buster.

They f**ked up badly with Pedro and some other things but TBF I think you have to give Dave King credit wrt Gerrard and the confidence he had in his appointment.

I make it that only Ejaria and Candeias can miss the second leg of play-off round if booked next week. Flanagan should be available again next week.

In a perfect world we kill the tie at Ibrox and don't exert ourselves too much 3 days before the OF match.

Well done lads, wasn't pretty but you got the job done !

Very The main positive for me was having the midfield trio of RJ, SA and LC. The game intelligence of Jack combined with the workrate of Coulibaly and Arfield would have done a job of protecting the defence. I don't think you'll get the same workrate or urgency out of Ejaria, he's a different kind of midfielder. We could do with him helping link middle to front and creating chances because I think we're now going to need a goal or two.

I'm getting ahead of myself. It's all about tonight.

Just hope that Arfield's knee can now stand up to what will probably be a very hard shift. (Might find that neither Arfield or Coulibaly will be available for the Kilmarnock game).

Coulibally out Not good !

Either Ufa aren't that good or Progres are much better than last year. I saw part of their first leg and I reckon it's a bit of both.

The relevant question may be how this relates to / effects or is effected by the upcoming share issue to be voted on at the end of the month. For an answer, we'd need an 'expert' or a fortune teller.

I'm not seeing that he's won the case or that it has been thrown out. There has been a legal issue raised and there is to be a court 'debate' on it, in October.

I don't see many happy with 3.5M.

Regards Morelos and Dembele Tally up the games missed through injury. One hardly misses games and the other has hamstrings that are like strings on a cheap guitar.

I'd agree with much of that although whether he gets to a "very high level" will depend on his mentality and will to continually improve his game. To come from Columbia and do what he has in Finland and Scotland at his age shows a willingness to adapt and improve based on natural ability. We need him to focus and continue down the path of improvement and yes, he could develop into a top level forward. However, bottom line.........it's about how the mgmt team see it, do they trust him, would they prefer someone else. It's fair to say his indiscipline may have already cost us two points.

Re. Morelos What really matters is what SG&Co truly think about him. Not what they say in public, but what they say behind closed doors. and What alternatives there are at this point of the transfer window / does the mgt team/Mark Allen have a player in mind / semi-lined-up or not. (Not to mention, the obvious one,...only if a bid that is considered to be acceptable were to be presented). ---------------- I'd ask several questions - Is Morelos the type of forward that suits SG ? - Is he good enough and will he score enough goals ? - Can you trust him ? For me, I don't think you can trust him. It's fine if things are going well but it doesn't seem to take much and he'll lose focus / discipline. If we had an alternative that SG is happy with and we could get a bid considerably better than 3.75M, I reckon it's time to let Alfie go.

They also scored 5 a few days before we beat then 3-1. Means little.

We did very well in the first leg to get that late third goal but as others alude to, there is potentially, still a lot of life in this tie. I see this as a significant step, if we can take it, on the way to growing as a team. This is about mananging and closing out a tie against a team who have in recent years, proven to be experts at just that (at this level). Defence has been our strongest suit (especially when Ryan Jack plays in front of it) but tonight the familiar four names will be 3 plus one other. Can't say I'm too happy at the prospect of Halliday playing at LB in an important game. I'm sure Maribor will look to target that flank. The other thing this will mean is a predictability about our attacking threat coming mostly down the right. The positive for me is the central midfield trio and this is where we have to retain posession well and be able to move the ball up the field, under control, taking pressure off our defence and giving ourselves a better chance of creating chances. SG may have made noises about attacking but the main emphasis will very much be about defending in a solid and organised way. ----------------------- First leg for show.......................Second leg for dough Let's get this done..........

You don't have to pretend not to be,............. I'll protect you from Bill

Why don't you use your 'Big Man Tyrone' ID on here ?

Poor old Lee Hodson. From being in the N.I. squad for the Euros 2016 to nobody wanting him 2018.

Good, I thought somewhere between 450 to 550K would be about right. so much for 'off the record'

Probably somewhere around 600K ish with heavy add-on for hat-tricks against Celtic !

If you look at their results in summer qualifiers over the past three years (including this), several things stand out. - they usually score an away goal----------------------------------------tick - they usually keep a clean sheet at home---------------------------(middle to front isn't our strongest suit) - they usually go through--------------------------------------------------.? They seem to have become adept at finding a way to get through that is probably slightly above their level as a team. However, the one qualifier they did lose to Gabala FK (Azerbaijan) back in 2016, they lost the first leg away from home 3-1 (then won the home match 1-0). Ironically enough, guess who put Gabala FK out this season ?.......Progres Niederkorn spooky how they are following us around. Had it finished 2-1 at Ibrox, I'd have made them slight favourites. For me, the third goal makes us slight+ favourites. edit Bookies have us as firm favourites to go through at odds (1/6) that IMO doesn't represent the situation (I'd say 2/5 more accurate) but probably more the money placed on the market.

What is without doubt, is that we need several players in due to the lack of decent cover in certain positions. I tend to think that SG&Co have been pressing for this to happen asp given the August timetable but for various reasons we've needed to/been forced to/decided to hold fire............That said, the board delivered quickly on what seemed an opportunistic buy (Barisic). The thing about Lafferty is as you mention, have we got an alternative in the pipeline that would offer better value for money (opposed to 750K for KL) ? I reckon if we had and we really thought it was better value, we'd have already gone there. Centre forwards often come at a premium price and whilst I'm not usually keen on 30+ year olds, I can see a case for signing Lafferty. If that means 250K more than what we think he is worth, it's relatively little if SG&Co think he's the guy to do a job. If you are looking at someone like the Bosnian at Zagreb, then maybe we need the group stage finances to be able to do that deal. edit How we could do with discovering a Derek Johnstone just now. As good a centre half as he was centre forward.

Just looking at the dates of a potential 2nd leg of the play-off round. 30th August Wouldn't leave much time to get deals finalised.