RicoS321

Pish. They could have done that in two passes.

I tend not to offer advice on many things, but I think that you should perhaps reassess this part of your life.

Don't think this has been mentioned elsewhere, but the club are looking to extend his contract. Been a great signing, with a fantastic goal return. As I said, not mentioned anywhere else but this dedicated McGrath thread.

That's the sort of lazy attitude that leads us to discussing former St Mirren players on two separate threads.

It's been in the other transfer news thread for a day, it's old news. Next you'll be telling us about a general election. In the Scotland squad thread.

There should be a different thread for this type of news.

Christ, his agent does seem to have undersold him a bit. Although it wouldn't surprise me if they're another side that has been bought by large pocketed foreigners or whatever. I have to admit, he didn't impress that much last time we played them, compared with the previous meeting, but he still seemed to be a midfielder that covered a lot of ground, which is what we'll need. Anyway, once Barron signs a new four year deal, we'll quickly forget about him.

I expect Jack is there because Clarke is loyal to his players. I expect that him and Kelly will drop out of the 28. I'd also probably have Souttar ahead of one of Hanley or Cooper (we've actually got seven centre backs, as Tierney will definitely be playing left of the three). Clarke does seem to have a tendency to let his squads get a bit stale because of his need to remain loyal to those that played in qualifying. Surely Doig in for one of the centre backs, Barron in for Jack and Johnson in place of one of the goalkeepers would have aided the transition. I expect we'll see quite a few not play again after this tournament, without having featured, or only minimal minutes on the park.

I thought Tierney was honking anytime he played right back previously. It was like playing with a man down. Maybe he's improved, but I'd probably stick with Ralston or McRorie. I'd normally agree about guys who aren't playing, but I'd make an exception for a young player coming through (like we did with Gilmour). I'd forgotten about Stewart, might be a good shout. We just have very little depth and nothing different coming off the bench. Armstrong and MacLean are okay in qualifiers against poorer opponents, but they're probably not going to swing a game against the Germans with some dazzling bit of footwork. The BBC mentions that Tommy Conway has scored 12 this season for Bristol, so might as well take him and McRorie so they can share travel expenses.

Disgusting article on the BBC regarding the squad to be announced tomorrow. No mention at all that Dons legend Nicky Devlin is a right back who isn't doing anything else this summer. I'm assuming it'll be Ralston, and maybe McRorie. The squad looks a little lacking though and I can't help but think we're going to need a surprise inclusion or two to give us something off the bench. Assuming that none of the English losers are going to suddenly manifest their Scottishness, I'd be inclined to throw Doak in. He looks a little bit off first team level, but he may just provide something when we need it with his direct running. It's also a good way to introduce him into the squad for future campaigns. When you look at the defenders in the squad, do we really need all of McKenna, Cooper and Hanley (the latter two didn't make their sides for the recent playoff)? Clarke values loyalty, of course, but at what point does that bridge into Craig Brown territory of resisting continuous squad development?

Yesssssssss. Bottom six champions. What a season

Unlucky from MacDonald, definite red. Think there was probably a foul on Devlin, but would have been soft. Random subs from Leven there like, a right sided centre back on for MacDonald and the hardworking Duk on when we go down to ten.

Another good goal, great run from Sokler and did the right thing just squaring it. Slightly lucky touch from Hoilett, but a great cutback for McGrath for another assist. Eleven goals for McGrath is a fantastic return.

Sokler. He's really good in the air like. Well played by Barron.

Great start. MacDonald on the left isn't going to be the answer. Murray an intriguing prospect....

Probably had bird flu.

Interestingly, Austin Samuels is actually Gaelic for Shayden Morris.

0-2 to accies now. ICT needing three. Much as I like to see a team from the North doing well, I do like the fact that Duncan disorderly is failing miserably at management. The number of times he was touted for us despite having zero experience was fucking annoying. Nothing against the guy like, just hopefully put people off suggesting guys like that in the future, based on nothing more than being a name, or hard, or takes no shite or the myriad of other reasons.

Legendary Don, Ngwenya on again for Patrick.

Elitist pish. If Raith win the playoff then they'll rightfully bring their plastic pitch up. There are too many honking grass pitches in the top flight to even contemplate having a ban on plastic. Obviously, I'd rather see games on grass, but plastic makes sense for a whole host of teams in the SPFL for various reasons. Livingston's pitch seemed worse, but I reckon that they regularly gamed it by under or over watering, just the same as letting the grass grow or narrowing the lines. Most Scottish pitches are bobbly tattie fields come November anyway, which nobody seems to consider when wondering why all Scottish goalkeepers' kicking goes to shite for six months (wind, also). Roos and Shamal Dode for Livi weren't even playing on grass at the weekend either, they were playing on a shitey patch of sand.

I counted 24 at one stage. Think there was maybe 10 by full time. Fair play to them like given their team had clearly chucked it.

Fucking Captain's Call? The only reason that shite would get anywhere is because of sunk cost fallacy. People are too scared just to accept that they were wrong and ditch it. Don't like our failed system? We'll take in even more rules just to make it slightly less shite. Of course, we'd then need to take in another rule to prevent players other than the captain speaking to the ref, lest they cloud his judgement and he is seen to be asking for a review just because he was shouted at. What's that ref? You asked for a review of a Tim's goal but not a Hun one? But there was a push in the build up. We must move back to checking all incidents, before this costs someone the league. And money. Don't forget money. The most important part of football. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the 7 tenths of a second thing, but surely the one thing that VAR has taught us, is that people who look onside aren't always onside and there is no possible way that everyone in the stadium can tell if someone is on or off in a marginal call.

That's actually exactly how we approached things in his caretaker spell. Clarkson goes direct and if it doesn't come off, you press high. We didn't dominate possession but, with Duk and Miovski on fire, we were clinical and ruthless. Of course, a fair few of Clarkson's passes were connecting with Miovski over the top too, which helped. We're going to need a better left centre half and another hard working midfielder to make that happen again though. I'd expect opponents to counter with an even deeper line and a holding midfielder. It won't be easy once teams work us out.

It's difficult. If the guy challenging Sokler had scored, in my opinion it should have stood. There is possibly a foul, but it's soft and just a good case of the player being stronger. I don't think there is a clear and obvious error to say that it would be a foul. Where it becomes difficult is that the soft foul directly caused Sokler to raise his arms. Because of the stupid rule change, handball is now not really a subjective call, it's more like an offside yes or no type decision - did it touch his hand or not. It changes the way that decisions are made, and I don't know what the ref is actually being asked to check. Are the VAR team saying that there is no clear and obvious error by the ref in not giving Sokler a foul (which I'd agree with), the ref is simply to confirm whether it has hit the player's hand? This is what replays do, and have always done and always will - they segment the play, stripping out all context, into individual decisions that don't affect one another. Unfortunately, there is no quality commentary on this effect, in Scotland (probably the UK). Of course, the easiest thing to do last night was say that it was a handball but the player was victim of a soft foul, so there is no clear and obvious error by the ref that would be allowed to be called back (in other words, you wouldn't call it back for a freekick to Aberdeen). I don't really care how many decisions we get our don't get. I didn't even care whether they got a penalty or not. It's completely non-partisan for me, it's utterly shite in every single way, and was always going to be. Six years in, and we still don't have a definition for clear and obvious, should tell everyone everything they need to know. I'd be interested to know the number of decisions generated by VAR because of VAR alone (stupid handballs and three inch offsides), but those statistics won't exist.

I just saw it on the highlights, it hits Sokler's hand. Of course, he knows nothing about it, he doesn't see the ball and is simply raising his hands because of the shove he receives. Nobody claims, ref sees the incident in context and knows that there's nothing to it. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a choice when VAR intervenes. They've actually really shot themselves in the foot by changing the handball rule at the same time as introducing VAR. There are so many decisions like today's, involving handball, that could just be overlooked if they were treated as clear and obvious errors based on the old deliberate handball. Instead, we waited four minutes for a nothing decision that no supporter or player saw happening. For the umpteenth time this season, across the continent. The decision is correct as per the ridiculous rule. It's clear and obvious that it has hit his hand, and the VAR folk would be in trouble for not spotting it if they didn't give it. Yet, we've got a decision that lacks any sporting integrity or decency. The whole point in VAR was to reduce unsporting decisions, instead they've created an entire category of unsporting incidents by changing the handball rule. It'd be interesting to see the proportion of incidents that are handball related. I expect a lot. When people that lack of sporting integrity, it leaves a sour taste. Nobody will feel that justice was served by giving that pen.