MJC

I quite like the League Cup Group Stages as a ‘pre-season’. Obviously it helps matters when we actually take it seriously and not half arse it against our local rivals like we did last year but it’s usually a good start to the season and has some meaning to it. If I’m being honest I’m not overly fussed about us playing in Europe as all it amounts to is two, maybe four games at the start of a season and a seeded spot in the LC16 draw which inevitably lands us the most difficult draw we could get against another top flight side. However obviously for the club playing European football is massive.

I think we might just get something from this. I can see this being a crazy score line in an end to end game. 4-4 with us scoring a last minute equaliser and Rangers raging.

Shaun Maloney has left Hibs

I can’t say I’ve ever noticed an obsession of us from either of them. The other way around, most definitely, but we are not unique in that regard. There have been periods where there has been a bit more needle between us and one of them, for example Skippy Sunday with Celtic and the whole episode of John Boyle asking us to give the Cooper Stand to them just before that game, there was definitely a bit more raised tension between the clubs at that time. The same with Rangers and the playoffs and the LCSF where Ryan Bowman broke one of their players noses and they got quite upset about it for a while. Apart from that I’ve never noticed much in the way of an obsession with us from either of them.

Big brave men kicking off with women and young families. Liberty taking cowards. No doubt the same mob of wee fannies who spray painted the walls around FP late at night last season before a closed doors game between the sides the next day.

Historically Hearts have dominated that derby. Indeed I believe they actually have won more Edinburgh derbies at Easter Road than Hibs have! It was also mentioned today that Hibs have never beaten Hearts at Hampden and that includes a 5-1 thumping against them in the final 10 years ago. That has got to be some level of torment if you’re a Hibs fan.

No sympathy with Hibs, or Maloney (his dive against us in 2001 to win Celtic a last minute penalty still irks me). The Edinburgh derby must be one of the most one sided derbies in world football. Hearts well and truly have Hibs number.

Wouldn’t have a problem with this if I’m honest. As long as the club have been approached and involved in the relevant discussions and are okay with it then it makes no difference moving it to the Saturday.

Yes all the best to Keith Lasley. A proper ‘club man’ and deserving of the ‘legend’ status given to him by so many.

It’d say it’s highly unlikely that Rangers will win the EL, if anything they’ll be lucky to reach the Final as they are easily the weakest side left in that tournament. That said it’s going to be amusing over the next few weeks watching the amount of folk shitting their breeks at the very thought of them being in with a chance of winning it.

Magloire? Let’s hope that that’s Daily Record lazy journalism in play there. If we are genuinely looking to sign him again then there really is no hope for this manager.

I know Van der Gaag was heavily linked with the job in the media and with the bookies at the time Baraclough got it, but was he actually seriously in the running for it? Was he even interviewed for it?

My views exactly. As Ian McCall said of his team last night even though they’d won “we were dugmeat” and have been dugmeat for most of the season and regardless of today and whatever happens in the last five games, Graham Alexander needs to go. However, that’s for another day. Today was massive for us and a top six finish, regardless of how it was achieved is important for the club, both on and off the park.

No more or no less ridiculous than the post he was quoting to be fair. Motherwell fans giving the GIRUY to other Motherwell fans is pathetic.

Perhaps although maybe it can be argued that Livingston deserved it more. But it’s irrelevant whether we deserve it or not, the only thing that matters is we got it, somehow. I think that was hugely important to us as had we lost and finished bottom six then the season would be as good as over and the crowds would have dwindled badly for the last five games. As it is we actually have something to play for now which is great. I make it that we should be at home to Hearts, Rangers and Dundee Utd and away to Celtic and Ross County?

Well, we don’t deserve that….but I’ll take it. It’s utterly incredible how poor we’ve been yet not only are we top six we actually have a chance of qualifying for Europe!

True McCall was a good guy to have around the club and in the dressing room and he was clearly very popular with the players and staff. As a manager though he was very one dimensional and couldn’t get the players to raise their game which cost us time and again in big Cup ties. He carried on that tradition against us in the playoff and I’ll forever be thankful that he was in Rangers dugout and not ours for those games as there was no way we were winning them with him in charge. He would have had us beat before a ball was kicked, just like he did in that 2012 League Cup debacle. Obviously the league performances and high placed finishes in McCall’s tenure were great, but he did benefit greatly from having one of if not the best group of players outside Celtic in the league at the time.

I really enjoyed Robinson’s first full season with us. Two Cup runs with some big wins in both and a team that although not easy on the eye was competitive and actually looked like they enjoyed playing for us. Like McCall he stayed on too long, he should probably have moved on in summer 2019. McCall did well for us with a much better set of players but was a complete bottle merchant in big games and a poor coach.

Fancy a draw on Saturday. 1-1

Well I never! A win AND an enjoyable game. Brilliant stuff. See what happens when you play your best players eh?

Slattery actually starts today!

We won’t be relegated this season. As poor as we have been/are we are not going to lose every single game between now and the end of the season and St.Johnstone & Dundee aren’t suddenly going to go on a crazy winning run either. It might be a bit less comfortable than we’d like for a couple of weeks and it certainly wont be pretty viewing but we’ll be fine.

2-1 to us, based on nothing more than optimism. One of those games where we go 2-0 up then concede meaning it’s a nerve racking last 20-30 mins. But this time we’ll see it out. Hopefully.

Davie Cooper’s anniversary today, 27 years. RIP

Mmm, I’m not even convinced that that would happen. If we managed to scrape into the top six then that would almost certainly ensure a ‘6th placed’ finish with two pumpings off both halves of the OF, one point(if we’re lucky) against the Edinburgh sides and more awful, eye bleeding football. Football is meant to be an entertainment business and we offer absolutely nothing in that department. The grumbling of the fans both at the ground and online over the past few months would suggest that the support as a whole are absolutely scunnered with the fare on show.