Kmcalpin

We go again. My immediate concern is whether Kaleta will be fit. If not who slots in at RB, if SOD isn't available? Koutroumbis is far from match fit, and at best might only be good for 15/20 minutes. We should be looking for 3 points, but Saints will prove to be a stuffy side. They'll try to bottle up our wing backs and smother Lennon Miller. if they're successful then what?

It was the kind of Hampden display we've sadly gotten used to in recent times. Overly cautious and showing too much respect to the opposition. Sevco were the better team and deserved to win. However we made it easy for them and as one well know "poster" of this site said to me afterwards "We let them win". I agree with virtually all the points made above so no point in dredging them up again. Our manager does need to learn. We've been a bit hamstrung in midfield due to injuries so far, but its the striking department which concerns me most and those issues were very evident today.

Spot on San. Week after week we see aerial balls shelled up to a 6' striker on his own up against towering 6'3" central defenders with the inevitable outcome. Nothing sticks. Despite signing a plethora of strikers in the summer they just don't fit together. Some just aren't good enough. Poor recruitment. If we must play a lone striker then surely we should have recruited someone who can play in that role.

Yes, that's very true. Our engine room is currently weak both defensively and offensively.

I had very modest expectations of today's game. Biggest let down for me was the empty spaces in the Sevco support. Less cash for us. However we'll make £500k + from today and thats great. Also great to see us score at Hampden. Its not a stadium I enjoy visiting.

Lets score a goal today. In too many of our games against bigger teams at Hampden, we've failed to score.

Aye, I'm of the same view. Don't get me wrong, I think its progress and a good thing and well done to those developing it, but I don't fully understand all of the benefits. Nowadays 99 people out of a hundred use their phones for directly for financial transactions, but the very odd fan won't. Will these benefits be available to paleolithic PC/Mac users?

Another one of our youngsters, Jay Gillies on the bench last night.

Watt was also unavailable last night. So while United were 4 players down, we were 7 players down. Sorry Michael.

Yes. Gordon, Vale, Paton, Slattery, Nicholson, Callachan (?). With regard to the latter, I haven't really seen him play so the jury is out.

The shine was taken off the result for me as "United were missing four starters through injury in Craig Sibbald, Ross Docherty, Ross Graham, and Louis Moult, United were the better side but could not find the lethal touch they needed." (source: BBC). So, United had some injuries. I'm sure we all feel sorry for them having to field an understrength team.

This has been raised before, understandably, and the reason usually given for not rocking the boat is that the club doesn't want to upset the match commander(s), as they can make life difficult.

I assume he wasn't biased? If he was the Courier will be deluged with complaints.

An unlikely but very important win. 3 valuable points and a confidence booster.

We don't have the players on the pitch to do that, although I agree its badly required. We only have one central defensive midfielder and he's on the bench. Our central defence will need all the protection it can get tonight.

I recall a few years ago when Celtic were our guests. The Celtic fans housed in the South end POD Stand stood up en masse for the entire game. As a result we couldn't see that corner of the pitch. We asked a steward to politely request them to sit down as standing wasn't permitted. The steward consulted his boss, who in turn asked the Police for their take. We were told the Police instructed the head steward to take no action. We were advised to move.

Just what I thought. Its down to policing. The club and stewards have little say. They cannot enforce crowd control measures; thats down to Police Scotland. This is standard policing tactics nowadays from Lands End to John o' Groats. If the crowd is large enough stand back and do nothing - don't antagonise them. Afterwards, for PR reasons they may want to identify a few culprits but then again maybe not. If the club took unilateral action during the game Police Scotland would be most displeased. This situation has gone on at Fir Park, and in other stadia for years. Its nothing new. Might is right. If the crowd is large enough they can more or less does as they want, without fear of interference.

I seem to recall some years ago in an evening League Cup game (it could have been against Accies but I'm not sure) that the Police ordered admission to the East Stand to be stopped as they considered it it to be overly full. In fact it was a hundred or two below capacity. Does anyone else remember that?

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to Sunday and it'll be a big occasion for us. We've got a fighter's chance, of course, but I'm not overly optimistic and my expectations are limited. I agree about squad rotation but options in midfield and up front are very limited.

A crucial game for us and we must avoid defeat at all costs. We don't want to go on a run of at least 3 defeats. The league is very, very tight this year and we can't afford to rack up a string of losses. Its also important that we score, as thats now 2, on the bounce, goalless performances. Available personnel will be even more limited than normal, with Watt and Gordon now unavailable, and Kaleta injured. I assume that Casey will come back in. Midfield will again be a huge problem, both defensively and offensively and that will put the defence under pressure from the off.

Football is all about opinions. Its funny, I think Wednesday's game is more important to us than next Sunday's. I'd rather Gordon's suspension finished next weekend. We'll miss him against St Johnstone. For me, the semi is all about how much cash we can earn. Teams are now beginning to suss us out and we have no Plan B. Tie up our wing backs and Lennon Miller and they're guaranteed a draw at the worst.

You're on the money. Stam looks to be a player but not in this role. We don't have a player on our books who can play as a lone striker. That points to a recruitment failure last summer. Line up needs tweaking.

The problem is that none of them are defensive players. Davor is the kind of player we need but just isn't up to the required standard. An honest trier though.

I expected us to lose today, but it seems my hope for no red cards was wildly optimistic. Why can't we just get beat? As always with these free hit games it's the next games that are important.

I presume our tactics will be to keep it tight until we'll into the 2nd half and then make some changes. Ap Stam will have a pretty thankless task but the run out will help his match fitness.