Kmcalpin

A warning for older fans - the concession only applies at 65 not 60.

Drinks are on you then Colin

Agree that our marking at the goals was appalling but Hibs don't have that much class - Riordan, perhaps Miller, Zemmamma and Stokes. The other 7/8 are/were ordinary to say the least. Hamilton and St Johnstone both played aggressively in midfield and completely smothered them. Our game plan and midfield performance suited Hibs to a T and they took full advantage. Man for man I'd say we have a better goalie, defence and midfield.

Aye, stay off the chicken pies at Tynecastle.

I'm putting 2 and 2 together here and trying to second guess Jim Gannon which is always risky. I'd guess he'd identified Stokes and Riordan as Hibs' 2 danger men both of whom are pretty quick on the deck. Steven Craigan has his strengths but pace isn't one of them. That ansd the fact that Reynolds and saunders have contributed to a few shutouts?

The danger in all such situations whether in a football ground or not is that anyone who tries to make a fool out of others does so at their risk. In the vast majority of cases the perpetrator doesn't know how the "victims" will react. There have been many tragic incidents where the "victims" have reacted in a very unpredictable and dangerous fashion. PS - not getting at Fizoxy at all in my previous post.

No we don't. The number of fans who did that at Pittodrie were very small in number, amounting to about 0.4% of our support. Those who did were rightly castigated by Mark McGhee himself and the press. In short, the very small number who made the objectionable chants didn't "get to do it". By comparison, several hundred, if not at least 1,000, barracked Zemmama for his unacceptable behaviour.

Likewise. So lets turn this around then. If a player winds up the fans and they react in a hostile manner (non violently of course - throwing missiles is another matter) he has no cause for complaint?

Seems to be some confusion here despite all the posts on the subject. Did the fans abuse/barrack him from the kick off and if so why? or Did they only abuse/barrack him after he gesticulated & celebrated after his goal? My recollection from the POD Stand is that it was the latter. I recall a "similar" incident years ago at McDiarmid Park when Allan Moore scored for Saints then ran over to the Well support and made objectionable gestures. It almost caused a riot. In that case our support hadn't been bothering with him in the slightest prior to his gestures.

Maybe Haggis. I was basing my assessment on the fact that Jim Gannon has a deserved reputation for thorough preparation and tactical awareness whilst as most Falkirk fans will tell you Joh Hughes has not.

Yes, it was good to see Chris back in the team and I wish him and his family well. In footballing terms I thought he might have been given 45 minutes yesterday. His pace was badly missed.

I quite realise that we would not remain unbeaten ad infinitum but I really thought we could have beaten Hibs today. Make no mistake they were there for the taking today. Despite all the hype about Riordan and Stokes they were given acres of space by our defence. Despite the media hype its by no means certain they will make the top 6 this season.

Best post of the day Grew. We lost today due to a combination of errors off the field and sheer poor performances on it. To me we looked a well beaten side by 10 past 3. JG is rightly famed for his meticulous preparation and tactical awareness but today he got it all wrong. Hibs defence, with the exception of Hogg, looked a bombscare and their midfield lightweight. They had a good midfielder and 2 good strikers. The team lacked pace and aggression and the problem to me was quite plainly in midfield. Reminiscent of the bad old days with Ged Brannan ambling up and down the pitch at snails pace. Given JG's reputation for changing things I really thought he'd wield the axe after 30 minutes or so but this never happened. Steve Jennings and Keith Lasley could both have done a turn as could Chris Humphreys (even for 45 mins or so). I'm not a Keith Lasley fan but his greatest strength is his ability to man mark. He could quite easily have snuffed out Zemmamma and rendered him a passenger today. As others have said Ross Forbes played far too deep. As you say both Hamilton and St Johnstone crushed Hibs recently and I really thought JG would have learnt from their feats. Probably the only time this season JG has got a game plan badly wrong.

Yes, we are weak up front and I can't disagree with that. It is costing us. However, today the service to our front men wasn't so much poor as non existent. Our big problem today was our pedstrian and lacklustre midfield. Can't judge our strikers on today.

You could well be right. Many fans are blinded by the skills of Riordan and Stokes but Hibs are more than just a 2 man team. John Hughes has never been noted for encouraging his sides to play open flowing football, despite what the media would have us believe. Their midfield are defence are nothing out of the ordinary and are quite likely to try to stifle us. Many fans were predicting a classic at Tannadice last week but that was never going to happen.

I couldn't agree more. You've summed up this whole thread in 3 paragraphs Weeyin.

Seconded. There's a lot of good work that goes on behind the scenes that folk don't know about. Out of sight out of mind I guess.

A great summing up Bop. Too many folk are blinded by the undoubted yet mercurial skills of Riordan and Stokes (hope they have a good night on the town on Friday incidentally). However a team is made up of more than 2 individuals. As we saw last night their defence is very suspect indeed. No doubt they're missing Mr Hibs himself, Rob Jones. A real stalwart who was more valuable to his side than many bigger names.

Good question. A typical Stevie Hammell performance last night. Fine attacking game culminating in a well deserved goal, and yes, it was his goal. However defensively he was all over the place at times.

Not a great performance last night but we won through and in cup competitions thats all you can ask for. Ross Forbes won it for us with a real cracker of a goal. Too many of our moves last night were just inches out and that was frustrating. It was worrying though that ICT were managing to find spaces in and around our box late on and when playing with 10 men. With the notable exception of our right back our defence had an off night. All credit to ICT though - they were motoring up and down the pitch at the end of extra time even with 10 men. As JG hinted the United game took a lot out of us physically. It was a hard bruising encounter by all accounts and that showed up in the amount of knocks we picked up. I suppose a physical battering on Saturday took its toll last night.

I think you're right. Despite Levein's media reputation for playing great entertaining flowing football, his teams are always big, physical, well organised and designed to stop the opposition. They tend to grind results out.

Nothing at all Andy. Certainly Darren Smith, McGarry, Fitzpatrick and Fraser seem well out of the picture. Of those four only Darren Smith appears to be injured.

Given the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Boards a few months ago, I just thought I'd ask posters who we are missing. FWIW I reckon we're only missing Davie Clarkson. The jury is still out on Paul Quinn.

Not sure about that Peter. United are supposedly one of Scotland's best teams, are at home, going for a win and we were missing Slane, Humphreys and Hutchison. Why would they set out to prevent our midfield from playing? I really don't think Levein is as imaginative as the media believes him to be, either that or he reckons we are a very dangerous force to be reckoned with.

Genuinely sorry to hear that. I feared that might be the case but had been assured that wouldn't happen and United had enough class to go out and not worry about us but simply beat us by playing the better football. Anyway a great result and Jim Gannon is driving us forward with a will, determination and acumen not seen at Fir Park for years. Incidentally, When did we last record 3 SPL shut outs on the trot?