David

Those results didn't change my opinion of us finishing third either. Our dropped points against the likes of St Mirren & Kilmarnock, and further dropped points against sides who will finish below us in the table will cost us third place. Hopefully a result against Queens Park at the weekend will boost morale and kickstart some decent home form, as wins against the likes of Inverness & Dunfermline are needed in my opinion.

Two games in hand aren't guaranteed points though. We were looking poor against Hibs before the game was halted, and Dunfermline will come to Fir Park with the same mindset as the likes of St Mirren which has caused us problems already. We need to rectify our home form if we want to finish third or fourth. It's really that simple.

We have four home games this month, one of them a cup tie, and two away games (one of which we've lost already). If we are serious about finishing third (or fourth even) we need to start winning at home. A minimum of seven points from our games should be the target.

"Expect" may be too strong a word, but I'd hoped for at least a bit of fight. I never expect us to take anything away from Ibrox, but I don't expect us to roll over like we always seem to do either.

Full-time 3-0. A heavy defeat as usual. I never went, but from the commentary we sounded terrible.

I can't see us losing, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if we end up with a draw.

If our home form doesn't improve we'll be lucky to finish 5th this season.

Hopefully. With our home form at present I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up getting a draw with Queens Park next weekend.

F*ck Rangers. F*ck games against the old firm. Next weekend sees us back to the comfort of a 3pm Saturday kick-off, this time against Queens Park in the Scottish cup 4th round. This is a game that we should win, and one that we could with winning handily, try to boost some confidence after what looks like consecutive losses to both Hearts & Rangers. We should see Jennings back for this game, which give him 90 minutes to lose any Christmas weight he may have gained during his holidays. I'm hoping for at least 3 goals from the home side, and for Murphy to get on the scoresheet. That lad needs a confidence boost of some sort.

Would I be right in saying we went out there with a defensive formation? I can understand that if it were the days of Gazza, Laudrup and co, but against Aluko, Fleck & fucking Healy? If McCall mentions anything in his post-match interview about us having to be at 100% whilst Rangers need to be at less than their best for us to win I'm going to fuck this computer monitor right out the back window.

2-0 Rangers. Losing to a team playing with a strikeforce of Healy, Fleck & Aluko

I doubt I'll ever return to either of the Old Firms stadiums to see us play again.

How about we keep Jenno and let Hughes go when his short-term deal expires? That may free up some money to use in other areas.

Would it be easier if this thread was pinned?

I noticed that there's a few of these club shop threads floating around, with some of them having questions about merch and so forth. Thought having one thread would make it easier for those who have anything to ask and also for Alan to keep on top of questions & comments.

Moved to club chat. A Phil O'Donnell thread has no place in compost corner.

I'm not sure there are many clubs in our league outwith the old firm who have the depth of squad that Hearts do. I can see Hearts being able to cope with suspensions & injuries better than the likes of us & St Johnstone can.

You still waiting on the answer to that one Eddie? I'll have a look if I'm in over the next week or so.

Less than a month later and we've been easily beaten by Hearts and are now two points clear of the team in fourth place and only five points clear of Hearts. We may have two games in hand, but those two games are at home against Hibs (who looked like taking all three points from us before the game was cancelled) and Dunfermline. We're guaranteed nothing from both of those games in my opinion, and could take as little as one point from both if our home form is anything to go by. Our next league game is also away to Rangers, so it's odds-on that we'll be picking up no points until our game on January 14th at the earliest. Now do you see why I consider three points at home against St Mirren pretty important? If we continue to drop points against sides like St Mirren at home we'll be lucky to finish fourth.

Personally I'm not all that concerned by St Johnstone. They'll likely fall away later in the season. Hearts will be the threat for third spot this season. I just hope we haven't dropped too many points at home against lesser teams that it comes back to bite us in the arse later.

For me it's not the actual losing to the old firm, it's the way we go about it and the way our management accept it afterwards. If we were to lose by a goal or two but at least put up some sort of fight and get stuck in I wouldn't be so disappointed. It's never good to see an interview with our manager afterwards either, especially when you're raging about referee decisions, offside goals, players going missing and all sorts, only for him to be all smiles and seemingly not giving a toss.

That's obviously different, and is acceptable.

I don't think that's how it works, Wellfan, as much as I wish it was. He'll miss the game at Ibrox I think.