wee toon red

Thought Alfie Bavidge might've been worth a go. He's 19, as - I think - are the three boys at Cove, so should be the right age. Although u20s is a bit of a weird age group and they're maybe all still classed as u19?

Very much missing Dorrington, Tobers looks like a man who hasn’t played in weeks and it’s upset the whole back line.

McInnes really doesn’t handle potentially moving jobs well, does he? From the debacle around the Huns trying to get him from us and now Boyd basically touting him for another job while he sits there listening, it’s all a bit odd.

As a marketer's dream, it took me a whole four hours to go from "looks alright but will wait to see what the home looks like" to "ordered it".

Nothing's been said about a third kit but I think it's a requirement to have three strips registered for UEFA competitions - plus it's another way of enticing cash out of people's pockets - so you can count on there being one. We've had plenty navy kits in the past, not sure of the reason but it doesn't bother me. Different if it was royal blue mind you!

Worth pointing out that it's navy rather than black. I think I like it but will wait to see what the home kit is like before deciding which one to get. £70 for an adult and £57 for a kid is someone money for a football strip mind you.

New away kit. Looks alright but launching it now doesn't really fit with the idea of everyone wearing red to Hampden...

New kit coming tmrw by the looks of things. Wise to get it out before the final, although an expensive week for anyone looking to get it or who will have a 10yo jumping up and down with excitement.

Sitting on Celtic's bench or ours probably doesn't make much difference to a player, although their seats look a bit more comfy than ours. Has there been anything to suggest that Doohan actually wants to go?

I stand to be wrong but I can't see past Airdrie for those playoffs. Stenny have struggled recently, Cove had a bad patch for a couple of weeks but ended a bit better and Queen of the South have been great in the last quarter of the season but I think Airdrie will have too much for any of them. As someone with family in Dumfries and who goes to see Queens if they're at home while we're visiting, that's a pity!

It wasn't the easiest to get the actual seat selection to function earlier on Chrome but it worked alright via my phone. Let's hope the good pace of sales keeps up.

Turns out the manager.

Wonder who’s going to get the blame this week…

With the Aussie boy coming in to hopefully replace morris, who despite having his moments really isn’t good enough over the course of the season, we really need to fill the front two positions. Nisbet would be great and we really need to replace Gueye, who I see in a similar light to Morris. Decent squad players but not starters to get us to where we want to be. Other than that we’ve the makings of a really decent side.

What’s the explanation this time? Women’s semis?

There’s no way Jensen’s a winger, he’s too conservative a player for that. Hibs will be a lot more expansive than Hearts were so having our pacy wingers from the start gives them a lot more to think about than having two full backs on our right would. I don’t think Jimmy will drop Jensen anyway but it wouldn’t bother me hugely if Devlin came back in. Controversially, I’d start McGrath as the Nisbett/Gueye 9/10 combo thing doesn’t work.

Is this a sign that we might not be keeping Okkels?

Deflecting from their bottom six shiteness and their horrifically put together squad.

There’s no limit in how far they’ll go to try and emulate their cousins along the M8. This one’s right up there with the best Rangers have come up with over the years.

Hearts have released a statement about Devlin’s sending off: https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/blogs/news/club-statement-scottish-cup-semi-final

I reckon they’ll start with a potential 50/50 split but pretty quickly claw “our” tickets back for them when it’s clear we won’t sell out (which we won’t). I’ll be there and i’ll be taking my eldest because imagine winning and not being there… and she’s now the age I was the last time we did win it (and I wasn’t there that time) so no option but to go really. She also enjoyed yesterday and, strangely, the league cup semi as well so potential defeat won’t put her off.

So Celtic in the final then, as expected. Four goals in 11 minutes for a 4-0 half time lead.

Aberdeen is the highest level Devlin will get so I can’t see him looking to move on just yet. He’ll be 32 in October as well so I would imagine the size of his wage will be important to him as he nears the end of his career. He isn’t technically proficient enough to fit this modern style of pass pass pass that we’re starting to play, whereas Jensen is the absolute stereotype of that kind of player.

Hopefully he’s not away in the summer and hopefully we see more of him over the next five weeks. Ok, it might not be too hard to play against 10/9 mine in extra time when you’re fresh but the guy was brilliant yesterday.

Funny how the game can look different from the stands to the tv. I didn't think anyone in our team was particularly bad - other than Mitov's first few attempts at playing out from the back of course. Unfortunately, Shinnie and Clarkson aside, none of them were particularly good either. I think criticism of Jensen is very harsh, he seemed to be involved in the entire game going in both directions and didn't seem to do too much wrong. Clarkson is absolutely our main man now and the player that someone with Palaversa's pedigree should be (but isn't). As a team we're starting to look very "modern football". Neat and tidy on the ball (at least for our level) but it's very sideways a lot of the time. We're very reliant on our fullbacks going forward, which is good when it works as it did in the first 45 last week, but when a team - or a shower of hammer-throwing shite - sits in like they did today it doesn't provide the best opportunities. We're sorely needing someone in the 10 role with a bit of guile about them. For me, Nisbet doesn't do nearly enough in that role and when he switches with Gueye it's even worse. They're not easy to find mind you but we'd be a hugely better team with someone who can create some space and pick a pass in that position. All that said, it was great to see the team sticking at it today and there's no doubt we got the result we deserved. As for Hearts, it's quite remarkable how they manage to consistently, from year to year and decade to decade, manage to fill their team with objectionable wankers. Devlin obviously but that nonentity Penrice giving it large to our section of the north stand when they equalised was out of nowhere. Get it right up the lot of them.