daver

This is where the age of the various posters becomes apparent! While my dad says my boyhood hero was Wullie Pettigrew, I don't really remember him properly. I would probably have to say Hugh Sproat or maybe Joe Wark.

Oh dear, this sounds like an attempt to start bidding war for his wages which we will surely lose. Unfortunately, I don't think we can sign him on a pre-contract as he is not in the last six months of his contract, even if they are prepared to tear it up at the end of the season. Hopefully they may be able to reach a gentleman's agreement but that's all we may be able to manage until the end of the season when we see if that really is his club's intention.

Klimpl missed the first four months of the season though. Don't worry, he'll get there!

If Smith is leaving and Fraser is going to be our No.1 keeper then we would still need to bring in back-up. If Fraser is intended to be back-up then we would still be looking for a replacement for Smith if he leaves. Either way, if he is leaving, the sooner we know for definite the better.

I take it Smith was talking at a press conference because there's a very similar interview in the Sunday Herald. Reading between the lines, it looks as though he's only going to re-sign for us if he doesn't get a decent offer from elsewhere. Surely we've got to put some sort of time-limit on the offer to let us know where we stand and let us plan for the future.

Not for the first time this season, the refereeing was diabolical today. Brines started off giving a lot of very soft free kicks both ways and was very petty throughout. The one that really puzzled me though was when a Motherwell and Dundee Utd. player clashed on the South Stand byeline and both fell down. Brines held his hands to say there was no foul and to play on. Hammell picked up the loose ball and ran towards the front post when Brines decided it was a foul to Utd. after all. I sit in the Cooper Stand so was a long way away so can anyone nearer the incident cast any light on it, or was Brines just trying to avoid the controversy that would have arisen if we had scored?

I thought Stephen Hughes had his best game in a long while but thought McLean deserved it. He may have been tired, but I was absolutely mystified when he was taken off when United were looking for an aerial bombardment.

Congratulations to Mark McGhee (and the team). I'm hoping that by losing the first game in March we've already had the effect of the Manager of the Month Award!

Unfortunately not everywhere in Europe is as cultured as Nancy is! If the Fair Play award did mean the top 6 all qualified then the teams just missing out on the top 6 ( Aberdeen pipped Falkirk on goal difference last season) would be rather miffed with the set-up.

Yes, when I read that I got a lovely image of them trying to play on a nice lemon meringue pie! Seriously though, I think everyone's getting a bit fed up with the continued slating of the pitch and McGhee is obviously frustrated. Everybody know's it's in poor condition and continually talking about it isn't going to make it get better - let's just get on with playing football.

I assume there is a midweek programme as the saturday after is reserved for cup games. With both us and Hearts being papped out the cup, could this game not have been switched to the saturday (7th March). Did our replay mean the timescales were too short as it would have surely made sense? Not only would it have given some of us the chance of a wee train day but, as we saw recently with their St. Mirren game, Hearts prefer saturday games for hospitality!

Strange, I thought the general opinion on here at the time was he was never a right back. He regularly tried drifting towards centre-half position (like Quinn) and got absolutely skinned a few times for crucial crosses. More than happy to see him come back though, just not at right-back.

In previous matches I've heard a second verse of the Klimpl song along the lines of "Maros Klimpl, we won't let you go home". I didn't hear it (or a similar sounding variation) today but I was a long way away from the singing section.

Hate to say this, but Mehmet has impressed with his work-rate and ability to hold the ball up every time I've seen him this season and last night was his best performance against us so far. He's a million times better than he was at Dunfermline.

For us to have around 1200 for an away support for a midweek game which is live on tv is really good going. I only expected about half that to be honest. If we sell some more tomorrow we won't be far off what St. Mirren managed for the Saturday game.

Songs about somebody's handicap are unacceptable. The songs about Dean Shields were, quite rightly, quickly shouted down.

It also helps when the see non-existent handball offences.

As far as I know, Pat Bonner was one of the first to use the term Plastic Paddy in the early 90s referring to some of the Republic of Ireland team who had no idea about their national antem - so hardly racist.

You would only know that if you paid any attention to Sky, which I don't.

Really? He's been on Off The Ball several times proclaiming his love for Rangers with no mention of us.

To be honest I couldn't care less about him, McGeady, Jim O'Brien or anybody else - it's their personal decision. To put things in another light though, I am a proud Scot and if moved to another country, for whatever reason, I would bring up any son I had there as Scottish and would be absolutely delighted if he was sufficiently talented to be picked to play for Scotland. I imagine many of the Scotland support would have similar feelings. Would those who are ready to boo McCarthy force their hypothetical son to play for his native land rather than Scotland?

I can understand the SPL's decision but if there is torrential rain which floods all the parks in Scotland we'll receive a fine if our game is called off. Should they not have limited the condition to a frozen pitch if that was the problem? The official statement seems to indicate that we will dig up part of the pitch and repair the pipes affected. Surely this will have no effect on the condition of the pitch in general other than to ensure it will be able to be heated. Are we still going to end up with the usual threadbare surface or has the balloon had a damaging effect on the pitch?

With the current economic climate, do you realistically think either club would do anything to reduce their income? While the additional money is a bonus, they will be looking to maximise the income. Incidentally, St. Mirren are moaning about Hearts blocking the re-arrangement of their fixture from saturday to sunday following their game against us. Were we not in a similar position a few years ago, with Aberdeen pointing the finger at us?

I'm not sure, but I think the pricing initiative came in after the first Celtic home game - in fact, a matter of weeks before we played at Celtic Park and were charged full whack. Can anybody confrim what we were charged at Celtic?

This all sounds extremely unlikely as I think he is some way off being good enough to play for Celtic, although I hope he signs a new deal for us! Papers don't have too much to write about so don't be surprised if this gets picked up by one of the tabloids and passed off as an exclusive.