RicoS321

Also, great to see Nisbet properly celebrate against his former club. None of that faux apologetic shite* that the modern lads do these days. Beautiful finish like. *I expect that cunt McGrath to jog back to halfway, with one hand raised apologetically when he scores against us next season.

Great result, and a dominant performance against a Hibs team that came to sit in and keep it tight. To the extent that they were slowing everything down from early on. We were solid at the back throughout, especially Knoester (MOTM), who is a fantastic signing. Dorrington and Shinnie also solid and Jensen was fine. Nisbet really good and Keskinen worked hard, with Okkels doing well when he came on. Morris worked hard but didn't do much, whereas Gueye didn't do much and also didn't work hard. That position is a real issue, and I think he might be tempted to go with McGrath there, which is a shame as the idea behind Gueye being there is solid. Clarkson very good in midfield again, and once again Palaversa didn't come out in the second half and didn't really do much in the first either. That leaves Polvara, who was miles better than Palaversa when he came on, and has to start the next match. He was strong and direct and used the ball really well. Maybe we're easing him in for him to explode onto the scene at the final. Well done the Dons though, and well done Thelin. We were patient and that sets us up nicely for the remaining four games. Utd will struggle to make up the points I'd think.

I disagree with Jensen further forward. He hasn't taken a player on for us once. That's why he's a fullback, to give him that space to play in. Further forward, he'd just be reaching their fullback, turning and going back the way. I wouldn't rule it out against a good team away, when we needed to defend, but not the way I'd set up against Hibs at home. Agree with Polvara and Milne though, although it would be harsh on Dorrington. I suspect we'll see Dorrington today and, depending on results, perhaps Milne in the next couple.

Partick beat Falkirk in the seventh minute of injury time. Are Falkirk going to give us the bottle job of the century?

I notice that you didn't even attempt to tackle the problem of Dabbagh's footedness.

I find it's more fun to work it out when they get here. It's amazing how long it can take. Can anyone tell which foot Dabbagh prefers? I still can't. Hopefully we've used the data gathered on McGarry to feed back into our system to get an idea on how good this guy could be. Should be infallible. Like when we fed the data from Miovski and Ramadani back in and out popped Ambrose.

I'm guessing it wouldn't have included his booking either, because that wasn't given as a foul. The most telling aspect was that the player himself knew he was getting booked. He was doing that pretending to be injured shite, whilst sneakily glancing up at the ref. When he saw Beaton just standing there ready to book him, he just got up. The worst part about Hearts' statement is the petty dig at the Dons, with the 118th minute shit.

Season ticket renewals must be slow

Fucking, fuck sake, that is tragic. @Panda do the BBC do individual stats for players on fouls committed? I'd be interested to know how many Devlin made. Obviously, we'd have to add one for the foul he committed on Knoester that Knoester got booked for. That's embarrassing from Hearts though. It was a late challenge, with force, which is open to interpretation - it was a careless challenge to make on a booking. You can't be releasing a statement based on a mildly dubious yellow, you've got to be saving those for the big ones. Fucking bitterness. Pathetic. Even if you don't agree with the yellow, necessarily, there's not a person who can't say that they couldn't see why the ref might choose to award it. It's pathetic shite like this that got us the tedious fucking crap that is VAR (yes, I did hesitate before celebrating Dabbagh's winner. Yes, I did sit through that fucking nonsense after our first goal, utterly clueless as to why a corner could be offside). How long before second yellows are drawn into its fucking awful remit? Just fuck off, you Jambo cunts.

Pope'd it.

I don't think Dabbagh is great either, but he's had his deal with Charleroi extended, so perhaps they're seeing something we're not. I don't see it, but Sokler is clearly on his way too, so possibly no point in persevering. Nisbet wasn't terrible yesterday, he was putting in the effort. I don't know how visible it is on the telly, but he's constantly trying to get Gueye to help out with the press, and I think he was getting frustrated. The idea is that when Nisbet presses, Gueye drops to cut out the pass to the holding midfielder, and vice versa. I don't think he knew at any point where Gueye was going to be, and it detracted from his game. It's a shame, because Nisbet has clearly made a big push to get his fitness up and be more of a team player, but the guy alongside him is playing his own thing. In recent weeks Nisbet had been doing the number ten role well, dropping in, taking it and feeding the wide players and Gueye was actually allowing him the space to do that, but yesterday they seemed to be playing more like a two, with Gueye regularly dropping deep. As a pairing, they're not any further forward. Shankland was probably the best player on the pitch yesterday, he played with a lot of intelligence. Anytime the ball came up the pitch, he was pinned to the defender, making it difficult for him. Whilst Gueye wins a lot of headers, he almost always reacts to it and is doing a running jump. It's why he's not very good at backing into the defender and using his body to get the ball down and a lay off. Shankland used his substantial frame well in that regard.

Aye, but it's principle. We need to kick up a fuss about it, whilst knowing that the west stand is fine.

Interesting. I suspect points won might be a better barometer. Or stats involving other teams to get an idea, overall, of home advantage. Either way, we get better results, and play better, at home against them. We don't beat them home or away very often, so it's probably not a good benchmark. Other factors might explain those victories better.

We should be fighting for the east stand. Fuck this shite of having your own end at a neutral venue. Anyway, I'll feel obliged to go, and will.

Fantastic entertainment at Hampden once again, as the plucky underdogs storm into a three goal lead. What an achievement. Does anyone actually watch that pish? Edit: four, as @wee toon red points out. Shouldn't have taken so long to write my post.

It's miles better than St Johnstone's or St Mirren's has been for a large part of the season. United a tattie field too. Falkirks plastic has always seemed to fair better than the rest too, not sure why.

Yes, I think he's got no problem taking it in difficult positions. The one blot on his record this season was when he tried to buy a foul and the opposition (utd I think?) went up the other end and scored. I'd have been raging if I was Thelin. He's a bit of a fanny at times in that regard and it can sometimes cost. However, that one instance isn't enough to have kept him out of the team for so long. There are plenty of ways we can accommodate him with good minutes, either in the two in midfield or the one in front in place of Gueye. At the end of last season he appeared to be gaining in confidence and beginning to do the mileage required of him, I think he needs challenged to push on. He's 24, and he'll be coming to his peak. If we get into Europe next season, then give him a two year extension and turn him into a player. Otherwise, let the lad try and get a transfer in the summer if we're not going to give him the opportunity to develop.

Far be it from me to tell the moderators how to do their job, but this surely deserves a warning!

I hope they both get up. Livi are actually playing some great football this season, and Falkirk obviously have been very good to watch too. Interestingly, both plastic pitches have looked immaculate this season. Almost as if they've set them up to be at their best for playing football on, rather than using them to stifle the game (by not watering them etc). I hope they both come up and stay up so that it comes to a head with the horrendous, self-preservation/closed shop plastic pitch decision. Livi won't be able to afford to replace theirs, and there'll maybe be at least one team promoted from the championship that has one too.

Did I? How prescient! I think he's already a good player, as good as Palaversa probably, but just been unlucky with injury. He's only appeared 7 times this season, though, so it's difficult to get an overall view of where he is at the moment. His biggest flaw was his lack of coverage in games, but Palaversa struggled with this yesterday and was done by half time against the Huns after putting in a shift. We really need to see him get 45 minutes against 11 men to see how he fits in. Yesterday showed that he should have been given an opportunity against the Huns last week, as many of us said (and not in hindsight).

He was poor yesterday and lasted 120 minutes with a guy that's had a great season on the bench. He fucked up for the first against the Huns last week and yesterday was being targeted defensively until they went down to ten. I agree, he's been decent since he came in, but he seems to be undroppable. If fairness comes into it, then it's incredibly unfair on Devlin to not be getting minutes in place of him. If I were Devlin, I'd be looking to move on in the summer. A guy with his effort, aggression and drive shouldn't be sitting on a bench every week. At the moment he's here to fulfil a Scottish quota for next season, but if we don't get top three or win the cup then we don't require that, and he'll see less and less game time. The longer he's not playing, too, the more rusty he'll get, and he'll start making mistakes in the 10-20 minute cameos, and he'll leave with a poor reputation. From the player's perspective, it'd be best to move on in my opinion.

Piece of piss, never in doubt. Some honking performances today, but we rode through it. Good to see that diving wee cunt Devlin get sent off, and I loved the way we knew that those dirty hammer throwers would go down to nine, so just played it calmly around them until then. We were poor, but the back four were fine defensively (although not sure how Jensen lasted the match). Shinnie and Clarkson good. Palaversa poor, and Gueye might look good on the telly, but he's a complete liability. Either giving the ball away, or just ignoring his man, a terrible team player. Okkels good when he came on again, as was Keskinen before he went off. Morris largely anonymous. Polvara offered something when he came on. Anyway, gives us the chance for glorious failure next month.

Note to self: leaving at 7:30 is ridiculously unnecessary.

Finished 5-0 to Livi. They looked good, some great finishes. Think Hearts might just have a bit too much for them in the playoff though.

Brown's boys getting a doin by the former dealer's mob. Livi playing some good stuff, Ayr are agricultural pish, ironically. Impressive from Martindale like, Livi still punching above their weight finishing second.