Ya Bezzer!

There are currently 25 teams that can potentially get 9 points or more. 12 of them will qualify. 8 as group leaders, 4 as runners up. 12 of the 25 also need to win their next game to be able to get or potentially get 9 points. Tuesday fixtures for these teams Peterhead v Dundee -----------would expect Dundee to win this meaning Peterhead couldn't get 9 points Stirling v Elgin -------------------difficult to call Stirling better form and at home Brechin v St. Johnstone--------would expect St. Johnstone to win this meaning Brechin couldn't get 9 points Queens Park v Airdrieonians -----difficult to call Queens Park better form and at home Motherwell v East Stirlingshire------would expect Motherwell to win this Ayr Utd v Livingston---------------------difficult to call, Ayr Utd with home advantage Albion Rovers v Clyde-----------------difficult to call, Albion Rovers with home advantage Berwick Rangers v Kilmarnock-------would expect Kilmarnock to win Edinburgh City v Hamilton--------------would expect Hamilton to win Queen of the South and St. Mirren have no fixtures on Tuesday. So I'd expect Peterhead and Brechin to be knocked out after midweek fixtures but that doesn't narrow it down much. Look further ahead.. Group A - Would expect Dundee and East Fife to qualify on more than 9 points Group B - If St. Johnstone beat Brechin and Stirling don't take full points at home to Elgin, the runner up in this group probably won't qualify. Even if Stirling do win they would have to also win at St. Johnstone. Group C - Very difficult to call with three teams all in with a real shout and lots of variations possible. Group D - Raith Rovers are looking good to win this one. Ross County have a potentially trick tie away to Alloa. If Alloa win 2nd place is likely to finish on 9. If Ross County win they are likely to finish on 10. Group E - Queen of the South and Partick should both get 9 points plus. Group F - Between us and Stranraer for 2nd and we can both get 9 points. Potentially Stranraer can win the group but would need a couple of spectacular results to do that. Likely comes down to last fixture between Stranraer v Motherwell with winner finishing 2nd on 9 points max. Group G - St.Mirren should win this group (last fixture is at home to Edinburgh City). Ayr have to win away at Livingston to get 9. Livingston have to beat Ayr at Home and Hamilton away. Likely comes down to Hamilton at home to Livingston with Hamilton having to win to get 9 points. Group H - Morton should beat Berwick at home to get 11 points and win the group. Likely Kilmarnock finish 2nd on 9 points. Runners up from Group A and Group E look good to go through. Runners up from Group B probably not going to qualify. The leaves 2 spots between C, D, F, G, H. If Ross County can win away to Alloa they will probably finish on 10 points meaning, there is one runner up position left between C, F, G, H. C is very difficult to call. Likely Hamilton, Motherwell and Kilmarnock all finish on 9 points.

Well right now we are staring two dead rubbers in the face.

Told you Annan always score at home....

1-1!

Hopefully we can get a couple of quick goals and wheek Moult off.

Perhaps but what sort of bar has Laing set? Not a very high one I'd say. Given that we are now over budget then I'd say moving Laing on would be a priority before the transfer window shuts. Between Heneghan, Kennedy and Ferguson we have enough options there between the three of them.

Was out performed massively by an unknown Northern Irish teenager with no first team experience at all in his entire career. Facts are he's been give a decent whack at it and he's behind every other centre back available for selection, with maybe the exception of Ferguson. He's a failed signing and it would be best if he went back down south and tried to resurrect his career.

Fancied going to this but the rail works put me off.

Remember, he is worth 1.6 million!

Well I always say "accentuate the positive". That's why I think our best player isn't "keech".

This. Annan just missed out on promotion last season and scored a lot of goals in fact they scored in every home match, league and cup last season. Also worth noting they took some cup scalps last season thrashing Hamilton 4-1 and beating higher division sides like Airdrieonians and St. Mirren. Queen of the South only beat them 4-3 in extra time. Not sure how similar their line up is this season is with last, but I did notice Stranraer signed Smart Osadolor from them and Josh Todd went to Dumbarton so maybe they have lost a little bit of potency in front of goal but I think this is a tie where we need to be careful because if they score, especially a first goal, it could be tricky. Haven't rolled over against Rangers or Stranraer in either game so far, although a third game in a week for a part time team is a big ask and they might fade a bit but I don't think you can count on that.

Is that based on his 14 goals and 10 assists last season, aye?

My conspiracy theory is that Neil Lennon has had a story planted to blacken the character of McDonald after the Hibs Didn't Want Him But Were Bealin' When He Signed For Motherwell debacle. Away to put my tinfoil hat on.

Bizarre transfer policy goes back further than McGhee, as do budget clusterfucks.

What the fuck is going on? Only thing is that Moore is out on loan so we can bring in another midfielder. Even then I doubt Ayr Utd are paying full wages.

Lasley is suspended at the moment.

It can be anything you like, if it hits the player on the head and goes in the referees report. Throwing any missile on to the park at a player is not on, especially now when our fans are under severe scrutiny. But I guess some of our supporters just don't get it which is why we are in this situation.

One of the best products of our youth system in recent times is Jamie Murphy. He wasn't an overnight success it took him a couple of seasons coming off the bench and then a couple more seasons to develop into the player he was in his latter time at the club. There is far too much impatience and rush to write people off. Dom Thomas is a talented player but he needs to be given a chance to reach his potential both by management and fans. Dom Thomas is a player who is young and who should be developing. When you put Thomas in, you aren't putting a fully formed footballer into the team and you don't judge in the same way as a player with 100 first team appearances. You don't judge him over 15 minutes or 90 minutes, you judge him over a season, two seasons by how well he develops his talent against his exposure to first team experience. He's 20 years old now and if we are going to give him a chance it has to be now. As well as being impatience, we are also far too conservative about getting young players in the team. They should be getting that chance at 18, 19 never mind in the case of Thomas or Moore at 20, 21 and still lingering around the bench if at all. Get them in the team, give them a chance and give them a break!

Think this is very unfair on Thomas. He came on in a game where we were being completely dominated in the middle of the field, a match where we were almost defending our 6 yard line at points. Thomas was the one player who wanted to get forward every time he got the ball. He had very little support when the team was sitting so deep. It's also worth noting that Dom Thomas, and this is off the top of my head but I think it is correct, has had 2 first team starts in his entire career. Start him in front of Ainsworth. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out but you have to give the guy a chance before you write him off.

He didn't get hit thankfully but it was close and we were inches away from disaster. If he had been struck then there would have been repercussions. I'm no fan of stewarding and policing but I'm afraid our guys go on about 'heavy hands' and yet can't seem to behave themselves. The list of incidents gets longer and longer and the reputation of the club is suffering, so might our bank balance when we are already struggling financially. In a sense the club has to do things like this now because our fans just can't be trusted having been given warning, after warning all to no avail. The 'we, the persecuted' chat starts to wear thin after a while and we are getting to that point pretty rapidly now. Everyone knows where the line is, and yet some of us can't seem to stay on the right side. If these guys have the club at heart they need to start showing it in a way that really counts.

Think we would have been in trouble if we had a match in midweek. Players tired in the latter stages of the first half. East Stirling at home should be an opportunity to use a few younger players. Maybe give Thomas and Campbell a start.

In this day and age fans don't buy home match tickets. If it's not on the season ticket people aren't going to go out of their way to either a) get a ticket or b) pay the extra expense of other tickets and people can't just come along and pay at the gate.

We dominated the first 15-20 minutes, then there was about another 15 minutes where Rangers started to come back into it. By 35 minutes they had command of the match, so he's about 20 minutes out. Did he mention anything them being potentially 6-0 down at HT?

Thought Tait looked a right good addition.

McGhee after the match reiterated that there would be no more signings as "we've spent our money" and that "we'll have to work with what we have".