Andy_P

If you're after quirky (that's code for shite) omens then the Final is in the bag. I have never seen a football related garden gnome in my life until prior to the '91 Final when someone made these two for me and my sister. They were christened Dougie and, ten out of ten for originality, Wee Dougie. Oddly enough it was only two or three months back and the skin and blister stumbled across them in a clear out and gave me the "take them or bin" ultimatum. I couldn't lob them so they've been soaking up the rays in the sunny Bargeddieshire ever since. And then just like in 1991 completely out of blue in advance of the Final what suddenly appears in the shop..... It's in the bag!!

Your thoughts and votes please...

David Syme. That name itself reminds me that fans of different clubs have their own perceptions of who's the real "bastard in the black". If you ever have the need to reduce an Airdrie fan to tears you need only utter the words Tynecastle, Dunfermline, handball and of course David Syme. But yeah, I will also concede to a sigh of resignation upon hearing of Thomson's appointment to the Final.

If memory serves me right they mentioned Thursday for phone orders to be collected, presumably it would be the same for bus passes also. That was certainly the case with the Semi Final tickets.

How many tickets we ultimately sell in the end remains to be seen but I think the club have played it pretty well with the tickets all things considered. I'm always of a mind that if a club believe they can sell out half of Hampden then they should be entitled to a 50/50 split in a Final regardless of the incessant whining it never fails to generate amongst (the invariably) Old Firm opponent who believes they should be entitled to whatever number of tickets they want. I think by the time the game comes around the club will have been able to accommodate every 'Well fan that wants to be there whilst at the same time maximizing the income we can make from the game. If we were of the mind we could I suspect have stood firm and refused to allow any Celtic fans in the West Stand or get that top tier but if we've ample tickets for our support and nobody is missing out, then why not take the extra revenue? There's the argument that numbers wise we'll be at a disadvantage but I think there 200 of us at Parkhead the last time we beat them there and 9,000, 10,000,or however many thousand Motherwell fans there will still be a better ratio than what we're used to in many cases. Still hope we can limit them to as few sections in that West Stand as possible but there presence isn't completely without its benefits.

Faddy starting for Queen of the South in their Challenge Cup game against The New Saints. On that S4C channel.

It's not really games around the country though. They made a conscious decision to base the U21 games in Paisley. Quite why they went to Perth in this instance I'm not sure but U21 games and indeed most youth games were always well attended in Lanarkshire in the past so there is a hint of a feeling that we're kind of missing out a little, particularly when we've actually got folk doing well in the squad. I do however acknowledge there's a good argument that home advantage will come from that increased familiarity with a venue and we've had our stint with the women's team. All said and done though pleased to see that Campbell got MOTM.

Can't see there not being any on sale outside the ground. Granted what colours you end up with remain to be seen. Seem to remember seeing some waved at the Semi Final which were more akin to an Albion Rovers flag than Motherwell.

I would guess so. If you look at the sections listed on our allocation Celtic infringe upon the West Stand, something like B7 and B8 from memory, whilst nothing is mentioned about the South Stand Upper sections above O and P. Historically I believe they were also held back and latterly allocated to us in 2011 at the Scottish Cup Final.

Going by a Hampden stadium plan those would be the two sections immediately next to the tunnel. We also have the remainder of the stand going left towards the service tunnel, these being the P sections. Not sure what either equates to numbers wise however.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I tend not to listen to Mixlr when I can't make an away games, and ackowledging the fact it has its frustrations, but compared what we get from the likes of the BBC or Radio Clyde perhaps we should be a little grateful the option is there for us.

I haven't been able to access the information since I saw it was posted but if it is the case that WS members or ST holders are getting up to five then a little eye raising as that initially might be I can understand why the club will have done it. For one thing it has the potential to considerably reduce the number of transactions the club have to process. I'm sure many of us will have been contacted by family and friends enquiring about getting tickets for them. If Mr Season Ticket Holder takes it upon himself to order a ticket or two for those others through his allocation then that's one person the club have to deal with over the phone or in person instead of perhaps two or three. Replicate that over a few hundred season ticket holders and that's a good chunk of time saved that will result in more people being served more quickly. It also lessens the potential for some of the "My father has travelled all the way from FarFarAwayLand and we can't get seats together......" type situations. Not quite such an issue as I expect we'll sell out anyway but initially giving a large allocation for ST or WS folks also inevitibly means any public sale will be limited reducing the chances of interlopers or perhaps day trippers who just want to be at a Final getting a sniff ahead of a 'Well fan. Sales are never going to be perfect and there will always be issues that will come but considering it from a practical level from the club's point of view I don't see it being daft or crazy.

So you bought the programme. Or at least that was the theory from the would be commercial managers of the day. Obviously as your own experience confirms that could be easily worked around!

Not quite sure if you're jesting or not but the ABC..... on the scoreboard would correspond with something like this in the programme...

I don't think it insignificant that we head to Dingwall having already won there this season (albeit in extra time) and also beaten them at Fir Park.

It's kind of annoying having that air of defeat of hanging over you again after a game. Not experienced, nor missed it, much this season. I think the first half was as poor a half we've turned in, in quite some time. That was everything I kind of expected might happen on Wednesday though rather than today where we just looked so off the pace. On the balance of play had Hibs been further ahead I doubt I could have argued much but by the same token it rankles that the goal we did lose was self-inflicted. We should not be losing goals from our throw in, in the opposition half! Being just a goal behind did give us some hope though and the changes at half-time and early in the second did bring us much more into it. They did always look like they had a goal in themselves when they broke but at least we were at least competing even if it wasn't perhaps the prettiest or indeed that effective. The task is to respond in the fashion we did after the Aberdeen loss at Fir Park and perhaps to also learn from that both as a team and coaching staff. And it isn't just lovely to see the SFA officials so happy at their work. Beaming and smiling away as they selectively apply the laws of the game. Aww nice.....

Your thoughts and votes please...

Your thoughts and votes please...

Hmmm. I think I would have preferred the whole of the West Stand and not have them in with us. But if the club estimate what we've got will be sufficient then it's difficult to contest that an extra 2500 x £30 or whatever added to the overall kitty won't do us harm financially. I also note that South Stand Section Q upper doesn't appear to be allocated to anyone yet so perhaps if sales do go well then that might a possibility for extra seats for us.

We played Rangers in a Reserve League Cup game if I mind right on that free Saturday. There were a good couple of thousand at it. It was a mental game. We were something like 4-1 down and came back to win 6-4 or 6-5. Seem to remember Cusack at centre half and Mowgli getting four. Sorry. Returning to topic in 3,2,1...

I haven't had an opportunity to watch the press conference yet but the summary on the BBC Sport Scotland site provides a succinct response from Robinson along the lines of "We're not dirty. We're hard, we're physical, we're aggressive; and you'll know you've been in a game against us." Says all their needs saying in my view. Looking at it from a slightly different perspective though. This season we've talked of how we've lost games in our heads against Rangers over the years. How we struggled to get the mindset right to deal with Hearts physicality in the eighties and nineties (you could add in Hearts MKII in Airdrie). Leaving the Final aside aside how many players and opposition teams who don't have our current mentality will go in to games against us with those very same mental deficiencies we displayed against those teams because all they've heard and read about is this team that's fired up to kick fuck out of them on the park. How many will shit it the first time Allan Campbell or Hartley come steaming in hard early doors? There's an advantage as well as a disadvantage of having a rep for being a strong physical side.

Yeah, it kind of goes back to Joe Wark Fan Club was it's post from Sunday evening about the team pushing boundaries of what we believe is possible. I think most would be extremely forgiving if come Wednesday we were flat, jaded and not as up for it as we might have been. We've just made it to a Cup Final after all. But it is as fizoxy suggests above "a test" or a challenge for the manager and squad. How much do they want the three points? How much are they willing to go through the pain barrier in what will undoubtedly be a tiring night on the back of Sunday? How much will the manager drive them on? I've listened to a Celtic fan in work over the last week convinced that they would likely struggle against Aberdeen on the back of a Champions League match and Semi Final and they have resources far beyond us. Even though we haven't had a the run-around they did last midweek it would for me undoubtedly be another massive boundary pushed and market set if we could come through this and get a win.

Bob Malcolm scoring with his chuckies against St Mirren.

I'm not so sure about to be honest. I think the world is in a different place now. In 1991 it cost £7 or the likes to go the Final against Dundee Utd. It wasn't too many years ago before that if you were playing away from home and you're game got called off you just went to the nearest game that was on the prices were so cheap, or relatively cheap at least. Step forward to 2017 and there will be Motherwell fans who will refuse to, or will be unable to pay the amount required for a Final ticket far less a significant number of Rangers fans willing to pay £30/£35/£40 or whatever to watch another team. And that's before you even factor in Rangers they are some of the most bitter, resentful, grudge carrying souls that ever walked God's earth and we've just nestled back in snuggly behind Celtic on "the list". I won't say there won't be any going alongside friends or family, but I can't see it being in any way a significant number.