RicoS321

I hope they both get up. Livi are actually playing some great football this season, and Falkirk obviously have been very good to watch too. Interestingly, both plastic pitches have looked immaculate this season. Almost as if they've set them up to be at their best for playing football on, rather than using them to stifle the game (by not watering them etc). I hope they both come up and stay up so that it comes to a head with the horrendous, self-preservation/closed shop plastic pitch decision. Livi won't be able to afford to replace theirs, and there'll maybe be at least one team promoted from the championship that has one too.

Did I? How prescient! I think he's already a good player, as good as Palaversa probably, but just been unlucky with injury. He's only appeared 7 times this season, though, so it's difficult to get an overall view of where he is at the moment. His biggest flaw was his lack of coverage in games, but Palaversa struggled with this yesterday and was done by half time against the Huns after putting in a shift. We really need to see him get 45 minutes against 11 men to see how he fits in. Yesterday showed that he should have been given an opportunity against the Huns last week, as many of us said (and not in hindsight).

He was poor yesterday and lasted 120 minutes with a guy that's had a great season on the bench. He fucked up for the first against the Huns last week and yesterday was being targeted defensively until they went down to ten. I agree, he's been decent since he came in, but he seems to be undroppable. If fairness comes into it, then it's incredibly unfair on Devlin to not be getting minutes in place of him. If I were Devlin, I'd be looking to move on in the summer. A guy with his effort, aggression and drive shouldn't be sitting on a bench every week. At the moment he's here to fulfil a Scottish quota for next season, but if we don't get top three or win the cup then we don't require that, and he'll see less and less game time. The longer he's not playing, too, the more rusty he'll get, and he'll start making mistakes in the 10-20 minute cameos, and he'll leave with a poor reputation. From the player's perspective, it'd be best to move on in my opinion.

Piece of piss, never in doubt. Some honking performances today, but we rode through it. Good to see that diving wee cunt Devlin get sent off, and I loved the way we knew that those dirty hammer throwers would go down to nine, so just played it calmly around them until then. We were poor, but the back four were fine defensively (although not sure how Jensen lasted the match). Shinnie and Clarkson good. Palaversa poor, and Gueye might look good on the telly, but he's a complete liability. Either giving the ball away, or just ignoring his man, a terrible team player. Okkels good when he came on again, as was Keskinen before he went off. Morris largely anonymous. Polvara offered something when he came on. Anyway, gives us the chance for glorious failure next month.

Note to self: leaving at 7:30 is ridiculously unnecessary.

Finished 5-0 to Livi. They looked good, some great finishes. Think Hearts might just have a bit too much for them in the playoff though.

Brown's boys getting a doin by the former dealer's mob. Livi playing some good stuff, Ayr are agricultural pish, ironically. Impressive from Martindale like, Livi still punching above their weight finishing second.

Aye, I think it could have a huge effect on tomorrow. However, I'm wouldn't say we bottled it all. The frustrating thing was that they didn't do anything to us the entire game. We didn't sit in, and they didn't pressure us at all, it was just complete slackness at the back. Dorrington was probably the only player that looked slightly jittery, but even then they were still riding their luck with plenty of good chances for us, and a goal correctly disallowed by an incorrect rule. It was just unadulterated slackness, which I think that, if dwelled upon, could lead to plenty of bottling in the coming weeks. Clarkson, for example, who miss controlled for their equaliser, was still looking for intricate passes and making runs with the ball well into stoppage time (I actually think he fucked it because he was already looking for the pass before he'd got it under control). There were no nerves, just slackness, but that will lead to nerves if the manager doesn't get on top of it. But aye, raging at how complacent we were.

A seven and a half point deduction? Bloody SPFL.

Agreed. It's Scottish fitba's tariff war.

There won't be segregation outside. Just steam through them. Rotate your arms in helicopter fashion, and if any Jambo gets hit then they've only themselves to blame.

It sounded like you were suggesting that people would go to a game because of the money that could potentially be won from it. That is a fairly fucked up way to look at football surely? That same £6M would go to us for winning the cup, but I doubt a single fan would be attending the semi or potential final for that reason. But mainly I think it's fucked up because you're likely right, there probably are people who view the game that way. I just didn't think competitive sport really needed the abstraction of prize money to attract an audience.

Strange like. Three games to go. The same points deduction as going into administration? Mental.

An Aberdeen fan marrying a hearts fan? Bit sick. Should the BBC really be showing that sort of thing?

Do fans of football teams speak about their own fixtures in terms of money? That's a bit fucked up. I'd say that losing that goal to the Hun, followed by a loss in the cup would see us struggle to sell it. Hopefully we don't find out.

Lose at the weekend and we're not going to be close to selling out, so we'll effectively be losing out too.

I thought they'd removed the fence? Hilarious jokes aside, I am not on the fence, I don't think it's a good call. They should get the same as the Tims*. We know they'll sell their allocation, and we shouldn't use their last crowd as a barometer, just as we shouldn't use our semi crowds for final tickets ever. It's completely normal for different fixtures against the same team to have a bigger draw, depending on what is riding on it, or form of one team. I don't know how you get to a satisfactory position on this though. For Pittodrie, it should be straight forward enough to give the away fans reduced allocation, but if they sell that allocation in the first few days, then that seat gets shifted over (rightward if you're facing the South), opening up another section for away fans. The seats/tickets are then issued at that point, which means that those buying first get the better seats (in theory). If the allocation is not used within three days then the allocation goes to Dons fans, with the option to swap seats to be closer to the away section for those with limited sense of smell. *Or whatever their normal allocation is

Locos maybe? Population slightly bigger than the Broch, but probably never had the support. Brora is tiny. They'd be a great addition to the leagues though, just for the seethe of weegies having to travel fucking miles to play them.

Would have preferred the Hibs and Tims games switched. If we do get to the final (I have my doubts), then it'd be shite to play them twice in quick succession. Hibs final day would have been great too. Edit: they should also refrain from giving the teams with only two home games a midweek home fixture.

With Polvara not getting any game time, do we reckon he'll be on his way in the summer? Still got a year left I think, but can't imagine he's going to be sitting on our bench until then. I think he probably suffers from the same issues as he did before he went on loan to the states a while back. Not aggressive enough and doesn't do the mileage required. I can't help but think that with a good degree of training he could be a really useful player. Training of the physical sort too, as he's technically good. Get him out jogging on the beach. Half marathons at a time. He's a better footballer than Ramadani, for example, but just covers half the ground.

Aye, it was clear what he was doing, but it was still the wrong call. Shinnie did get stuck in when moved to midfield, but I'm not convinced it was the real problem. Palaversa just stopped retaining possession and looked confused at being on a football pitch. Polvara is capable enough to put his foot on the ball and try to play the game. I'd say he's quite similar to Palaversa. The biggest problem about the change was the change to the winning formula on left and right though. Jensen isn't a left back (I'd rather see Devlin there, at least he'd keep things simple and be aggressive) at all, and we just had a gaping hole where Shinnie had been, as well as disrupting our back four. A positive improvement in midfield, outweighed by a negative at fullbacks. When you're 2-1 up, you probably shouldn't be fucking about too much with the back line. It's a big problem in the coming fixtures though. Clarkson seems to have found his feet, and is now able to play ninety minutes at the tempo Thelin wants, but Palaversa is still a good bit short. With Nilsen out, we're going to need someone capable of playing that last thirty minutes, as it's a hell of a lot to ask of Shinnie after running up and down the line for an hour. I can only assume that he thinks Polvara doesn't have the work rate required to play there.

Aye, today probably lost it for us. We could have beaten them at Pittodrie and been a point ahead. It'll be interesting to see the post split fixtures. No doubt we'll play the Tims here on the final day of the season, so that if we do get to the final then we have to play them twice in a week.

Also, it's a fucking terrible way to be going into a semi final. Go ahead in that game, and we'll basically be shitting it that we might lose a goal. It basically feels like a loss today, and might as well have been.

Aye, what everyone else said. Dorrington a young lad, decent enough with the ball at his feet, but was bossed too easily by their striker. The subs, though, were a joke. What was Thelin thinking? Palaversa once again starts a second half like he's never played football before, but take on Polvara and leave it at that. Sokler for Gueye and leave him up front alongside Nisbet as a straight replacement. Jensen to left back? Fucking hell, no need. He was fine at right back and Shinnie excellent on the left. Just fucking about with it for the sake of fucking about with it. Our squad is not good enough to make four changes and see out a game against a team making strengthening changes. Dabbagh is pish and doesn't need to be tried out in a game so important. We certainly don't need to be changing both fullbacks when we're so dominant, and we definitely didn't need to narrow the game down with the wingers when they had ten men. I fucking hate five subs, I have to say, it should have been ditched after COVID. It's almost like managers feel like they have to make changes for the sake of it. Anyway, we completely destroyed them in the first half for the second time this season. Some brilliant football, with Keskinen and Morris absolutely battering them. Keskinen's best game for us I'd say, and unlucky not to score one of the opportunities he created. Nisbet was linking things nicely and Gueye was working hard with one in four of his touches working. Shinnie and Jensen working their arses off to allow the wingers to play and Clarkson picking all the right passes and defending well too. The manager fucked it, basically.

Aye, he has. Hopefully Gueye is further forward with Nisbet in behind, as that is far more effective and better in defence. Edit to add: Sunday public transport and early kick offs are fucking shite. A bad time to have a broken car and bike.