Ajja

I'll give you that. We would certainly still have the money we paid in compensation.

I'm not converted. Easy to say we would be better off without the change. I don't believe we would have been.

Surprise dMcLean didn't get booked for taking his shirt off. The enture team left the park to celebrate as well. Was funny how they huddled around him and got his shirt back on him as if the ref wouldn't notice. Thought McDonald got into some great positions, its a pity he can't put the ball in the net as he would make a half decent striker

If it gives Celtic a false sense of security and lifts the pressure off the team ahead of a couple of big games then I'm OK with it being made public. Getting up the scum's collective noses is an added bonus

Ouch. Would have no worries about Kerr and McDonald but Mulgrew and Diamond are the two players who almost always perform against Celtic. We really would be playing an experimental side if we moved all these guys off the team sheet at once. Looks like a Young-Duff combo in the centre of the park, look out Scott Brown!

He showed signs of this early on at Starks park before the mud and the heroic closing down of Raith took it stoll (about 15 minutes in!). I thought he made some very good runs and did some intelligent things with the ball in the first quarter. He might struggle with teams who shut him down and allow him no space (as the whole team do!) but there is something there to hope for.

I think this might well be the best outcome for us in some ways. Celtic are likely to take us even more for granted than they might have done already. We have a history of doing reasonably well against stronger sides with a 'speculative 11'. Will depend on who he rests and more importantly who he brings in. With Celtic coming at us but not quite sure who each other are and how they play as a team and us having some young, aggressive players on the park that might test Celtics rearguard we might just have a chance. Oh and big Zander weighing in with a Goliathesque performance and Mulgrew pinging in free kicks! Makes me fucking ill how the OF are so utterly focused on each other that they think everything that goes on with any other club is either for or against them. Referees are all either 'masons' or 'papes', every club in the league is either a hun team or a green team, often both depending on who they are playing. You'd think these pricks were the the fucking axis the earth turns on :hammer:

Radio said that Kerr backed into Miller and stood on his foot and Miller had a wee kick out at him. Think it was Miller who was booked, possibly for his reaction.

Was just editing my post!

Happy with that, especially with JC coming up against Timothy and UTD getting the huns. Any result in those two games is a result for us. Dundee will be a known proposition for us now, we are less likely to take them for granted. Always better to face lower league opposition. When is this game played ? EDIT: Assuming we beat Raith! Remember seeing the Falkirk draw for last years semi and plotting that trip before Dunfermline decided to fuck that one up.

I only heard this song AFTER the final whistle. That said, McGhee has to support his players publicly, they are going to be down after recent results and while he had better be hammering them privately then he should support them in public.

I think Foster is correct. Zander and Mulgrew with Foster and Paterson doesn't look like a bad defence to me. Mulgrew has been very good at CB and ZD is, well he is ZD. FBs are both competent footballers. What's the issue here ? Are we suddenly playing Barcelona ? Its fucking Hibs, lets not turn them into gods just because they can beat Montrose and Hamilton by 4 goals. Fair enough, they are having a good season but we have enough to cope, no question. We managed with 9 men for some distance.

Hopefully there is a level, neatly trimmed playing surface for them to play on as well. The ploughed field that was Starks Park certainly helped the agricultiral brand of football on display from Raith and Ifil. EDIT: When is the draw for the next round ?

Thought that referee looked like a racist.

I thought there were section of play where McLean looked like an intelligent player but he was not coping with the close attention. He seems to want more space to play and against teams like Raith or Falkirk he won't get it. We may see something more from him against Hibs and Celtic. I actually think we might do better in these games as they will come out and play us. When Hearts did that we destroyed them, admittedly they came at us with nothing.

Kerr and McDonald had another poor game yesterday, they never got hold of the midfield, no crunching tackles or creative play whatsoever. Actually thought McDonald was marginally worse despite scoring the goal. Yet again, when we are without our 16 year old we look very light in midfield. The state of the pitch did not help our players, especially those who rely on pace (like Foster) but for me I though Ifil was the worst player in our team. I honestly thought he was going to gift them a goal everytime he went near the ball.

Yet again the lack of intolerence and understanding from so called grown ups in our support surfaces. What we are experiencing now is nothing different from what we have experienced since about 1995. With some pockets of moderate 'success' thrown in we are, and have been for 15 years now, a distinctly average football club. Every other club in Scotland outside them is dealing with the same disappointments and inconsistency. The environment has shifted down a few gears in this season in particular for everyone, even them, and possibly with the exception of a reasonably decent Hibs side we are all sinking fairly fast as Scottish football is drowned in a football industry starved of resource below the top tier and dominated by commercially marketed products coming from England, Spain and Italy. Why do we have to always be benchmarking our performance on the past ? We were doing this throughout the Calderwood years and now we are already doing it again. I don't believe that Calderwood would have done anything with our club this season, we are losing any player who shows any sign of consistency and we are increasingly disabled by money issues. Calderwood was losing a grip on the club because of these pressures, that is why he had to go. Its easy to say that he would do better without the measure of reality. Nobody is suggesting that McGhee is doing any better, results and performances would make a mockery of such claims. However, we are where we are and pissing and moaning about how we got there and who is responsible serves no purpose other than to promote divisions in the support and to make individuals look idiotic in their rants. The support yesterday was incredibly divided and almost duplicitous in its message. It was a drunken, baying crowd who were looking to blame and demonise almost every aspect of the club, even its own support. I'm surprised there were not people punching themselves by the end of the game. Cheering and booing players as they leave the park, fighting with fellow fans because they come from another part of the country, celebrating a goal like the cup itself had just been secured and then minutes later booing the team off and chanting 'your not fit...' and 'one Zander Diamond' with equal ferocity. It was all a little bizarre to be honest. I don't profess to know where the responsibility lies or the accountability but I am pretty sure that trying to run a football club in the current climate must be a pretty fucking challenging job. To manage a club like ours whose only real achievemnt in 15 years is levels of inconsistency that would have you tearing your own finger nails off must be just as challenging. Given the attitude of players prevelant in football these days, the lack of resources and the demands of a fan base starved of success I certainly wouldn't want to be giving it a go. If we are only willing to give the guy 30 games to make any sort of impact before we cry for change again then we should just get used to the idea that we will be this way for ever more. I used to enjoy posting on DT because I always thought it was the place where fans who can take the long view operate. They have understanding, they can show tolerence and patience in pursuit of the right answers. Sadly, its turning into a site where the primary concern is to turn in on itself and criticise, ridicule or punish everyone else.

There is often a fine line between a 'great' atmosphere and a hostile one. Today we saw both, the crowd was in good form early on but it was getting nasty as the game wore on. Its pretty fucking frustrating following the Dons, generally.

There was a little bit of niggle in the support. Mostly just the tension of the way the game was going. Folk not happy with the performance and making it known and other taking offence. some of it was due to folk standing the entire game. Didn't hear any chants for JC.

If he plays at Fir Park thats a cert. How old is Keane ? I'm convinced he will take the SPL for granted and will get very close attention from most defenders in the league. I think he will struggle.

Stick to predicting his death, you're better at that

If x = number of pounds and y = cost per week then z = number of weeks then z = 7.7. Ergo, we could have funded him until the end of March. Canny bit o' business that. Besides, Keane will be shit in the SPL. He will come up thinking its like playing against boys and get kicked around the place for 4 weeks then give up. I'll start the sweep now - total goals by season end = 4.

Do you think UTD negotiated a sell on fee when we stole him from them along with the bread from their kitchen table and the food from their children's mouths ? ....na, didn't think so.

While I am pleased to have McLean on board its not a move for the future, its only really trying to shore up this season. Scenario 1: He puts in a great performance over the next 4 months and gets a better offer in the summer. Best we can hope for is that he sees us as a shop window and lights up the rest of this season. Scenario 2: HE turns out to be horse and we look to offload him or worse, offer him a deal because he is the best we can get. Best we can hope for there is to cut our losses after a dull and disappointing end to the season. Back to the drawing board. Scenario 3: He takes time to settle and play reasonably OK but fails to attract any interest from bigger, richer clubs. He then goes on to sign for us and sets the SPL alight next season. Scenario 3 is the only outcome that will give us some long term prospect but it depends on us giving up on any progress this season so we can 'hide' McLeans talent in an average peformance. Fucking hate loan deals.

Kelly Clarkson at 11:55 would be nice