RicoS321

Settle down Stuart Cosgrove.

Holy crap, was it 1995 in Wigan today?

Just back. Bates selling the jerseys early doors and was shakey the rest of the half. He's constantly on his weak foot and it shows. Montgomery was gash but we had no choice and McKenzie was also gash recently. Besuijen had his best game and Ferguson had another strong performance. Another fantastic advert for summer football, the conditions were horrendous. It's not just the wind that made it bad, when the ball is speeding up as it flies towards you, but also on a rutty pitch, it's an entire lottery. All in all, agree with LA Don, okay given the circumstances

I don't think curses exist.

I'll get it, don't worry.

I don't think it's anything to do with the Tories. What you're getting at here is antithetical to our entire system. It's anti globalisation. Voting the Tories out won't change that, just as SNP haven't. There is no political path within our economic system that brings about what you suggest. Replacing fossil fuels isn't the answer. Removing the requirement to use that volume of energy is. Very few renewables are going to result in zero fossil fuel use in their production and transportation. There is little difference between buying Russia's oil and China's solar panels. I'm fairly sympathetic to your suggestion of producing more, and it should have been clear to everyone rushing to the supermarket upon first lockdown that we have zero contingency if something happens to our just in time supply chain. We'll be (the UK) in the absolute shit if Putin goes further than Ukraine and we're forced to defend a NATO country. We haven't got the infrastructure or resilience for war. So it's imperative that we sit on our hands and shout from the sidelines for now.

Whether it's close is irrelevant, whether it's true is more pertinent. It's as true in Kazakhstan as it is in Georgia or Ukraine. As the Minsk agreement recognised, the various parts of Ukraine are not homogeneous, neither in language, custom or religion. There's as much argument for parts of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia to be autonomous as there is Scotland to be independent, or Ireland to be unified. Those decisions aren't Russia's to make of course, and certainly not by force, but it's undeniable that there was an uncomfortable imbalance to the arbitrary borders of Ukraine.

Does he? How do you know this? I have no idea like, just intrigued. I'd have thought that annexing the majority Russian speaking and Russian orthodox Crimea and then the Donbas would be slightly less Imperial-ee than, say, invading Afghanistan or Iraq. I'm guessing that the intentions will become a little clearer if Russia moves beyond their newly recognised (by themselves) regions. At 69, there's likely not the time for Putin to slowly annex - state by state - surrounding countries at the current rate. Bottom line is, there are a number of satellite regions that have more in common with, and more goodwill towards, Russia than Europe, so a breakup of these regions isn't unrealistic.

That's good news. A versatile player, not quite good enough to play in multiple positions! I don't think I've ever been so unsure of a player at pittodrie, whilst simultaneously thinking he should be in the team every week. He's a strange one.

Nah, I don't have the attention span to look that far ahead.

Bloody foreigners, with their stupid pens and throw-ins. Should be banned. Wouldn't catch Stuart Pearce missing a penalty in such a manner. It'd be interesting to see the data. I'm convinced that if clubs thought that players doing strange run ups resulted in less penalties scored then they'd stop them doing it. It's the modern game, these things will have been analysed to death. In the end, they're just trying to trick the keeper into going down early so they can pass it into the other corner. It's always going to look weak when it goes wrong, but it's likely quite a weak shot when it goes in too. It'd be interesting to see a comparison in how many penalties are blazed over the bar or saved when they're blasted down the middle (or not in the corner), versus how many are hit wide, off the post or too close to the keeper when aiming for the corner. They might be seen as more acceptable forms of missing a penalty, but they're still missed in the end. I'm guessing neymar just needs to sit through a Lewis Ferguson masterclass for a few hours.

Ugly Jim Goodwin.

That was my point. Too subtle!

Must be in with a good shout for the playoffs now, what with today's moves. I'm not one for gossip, but I'm pretty certain I heard that Drakeford lad saying that he "could take thon Putin fanny in a square go".

Also, we can now no longer win the league, which will come as a deep shock to everyone. Second place still in the mix. A few good wins.

Perfect hat trick. Impressive. Perfect hat trick

Fucking disgusting. It's a conspiracy.

But it's not a rule, and nor is mourinho an exception (he's unusual because he didn't play football at all). Being part of a big club generally equates to being a good player though doesn't it? Again, I'm not seeing any evidence between being a good manager and having experience at a big club. There are plenty examples of managerial failure where the player had experience of being at a big club, and plenty where the manager hasn't been at a big club and succeeded. Again, it's really a managerial skill or personality trait. Experience will help in a limited way of course, but players feel pressure at all levels of football. Given that there's no definition of "big club", it'd be difficult to measure, but I doubt that there's a correlation between bigger club involvement and managerial success. However, if it helps, Goodwin played for Celtic and came through their youth team, so we're sorted.

Aye, he was excellent again today. Shame about the rest of the side. Worryingly we didn't really do much to change it when they changed shape and took on Woolery. Hayes' starting position against him was always very deep, but he'd have matched him for pace. Bates launching himself at everything today because his positioning seemed to be permanently off too. McRorie was solid in midfield but his final ball is terrible. Despite his goal, I thought Besuijen was poor. Criminally offside several times (as he was against St Johnstone), because he wasn't keeping up with play. That should be drilled into them at an early age. Looks like we'll have to wait another week for our first good win.

He's the world's best centre half. Never speak ill of Andy. But seriously, he's strong, left footed and doesn't dick about, whilst also playing the ball into areas that we can chase down (rarely punts it out of the park). Today is the first time I've seen Bates complete a pass with his left (a bloody good one!). We need somebody on that side.

Some end to the half! Hell of a free kick, got off lightly. Bates fucking about with it for the umpteenth time in the half, resulting in Hayes' injury. Really need Considine back. The pitch is a fucking disaster, which makes Bates pissing about even more inexplicable. We just have to battle like fuck today, the ball is too bobbly to be trying to skip past people at the back. Make sure that any pass backs go right to Lewis' strong foot at the correct pace too.

Great play and great goal. Well done Montgomery, he's actually done okay so far. McKenzie was so bad the other night it would have been harsh to drop Montgomery. He's still a Tim though. Fantastic ball from Bates too and great movement from Besuijen.

Fantastic play by Montgomery, giving the ball away and then deliberately not tracking the runner so that Lewis could nail van veen. Intelligent.

Was there any news on his injury? Looked a bad one, possibly a tear, but certainly would have expected a lot of swelling. Sort of thing that would put you out for a few weeks. Guessing Brown might be out too, and maybe even Gallagher. Could be an interesting defence. Good that Goodwin is straight in, that's what proper managers do. Nae dicking about. It's not going to be beautiful fitba today like. That pitch shouldn't have passed an inspection last time we played on it, unless they were inspecting it for places to plant tatties. Can only imagine what it's like after this week's weather.

Exactly, we can keep this one for September.