Kmcalpin

In the wake of yesterday's incident packed encounter it perhaps not surprising that the referee's perforamance was largely overlooked. However, in my book it was one of the worst referring performances of the season characterised by a totally inconsistent display. OK there were no individual match influencing decisions but Mr McLean made a continuous catalogue of errors from start to finish. The fans, from all 3 home stands, left him in doubt what they thought and SM did likewise after the final whistle - he was so annoyed he ran onto the pitch and made for the official. Unjustified bookings for Hutchinson and Sutton (how often are fouls given for jersey pulling let alone yellow cards?). McGuire gets off with a yellow card for lashing out at Hutchinson and almost causing him a serious injury and Pawlett gets off with a verbal ticking off for a shocker of a tackle of Gunning. A number of questionable tackles from the Dons throughout the game. No booking either for McGuire for playing football all on his own after the whistle blew. Darren Randolph warned for a limited amout of timewasting - has Mr McLean ever refereed Hamilton or St Mirren? Finally, an interesting wee incident in the first half reminiscent of Goodwillie's goal in the Cup at Tannadice. Just outside our box an Aberdeen player just about bicycle kicks Shaun Hutchinson in the head and guess what? A foul is given.

A fine if not spectacular win yesterday and an important 3 points in our quest for a top 6 slot. Plenty of talking points including a shocker of a referee, some fine performances, Aberdeen's strongarm tactics and the Craig Brown V John Boyle incident right at the very end. Given our exertions we were always going to run out of steam in the latter stages and SM called that just right. Good to see a sound debut from Maurice Ross and the return of Saunders and McHugh. Peformance wise we never managed to kill the game off and midfield struggled a bit at times. Darren Randolph didn't have much to do but pulled off a match winning save. Shaun Hutchinson had a strong game at the back and Maurice Ross fitted in well. Don't know why Stephen Craigan was brought on though - that sent out a signal to the Dons to come and get us. Chris Humphrey was my MOTM. Not Keith Lasley's greatest performance but he deserves a mention for an outstanding attitude. Up front Jamie Murphy looked very impressive. Really disappointed with Aberdeen's behaviour and attitude - cynical, physical, and whingeing. A few fans in the POD Stand requested CB to "call his attack dogs off" but their pleas fell on deaf ears. An absolutely appalling refereeing display that deserves a thread all on its own. Still a satisfying day's work from many perspectives and SM and John Porteous will have their work cut out to prepare the lads for Dundee United who will be more than willing to rough us up.

I agree 100% with the original poster. Craig Brown started off by saying that he'd been advised not to comment further and then proceeds to do just that with innuendos on public radio. He clearly thinks little of we, the fans, given his comment on the players and management. He should not be allowed to say unchallenged "There are one or two, I think, who besmirch the dignity of the club" and get away with that. I hope he is asked to explain that particular comment. Its casting unfair doubt on the integrity of club employees and directors. What did John Boyle say? Despite speculation on here we simply don't know. On the one hand it may have been completely out of order or on the other hand something as simple as "bet you wished you'd stayed here Craig". At least John Boyle didn't fan the flames very publicly on radio.

Yes, he a had a sound, if not spectacular, debut and I was impressed..

No, they wouldn't be. Quite a few of our group, including me, specifically want the South Stand. That said I wouldn't die in a ditch over it. Just happy we are in the semis.

Estimates varied, but my father always said that there were "60,000 from Lanarkshire", whatever that meant. In those days we had a fair support from Glasgow, Ayshire and West Lothian too.

My late father was the game. In those days Billy Steele was Dundee's top gun and was reckoned to be the potential match winner. Dad was a member of the Flemington branch who ran several buses to the match. His abiding memory of the journey to Hampden was a banner that someone had made up. It read "We're not afraid of Steel - we've handled it all our lives". The rest is history.

As it happens, Kenny Black said on the Official Site that Steven Saunders may restrat training today. That suggest that his injury is not as bad as we feared. Good news indeed.

Couldn't understand all the vitriol directed at him before he even kicked a ball for us. Anytime I've seen him he's looked sharp and intelligent. He's also unpredictable as United found out once or twice. The problem is that he's often 2 or 3 steps ahead of his colleagues. That might come with time though as they learn to play with him.

The stadium will be more than half emtpy anyway. However, with the exception of those who can't afford the ticket prices and those who simply can't go for whatever reason, I'd expect most fans will want to be there in person. Scottish Cup Semi Finals, especially against non OF opposition, don't come every year or even every second year. The lowest priced tickets at £18 are by no means cheap but you won't find many SPL games priced at that for away fans. Probably First Division prices? My preference would be for say £7 with £3 concessions but thats not going to happen.

Gee thanks guys! Seriously though - glad you enjoyed it. Our fans deserved it.

Well done folks. Banners/shirts were a great and original idea.

A great win tonight and all credit to the management and players. Well done! Justice was done after Goodwillie's fortunate equaliser at Tannadice. Onwads and upwards and another trip to Hampden beckons. Unfortunately I missed the game due to a gastric bug but hey we won and in style!

Going down to the toilet during extra time and finding the bowels of Hampden Park crammed with Well fans who couldn't bear to watch.

Leeann Just some further thoughts. Does the club keep any statistics on the gender of our fans? I know that few years ago it was concluded that women were under-represented amongst our support. Surprisingly Hearts had the highest percentage of female fans. Would it be possible to sell "mini season tickets" that would be applicable to a set number of games irrespective of when they feel during the season? For example instead of a half season ticket what about a 12 game package? This would give those who couldn't make every home game some incentive to buy one if only for a few games. I take the point that MFC is too quiet or low profile. Plastering the town from wall to wall with posters/pamphlets won't achieve much by itself but if undertaken as a modest part of a far wider package, might have some impact. One of the greatest threats to the club and one which I know you are well aware of is the trend for young men to sit in pubs and watch English football on TV. Although they may not view it that way it can still be an expensive pursuit taking into account the increasing cost of drink. We have to devise some way of luring them out of the pubs and clubs. making Fir Park a more pleasurable, atmoshperic place to visit may help. In that respect stewarding can be a big influence. By no means all of the criticism levelled at the stewards on this Board is justified but some lessons need to be taken on board.

It was the announcement at the AGM, Jim. John Boyle giving his shares to the club and an announcement about more community/fan ownership/involvement. It was all very vague but we were told that we'd learn more in a few weeks, and that was a few weeks ago. It strikes me that this would be the ideal time to link season tickets and the announcement, whatever that may be.

Yes, some truth in that. We're also missing a box to box central midfelder in the Giles Coke / Phil O'Donnell mould who can motor up and down the park to support his strikers. Too often this season the striker(s) have been left isolated.

Fair enough. Well done for amending the poll. The club definitely needs to embark on some kind of marketing initiative to coincide with the sales of new season tickets. What about the big announcment we were promised a few weeks ago for example. That would seem to be a good launchpad for renewals.

We also need to add a category to the poll for those purchasing a new ticket (as opposed to renewing). Probably bad timing for this poll - immediately after a horrendous defeat.

Not much difference to last Sunday at Tannadice then? Good first 15 minutes, horrendous 60 minutes and good last 15 minutes). Sadly we're beginning to find some consistency now, but of the wrong kind.

Bokanovsky twins on the bench Dave? Jamie Murphy looks burnt out and needs rest. Lasley is supended and Hammell may be injured if not on the bench?

Same here. I've now stopped watching footie on the TV out of principle. I did contact Virgin to ask if they would consider removing ESPN from my package. I explained I had absolutely no interest in the OF or EPL games. I had no qualms about continuing to pay for it providing they contacted ESPN to let them know about my loss of business but they wouldn't do this. I was told quite a few customers were trying to do away with their sports packages either through Virgin or Sky out of principle. Maybe worth a campaign. If sufficient numbers of fans stopped subscribing to these packages it might put pressure on the TV companies. Its one thing moaning about TV's companies influence on footie but its time to do something about in my book. Football should be live only. You only need to read to read the posts on this thread to find out what effect televised footie is having on live games. All that said, Killie could easily have reduced their prices, but have chosen not to.

I would imagine that the game will be moved. If not the SFA could rightly be accused of handing United a major advantage and that woul devalue the competition. Lets not forget that our 2 players have not been suspended. Neither they nor the club have done anything wrong. Quite the reverse in fact.

In central midfield we're woefully short of an attacking player and it shows. Jones would have been a more offensive alternative to Hammell and Jamie Murphy shold have been taken off, arguably before HT, in favour of Chris Humphrey. Whilst Humphrey's finishing tends to let him down he ties up 2 players. Maybe time to try out Jon Page in central midfield?

Very much so. Jennings and Lasley are too similar in style. Midfield had a strange game today. They started well and finished well but in between sat too deep, came off second best physically and didn't support our two strikers. It had an unbalanced look to it with 3 defensive players and one offensive player who was having an off day. If Stuart McCall made any errors today it was that he didn't get the midfield right. Oh for a box to box central midfielder! Saunders had a poor game as did Murphy but in the latter's defence, defending was never his strong point.