Ceiling Granny

I think while it’s probably ott to get carried away with the second half yesterday, it’s understandable why that’s the reaction. Say we’d have come out, went full pelt and the game had finished 3-2 I think people would have looked on the second half far more favourably. Like it or not, when you’re shite playing a good half against livingston isn’t going to take the fans with you on the “we’ve turned a corner” narrative. Coming out second half, keeping pressing, making a few chances etc, irrespective of if we’d conceded again, would have got the crowd more involved and people would have left far happier. It’s a psychology thing imo, people want to see the press, not a game petering out.

Heard from more than one person (none of whom are remotely in the know) that Van Veen is going to Rangers on loan.

I disagree. Normally the opposite for me in that I bump into people who are visiting family here, or who I’ve not seen in ages. 12 pm kick off on Christmas Eve pretty much ruins that though as there won’t be the usual couple of drinks before the game, and most of my crowd are heading home straight after. Listening to the weather now, it’s no day for football being played. Kind of day you want to keep it on the deck, so I fully anticipate us playing a series of long balls.

Do people actually like this sort of coverage? I would probably rather the manager just cracked on with his usual job rather than having in the back of his head he was being constantly recorded, and if not my team I think I’d really rather just watch the match .

It’s the same old story, the worse things get the more it looks like the team is picked by tombola. The more tactical genius “ideas” the manager tries out, the more they’re clutching at straws. I’m convinced it’s an ego thing once they’re so far down the road of trying different things it’s hard to admit back to basics is the right approach because it’s like admitting there’s not a complex answer.

I can maybe see the point of it had went down to a few points in one swoop, but given to be on 12 you have to at least be renewing and going to hampden games (yes I realise you can buy and not go but let’s take it at face value) so it’s not like people are half arsing the supporting thing. I know plenty people that have been to every hampden match for the last god knows how long, but only the odd away game due to many different reasons. The euros are different, people are willing to push the boat out to get over and it’s nice they have the chance. Some people act like they take nothing out of going to away games except points, which is a sad state of affairs imo.

We all knew it, still depressing to see it written down on the bbc.

What a mess the club is top to bottom right now

Maybe to do with whether or not you’re opted into “marketing” emails or something?

That’s my view. If the ref had given a red straight away then fine, you see them given. For it to be upgraded from yellow to red by VAR though is crazy as the yellow wasn’t a clear error.

I think the biggest worry for me is bringing on Mugabi at the end as a total hit and hope, cause a bit of chaos type sub. Screams “out of ideas”.

It is like watching a different team. I’m absolutely convinced something has to have happened behind the scenes for such a massive drop off across the board. Whether it be something “serious” or a case of egos getting in the road as players became fit, something isn’t quite right.

The older I get, the less annoyed I get at individual players, but Wilkinson has me raging every time I watch him

I’d tend to agree with this, but also I find it difficult to watch left footed players in the same way as right footed because, when they’re good, they always just look better than a similar standard right footed player. I don’t know why this is, relative scarcity?

There’s a statement out from the board on how the fixture move was sprung on us yesterday. My phone is failing to share the link though

If the door was being kicked open to let more fans in the police should have let that happen, had the match abandoned, and awarded 3 points and a 3-0 win to Motherwell. Then there would be absolutely nothing to talk about here The suggestion there were not more people in the south stand than there are seats is laughable at best.

Looking from where I was sitting in the east there was quite obviously far too many people in the lower south. Quite a few people around me commented on it, and were questioning why nothing was being done about it. There’s absolutely no way it looked that full solely due to people standing where they wanted and spreading out a bit, or people from the upper section going into the lower.

Thought the game changed a lot when Shaw came on today. I’m not saying he’s rotten full stop, and I’m not suggesting he needs to win every ball, but today he needed to put pressure on the Celtic defence or hold the ball up for another (literally) 2 seconds to allow the defence to move out even a little bit. When he’s the only guy up the park that’s what job we needed him to do and I don’t think he did that.

The thing that pisses me off is that even if this doesn’t go through it’s reinforcing the opinion held by a section of society that football fans are all hooligans turning up to trash their town and scare old ladies. You know the type that never interact with fitba fans at any point in their life but are seething about how fans behave.

I know hee haw about visas, but is that maybe why Efford hasn’t been mutual’d. Like wants to stay in the UK, then going from one team to another is easier than if he effectively doesn’t have a job, so loses his visa?

Decent interview with “good honest professional” Stephen O’Donnell in the Herald today. Pretty diplomatic about his relationship with Alexander all things considered Click

Missed the game today, but having just seen the Sportscene highlights Biereth looks quality, Stevenson didn’t know what to do with him at the run up to the first goal. For the first season in years it looks like work commitments will keep me away from 75% of games and it looks like I’m going to be missing a season where there’s a wee buzz about players (Miller for one).

Similarly, I was starting to come round to Efford when he got injured. Looking back though it’s hard to remember if he was actually good, or my memory inflating him to good compared to how shite we were. On this basis I’d have liked to see him get some more game time to confirm it was the former. However, given his career to date he clearly has faith in himself (I’m basing this on his wiki page saying he gave up a college scholarship to play in Europe) and isn’t scared to make a move to new places, so if he feels he isn’t in Kettlewell’s plans I wouldn’t be surprised if he was pushing a move.

Guy in front of me at the pie stall asked - donner pies are no more.