Finlay

I believe the 3rd Round fixtures are due to be played on the 21st or 22nd September.

5pm on Tuesday.

Unless the draw has changed and I am mistaken (and I might be) the following teams are 'seeded' for the CIS Cup 3rd Round Draw this Tuesday; Rangers Celtic Dundee United Hibs Motherwell Hearts St Johnstone Aberdeen (taking Hamilton Accies place after their defeat to Raith Rovers) This leaves the following teams who are 'unseeded'; Kilmarnock Inverness Falkirk Ross County Raith Rovers Brechin QoS Dunfermline Personally, I'd like to avoid ANY fixture against Kilmarnock or Inverness due to repetition and (could happen) potential end of our involvement. Brechin at home would be the natural pick for me but if we had a chance of a decent away day I would go for Ross County or QoS in that order. Either way, 5 of the 8 teams we could get drawn against we don't play too often so at the least I would hope it is one of them.

Again, I don't see how the decision to give the penalty was shocking. I thought it was clear cut at the game and I thought it was a penalty when I watched it back on TV. As someone said previously, if we had been denied a penalty in a similar challenge we all would be absolutley raging....and rightly so.

A change, yes. Massive, no. IMO we are two new additions away from being a strong contender for a top six finish....possibly even pushing for 5th. Everyone else around us has already shown they have the ability to be inconsistent. Outside the OF their isn't a massive amount between teams.

Agree with that....except the bit in bold. I'm not convinced that Reynolds will be attached to a club in England by dinner time Tuesday. I will say this though. If he isn't he could well be wearing the red of Aberdeen or tangerine of Dun Utd this time next year. Certainly no worse than what they have and they could offer more money to him than we could. His days as a Motherwell player are numbered. Those days might amount to about 300 though.

Have St Mirren offered better terms or does Brown have his eye on somene else? Who knows but it is looking like Gow will sign for St Mirren tomorrow. Be very disappointed if we don't sign a winger by 5pm on Tuesday.

Hopefully something very minor. Same with Hammell.

Null vote for me today.

Have to agree.

...because If I PERSONALLY had a hand pick of teams to draw I would have picked others (teams I know more about, have more interest in, countries I haven't visited before and so on). Someone having different opinions and interests in other teams. Mental...

Looking forward to the game but at the same time not looking forward to it. Going away from the actual match for a minute I'm disappointed that the Celtic fans are again being housed in the POD Stand. Bad enough when we got moved from the Cooper Stand to accomodate them but now at halftime we are standing in the same queue for a pie or all going to the same toilet. Just seems like a really odd decision to me and I'm surprised it is given the ok by Strathclyde Police. Let us be honest though, it is a decision made by the Club from a purely financial perspective. Some of their fans provocative singing and verbals in the same fixture last season was a disgrace. I'm not one for giving the club a kicking over the slightest wee thing but I think when a fan is made to feel uncomfortable in their own Main Stand in their own home ground to the point where they won't wear their teams colours to avoid confrontation then that is a very poor situation. Down from my soapbox. Onto the game. I would take a draw just now. As poor a team and manager as Celtic have the truth is they are still ahead of the rest of us in every aspect. All of our players wil need to be at 100% to get anything as I think they will be fired up after the drubbing in Holland. Head Motherwell 1 Celtic 3 Heart Motherwell 2 Celtic 1

Yet none of those groups scream 'glamour' at me. I think if 'our' or even OB's group contained Liverpool, Man City, or Juventus I would have been mightly miffed. Feel a bit better now.

ML1 sums it up perfectly. We could have splashed the cash got Liverpool or Man City and got mauled and be in the same position we are right now. The fact we got a much unexpected chance in the Play Off Round has left us with a lot of 'what ifs'.

Indeed. I just hate the 'seeding' system. All but guarantees the VAST majority of smaller teams in Europe don't make any serious inroads due to getting put out early. UEFA want the big teams in their competitions for as long as possible. We recently have had no problem getting our foot on the ladder but unable to climb it any further due to the 'restrictions'. For me Juventus should be able to draw Liverpool in the Play Off Round and we should be able to get TNS, but it is glaringly obvious why UEFA don't want that.

I seem to recall Netherton starting threads before and issuing an apology the next day and blaming the drink. It is only a matter of time

Saunders.

So we have a thread where we are asking the casual fans to keep coming back (which whilst I do believe this ask is a bit misplaced as most of the people on here are very regular attendees and the ones who aren't a good number are exiled and would attend if they could....I do appreciate the intention) but now we have a thread that says if you do come back but don't act or respond in a certain way then you are a disgrace! Riiiiight! Imo that is just mental.

Call them casual or floating all you want but if people can take or leave going to the fitba I'd be surprised if a lot of them would be on here to read this.

Agree with Ya Beezer especially about extra individual quality. I do think they were better than us but only by a wee bit. In the end they played us twice and beat us twice. Tonight we had 15 minutes against ten men, a penalty against 9 and a resulting 7-8 mins where we couldn't break their defence. Another night maybe with less pressure or less at stake and we would have scored 4. Disappointed but sadly not surprised. Been here too many times I'm afraid. Back to the SPL and domestic cups for possibly the foreseable. A good Cup run in the CIS will hopefully put this out our minds. The behaviour of the OB officials was a disgrace and for that I struggle to wish them well in the groups.

Saving money for the group stages? Cheeky buggers

Could have written what CoF said myself. Really looking forward to the game but if I'm honest I'm struggling to visualise us all very happy at the end of the game. The only way I'll relax during the game is if we go 3-0 up.....which I can't see happening. If we are going through it will be 1-0 or 2-0 but as said above keeping a clean sheet will be hard. Positives of a win are 3 more away trips, good bit of money in the bank, and I'm certain one or two new signings by next week. Feelgood factor about Fir Park and increased attendances would all but be assured......even if only for home Euro ties. Negatives of a win will be a possible poor return in the SPL and domestic cups......although personally I'm willing to pay that price. Possibly a bit jaded by domestic and international near misses/glorious failures but I will go along and believe one more time......although ultimately it is the belief you allow yourself to feel that causes it to sting like a bitch at the end. Work on Friday is gonna be very good or very shit. Might sound weird but if we get beat I want it to be because they were far better than us. If it is an og, flukey sclaff, or outrageous deflection, dodgy penalty, or miles offside goal I'll greet for a week. In saying that I'll take anything against them and treat it as the finest goal ever scored if it is the winner. Too much of a coward for a prediction.

Where did this quote come from? He is a pantomime broadcaster and his show is utterly banal. His show is sooooo bad I would rather sit in silence than listen to his fake laughing at unfunny caller comments. I couldn't care less about his opinion of the pitch. I just find him really, really, really, boring, unfunny, and totally transparent.