numpty

Decent effort from Jones there... tipped round the post, wasn't going in anyway.

1-0 Rangers.

Seeing a wee bit more of the ball now... FK right on the edge of the box here. Straight into the wall, though. EDIT: TV replays showing the offence happened on the line -> should've been a penalty.

Five minutes gone and we've barely touched the ball, so far. Rangers have had two decent chances.

Teams (cos I missed them on the telly): Motherwell: Randolph, Ross, Craigan, Gunning, Hammell, Jones, Lasley, Jennings, Murphy, Jeffers, Sutton. Subs: Hollis, Hateley, Humphrey, McHugh, Forbes, Hutchinson, Casagolda. Rangers: McGregor, Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac, Naismith, Davis, Edu, Wylde, Jelavic, Lafferty. Subs: Alexander, Fleck, Foster, Healy, Diouf, Kerkar, Hutton.

Some comedy defending there, Edu should've poked that one away really...

Too early to say, depends what's at stake for both teams by then. If the title is still to be won, or a higher league position for us, then we'll obviously have to approach it differently than if it turns out to be a meaningless game for both of us.

If you mean Kenny Black, then this is the article -- but being some Edinburgh Paper, bear in mind how much spin is likely to have been applied to what Kenny Black may or may not have actually said. http://sport.scotsman.com/sport/Black-Hearts-would-be-good.6758048.jp

Wasn't in any of my schedules either. Unlike earlier seasons, Alba don't seem to repeat the games any more, so I expect we've had our chips.

Exactly. Winning a one-off cup game for which they're comfortable favourites would be so far away from "revenge" it's ridiculous. When they snatch a league title from us in the last ten minutes of the last day of the season, then they can talk about revenge.

All the more reason to think we might pull off a "shock" win, surely?

Well, you could solve that by having a transition phase where current refs can either stay part-time or go full-time, but insist on full-time for all new refs. Never been all that convinced that full time refs are a good idea, though. What would they actually do for most of the week and over the summer to earn their money, that the part-time ones don't do already?

Odd to see that 0698 dialling code... seems like the '1' has been there forever, now! Quite fancy entering that competition to win an Amiga, too

We only need to be embarrassed if we don't sell what we ask for. Otherwise, tradition dictates that cup finals are as close to 50/50 allocation as is sensibly possible. And we all know how Celtic fans love their traditions, so they should be delighted

An interview with Leeann in the Herald today indicating how much we expect to make from our cup run:

My reading is that Motherwell had already decided prior to Saturday to ask for 22,000 tickets, if we progressed.

In today's Telegraph, Roddy Forsyth mentions that we're asking for 22,000 tickets. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/motherwell/8458978/Motherwell-to-honour-class-of-91-at-Cup-final-against-Celtic.html

Nice wee STV article about the previous two Motherwell v Celtic Scottish Cup Finals (apart from the bit that says we needed "more than our fair share of luck" to beat them in February): http://sport.stv.tv/football/scottish-premier/celtic/244123-motherwell-v-celtic-final-offers-steelmen-chance-to-make-amends/

I'm sure there's a joke about barn doors in there somewhere...

Head of Sport and Fitness, no less... http://www.motherwell.ac.uk/courses/distance_sport.aspx

Bit too early to be making score predictions, plenty of things could happen between now and the end of the season that might increase or decrease our chances, even in a one-off game. Obviously still feeling quite optimistic at the moment given the result yesterday, but ask me again in four weeks' time

And we wouldn't, if we'd just won the title...?

Not a hope, I'd imagine. Sadly, I think we'd struggle to fill 50% of Hampden even if there was.

To be fair, Celtic are much more likely to taint it with political bile.

I did think the BBC were being a bit optimistic...