi. He’s going back and he’ll be straight into their first team. If not then they’re mental. I also think that if he was loaned out again then it would be back to us.

That’s one of the reasons why I love A View From The Terrace - and why it’s so popular in general - you can watch an entire Scottish football programme that doesn’t spend 90% of the show discussing “them”. You would think the powers that be who are responsible for other tv and radio shows would twig that there are more non OF fans in Scotland than they think and that they’re intentionally pissing off 50%+ of their potential audience.

Let's face it, apart from a handful of games, McKenna has arguably been mom every game this season. Imagine how much we would be raving about him if he was a new/loan signing?

Was a wee bit worried pre-match, don’t know why in hindsight. Would love to play the Pars every week - P3 W3 F10 A2 Our away form is incredible.

Of course, I was just looking for the players missing last week so never noticed.

Only Hilson missing from the squad. Probably the best team we could hope for.

And McKenna. Absolutely delighted with all of these.

I think Berra has been excellent, what I’ve seen of him. You don’t have a career like he’s had - including 3 seasons in the English premiership and 41 international caps, unless you are a very good player. If he was playing in this league 10 years ago then he could literally have played every game in his baffies, smoking a pipe and would still have strolled it. Havjng said that, I would have Little or O’Brien over him any day, so bench it is for old Christophe

Agree, Stewart has been superb but flies mostly under the radar. Would certainly have Little, O’Brien, McKenna and Nouble in a team of the season so far. McKenna definitely our star man, you could see how much we miss his energy and dynamism last Saturday. If it wasn’t for his injury, Low would be up there too. No disrespect to any other team but I can’t really think of any many *players that have been particularly noticeable (in a good way) against us. *aside from Willie Gibson who was superb for QoTS at Gayfield, no surprise really as he’s been a class player for years. Team wise, I’ve been most impressed by Raith, Morton (I know), ICT and Thistle in the first half at Gayfield. The Raith defence did a great job containing our attack over both games. Berra’s experience and ability to practically rip the shirt off Nouble’s back without being seen by the officials is an art in itself.

Intelligent and well thought out response. Listen, I think BoJo (most Tories really) is a disgraceful and despicable human being but, up until all the recent no10 shenanigans, I was willing to cut him a little slack. I have a degree of sympathy for all politicians no matter what party they represent due to the fact that they have had an almost impossible job during this pandemic. Try it.

Bullshit. Do you not have any idea of what’s happening in other countries? Is it Swinneys or Sturgeons fault that the exact same, or in many cases, more extreme restrictions are happening all over Europe? Im nae happy with any of this but we’ve seen before how delays in shutting down and imposing restrictions (in combination with antivaxxers) has prolonged this shit-show and caused increased cases/illness/death.

What’s your definition of “normal”? I would hope that we could be close to being back to where we were a couple of weeks ago by the middle/end of January, but IMO it depends on a number of factors. If current vaccine levels continue, or increase, then we could have the guts of 4m boosters done by the middle of January. If it transpires that Omicron doesn’t cause deaths or serious illness to the same level as previous variants, looks that way but it would be foolish in the extreme to assume this (see BoJo) without absolute proof. If infection, hospitalisation and death rates drop or continue to drop. If antivax weirdos do the right thing.