rabuddies

Seems fair enough. A free Saturday (no Shull, you still have to pay) is better than the week before Xmas.

Nothing stands out near the Abbey these days. There used to be a good little Italian in Silk Street which I used when I worked in Paisley 4/5 years ago. I know it had a face lift but whether it's still open I couldn't say. I lunch at Thai Siam in Lawn Streeta couple of Fridays a month and enjoy it (the lunch menu is pretty good but I think they also offer the full a la carte if you want to push the boat out). Cardosi's in Storie Street does a very good lunch menu but I would advise booking as it's quite popular on Graduation days. Piccolo Mondo in Renfrew is a favourite lunch haunt of the wife and her pal and I've never had a bad meal there. Was at the Glynhill recently but was not overly impressed. I would plump for Cardosi's just a short walk up the High Street - their lunch menu is here http://www.cardosis.com/menu.php?display=lunch

I think you have misread your history boys. Scotland was firmly liberal until the WWI but then voted "Tory" and indeed did so up until the 1960's. It was under the name of the Unionist Party but their MP's took the Tory whip at Westminster. Indeed two Tory Prime Ministers were Scottish Unionist MP's. They are the only party in Scottish electoral history to gain more than 50% of the popular vote. Scotland was traditionally a Protestant, pro-unionist country and was not that keen on a London based and London controlled Labour party, whose success in Scotland is really only in the last three decades of the last century. This change from unionist to labour coincided with the decline in membership of the Church of Scotland, with the increasing secularism of the population as a whole and the Catholic influence in (or infiltration of if you believe the WASP conspiracy theorists) the Labour party. In recent years, the decline in the labour party and the swing towards nationalism has similarly coincided with attacks on secular and liberal values by senior Catholic clergy and other serious PR disasters that have beset the Catholic Church worldwide. Funny how religion has influenced politics in Scotland over the last hundred years or so. Now, I say all this as a man of no religion, with a leftist leanings and a liberal philosophy on life. But I also say it as a man who spent almost 40 years of his working life with politicians, some of whom went on to grace the Palace of Westminster and, latterly, some to embarrass the nation by opening their mouth at Holyrood. Edited to add: Alex Salmond is the most smug-arsed of them all.

Good point FTOF. Let's not get too carried away. He has looked promising but he was suspect on their second and third goals yesterday. Young players have problems with knowing when and when not to commit to tackles and ball watching at certain times. I thought during the game that he should have shown the guy the bye-line rather than rush straight at him so that he went past him quite easily and he had no idea where Fallon was for the third. The highlights have just reinforced my initial thoughts. A tad harsh maybe but the club need to work on him and you can't do that in the first team, Perhaps give him a rest after a few more games and let him work on these improvements in a couple of U20 games. He just needs time. .

Why do these guys keep signing for clubs in these far corners of the footballing world? It never ends well. Mehmet had some bad experiences in Turkey (as do most of the Brits who go there) and in Thailand he lasted a month after their season started. Alan Gow was the first Scot to play in the i-League after a well reported move and managed 5 games before being dumped. He even considered going to play in Iran. Now Duffy has gone the India. Do they all share the same agent and does he also represent al-Qaeda? I wish them well but it will be interesting to see how long they last.

Evidence ? As an aside, "sooking etc" might well be libelous.

The money has been carefully invested, with particular emphasis on mitigating the tax liability. In fact I was checking out my, er, our investment just this weekend.

Er, where do you live again?

My preference is for the current system preferred by most of the German clubs - a 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 formation. My choice Vanzy / A N Other McGregor/Mair Cheesy Grainger Newton Goodwin Teale Gowser Harkins/McLean Thommo McGinn to cover defensive mid and to replace Newton when he goes back to NUFC in the new year. Bahooky to cover Thommo or to come on to change to 4-4-2. Defensively, we really need a right back and it might be a help to McGregor to double with Mair to get their match fitness up given the few games the've both played this year. It wouldn't worry me for that system to be called negative or boring. When you're in trouble you need to work hard and grind out results not punt the ball forward as we did on Saturday although I think that might have been the easiest formation for Bahooky to work with given he'd only been here for 24 hours.

There's a few belters from the Alhambra from back in the day, unlike the Glasgow Empire where they just booed them off and threw sweeties and apple cores and oranges at them.

They got a really hard time every time they played Glasgow. The first time was at the Alhambra for the famous "Five Past Eight Show" (for our younger listeners a weekly variety show which brought lots of top names to the city). Bernie had come on stage on his own in the fur coat / straw boater outfit that he copied from Bud Flanagan. He stood centre stage cracking gags and got nothing. Stone silence, not a cheep from the audience. After a couple of minutes, Mike came on stage playing his clarinet and still nothing until a lone voice in the stalls was heard to utter "Sufferin' Christ - there's two of them!".

Is Estonia in France? Not the last time I looked.

Erm. no it won't. The accounts will be an accurate statement of income, expenditure and a balance sheet. Nowhere will it mention what budget was available for players wages, cleaners wages, bus fares.................................................!!!!! There is no freedom of information in the private sector so you have no right to know. Next time you buy a packet of Juicy Fruit, try asking for a rundown of the Chicago Cubs player budget and see how far you get!!!! Chill and see what happens before the end of the window.

It must be, well according to STV who say:

I think it is safe to assume we were never interested in the first place. Just because some agitated eejits on here are so desperate for a signing that any name mentioned is an immediate target and has to be signed doesn't mean that the club has any interest in these players. This is not Football Manager or whatever that children of all ages play and think it real - the club do things properly and are trying to identify available players that will improve the squad. Then you have to deal with their agent and perhaps current club to try to make the deal. The presumption that the club is doing nothing is just laughable.

He was born in Brazil and used to play as a striker? Perhaps Vanzy doesn't have to fear for his place after all !!!!

The Accrington Stanley managing director has been suspended from football for 21 months for 735 breaches of FA betting rules. 231 were on games involving Accrington and 37 of them were on them to lose. He's just a pen-pusher, not directly involved at all. A number of their players were got lengthy suspensions a few years ago for betting on a game they played in and Stoke's Cameron Jerome was fined £50,000 for breaking betting rules but not related to betting on games he was involved in. In the 60's I can remember a few English players going to jail over this, which did include match-faxing admittedly, but the authorities frown on this from a good height. Think Shull's original comments might just hit the nail on the head. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23753989

Just a few points on this: The stadium was designed for seating not for standing. SG was correct when he stated that you just can't take seats out and put standing areas in - it would require some serious modifications. I doubt any local authority (or police authority for that matter) would be willing to bite the bullet and approve safe standing areas. For a start, define "safe"? Any risk assessment would firmly come down on the side of the status quo (ie sit on your arses 'cos it's safer!). Even if they did my guess is they would cut the capacity to around 5,000 at SMP. Insurance costs. Given the modern propensity for litigation, public liability insurance is becoming prohibitive for a sole trader, never mind a club with the potential for say 1,000 standing fans. I'm lucky, I had years of standing on the terracing with 8,000 fans in the ground and I loved every minute of it. But that was 8,000 fans in a ground that could hold 49,000. Frankly, SMP is too small for standing. Sad, but there you go. All things must pass.

Sorry Shull, but they are probably feeding rather than watering. Rain won't make much difference.

Very impressive scoring record according to the Southport website. Six goals from no appearances. If he doesn't play for us could he bag 15 this season?

Live from Dubai.

Gone to Dubai to work for Al Jaseera presenting their EPL coverage. Mega bucks time. Sent from my GT-I8160 using Black & White Army mobile app

Lifted today. Mind you they could still go bust as they are still in administration, but apparently not in a football sense ?????? Frying pan to fire in Webster's case but he and his agent were down there earlier this week for detailed discussions and he should sign tomorrow. Not a bad deal though getting an international defender on a free.

Any away games scheduled for TV?

You don't do your business in public.