pretzel

Prob thinking of the diamond ear ring wearing Ndjoli that only played twice as a sub. I would have loved to have seen Aaron's return but since he left us he has played 12 games, one all of last season. He was rapid, quite tricky and scored a nice goal against St Midden. He'd be a massive upgrade on the liked of Roberts\Woolery, but obviously his lack of game time is a worry.

As you do each and every week. I watched ICT get pumped by Partick Thistle just over a week ago and they looked a poor side, while on paper it seems like a potential banana skin I'm quite confident we will be comfortably progressing to the next round. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of changes to the side most likely Penney making his debut and probably Efford for Shields. Looking forward to the Fir Park double header this week.

Obviously it's going back a bit now and rules have changed etc. But I remember at the 1998 World Cup a new rule was introduced in that any sliding tackle that hits your opponent from behind was a straight red, I always had the impression that had stayed. For me, as much as it pains me to say it but I feel Collum was hundred percent correct, the Rangers guy recklessly launched into the back of an opponent. I see the wee neddy Hibs defender was the first on the scene again telling Willie it's a red. As for the 11 Celtic fouls today with no yellows, perhaps worth a mention that Jota against Aberdeen last season had nine fouls commited with no yellow or even our own O'Donnell against Rangers last year where his two fouls merited a yellow each in Nick Walsh's eyes only for Balogen to be let off countless times for the same fouls. VAR is going to be a laugh up here. Anyway it was nice to get one of those clear cut dodgy decisions in our favour against Livi.

Yeah, we learnt our lesson the last time we tried to sign a guy from Leeds. Announced as a new signing then half an hour later saying it was cancelled as he had played for two clubs.

We're apparently trying to get another young guy in on loan. A left back called Josh Reid from Coventry, he had previously played with Ross County.

I'm sure I had read that the way the cash rewards worked for player call ups for major tournaments worked dependant on the sides the players had served within the last 12 months or so. If he had left at the end of August almost a year before the tournament we would get a nominal fee or come January then it would be half, well that was my understanding at least. That would have been a kick in the stones to see Gallagher make his mark with Scotland for us and play his part in getting to a major tourney for the first time in over 20 years and not even kick a ball for Aberdeen but they get a few hundred grand.

I remember it well, it was a freezing cold day and they only had five shots each and everyone ended up in the net with Khaled Kemas getting one for us. We did get revenge late in the season when we beat 6-2. Looking forward to the game, no doubt Livi will be a tough but to crack but hopefully were will see more of this attacking approach we saw on Saturday. We tried to sign two players on Friday so it'll be interesting to see if we will have any new faces in soon.

It's one I've always enjoyed reading also when we triumph which is more often than not these days. Last night it was 27 pages of pure gold, it started with ridiculous scoreline predictions, how much they owe us one, then they hoped the team would take it in turns to snap KVV and so forth. It was nice to see all the optimism crash when Spittal scored. It is well worth getting the blue riband looked out and reading it while slurping tea. Delighted with our performance yesterday, to think we missed plenty sitters and still scored three. Looking forward to Saturday same again please.

Then you have Jonny Hayes, a guy with a face like a welders bench.

There is a random sign in the last stretch of country road before you get to Dundee that said Pittodrie - Place of manure and it has been there since I was wee, always thought it was a joke. Apart from enjoying some consistency in the league under McInnes they have always been relatively keech in my lifetime, you would think fans of a certain vintage within their support would have made peace with that fact by now.

Clearly he wouldn't but you have to ask what he was doing as this is night and day.

Fair amount of corners already. Jonny 'Face for the Radio' Hayes diving as per. Positive so far apart from slip.

According to the Daily Ranger we have officially signed that goalkeeper Aston Oxborough today.

I remember that he took really ill around the time when Stuart McCall was manager and he stated in an interview that he was disappointed that the club never took care of him. A quick Google search and he enjoyed calling Lesley a waste of space and lays into Robinson as well.

That Australian keeper they bought was stinking. While AZ did score some nice goals he was a bombscare and couldn't deal with crosses. Tony Watt mentioned last week that he joined United for nights like that I wonder what his take is tonight. I was actually worried that AZ were going to beat our record score of 12-1 over united.

I think it's always a difficult one when your club is looking to recruit a new manager, I started going to games when Tommy McLean was manager and when he left I remember the excitement of who it could be and I remember Guus Hiddink amongst many other names being touted for the job only for Alex McLeish to get announced. Since then for the best part it always seems to be guys with limited to no experience or a few who's stock has fallen drastically that get the gig. I remember being scunnered by the Stephen Robinson appointment, but I think that was mainly based on his Oldham experience. Personally I'm glad it's not the likes of Malky Mackay or Neil Lennon, I woke up in a cold sweat this morning thinking about that this morning. For me Hammell ticks all the right boxes, yes it would have been great to have more experience but he'll know the current crop of youngsters well, he has made all the right noises in regards to the necessary changes that we could all see that were needed under Alexander, so lets see what he does in that regard in the next few weeks. No matter who was hired it would clearly be met with a mixed opinion.

Delighted with that.

Each to there own but I said it earlier in thread that I would actually be delighted if Hammell was given the gig. Throughout our history we have hired much younger managers all of which have had varied degrees of success. A massive emphasis will be put on youth as per and who will know the current group better than the Academy Director himself. Looking forward to seeing the announcement and however gets the job will have me full support, hopefully it'll be an exciting few weeks and we can all shift to a more positive outlook as its been a tough few weeks.

Not that it matters now, but I was reading an interview earlier by Callum Hendry and he was saying he knocked us back a month or so ago to head to Salford. Least we attempted to get a striker in.

I was reading a newspaper article prior to the St Mirren game last week and it had a brief section chatting to Declan Gallagher who was explaining to the reporter that he didn't understand why the 'Well fans don't like him. A quote he made was interesting 'Motherwell received something like £200.000 for me'. I know there was chatter that he had a year extension if he played a certain amount of games etc..it would be interesting to know the story but we likely never will.

When Tierney came on at the weekend we changed to a 4231 formation and we seemed to get more joy going forward, it was refreshing to see a different tactical approach. If we stick to the 433 I would suspect the same players lining up. Kelly McGinn Mugabi Solholm O'Donnell Slattery Goss Shields Spittal Morris Van Veen I still don't know what to make of Aberdeen as of yet, like Joe Lewis the new keeper Kelle Roos loves a clanger but quite a few unfamiliar faces.

Ref for the game is Chris Graham, he has only done one match in the top tier so far.

His son had mentioned on Twitter yesterday that he was still missing but there was apparent sightings in Edinburgh and Inverkeithing.

I think the stars are going to align for this one as Van Veen is due his one terrific performance in five and it's against his favourite opposition as well. In all seriousness they have spent a fair amount on players this season, I'm not really familiar with many of them. They seem to have brought in quite a few loans as well, I think a guy from Liverpool, one from Middlesbrough and of course the Celtic one they had a protest about. In the last three season we have had a great record against them only losing 2 of 9 games. Obviously I want to win but if we come away with a point I wouldn't be disheartened at that either. Hopefully we know what's happening on the manager front by the time this fixture rolls around.

It seems like once a season we gift wrap a win for them deep into injury time. I'm getting nightmares of Tam Scobbie of all folk now. Still plenty of work to be done but I felt the second half was much more positive, we seemed to change formation to a 4231 when Tierney came on so again that added with the half time subs it's actually great to see Hammell identify that things needed changed and quickly, Alexander was alway reluctant to use many subs. A draw would probably have been a fair result but we all know what footballs like, you don't always get what you deserve as St Mirren would probably argue about a week earlier. I actually thought St Johnstone were quite jammy at times, one of the main instances being a clearance that ricocheted off Shields I think it was right in front of the goal and the ball went over the bar, then you have the defender that miscontrolled the ball and it goes through Efford's legs, if he intercepted the ball he would have been bearing down on goal. He had actually done something similar a short time earlier and McGowan got in front of him, with the defenders options either to kick it out for a throw or play a risky ball to the keeper, Efford decides to volley him. I know Mr Ponytailman is a horrific finisher for the best part but it was criminal defending for their winner even he wasn't going to miss for that close in, plus it was even more galling as they never had much of a sniff in the second half.