Slim

We need to get the ball forward a lot quicker. We seem to be passing it about at the back too much, inviting pressure before the inevitable panicked hoof up the park in the vague direction of one of our front 4 who are already well marked as a result of the fannying about. They’re well structured, we need to try to catch them on the backfoot, beat them with pace. Hopefully we can start playing early in the 2nd half, otherwise it’s going to be route one to Cosgrove and that’s going to be too easy for them to deal with.

Slightly before my time but I remember some of our players from the 80's crediting the humping we got off Liverpool as a key contributor for what we achieved in the years that followed.

We can afford to draw with Albania if we beat Israel at home can’t we?

Fucking hell.

Isn’t Corbyn pro-Brexit? I mean he’s not shouting it from the rooftops but I can’t see him offering us a way out of leaving the EU even if it would mean him getting elected.

That was definitely Gleeson.

Half the team injured and Gleeson/Forrester still can't get off the bench.

In this case “surprised and disappointed” doesn’t really cut it. This is a blatant manipulation of the rules, there’s not a hope in hell that any other clumsy tackles (which is the worst case judgement of this one) will face similar scrutiny throughout the season. Is the Court for Arbitration in Sport still a thing? This fucking stinks and we should be looking to take it to whichever level is above the SPFL.

Has anyone ever been given a retroactive suspension for anything other than violent conduct? Didn't even enter my mind that this was even a possibility.

Amazingly the guy who wounded the linesman is only at no. 2 in the Scottish football press public enemy list having been unable to dislodge the downright evil Scott McKenna who left a poor wee lamb in agony with a dead leg. No doubt if an Aberdeen fan assaulted a match official there would be a 12 page glossy pullout.

What’s GWT?

Looks like either GMS will play centrally behind 2 strikers or Cosgrove will be up top on his own and GMS/Wilson will be playing on the wings. That would leave zero creativity in the middle though.

Can’t see anything other than a morale-sapping humping.

Forrester. Forrester was signed to be the number 10. Wright's the only other player in the squad that's capable of being effective in that position. Ferguson looks like he's better further back alongside Shinnie.

I think we've had a few full back pairings over the years that share the same skin colour. Considine & Shaughnessy Considine & Maybury Kennedy & Rougvie McKimmie & Robertson Solberg & McNaughton I'm sure there will be plenty more.

I'm not one for knee-jerk reactions, but this doesn't exactly inspire confidence: Terrific reaction and we're just missing little margins? We were honking. We could be playing until next week and still wouldn't even look like coming lose to scoring in open play.

Getting nothing off this ref, McKenna has been fouled in the St.J penalty box 3 times.

How many countries have a national stadium outwith its capital/largest city? Struggling to think of any.

Doesn't work with a 352 formation, but if we're playing 442 or 451 or similar, I'd have Robertson at LB and Tierney further forward. He's good at getting forward and getting crosses in, and would have no problems on the defensive side of things if Robertson roams forward. Don't see anyone else in the current squad that would give opposition right backs any problems.

Succession was very good, loosely based on the Murdoch family/empire with Brian Cox as a Scottish media tyrant trying to keep control of his company from his kids. Written by Jesse Armstrong (The Thick of It and Peep Show).

Will Reynolds be back by January? Makes sense to have 6 defenders. 1 RB (Logan) 1 RCB (Devlin) 1 cover for RB/RCB (Hoban) 1 LCB (McKenna) 1 LB (Lowe/Considine) 1 cover for LB/LCB (Considine/Lowe) Reynolds replaces Lowe when fit.

Another thing to consider is that Shinnie prefers playing in midfield and mentioned around the time that he signed that McInnes assuring him that he sees him primarily as a midfielder as one of the reasons he signed for us. Obviously we can’t have players dictating where they want to play but I don’t think we’ll ever see Shinnie playing for us regularly at left back.

I would imagine McInnes already has a shortlist of defenders he would go for if McKenna did leave. It would be bordering on negligence if he didn’t.

Peter Lawwell handing out log ins to Celtic’s payroll system to journalists

He’s been warming their bench anyway.