Slim

He's been on the bench for the last couple of games.

Why is our official site getting all excited about Dundee Utd players?

I see Joe Lapira has now signed for a team in the Norwegian 3rd division: http://www.sundet-fotball.no/

He's got a lot of unfair stick over this, both times he was outside the box when he received the ball, the first he was sent out wide because he had to bend his run to stay onside because JDV took so long to look up and play the through ball which made it easier for the defender to get across and tackle him before he could get into a better shooting position. The second one, he had to beat a defender, which he did and was unlucky that the second defender diving in got a slight nudge on the ball which stopped him striking it cleanly. He would've been crucified just as much if he'd hit both opportunities first time instead of getting into a position where it was easier to score. His link up play is fantastic, he produced a great assist for Nicholson's goal, and did the same sort of thing in the cup replay against Falkirk, one of the few games where we've played passing football. He has also won us a penalty and created a goal from nothing from chasing a lost cause ball and out muscling a defender to win the ball. In both these games I've seen him be described as lazy afterwards, even by our manager in one instance.

If that's who I think it is, you'll be working next door to me.

Yantorno from Gretna, everytime I have seen him he has looked fantastic, would be an ideal replacement for Nicholson.

I reckon Berra's slightly better, plus Burley will be more familiar with him anyway.

Got my train tickets booked, £20 return, job done. Hope it doesn't go to extra time and penalties though, might be touch and go for catching the train home, all the later ones appear to be fully booked. What's the bus number that goes from the city centre to Hampden? Caught it last time and got off next to the big Asda.

Soutar - 5 - Nothing to do but kicking was atrocious. Maybury - 6 - Did ok, one or two dodgy moments though. Diamond - 6 - Struggled against the big black guy in the air, never looked in trouble though. Considine - 6 - Steady enough, never under much pressure. Foster - 4 - Nothing much to do defensively but terrible going forward, distribution was as bad as I've seen from an Aberdeen player. Nicholson - 6 - Didn't do anything at all wide right in the first half, looked better in the second through the middle and scored a good goal. Touzani - 6 - Did ok, but the game didn't really require a holding midfielder. Won a fair few tackles. Severin - 6 - Lost possession a bit too much with slack passes but Gretna's midfield wasn't up to much and he was never really challenged. De Visscher - 5 - Didn't have a good game, distribution was crap, I've seen the wind blow the ball further than he can kick it. Miller - 6 - Didn't really get involved in the game too much, came deep far too often and was prone to falling over quite a lot. Lucky the keeper conceded the penalty as he was going nowhere. Maguire - 5 - He was awful, and not even a goal could mask that. Seemed to be geniunely terrified of being tackled so jumped out of the way quite a lot, or in some cases, didn't bother going for the ball at all. Subs: Aluko - 6 - No idea why he wasn't on from the start, ideal game for him, always looked dangerous on the ball, although did tend to give the ball away a bit too much. Lovell - 6 - Got into some fantastic positions, some of which went unnoticed by our midfield. Probably should have scored at least once, but it was more bad luck than anything that prevented him from doing so. Definitely got more stuck in than Maguire. Good work to set up Nicholson's goal. McNamara - 5 - Didn't do much other than give the ball away whenever he got it.

Right Calderwood, Yantorno, get him signed, injury or no injury.

So if we give them the £30k they need, we'll be £20k better off than we would if the game is called off?

http://www.pontifix.nl/jongerencongres/en/mccurry.html Erm....

I thought he was terrible yesterday until he scored. He's capable of winning matches, but tends to be a passenger while he's not scoring or assisting.

60 seconds from a cup final. 60 seconds from another European adventure. I haven't felt this gutted over a football match in a hell of a long time.

I remember we ran an article on DT years back that was then pretty much stolen by the EE, I posted on the site poking fun at them for doing so and about half an hour later I had a fairly abusive e-mail in my inbox from Charlie Allan calling me some really unsavourable things. Having him linked to the club in any way is a complete and utter embarassment.

"Please accept my resignation with immediate effect"

I hate his attitude in the media towards the Huns, but nothing wrong in this case, we shouldn't be looking to resoting to dirty tricks to beat them, even though the rules say we could.

Chances are, any player we sign will have to be on a free transfer. The pick of the free transfers become available in January, so if we're going to wait until summer to sign the bulk of our players, we'll be left with the players no-one else wants, and no doubt will sign after pre-season training is finished and will take a whole season to get match fit as is usually the case.

He was out jogging round the pitch with Jackie Mac yesterday tea time. Jackie reckons he'll be fit for the Celtic game so hopefully Smith won't be too far off.

Perfectly justified in my opinion. Mackie was a disgrace to the shirt. Lovell had pretty much no decent service whatsoever but fought for every ball and was unlucky to be given a foul against him when he outmuscled Cragian to put himself through on goal.

I was there as a guest of the match sponsors, Diamond only had the second highest amount of votes behind Zoltan Varga. Lovell was next followed by the referee then Maguire with 2 votes thanks to 2 silly lassies. Got a wee tour of the stadium before the match, in the dressing room, one of the players photoshopped a grim reaper outfit onto Jimmy's body and added the caption 'The Jim Reaper'. The game was dire, how Aluko was kept on the bench by Maguire is a complete mystery only beaten in mysterious stakes by De Visscher lasting 90 minutes. Going 451 was a stupid move, Motherwell didn't have a single shot on target until we changed up. Lovell and Maguire standing at the side of the pitch asking what the hell they were supposed to be doing spoke volumes. Mackie was atrocious.

Christ, even an 18 year old ned can see that Lovell needs to get a run of games in the first team, yet our superstar manager can't?

He was fantastic in the Falkirk replay, and the few starts he had before that, he ended up as a lone striker in a target man role where he still managed to create what would have been 2 goals against Utd. To me, he always looks too eager to score if anything as he knows if he doesn't score within 45 minutes, he'll be hooked and won't get a game for another 2 months as is what usually happens.

Fucking hell, is he trying to get himself sacked? Maguire is fucking garbage, Lovell should have been on from the start. This man is killing our club.

I'd be furious if that were to be remotely true. A mistake of Alex Miller proportions.