Goggles & Flippers

Long can’t complain, Cole has been banging them in and Tony Watt’s workrate and holding the ball up can’t be faulted. If Long wants to stay on he has to outperform them and he hasn’t. These guys all need the smelling salts wafted under their noses. Totally up for informing the SPFL we’ve had a rogue outbreak of the Covvy D in the last 5 mins ..... at least -3 goals don’t affect our GD.

Overlooked it, thanks for the summary Andy, really insightful. The one thing that has struck me about Alexander since starting other than his stoic ability to not feel the cold is how well and erudite he is. I feel his interviews are honest trying to avoid the usual cliches and he comes across as a really stable person at the wheel. His knowledge of the lower English leagues will useful come the summer and I'm glad he recognises the squad is bloated but to be fair Stevie Wonder could tel you that. It feels like we had our golden era of youth development come through with Scott, Turnbull, Campbell and Hastie (don't put him in the same bracket but he earned us 400k for 10 games worth of above average performances). Combined they will earn us £5m plus sell ons. I don't see the same strength coming through but I don't see the youth side of things as much as Onthefringes or Postiejim do, maybe they can shed some light. I accept Turnbull like McFadden is a 1:15/20 year diamond. Overall very encouraged and I hope the business in the summer is more astute than last years. In the meantime while we don't have the fear of relegation totally out of sight, top 6 is definitely possible. After the season we've had, to get to mid April and regardless of the next 5 games be safe would be a nice relief and much more than many predicted in deepest December.

Not fully true, yes the collapse in 2008/9 had a major factor but a lot of the delay happened before that, cynically and purposefully by those you'd maybe be surprised to hear about. The access road that links Carfin and Flemington was completed about 2001. This was to kickstart the major development of the site. However over the water, South Lanarkshire Council liked the fact that so many people from North Lanarkshire visited its retail centres in Hamilton and EK. When you think of North Lanarkshire's shopping options its really only Cumbernauld and a handful of town centres all made up of pound shops, bookies, tanning salons and take aways. Glasgow and SLC have always benefited from the 340k who live in NL. They were concerned they would be a financial loss from business rates and revenues if Ravenscraig had a development to rival them. I'm guessing if you can attract a few impressive anchor stores, the space and free parking similar to the Fort would be attractive over Hamilton & EK's paid parking. However SLC couldn't be seen to throw a spanner in the works of a fellow Labour run council, so employed their mall owners (Norwich Union > CGNU > which become Aviva, I may be wrong here, it is 20 years ago) to do their bidding act as a proxy for them and lodge an issue. They cited central government legislation that town centres has to be improved first over any new developments. In theory this makes sense, to ensure our towns retain their core but in practice NLC had no interest in Brandon Parade, they had a shiney new sandpit with an access road to play in. However the legal action did what it was designed to techniques like filing new documents or asking for adjournments to review, it kicked the ball into the long grass by delaying. If it cost them 200k in legal fees and in the intervening time they made 500k in additional revenues from NL based residents spending money in SL, then it was worth it. The thing with this cynical technique is there will always be outside forces so quite often a year of two in the courts may snowball into 10 years behind where things were envisaged. In Ravenscraig's case it was the 2008/09 crash and belt tightening/austerity that came off the back of it and its probably 15 years behind. The meagre investment made by SLC via their proxy in the early 2000's has turned out to have paid off handsomely. If you'd said in 2001 that in 20 years time, you'd have a college, sports facility, budget hotel and pub and houses on 5% of the footprint you'd have been laughed at as being outrageously pessimistic. However that is the reality.

Eyes are bleeding after that. I’ve not seen a more disjointed woeful display in a long time which if we repeat we’ll get humped. Considering this is the 3-0 awarded game it was beautiful to watch as they will be sick. Looking forward to the rodent shagger popping up on here.

As were a team of two halves I’m looking forward to ‘46 onwards. Collum has no consistency in application of the rules. I’m also still not convinced by these by kicks with the two centre halves standing on the 6 yard line. Puts us under a lot of pressure for no discernible gain

I was led to believe that it was recreational and that was pretty much fixed because the council wanted a line drawn in the sand and not open to appeals and litigation and have degree of finality to decision making. I don't know enough about local government but you'd think they'd be all over a Ravenscraig move to add to the site as a marquee development. I've just found this. It seems Brandon Parade is gonna get bulldozed. The tower in the middle of it and the Aquatec. However I'm reluctant to let a Labour led council spend our money as they managed to knock down a historic baths and replace with a white elephant that has lasted 30 years and put up a red metal tree that cost 10k back in the early 90's. http://www.ironsidefarrar.com/nlc/motherwell-town-vision.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0CrCFSCC0HkJS64d6gBX4YhNfTlLN0EwPN4sl79kx1N2yEnyn-Y3w0QVc

Whatever it is you'd probably write in to complain like Mary Whitehouse. Sounds like the improvements as substantial and potentially unavoidable. It's a shame if a move is in our future that those funds couldn't go into that. However it is far enough away in the future that it can't be considered presently. The main issue we have with FP is the zoning. It is designated as recreational and MDC or NLC as it became wrote it in stone that the defined zoning (as of a certain date) couldn't be changed. There is means get about that but it would be time consuming and costly. But Donald Trump got a golf course on a nature reserve. You'd maybe think a supermarket would be interested but it doesn't offer what Accies and Broomfield offered in terms of space around them and in Airdrie's case proximity to the existing town centre. Residential is probably the best bet to get approved.

Robson out! Fuck his 2 cup finals and 3rd place finish!

Tyler Magloire who we signed from Blackburn. I couldn't think what his surname was and I couldn't be arsed to go and find it but thanks . . . . you made me do it

I agree. However if he does a Declan when he was at Livi and signs for another club before the Euro's as his employer aren't they due it? I thought it was 8k per day, is it from the tournament starts? until elimination? Guaranteed a fortnight (God forbid we get to the knockout stages) or from when the squad reports.

Their website says 6 month loan, no options ..... Outstanding Only mention him playing in England the chip and mayonnaise quaffing pricks.

I think Hornby and Tyler will be the two revelations in the SPFL of this window.

The "substantial bids" chat regarding Campbell is smoke and mirrors I suspect. As a youth academy starlet and his age means that even if he goes for free in the summer as he is out of contract we get a development fee. The base line for that is £400k. Therefore I can only imagine that the bids we received were short of that figure as I'm sure we attach value of having him to May so to get him now, I reckon the club would have been looking at £500-600k as what do we have to gain by letting him go for any less than we're guaranteed?

It could be argued if we exhumed Stephen Hawking's corpse and put goalie gloves on it we'd be in a stronger position

Lennon is away out to buy Jim Hamilton then

I don't think it is encouraging when fans at his previous club respond in the same way we did with the move of White to Ross County.

Robinson's downfall is he padded the team out with mediocrity that on paper flattered. It appears Alexander is following that model by adding to an already bloated squad. I hope to be proven wrong. The only player out so far is White. Which confirms what we all know, too few are attractive to potential suitors. It appears theres a few in that squad who know they'd not realise the wages elsewhere or have a desire to play regularly so willing to ride out their contracts.

I take we should have a more content dressing room than has been reported. So far all the January deals I imagine were players on the radar before Alexander got the gig. The keeper, Lawless and Foley I imagine were new names to him when they were presented and sold as options however he must have had final say. Only Crawford, through exposure over the past 4 weeks, has earned the nod as a direct result of interaction and assessment. So we have yet to see players he has identified which was no doubt seen as part of his attraction when appointed. The night is still young as they say ..... I hope the lack of interaction with the academy players as alluded by Onthefringes has been remedied.

Our loanee striker could/should take note of Tont Watt. Granted he's only here for the short term but he could learn a lot by emulating the work effort of a guy busting his box in up until he was subbed. The big fella ambling about despite being fresh on the pitch while Tony is sprinting to close the angle on the far side of the pitch for their full back I hope draws the attention of the gaffer in the post match analysis. Cole is 3 from 4 games, those are Louis at his peak numbers ...... Glad to see the fringe guys take their chances.

Over a decade ago he was on the verge of the Scotland gig ........ "Mark, collect in the dilts and bibs will ya"

Right boys just pretend we’re still 1-0 down and play like it

Our record coming from behind is woeful of late so at present you’re thinking a draw would be a result. Certainly we were in the ascendency in that half till the goal took the wind out our sails. It also appears the big blonde hatchet man will only get a booking if there’s blood drawn. Yet again inconsistent refereeing.

33/1 chance its the racecourse

Hiya pal

Lamie ..... playing out of position ...... would be an improvement