Digs

You’re missing the entire point of what I said. I can’t make it any clearer than I already have.

I take it you didn't read the rest of the sentence then? He literally did that in his interview last week. Spoke about their mistakes and things they got wrong, which he'd be an absolute idiot to try and deny but then still try and protect the players by saying there were other things to take into consideration.

I said on another thread, I think too much is being read into it. Players are brought up to look at their own performances and that of their team and will always put their hands up when well beaten, even if for no other reason than to respect their fellow pros who beat them. Managers are always going to try and least protect the players as much as they realistically can and so will mention extenuating circumstances, and caveats to mitigate the things they are admitting the team got wrong. It's just the way things are. I don't think it was a genuinely direct contradiction at all.

Watson's comments were definitely at odds with his managers but I don't think there was anything sinister in it, he just offered an opinion as a player and players are conditioned to look within themselves after a defeat whereas a manager will always look for ways to cover the deficiencies of his players/team, that's why it looked contradictory but I wouldn't go as far as saying he's lost the dressing room. Yet. He might however if he keeps making baffling decisions about the players he's leaving out though. Comrie I kind of get as he'd clearly had a few sleepless nights having had his first kid, we've all been there, but if he's making himself available he should trust the player and he should be first name on the team sheet for many. Wighton was our best forward player last year and he can't get in the team? We'll never know but IMO he would have buried at least one of the three great chances Todorov had on Saturday as contrary to what Grant seems to believe, he's the best finisher at the club, not O'Hara. He needs to get a formation that works to get his best 11 players on the park, it's really as simple as that. Constant chopping and changing to suit formations designed to combat opposition is a load of pish at this level as players will always make mistakes and so you beat teams by making them make them. No disrespect to Arbroath or Dick Campbell, but especially when it's teams like Arbroath who we should be looking to beat at home no matter how they set up with the players we have versus theirs. Any team that sets themselves up first and foremost as being 'hard to beat' are essentially admitting they don't have the capability to take the game to you and so are making up for it in other ways. We saw that last week. Yes, we got well beaten, but they sat in and hit on the break and frustrated us. We gave the ball away, we were pedestrian rather than high tempo switching the ball to get them moving, and yet we still created at least 5 good chances that I counted. The reason we lost was down to how much we let them dictate the pace and format of the game and that was down to not getting the ball down and getting at them from all angles, instead opting to slowly bang our head against a brick wall doing the same thing, over and over again. I'm no tactical genius, but I sat behind Peter Grant last week so had the exact same view as him, if I could see it, why couldn't he? Inability, or just plain stubbornness?

No-one can say with any certainty how the players will be. Some will feel no ill-effects, some might, hopefully none do. The thing they have on their side versus most of us and your colleague is age and fitness. As fit as your colleague no doubt is, he wasn't fit enough to play professional football, these guys lung capacities will far outstrip most people in the street. It is absolutely horrible and we all know more than one person who had it drag on and on or create new issues for them that they never had previously. This is why we don't know how many of them have it or who's got it as the club clearly, quite rightly, deem it to be no-ones business but the players themselves, it's not an injury, it's a health issue which is a private matter. All this talk of there being 'something not right' because we've postponed a game I've seen elsewhere is nonsense. In relation to Grant, it absolutely makes his already tough job harder...

It will be Griffiths plus cash but I don't think it would reduce the amount significantly. Say for arguments sake, Nisbet is valued at £3m by Hibs, Griffiths isn't going to take £1.5m off that value by being included I wouldn't have thought. Even if it was, it would still be worth close to £450k to us if sell on percentage are to be believed. Hibs will want to make as much as possible to replace him as well, knowing how much they will be due us, so I can't see them rolling over just to get Griffiths, as he would be a gamble in regards to fitness etc IMO.

He certainly did, as Zanetti appeared to faint and collapse any time he was in his vicinity…

Hands up if you were an eejit who booked tickets in the home end when the away end wasn't working? 🙋‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂 Getting a refund and told to just go and book again. Tried that, it wouldn't work - Just kept saying 'You've tried to add more than your allocation to your basket' no matter how many tickets I requested. I tried, Chrome, Edge, Chrome on my phone, and even tried it on my sons laptop. No dice. Eventually got back through on the phone and did it over the phone. Someone is definitely trying to tell me not to go to this game...

I'm happy for my centre backs to be able to pick a pass into midfield or wide, but as you say, a CB's job, first and foremost, is to win their headers, win their tackles and play it easy. They can't all be John Terry or Alan Hansen stepping into midfield. I'd rather our centre mids dropped back in to proactively take the ball from them. It makes for a much more joined up unit, in terms of playing through the lines and keeping the lines tight as well.

I'm not convinced he knows what his strongest team is yet either, and his preferred back line is a big part of that. He does need to determine that soon though. I'm surprised big Vytas isn't getting much of a look in. Every game I've seen him he looks at least as solid, if not better than what we have. He's not perfect, but a lot more steady than some of the young boys, he's got international experience, that must count for something surely?

The knicker-wetters need to get a grip. It's two games into the season ffs.

I wish I could predict my coupons like this…

Not for me. He hardly set the heather on fire at Hamilton either with only 2 goals. His wee brother is a better player.

I'm hopeful as he seems to have us playing forward thinking football, with wingers, so it should be decent to watch but I can't shake the feeling we started well last year and this year will be no different with soft goals being our achilles heel and we do well to finish in the playoffs. I'd be delighted to be wrong.

All good mate, it’s been a rollercoaster year!

It would. I knew bits and bobs, and I’ve forgotten most of it tbh and there’s plenty more who know more than me but some of the stuff that was going on would make your hair curl. I often wonder if it was just ignorance, blind stubbornness to look reality in the face out of self preservation of positions within the club or just that people were totally hoodwinked by Masterton, (it’s probably a mix in reality) that made them so vociferous in their opposition to those who stood up and fought back. One day, the full story will come out and those who treated some people so badly will hopefully at least have a degree of regret.

I'm back after a hiatus of over a year I think(?) Not been anywhere near dotnet or here due to life getting in the way tbh. I will be posting more from now on though.

Aye, all to save his pension as it ultimately turned out...

I think I must have been there then, as I was at a couple at Vine church, the EEP one, and the Carnegie Hall one. I remember a few folk (who later saw the light after being told what was REALLY going on) really being vociferous about supporting it, some of them volunteer regularly at EEP now. I don't blame them at all for that though, the propaganda machine was in full flow at the time, and I remember being in that minority on dotnet, mainly defending others, who had had the temerity to speak out. Arguing with people who had no idea of the scale of what was going on who were accusing the dissenters of being the ones causing the trouble. Ironically, some of those, having appeared to have come round to the new regime, are now some of the loudest critics of how things are going on the park and seem to have completely forgotten the absolute state the club was in only a few years ago. None of these people got off their backside and did anything to save 'their club' that they love to bang on about.

That was the very first one I think.

I don't know if there was more than one, but the one I attended there was a joke. Masterton got himself tied in knots and one guy (Colin Maguire's dad I think) tore him up for ar** paper. Masterton patronised him in the beginning when he asked a question but he knew exactly what he was talking about (when Masterton clearly didn't and didn't expect the response) and pointed out their proposal was actually illegal. I've never seen a self own in real life like it before, it was beautiful. I don't remember a vote that night but my memory is terrible. I would say though the atmosphere was not good and I'd be surprised if anyone had voted for it. Bob Purvis standing shouting at us telling us to hand over the £7k for the gas bill was cringeworthy. I felt sorry for him in the end as he had clearly been sold a pup by Masterton too.

I've never been to one because they are always pretty much on a Thursday, and I can't do Thursdays, so I think something like alternating the days might help a little. Being honest, I've got something on most nights but there must be other people like me who have never been due to the day it's on.