Kmcalpin

The 2 home games against Hibs and Falkirk are absolutely critical to finishing 4th. I can't see us winning both games. From that lot I can see us picking up maybe 6 or 7 points. Thats not to say, of course, that we still won't finish 4th. Hibs may well pip us at the post, but they're not perfect either as their failure to beat Livingston yesterday shows.

Not for us though. They'll be sweating in Paisley tonight!

Like you, I don't agree with this narrative. However, I get the reasoning behind it. Arguably, we're the best footballing team in Scotland. However, we failed to reach 2 cup finals and will finish 4th or 5th. There's a disconnect straight away. The bottom line is that too often we fail to turn quality possession into goals. To put that in context, we are very much work in progress and everyone knows that we need to improve for next season. We, the fans, just need to reduce the hype and expectations for now and stay grounded.

I would also include the Aberdeen cup game and the recent loss at Dens Park in my assessment. However, both of those clubs also have bigger budgets than us.

It is.

It will certainly be a huge test of character. In my book there's a questionmark over our team in big games.

A crunch game in the tussle for 4th place and an automatic Euro place. 4th place is ours to lose but have the wheels come off? Stephen Welsh will be back and thats good news for a faltering defence. However Longelo will be sidelined. With no natural cover I'd go for SODS at left back and Jordan McGhee at right back.

Yes.

I think we've been overhyped and that has maybe got to us. Folk need to remain grounded. Yes, we are probably the best footballing team in the league, but that alone doesn't win you games. There are 3 possibly 4 better teams than us in the league and we shouldn't forget that. However we'll finish in 5th at worst and thats a tremendous achievement. We've built a good foundation from which to strengthen the squad for next season and turn it into a team capable of winning a cup.

Good post which mirrors my own view. We have weaknesses in the team which are now costing us, but in fairness, we are very much work in progress and way ahead of where many of us thought we'd be. Have the wheels come off? Maybe, but we'll know for sure next Saturday evening. Are we good enough to retain 4th spot? We do seem to have an issue with players have off days in big games. Thats now 3 recent defeats losing 7 goals in the process and scoring 2. Looking on the bright side, its been a good day results wise as Falkirk and Hibs only managed to claw back one point on us. I didn't expect that. Their results were always going to be more important to us than our own. What did disappoint me was the red card. That was something I was hoping to avoid like the plague today, but I was being a tad optimistic. I haven't seen the penalty incident so can't comment on the specifics. With no back up left back, it'll cause us issues next week No more Tom Sparrow at full back though..please. I never expected to take anything from today, so in that respect the defeat is neither here nor there.

Great video Stephen, thanks for sharing. Its very thought provoking and it would seem the future design of stadia holds both challenges and opportunities. At our level, new stadia have to cater for wider community benefits and I can quite see NLC being fully on board with any new stadium plans we have if it meant we would provide community sports and leisure facilities and pick up the maintence tab. That would allow it to close its own facilities and invest that precious cash into other more important budgets. I suppose new stadia are becoming like Type 26 frigates. As soon as they're finished, they're years out of date. There are other challenges as hinted at in the video. There's perhaps scope for the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal or Barcelona to open their own mini stadia in places like Scotland either on their own, or through partners like ourselves. Premier league games could be beamed live to their own dedicated stadia in the likes of Wishaw. Such games could attract maybe 10,000 - 15,000 fans for a game - replicate that all over Europe and other continents and you have a nice little money earner. At our level I doubt if we'd be able to afford an all singing all dancing version but there's no reason why we couldn't afford a more basic but modern and functional version, that fans could relate to. The design could also connect to our local heritage to avoid any development being soulless. Not sure about Birmingham's design though! It would be a real shame, if in 20 years' time, kids asked their parents what a brick, billet, pig iron or blast furnace was. I'm already seeing and hearing that kind of reaction with my own family. The bottom line, as always, is the raising the funds.

I think thats fair comment. Even if we beat Celtic, it will be a wake up call if either, or both of Hearts and Sevco win. Lets just focus on keeping Hibs below us as that will be a difficult task on its own. If we manage to hold onto 4th spot, that will be a magnificent achievement in JBA's first, and maybe only, season.

I doubt if McGhee will start but would expect him to get maybe 30-45 mins if he's in JBA's plans? Certainly JBA praised him to the hilt when he recovered from injury and built up expectations.

My recollection was that it was Martin Peters. Martin Chivers had the potential to be one of the best centre forwards of all time, he was so talented. However, that natural instinct was coached out of him. What a night that was though. Fir Park was packed.

Id Jordan McGhee not due some game time?

No, thats right. Its just south of the Lofoten Islands. If I recall rightly its only second in size to Tromso in northern Norway.

Thats a powerful argument, very powerful. However, a precedent was set when clubs, including ours, were held accountable for their fans use of pyros, albeit at behest of Scottish ministers. Surely that same approach will be used here. Also, in the interests of consistency, Scottish ministers have to apply pressure.

If they haven't condemned the shocking goings on, then it makes strict liability all the easier to apply. Suggestions also of sectarianism but I don't suppose anybody is too keen to investigate that.

Apparently moved at his own request. A pattern forming here?

A disgraceful incident yesterday and an embarassment to Scotland. Lots of questions need to be asked of both clubs, the SFA, SPFL, Police and Scottish Government. Sevco must look at the behaviour of their fans and their security arrangements. Celtic also need to look at the behaviour of their fans. Did they sell tickets to the Green Brigade? The SFA and SPFL need to look at strict liability, now that they set a precedent with pyros. The Scottish Government needs to grow a set after they intervened over pyros and must face up to embarassing, uncomfortable and controversial issues. Lots of questions and, I fear, no answers will be forthcoming.

I don't know. I didn't think we were ever in with much of chance of winning the title and had completely dismissed that possibility and ignored all chat about it. As for the top three, the odds are very, very heavily stacked against us and again I'm focused on finishing 4th. As Wellfan rightly says though thats ours to lose, and if we finish up up in 5th place then thats what we'll have deserved, no less and no more. An achievement in its own right.

I don't think that helped Grizzly but I think on the night, Aberdeen would have beaten any 11 we could have fielded. Their luck was in and you simply cannot beat that, no matter how good you might be. Weeyin has just taken the words off my keyboard. You need a lot of good luck to win a cup and St Mirren have that precious quality in spadefuls. It'll take a good but, more importantly, an even luckier team to stop them winning a second cup.

As far as I can tell, Celtic fans invaded the pitch first. Anyways, both sets of fans behaved shockingly. The main issue that will worry the Scottish Government and SFA is were pyros used? If not, its unlikely that strict liability will be enforced.

Probably not. Anything we do take from the game will be a bonus. The usual free hit.

Its going to be a real struggle to hold onto 4th place. All our remaining games are against fellow top 6 sides and here's our record against them this season. Hearts: 2 draws. Celtic: 1 win 1 loss Rangers: 2 draws 1 loss Hibs: 1 win 1 draw Falkirk: 1 draw 1 loss In total, thats 2 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats. We're unbeaten against Hearts and Hibs but haven't beaten Falkirk, Rangers or Hearts. Having said that, I'm delighted that we've managed to finish in the top 6. Anything above that is the icing on the cake. If we manage to finish 4th I'll be over the moon and if its 5th I'll be delighted. To put things in perspective, at the start of the season, I was hoping to finish 7th this term as that would represent progress. We've achieved that and more. Our away from has been fair no better this season and I felt that going into yesterday's game many were overconfident.