The Original 59er

you were right on one count, but on the other.......ahem, out by 3 goals

I will probably regret this comment....................... I know that Shankland is being touted as an ugly sister's recruit and having scored a few in the last 10 games or so but I said before he carries too much weight and is a petulant child if things don't go his way. I would take a point if offered just now, but I live in greater hope 🤞

Back to the "squinty door" reference I once had the dubious pleasure of standing at that door (hoping that the lean wouldn't suddenly become a replica of the leaning tower of Pisa at that moment) face to face with our recently deceased monarch and her Ma (long since passed)! A wee bit like John Peel in the presence of his many musical heroes I somewhat froze at the moment and gazed her out, totally speechless...... one of the lasting memories was to remember to try and clean my teeth twice a day as her Ma had the worst set of molars I had ever set eyes on!

As long as he wont be a "Return to Sender" in a few months time!

I wan't necessarily referring to the "Squinty Door", but the fact that sandstone does have the tendency to absorb acids in the air resulting in the face of the sanstone spalling and becoming less watertight...... tho' the 12th century monks obviously found some good well cut sandstone from somewhere! P.S. I suppose I should add that the main addition to the building is as follows: "The transepts and choir were to remain in ruins until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when they were restored to create one of the finest churches in Scotland", so technically not 12th century sandstone, but it still has lasted well given the filthy air around Paisley through the last century!

They probably haven't analysed that particular construction detail yet (probably hoping for the best that they got away with it!) so maybe with a bit of luck, we might see total demolition in the next 12 months

Sadly, concrete becomes harder and more durable as time passes, as opposed to cut sandstone which erodes with the weather. Come to think of it didn't the "intelligent Council Planners within the said building" suggest that their pride and joy should become a listed building a few years ago (stating that the concrete monstosity was a good example of its kind! )? Only in Paisley could Councils (Regional and County at the time) could come up with such a ribbed monstrosity opposite such an iconic 10th century building as a set off to show the Abbey in its best light!

He suggests that he was a positive influence in him coming here

I beg to disagree, we played better last night than we did against County, where we certainly deserved to lose, but last night we were wasteful over the 98 minutes, where we created quite a number of chances, but you could see last year's problems re-surfacing where the so-called strikers were far from being accurate. Then along came the last minute and we panicked! We didn't however, over the 99 minutes played, deserve to lose. I agree with your overall summary that the quality of the teams below Celtic and Rangers is very, very poor and if any one side has a reasonable player, they stand out against any of the other 9 in the league. It somewhat sums up why we managed to get so high in the league and we are still up there, despite having a run of pretty poor results. I would like to think that the league is better than the 4th tier of English football, but from what I've seen both live and on match highlights, it's not that much better!

What I've seen of Bolton doesn't suggest a nightmare waiting to happen, he is perhaps not as quick footed as Taylor but he seems to clear his lines when the ball comes his way in the back line. Maybe he doesn't inpire total confidence to his Manger in training, or show that he has the ball playing ability to the same degree as others, but so far I haven't seen a waste of a salary. I agree that Gogic has been solid at the back and 8 times out of 10 he reads the game well, and occasionally he gets beaten for speed, but his game management makes up for that so I would leave him at the back. As an aside, a player I have watched this year is Yan Dhanda at Ross County and I like him. He plays with a no. 10 on his back and plays like one. He is creative and I think if he was in the right team, he could certainly be an asset and do some damage to the opposition.......... just a thought!

It was a very painful 96 minutes or so. Painful as the spectacle that was described as football was maybe a misdescription, in that the ball was in the air probably 60 to 70% of the game and hardly any good one-touch football was in evidence. Where has our composure gone? It has been missing for a few games now. Against Hibs were were really lucky to get anything out of the game and against the other Saints our first 35 minutes or so was just like Tuesday evening. We got away with it against Livi, but that approach failed us against County as their backs were generally bigger and more robust then our forwards. Mandron certainly didn't impose himself to particularly bother them. In fact the only point when I thought we kept the ball on the ground and tried to get something out of the game was in the final 10 minutes when it was played into Ayunga's feet. Really disappointing as I thought we had more confidence than that display. All I can hope for is that it is a form blip and that for every good run a poor one can come along, or injuries catch us out. I'm not overly concerned as I'm sure SR can turn it around and that the so-called free-scoring forwards start firing again. 🤞

This season is another case of getting better crowds and more income and so far optimistically the Club is looking up rather than down (other than at those behind us in the league). So I would say a good step in the right direction, but success brings its own problems, as both the terrible twins will testify, success breeds success and failure to replicate it brings different pressures which in our case will be difficult to consistently replicate. So let's all enjoy this moment when we can and as we all remember the debt that built up in the 80's trying to keep up with the Jones's left us with a headache that we were lucky to get out of.

An optimistic prediction, not without reason given our start to the season, but generally hopeful. Perhaps the addition of a couple of extra players in the window and more consistency between the back and the middle of the park would give me some of your optimism that it might be possible!

White Elephant and Joanna's in Bath St. Glasgow were my preferred haunts........ I had left Paisley by then and Glasgow had a wider pool to draw from.

Whilst I liked the photos, especial;ly the one with the Barshaw Bandstand and seating, Showaddywaddy weren't exactly my cup of tea by that time

I'm getting there sooner than I initially thought, and if the quote is true the help from Langfield is making him into a really good all round goalie.

I had an interesting day on Saturday at the SMISA stadium! Arrived at the queue to enter via the turnstyle only to see a large collection of the boys and girls in blue (and bright yellow see in the dark over-jackets!). Wondering what on earth such a conglomeration of our finest crime fighters was doing at a battle of the two Saints, I happened to mention the fact to the two people in front of me in the slow-moving line. It turned out that neither had any idea, since this was their first visit to Paisley and in particular they had come to see the game...... all the way from Holland. One was an Ajax supporter and the other was a PSV fan. We exchanged pleasantries and hoped they would see a good game with a few goals! Once inside the ground I got to my seat and as usual there were a few announcements and at one point the guy next to me stood up and said; "that was me he was announcing"! So we had a few exchanges and I established he and his wife had travelled up the day before and they were having the weekend here and the highlight was tickets to see the game. Another couple of people who had never seen the Saints before! As it turned out they had chosen St. Mirren as the team in Scotland to support 10 years ago, but whilst watching their results every week, they had never managed to see them live......... so his wife had surprised him by buying tickets for his birthday and not until they had crossed the border and were heading for Glasgow did he have any clue where they were going. As for our finest bobbies........ they were there to protect anyone from the so-called casuals or if you want to be more precise the disaffected youths of the town, who gathered after the game was over and they then escorted them into the depths of the surrounding housing and left them to get on with their shenanigans wherever they re-collected themselves........ who knows if they enjoyed themselves, but certainly our first visitors and hopefully new-found supporters did, it was good to watch in the 2nd half.

Looks as tho' the Abbey is falling in on itself....... a job for lens correction (or Photoshop perhaps)!

Sadly caught by cancer................... and no he didn't charge me for that little gem of advice, which I have tried to follow to the best of my abilities. Checking and double-checking texts and posts on here is hard going, especially with so many "learned" obervers out there............ I might catch on in another 15 years!

Just one wee contribution to make: " generally in all legal disputes between parties there are only two parties that really make anything out of it and that is the lawyers". Stopping the action is wise on all fronts, not a lot to be gained by anyone involved. It was a lawyer advising me at one point quite a few years ago that gave me a very good bit of advice that I have adhered to ever since, I will share it with you if anyone is interested, if not scrub it from your memory and think otherwise: "illogical people go to illogical lengths to prove illogical ponts, don't go there"

I recognised the 15th & 16th holes of Elderslie Golf Club before anything else...... and no, not a member there!

I think Small will feature somewhere along the line this Saturday and to be fair I thought he was good last year, fast, good crosses but occasionally a bit hot-headed. However I think he could slot in. We all thought that last season, when we had the chance to seal a top 6 place, a win against a struggling Kilmarnock side was a bookies favourite, but we know better and ultimately had to settle for someone else helping us make the top half.................. so you just never quite know with the Buddies, but if I was a betting man I would put a little money on say maybe a 2-0 win (with a bit of huff and puff to get there)!

I bought my ticket from their ticket office on Friday and was informed that: (a) no chance that the game would be off due to the pitch conditions as they know they have a good well-draing pitch, (though the person selling me the ticket to the central East stand reckoned it might be 4-0 at HT to the down wind side and a 5-4 win for someone after 90 minutes!) (b) Saints had already travelled and were staying in Dingwall overnight. So I was surprised on Saturday morning (whilst scoffing my breakfast in Strathpeffer) that they game was off. Off down to the ground just after 10:00 and luckily found a staff memnber who was coming in to sort out some mail, but generally it was like the Marie Celeste with lots of water about and not many people to be found. We had a wee chat about refunds and yes they have been brilliant about it and already have full instructions on the process of the refund, as I am unlikely to be up here in a mid-week period in January / February. However the game wasn't postponed by County, it was the polis that called it off, suggesting to County "that they could be liable" should anyone be injured coming or going to the game due to the weather or the road conditions. I can't see that this argument would hold per se as the polis didn't cancel a gig in Strathpeffer on Saturday night and use the same reasoning to put off the event for the 500+ that attended! In retrospect the right decision was probably made, but I was pi**ed off as I hadn't been to a game in Dingwall before and it would have added to my list of Scottish away venues......... but it saved many from a miserable run up a partially blocked A9, more than 4 hours of travel and perhaps more importantly lives weren't put at risk - it was, after all, only a game of footie!

Coats works and the Anchor Playing fields as you look up towards the town centre from 1929