Tweed

On the telly Craigan was clearly the deepest defender though Reynolds may have played him on as well but to be fair having seen it again I don't think it was that bad defending, good pass and a couple of good tackles that they got the rub of the green with. If anyone was at fault it was Smith for charging out. Though at the time I thought it was the defence.

Not that two wrongs make a right but the Accies looks like a coup as well.

They probably couldn't have managed that and had their two officers every fifty yards between the ground and the train station plus the ten or so they had in the station. What exactly were they expecting for Motherwell v St Mirren? Got to say I rarely take the car but when I do parking in the Civic and the surrounding streets always seems to get me away pretty quick and even moreso since the implementation of the closures round the ground.

Well I'm no relation of Fitzpatrick and I thought he was the best of our five in the middle today, though it was probably his weakest game for a few weeks. There were times Reynolds and Klimpl played bad balls that were 'unlucky' and then Fitzpatrick does it and there are cries of get him off. Then some folk start cheering when he gets taken off. No wonder he is scared to make an error - he only made one today! The boy is not a world beater and is not a showy midfielder but he is a solid SPL player - just remember he has played more often than not in McGhee's good runs of form, it can't all be chance. And I don't think the formation helped at all today, there were examples all over the pitch where players didn't seem sure of where each other were going - Fitzpatrick/Hughes being one of them.

We cannot play 4-5-1 and if McGhee wants to do it he needs a midfield runner in the summer. Someone like O'Donnell who can play as a striker in mid move then fall back into the middle. The number of times Clarkson played a beautiful knock on to Cuthbert in the first half was unreal (and I'm not especially blaming Clarkson). Though despite our inadequacies we did have enough of the game in the first half to be unlucky to be behind. Second half saw a much better performance and Sheridan made a huge difference just by giving Clarkson support. Good finish from Hughes. Came from the one good cut back we engineered - lesson is to engineer more of them. Pitch really didn't help us. All in pleased still to be in it and I imagine they are too. the disappointing aspect of the 2nd half was we never really created another real good chance after we levelled. Strange having not had a score draw from mid-August until a fortnight ago thats three Saturdays on the spin

The covers will be on just now and the temperature is no where near as low either. I think the danger would be a blizzard from lunch time onwards when they take the covers/balloon off and if that happens then thats just a case of shit happens as it could happen anywhere. Sky seems to be breaking a bit as I can now see FP from my house window in Hamilton which I couldn't ten minutes ago.

To be fair what good opportunity of ours did they miss? We had loads of the ball but did not create that many chances. Showing us make a hash of it in with the final ball time and time again is not an effective use of their time. For all we had most of the game Hibs had as many clear cut chances.

If its as low as minus 10 then I don't think any USH would protect it enough. Just to wind the St Mirren fans on P and B up I almost hope its off. But thats snow good for us either especially when we still awaiting our fate from the Hearts one so best get it on unless it extreme.

Sorry but why should Motherwell refund £15 for something they were gaining probably about £4 or £5 for just because folk didn't go with no chance of recuperation. The more i think about it the more the club are right. Its an SFA competition, the gate is split between the two clubs after expenses, we have staffed selling the tickets at the crack of dawn on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year and now the administration of this. It could cost the club £2k if the 200 number quoted is correct and in this time when prudence is so necessary it makes no business sense to gift that money away. Motherwell sold the tickets for the SFA and have gone beyond the call of duty - we have no argument about trying to get a refund when the event is passed regardless of the circumstance.

I have a ticket up the stairs. I went to work yesterday with the intention of going to Inverurie but after it took 2 1/2 hours to get from Hamilton to the Gyle I decided that going to Inverurie was quite frankly a shit idea. Seeing as the club had no chance of resale I never expected a refund would be available - I decided to keep my ticket last week in case it was postponed to this week knowing if it went ahead I would lose out. General rule of thumb is you can return beforehand when there is a chance or resale if postponed, not afterwards. Thats on just about every ticket I have up the stairs apart from the Inverurie one. Annoying but no complaints. That said it never crossed my mind to ask for a refund and therefore wasn't given wrong information.

To be fair you've been called worse.

Amusingly we were having a conversation at HT as to the last time Craigan scored for us. That effort sort of showed why we couldn't remember. However I think it was a last minute leveller v Hibs and I think O'Donnell scored the first. Could be wrong. Other thing I was wondering - were there any players for us on the pitch at the start yesterday who had taken a penalty during a 90 minutes for us? I know Murphy hit one at Easter Road last season but apart from that I was thinking probably not. Someone wondered about Hammell?

Clarkson just from Hammell Klimpl and Hughes.

On the point that it was the same team that tore us a new one at FP - the two players who did the damage that day were Fletcher and Shiels - neither were playing today. On us. I think our lack of a final ball will strangle us. For all the possession we had today Murphy had one great chance, Quinn forced a save from Szamultolski and the penalty we had little else in the way of clear cut chances. On the referee I thought he was great. I know he got a hard time for some possible fouls he could have given us but there were equally some the other way that he could have given. He was sensible with his cards and tried to let the game move and although it was physical it was a fair game. I thought he controlled it excellently. Shame he is an arsehole! On the penalty, Murphy looked yards offside when the ball was played to him but after the linesman never saw it he had to give the penalty. On our star players todat - Clarkson, Hammell (in a real good run of form just now) and Klimpl were immense, Reynolds and Hughes superb in 2nd half and O'Brien was steady. Sutton did well too considering he hasn't kicked a ball in weeks. Pleasing display.

As far as I know we can try as often as is needed and we should try as often as is needed. Remember some games that have been off much more often than this one has.

Inverurie have every right to play at home, just like we did last year against Dundee. I think all things considered the SFA and Inverurie have handled this well - always inspecting early, making early calls. They have a poor pitch in the erse end of nowhere, it was always likely to happen. Oh and it was much colder today than it was forecast.

Without citing examples the Sunday Mail said the ref lost control and most of his dodgy decisions benefitted Falkirk. Which I thought was a fair summation. Still think we did enough to win other than bury the thing in the pokey. And if that game had been between St Mirren and Accies, I'd much rather see chances than acts of thuggery in a highlights package.

We should have had that game out of sight by half time. THe number of times Quinn and Hammell got good balls in the box you haveto except our strikers to have more of a return. Falkirk were trying to play good stuff in the first half but Klimpl and Fitzpatrick in my view effectively broke it up. Second half they seemed to launch a vendetta on Hammell and Craigan for the first fifteen minutes and got their reward with a wonderful goal, albeit when we were a man down due to another mistimed clatter. After they levelled it though we lost our discipline. Not that we were going through folk but we were trying to play quckly and get the ball in the box straight away and thats not our strength. At least twice I saw Clarkson telling the suppliers to calm down and take their time and he was so right. Falkirk scored in 53 mins not 85 and had we played like we had in the first we would have won that game regardless of their tactics. I think we need to be wiser in possession and more patient. I know we can be guilty of walkiing the ball in at times but there is happy medium between that and getting it in the box striaght away. You don't have to be a top manager to tell who is going to win ariel challenges between Pressley and Bullen against Clarkson and Porter/Murphy. Falkirk were dirty and got away with it but to me the reason we did not win that game was because of us and not that or the referee though they didn't help.

They not won in the league since last time they played us. I think it will be close too, 1-0 us with Porter being the difference.

Goes against the grain but think I might pub it up as well.

As I said before the earlier you do it the more conjecture there is, I think an inspection early this morning would have been reasonable if there was a chance yesterday - you have to assume the ref who inspected it deemed there was none. In the interest of customer service if you about 90 - 10 in favour of off you call it off early. I'm not too upset the game was off as although I had made arrangements to leave work early today it would have left other people in so much shit I don;t think I could have done it for a game of footie. Dunno whether I will make Monday next week (no chance of Wednesday) but like Mitch holding onto my ticket meantime as if we end up in the week after taht or on a Sat will be able to go, if I lose £15 tough shit.

Life's murder eh? Everyone of us knew that we were going to a pitch at the arse end of nowhere in January. We knew it was likely to be called off, so when we make arrangements to pay for stuff we know the risk. I lost £32 from a hotel last time, and it'll be the only time cos I not paying for stuff again till I'm damn sure its on. Its a bit inconvenient aye but it is their day in the spotlight and for our fans acting like the big guys demanding the game moved is cringeworthy.

And Garry Kenneth has signed a new contract. Performance related decision that?

I give you Hamilton Accies.

Short of making the decision at k/o time you will never get it spot on all of the time. Obviously the earlier the pitch inspection is the more conjecture there is but that has to be weighed against the fans travelling. But with the next round on Feb 7th, with all due respect, the SFA will be reluctant to call it off on Tuesday unless there is no chance it is going ahead.