fizoxy

Fixtures released.

The Mexican commentary has at least made it interesting. We’ve been pretty poor, with Christie being particularly woeful. I’d expect Cadds to get on early in the second half since everyone is knackered.

The repayments to Les and Boyle are structured and scheduled favourably for us, and there is no pressure to repay them, and you have the whole l double your money deal which suggests Hutchison is hardly desperate for his money back. We’ve just signed a bunch of guys on new deals and we’re working on upgrades to the pitch and stadium that weren’t urgent, which indicates we’re hardly strapped for cash. This is exactly what was said in previous posts, Typical Scottish football “journalism”. Before such things as web forums, did journos just get their stories from fans in pubs?

I can see the arguments for and against Ciftci. With our resources, to bring in real quality we have to take risks. We can either pluck guys from obscurity who may be off the radar of other clubs, or try to turn around the fortunes of a player who has fallen away. My questions are what would make our club the one to successfully get something out of him? Will he apply himself to the level we need if he has the comfort of another 2 year deal? Is the upside worth the risk?

Good point. It would be interesting to know the spread of matches attended out of the 13.5k that we’re there on Saturday. I’d agree that making it cheaper and more enjoyable for kids is a good step to ensuring we have a support in the future, and also make it a more attractive option for families.

Hopefully see a couple more youngsters become regulars, and improve on our league position from this season. A lot will depend on how the current top 6 go about their off-seasons though. I’m not sure what one of them we’d displace. As for the cups, I don’t think the draw could be much worse for us than the season just gone, so hopefully we can push into the latter stages again.

McHugh was taken off at 60 minutes in the final because the manager had no choice but to try something. He’s had the same issues all season but rarely been out of the team, when there were other options available. He might not be the player we want him to be, but I’ve seen nothing to suggest the manager doesn’t want him.

Adding to the above, many folk can’t afford the regular cost of football, and this involves way more than just the price of a ticket. Then factor in people with kids or who work weekends, it may be possible for them to make childcare/work arrangements for the less frequent cup games (especially the latter stages), compared to our 4th game against Kilmarnock. The size of our support has been pretty steady for years, and is comparable to other clubs our size. An increase of a few hundred (like this year) is significant. You hope that the cup final may re-spark some interest in those who just fell away due to apathy, but for most people the factors preventing them from going regularly still exist.

I assume Griffiths will be gone, as I think he was on a 1 year deal. Does Frear still have a year? How about McLean? Also think Newell and Petravicius were on one year deals. Unless Livingstone and Ferguson are good to go, I see us bringing in a left back and a backup goalie.

What is Liam Brown’s main position? I thought he was a right back in the u20s, but that didn’t seem to be the case yesterday.

I’m home for this one, so 0-0 and a pie shortage.

Yep, we’re due a couple of goals against them.

I think someone clicked on the link at the same time as me, the website is broke.

This is terrible, but I like it so much.

Join the well society for a fiver a month and you’ll get tickets no problem. Or pay your dues by coming up to sample the games against St Johnstone or Accies!

We’ve had far better teams, and better seasons results-wise, but watching us body the “bigger” teams this season has been something. Main, Grimshaw, and Bowman all put in some shift. Not to say anyone was below par, as you don’t beat Aberdeen 3-0 without everyone contributing, but those three really stood out for me. I just happen to be home at the time of the final too, so that’s nice!

Didn’t think there were any bad performances, and I think our defense were all good. Campbell once again stood out with a great performance and well taken goal, Cadden looks to be getting into some form again, and I counted at least four times where McHugh found a motherwell player with a pass. Main was tireless and did a great job up front with bowman, and deserved at least another goal either from the denied penalty or the one that hit the bar. However I’d give him man of the match for his strength leading up to the second goal alone.

Kipre didn’t need to do it, and hopefully he’ll learn. With Scottish refs and our opposition you need to be immaculate. Our penalty shout was pretty weak. One of those that only Celtic get. Thought Campbell was excellent, and the front two put in a power of work, and I thought our defense as a whole were pretty solid with and without Cedric. Frear didn’t have the pace to be effective, and the defensive switch for him really worked. Richard Tait is a machine, the ground he covered in the last five minutes was crazy. Carson is just a given at this point.

I love watching highlights from this era, with the terracing and the tackles. We don’t have enough nostalgia on here! I wish I’d been around for McLauglin, he looked like my kind of player.

Enjoy the live version

I thought we were very comfortable in the first half, without making many chances. The disallowed goal could have gone any way, but what I saw was the goalie getting his hand on top of the ball then losing control when he tried to roll it back to himself. Add our goal to the list of weird shite that has gone in our favour this season. ciftci is really short of sharpness, his movement was good, but nothing came off for him. I think he’ll benefit from Main and Tanner’s form, but bowman has a case to be in the starting lineup. Our two bookings in the first half were probably deserved, but hearts lack of bookings was a joke, lafferty fouled persistently all game. Naismith is a dick. Milinkovic made a difference at the start of the second half, and the extra attacker stretched our defense, leaving Kipre exposed to give away that stonewaller. Kipre is going to be prone to that sort of stuff as long as we have him, but I thought he reacted well and did a great job for the rest of the game. Hearts had a good spell, with lafferty’s angled effort and Carson’s great save, but I never felt we were out of the game or panicking. My timeline may be off but I thought Dunne quietened Milinkovic with his no nonsense challenge after a few bits of fancy footwork. I think Dunne would be on his way to cult status if he wasn’t in the shadow of Kipre, but his passing is terrible. However, I’ve endured Kevin Christie and Greg Denham, so overall it is nice to watch this defensive line work. Throughout the half we had some good breaks, only to be slowed down by tanner dwelling on the ball. At one point he nearly had us in trouble when Kipre continued his run, but he got caught in possession leaving us exposed. I was hoping Frear would come on for him as he seems to have a bit more pace than tanner, who seemed to be running backwards sometimes. It’s great to watch a team that doesn’t tire at the end of a game, and we deserved our winner as we continued to battle hearts and it’s wore them down. I’m pretty sure McHugh is left footed, which add even more to the strike, which was a memorable one. I tried to keep an eye on him throughout the match, and he certainly puts in a power of challenges. Another refreshing aspect of this game was how we shut the game down after the goal and didn’t give them a look in. The commentators didn’t talk about campbell enough. I can add three people to the list of folk that would have normally went to the game but couldn’t today, but I’m not fussed about the attendance, 7500 is pretty good all things considered. Now we just need to get past Aberdeen or killie, which would be nice as I’ll just happen to be back home for a wedding when the final is scheduled!

The only game that matters is the next one, so the jury is still out

Great 3 points to keep us in with a chance of top six, and most likely a win away from safety. Nice way to exorcise that killie game. Murder to listen to though.

An amalgamation of lanarkshire clubs may be more of a challenge to hearts and hibs maybe, but unless there are some bored sheiks hanging around, no one is challenging the old firm.