Al Bundy

McInnes must go. Sack everyone. Fit like.

Spartans recent results: 19/11/16 - Beat East Kilbride 1-0 at home 15/11/16 - Beat Preston Athletic 2-1 at home 12/11/16 - Lost to Tynecastle 1-0 away in the South Region Challenge Cup 05/11/16 - Lost to Gala Fairydean 3-2 away They are second in their league, miles behind East Kilbride, level on points with the mighty Dalbeattie Star but with a better goal difference and one point ahead of the even mightier East Stirlingshire. As someone else mentioned Eddie Malone is in their squad and ex Falkirk and Aberdeen player Gary Smith is their assistant manager, having had a look at their website none of their other players names seemed familiar. The match report for their defeat to Tynecastle mentions Jack Ross was spotted in the crowd. For any optimists out there we are 9/1 to win with a -4 goal handicap or for those verging on insanity 22/1 to win with a -5 goal handicap (both with Coral).

£30 to sit/stand behind the goal at Hampden for Scotland vs Lithuania is not anything like value for money in my opinion when the game is being televised. £20 tops and £25 in the South stand would be plenty. £20 for Championship football is also too high but I don't mind giving the cash to SMFC whereas the SFA can go forth and multiply. We'll see how many turn up for this game and those against Slovenia and Slovakia where the prices are the same. It would be an idea for SMFC to start thinking about how to market/price the Dunfermline home game which is being shown on Alba at 5.15 - reduced price tickets, 2 for 1 offer or 2 game ticket for £25, something like that.

Given we've had games moved to Friday night, Saturday lunchtime, Sunday lunchtime, Sunday afternoon and now 5.15pm on a Saturday, in my opinion the latter is the most inconvenient. Since we've got another of these teatime Saturday matches next month giving us 3 in 2 months, I trust the other teams in the league will be similarly shafted to suit BBC Alba over the remainder of the season. Wait a minute while I hold my breath.... On the subject of the international matches, I live about a mile from Hampden and sometimes toddle along when there's a game on. Upon checking the SFA website recently I found tickets for the South Stand were £45 for the Lithuania game including booking fee and postage - after picking myself up off the floor I decided not to bother. The Saturday evening kick off at Hampden doesn't bother me, the bare-faced fleecing of supporters by Regan and his pals certainly does.

Nobody's mentioned Gary Holt yet. He was on the radio yesterday, he's looking for a job and on the face of it did pretty well at Falkirk. Is John Hughes getting so many mentions due to the style of football his team usually plays? It would certainly beat the wretched keich of hoofing the ball forward and hoping for the best that we've been watching for a while now. I wonder if Ben Gordon is having a Homer Simpson D'oh moment?

Spend it on advertising and promoting the facilities at the club for hire e.g. car park, dome, hospitality lounge and supporters bar for conference/meeting type events then measure the revenue generated by the advertising/promoting to see if it's worthwhile.maintaining this on an on-going basis.

We are 7/1 with Bet365 to win and both teams to score. Surprised Raith won at Ayr given they have the handicap of Gary Locke and Darren Jackson in the dugout. This is the sort of game we must not lose if we've harbouring hopes of a play-off spot, we need to be taking 4/6 points in home and away games against the likes of Raith if we're to make up the 20-odd points we finished behind them last season.

Wait until he has to find somewhere to live in London, all of a sudden £70k won't seem so much after paying the rent!

Warren Hawke, now a director at the hopeless and soapless, was on BBC Radio Scotland last weekend putting a positive pin on the story of how they now had fans voting in a local sports shop on their strip for next season while thanking a Mr Provan of PSL in Hillington for helping sort everything out. Sigh.......

It's bubbling away...

Dundee Utd & Kilmarnock down with Dunfermline & Ayr up. Not fussed who goes up as Killie come down. As said in the posts above, Ayr away is a trip to look forward to [i'm thinking of McKnight lashing the ball into the net as a type this] and the thought of Livingston FC being relegated before biting the dust is quite appealing.

And paid over £200k for the privilege...

Or they'll go bust for a THIRD time. Dundee are not to be trusted. The swap involving Lex Richardson and Eric Sinclair proves that.

Bear in mind that all the players that many posters wish binned will need to be replaced with better quality and presumably on a smaller budget as the evil h*n won't be around to rip off the knuckle draggers to the tune of £25. On a more positive note hopefully Alex Rae's contacts and time spent watching games prior to joining us will reap rewards when new players need recruited. If Motherwell can find Louis Moult in English non-league, Dundee can identify Kane Hemmings at Cowdenbeath, Dundee Utd likewise Andy Robertson at Queen's Park then hopefully we can sign some good yins too.

Build the team around Callum Gallagher? Are you kidding? He'll be playing in the juniors in 2 or 3 years.

A number of rather odd selections. Tony Watt ahead of Jordan Rhodes and Ross McCormack who've both scored far more goals than Watt in the English Championship? Strange. Gordon Greer? Isn't he the poor man's Grant Hanley?

They could play a bit too, well, possibly with the exception of Rougvie.

Half time at Firhill: Partick Thistle 1 St Mirren 2. Partick scored after 10 minutes but the young Buds struck back just before half time to score in 44 and 46 minutes (presumably 1 minute into injury time). Info from Bet365 website http://www.bet365.com/home/FlashGen4/WebConsoleApp.asp?&cb=10581204429

Given there's a full fixture list on Boxing Day on both sides of the border there's probably quite a few clubs doing likewise. I'd imagine some of those down south with significant journeys to their away fixture may travel on Christmas Day and stay overnight. No doubt plenty of clubs will be training on New Year's Day too. Also, remember we were involved in the last game in this country to be played on Christmas Day in 1976. Imagine the fuss if something similar was suggested nowadays!

Any idea how much of a break they had during the international week? I expected Alex Miller to use the 2 weeks for some intensive coaching, double sessions if necessary as suggested, but based on last night's performance I couldn't see any evidence of anything having changed. It really makes you wonder what they do during the week when our pattern of play involves Langfield hoofing the ball long, the forwards being unable to hold it up assuming they get anywhere near it leaving the opposition to dominate possession and attack at us at will. Is it too much to expect some passes and a bit of movement looking for space and to receive a pass? It seems so.

Full time: 2-4. Good work young Buds.

88 mins gone: 2-4

85 mins gone: Dundee Utd 1 St Mirren 4 according to Bet365 website. Splendid.

Interested to see how many Falkirk bring given it's their first visit to the 'new' ground.

I look forward to seeing him hoof aimless punts towards the Rangers sub goalie at half time when they visit Paisley.