Tweed

Or how much money they have offered them?

Can I ask in either of those games what you think he should have done differently?

Absolutely a big part of it but I think the bigger issue is that the SFA have not supported them. the fourth official at Tannadice should have instructed McDonald to send him off for the way he spoke to him but didn't. However after that there should have been some reactive action against Lennon - there wasn't When Hooper spoke out saying there was anti-celtic bias there should have been action against him - there wasn't When Reid spoke out there should have been action against him - there was no indication there was going to be any. By letting them going unchecked it actually gives the story an ounce of credibility. If the SFA had nipped this in the bud by punishing people earlier the bandwagon of conspiracy would have probably remained in tabloid hotlines and Internet messageboards rather than in boardrooms. Which whilst not an ideal situation it was tenable. And I did read a thread on Pie and Bovril tonight where a Celtic fan claimed that 'death threats were part of the territory'. As long as you have people believing that you have a problem. Nobody can realistically expect Celtic to eradicate that thought process but it is not unreasonable to expect them to not stoke it up. I think that the strike will be called off tomorrow. I think some of the actions the referees want are beginning to be done by the SFA - they have absolutely made their point and hopefully we can grow from this. What needs to happen is if people speak in an inappropriate way about referees they are punished heavily so that we remember this is not open house. In my view there is nothing wrong with saying 'I think we should have had a penalty' or something in a reasonable manner in a post match interview but to still be banging on about it six weeks later and be admitting it is in a dossier suggests a belief of an ulterior motive.

I thought the rule was first out the hat got the Saturday therefore we'll be on the Sunday? I've assumed we'll be on the Sunday all day but could be wrong. Don't see the Glagow clubs, the Edinburgh clubs, Utd, Inverness or Aberdeen being overly troubled which could be good for us as hopefully they can get each other when we get East Stirling or Buckie in the next round. Maybe. That said eight days into the window they could still have some of their bigger names - this will be tough for us. Also, was it Dundee that gave us their friendly with Chievo for us? If it was would be good if we could give them an extra 10% of the gate or something. Obviously assuming we can afford it.

The teams and fans I feel sorriest for are Ross County and QoS who have a final next weekend. Bet some fans have booked transport, hotels, etc that will no doubt cost them a fortune to cancel. I remember what cancelling accommodation cost me in Inverurie. Whilst I support the referees I think they have sold some fans down the river by not giving a bit more notice. Though on fatcalf's point about a blanket strike not being the answer. I think their grievance is as much about the tabloid press as it is Celtic. Therefore giving them no matches to report on makes it harder for them to sell papers.

Well done the referees. In recent weeks we have had John McKendrick and Steven McLean with Lennon invading their personal space and swearing at them, we have had Willie Collum receiving death threats and we had that ridiculous rant at Tynecastle about a referee who had one mistake. Thats before you drag out all the paranoid nonsense over the Dougie McDonald decision. And you can probably add in the ridiculous media circus and scrutiny he faced in his games at Falkirk and Hibs after it. No matter the mistakes they make all that is totally unacceptable. And I'll wager some negotiation will take place and this point has already been made and will be complete after tomorrow's papers. Wouldn't be surprised if its called off by Tuesday.

Been battling the flu all week so decided not to go yesterday which is very unlike me, however from what I gather we didn't play as we can and got an away point. We've done very well away from home so far but I'll never sniff at an away point against anyone. We've got to accept that Motherwell are not going to play at their best every game and the difference between top six and bottom or 3rd and 5th will be how many points we nick when we're struggling. And yesterday's was a biggy. And have we ever had anyone who has scored in SEVEN away league games in a row before.

Taking out the Old Firm only Inverness have gone to Paisley and won. Though granted Accies blew it. We can win but we will have to play well to win. Two of our three goals against them last time came because people slipped and the third was a counter attack in injury time so we know they can push us. But I think with Humphrey we have a weapon they will struggle to counter if we utilise him properly and i think that could be the difference this afternoon. Craigan fit? Be interesting to see what he does if he isn't.

Not often I completely disagree with you but Levein is the Scotland manager and we have to assume he is doing his homework on every Scottish player. He has got to be 100% comfortable with the squad he picks even if you and me thinks its a nonsense. If he picks the wrong team he will die on his own sword. I fully agree he is wrong but I think Craig Brown is 100% right not to intervene. If Levein doesn't like Reynolds then whilst disappointing for Reynolds its his call. I think raising things with the referee politely or through Dallas without the media demanding updates every day is the way to go. I think Brown is more coy than he gets credit for and I am sure he is doing this. I read a bit in the paper where Danny Lennon said the SFA thanked them for sending tapes where they felt the official could have done better and using them for training. Absolutely calls like the Saunders one on Saturday or the Forbes one v Rangers last year are incomprehensible but I am absolutely sure that referees and linesman are honest if not particularly good. Respect is the way forward but it needs to be two way.

Yep - by my reckoning we played 8 minutes. I reckoned we should have been looking at 11 minimum. But as the 4th Official never came out with a board then we have no idea what the balloon had decided and as the game was becoming increasingly ratty I think he maybe took a view was best to end it and keep 22 on the pitch. As a by the by all our creativity dried up at about 80 minutes and I think 3-1 was more likely than 2-2 by the end anyway.

Think Ruddy is better at close in shot stopping and narrowing the angle, Randolph to me is better at kicking and dealing with crosses. He also is much more effective at finding an out ball. Given how we can utilise Humphrey with the outball I would pick Randolph at the moment but its close.

Got to agree with Reynolds - considering he sold Hibs about eight goals the last twice we played them he was outstanding today. Had his chum been half as good we'd have taken a draw. Blackman was good and Hammell as well but Reynolds did a couple of forward runs and a couple of superb recoveries that made him our top man. Only other man in contention was the keeper who did run of the mill stuff well and made one save that was out of this world.

Disappointing day at the office. They doubled up on Humphrey and also kept a guy two yards from him all the time which meant we had to play the perfect ball to get him. He kept getting against St Johnstone because we could find him with balls into acres of space. Murphy and Gow did reasonably well at being creative but they just could never quite get in. Overall we contained Hibs reasonably well apart from a couple of defensive cock ups in the first half and whilst its annoying and frustrating these things happen to a lot better defenders than Craigan. Hateley and a disappointing game but apart from that the midfield did well enough. End of the day, on another day we'd have taken something possibly even won but luck deserted us and stupid errors arrived with us. I have noticed that the previous games we have played at the weekend when the full team have played in midweek we haven't been as good (Celtic and Hamilton) and the same happened. I think we just don't have the players strong enough to cope with three games in eight days. And as a by the by I thought Dougie McDonald was fine until about 25 minutes from the end when he seemed to lose it completely. But by my watch we played just shy of eight minutes of injury time. Their boy was down for eight minutes, Blackman for two, a couple of other shirt stoppages and five subs - we should have had another three or four minutes. Though to be fair I think our horse had long bolted by then. Also the late tackle on Reynolds looked remeniscent to the Ledley one from a distance yet they both got booked. Though all the tempestuousness came from Liam Miller whacking the ball into Blackman and McDonald and Calderwood both dealt with that accordingly.

Whilst we're slagging the BBC at the end of the highlights of Hearts v Celtic it shows the final score as Hearts 0-2 Celtic!!!!!

I think you'll find they probably did because all our attacks were quick and then the ball went back and they plodded up with it. Not overly surprised that they had more of the ball but all of the meaningful possession was ours.

He'll have harder nights but couldn't have done much better. Always thought he was a steady eddie and the criticism he got was harsh and to be fair Lasley, Jennings and Hateley are all better than him but given there are nights when Hateley will have to move into defence and one of the other two are not available he is a good dependable reserve. Well done sir.

St Johnstone had as much as the game as we did - difference was our back four were good and theres were ganting. Humphrey was electric tonight and Murphy had a couple of good forays too. Fitzpatrick is a much better option than Forbes and did really well - I did shout firfuxache at him in the last minute with my tongue firmly in my cheek but seriously it was the only noteworthy mistake the boy made. Was a bit concerned when Brown started resting the players for Saturday that he might bring Hollis for Randolph as change number three. Crawford Allan is a pernickity wee dick as a ref - always has been and was the same tonight but he had no decisions to make that were game changing so for that lets be grateful. And the yellow card call on Enckelman was spot on.

See chat in the paper today of a bug in the squad coming back from Inverness. Not a huge squad so even a couple not fully at it could have an impact. Casagolda I'm not getting overly excited about and would be surprised if we see him at all tomorrow.

Celtic cannot demand that he does not referee one of their games again. They tried that with Andy Davis and he was on the line again. Clubs can have no say in the officials who officiate for them. And Mike McCurry was never allowed a Rangers or a United game after his performance in May 07. He did another full season and nobody from any other club publicly voiced any dissent about it. And to be fair unlike McCurry what McDonald did had no impact on the outcome of the game. They may decide he doesn't referee a Celtic game (I suspect they might) but I have no issue with him refereeing in the SPL. And if I was Hugh Dallas I'd give him a Celtic game because for his faults he is big enough to handle it.

We don't have enough good referees to be forcing ones that are decent to resign. He's been given a rather public rebuke which given the crime is probably fair punishment. More than comfortable with his appointment. But if he sends one of our guys off or give them a penalty he's an arse and should have been sacked.

You could argue our away form is stopping us from being in a relegation dogfight. Anyway look at the SPL and it is bizarre that SEVEN teams have better away records - us, both the OF, Hamilton, Killie, Inverness and Hearts - more and more teams are learning to play the game away and I suspect like every other game this season we will come out the traps and go at them and the secret is to kill them off in the first half. Again on Saturday at Inverness we were hanging on in a game we should have been out of sight in. However they are short of bodies and we have our influential ones all available and I think our pace will murder Duberry so fancy we will win this one.

Really enjoyed the game yesterday. Thought the first 30 minutes we dominated territory and possession but for all that ICT had the best three chances and really should have been winning. We then scored a goal from a corner (Terry will be raging!) and a total fluke to give us a flattering lead at half time. However we really need to put teams away. We played some amount of balls across the face and to the strikers and were let down by either poor finishing, poor positioning or poor decision making and really we should have been about 5-0 up before they scored their goal. Though to be fair at 1-2, apart from a scare right after the goal when the referee played a really good advantage for them and they had a shot that went a bit high, we defended comfortably. Was actually a pretty decent game for the SPL. Enjoyed the atmosphere and a good few bevvies in Inverness last night - a buzzing friendly wee city at night. For those on the train home shame unnecessary policing spoiled it a bit but nobody can say they weren't warned. Twice on the PA and the steward told me on the way out - as I walked to my car!!!!!

Jennings - thought a lot of our guys did well in bits but he did it consistently both destructively and constructively. Gow maybe shaded him first half and Reynolds second half but over the bit going for him.

I am generally a fuddy duddy by nature but if we are confiscating flags with non offensive messages then we're doomed.

Nijholt was my favourite. After that: McFadden Clarkson (love a worker) O'Donnell Arnott