Alibi

Our away game against Ayr will be rescheduled as we have a quarter final that weekend. Or if Ayr beat Therangers we might be playing them anyway but in a different competition. Could this be our year?

What a result! Played them off the park and Mullen dealt with everything. Would have saved the goal if it hadn’t deflected off Baird. Oakley superb as was Robbie. No failures in that team tonight and what a shift they put in. I had money on 3-1 and thought McGrattan was going to get a third but through to the quarters is the main thing. Magnificent.

The cowshed is under cover. Why then is the capacity reduced because of rain? Is that stipulated in the safety certificate for the ground? What happens if it's dry at kick off time and then the rain comes on?

How are they intending to deal with folk who don't follow every social media post from the club? I'm guessing that they will in fact open the ticket office rather than have loads of folk milling around in Sinclair Street in a poisonous mood because they can't get a ticket. That statement looks to me as if they are trying to maximise the number of online tickets sold, which is perfectly reasonable, and at the last minute they will actually have staff in situ to sell paper tickets to walk-up supporters. Not to do so would be daft.

I don’t think Dougie is going to walk away from a project that is not completed. Obviously money talks, but so does job satisfaction. Eventually he will move on, but I’d like to think he would want to have a real crack at promotion and with our current squad and the way we are playing, next season is currently looking bright: possibly even this season via the playoffs. If we were to go up this season, it would likely be at the expense of Ross County. I can’t see Dougie walking away from a team that had reached the top tier, not immediately anyway. Once he had top league experience, he’d be on the radar of some bigger clubs and likely would move on Let’s just enjoy his time here for as long as we have him. He’s a breath of fresh air and without a doubt the best manager we’ve had since at least Benny Rooney.

Ross County in their current predicament aren't really a step up from a resurgent Morton. I would hope Dougie would get us promoted next season, or even this season with a playoff win against, em... Ross County.

That's a find. Never knew it existed.

When I saw that our centrebacks had each scored twice, I assumed they would probably be headers. Surprised to see all the goals were shots. Astonishing to have defenders pouncing on half chances like that. I hope Imrie is trying to get Oakley on an extended contract. Crawford too, and others. Maybe too late this season to take the title but we must be a good bet for a playoff spot and good chance at promotion if we maintain this form.

That’s another monkey off our backs this season. Five now! Wow.

Yes, in 2017. About a day before we would have been a full year undefeated at home.

I'm sure Mary will be praying for him as he plies his trade in league 1 next season.

Been saying that for ages. Don't really need the perspex windows. Might need a horizontal rail along the top of the remaining blockwork though, to act as a horizontal support rail as the remaining blockwork will become a freestanding wall whereas at the moment it might be propped at the top by the roof structure. Simple and cheap change that would make a huge difference.

Xavi leaving Barca at the end of the season. Thank goodness we got Dougie’s contract extended.

Mediocre performance until we got the second, then we seemed to relax and play football. The long ball stuff is turgid for the most part. We are better than that. Wait till these young players fet a bit more experience and we will be a very good team.

Hard to tell from that photo but looks to me as if you could form a small platform where the tunnel is. The main roof support columns actually seem to be slightly behind the perimeter wall, albeit maybe less than a metre. Looks as if you could maybe have a freestanding platform over the tunnel, extending out to about the front boundary wall, and that would allow a camera to be positioned far enough forward that you could (just) see along the touchline without obstruction. Ideally without a cameraman but would need to actually go there and see if there are any problems with that. Looks feasible at least.

Could be located above the dugouts or even just in front of the directors box. Not a lot of structure needed for that and could probably be done without getting in anybody's way. Don't need to rely on the dugout structure itself to support a camera.

It was looked at a few years ago and it's not really feasible. IIRC one of the main problems was that safe access has to be provided - you can't just have a scaffolding and a ladder, and the roof structre and supporting columns probably don't have the strength. If we had a modern cantilever roof over the cowshed area, you could have the cameras at the rear and get a clear view of the pitch but with the posts in place the camera position needs to be forward of them or at worst about in line with them so that they can see the corner flags and the entire pitch without a post getting in the road when they pan round. FWIW in my opinion the best place currently to site a camera would be in the middle of the directos' box, but set far enough forward to get in front of the posts (which in the main stand are I think right at the front rather than being set back as in the Cowshed. Do they actually need to have someone standing there working the camera? Surely they could be controlled remotely? in which case they could be mounted on one of the posts and at a higher level.

Look, I don’t have a dog in this fight but can you just stop clogging up this forum with self-indulgent psychobabble. You’re entitled to your opinion of course, but frankly it’s getting beyond boring. Stop digging. For the record, my degree is in civil engineering, although I did do a year of psychology at one point in my first degree course (mainly because it was 95% female students and I was about 19 at the time ).

Winnable tie. They’re shite. We are better than last time we played them and it’s at home.

A post came up on my Twitter/X feed about some wee Partick neds bravely stealing a drum from a young Ross County supporter at Dingwall yesterday. I didn’t realise that the media luvvies had “ultras”, which I assume means they put low calorie sweetener in their skinny lattes or something like that. However what caught my eye was a poster called Manpreet, whose name was familiar from a few years ago. Did he not get charged with something relating to football? Seems to think Morton are a bunch of dirty cloggers but perfectly happy to have Brian Graham in their own squad. The very reason they title themselves “Thistle” is because they’re pricks.

I thought Jai was anonymous. Clearly nowhere near match fit. A fit Jai would have motored away from these defenders. Needs a bit longer to get fully fit by the look of it. Was a bit of a sluggish performance but got the job done. The young subs looked lively and we looked more energetic. Wilson is pretty good but has a tendency to pass backwards which breaks up our attacking pressure. Not a great game to watch and prefer when we press higher.

Is this game likely to go ahead?

If you're 69 now, in 1992 you would be 37 or thereabouts (depending on when you birthday is). Just think, you could have been making your professional debut when you were almost as old as Kirk Broadfoot.

Looking at the highlights, I was struck by how successfully we are using Mullen's kicking ability. The first goal was an assist from Garrity but he initially got the ball from a long kick out by Mullen; the third goal was the very definition of route 1, with Mullen launching a superb clearance that Oakley made the most of. Mullen seems to be able to launch the ball in a low flat trajectory that makes it more difficult for defenders to deal with than is the case with a high looping clearance. The defenders don't have time to position themselves for a header. Seems to be a fairly effective tactic for us.

Your first sentence defies logic. If you are 69, not 60, that would imply that you would have gone through the stages of your football career earlier, not later. Interesting story though.