Gribz

Ive always had a soft spot for Forest however not at the moment with Warburton and Weir there. Them along with Leeds and Sheff Wed are top flight sides yet you have to earn the right to be there and they havent been good enough. The Championship next season will once again be interesting. I dont think Forest will go up though, we will find out just how good Warburton is. If he repeats his brentford days then they have a chance. No idea about the new owner and what it means for them though.

Still no thanks. I hope he signs for someone soon so the rumours about him disappear.

Stewards enquiry with Rousseau being joint top I dont know whats more exciting on sunday...Arsenal v Everton and Liverpool v Middlesboro for the CL or Rousseau v Yorkshire Bear. (PS The earth is still flat )

Turncoats went back down south - thats a positive. As i said in the match preview the end of the season cant come quick enough. Its going to be an interesting summer...if Pedro doesnt win the first qualifier then its going to be tense. I really wouldnt be surprised if he wasnt in charge for the first game next season.

Which would be totally undeserved - he is far better than McCulloch. Your right he is a striker and our best and should be playing up top.

If we managed to get Garner to number one could we put him in a taxi back down south also.....

Mate the ladyboys were gorgeous Im never mixing tequilla with vodka again though. But that performance was a bit of a kick in the teeth and hurts a bit that they won at Ibrox. A lot to address for net season.

Its all over...if Liverpool have a fall it would be spectacular

Arse wipe stewart Id honestly like to see fellow posters try deter them......ive recused a few US yanks which is now regrettable.

Muchas gracias mate....may aswell be a rascal in my 30s while I can...cheers toral - has he not gone back? Feel free to edit my post for main site...hence Im outside.

Considering I was the original match preview author (although the bar has been raised since I stopped) and nobody has taken this one up I thought since I am off for the day I'd kill some time before hitting the beach bars for a few lunchtime birthday cocktails. This match certainly has an end of season feel to it and Im guessing a lot of bears like myself are actually looking forward to the final whistle of the final game - for various reasons that we want to address the squad for next season and reflect on our first top flight campaign on what was a 5 year journey through the divisions. I dont think the last 4 previous campaigns has been considered too much and a lot of focus has been put on our budget compared to other clubs - yet a new squad was assembled and not use to playing this level in August last year and every opponent we play raise their game because the only show in town is facing them. As such it means our season has fizzled out a bit and we have cemented 3rd. Going back to the start of the season there was opinions coming from all angles as to where we should be finishing. An exceptional semi final performance against Celtic 13 months ago had some believing a total push could be done others thought mid table while realistic posters like myself said top 3. And thats what we have which has brought my aim of European football - probably plenty will be discussed in a few weeks of the importance of that - so thats for another day. The season has been unexpected - which maybe should have been expected - with the managerial change we didnt envisage at the start of the season and now we have Pedro who talks wonderfully but a few are raising the concern as to if the players know what he wants. I myself had a knee jerk reaction during the league OF game recently questioning if the manager was capable of learning from mistakes. But I am still happy to give him time and the summer transfer window will be important. Our last home game of the season see's the side who have finished 2nd come to Ibrox. A team whose fans can be as hostile as it gets for a domestic game and coming from the city I have learned a few times the hard way. But over the 3 games we have played Aberdeen this season I think we have clearly been the better side with only the second half in the most recent 0-3 victory being when they have outplayed us yet we managed to run away with 3 goals in that half. There has been a bit of spice added to the fixture with the managers throwing comments at each other and Rangers being linked with one of Aberdeens supposed better performers Ryan Jack who wont be fit for the match. The main aim should be for the fans to give our team a good send off for the summer and for them to return the favour with 3 points and keeping Aberdeens winless streak at Ibrox to 26 years. Our injury list consists of defenders Rob Kiernan, Philippe Senderos, Danny Wilson, Lee Wallace plus midfielders Jordan Rossiter and Niko Kranjcar. Therefore we may see a starting line up of: Foderingham Tavernier Hill Bates Beerman Holt Halliday Waghorn Miller McKay Garner Would I start with that team? Probably not, Id be looking for Joe Dodoo to start and possibly Josh Windass in place of Garner and McKay - which Pedro may very well do. Lets see.

Its quite amazing how out and out centre forwards can split the support like Boyd did over the years and now Garner. Im with Steve' earlier post, not a fan of Garner.

Average age of 23 I think. Im guessing with the dutch legends running things in the past few years they had a long term plan to made Ajax a force again which would be good to see. Ive watched a couple of their games in the Europa and they have been impressive going forward.

Good result for Falkirk and Id say they are favorites to reach the play off final now. And Id fancy them against Inverness or Hamilton. Dundee Utd edging towards another season in this division.

They just slowed down in the final furlong where as Chelsea put the foot down. I can see Spurs getting 4 points in their final 2 games but Chelsea winning meaning it will be a 9 point gap at the end which is a good margin. If Spurs didnt have the Europa after the CL it could have been different and they needed Jansen to score while Kane was out which didnt happen. Dele Alli did though plus Son put in his fair share so Im not sure it came down to Kane being injured. Spurs just drew too many games early in the season.

Agree, Im not Wallace biggest fan as a player. So if PC plays a back 4 we will need 2 new full backs to improve. Tavernier should be a right winger, he has pace and skill and likes to drive forward. When playing a back 4 I like 4 solid defenders a bit like Advocaats side when Porrini filled in at RB.

Could Wallace play on the left of a back 3? If so he could be put in but I wouldnt want to see him as our left wing back. Id prefer more offensive type player.

I Dont get what you are saying. Its not about who is higher, its about who is better. They have had 4-5 seasons of playing best of the rest and are use to beating the Ross Countys and Kilmarnocks. We are still steadying on return yet over the 3 games against Aberdeen have clearly been the better side.

More of an attacking winger. He has ability and Id put him in. We dont need 5 defenders in the majority of SPL games, Tav will already get back as a 4 when required.

How and who will be interesting. Will we switch to back 3 something we havent traditionally done. I think id like to see something along the lines of the following (and i refuse to put Naismith in). Foderingham Wilson Alves New Signing Tavernier Rossiter Dorrans McKay Kranjcar Miller New Signing

6/10 on the weekend - better than average Midweek games Arsenal 4-0 Sunderland Man City 2-0 West Brom Southampton 1-0 Man Utd Leicester 1-1 Tottenham

Cant really say I know much about Jack but the Alves signing would be a coup and a half. Ok he is 35 but thats the standard of player who we need to be have again.

When asked to respond about it Aberdeen are better than Rangers, I like the way Pedro just said "i dont care". Its a cheap question by another attempted journalist. Anyone who has seen the 3 games this season can clearly see 11 v 11 we are the better side. Last outing at Pittodrie was a game of two halves, we dominated the first half and should have been 2 up. They had the better of the second half but then once we scored it was all one way traffic. The first game should have ended all square as they were given a free kick which never should have been to win the game. And we beat them at Ibrox. If Aberdeen were climbing through the divisions and got back to the top flight you can bet they wouldnt be a top 3 team at the first attempt.

I'll give Conte credit for a few reasons. He was also a new manager in the league and much hype was made of Pep v Jose but those two havent been at the races while Conte has come in and ran away with it. He has bought minimal new players but those he did sign took the ground running. He has also had to keep players happy with rotating a few, like Willian and Pedro, the latter is like a new 40 million signing. The dressing room seems a happy place and thats a very difficult thing to do with big ego's. He has also got the best out of last seasons players who downed tools plus brought the likes of Moses in and made him a better player plus phased the likes of Terry out. The system is by far the biggest impressive thing. They got 10 points out of 12 in their first 4 games but didnt look convincing. They were lucky against West Ham in the opening game. But once he changed to the back 3 they took to it instantly and were unplayable for a while. That was a big gamble. Not having European football has helped keep players fit but arguably thats made rotating players more difficult. No doubt they will buy big in the summer for the CL, i can see an Italian defender and / or Van Dijk as Terry will be gone. They will add to the wide roles and in midfield and probably need 2 centre forwards with Costa leaving. The best signing Chelsea can do though is give Conte a new contract to prevent Inter Milan taking him who are now Chinese owned and will throw money at him.

Protecting the 11th place team was exactly what I thought. But the previous SFL board should have been far stronger, they had the trump card in Rangers at the time and should have stood ground. With hindsight they would have been in even a stronger as Hibs at Hearts then came down. Hopefully the change you mentioned comes into play and makes the 11th place side face a proper play off.