Craig Fowler: I nominate Scottish football fans who don’t support either Rangers or Celtic. Months, LITERALLY MONTHS, of build up for one game that we weren’t overly bothered about two years ago. I understand why it’s a big story, and the media’s job is to either sell papers, attract listeners or get website hits, but as a fan I’m getting pretty sick of it already. Hopefully it will calm down for a while.
Craig Cairns: Yep. They tried to even it up on Sportscene by talking about the other semi-final. Jonathan Sutherland asked Michael Stewart who he though the favourite would be between Aberdeen and Dundee United. It’s three fucking months away!
John Callan: Hey, if I was going to be contrary, I’d argue it’s a game that I’ll find morbidly fascinating. But once you factor in the months of build up – much of which is quite unpleasant – you can legitimately see why so many fans find it tedious. Aside from the fact that the other semi-final has the potential to be a far more interesting match, they’re both in different millennia, football-wise.
CC: There’s no doubt it will be fascinating when the time comes. But that is exactly the point. It’s so far away.
CF: Don’t get me wrong. I’m going to watch it, but the build up is annoying me already. There was a couple of great opinion pieces in the Scotsman this week reminding everyone how the Old Firm game incorporates a lot of what is wrong in Scottish society. It’s something people really seem to have forgotten since it went away. I know it shouldn’t be blamed, it’s part of a wider problem, but there’s no doubt it brings out the worst in some people.
JC: Absolutely, and it’s something people don’t factor in when they talk about how Scottish football has ‘missed’ it as a spectacle.
CC: Going on to something else that isn’t good for Scottish football: Jim Goodwin. He started in central defence with Marc McAusland versus Dundee United and they were dreadful. Especially Goodwin. He came out of position and failed to win the ball for the first two goals. After the second goal he turned to blame someone else. Then he took his frustration out on Aidan Connolly with an elbow. The guy is always at it.
CF: There was a great thread title on Kickback: “There’s three certainties in life: birth, death and Jim Goodwin elbowing someone.”
I missed Sportscene this week. Tell me they didn’t invite Steven Thompson on.
CC: Haha, no. They had Michael Stewart and Derek Adams. Adams, by the way, never seems to answer the question he is asked. He just answers with a list of vaguely related statements but is about five steps removed from the initial question by the time he is done.
They did highlight the incident though. Another ‘Trial by Sportscene’, as they call it.
JC: He certainly gives them plenty of material. There isn’t a more malicious player out there just now. The frequency with which this happens is genuinely sad. Poor McAusland too – he needs someone to drag him through games just now, not an unhinged hatchet man on some sort of career-twilight rampage.
CF: He’s a really nice guy though. I mean, I know plenty of nice guys and they all have a habit of smashing people in the face when they get frustrated.
CC: And he talks very intelligently about the game, he will manage in the future. He just seems to forget that even Sportscene have decent camera angles now and then.
JC: Can’t wait for his ‘Portrait of a 21st Century Artist’.
CF: I’m going to give a mention to the Hamilton defence and Ziggy Gordon in particular. Great player who had an uncharacteristically poor game at the weekend. At fault for the first goal where he misjudged the flight of the ball and then did a very poor job of trying to play the offside trap at the third, and then did that really annoying thing of half heartedly running back with his hand in the air instead of putting pressure on Christie Elliott.
Still, the Hamilton PA thought he was man of the match. Which then caused a writer at one of the tabloids (I think it was The Sun) to panic and he changed his rating to 8/10 in his Monday match report.
CC: It’s going to be interesting to see how players like Gordon respond to this. That last minute equaliser could be huge for them. They were always going to hit a run of matches without winning.
CF: They certainly didn’t respond too well to dropping two in a row. They hadn’t conceded a home goal since the first game of the season and then shipped in three to Partick Thistle. With all due respect to Thistle, it wasn’t like they were playing Celtic.
CC: They have a few experienced campaigners to guide them through, but it will be interesting to see how the younger players cope with the rest of the season.
JC: I guess Ziggy was due after that beautiful motion of dodging a handball/corner last week. If you were looking to defend him for his part in the third goal, you could argue that Canning was the only one who didn’t step out – though Gordon clearly didn’t look along the line when he appealed.
CF: I slowed it down. Gordon didn’t step out in time either, though it would have been a very tough call for the linesman to make.
JC: Yeah, it was definitely a rash call to step up that late – it’s something only a centre-half should be able to do if everyone’s positioned correctly.
Next loser is got to be Billy Mckay. It finally happened.
CC: And they seemed pretty decent without him in the starting XI. Ultimately they didn’t score but they held their own for large parts and caused Celtic a few problems.
I don’t think it will last though. He’ll start again soon enough.
JC: They don’t have much choice though, I guess.
CC: He perhaps wasn’t dropped before because there being no competition for places. They’ve dropped him, maybe just because he needed it rather than him being punished – he still does a lot for the team and is getting into the right positions, his finishing is just lacking for now. Marley Watkins has shown he can play that position, though I’m not sure as a long-term replacement for Mckay. I think he will start again if not this weekend, then next.
CF: Sometimes when strikers aren’t scoring the best thing for them is to be taken out of the line-up. Instead of keeping the pressure on them to end their drought, you’re giving them a renewed determination to prove their worth. That’s the theory, at least.
JC: I think we were saying in W&L a few weeks back that he was hardly being detrimental to the team as a whole, just not contributing in the prolific fashion we’ve all become used to. But given what set him apart initially was his goalscoring, you can’t fault Hughes for looking at other options up top. It’ll be interesting to see if he goes back to ‘normal’ after his next goal, or if this Inverness side just isn’t quite as suited to getting the very best out of him.
CC: Next up… Jim fucking McIntyre.
Do you think he regrets leaving Queen of the South yet? It seems like one step forward, two steps back at the moment: a draw away to Inverness, a thumping at home from Celtic. A draw they were unfortunate not to win away to St Mirren then an impotent performance at home on Monday night.
He also seems no closer to having a starting eleven he feels comfortable with. There have been consistencies between the last two line ups, yes, but it is uninspiring to say the least. Kiss just hasn’t done enough in the No.10 role and Yoann ‘Freddie’ Arquin has his limitations. I’m not going to bang on about the others I have mentioned in recent weeks.
One positive has been that Graham Carey has looked a bit better.
JC: They were seriously unimpressive. I know Aberdeen can bully weaker teams sometimes, but I think they Ross County could have pressured them more in possession. Agree about Arquin, and I think the first game of Gardyne’s return promised more than he’s delivered since. They certainly need to show a bit more going forward if they’re going to haul themselves out of trouble.
CF: I’ve never seen a team look comfortable away from home without really doing anything. Ross County were bad. Really, really bad. And I have to say Craig, if I were McIntyre, I would be regretting the move. There won’t be much between Queen of the South and Ross County in the Championship next season. They are a bigger club, yes, but it’s not like leaving to take the Hibs job. There isn’t a huge amount between them.
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