1960maaan

St. Mirren know the truth nicked from Twitter*

Trying some detective work. Kenny Stephens was with the G*s from 1970 - 77 , that means it's one of these. He didn't play in the 4-1 at Eastville . The April 75 game at ours they wore black shorts. Down to two. Not 100% sure which ground either, I kind of lean towards Eastville , which would make it the 0-0 in 76 . Then I give up. I did try Google images , but that gave me nothing.

His passing can be brilliant , but Manning seems to like the 3CB's to start so I see him mainly challenging there. I see us setting up as a 3 and 2 MF's and he doesn't get in the midfield in that set up IMO.

I don't see Naismith getting into that MF , unless we really need a deep sitting shield . You're right about Stokes , I was on a role by then .

Our midfield looks promising , the big bit now is the No.10 . As it stands we have ; Bird , Knight , TGH , Stokes , Murphy , Williams? James? Defence when all fit looks decent too. Striker one short as it is, 2 if Conway goes . Who was it that did the squad depth thing ?

The thing I like is that they can interchange . If Roberts bombs on, it's straight forward for Pring to sit. If we are in the position to, they link up well to give real width down the left. I really like their balance . Not sure the fee , I guess it was compensation as I think he was OOC but under 24 . Others might know more about how that works.

He has missed a few chances , I think it took him a while to get up to speed, plus when you only get a few I'm not surprised he snatched at some . I think he could be a 20 a season striker with someone on his wavelength . It was Nahki , it could be Twine, but someone that can spot or predict his runs and that can give him chances . Looking at some meaningless and unprovable stats 30 starts , 12 goals , over 46 games would be around 18 goals. Plus many of those games he looked totally isolated . As for a new striker , well at the moment that's just a dream . At least in as much as all the qualities that he needs to have according to the Club. Great if we find someone , but as it's going to be from abroad there is no guarantee and we are not in the position to spend loads , plus we know Manning hold out house of Twine. We will need a lot of luck to find a cheap-ish 20 goal striker that is ready to hit the ground running in the Championship. I think they also said , big, strong ,pacy and can link play. It doesn't really matter as I think he will leave , and relatively cheaply . I hope the recruitment Dept are working overtime.

I thought he showed what we could have yesterday,. Not just from him but from that genuine No.10. Conway was much more involved , his runs were spotted nice and early and the link up was good. I know it was "only" Rotherham , but it was really promising. The problem for me is that I think we will lose them both. f we could get Twine early enough, it might convince TC to stay ( with a decent new deal obviously ) . I doubt he's enjoyed much of the recent football , he has been starved of chances for a while, but maybe the Club can convince him of the chance of a top 6 push with him at the front and with the chance of good regular service ? His reputation would grow and he could get that big move he probably wants. A stretch I know. Twine signed a four-year deal in June 2022 , Burnley paid £4m , they will be in the Championship next year. That for me does not add up to them taking a cut price £2m or whatever.

While I don't remember having too many reasons to shout at the Ref, I imagine Rotherham fans would. For years we haven't got Penalty decisions , seems we are getting them all now. I know some say there is contact and the Ref gives it straight away, I have my doubts about the Pen. Happy to take it mind, but if I moan about ones not given I feel it's right to mention when I think we've been lucky. It looks harsh, the Ref nor Lino have a really clear view and we have had many more blatant ones not given. Then the free kick , that's easier. It looks soft , but they are the sort that are given and Twine forces the Refs hand by grabbing the ball . TBH Rinomhota doesn't moan too much. We only talk about them because they lead to goals , over all I thought he was OK and those decisions mean little now. I just hope we get those next year in our title challenge.

What chance Derby lose at home and Bolton win by 4 at Peterborough ? Yeah , shame though. Pompey Derby Plus , I think , P'boro or Bolton , that is a tough call . I think P'boro could nick it. So to sum up and allowing for my prediction record. Oxford nailed on.

I think it could be the Concourse that's the main issue. That said there are always work arounds . Big away following isn't the problem. When you get 1000 in a 3,500 stand is when you lose money , or potential money. The balance is spend Vs gain . How many times a year do we get small followings for a game that would sell out ? They could probably put in a movable wall for segregating the Concourse, but it has to be cost effective , they wont do anything just for fun or atmosphere.

Early days of Ashton I thought he started to do what he did here, not that I watched too closely but it did seem like the owners may have reeled him in and there was better focus after. I do wonder if he/we/the Club focused on buying for the first team he might have been ok here. Trouble is he was given total freedom and it turned into a mess.

Just saw an interesting Tweet conversation. Basically saying that tonights result could earn Wimbledon £1m . I had to think, but I guess it's an add on in the Al-Hamadi transfer. That's how you want them to work , 4 months and Bingo.

I didn't realise there were 28 Cat 1 Academies . Is that across the age groups ? It works out 28 players per academy every year and I'd love to know how many they let go every year. I found overall numbers . This is all academies and Football schools apparently . Of those entering the game aged 16, two years down the line, 50% will be outside professional football. If we look at the same cohort at 21, the attrition rate is 75% or above. It's a tough game. Yep, misread an old article .

Yep, and thinking about it, if the loan would have covered the playoff games then he's still registered for them . Ah well , Mebude it is then

Getting your way so far

I would have watched Huddersfield Vs Brum if it didn't KO the same time as us. Hoping for a home win.

My assumption was he's only played for Aldershot and their season has finished , the loan is over . I thought he would be available. As for Morrison , I wondered if he might be involved when he appeared so prominent in the Video.

I hope he's on the bench tomorrow , I doubt he will be but it would add some interest .

Not much on Transfermarkt. Tommy Backwell is OOC this summer 30th June Ben Acey and Omar Taylor - Clark are out this summer too , signed extensions Oct '22. Struggling to find much else TBH.

I will have to go and listen again as I took it to mean they wanted to sell more than last year , to get over 15k at the start of the season . I didn't think they wanted to limit it to just over 15k They have to hold a certain % back for PotD , but you would think that having a guaranteed 18k every week would be preferable , then you would be near sell out every game if the PotD interest kept up.

Fixed it for you

On a lighter note hearing the "Wolf" story for his own mouth was great. We have laughed about it but man you can tell it was scary .

Gerry Gow, Vyner (loan) , David Noble ,Richard O'Donnell, Tony Thorpe , Martin Scott and Norman Hunter managed them

I still think 99% of the problem lays with the Club, they could have done this in a much better way but the poor relationship , and poor leadership meant it didn't happen. Pearson was on crutches at the training ground, but he didn't take sessions as far as I'm aware, he liked others to take responsibility . That's why he seemed to take a lot of care choosing staff. As long as he could watch sessions I'm not sure it made a lot of difference to what happened, though I doubt it was helping his situation. What should/could have happened is, the approach him and try and talk him into taking gardening leave to have the OP. He was OOC in the summer , so unless they really thought that another Coach/Manager could really take them to the Playoffs there was no rush to change things. IMO the summer was the time to make changes Because they ( I think it was Tinnion ) suggested the change would be seamless and was done to make a top 6 push, it does make it adversarial , it's football fans after all it's what we do. All the bluff that came after was just trying to save face and make excuses , again not Mannings fault but he was always going to get some stick as the face of the Club. Tinnion then came out and said he ( Manning) was learning on the Job, the opposite of what was suggested when he came in. They couldn't sack him for health issues , but if they had managed to get him on Gardening leave and had Flemming in charge for the rest of the season , at least the fans would have seen reason. Then we start with a new manager/coach who gets a proper pre season. It's just down to poor leadership of the Club at the very top. For one brief minute we looked like we were on to something , we had a strong Manager and a top CEO. Going back to an inexperienced Chairman and a shared CEO and a TD we look like a rudderless ship.