Tattie36

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.

If we are going with fans for the next two home games then a straight forward ballot of season ticket holders is the only real way to do it. Everyone that wants to attend one or both of the games puts their name in, some will get both games, some will get one , some will get none. I wouldn’t mind any of theses scenarios for myself. Perhaps if you get for the Hamilton game then you automatically drop out for the ICT game but who’s to say we’ll have enough individual fans interested to fill two allocations? I imagine it’ll be a fairly bleak experience, sitting or standing (are we allowed to stand?) two metres apart, probability have to wear a mask and keep shouting to a minimum. Also, quite a few season ticket holders (myself included) live a distance away so might not be bothered given the circumstances. I don’t think you can differentiate between who bought first or last, both equally as valid season tickets. I bought mine about 2 minutes after online sales started but it’s the same ticket and cost as a ticket someone bought a fortnight ago.

f*Ck sTuRgeoNN

Chin up. It’s really shit, especially with how things are going for us at the moment. So glad I went on Saturday, not just to see us go top but also to see Nouble for the last time in person in a maroon shirt.

Last post on this as, I agree with DA that this isn’t the place. Name one country in the world that’s had a normal society throughout this. Brazil? Huge, probably massively under reported death rates, a country ran by a very real, de-facto tyrannical loony. Sweden - had to eat a fairly large chunk of humble pie and bring in restrictions broadly in line with most other countries. The whole thing is shit but I’ll continue to direct my personal ire at selfish anti-vaxer p***ks and arseholes like Boris fucking Johnson. Fin.

I agree with some of that to an extent and do think the world has gone a bit mental with this latest raft of measures but I do still firmly believe that doctors and scientist know a wee bit more about it than some fitba fans on P&B. So how about saying “f*ck scientists, doctors and all politicians” as opposed to blaming one individual who is on a hiding to nothing

Politics should be left out of the fitba forums - there’s a specific section for that. However, I’m as pissed off and scunnered as anyone with the latest restrictions and do think it’s a bit OTT but to act as if she is some killjoy, tyrannical dictator is guff. I suggest you do a bit of research on other countries and the level of restrictions they have at the moment or have had throughout the pandemic and you will find that we’ve had it pretty good compared to many, many places. E.g. Australia and New Zealand have shut down huge areas or even the entire country after a single solitary case. Look at France and the Netherlands at the moment. But aye, blame sturgeon who is gauging what is happening globally and taking advice from medical and scientific experts.

I can’t imagine Swankie will be realistically thinking much further than this season as a footballer. He’s 38 so don’t think any senior team would be interested. How many outfield players are still playing at that age? Seems like an intelligent enough guy and obviously has a wealth of experience to pass on so I wonder if his future lies in coaching? If so then perhaps he’ll end up on our coaching staff. If any player at the end of their career deserves sentimental loyalty from a club it’s him.

Don’t agree with this. I know when your team are in the doldrums that it’s easy to be ultra critical of everything but I genuinely thought you gave us a much sterner test than pretty much any other side in the division, apart from Raith. Aside from the goals, we never had any clear cut attempts at all. Normally we are relentless and create chance after chance so it was nice to be more ruthless for a change. Morton definitely had better goal scoring chances and it certainly felt to me that you had every chance of taking something from the game, even at 2-1. It certainly didn’t feel like we closed out the game effortlessly, the relief from the players and fans at the end was palpable. I was at the side and saw your goal, maybe I have better eyesight

I thought Morton were pretty decent yesterday and probably deserved at least a draw. Played nice passing football and kept the ball on the deck more than we did. Certainly better than some other teams we’ve played this season. You (and Ayr) have scored more goals against us this season (3) than anyone else so that’s something. Looking forward to seeing the highlights and how you never managed to score when it looked like a certain goal. Even though I’ve seen a few games played and completed in worse fog than that, it must have been very, very close to being abandoned. I think the fact that the linesman could see the full width of the pitch, and that it wasn’t deteriorating, meant the officials were happy to play to a finish. We could also see both goalmouths from the side although in the first half it was difficult to make out the other end from behind the goals. It was quite funny that the Morton fans didn’t realise they’d scored for a few seconds until they heard the players and bench celebrate.

The budgets aren’t the issue here though are they? It’s the difference between being full time and part time, that’s the huge disparity. I’m not meaning the quality of players as I think we have a few guys who could play for any side in the league, or above, it’s more the lifestyle - the balance of training, rest, mid-week match preparation etc and the ability of the coaching team to work with the players every day. Players at every level, even down to the non leagues are much fitter than they were in the past so that’s not the issue but I imagine it’s incredibly difficult to spend much time on anything other than the basics when a team’s limited to 3 or 4 hours training a week.

Agree. Get this game binned and, hopefully, come back with a full, healthy squad for the Hamilton game on 29th.

Behave. The Leicester side that won the league were a top, full time team of millionaires and international footballers, managed by a big name with a pedigree, playing against teams with a similar setup and financial clout. People talk as if they were a rag-tag bunch of plumbers and brickies on £50 a week. Arbroath are a part-time side with no benefactor, playing against full time teams with, mostly, far bigger budgets. While all other players in the league are training or “resting”, we have guys like e.g. Bobby Linn emptying bins before travelling to training TWICE a week in Perth. Or working all day before playing midweek games. We also still have some players who were with us when we were scrabbling around at the bottom of League 2. The disparity of setup and expectation is huge, far greater than between one set of full time millionaire pros and another. This reminds me of Celtic fans claiming their victory at home v Barcelona in the CL was a greater achievement than us drawing with them at Celtic Park in the cup a few weeks later. Utterly deluded.

We may not have a team to play this one. Only 15 players available yesterday, including Rab Douglas doubling up as sub goalie and coach. Missing 6 players plus the Campbells due to Covid.

Yeah, that’s a good point re his contract being up soon. If he’s happy to go part time to stay then it would be great to keep him.

Would love him stay for the rest of the season but feel Falkirk will recall him as soon as they can. They’re in a right state at the moment and a striker playing well and scoring in a higher league will be just what need. Will be a real shame as he’s playing really well at the moment, he was our best player yesterday imo.

The feeling around the club now is amazing. I left Arbroath at 15, in 1984 but have continued to support the team as much as possible since then. From travelling down and standing on the terraces with 300 others to watch us end up flat last to where we are now is almost unbelievable.

Must be a wee bit frustrating for you guys to be unbeaten for what, a decade??? And still not be top Only kidding, the second half of the season is going to be some ride, this is magic and what fitba’s all about.

Bad luck today guys. We were poor but I was impressed with how Morton played, always tried to play fitba and, even though obviously delighted with the win, a draw would have probably been a fair result.

That was, by some margin, the worst I’ve seen us play this season so to grind out a win and end the day top of the league is incredible. Especially with the missing players and management. I thought Morton were decent and played nice passing football at times, totally deserving their equaliser. No where near the worst team we’ve played this season and if they continue to play like that they will easily avoid relegation. As a supporter of well over 40 years, this is dreamland.

Nah, respect to him, that’s what it’s all about.

Does it say who it is? You just know it’ll be Nouble, TOB or McKenna.

Any idea who it is? One player wouldn’t put the game in doubt though would it?