EanieMeany

This is a thing in itself. Each game at the World Cup has at least 8 officials involved, so the fact there’s no Scottish ones there seems rather revealing.

We should just use that strip as our away one for all eternity tbh.

Griffiths is to all intents and purposes an ex-footballer. I’d be stunned if a team with its sights on the title and which is so massively built upon the group rather than individuals would go near him when nobody else has after so long. There’s some players who reach the end of their careers and can plod along doing a job on the strength of their natural talent alone, but I just don’t see Griffiths as one of them even if you were to get past everything else. Gary O’Connor, for example, was a pretty extreme case of a player being out of shape, but even at that he still showed some moments of sublime quality and hypothetically could still have been useful to somebody if he was even a wee bit lighter due to the inherent talent he possessed; there’s probably a number of other examples who’ve proven useful on that basis, but he’s an obvious one in our context. I guess you could apply this to Peter Weatherson to an extent, although in a different way. Griffiths, though, is not somebody I could really see having that bit of class to fall back on, that ability to still produce something special in a key moment. That kind of thing won’t just disappear, and if he had that capacity his last few years likely wouldn’t have been quite so awful. He dug his own grave long ago and it’d be very surprising indeed if we were to go near him. There’s got to be better options for a team in our position.

Fuckin boring. Obviously the potential reward is extremely high and is a silver lining but it’s just a really shite draw especially when we’re in the best shape in yonks to have done well with a slightly favourable run.

Just watching his interview from today, which reminded me of this and I agree entirely. Obviously it's all about what happens on the pitch and we could be here all day listening the multitude of things he's done there, but even listening to him speak is remarkable. From his very first interview upon getting the job he went a good way to turning the mood around the club around, and there's such a clarity and intelligence in how he discusses games too - always stressing the expectations he has, turning any negatives in to motivation, balancing praise etc, as well as being able to clearly identify why things go wrong and the like. It must be a genuine joy to play under him, and you can see as much when you watch us. As for the bit in bold, I wholeheartedly agree. Obviously things can change overnight in football and it's still early in his career, but as it stands I think it's very, very likely indeed that Dougie could end up with the national team job given what he's demonstrated so far. I've said this many times before, and will say it again: we are so, so fuckin lucky to have him. He's the best thing that's happened to this club in decades.

Unfortunately didn't make the game, but that's a very convincing win against a team that could have been capable of causing us a lot of problems. Whilst "nobody will want to come here", "tough place to go" etc are well-worn clichés in football, and cups in particular, I'd imagine it'll be very much the case with us. Whilst we've always been a tough proposition at home under Dougie, we've came on leaps and bounds over the last few months and are now a genuinely very good team beyond just making life difficult for opponents. If we were to get a home draw in the next round, there won't be a team in the country* who won't be worried about it and there's not a team we shouldn't fancy our chances against either. I doubt most teams would be particularly relaxed about getting us at their place either, for that matter. *If a team with Jonathan Page and Tony Wallace can beat Celtic at Parkhead, just think what kind of humiliation the Imrie juggernaut would inflict upon them. ETA: Great to hear Dougie talking about wanting a home tie too. Always frustrates me when you hear people going on about wanting Rangers or Celtic away in a cup draw (was a bit disappointing to have Andy Ritchie using the prospect of drawing one of them in his wee video to promote the game, tbh) or even enthusing about getting those draws - fuck that, it's as good as writing off the idea of being in it to win it. Obviously I get the attraction etc, but a trip to one of those pair is small fry compared to the easiest route to the final as you can get especially when we're in the position we are now.

On the subject of the blackout rule, it appears the BBC showed an English FA Cup match today. Could be there's some technicality that allowed it, but if not it takes the piss more than a wee bit given our clubs weren't allowed to provide streams today. In general I don't think the rule is inherently a bad idea in terms of televised matches, but it's pretty absurd when it comes to streams at our level. https://twitter.com/grantrussell_/status/1596519664661966850?s=20&t=2C2UkYUA11Mg--4lkXYWvA

Very pleased with this, good bit of business to get him tied down.

Agreed, it really has been excellent and it seems a team effort too although Gareth who does the socials has obviously made a huge difference since taking over. It's only a small thing, but the wee video of Dougie before the Partick game really helped make me feel it was a big game, and that we're right in this league for real - again, it's a small thing, but getting those right are what really makes the difference rather than just the odd picture of ticket prices or whatever. On a slight downside, I do hope the website can get rectified at some point. It could do with a proper revamp rather than the half-arsed botch job under the previous regime.

I love Dougie as much as he loves saying “listen”

Strapp was absolutely magnificent today. You could tell from the first minute he was right up for it, and he borderline humiliated that number 11 for the entire game. It must be really difficult to play against Lewis in that form, there’s such an assurance and composure about him mixed with exceptionally well-measured aggression, it’s almost like there’s an aura around him at times and you can see opponents quickly realising they don’t fancy their chances. Some boy. We’re very fortunate to have him.

This current spell of weather we're having is fuckin great btw, ain't it. Here's hoping it deteriorates further until around 5pm tomorrow at least.

Raymond "Ray" McKinnon has been appointed as the new manager of Forfar, who currently sit bottom of the third division. Nothing against Forfar, I tended to quite enjoy the away trips up there back in the day, but it's gonnae be really fuckin funny watching that prick take a club right out the SPFL.

Think it might have been you (apologies to whoever it was if it wasn't) who tweeted about Imrie having picked up 3 awards from 6 available ones. Whilst you shouldn't necessarily put too much importance on these things, in this instance it really does illustrate just how brilliant a job he's done since arriving. Credit, too, to Andy Millen for his contribution - he gets a lot of stick at times but it's pretty clear he's bringing a lot to the table. It seems he and Dougie have formed an excellent partnership, so hats off to all the backroom team as well as those two.

Think that game summed us up, in a lot of ways. You could see our limitations and we rode our luck a bit at times…but still we managed to carve out a few opportunities and we did not lose. It sounds obvious but that last thing cannot be understated: our ability to get draws instead of defeats is massive in a league defined by “everybody can beat everybody else”. Everybody can beat everybody who isn’t Morton. Which isn’t to say we’re not also capable of convincing wins, or that we won’t lose a batch of games over the season, of course we will, but when you have the “base line” (if you will) of drawing if you can’t win, you won’t go far wrong and that today was a very good point indeed. I don't just see this as a purple patch either, we seen it last season too under Imrie, where we were regularly grinding out draws. We had that bad run that culminated at Firhill, and I don't really see that being repeated again - we will most likely go a few games without a win, maybe lose a couple in a row, that's how it goes, but if there's one thing we can be fairly certain of under Dougie, it's that he won't let standards drop.

All deceitful cowards.

Ian McCall throwing a tantrum because Ayr tweeted “good header” about an OG by a Partick player.

First league game I've been to this season, and what a performance. Lots of good things but Crawford and Gillespie are absolutely tremendous, Crawford may well be the best player we've had in a good few years and the understanding between the two is a match for anyone we're likely to come up against. Big step up in level from Grimshaw too, hadn't been sold on the idea he had came good before tonight even with a solid showing at Dens but we seen the best of him there and long may it continue. We should build a statue of Imrie now too, it's just unreal the job he's doing and is doing. We were well aware of the solidity and tenacity he's instilled (which is simplifying it) but what we're seeing now is him adding the next level on top of that going forward, some of our attacking play is really excellent and there's a real intelligence to it too. He's the best thing that's happened to this club in my lifetime and we're so, so fortunate to have him.

Dunno why anybody is even wasting time on the idea of Griffiths. If there’s a risk with Ambrose it’s simply down to it being near the end of a long career and a natural decline, but Griffiths chucked being a serious proposition as a footballer years ago. If somebody else takes a punt on him and he’s somehow able to do a job against all odds then good luck to them, but it’d be an absolute mug who would do it…what’s that, you say? Falkirk did? There you go then.

With the disclaimer that you can’t always get the full measure of things via watching the streams, I’m not really sold on the idea of Grimshaw having shown his worth either. He done well on Saturday in an unfamiliar position which was definitely encouraging from him, but as a full-back I think the jury is very much still out on whether he’s so good that he’s worth a wage to bench Pignatiello if he’s not going to take the obvious place in midfield. At the risk of splitting hairs over @dunning1874’s post about Grimshaw not putting a foot wrong, he was pretty suspect in the only real chance Hamilton had near the end of the first half in that game - only one moment, tbf, but typical of his play in previous games. As for Ambrose, it’s definitely true that the reputation he has for clangers is a bit exaggerated and also from a miles higher level against better forwards, but at the same time it’s not without merit either, and it’s also true he’s not had the best of times recently. The difference here compared to his last club though, is that he’s coming into a team with a more than competent manager who has crafted extremely solid units out of not very much, and who can find solutions to different circumstances. Look at the difference in Lithgow last season under Dougie, the transformation there was huge so you have to fancy that he’ll also be able to get the best from a significantly better player with so much experience at the top level…so long as there’s still a best to be had.

Hard to really know how this will go, but I think i’d be more content about it if it didn’t seem like Ambrose was coming in as a guaranteed started with the injuries we have as he’s not really done much of note for a while. For all he’s known for his calamities, Ambrose has had a very good career and brings a wealth of experience to a squad which has very little of it so I reckon it could work well for us. It’s a shambles that we’re in this position though, Gus being allowed to give Lithgow a 2 year deal was always likely to leave us with a dead weight this season and so it’s turned out. One year was a risk for a guy of that age and with his injury record, two was just stupidity on a par with giving the same to Gus himself.

Boring draw, but who cares if we can get similar in every round all the way to Hampden? It could be easier/more interesting, but it's one we should be winning fairly comfortably whilst maybe carrying just enough of a potential threat to focus the minds and avoid any risk of complacent creeping in...which is not a thing I'd expect from Dougie's team, to be fair, but still. Also a good few ties between lower league sides in there, so if we get through this one then I'd happily take one of those at home and hope a few more of them draw each other to be there in the next round again. If we get through this one, it could maybe allow an extra body or two to come in in January depending on how the draw goes, be it a money-spinner of some sort or one that would give us a huge chance of getting to the next round again and the increased money from that.

Just the weekly ignored handball, nothing to see here. Seriously though, it's absurd just how often clear handballs in the box get ignored against us. It feels like it happens in nearly every game and I don't think we've been given a penalty for a single one of them.

Aye, there's no question he was working within fine margins and, it seems, had the rug pulled away from under him. That doesn't necessarily mean all his choices were the wisest, but whatever we ended up with was going to be limited in some way or another and we were always going to be relying on Dougie making the most of it so little point dwelling on that and as you say, the biggest factor is the budget. Wasn't meaning to have a go at him anyway, other than as a general point about our chances with a wee bit more quality.

Dundee are rotten. I know these are a few huge "ifs" and "buts", but if Dougie had been a wee bit wiser in his signings and we actually had more than a handful of established Championship/senior footballers, we'd have had a seriously strong shot at winning this league. Everybody beats everybody else constantly, on any given weekend I'd guess that it's very rare for even 3 of the favourites to win, and yet Dougie has found a way to make us able to get draws in games other teams would lose, or indeed scrape a win instead of a draw. He's doing that with not very much at all, if you gave him just a wee bit more quality (and again, we can't overlook the fact that he's partly at fault here, but still) through the squad then there's no reason at all to think he couldn't have us in with a very, very real shot at the title. None of this is to bemoan what he's currently doing or anything, very far from it, and it's not a bad thing...quite the opposite, really. Given how this club has been for about a decade, it's fuckin great to have someone at the helm who you can believe in and who allows you to daydream a wee bit. I've said this before but under any other manager in god knows how long, our season would have finished at Firhill, and yet with Dougie it appears it may well have started there.