fizoxy

There always seems to be one player who the well fans seem to rate en masse even though he's actually no that good. There does seem to be a pattern to this, as it always tend to be a "hard man" type, or a foreigner. If I had to nominate someone as being over rated it would have to be Simo Valakari. He was a decent player and always put in a good shift, but I think much of his popularity came down to having a chantable name. Maybe he would have got the Derek Adams treatment if his name was Dave? He also seems to appear in a lot of "greatest well teams" even though the mid 90's trio of Dolan, Lambert and Davies alone should edge him out. Any other nominations?

The only issue I have with this is that our relationship with referees would improve. Also, scientology may work better. We all just need to pretend we have a secret, tell people they have to go to a game to find out the secret. They then find out said secret is a load of shite. We threaten their famililes. They tell their friend they have a secret.

As Haggis said, we've always been able to unearth decent strikers, but it's been a while since we've had a goalie everyone's agreed on. Well, a good one anyway. We've also produced a few strikers of our own, whereas we don't seem to do that with goalies. I think keeping hold of Ruddy would be worth it in the form of significantly less corner kick related heart attacks. Keeping both would be nice though.

From what I've seen of Jennings in the few appearances he's made he looks like a decent player, but hasn't had the chance to really show what he can do as he seems to be behind Lasley, Coke, and Hateley for a midfield spot. Now that Coke will be suspended, does anyone see Jennings taking his spot and holding onto it? If not, does no one else think there's a possibiilty of him heading back down south in the window?

Did Hutchison have many injuries before this season? If not, then the injury prone tag is a bit harsh. I like Murphy, and I think he looks more of a threat as a striker than as a midfielder. He also seems to think this. He's had a couple of good games up front alongside Sutton, and I think he benefits from having a contrasting style to Sutton and Juke. Was Pollock not one of the kids that Celtic tried to nab as well?

I'll take a point, but that was one of the worst games I've ever seen. Falkirk are going down.

I'm sure the player's current wages are considered when compensation is calculated. Reynolds has another year, so if we're going to make any money out of this now is the best time.

Euphemism?

Did Brown not say something about money not being an issue, due to them being pretty well off anyway?

No, the fans shouldn't pay. You make it sound like we own them fucking child support!

I'll take a wee stroll down to this one. We never have it easy at Falkirk so it could be a close one. It's definitely one we can win, but I'll take not losing.

I think the only way to really see if a new pricing structure would work would be to do it over a season, including season tickets, and alongside other "recruitment initiatives". This would obviously take some balls and some financial backing. There would also be the risk of the reduction not being significant enough to make an impact, so some serious research would be required beforehand. This way we are providing a viable form of entertainment for those who would never have considered going to football otherwise, and also providing a reason for those from the shire who shell out to watch the unwashed to think twice. Anything else will provide a one off surge in attendance, with most people treating it like a day out, when we really want to hook the next generation of diehards.

It would be interesting to see how the prices for other forms of entertainment have risen with inflation over the last 20 years or so compared to football.

So, since the "product" is shite, we should pay more? It just doesn't work that way. Even doubling our attendances with the current prices would merely give us the funds to sign players who are only marginally better than what we have, and we'd still spend the absolute minimum in maintaining Fir Park. So I don't feel the slightest bit guilty that I haven't put my hand in my pocket. It is up to the football clubs and the governing bodies to make the game more attractive to supporters. Everyone who is in the game is there to make money, therefore it is up to them to justify us paying them, and clearly they aren't doing a very good job.

You'll always get more people at a cup final, cos it's a bloody cup final! We don't play in those a lot so it's usually quite nice to go when we do. I don't have to buy a whole load of shite DVD's before buying a good one, so the football isn't any different. The problem I have is the notion that fans have some sort of duty to go to games and plough money into the club. This kind of blind loyalty is how clubs get away with charging £20 and up. the players don't need the support either, they're getting paid to do it. If "support" and "atmosphere" was so important to team performance they'd be paying us. If you're just going to the game because you feel you have to, then don't bother and do something you enjoy instead. I have my seasons where I wont miss a game, and I'll have some where I only go to a handful. Some times I don't go due to work or family stuff, other times I just cant be bothered. Any time I do go it is because I want to watch the team I love play football, whether it's shite or not. This doesn't mean I'm less a supporter than the fundies.

Naw, cos he's already scored for us!

We looked pretty good today, with Murph providing a bit more of a cutting edge when he came on. Coke and Las both put in a good shift, and the defence looked pretty solid. I'm not surprised at the state of the pitch, it was always going to cut up with being brand new, and the extreme weather we had this month probably didn't help. Good to hear the Juke never got his baws stood on, and it was just 12 stitches in his leg. The sympathy pains have receded now.

Am I missing some sort of "in-joke" with this Albania stuff?

Most of us had him down as the original "world cup" player Craig Brown mentioned after the Hearts game. He was released by Celtic in 2009 and plays somewhere in NZ now, but looking for a deal until the world cup I think.

I think the major argument for this is the period of no competition with the EPL and other major leagues. This could result in us securing a better TV deal and some much needed exposure. The major issue with this though would be selling it to players coming into the league. Could this result in a load of loan signings over the summer? We see a similar system in cricket, where county players will go to South Africa or Australia during the winter here, but that works because the seasons don't overlap, where ours would. Major tournaments could be an issue, but we have to get to them first! Other countries manage fine combining summer football with internationals and European competition so we could look at how they do it. I don't think this would dramatically improve the quality of the game, or suddenly double attendances, but I do believe it would at least be an improvement over the current product which is very stale. Unfortunately I can't see this, or any other major changes, happening as I don't believe the people in charge have the balls to make the bold moves which are required. We also have too many people in charge, but that's a different argument.

Live commentary here From BBC 21 Ruddy 03 Hammell 04 Reynolds 05 Craigan 06 Coke 14 Lasley 24 Hateley 09 Jutkiewicz 11 Sutton 17 O'Brien 27 Forbes Substitutes 01 Fraser, 43 Saunders, 07 Humphrey, 08 Jennings, 16 Fitzpatrick, 15 Murphy, 35 McHugh

Facebook stalking is fun, I didn't realise Keith Lasley was black though.

As good an idea as this is, I think that the major issue with regards to decreasing attendances is the price, and I don't think any fan's committee is going to change this. There's only so much you can do to entice new supporters, and a lot could be done at FP to enhance the "matchday experience" or at least bring it up to an acceptable level, but I don't think anything can be done to to make 90 minutes of watching MFC (or any other SPL club) worth £20.

Well, it is the close season in Brazil and it doesn't start up again until May

Further to what haggis said, I think the idea of a Q&A type thing would be really helpful, we had something similar on here in the early days, and as long as it's organised properly (i.e pre-submitted questions) I think it could work.