Cet Homme Charmant

Bit of a back story. The last games before Belgian Jupiler league split were played last weekend. My local team were sitting 4th from bottom, in a relegation group place. To leapfrog Charleroi on goal difference and into safety, Charleroi had to lose and Leuven had to win their respective final games. While Charleroi were being routinely pumped 5-0 at Gent, Leuven were still deadlocked 0-0 at home to Mechelen, deep into the 2 minutes of added time. With only 10 seconds left on the clock, the keeper launched a counter attack from which Nsingi scores a wonder goal that hits the back of the net on exactly 92:00. Cue absolute scenes!

OK, cool

The referendum was 10 years ago, you won, and yet you're still gloating. Your obsession about this is a bit weird, to be honest.

For me it's probably a combination of disillusionment after losing the independence referendum, the subsequent UK political events described above, and the fact I've now lived almost half my life outside Scotland.

MODS! Wrong. They're called Partick. Always have been, always will be.

'Brian Graham was given his marching orders for a despicable gesture towards the Morton support, who had merely shown concern for his wellbeing following an uncharacteristically quiet performance, for which he had been substituted'. Hahaha!

OK, I'll give you the bite you've been desperately seeking for months For me personally, I supported independence solely because I believed at the time of the referendum, and still do, that Scotland would be a more prosperous and equitable country if it made its own decisions and controlled its own destiny. My support for the SNP was solely because they were the party most likely to deliver that. Of course, Scotland made a different choice, and while I accept it and I've completely reconciled myself to it, it's led me to gradually lose my emotional attachment for the old place. This has been compounded by the subsequent Brexit/May/Johnson/Truss/Sunak years*, to the extent that the only real emotional attachment I still have for Scotland is the mighty Ton. I've moved on from 2014 and I've now got Belgian/EU citizenship, and I don't really think of myself as being 'Scottish' anymore. Regarding the current situation with the SNP, I honestly can't comment because, for the reasons I described above, I've lost all interest in Scottish & UK politics. But I assume from your obvious excitement that they're not doing so good these days and are likely to lose power in the next Scottish General Election, which is not really that surprising after 17+ years in power. Like the mighty Ton's great run, it's inevitable it will come to an end at some point. It's actually pretty remarkable that in a PR voting system they've managed to hold on to power this long. Anyway, I'll leave you to go back to your gloating. Enjoy! *those who say 'but Scotland never voted for any of these' are wrong, because implicitly it did when it voted to remain shackled to Westminster.

Proper boot in the haw-maws last night, losing a goal so late in the game after playing so well. Having slept on in though I'm a bit more philosophical about it now. All said and done it was a very decent cup run, and while it's obviously disappointing for it to come to an end, at least we went out fighting and with our heads held high. Every player gave their all and did the club and themselves proud, and you can't really ask for any more than that. On another night we could have nicked it, but it wasn't to be. On the positive side, we can now focus 100% getting into the playoffs. If we can get Oakley and Wilson back and fit, we're surely in with a right good shout. And considering the first tie will in all probability be against plucky wee Partick, it's something to relish. All to play for!

Get yersel tae fuck

Why are the trains off?

Seems to be correct https://www.transfermarkt.com/scottish-championship/fairnesstabelle/wettbewerb/SC2

Yeah, and by the same token, do you remember Frankie Dean who had some on here blinded by their own tears and snotters when Dougie didn't offer him a contract last summer? Same story with Reece Lyon who also had some bumping their gums when he was released. Both decisions have, thus far at least, been fully vindicated. Logan is a great prospect for sure, and he did take his goal very nicely. If he works hard and realises his full potential, I'm sure he'll have a decent career in the game. But it was against an already demoralised and knackered Lowland League side who were too fucked to be able to put in even half a challenge. It's unlikely he'd get that amount of time and space inside the box in the Championship. So that goal is not indication in itself that he's ready yet for the Championship (if that's indeed what you're suggesting). I think that based on his long career as a professional footballer and now over 2 years managerial experience, we can safely assume that Dougie has accumulated far more football knowledge than any of us (except of course for Eredevisie superstar DOT). And he works with these guys every day on the training pitch and therefore knows their individual strengths and weakness in detail. So based on that, and the fact that his calls on players he's released have been pretty much 100% correct, I'm more than happy to trust his team selection judgements. He'll not get every decision right of course, but the evidence is clear that he gets far more of them right than wrong.

That's pish poor. There can be a multitude of perfectly valid reasons for arriving late, especially if travelling a distance, so to have a blanket rule like that with no exceptions irrespective of the circumstances, is shite in the extreme.

Obviously your view was much better than mine from the couch, but if it was so blatant it should have been a booking. It's one or the other.

Every time you think the standard can't get any lower, the next game proves you wrong again

That looked like a stonewall penalty on the live stream

Since scoring 2 goals in the first 10 minutes against Ardrie, that's now 305 minutes without a goal.

We did miss a glaring opportunity early on when their keeper dropped a long throw-in and Jai (I think) didn't get on the end of what looked like a tap-in. After that though, hee-haw. It's worrying how much weaker we are without Oakley.

Hahahahaha! I suppose the mere fact we're reacting to his desperate attention seeking will bring a little joy to his mundane existence.

Deary me. Proof, if ever it was needed, that DOT's a wrong 'un. I wonder if by 'horrible so-called fans' he means those that post disgusting hate-filled rants about Dougie when pished?

So is Kirkcaldy though, and it's obviously not having a huge impact on Raith. Inverclyde has been relatively deprived as long as I can remember, even when we were pulling in decent crowds in the late 70s/early80s and early 2000s. I think a bigger factor is depopulation. The current population of Inverclyde is around 75000, whereas 30 years ago it was over 100000. That's a huge reduction in the potential fanbase..

It seems obvious that we should be prioritising the resigning now of those players who could potentially make the step-up to Premiership level and whose contracts expire in the summer. This would either improve our chances of survival if we do get promoted, or strengthen our promotion challenge next season. On the face of it, it's a no-brainer. In reality though, actually achieving that's going to be extremely difficult if not impossible. If we were to offer new contracts now it would obviously have to be on our Championship level budget. But why would they sign a Championship budget contract with us now if there's a possibility of getting a better contract offer in the summer, either from us if we do win promotion and increase our budget accordingly, or from another club with a bigger budget? No harm in trying I suppose, but I would be very pleasantly surprised of any of the guys mentioned above resign for us before the end of the season.

I still don't think he's fully match fit either, but on Saturday you could see he was getting there. He did show a very decent burst of pace in the excellent build-up play and cross for the first goal.

Dougie just has class oozing out of him. Unlike just about every manager in the league he can still find some humility and respect for the opponent. Top bloke.