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flyingscot

Saints
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Posts posted by flyingscot

  1. When Caprice came on and Teale moved over to the left I thought we really looked like a team that would go and score goals, there was certainly no shortage of service it was just that the service was not going where the striker was.

    I thought that was more down to Motherwell just accepting a 1-0 and shutting up shop.

  2. We seem to be sacrificing Paul McGowan in order to give Gary Harkins a more advanced, free role.

    unfortunately, Harkins doesnt work hard enough and basically isnt as good as Paul McGowan in order to justify this switch

    Trying to accomodate Harkins has resulted in playing a few players out of position

    To be honest I am now coming round to agree with Lex (had to happen someday) in that I don't think Harkins is the right player for us.

    He has ability but he doesn't work hard enough to merit a start in our team IMHO.

    I'd be quite happy to see him sat on the bench.

    McGowan remains one of our best players and he shouldn't be sacrificed for anyone. Wouldn't play him up front though,

    I agree with both of these posts. I didn't really think Harkins was a great signing, although he does have some great bits of skill the way things went at Killie concerned me. He doesn't seem to have a lot of pace and his tracking and defending (esp at Ross County) isn't great.

    Gowser is more of a grafter (not a he runs about a lot more so is better camp) but McGowan has genuine quality and vision. McGowan could and should be played much further forward but not up top. He is the focal point of our attach and is wasted deep.

  3. I tend to drink half pints in a pint glass, as they always give you more than a half pint. It also allows you to taste more different types of beer.

    The beer I was drinking was £1.30/£1.40 a half pint. A pint was double that.

    I thought it was loosely based on %, with a (understandable) mark-up for the foreign stuff. The weaker stuff is £1.20 a 1/2 and the strong stuff £2.50.

  4. Allegations of price fixing, dawn raids on the likes of Vodafone, double charging on roaming fees, overcharging on a whole range of types of call, differing exorbitant charges depending on which phone you were calling (without you having any way of knowing what network you were calling to), charging for 0800 calls, collusion on prices between the big firms, deliberately confusing multiple tarrifs preventing easy comparison, advertising one totally misleading price but then adding 70% in small print through line rental etc......the list goes on.

    I'd say Telecoms was another example of where we've been shafted over the years.

    Aye cause the old British Telecom were renowned for their brilliant and cheap service. The brilliant days of party lines and waiting lists for installation to a business starved of investment.

    I now have a choice of loads of telecoms companies and pay £8 a month for a mobile phone service. If I don't like it there are plenty of other operators out there to move to.

  5. Ulster 12-13 Glasgow

    What a way to spoil the new Ravenhill revamp opening. Glasgow well under the cosh for last 30 mins but ended the stronger despite being down to 14. James Eddie crossed under the posts in the last minute and Hogg converted for the win with no time to kick off.

    Brilliant win but a complete robbery!

  6. On that logic, had it been £12 a ticket and say half of the additional spectators ventured through to Edinburgh i.e 705 @ £12 would have bagged them £8,460 so maybe £12 is about right!

    True, but that assumes it's linear. It probably is more complex than that.

    That's also just looking at away support although looking at Hearts homes support is difficult to do as they've been in crisis. Any cost saving has to increase the home support too and Motherwell proved that the fairweather support wasn't there enough even when tickets went down.

    Only a fiver for new Embra students to go see hibs v Saints next week.

    http://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/news/20130912/fresh-student-ticket-offer_2262950_3455861

    The sort of thing the Buddie management are no doubt pushing...?

    Can't see anything about buying tickets on the day? I expect that's always possible in the SPL.

    We've done similar before. We had offers at Paisley University back even when we were in D1.

    Interesting to hear Doncaster praising us on the BBC over the Panda Club too (and rightly so the idea is good).

  7. I wouldn't single out a single club, here, though.

    Overall, it would appear that the cost of following top flight football in Scotland has increased. That cannot be a good thing, when (arguably) the 'product' hasn't improved significantly.

    I have pretty much stopped going to away league matches as it is increasingly difficult to justify the cost involved. If matches were, say, £12, then I would be much more likely to travel to Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Perth etc.

    The game will die on its arse once the ageing hardcore waste away unless something is done to address the cost of following the game. Look around the stands on Saturday and it will be clear that a majority of those in the seats will be over 30. Giving kids free tickets is great, but will they be willing to take the jump to forking out £20+ when they reach 18 or so? I'm not convinced.

    True, but then when we came into the SPL in 2006 I think Saints tickets were £20, and they haven't really changed much have they- whereas with inflation should now probably be £25 or so. I agree that the game is a struggle to convince people to come. Especially as kids now are more used to watching football on TV these days rather than in stands. I can remember being a kid that it was only big games and internationals on TV. Now it is Real/Man U/Dortmund on the TV with football on every day in a way that would be unthinkable 30 years ago.

    Cheaper tickets would probably help but marketing from both club and league level needs to step up. It costs money but it really produces returns. I've been impressed with some of the effort the SRU have put into marketing rugby in Glasgow. If we take Glasgow rugby as an example in 2007 they got 1600 against Cardiff. Last week they played them and got 5,052. That's despite increasing ticket prices too. Now I accept they are coming from a low base and football is never going to have the same growth possibilities due to the number of clubs / local loyalties / gruesome twosome hoovering up fans but we could do better from a marketing viewpoint, however it costs money.

    On the point that Last season Hearts charged us something like £24 a ticket at Tynecastle. 366 Saints fans went. Now if we assume half were concessions at half price that is something like £6,500. They reduced it to £5 for our last game, 1044 went making them £5,200. Maybe there is a point where lower prices would make more money but I can't see that being £12.

  8. Same goes for the no right turn coming out of McDonalds ( near, but not in Linwood).

    Looks ropey but again I've seen things like that actually being legal!

    Even if it was granted special status for a box junction it's not enforceable as it's not correctly marked out.

    I'm sure the same would apply to the box junction at the bottom of Greenhill Road at this sorting office.

    Nah I've you've got special auth you're good to go and issue fines to drivers. Most won't know anyway- whilst it's easier to get off if it has been decriminalised the police giving you a ticket and you ending up arguing in court is maybe wasting more than £50 notes.

    Very difficult to actually get a legal box junction on a road network designed centuries ago. If I worked for the council I'd be applying for special authorisation all the time till they changed things a bit. I actually don't like box junctions- think they are ugly.

  9. Why would the Underwood Rd box not be enforceable?
    I drove back that way for a point and laugh moment and it certainly looked like he was being booked.

    The one at the railway bridge?

    The markings aren't kerb to kerb to start with so this alone would make mean it's not enforceable.

    Also needs to be 2 or more roads at the junction.

    This should be marked with white paint and keep clear or on coming vehicles have priority road signs.


    Edit to add- read original post properly, railway bridge box junction would be thrown out on appeal for reasons above.

    Hope he's no aware enough to know this though after being a knob end.

    Correct. I understand why they did it and it make sense, as white markings or keep clear would be ignored. However you can't legally enforce it unless they have been granted special authorisation by Transport Scotland.

  10. So Chick says he thinks Danny will be gone before the Well match...and Graeme MacPherson says the board have decided to stand by Danny and support him.

    At least that's the issue cleared up! thumbdown.gif

    The club doesn't need this cloud hanging over it for 2 weeks, a definitive answer is what's needed.

    Graeme MacPherson alluded to both being possibly correct. The board comes out and states that but they were never going to say "Naw we're having a meeting to discuss firing him but don't tell anyone till we speak to Danny"

  11. Regression to the mean is a decent logic statistically, like you say. I've used it in accident analysis- you can have a road with 1 or 2 accidents a year, which jumps to 4 or 5 then falls back to its previous background level. Not sure how well it works to a football environment where there are perhaps more variables, year to year.

    I also find some of the results bounces if they hadn't changed the manager debatable. Not sure McLeish would have got the same signings or results as Lambert has with Villa. Sometimes a change of manager can result in a change of direction- particularly with signings.

    I can understand the losing the dressing room scenario too. Morale, confidence and leadership come partly from the manager. I've seen situations outside of football where a managers decisions have caused loss of morale and subsequent dips in staff performance down to managerial decisions. Equally if you see colleagues or team mates frozen out, perhaps unjustifiably (Lee Mair?), it is likely to cause concern to others that it might happen to them.

  12. The abuse to Caprice was out of line. I understand the frustration, but to a young kid on his home debut that hadn't done anything wrong in the minutes he'd been on it wasn't acceptable, or helpful to the kid. His reaction told you all.

    From where I was I saw a few people in front then argued with the guy.

  13. I thought about Harkins on the left but so far he's shown willingness to track back. That would be good going forward but I'd prefer someone who will help out at the back.

    For me Harkins and McGowan are best playing off Thommo, if it comes down to a choice I'd pick Gowser.

    Harkins is a luxury player we cannot afford as he does not do enough work to be in midfield picking up runners.

  14. As I left the ground yesterday...a father and son were screaming at Cornell to go back to Swansea.

    No idea what game they were watching.

    This comes from the goalkeeper bashing that seemed to start because he took time to settle in during pre-season. He did nothing wrong that whole game and saved us from a bigger hiding.

    The worst think I heard yesterday was someone in the west stand who told Caprice with 5 minutes left to 'F**k off back to Blackpool'. Caprice absolutely heard it as did the Thistle players by their reaction. Poor lad looked stunned. Guys in front then had an argument with him about it. Grim.

    Booing at full time is acceptable. We gave the team good support through the game, but the fans want the board/manager and others to know that what we've been seeing is not acceptable.

  15. It's a 56 plate megane.

    If you've seen the top gear episode specifically about this issue, you'll know that the Kents at Renault are at it and its easier to get into Fort Knox.

    Would normally go to Geirge Wade but he doesn't work weekends.

    Ha, I'd be amazed if they do the Megane. Wheel off job isn't it? Typical nonsense French design!

  16. Correct Danny deserves praise for winning the cup, without a doubt.

    It doesn't excuse the work in this year's transfer market which has been awful in my view and he has failed to plug noticeable gaps, particularly up front and in left midfield. Even Grainger came in after pre-season had started. I also think releasing Guy before we had replacement strikers was a mistake.

    I hope we get things sorted sooner rather than later.

  17. Clear that our main concerns are the keeper and another striker, that shot was terrible, any decent keeper would have saved it! mad.gifmad.gif

    From the radio it sounded like Cornell had been pulling off decent saves all night. I think he is getting an unfair amount of criticism- he didn't seem at all bad last few couple of times I saw him.

    I'm critical of Lennon but I think a wee bit of a reality check needed at the moment. Tonight wasn't make or break for Lennon, although it is thoroughly disappointing.

    SPL clubs have hit the rocks at Palmerston before- Hibs last year at the same stage and it was a very tough unseeded team to get. Killie went out at home to Hamilton and Stranraer put 3 past Ross County to win- underdogs do sometimes rise up to beat the 'bigger team'.

    Lets move on, focus on Saturday and see where we are after that.

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