vikingTON

Napier lost control of the game by virtue of awarding fouls to Samuel for crumpling under every ridiculously soft challenge in the first half, while not awarding the same at the other end of the park. He couldn't even deal with a smoke bomb being 0.2 yards on the pitch after the equaliser without storming up to Mullen as if he was going to book him for considering just, err, punting it away. His award of a free kick to Inverness for a clean win of the ball from our press early in the second half was I think the real flip switch for already visible frustration in the team. IIRC Power took the ball and volleyed it to fuck in immediate response to another gubbins call. I don't think that the penalty decision was wrong, but when you're booking five players in six minutes given what little was at stake, you are also at fault as an official. Personally, I don't care too much if players lost discipline in this particular game. Professional footballers are expected to bite their tongues and accept nonsense from garbage officials all season long and they let that standard slip last night. ^^^ trying too hard

Raith's defence at the start of the season was completely bang-average, as we saw ourselves in their 3-2 victory in August.

If Blues' good shot wasn't stopped by Dabrowski in the closing stages - or Crawford's header from the corner* - then there'd have been about twice as many folk around to give the team a send-off on the terraces at the final whistle. Despite the fact that said goal would have been almost entirely irrelevant to our season. So how is the yawning difference between those responses within the fanbase legit but a low-key response in the case of the players unacceptable? The end of the game today turned out to be an insipid end to an insipid game off the back of... an insipid month. It just happens. While I could normally consider being out of touch for finding a gratitude exercise by footballers to be performative nonsense, the exodus of other fans suggests that today's game just turned out to be not a very good occasion for recognition. That cuts both ways incidentally - we might not see a player or two again who deserved a wee bit more than today's swansong. [/Quote] especially not when the guys who are applauding you have in our case been paying your wages. [Quote] See, I find that 'we pay your wages' argument risible given both the undoubted effort and the actual value of some of the performances produced by the squad (League Cup at Ibrox; Scottish Cup QF - the Motherwell game; consolidation of league position after desperate opening third of the season). Did these not 'pay' the fans' contribution enough? That argument doesn't mean we should award new contracts all round for next season by any means, but we have had absolutely zero grounds to complain about the attitude of this squad this season. *Two examples chosen simply because the finishes were good attempts as opposed to... other efforts in the second half.

I was behind the goal in the second half and could clearly see half the Cowshed filtering towards the exits before and immediately at the end of the game. Just as they would have done in any other home game. That's not a criticism - I left after a brief applause when Imrie came over too. The idea that professional players should be required to show some extra reverence than the fans themselves at the end of a nothing game like today's is not for me. They don't owe us anything - they get paid a wage and are expected to do a job on that basis.

About half the home fans left either before or just after the final whistle, so I really wouldn't be ripping my knitting about the disrespect shown by players who didn't hang around too long either.

Our season in a nutshell today. Played pretty well, created the better chances (without a draw actually being unfair though) but didn't have the cutting edge to get us over the line. Difficult to judge too much given the lowered stakes involved but I thought the defence did well throughout. With Ayr and Dunfermline playing each other the lowest we can now finish is 6th, but any sort of last minute, heartbreaking goal to consign Inverness and their assorted pellets (Gardiner; Ferguson) to the play-offs and relegation would be a lovely send-off. In the big picture we've had a decent season - excellent in cup competitions, both financially and in performance terms. Given the losses to the first team last summer I'm not surprised we had to just consolidate our position in the end - I'd have expected that before a ball was kicked. But with both Airdrie and Partick sitting on entirely achievable points totals, the lost opportunity can't be overlooked either. Losing fully half of our home league games is ultimately what has cost us - each of those lost was effectively a six-point swing to another team in the division.

Well done Kirk.

Palpable enthusiasm for this one. I think the club have missed a trick by insisting on the usual £21 entry. It's a dead rubber in any serious competitive sense and the final home game of the season: the ST money is already accounted for. Why not set prices at a tenner for adults - free for under 16s - to try to entice folk to get out the house and watch a game of football? And instead of just announcing the change online and using the Tele's unreliable coverage of local events to spread the news, just fire out 6,000 vouchers and hand them out in schools, through New Scots services too. Who knows - they might just enjoy their experience and want to come back again. For the cost of a couple of hundred walk-ups and extra marketing expenses, I really don't understand why the club doesn't make some effort to turn an otherwise low-key send-off to the campaign into an opportunity.

Livingston - surprise - are once again in a protracted legal dispute about the ownership and pretty much every aspect of their business 'model'. Never mind spending prize money - they'll be lucky to avoid administration if an unfavourable court verdict combines with their imminent relegation.

Even if they do, the reality is that their current revenue is going to be significantly higher than our own. I'm really not sure what people expect the club to do about that this summer, other than shouting 'ambishun' because they set a target of being a 'top 16' club - which about 24 clubs would set as at least their minimum aspiration too. We're in a relatively good position as most key players are tied up over the summer - we need to replace any who do go and upgrade on the options who simply didn't deliver often enough.

Well no - if they're getting offered a new contract with their current club that is in line with current inflation, then they quite clearly can afford not to take a different offer. Unless they're sloping off to the nearest food bank after training at the moment which isn't really happening (for established senior players anyway - wouldn't be at all surprised about young/fringe players tbh). While wages rightly play a major factor in a professional footballer's choice of club at any level, for any sensible footballer it will be weighed alongside other issues such as: - sporting potential: to play at the highest level/biggest stage; to challenge for a meaningful trophy or two. (More relevant to some than others of course) - logistics of travel and/or relocation - working relationships: especially with the manager Let's take George Oakley as an example. While George absolutely does not owe GMFC a debt of loyalty to sign a new contract, he would have to be absolutely stupid to sign for more money elsewhere, if said contract required working with confirmed, Grade A fud Billy Dodds again. Just like any other employee, a job offer is not actually the best choice if your new boss is known to be bad news. I can see us struggling to compete on 2 of those 4 criteria anyway, thanks to our insipid end to the league campaign. But any player who disregards all other factors simply to chase a higher wage at EK or Johnstone Burgh is quite simply a shameless mercenary. And it's no surprise that those clubs habitually underperform expectations, after their bloated 'marquee signings' rock up without a shred of genuine professionalism in tow.

A 33 year old whose peak of his career has been one stand out season at this level? It's a no thanks from me.

We can't have both better quality and a bigger squad within a sustainable budget. We will have to choose between one or the other, and I'd be prioritising quality because the potential benefit is much higher. We have had squad options during the slump in the final part of this season but combined with starters, they simply didn't deliver. That's not a numbers issue.

Quitongo did well off the bench, Mullen was solid when called on but there was very little else to take from that. A very welcome result but the slump in performance levels was not reversed today.

This is precisely where you are wrong, because those two records are exactly the same thing to the manager of a professional football club. Players who make substitute appearances are expected to contribute just like starters. They're not thrown on to the park as a sympathy act. It doesn't matter whether you have 90 minutes or 25 minutes to deliver - the bottom line to Imrie or any other manager is the sum of a player's total contribution on the park to the team. The explanation for why your beloved squad players are not starting is entirely straightforward then: they haven't actually contributed enough to dislodge Muirhead or indeed any other starters in the pecking order. Being a standout in one game against Queens' Park and then being a bag of turds against Airdrie the next week merely confirms the existing pecking order. You believe that this is unfair and want their contribution to be weighted based on minutes off the bench, cherry-picked 'recent form' 'analysis', and a host of other mitigating circumstances, but the reality is that professional football isn't 'fair' in those terms and these excuses shouldn't and largely don't apply.