vikingTON

The penalty was clear cut from Sinclair Street - a useless challenge that Ballantyne's run brought about. The 'handball' would have been very harsh and again (Sinclair Street view) that's not what seemed to be happening. Perhaps he gestured towards the QP player's midriff or something, but I didn't think for one second that he was considering blowing for a penalty. The booing came a second or so later from the Cowshed.

And as a parting shot, I'd like to register my delight at the natural order of things being asserted against such a stupid wee outfit. To see those Green-voting, sandal wearing freaks and losers rail in increasingly shrill tones against Grant Gillespie - while their gormless team allowed him to run the show = absolutely fucking delicious.

They certainly had a bit more of the ball throughout the second half, but did nothing with it. We probably didn't dominate possession in the first half either. The only person who thinks that mere possession of the ball is decisive to the outcome is a certain Murray, I., who just two months ago was bragging about how he had transformed the way that we played football. Nine games or so into a 19 game winless run, that ended in a beyond skint club finally showing him the door.

The second half was more pleasing than the first half for me, because it showed that the management team and the players have more than one mode of playing and can work together to do so. By being simply a bit more conservative - not inviting pressure and still creating chances - we restricted Queens' Park and their mysterious job lot of mercenary players to not a single shot on target when 2-0 down and chasing. Showing that we can change between different gears is a huge step forward - if you added Cochrane for Robertson then we could actually have a fighters' punch chance against top half sides too. Pressing off the ball was much better than under the clown and we now have a legit way to score (a giant counter-attack wave) that his glacial passing style of futba prevented all along. Shame O'Halloran made a total mess of his chance to make it 3-0, as his cameo as a defensive forward hounding their back line was perfect for the situation he and Miller were managing. Sandilands and Borso deserve enormous credit for their similar shifts as well as some good strength and quality in possession too.

Hopefully Cochrane is fit enough to play most of the second half. While we've been very good going forward, the game is too open and needs a fork stuck in it. Could easily be 3-3 in that half - Great entertainment but let's get the points now. Cochrane on for Robertson - add an actual body to the middle of the park and allow Wilson to cover for that hammer-thrower Todorov when needed too. As in, literally just man mark him when they've got the ball.

Yes - that's the opportunity cost that Monday's discussion, regardless of the desire for other information, is fundamentally about: • How much would it cost to pursue a next stage in negotiation? • Is the consortium proposal such a non-starter that the funding should go towards preserving the club's financial solvency instead.

It can't go ahead any time soon - the meeting on Monday is to help decide whether to progress to due diligence and detailed negotiation. Unless MCT have stitched up an agreement in advance, this consortium is not likely to offer anything this side of January. The time had come for some of them to depart, as promised, fully 16 months ago.

But it's the fans that own the club - it is partly our representatives on the GMFC board. Why the fuck has golf club representative Barr not resigned yet, after pledging to do so in rendered garments at two consecutive GMs? And it's also MCT members who opted to delay a vote in August, to let this mythical bidding war play out for a stake in a distressed asset and a walk-ob role in the complete fucking binfire behind the scenes. This was either delusional, wishful thinking or malpractice. And it was also the fans - including myself incidentally - that allowed the Estrella pinky promise deal to continue after last summer's shenanigans. So we can't actually remove responsibility from the fanbase. This is our mess too.

You claimed it was a more serious offer than EFG. Literally nothing that you've stated above supports or is even relevant to that claim. That's not you keeping an open mind - it's about you applying selectively different standards to two potential bids, based on... what exactly?

As per the actual proposal, it involves: • less up front investment committed - indeed less than the 'drop in the ocean' that Graham Barr, MCT and the club labelled the previous proposal • for a larger shareholding • to then be steered by the whims of a ringer consortium - what happens as/when these 10 figures disagree amongst themselves? Who knows! • without any credible plan of moving the club forward, or indeed a coherent explanation for their interest at all There were some good reasons to be sceptical of the EFG proposal itself, as well as the sustainability of its working relationship with GMFC and MCT. You cannot possibly argue with a straight face that this is a more serious proposal. To do so is either to indulge in fantasies about the Big Business investors that don't match their stated prospectus - or is just blatant double standards.

Some laugh for McMaster to claim that he represents hard nosed decision-making, when he has been braying about some Braeside La Masia setup for donkeys' years, without any conception of how youth funding works (and therefore why GMFC gets nowhere near enough to justify his pet project). Back to the Port Juniors with yer da' please, and I don't care about your stories with 'Fergie' either.

Erm no - the Professor could have read the contents of his shopping list at the AGM and there would still have been a move to delay the vote, because certain MCT members went into the meeting absolutely determined to give their dreamboat local consortium the chance to make a (dung) offer instead. The disruptive tactics to achieve this were already taking place prior to the statement. The statement certainly made their job easier, but the prior MCT and GMFC statements about the EFG proposal were more important for that too. As for democratic rights, it is also the right of a democratic organisation to make delusional and wrong-headed decisions. And deciding to kick the can down the road - while claiming that we would then inevitably get a better offer from an EFG or dreamboat consortium bidding war - certainly looks to be dropping into that bucket.

We didn't play murderball - we actually played the ball out from under pressure quite well (a few risky but ambitious decisions when doing so). The forward players liked up well at times and Sandilands was very good. What doesn't show in the stats is the absence of a centre forward - which would have made a big difference - as well as Garrity taking a shot against the inside of the post, when having an option to square too. For once I wouldn't blame Garrity for shooting - the alternative wasn't an easy tap-in and the shot was a a few inches away from being a goal. For all the nerves and inexperience, Arbroath's only real chance in the second half was from Harrison's error at the goal, and at 10 v 10 we were still good value to hold on to our advantage. Really unimpressed with Arbroath over both games, but we would need an Imrie-style run to have us seriously looking at overtaking them. We could have a good October - but these are games that everyone else then gets to play later in this quarter of the campaign and will then push away to some degree.

In an organisation of size you're not going to be able to assert your views on who is and isn't working alongside you. If you have a line manager or boss, they're going to file your objections about the snake over there in the bin where it belongs. Same thing applies to a first team squad and coaches. No MCT director is in a position to determine who their colleagues will be.