MJC

I never said it was and I acknowledged that we had had some bad luck with our ridiculous catalogue of injuries over the past couple of seasons, Biereth being the obvious bad luck case. My point however was that just about every injury we get is long term and that simply cannot be written off as misfortune.

It goes back further than this season too. You look at last season with Slattery, Wilkinson, Obika and Biereth all sidelined for significant periods of times. Obviously there was some bad luck in that list but it can’t all be put down to that. Perhaps in this case it is yes, but the fact that here we have yet another player ruled out for months on end has to raise questions about our recruitment and what we are doing in training. It’s a physical game and players will get injuries, there is no getting away from that. However it’s the frequency and length of time that our players end up out for that is the issue here.

Another one! And yet again it’s a long term injury not just a knock that keeps him out for a week or so. There is no way this is down to coincidence or bad luck because it’s happening literally every two months that we get a player ruled out for months on end. Even the club social media team have given up using the “speedy recovery” sign off when announcing this latest injury setback. Instead opting for “With you all the way, Zach”. Even they seem to have cottoned on to the parody this is becoming. ”Sam Nicholson will be out for a significant period of time, speedy recovery Sam”. “Jack Vale has picked up an injury which will see him miss several months, speedy recovery Jack” “Paul McGinn will be out of action for a lengthy spell, speedy recovery Paul” ”Zach Robinson will miss the rest of the season due to injury, spee….erm nah hold on……with you all the way Zach”. Something clearly isn’t right. It may be our recruitment or training methods but these lengthy injuries to so many players suggest something is seriously wrong somewhere.

Yet again we draw a Premiership side away from home. Thoroughly uninspiring and I fully expect us to lose this tie.

We need the lowest ranked side at home to give us the best chance of progression. We need to avoid Celtic, Rangers or any Premiership side and given the way our exits in the two previous seasons have come about we need to avoid playing a high flying Championship side especially away from home.

The whole team more like. And it’s completely unrealistic and unfair on Miller but that’s where we are because are devoid of footballing quality and so we’re relying on an 18 year old kid to keep the team ticking over. SK does have the excuse of injuries to Slattery, Nicholson and McGinn to fall back on and that does buy him a bit of ‘grace’ but that will only last so long before serious questions and scrutiny start coming his way over his recruitment, selections and tactics. This time last year we were in the middle of a wretched run of results in the league and several late equalisers saved ours and more so the managers skin. One year on and there is little if any signs of improvement in performances and only better results earlier on are giving us a bit of a cushion just now. It’s hard to see what, if any, progress we have made in the last year.

3-0 home win.

There's just no need for it imo. I fail to see how it can give us an advantage shooting towards hundreds of empty seats and given we can't keep a clean sheet it doesn't seem to have the effect of disadvantaging the opposition either. And if it's crowd trouble that's the concern then why not shut off the section nearest the East Stand and fill the rest of the tier? That would be more than enough for the majority of away supports we get.

That was Kettlewell's Motherwell at it's very worst yesterday. Shocking defensively, slow in midfield and nothing up front. That's all that needs to be said. On a separate note and I know this has been covered before but can we please, PLEASE stop putting small away supports in the top tier of the South Stand and leaving the lower tier empty?!? Not only does it kill the limited atmosphere there is but it also looks awful. I'm not buying this nonsense about preventing crowd trouble or giving us an advantage. Just stop doing it!

Dismal stuff. We just can’t do the basics and it’s killing us. You know? Defend, protect the backline and support the front in midfield and create chances.

A frustrating 0-1 loss here I reckon.

Hang on….

Of course, it’s a personal choice. Wear one, don’t wear one, that’s nobody’s business except the individual concerned. But it’s the nasty, aggressive and confrontational tone that the Celtic support take that gets people’s backs up about this. And people would be more accepting of this, I think anyway, if they weren’t so downright hypocritical and sanctimonious about the aggressive “anti-poppy/British/establishment” position that they like to use. Celtic and their support love to shove their agendas in everyone else’s faces and scream and whinge about “free speech” when anyone challenges them but they don’t want to afford the same right to anyone who has an opinion which goes against their narrative.

But, but b b b b b b b b b b b b b but, but!……Rangers fans are every bit as bad if not worse! Come on now! You’ll be giving people strong suspicions that Rangers are the big team you really support with talk like that.* The Old Firm are just as bad as each other (well Rangers are worse, it’s okay to say that) but you can’t say anything about Celtic unless you qualify it by saying that you hate Rangers equally or more. *I’m being sarcastic and having a veiled dig at those who would genuinely come out with nonsense like that.

I can only echo what has already been said, yesterday was a poor performance and a big missed opportunity to reach a Cup Final. Again our poor recruitment and Kettlewell’s inability to spot a proper forward player came back to bite us. The defence had absolutely no protection from the midfield and there was nothing working between the middle and the front. Robinson is gash, Stam looks out of his depth and you wonder why we brought Watt back on loan if he’s not going to play or isn’t fit enough to contribute. As I said, poor recruitment. The only upside to yesterday was the support we had at Hampden. 7.5-8k and vocal from start to finish and shows that our core support does have the potential to be a lot better than it is. Unfortunately though over half of them won’t be near another game until we reach a Semi Final again*. Talk about Glory Hunters. *And for clarity, I am not referring to people who can’t go to games regularly for whatever reason. I know these games are special and you will get a bigger support than normal with people travelling from greater distances etc. I am referring to people who absolutely could go to the games but choose not to go.

Our support were magnificent today. That’s the only positive to take from that.

Gordon & Halliday back in the team.

It’s Semi Final Day After our dismal cup efforts over the years it’s great to finally be able to say that! 🍻

That was during the Covid/no crowds season when Celtic absolutely imploded. That was a unique season and Celtic have won almost every available trophy outwith that particular year. The circumstances then are nowhere near what they are now. They will almost certainly win the treble this season and there’s a fair chance that they’ll do it unbeaten in all competitions again.

We probably won’t make the final anyway, so that won’t be an issue. But if we do then I’ll buy a ticket as us getting to a Cup Final is a rare occurrence and there’s always that ‘just in case’ thought even though in reality you know it’s not going to happen. Oh dear! Thirty three years ago when football was different and Celtic were nowhere near the force they are nowadays. That is irrelevant. You’d be as well saying it’s okay to smoke inside the ground because it was legal to do so in 1991.

Definitely and it’s not any different to 2017 in that we know that if we do beat Rangers then that’s essentially our ‘final’ and will be a result which is treasured and looked back on for years to come. But as far as our chances of actually winning the trophy go….like I said it’s ominous because we’re not going to beat Celtic in a final.

They’d need to be able to get near Celtics players before they can start “taking bodies”. This is ominous for us as before we even kick a ball tomorrow it’s pretty clear that if we do win then we’re setting ourselves up for a pasting in the final. But that’s just the way Scottish football is now, no one can get anywhere near Celtic. They’re just on a different level.

The Celtic v Aberdeen game is currently delayed due to “poor visibility” caused by PYRO smoke. Let’s hope the ‘Well Bois’ aren’t watching on in awe and taking notes ahead of tomorrow.

Aye I’d feel more comfortable if there was the usual smugness and expectancy coming from Rangers. Wins over them are few and far between but for as long as I can remember where ever we’ve beaten them it’s been when it’s been unexpected. When we beat them back in March they were on a good winning run and thought they were shoe-ins for the league. Then there was the playoffs where they were favourites and even when we beat them in the 2017 Semi the sponsors and the tv companies built the two semis up as preceding an Old Firm final with their two badges blown up in the foreground and ours and Hibs badges small and in the background like an afterthought. The fact that they are getting a hounding by the media and their fans and there is almost a belief that we will beat them from certain quarters doesn’t sit well with me. Im looking forward to tomorrow but can’t help but think it’s going to be a sickener for us.

Our last five games against Rangers at Hampden have been tight affairs with the obvious exception of the 2005 LCF. Unlike when we play Celtic there we always seem to manage to at the very least score against Rangers at Hampden so there are reasons for optimism. 02/03 SCSF L3-4 04/05 LCF L1-5 10/11 LCSF L1-2 17/18 LCSF W2-0 24/25 Scot Prem L1-2 The Scottish Cup Semi in 2003 still grates at me as we had them that day and Clarkson missed that sitter when we were 2-1 up and we end up losing.