weeyin

Revert to old school Scottish rules where it was the home team that changed kit when there was a clash.

From memory, though, McGhee didn't have a stellar Cup record with us last time around. Still think we'll win this game, though.

Love to see a cup run this year, of course, and expect us win professionally here. Climbing up the league, however, remains the highest priority.

Another goal scoring frenzy resulting in a tight 2 - 1 for us.

Of course Accies had a couple of big scores on the youth front recently, but prior to that they were scrabbling around in the lower divisions for decades. And if they hadn't done the supermarket deal, who knows if they'd have even stayed solvent. It's a tough balancing act to bring in the youngsters and I totally understand why managers are more reluctant to throw them into a struggling team. Crags seems to be pretty honest with his assessments though, and by all accounts, he thinks there is work still to be done with a lot of the youngsters, even the ones we think are ready for the step up.I'd love to see our own talent coming through, but if we end up making money by bringing in Moults and Johnsons and selling them on, that's OK too.

Given his comments in the Times recently, it sounds like he's not even sure he'll be here after January (despite wanting to stay on). I assume that's why we brought in Samson - to step in if Ripley does head back south.

I remember struggling to a draw with Stenhousemuir at Ochil View in a Cup tie. Must have been around 1980 or 81. We cuffed them in the return game at Fir Park, though. Knocked 5 or 6 past them, I recall.

Aye the European ticket panic is all well and good, but the domestic ticket panic is our bread and butter.

Sub Editors' dream rolling out the "Captain Kidd" headlines on a regular basis.

2 goals. Let the good times roll.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that. I know what you are saying, but I'd gladly be at the game regardless of the dross or otherwise that is served up. Even during our lowest points in the first division I still enjoyed my afternoon out with my mates. Sadly, it will just be another morning keeping an eye on the Twitter feed.

The fans can't pull out their contributions and if we get relegated, we'll just need to do what every other club does and adjust the budget. The point of the Society is not to bankroll the club. The club needs to be self-sufficient regardless of who owns or runs it.

Or maybe we replace the dead wood in our squad with someone better than them and Imrie?

McGhee said Hammell and Lasley were playing in the U20s as part of their rehab. McManus isn't injured (is he?), so presumably no need for him to play.

Only if those people exist within the membership and are willing to give up their time free of charge (and don't mind being moaned at on a regular basis).

I understand his desire to try a few combinations while he gets to know the squad, but agree that needs to stop now and the focus should turn to getting a winning team on the park. We aren't top 4 contenders, but there should be enough talent in what we have to keep us out of relegation trouble. I think you might be disappointed there. The last time I heard McGhee talking about bringing in players he said he really wanted an experienced central midfielder to cover Pearson/Las and an experienced central defender to cover McManus.

Aye, that is a sure sign of a struggling team lacking confidence. Players abdicating responsibility by punting it ASAP and hoping the strikers will do something.

The rot set in after we finished second. Apart from winning a cup I'm 100% sure a lot of the players (plus the gaffer) thought - consciously or subconsciously - "there's not much better we can do here". Once that happens, it's really difficult to break out of that mindset. The greatest teams guard against that by, even when successful, bringing in 2 or 3 new players at every window. We didn't, and probably couldn't afford to. Add that to the difficulties of getting out of a losing habit - again, a thing many good teams have encountered - and it's hard to change. That's why I said at the start of the season I'd be OK with 8th or 9th this campaign, because it will take time to fix. If there was an easy way to do it, teams with much more resources than us (like a Leeds Utd, or a Nottingham Forest or, currently, an Aston Villa) would have implemented it. So what clubs end up doing is rolling the dice with a new manager and hope that is the catalyst for change. Just like success breeds success, failure breeds failure. Players lose confidence, they stop taking creative risks, they hope someone else will step up in a game, they stop anticipating opponents' moves, the hesitate for a second before shooting etc. That is really difficult to address and again, will take time. Of course, sometimes teams get lucky and the new manager goes on a tear up the league, but history shows that is the exception, not the rule.

Only if you don't understand that in a league situation sometimes your rivals play each other. Like I said above, it's way too soon in the season for me to start worrying about rival teams' results. We need to be concentrating on our own performance and where we stand at the end of the campaign. Worrying about the 'micro-positions' as it were, is a sure recipe for misery.

I'm no mathematician, but they draw, then they have both dropped 2 points. I'm not at the stage of the season where I worry about other teams, though. Just looking forward to seeing if we can improve on our last game. It was never going to be a quick fix, but feel we might get something from this game.

You do know that means at least one of them will drop something?

That is a good question. I always assumed D), but it hasn't been spelled out.

I think you're right. If we get our act together and do take over the club, I'm sure we can find qualified people like Derek Weir who'd be willing to step in. I imagine there are a number of qualified candidates who could run a football club that never fulfill that ambition because they don't have the resources available to invest that is normally required.

They took live questions first because they knew the people that emailed questions would never know if they were answered - thanks to the complete lack of access for the long distance members.

Sadly, that is true for most clubs around the globe. I was talking more about the operational side of things.