Andy_P

I personally don't see that Celtic are there for the taking. I get myself tied in knots sometimes thinking about the law of averages and probability. Like in the run up to the other night I'm thinking the longer we go undefeated the more likely the next game will result in a defeat. And if St Mirren haven't won at their new place with each passing game a win for them becomes more likely. End result I'm fearing defeat. And using that outlook in my twisted little mind the longer that Celtic's "dodgy" spell goes on the more likely they are to break it and scud someone. But you never know. We've managed to raise our game generally quite well against the Old Firm at Fir Park since McGhee came. They've got a wee bit extra pressure on them now with Rangers ahead of them, and if we were to get an early goal, with our pitch a ready made excuse for them it then becomes a bit of a test of their character. I don't see much in the way of changes from midweek. I think it'll be Sutton in for Sheridan and otherwise the same as who started in Paisley. We've had a few results go our way the last couple of weekends, would be great again if we could capitalise on it again tomorrow with a wee sneaky point. Fingers crossed.

To McGhee's...."How many times has your rolled over to Celtic on the last day of the season to let them win the league....." Gus responds.......

Or alternatively but in a similar vein, what about fundraising for a set of pitch covers for Dalziel? An often raised complaint is that the team have nowhere to train when its frosty/snowy and have taken to using the pitch at Fir Park. You would win on both counts with them having somewhere to train, less toll on the surface at FP when its renewed/relaid. I agree though there has to be some incentive for those donating given current times whatever the incentive may be.

Saints fan at work has commented in the past that he's come on a ton and he's been pleasantly surprised at his goalscoring return this season. There's a definite role for a player like Mehmet but my quandry with having a player like that in the team is that his-team mates just get lazy and hoof it up to him all the time. Ofcourse that has to be weighed against how many goals he'll get you or set up for a fellow striker. You only need to think back to earlier in the season when we were playing with Porter and Sutton up top. Some of the stuff was dreadful to watch as well as being totally ineffective.

It looked from early on that one goal was going to be enough to win and unfortunately for us it fell to them. Admittedly ofcourse we actually went some way to helping them get it, but there you go. It does feel like an opportunity lost given the first half of the first game, the fact we've gone there and there's been nothing much between the teams tonight and given the prize that awaited in the Quarters. Wasn't for the want of trying but nothing much came off at all. We always seemed to make the wrong decision and take the wrong option when we got anywhere near their box. Its disappointing but I'm not going to go overboard in my criticism. Its hardly embarrassing as some have put it going out to another SPL team and it was hardly defensive starting with two up front and having two attacking wide players for the last 25 minutes. We didn't play well, it's shite, its frustrating but it happens.

Difficult one to choose. Few if any were head and shoulders above the rest. Hammell possibly? Smith? I'm struggling to be honest. Hammel I think.

Holland v Scotland. International weekend.

Yeah, broadly similar experience here myself. I got there about 5 minutes earlier than yourself, got to the front door to be told by a steward that it was only ticket pick-ups for the Hamilton game. Queried that surely people in the queue should be honoured given it was only about 7 or 8 deep at that point but got the standard "police instruction" excuse. Its a two prong issue - firstly I am getting increasingly weary of being at the mercy of police intervention at football. These guys get off SOOOO lightly in comparison to when I was a youth yet the aggrevation they cause these days for little reason. I remember +15,000 attendances at Fir Park against the Old Firm in the 1980's where you could buy tickets right up until kick-off. Now you have them deciding when Ticket Offices can and cannot open, when days games can get played, what times games get played, whether its need to be all-ticket, how many police, vans and horses they are going to bring to sit idle in the town's streets - all at great cost to each club. We should just have told the SPL it was "police instructions" or "health and safety" reasons we've not got undersoil heating because nobody ever seems to be able to contest that reason whenever its used! Secondly the club. Ideally if they knew there should have been a note on the website saying the cut-off point for selling tickets. But I have heard it said before they've tried to be flexible and get away with it as much as they could before the dreaded "police instruction". But they really should look at some information outside the ticket office. Surely cannot be overly expensive to have some LED scroller thing at least advising what the situation is BEFORE folk joining queues and have their time wasted?

I'll take that. If you can't steamroller the opposition in a derby game then the next best thing is to beat them and send them home thinking what might have been. Not a great performance but a hard fought win. I don't know if Accies changed their style today but thinking back to Reid's comments during the week about our pitch not suiting their style and seeing them hump the ball to Deuchar for much of the game and try to feed off the knockdowns doesn't quite tally. But it did cause us problems for much of the first half and was pretty effective. Perhaps significant that we had two good moves of note in the first half, the first of which culminated in Hughes putting a cross-come-shot just wide and the second a goal. Second half I thought we more than held our own and defended resolutely when the need arose. Bit nervy mind when he added on 4 minutes then chose to play at least another one after that. But we got there. McGhee made the point a few weeks ago, and its pretty obvious really, but it really makes a difference getting that first goal and having something to defend rather than having to chase a game. But hey, the self-proclaimed big shots with their men of the month and their winning streak have come and gone with their tails between their legs and that's good enough for me.

Went for Maros today. In a tight game and in particular when we had a lead to hold on to, his uncanny ability to get a tackle/foot/head/block in at just the right time helps us no end. There were two or three occasions when you noticed Accies players holding back when going for challenges with him. Hope the injury isn't serious

I suspect Jay's line-up above will be McGhee's preferred option for tomorrow. As ever I'm quite excited at the the prospect of a derby game. Their run makes it all the more interesting and I'm sure with their winning streak and manager and player of the month awards, they'll be champing at the bit to come to Fir Park and teach us a lesson. I hope some that some over-confidence will kick in. I would like to think though that we'll be right up for it as well though and put right the result from December. It says a lot for us as well that we were below them after that derby game and despite their run we're above them now, albeit only just. Just make sure we're still above them come tomorrow night!

That was the thing with Aberdeen's demands when the issue arose the last time. They were beside themselves at the prospect at getting £80k off Sky - which is fair enough its a nice wee unexpected bonus. But they can't very well then criticise another team for trying to protect their own financial interests as we did when they are out for a fast buck themselves. Aberdeen wanted to have their cake and eat it. And the same principal applies with St Mirren and Hearts this time. I read a snippet in the Metro this morning where the Saints chairman was saying if anyone should know about troubled financial times its Hearts and they should be more aware of the situation clubs are experiecing But to me that's exactly what they are doing - looking after their own financial interests. The tone of Gilmour's comments is that Hearts are stopping money coming into Scottish football. Hearts aren't stopping anyone miss out on revenue bar the cash they would lose themselves if they had chosen to move their game on the Sunday.

>>> Official Site Article Clicky

It does just seem like an article intended to stir things up. I don't really see any need for the section about the undersoil heating. What have they reported there that we don't already know? Nothing. If they choose to respond to the pricing issue the club have ample ammunition to hit back with though I suspect if they are choosing not to comment they are attempting to "ride the storm" to try not to limit sales to Celtic fans. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the arguments ultimately they will still want the tickets sold so it may be an occasion they'll choose to bite their lip. And so what if John Boyle is on holiday. What the feck does that have to do with anything? Is David Murray or John Reid tied to a desk at Ibrox and Parkhead 24/7 constantly available to answer questions for the rags? Ofcourse not. So why should John Boyle be.

I think its a stick on it'll be £15 and £10. They went for those prices for their last day at Love Street, the two clubs agreed the same for the game on Saturday so I don't see any reason why they'll not go for £15 and £10 for the replay.

Sometimes I wonder if we're better off playing one of the bigger sides than enduring another soul destroying "Here's what you could have one" episode. So assuming we do, I think we're seriously overdue with a Cup win over Rangers. In fact make that ANY win over Rangers so bring them on. Small matter of taking care of St Mirren first ofcourse.

The danger is when you single an opposition player out for whatever reason, as was seen at the game at New Douglas Park, it sometimes has a nasty habit of coming back to bite you on the arse. For every Broadfoot who goes to pieces there's a McCarthy who gets extra motivation to get it roun his detractors. I still look forward to Maros putting him in the air mind...... Hopefuly when we're 3-0 up and its in the bag ofcourse.

There's two ways of looking at it though. I used to think much the same that it was a disgrace that they chose the likes of Forfar v Rangers or Stranraer v Celtic etc. and while it generally makes shite viewing the money the "wee team" makes off the back of the live coverage probably covers their outlay for a season, so it isn't all bad.

No you're spot on steelman 1991. Definitely a 2-1 win through goals from Wishart and a Dickie Gough oggy. The bit I love in the highlights is Stevie Cowan strolling off the pitch arms aloft lapping up the acclaim as if he's single handedly won us the match when he's come on as a subby and barely touched the ball

Not really a startling performance from many today and struggling to pick a candidate to be honest. Most were fair to middling but went for Quinn in the end.

I don't know whether I should feel happy at still being in the Cup or disappointed that we've blown a chance to go through. Mixture of both a bit really. Thought it was a strange formation that left us in bother as soon as we went behind. We just really lacked the necessary manpower upfront for us to be able to respond, despite having the bulk of the ball. Second half was pleased to see another striker on and thought it helped our shape enormously, even if we still weren't at out best. Once we got the goal with the initiative behind us I thought we'd go on and win it but not to be. I don't really think they threatened at all apart from the scare at the death. Looking on the positive, I'd have taken a replay at half-time so I suppose the fact we're still in there fighting and in the draw should be viewed as such.

As Onthefringes says there are so many to narrow down to one. Adding to some of those not already mentioned there was Ian Angus 90th minute equaliser in at Parkhead, Dougie's winner at Ibrox in 93'94 where folk were on the track, seats were broken and shoulders dislocated in the melee that followed his goal or Willie K's goal to make it 4-3 against Celtic on the opening day a couple of seasons back. Good times them!

Good good! Hands duly shaken and game being focused on! As it happens I'm all for opposing fans paying us a visit, getting involved and offering a different perspective, so glad our discussion has remained fairly cordial. 10/11 for the Dossers is your magic number at the bookies mind....

Oh dear. My apologies if I don't meet your exacting standards! You asked the question about the amount of "I hate St Mirren posts". Again sorry if you didn't like the answer. Nothing wrong whatsoever in trying to aspire to be the best you can but rightly or wrongly the perception of your support - particularly those who frequent P&B is one that thinks a great deal of themselves often in contrast to what we perceive to be your true standing in the grand scheme of things and as such you have slightly more irritation value than the norm. You might well think the same of Motherwell for all I know - I don't - but you asked the question. You seem to misinterpret my point entirely. Your comment "If only like minded people from North Lanarkshire felt the same as we do about the old squirm problems in our local society, then Strathclyde would be a better place?" infers that we don't share your frustrations on anything like the level you do - I can't emphasis enough that we do. But the way you put your point across looks like you want to score points and attempt to take some higher morale ground. Again I'll repeat, good for you, you like your odds. Equally my perogative is that no matter how generous you feel the bookies are I still hope that whatever odds you get they'll end up being a donation to your bookie.

Let's be honest though any ill feeling is brought on entirely by yourselves. Were in not for the incredibly high opinion you all seem to have of yourselves and the way most Saints fans seem to seem to want to lay down the law to us on from how we should conduct our finances right through to how the grass grows on our pitch while you'd simply be another Inverness, Dunfermline or St Johnstone that no 'Well fan really gives a shit about. But we'll done - you've made it. You're a irritation to us. And how pray tell do you know that's not the case? You sound like a Partick Thistle fan there as if you are the only ones fighting the true righteous cause against the Old Firm. Good for you. We're well chuffed for you, you like the odds. Still doesn't mean you are going to win though. Hope your friendly bookie is appreciative of your donation to his funds.