Al B

I've waited a wee while to say this, because otherwise it would just have sounded like sour grapes, but I was never a fan of Blackman. Was in amongst the goals while he was there, but I just never thought he was all that great.

Rather than joining with the criticism for that shout, i'll ask a wee question....you're not by any chance meaning Hasselbaink rather than MAC?

Yeah completely agree. "The Fox In The Box" is long gone.... Jeffers' game is all about creating the space for the type of player you mention, and he's very very good at it.

Don't think it's as simple as that, they are too different in style and role. If we offered Jeffers a contract and he accepted, we'd still be looking for a replacement for Sutty. Will be very disappointed if we don't at least have a crack at getting Higdon. Worst that can happen is he's not interested.

What...do you want him to come out in his press conference to be revealed as a Hearts player, and say "nah im no that bothered really, your fans are all dicks" On a side note though....Zander Diamond and Danny Grainger?!?! Fuck me....

Rangers attitude - No-one likes us...we don't care. Celtic attitude - No-one likes us...and we can't understand why.

I can't remember where I read it, but Jennings touched on his thoughts for the Ki goal, and to be honest as much as he could have done things differently, you can't really argue with him. He basically held his hands up and said yeah, now that the shot went in he wishes in hindsight that he had closed Ki down quicker, but generally you'd be quite happy to let a player hit it from there, as 9 times out of 10 a shot from that distance on their weaker foot goes into the stand. That's fair enough for me to be honest. A big part of your tactics against a much better side has to be to try and keep guys on their wrong foot, and restrict them to shots from distance. Do that and you'll generally cope ok....It just so happened that on this occasion Ki hit the ping of his life with his weak foot.

If he goes, i'd be on the phone to Michael Higdon as soon as possible. A much better player than his club history in Scotland would suggest....think he would really revel as a front man in a team with better players than he's had til now. Good player, that could be a great player.

Yeah, exactly....he punched the ball into the net! We gained a direct advantage from his handball, and that's where the automatic booking comes in. Jeez....im not trying to convince people of my opinion or view...i'm explaining a misunderstood rule! Handball is a free kick. Using your hand to gain advantage over an opponent is an automatic booking. There's a difference between those two. It's possible (but very rare...which is where the confusion comes in), to have a deliberate handball that does not affect or disadvantage the opponent in any way. That's what happened on Saturday. The criteria for handball being an automatic card or not, and where the referee has to make a judgement isnt "deliberate or accidental".... it's "did it gain an advantage over an opponent". In Shaun Fagan's case from your example, yes...it did. Automatic booking. In Stephen Craigan's case from the final, yes. Automatic booking. In Daniel Majstorovic's case from the same final, no. Free kick.

No, he didn't, because whether it was deliberate or accidental doesn't matter in isolation. He indicated that he felt we didn't suffer any disadvantage resulting from it (which does), and being fair that was the case, as if he hadn't handled the ball it would have just bounced into acres of space behind him and he'd have cleared it or knocked it back to the goalie to hoof it. Even if it was deliberate, and even if the ref thought it was, that doesn't necessarily matter because deliberate handball isn't an automatic yellow card and that's a fact. It's not down to interpretation or judgement apart from to decide if we suffered a direct disadvantage as a result of it (which if we have, that is the point where the automatic yellow rule then comes in). In this case we didn't so it's a free kick and no card. The phrase "booking for deliberate handball" is commonly used and is now taken as red as a result, but while it isn't completely wrong....it doesn't tell the full story. To make it accurate it should be "booking for disadvantaging an opponent by deliberate handball" Hypothetical example :- If the ball is heading into the box towards the Celtic goalie, Sutton is chasing it down and has a chance of reaching it first....but Majstorovic knocks it back with his hand deliberately to make sure he can't (pretty much what Craigan did), then that is a foul and an automatic yellow card. If however, Majstorovic had the ball just outside the box and happened to be the only player in the Celtic half....not a Motherwell player within 50 yards.... then bent down, picked the ball up and kissed it, then put it back down, the referee would give a free kick but no card, and would be completely correct. I'm not saying the ref had a good game...in fact I thought he had a shiter and called a lot of things completely wrongly for both sides. The handball incident however, wasn't one of them. He called it completely correctly.

The actual stand itself (in terms of the bit where the seats are) was never intended to be open mate. But the doors into the stand were open all morning and the pie shops were serving beer and fruit-based alcoholic drinks for the ladies from 11am.

I think it's maybe not realised because handball generally never happens when a player is so isolated that it wouldn't have any influence. It's EXTREMELY rare that a handball wouldn't have a direct effect on play, so 9.5 times out of ten results in a card by default, just because other players are so close.

Maybe, but the handball rules of the game can't legislate for whether a player may or may not know. They go by what the referee can see, and in this case there was no-one near him. If the ball had gone over his head it would have merely bounced and then been cleared...so the referee quite rightly gave the free kick and no booking. Like I say though both his tackles were at least a booking (you could argue either of them being a straight red) so he should still have walked, and the ref made a huge error there. Mate, you can't agree to disagree over a rule. Whatever Majstorovic's thoughts or intentions were, the reality is the handball gained him no advantage, so it's not an automatic booking. You can't start making decisions based on what might have happened if our players had been in a different place. Intent only comes into the picture for dangerous play.

Just to clarify, deliberate handball isn't an automatic booking unless it's to directly gain an advantage, which is at the ref's discretion. Craigan actually and deliberately used his hand to knock the ball out of the path of someone... if Jenno (?) hadn't been in the way this should and would have been an automatic booking (although why the linesman didn't flag I have no idea). He probably looked at Majstorovic's and thought if the ball doesn't hit his hand it goes over his head and bounces into space...Majstorovic still has control of the ball and either clears or knocks it back to the keeper. Free kick correctly awarded for handball, but was to gain no real advantage so no booking. Sorry folks, but the ref got that one spot on. Thought his tackle on Lasley could have easily been a red on another day however. Sure he had an identical one on Sutton as well? Seen them given for that plenty times so for two that were both shin-high, i'd say he should have been off. Haven't seen Lasley's tackle yet so cant comment.

Just wanted to say a couple of things regarding the display. I've been going to the football every week for what will be next season, 17 years. In that time we've had pretty much every occasion a footy fan can hope to see, cup semi-finals, finals, european ties. Obviously I have enjoyed all of them, some more/less than others, but for the most part I thought i'd experienced everything there was. Until yesterday, when I had two, genuinely take my breath away moments. The first was when we were standing just before the teams came out, waiting for the announcer to begin and hold up our cards...and I saw the Celtic display appear what seemed like magically out of nowhere. Albeit it was one of the Old Firm who I despise, but I had never seen anything like that in the flesh before...and watching it grow out of nothing kinda blew me away. The second was straight after that when, in a "call and response" type fashion, we used their display as our signal rather than waiting for the announcer...and our own display appeared. I was lucky enough to be in section B5 which while still involved, was far enough round to be able to look across and see it, and a breathtaking moment moved up another level. Being completely honest I have had my times when i've praised the guys at the end of the east stand, but also times when i've been pretty critical. The way they went about doing this however, showed a maturity and a discipline has been added to their always good intentions, and that for me is the difference. I cannot praise them enough and now those qualities are evidently there, I hope they can go from strength to strength and really achieve more in regards to atmosphere, colour and celebration. That moment when both displays were up is the most impressive and special thing i've ever been involved in as a footy fan, and I will remember that feeling for the rest of my life. Cheers to the boys that were responsible, and big thanks to the helpers who carried it out. What a shite game though....experimenting in a cup final??

Looked like a big green splodge

"Right that's me away on my night out, got my phone with me if you need me" "What time will you be back?" "Ehhh...it's just up at the club so i'll be about half 1-ish by the time I get back down the road" "Ok have a good night, have you got everything you need...wallet, keys, travel screwdriver set?" "Yup".

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It is....

Oh my goodness...I wonder who that poster could be. Fooling us all with a change of username there....

This. Guarantee it...

Why would you enter a competition where you don't want the prize?

I'm sure I heard somewhere the Cooper is open from 11? Tried to phone the club but obviously it's not the easiest place to get through to at the mo. Does anyone know?

I bought the Hampden training top last week for wearing to fives, basically the Spurs template from this season but in the colours of the pic above. Like it a lot!! Edit: Aye, that one in the last post!

Check me aw famous!