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At least Hoikett and Philips starting makes it interesting

Don't ever remember him playing. Surprised to learn he actually played a total of 40 minutes across three games. I would trust Barry Robson's judgement though. No reason to doubt him or Craig Samson.

As poor as we have been, surely even we can't fail to gain enough points from what is a very favourable run in to the split. St Johnstone (home) St Mirren (away) Dundee (away) Motherwell (away) Ross County (home) Livingston (away) Dundee (home) Even being pessimistic I'd still expect a minimum of 15 points from that which may be enough to make the top six. There is simply no excuse in losing to this St Johnstone team. If Warnock can't even win this then sack him tomorrow and give it to Kris Boyd just to really mess with us.

All our recent goalkeepers have been the same though, guys that weren't playing. Danny Ward, Joe Lewis, Kelle Roos. Not the worst shout getting him in I'd say.

Clement has now joined the same gym as me, so we're basically pals now. As is Nick Walsh who is also a member. Together the three of us basically run Scottish football.

Kilmarnock aren't punching above their weight though. Neither are St Mirren. Unless either of them end the season with the Scottish Cup, they are where they should be when you consider the state of the Scottish Premiership. Yes, Kilmarnock are having a good season, taking advantage of bigger clubs like Aberdeen and Hibs having a poor season and Dundee United being out of it. It's allowed Killie, St Mirren and Dundee to be higher than they normally would be. The Killie board - seeing European football within their grasp - have backed McInnes and they were able to offer more money than Motherwell to secure Van Veen, while they have picked up a fair few others on decent money. But I don't see any legacy building at Kilmarnock. Once the European campaign ends in August, Armstrong and Watson leave, Van Veen goes back to Holland, and (you hope) Aberdeen sort themselves out, Killie will head back down the table. And if McInnes came back here, he'd cause the same problems he did before. Yes, he might get more from this squad than Robson/Warnock, but it's short term success. Long term we'd continue to rely on loans and throw money at signings, and we'd probably slip back like we did in his first spell. We should be looking for better than McInnes. Goodwin actually achieved very little with St Mirren. He's not in the same conversation as the exciting prospects out there. He was - we thought - the right man when he came in as we needed a bit of pragmatism after Glassball had loads of possession but could not score or defend. Instead he tried to be something he wasn't and failed spectacularly. This time we need a manager that has a history of turning clubs into a team to be feared, who short term can galvanise the support and long term can make us a force again. We need a more attainable version of Philippe Clement to be honest. Scandinavia is a hotbed for cracking managers under 50 who are doing great things at small clubs on limited resources.

Johan Hoff Thorup (Nordsjæland, Denmark) In the Conference League they finished third, but beat Ludogorets 7-1 and Fenerbahce 6-1 (which makes you wonder how the hell they finished third). A bigger club will be along for him soon you imagine. Erik Horneland (SK Brann, Norway) Did well at Haugesund, struggled at Rosenborg, but doing well again at Brann where he has a 65% win rate and has won the Norwegian Cup. Finished second last season behind Bodo/Glimt. Jimmy Thelin (Elfsborg, Sweden) Already posted about him. Elfsborg finished second last season and Thelin's direct 4-2-3-1 I think would work well in Scottish football. Actually suffered a 3-2 defeat to a lower league team in the Swedish Cup yesterday, but it's a group stage so they can still progress. Stephen Robinson (St Mirren, Scotland) Might finish fifth with St Mirren in a really poor league. But "knows the league", is a "safe pair of hands", and "Most St Mirren fans like him". Would also fit our strategy of sacking Derek McInnes but not actually replacing him with better. Brendan Rodgers (Celtic, Scotland) Was once a really highly thought of manager. Likely to be a free agent soon and looking for a new challenge.

He isn't past it though. No one is past it at 32. And he's had good performances this season. But we're asking too much from him every week. He has a place in a properly thought out midfield.

That's my point though. No-one appears to know what Gunn's job is. Director of Football is a fluid description, it could mean something different from one club to the next. Gunn could be very good at his job. Or, he could be very bad and it and the big reason for our poor season. But to say it's not Warnock's fault, it's Gunn's, is a stab in the dark. It's also ignoring that today there was a lack of any attempt to play football. Even if the squad is lacking players, it's not a good enough excuse for that performance. That wasn't why we lost the game. It's Warnock shifting the blame and giving us something else to focus on. I really struggle to think of one good attacking move we created today. There seemed no coherent game plan at all. At points in the second half we were just hammering shots off defenders any time the ball was near their box. It was just a mess. We played like 11 lads who had signed up for a game of football, turned up, picked their positions and went out and played. Not a team that had a week's training and presumably had a meeting to discuss tactics and analyse the opposition. Warnock needs to take some blame for that and Cormack/Burrows/Gunn need to - if they haven't already - be moving up the timeline to get their permanent manager in sooner rather than later.

Is it Gunn though? He seems an easy person for others to hide behind. What is his remit? If it's to go and sign the players he's told to sign, well we've signed a lot of players. Cormack is the guy that wanted an interim rather than a permanent boss asap.

Rico is more than entitled to give his view on this shitshow. Appointing Warnock was a disastrous decision, which most of us predicted. It could have been Neil Lennon were it not for his Rep of Ireland talks at the time. He may have been marginally better but he's another dinosaur, and that these two men are the first choices Dave Cormack could come up with shows the backwards thinking at our club. If this four-month nonsense ends with Stephen Robinson appointed, then just close the doors.

Just win. Don't care how you do it.

Waiting four months to appoint Alex Neil when he's a free agent and available the entire time would be peak Aberdeen.

Just noticed Morris isn't in the squad at all. Although suppose someone has to drop out to accommodate Hoilett,

Back to a more normal looking line-up. Glad to see Duk start - as much as he's criticised he provides more than Polvara, Philips or any of the other potentials to start there.

I see what you're saying, and I guess fair play for not stubbornly sticking with his decision beyond 29 minutes which is what I would have expected Robson to do. But, it was an idiotic line-up, and Robson for his faults wouldn't set up that badly. One centre back, at least four players playing out of positions leaving us really vulnerable defensively. It's cost us two points and we're fortunate to get the one we did. An elbow can't be offside, so presumably it can't play someone onside either. Hands and arms aren't counted offside, so the line isn't drawn from his elbow, it's being drawn from his hip. The angle is a bit misleading, but if it was straightened up, Miovski's head is probably offside. It's still a ridiculous decision, but more due to the laws of the game determining inches like that are offside. I don't think we have the players to play how he wants to play either. He was stressing before the game about Motherwell being more physical than us. So he knows his "muck and nettles" way of playing is going to be difficult. Nah I thought that was the correct decision. Player pushes McGrath who then knocks over Roos. But then I'm biased.

Noticed that. Interesting.

It could be Mackenzie - Gartenmann - Devlin in a back three, and Shinnie and Morris as wing backs, which would be peculiar but may work on account Motherwell are shite.

Oh aye, I counted three maybe four "are you with me" in yesterday's press conference which I watched from start to finish because he's such a wonderful old man.

Hold on, so you're essentially a broadcast journalist? Get this boy banned. We don't need his type around here, fishing for stories and trying to find dirt on us all. Aye but he's 75 and did a documentary 20 years ago, so it's all a good laugh isn't it? Like Craig Levein. But just wonderfully loveable.

Motherwell fan at work labelled this as a relegation six-pointer and hard to argue with him based on the current form and league table. For Neil Warnock, his first week was a bit of a gimme as no-one expected anything from Ibrox, and no matter how badly we played v Bonnyrigg we were probably still going to navigate that tie. Now we're at the point where he's under pressure to deliver results. A draw does nothing for us, a defeat is unthinkable. Expect Gartenmann to start, but will it be for MacDonald or Jensen with the latter injured at the weekend? Not sure any of the 'fringe' players did much on Saturday to warrant a place. Similar starting line-up to Ibrox probably. Can see Hayes being back in. Dunno what to expect. I don't think we played well at Ibrox despite the platitudes, and we definitely didn't v Bonnyrigg.

That is a fucking disgrace. The Rangers allegiance is fine, it's all a bit of fun, but fuck Morton. Get him out. Get him out of our club now.

Lewis/Roos' alarming drops in ability - does Craig Sampson's coaching come into question? As for the game, Rangers pressed us in possession and we couldn't handle it, wanted too much time on the ball, and we coughed up possession. Yet we could have sneaked out of there with a draw.

"I applied for the Hearts job, and they gave it to some bloke from bloody Latvia or something, so that was an insult". Found that pretty cringey to be honest. Maybe cos it was actually Lithuania and I used to live with a Lithuanian, and I reckon they can manage a football team just as well as the English.

Fair play for answering all the points. I still don't agree it'a a safe appointment, I think it's a risk, even short term. And I'd rather we had our new manager in earlier. I was up for giving Robson a chance because he had been coaching for years, knew the club, and had watched closely all the mistakes the previous three managers had made. So I would say that did suggest he could turn it around, and short term he did. In hindsight, he should have been assistant to another manager. You're saying Cormack is taking a deeper look at the issues - that remains to be seen. As for the training/injures comment, that wasn't me, was Kowalski I think. Listen, he's got the job now. If it works out well and Aberdeen appoint a cracking manager for next season, then I've got it wrong. Hey, I got Goodwin and, eventually, Robson wrong. Good luck to the mad bastard.