RicoS321

What a finish. Great goal, after a pretty shoddy error from their defender. We've started very well.

Clarkson in behind, Keskinen and McGrath on the wings. Hopefully it'll be McGrath left, Keskinen right, as the partnerships with the fullbacks have been absolutely key.

Think Gueye might be injured, which would solve any selection dilemmas.

Hands off our caretaker flags at the game tomorrow?

Yep, Clarkson was good. Palaversa goes to the bench. Gueye probably starts out wide, but probably shouldn't. Despite his goals, Pape is probably second to Clarkson in behind, second to Keskinen out wide and second to Nisbet as number nine. You could argue for him getting the nod in any of those three positions though. The number ten does seem to bring the best out of him however.

Hat trick for the Scotland u17s. Captain too. Against tough opposition too, in Indonesia.

I reckon that's the market they're going for. Looks good with jeans, or something. Good ploy, and I think it'll sell well.

Grey. Decent effort.

Are hearts a basket case? They're in good shape financially. In Europe, finished third twice recently, have a good stadium and a waiting list for season tickets. Their squad isn't poor either. That said, I think the relationship with the chairman and the control issue will rule McInnes out like you suggest.

I've actually always really enjoyed the masters and good that it's on the BBC. However, I really hope they sort out a proper pitch this season, as last year's (I think it was last year) was a joke. It was a ridiculously thin piece of carpet, which I think was on concrete, and the carpet was folding over at the seams, with players tripping over it. Felt like they'd really cheaped out on it. Obviously, there's not really an indoor venue with proper 4G with the option of stands, which would be great, so it'll be interesting to see what they come up with this year.

I'm not quite sure how I managed to completely miss the Hibs connection with all those three. Impressive.

Why did you single out those three? Genuinely curious, is there something between Hearts and former/recent tims? Interested, because I thought that Lambert and Davidson were equally horrific shouts, given one hasn't managed in years and the other was fired from St Johnstone and doing worse than Brown in the Championship. McCabe being bottom of the Championship with Airdrie is also probably a poor shout, despite his decent team of last season.

It would have been a pretty impressive prediction that not only foresaw the points deficit, but that they'd also get knocked out of the league cup allowing them to bring a fixture forward, that's for sure. I predicted it, I just didn't want to say anything.

They haven't got a bad squad by any stretch, and it wouldn't surprise me if they got a lift from just binning their manager.

Nooooooooooo

I had to think about that for a second. I swapped ends at halftime.

Moderators: please delete all hearts chat until after our game against them. They've got a great young manager who should definitely be given at least three more games to turn it round.

Very much looked that way from where I was sitting behind the goals. I think he basically missed.

Well, that was as expected, completely dominant and another win! MacKenzie probably MOTM, his link up with McGrath is top notch. Back two solid again and we generally strolled it. A few things worth noting though. Nisbet wasn't amazing, and missed an absolute sitter, but he was better than Sokler who was poor again. Gueye out wide didn't really work. Keskinen was poor when he came on, terrible decision making, constantly running into trouble and not quick enough to get away from his man. However, he was playing on the opposite side, switching with McGrath, which hopefully is an experiment we don't repeat as it managed to bring out the worst in McGrath, Keskinen, Devlin and MacKenzie - quite a feat. Weirdly, we also inverted Shinnie and Palaversa (who was good today, moving the ball well) too, with both playing on their wrong foot. Obviously, it was a comfortable win in first gear, so it's difficult to read too much into it. There were plenty of positives, as well as a few questions that we'll hopefully answer in the coming fixtures.

You're right. He was clearly a leader for the Tims and Scotland, and us for 2-3 months. I just wouldn't think of him when discussing leaders of the Dons, because of his overall time here. Had he managed a full season of the standard he first set, then I'd definitely be thinking differently. Paul Hartley was a definite leader on the pitch, dragging us through his first few games (hat trick included), but I wouldn't think of him either.

Aye, that makes sense. Hopefully they'll get to have both of them together to talk about it the next round.

I didn't say lack of respect, I said the same level of respect. When he first joined, Brown was pointing around, getting players to be where he wanted to them (exactly like Nilsen), and shouting at people when we lost goals. By the end he was very much playing his own game and his head was down when we lost goals. We were heading towards relegation and nobody was looking to Brown for answers. He'd lost influence, especially with guys like Ferguson who were pulling more weight than Brown - he was offering them nothing (in my opinion, Brown was completely the wrong choice at that point in Ferguson's career when he was clearly needing to take on more responsibility himself, but no long term damage, and besides the point!). Goodwin didn't pick him, the evidence is there. I have no doubt it wasn't entirely due to performances, I don't think I said it was, but it was clear that he wanted Brown to be just a player that he could play or drop on his own terms, as opposed to the undroppable coach that Glass had made him. It was clear to everyone that it was the end for Brown at the Dons. He was never good enough at that stage to be the first name(s) on the teamsheet that we built a team around. I think most were glad when Barron came into the side instead. The injury I was referring to was after the hearts game, where he disappeared and then retired. Perhaps it was the club that made it sound like he was injured, maybe he was genuinely, I don't really care. Again, I'm not saying he was terrible, I'm simply saying he's not the guy I'd think of when discussing leaders at the Dons (neither is Bisconti). We've had far better. Nilsen is not the player Brown was at 32, but he'll hopefully complete two seasons of good, solid performances in the mode of which he has started. It's a little unfair on Brown to be talking of Nilsen as better, because we have the full picture with Brown and only a snapshot of what Nilsen might be.

Mental. I assume they've just taken the Motherwell TV commentary team? Was it not on premier last night?

I'm not rewriting history, I said he wasn't going to get a game under Goodwin, which was fairly clearly the case, whether it was because of scorched earth or because he was no longer able (given he retired straight away suggests both). You said "except he was getting a game under Goodwin", which is surely the most egregious rewriting of history this century. You can refuse to believe all you like, but history is full of older players - in fact, it's the norm - who are good enough early season and then struggle later when it becomes too much for them. Hartley and obvious example. Considine in his last six months at St Johnstone a recent one. Robson, Hayes etc etc. (although Hayes never really played much of a role the whole season). The signs were there with Brown well before his injury too. He was beginning to wander in games and it was clear that his teammates didn't have the respect for him that he'd earned earlier, arguing back etc. He was clearly fading. Again, it was all very predictable, pretty much all my Tim mates said that we'd be very lucky to get a season out of him; that they'd noticed his slowing down over the previous season.

He wasn't getting a game under Goodwin, he played once versus Hearts (I think), where he was garbage, before getting "injured" and never seen again. Goodwin didn't really have a choice in fairness, it was fairly clear that he could no longer perform even at the Dons level. Even McGeoch was playing better than him. It could have been because of his position draining the last of what he had out of him, as you suggest, but it really looked like his heart wasn't in it, save for some performances against the Hun where he seemed to be more interested in his own battle against them as a Tim (which benefitted us greatly in those fixtures). In terms of a leader, I mean someone that can raise the standards of those around them, generally through leading by example. Brown did that for a very limited period in a similar vein to Hartley or Bisconti. Robson had a greater impact as a leader, as had many others. The argument I was making was that he wasn't any better than Bisconti, and not someone I'd have brought up when discussing the lack of leaders due to his fleeting time here and lack of impact on any of those around him. The most frustrating thing about the Brown situation is was that it was all rather predictable. He wasn't what we needed at the time and didn't fit into Glass' system. He was here for his personality, which was bizarre. You could well be right about him being in a team with Shinnie.