pretzel

I always felt he was hard done to by the fans, they were on his back immediately. He played really well in a 3-2 win over Celtic, tore Hearts and St Johnstone apart in December 2000 which coincided with his best scoring spell. I remember that game at Fir Park well when he netted a double for Hibs, he scored an early free kick which hit the bar and in, then proceeded to run the length of the East Stand celebrating. Yeah we have had some amount of dross nip in and out of the club over the years, The bosman ruling was introduced a few years earlier but I think it started around Harri Kampman's time where it became common for a large portion of players to come and go. Kampman wanted a clean slate and released a ton of players at the end of 1997/98 season then he signed the likes of Holm Kraska, Kai Nyyssonen, Jered Stirling, Jan Michels, Mikko Kaven, David White and so forth. Kampman didn't last long and then Davies started to shape the squad to his liking which seen the introduction of Spencer, Brannan, Adams, Townsley, Goram, J. Davies, Harvey, Thomas, Nicholas and Bacque, he must have spent like 1.5 million plus some obscene wages. I remember Kampman also agreeing pre contract signings of a guy from the Faroe Islands who scored a late equaliser against Scotland and then Finnish international Harri Ylonen, both of whom had the contracts cancelled, I wonder if we had to pay out anything to compensate the players. I actually fancy giving Pat Nevin's book a read, it would be nice to get some insight to the admin years, I have read Kevin Twaddle book and while it's mainly discussing his gambling addiction he does cover that period and what happened. I'm pretty sure Pat Nevin tried to get John Boyle to invest another 3 million to try and get us out of the mess but Boyle wasn't for it. What is the general consensus on Boyle? He could have played a major role in our club dying but was installed as chairman again years later. According to many former players, he got the office staff to deliver the bad news about them being released immediately.

Like Max Johnston, Dean enjoyed a consistent run in the starting lineup after Kettlewell took over and both of them played their part in the turn around in form. If Dean has managed to get a new club lined up then fair play to him, I know he has over 50 first team appearances but you would think getting a full season of being a regular starter under his belt would put him in good stead, same goes for Johnston, but we have been down this road before many times. Personally it's Casey and Johnston I'll be gutted about losing, I'm sure Kettlewell mentioned he had put a time limit on when players had to say yes or no but I'm struggling to remember players signing on again shortly after their contract expiring, probably Scott McDonald being the exception.

Alex Burns

Another thing, it was mentioned that Boabby Park was pushing to get some sort of material added to the Hunter Stand which will block out the pitch from the back to stop people from congregating there.

Burrows had mentioned previously that the seating was getting upgraded in the POD last summer but obviously that never happened. Obviously with all the investment lately it's clear that we will be staying at Fir Park for a while yet.

Still have nightmares of McMillan and Jules vs Marcus Haber in McGhees last game. I actually think that might have been Jack's last game for us as well. Seemed to do alright at Livi before moving on.

I think Scott McDonald has in the past (then regretted soon there after) but I think it's rare for a player who is with us to agree a new contract after it expires. I would love to see Casey and Johnston sign up again but you can't help but feel their will be other potential suitors now. Hopefully we can offload the likes of Shields and Maguire, interesting summer ahead.

Willie Collum on VAR again.

That's sad to hear. I know he still worked in football after leaving Dundee United but I can't really remember seeing him in any much media over the years since.

It's the official renaming of the Tommy McLean Stand at half time. I'm assuming Tommy and his family will be in attendance, I know many of his former players will be.

The young chap they have played on two occasions hasn't faired much better as he has conceded 7 goals in 2 starts. Hopefully shoot on sight is an instruction today. That Birighitti managed to do well plucking crosses out of the air when we played them last time but he then kept dropping the ball to his feet.It'll be interesting to see how they line up today.

I'm not even going to mention his name but I see the guy with the second worst hair do in Scottish Football (McKirdy being the first) won the SFWA Player of the Year Award. I would honestly love it if VV somehow managed to match or surpass his goal tally.

Looking forward to the game. It's a shame the season is coming to an end as we're enjoying such a good run of form. It's amazing to think of the turn around in form as leaving Kirkcaldy all those months ago, even though you knew that it was curtains for Hammell it was hard to see a way out of relegation battle. Despite United being really poor this season our games against them have been a mixed bag. We absolutely pumped them 0-0 at Fir Park earlier in the season, we scraped a 1-0 win up at Tannadice despite playing 10 men for just over half the match and more recently they beat us at Fir Park, still annoyed about the VAR offside consistency in that one mind as we would have been 2 goals to the good if they gave the attacker the advantage like they did with the touching lines in the Rangers game. If we secured 7th on Wednesday I wouldn't have been surprised to see maybe young Miller get his first start as well as Oxborough perhaps but as we didn't I think the side will likely be Kelly, Furlong, Blaney, Mugabi, McGinn, O'Donnell, Goss, Slattery, Spittal, Van Veen and Mandron. Itll be nice to officially relegate Jim 'Beyond Saving' Goodwin a day after he signed his longer term contract. Hopefully VV puts it to bed early.

County scoring a 3rd on the 90th min. Gutted we won't get a chance to relegate United, they would have brought a big crowd doon as well.

Literally a few weeks ago we got a goal disallowed where Van Veen was well offside and they also checked a potential red card for Goss in the same play which was nothing as well and it took over 4 minutes to come to a decision, it's things like that which make VAR a farce.

For me it's more the consistency with the officials using VAR and the time taken, earlier in the season Hammell moaned about a handball vs Aberdeen not even being checked with seconds remaining and he mentioned the reply given was a mistake was made and all handball's in the box like that will result in a penalty, fast forward two weeks later at Tynecastle and they say no to Sibbick handling but penalise Sol for the same thing. Then more recently, the offside goal vs Rangers where the lines showed that he was fractionally off but the explanation was that the lines are touching so advantage goes to the attacker. I've not seen it back but Kettlewell referenced that KVV versus Dundee United had an effort ruled off for similar. However it was great to see the officials come to the correct conclusion yesterday. That's twice Butcher has been penalised against them but VAR has helped overturn. The County players put up a massive protest at ours but it's weird thing to do when they know Willie Collums watching.

We got 10 points during the 2013/14 season. Drew 3-3 with Celtic, beat 5-1 by Dundee United and won three on the trot with the last fixture being up at Pittodrie when Craig Reid netted in injury time.

Goss has had 9 bookings in the league and I don't recall him missing a match. William Collum on VAR today, very little will go under his nose prepare for long waits and an Injury time amount Alex Ferguson would be pwoud of.

When he was interviewed after getting the Utd gig he mentioned another club in the Premiership had tried to get him, obviously it was us but he had made a comment something like that team was beyond saving. I hope we get to inflict some misery upon him.

It's went from the Old Firm B squads trying to riggle in the Lowland League, to them only doing a solitary season then to them being mainstays and now a new league created around them and a few others. I know the young boys have performed well in the competition but that annoys me too that B sides are in the challenge cup. I feel Scottish football has become less and less appealing over the last decade. I hope this gets voted down but I wouldn't hold my breath.

His hoop never got off the bench up in Kirkcaldy. However I know what you mean, I was worried early on that he was the only left back and felt like we needed experience badly, the other option was putting Lamie there but I still wake up at night in a cold sweat about his previous apps. The young guy has developed well and I've thoroughly enjoyed both wing backs getting up the pitch. I wonder if Penney got injured as he seemed feature regularly after joining Charlton then disappeared.

O'Donnell and Lennon Miller on for Furlong and Paton

Double V

If Killie or United lost today you couldn't help but feel we would be safe and sound. It was typical how each team scored within minutes of each other and Killie look on course to win their first away game of the season.

Killie two up on Midden now. Hibs have equalised against St Johnstone.