bobbybingo

Making sure he's available if Gerrard leaves.

Working, so missed it and have no idea how good we were, or how bad Killie were. But when you take into account what's at stake for these teams and look at Hamilton & County's wins, that's a great result for us.

St Mirren's 'free scoring' Jamie McGrath. Think he's got one goal that wasn't a penalty. Aberdeen must be after Martin Boyle anaw.

I think (though I could be wrong) you've got St Johnstone (2), Hearts, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Aberdeen and Hibs who've won cups during that time without facing the Old Firm, though most of them have also won cups where they beat them at some point. If that proves anything, it's what we all already know, you've got to beat what's in front of you, and too often we don't when we should. At least I can say we've never (in my time) lost a final we were favourites to win, and, apart from Airdrie, it's the same story for semis. But 3 teams are gonnae take a sore one this year.

Luck's something that's out of your hands, so you could argue about what does or doesn't constitute it all day. 2011 final, Gunning hits the bar - bad luck, or would've scored if he'd been more accurate? Majstorovic doesn't get a second booking for handball - he gets lucky or the ref shits it? I agree with you on that kinda incident, and it rams home how much tougher it is when you face Celtic or Rangers in the cup. Like you say, better players, bigger support, dodgy calls likely to go in their favour. It also shows how real luck - avoiding the pair of them - can go a long way to winning a trophy, if you do the stuff you can affect well. Like taking penalties.

Absolutely. It's a good soundbite from Player, take it somebody implied his success was down to luck. But being good and being lucky are two different things that sometimes coincide, as they did with Celtic that day. Then you've no chance.

Unless St Johnstone do the double, both cups will have been won by teams who didn't have to face either side of the Old Firm. There's a bit of luck that didn't come through practice. It's fair to say Hibs had a bit of an obsession with the Scottish Cup and it only took them 114 years to win it again. I get pissed off at times when it looks as though we're no bothered, but wanting it more or having a decent team is no guarantee of success.

O'Hara's penalty would've gone in against that keeper. Good run about for Killie.

Of course, maybe the decisions have already been made.

Since 1991, I've watched Motherwell win a cup, play in another 4 finals, finish runners-up in the league 3 times, 3rd place 4 times and qualify for Europe on 10 occassions. In my previous 16 years we never made it past a semi-final and got relegated twice. Good luck to the teams that are left in the cup - apart from Hibs and St Mirren - but only one of them will win it, and the rest might spend the next 50 years greetin about the golden opportunity they missed.

Louis Moult came from non-league Wrexham. Liam Grimshaw came from Man Utd/Preston. Sherwin Seedorf came from Wolves. Tony Watt was a lazy troublemaker. Hits and misses, wherever you go, whatever you pay, it's down to someone having an eye for a player, then a big slice of luck. Someone at Rangers decided to sign Jake Hastie rather than David Turnbull.

Might as well hand it to St Mirren now.

Yup, great win for them. Bit of a pisser for us.

So do I. In saying that, not always, but quite often, these players don't live up to expectations or a manager doesn't get the most out of a good squad. Wonder how much Hearts spend assembling and paying the team that took them down, or the one that's brought them back up - and will probably need replaced in the summer. I don't expect every season to be great for us. But every now and then, for a season (or 2, if we're really lucky) with just the right mix of players and a manager on his game, we could give the bottom 9 a run for their money. Whether Alexander can provide that, who knows? I just hope we can win a cup again before I shuffle off, but like folk said, and we saw yesterday, you need luck as much as a good side to do that.

Yeah, Aberdeen and Atlanta have a 'strategic partnership'. The strategy seems to be, jobs for the boys + much cheapness = meet your new manager. He'll no see the year out.

Under Robinson, aye, we were. At times under Alexander, yeah. But I don't agree we're streets behind many teams, and with a bit of improvement we can get much closer. Hands up who thinks Aberdeen are gonnae improve under Glass or Hearts won't buy another load of expensive rubbish? If Alexander's up to the job, we don't need 10 new starters.

He's highly thought of. The windae cleaner thinks he's shite.

If anyone wants to see something truly terrifying, take a look at Stephen Glass' managerial record, such as it is. If we'd appointed him, I'd be raging.

One or two decent players make the difference in most SPL sides. Our terrifyingly bad guys are, in most cases, no worse than you'll find at Aberdeen or Hibs. We need a few new faces in the right positions, not another bus load who will inevitably be of lower quality and take half the season to gel. Not easy to find the right faces, but if Alexander can, there's no reason why we can't be top 6 and better.

If Cornelius can't get a couple of games at this point, he never will.

As with Lawless, Magloire didn't wander onto that park uninvited. I'm not laying it all at Alexander's door, but he had alternatives to both players, so if anyone thinks they're to blame, some of that has to fall on the manager too.

Makes you wonder who decided to put him on.

Given the state we were in, I hoped he'd bring something. He's a trier, but looks like that's it. Never seen anyone with such a low centre of gravity fall on their arse so often.

That turned out to be worth watching. Well done most of the players for keeping going, can't complain about the effort. Tony Watt proves even one really good player can make a huge difference. Lawless shows you what happens when you sign duds.

Awful penalty from O'Hara. But Lawless just keeps on providing hee haw.