ascender

I think Hemdani has more skill than Ferguson by some way. He's the only person in our team (squad?) who looks like they are really comfortable on the ball. Hasty? I'm not so sure. I've been a big fan of Fergie and urging people to get off his back for some time, but has he really ever reproduced the form he did a few years back? Besides, ICT are hardly a great side. They lost to Dunfermline last week. If Fergie, as a well paid professional athlete can't handle a few games in a week, then he should quit now. Also, with the changes of manager still not solving some of our problems, I think there might be more to the rumours that that certain players do think they're more important than the club and have been undermining AM and PLG.

I'm starting to come round to the way of thinking that maybe Fergie needs a break or even a new challenge. I know he's had some very good performances this season, but he doesn't seem capable of grabbing a game by the scruff of its neck and turning things around when its not going our way. Too often he seems to get posted missing or being dragged far too deep when he should be pushing on and driving the whole team forward. We've got Hemdani and Thomson, we don't need another defensive-minded midfielder in there. Maybe its time for him to move on as he might well be part of the problem and not the solution. Apart from the whole undermining thing with PLG, he's been central to this team which has underperformed against much weaker opposition for a few years now, so maybe its time to look at his contribution on and off the park. Or am I being harsh?

Hemdani is an enigma though and I've said it loads of times. He is clearly our most skillful/naturally talented player by a huge distance, but we never seem to make the most of his ability. I'm not sure if that's because the system or the other players stifle him, but its a baffling one. I've seen comments elsewhere criticising AM yet again after yesterday. Its funny how after years of complaining about overpriced, sub-standard foreigners, that when young Scottish lads finally get a chance, they're the first to be criticised when we lose.

Someone was asking why the NI fans no longer sing The Sash and this was a reply posted by Fermanaghblue. Kind of sums up the position we find ourselves in I think. If we cleaned up our act and just accepted that was the things had to be, we'd be untouchable by the media and the constant whinging from other supports. Something to think about.

That's really encouraging and positive news. It will be interesting to see if this approach works, but I think we all hope it will. Having seen what DM has said today, these could be testing times for our support. I think there's a large section of the support who will be right behind the stickers and the campaign, that is until they get to the part about stamping out the sectarian behaviour. Also, its good to see that DM still exists, but where has he been recently when we've needed someone to stand up for our fans?

Real shame but I guess its for the best and its good to see that he's honest enough to call it a day. Thanks for the memories and all the best to him in whatever he does next.

Its a name that makes sense as I'm sure Prso has been talking up the club. 1.5M for a 28 year old internationalist? Doesn't look like too bad a deal. Could it be between him and Healy maybe? Depends on Prso's situation and what is done about Sebo and Novo.

I think Steven Smith had been hoping to play today but I guess he wasn't risked. He isn't far off playing again though. I'd forgotten all about N'Diaye. Another guy we signed but never really gave him much of a chance. I guess he'll be off in the summer.

Another player we seem to be linked with year after year.

Poor defending at the goal, someone totally lost their man. As we're creating chances I'd be tempted to put Boyd on as Miller doesn't look like being able to hit a coo's arse with a banjo tonight. Play him off Miller. Teale looks a bit out of his depth again, not sure why he continues to get a place tbh, I've just not seen him do anything decent in a blue shirt.

I still feel a bit sorry for him. There's no doubt that if he'd been able to find the form and potential he'd shown before joining, that he could have been a really valuable player over the last few years. Before he joined he was one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the SPL. But that was before the Ibrox injuryh jinx struck. Good luck to him, he's done well to come back at all from those injuries.

On SS at the weekend they were talking about a few of the problems. The one about playing players out of position came up, along with the amount of foreigners in the Premiership. They also mentioned how there's no English players playing at top European clubs any more (apart from Hargreaves and Beckham) and also how the Premiership doesn't give them good experience for playing International football as they style is so different that none of the players are used to a slow, patient build-up as is evident across much of Europe.

We've been linked with him for years haven't we although not over the last couple. I guess with Smith's Everton connection we'll be linked with a few players from there over the next while. I haven't seen much of him recently, but always thought he'd be a good, solid signing for us in the past. How old is he now?

I don't think playing him wide on the right helps much.

Its pretty incredible to see how England constantly under-perform with the group of players they have available. Sometimes I wonder if they just need a manager with some balls who isn't afraid to drop one of the big names in order to make the side a bit more balanced, especially in the midfield.

Smart ar$e!

P W D L F A GD PTS 1 Scotland 4 3 0 1 9 3 6 9 2 France 4 3 0 1 11 2 9 9 3 Italy 4 2 1 1 7 5 2 7 4 Ukraine 3 2 0 1 5 4 1 6 5 Lithuania 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4 6 Georgia 4 1 0 3 9 9 0 3 7 Faroe Islands 4 0 0 4 0 18 -18 0 Balls. No matter how I format it, it seems to get screwed up. Oh well, you get the idea.

Just woke up in time to see the winner go in! Another great day for the national side, its amazing how far we've come since Vogts' reign ended.

Yes, his temper is the one thing he has to sort out, regardless of whatever other weaknesses he has. I agree that he's got a long way to go yet, but saying he's only played well in 1 out of 6/7 matches is way off the mark.

Huge Orange parade today in Edinburgh if that sort of thing floats your boat. Lots of Gers tops on display from early on.

Hutton's played very well recently and has improved when I'm sure a lot of fans had written him off. Obviously he's nowhere near the finished article yet, but he's still a young lad. Bluetooth - how can you say that when he's turned things around to the point where he's maybe having a poor game every one in 7 or so, rather than just the odd good game now?

Exactly. This is all in danger of spiralling out of control even further.

It doesn't matter who "grassed us up" as that's missing the point a bit. We've had more than enough warning to change our behaviour and are now going to start paying the price for not self-policing various problems and also this dignified silence bollocks which DM has been preaching for far too long.

Worst one ever? Just when they finally got back to a nice home top, they produce this stinker. http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/ FWIW I liked the often criticised samba shorts ones from 86 and didn't mind the salmon pink ones too much, but apart from the current home top, why can't we get a decent kit design any more?

Good post Cammy. I've said it before, that one thing which really annoys me is how fans of other clubs class a lot of our songs as being bigoted/sectarian when clearly they are nothing of the sort. Why our club never stands up for us and points this out, I'll never know. The flip side of the coin is that these songs probably aren't helping our image much. No-one likes us, we don't care. Maybe times have changed and we should care a bit as we're often our own worst enemy. That's a whole other argument though. Highlighting other clubs shortcomings is a good idea in theory, which would no doubt get a lot of support, but I can't help but think it will just make us look like we're trying to deflect from our own problems. I genuinely don't believe there's a large media bias against any club in Scotland as most fans can point towards instances where the press (and SFA) have been for/against their club, but I have found it very strange that there's been very little coverage of some of the behaviour of the GFITW recently. Very annoying indeed and certainly it makes you wonder why. As for the sensationalist headlines, we all know how lazy our press are up here. They love this sort of thing, especially when our own fans, make it so easy for them. Its really, really depressing to see how fans continue to drag this club down and give the tabloid press exactly what they want. How stupid are these guys?