Tweed

Think the figures tell us that we have taken right actions re the future - of course not all the free ones will turn into paid ones in years to come but hopefully the ones who do become football season ticket holders do so at Fir Park. As for the now figures are less good. Having finiished 5th, had a cup semi and a day out in the metaphorical sun in May you would have expected more. But given the recession could we have done more? Nobody here knows that but we appear to have added some nice wee quirks to the ticket so its hard to say. But ICT was a better game than I remember at fir park last season and keep doing that and numbers will rise.

I don't necessarily like Levein but he is a winner and he'll want to play the players that give him the best chance of winning. Whether we agree with him is a matter of debate but to suggest he is picking people for any reason other than for scotland to do well is insane. For what its worth I think he has called this one right.

The game aint on telly is it? We only playing on sun because Hearts are in Europa on Thursday. I think the impact in JJ's departure will depend on 1 how this new guy is and 2 how they get on against Paks. However I suspect they'll suffer that if its warm again and we'll nick it 2-1.

Anyone know when we will find out if Celtic game on 5/11 is on telly? And more to the point if the date will change.

Couldn't make it today but recorded and just watched the game on Alba. I thought it was a decent enough game and both sides tried to get the ball down and pass and on the most part the passing was quite good. Only thing was we were outnumbered in the final third and with Murphy and McHugh we looked a bit one dimensional. Last week we could change to a higher, more direct ball and Higdon was either able to knock on or spray it wide and with that different threat we looked a much better team versus Inverness. Though we defended much better today against what is maybe a better all round team and if we are going to get any success away from home that will be key. More to be encouraged about than concerned about I'd say. And I would never knock back an away point against anyone.

Agree he wasn't the best but the Inverness player handling it was about three yards outside the box. To be honest not giving that wasn't the mistake as the guy's hand was low and he was close to where we'd hit it. The error was penalising Law for exactly the same a minute or two before. Also being completely impartial I think both the Hutch and Jennings deserved their card. Not because they were particularly bad fouls but they stopped them getting in so can't really complain. But again Tokely did exactly the same and he got away with it so can complain about that. Whilst he wasn't perfect I don't think the referee had any influence on the game so I think he did OK overall. Something my mate noticed was that our three goalscorers were the only three Scots that started for us.

Well I thought that was a really good game. Both teams went for it and both sides created a fair number of chances. I didn't think we defended especially well and it really was their poor finishing as much as anything that kept them at 0. Randolph did make one save that was on the north side of world class. On the more positive side we attacked incredibly well. The thing I noticed is that Hateley was overlapping much more than before which meant that when the Hump had the ball they had a lot to worry about. They had the direct run, the cut inside and the pass to the overlapping player. Whereas before he just tried to beat them with raw pace and carrrump him and it was end of move. I think Law gives a bit more licence to that as the other two can cover if Hateley ends up out of position. Hammell was as good as I've seen him in years today and overall we just looked really sharp and a sweet team on the ball. We became a bit inclined to use the ball as a hot potato in the 2nd half but overall we did very well. Our three goals were outstanding and the cry of 'Why the fuck are you shouting shoot?' from beside me as Lasley got the ball will live with me for a while. The sentence wasn't even finished and ball was getting picked out.

Well we played well today, very impressed by Law; Higdon in flashed looks all right and I have no doubt his sharpness will come. Hard to judge because Dumbarton were total garbage but goals around the team, some nice finishes and their goalie made some lovely stops as well. Had he not been there we could have had 7 or 8. Leeds will be a good test for them and may offer some yardstick as to where we are.

1. Celtic 2. Rangers 3. Hearts 4. Hibernian 5. Dundee Utd 6. Inverness 7. Motherwell 8. Aberdeen 9. St Mirren 10. Dunfermline 11. St Johnstone 12. Kilmarnock Really is a bit early to make a decisive punt but for right now I'll go with this. Celtic will beat Rangers. In my view they have a slightly better squad and a fiiter squad. They dropped four home points to Inverness and Dundee Utd back in November last year from winning positions because Lennon thought they had the games won. Duly lost goals at the death and the points went abegging. Smith doesn't make mistakes like that in the other side of the city. Now Celtic have the more experienced manager and I expect them to utilise that. Also I see their team remaining more settled and as such can see them hitting the ground running. Hearts only had Dundee United as challengers last year. However 2011 has been awful for them. I think having had 3rd sewn up and St Johnstone papping them out the cup in January they ended up without a fat lot to play for and suffered as a result. If they start poorly I can see their fans getting nervous and given their first game is at Ibrox, there is a chance their game with us in fixture round 3 could make or break their season. Dundee Utd challenged well last year but there is no doubt in my mind they will go backwards. Colin Calderwood is a good manager however he has not really shown it at Hibs yet. Over the summer he has the chance to build his own team and if he can keep Gary O'Connor fit that is their goals problem sorted. Add in some of their youngsters have a year's experience I can see them having a decent season and jumping United. I think Aberdeen, Inverness and us will be all very close. By the time the season starts we will all have a decent SPL squad. Brown is a wily old fox and as much as I hate him he will improve Aberdeen. Inverness are robust and difficult to beat and have a proven SPL goal scorer so I think they will do all right. I think we will have a season similar to last. We have an intensity about us and some good solid SPL players. Our youngsters, a bit like Hibs, will have another year in them and our number of games will have reduced. St Mirren are the one team in the bottom four who look to have improved. Though like Hibs and O'Connor they need to keep Stephen Thompson fit. If not they'll go down a couple of places. Dunfermline have their first two games at home courtesy of this ridiculous friendly ruling with the Old FIrm and if they can get a good start momentum is a powerful ally and you can see them getting belief instilled in them. St Johnstone are toothless and I just can't see where the goals are coming from and I feel Kilmarnock minus their four best players will just not recover. And I think Kenny Shiels could be their Maurice Malpas. And for me that is why they'll be going down.

Because the Rangers team were simply miles better than the other five.

Its all very well saying your more than happy with Jennings, Lasley and Hateley. As three individuals I don't have a gripe with any of them but as a unit they are too defensive which means all our attacks become focused down the wing. Which is fine when the wingers are playing well but wingers by trade are inconsistent so getting a midfielder into the middle who can create as well gives us another dimension which means our opponents have another problem to answer when trying to set up against us. Does that make Hughes the answer? I have no idea. He generally did well for us under McGhee and if he comes back with the same application as when he started then he could be again but he is two years older and is maybe having to come to terms that he will never make the EPL and motivation may not be the same or he could be grateful to play again. Could go either way. But a player of his style is just what we need.

More I think about it the more I realise the impact of this signing will be determined by who else we get. We don't have a great ball deliverer from open play and from what I read and have seen he aint going to chase the aimless lump. At the moment our midfield don't create enough and that has been a season long problem.

I reckon sutton is better at dropping back and getting involved in the play whereas at times I've seen higdon wait for the play to come to him. And our reliance on sutton doing that made him more impotent than he should have been. It was no coincidence that sutton had his best run when jeffers with him who did the donkey work. FJ was a great bit of business for us.

Cautiously optimistic about this. Certainly needed a replacement for sutton and he fits the bill though I think sutton was a bit more mobile so I'm not convinced its a definite improvement. But I'd rather have him than not. I think we still need a more attacking central mid, a space creating forward and ideally a left winger and an experienced centre half with a bit more legs than craigan to be ready.

I think the bus companies will have hiked their price and motherwell tentatively booked them before the semi (I know cos our BB leader couldn't get one for our trip) so they will have been charged for that too no doubt. Whereas when the JD buses were booked we were already through.

All very well saying Ki has hit a couple of other ones but you can't cover evrything and had Jennings shut him he may have played a telling ball elsewhere. Letting Edu have a crack was the right decision 19 times out of 20, letting Ki have a crack the same. Lady luck shone on both the Old Firm in these games with their shooting. Likewise they were right to let Gunning shoot and block the wee ball he could have played through the defenders or to the wing. They got lucky that he missed. Just.

The fact we were beaten by two cracking hits and a fluke tells me he got the defence right. Problem was the midfield and forwards. Its easy to say that Hammell was a square peg in a round hole and it didn't work however he has played there before and it was effective. Should he have played Forbes or Hateley there? Maybe. However for us to win that game we needed every one of our eleven to be at it and sadly Hammell, Jennings and Lasley's ball retention was really poor. By that happening it meant that we were under too much pressure at the back. Celtic doubled up effectively on Humprhey and Murphy when they had to and kept them quiet and by doing that nullified us as we had no central way through them. Jennings and Lasley we had no choice but to play - they are by far our best two midfielders but to be honest I don't think Jennings has had a good game since we beat Celtic in February. And given those two were off their best we were always losing irrespective of what McCall did. I would have played Forbes in there and tried for exactly the same plan from when we beat them but McCall's rationale was sound. On Saturday I thought he got it wrong - having watched it back I think his two best midfielders didn't perform and the same would have happened. And thats not meant to be a dig at Lasley and Jennings. They have just both appeared to run out of steam in the last few weeks and I think they have both been sub 100% fit and the pressing game we play dictates that that isn't fit enough. Better players than them have had off days and each and every one of us will have learnt from that game - a hell of a lot more than Celtic did - and we must take it on and continue to improve. McCall maybe not 100% right but close enough that I think it was the players that didn't perform to their best rather than the boss.

Some of the tackling in the first half was fairly brutal. But I think he gave concessions with cards because of the wet pitch and he did it consistently so no problem with that. Handball I yelled for at the time but having seen it again there was no well player near enough to gain an advantage so foul only was right for me. But some refs would have sent him packing. Craigan would not have denied a clear goal scoring opportunity so a yellow would have been right call. Overall I think calum murray had a decent game and given conditions it was a tough one to manage.

I've spent the week getting unluckily robbed blind at bowls, breaking a wiper blade, breaking a tooth and now I have a minging cold. So all in I hope all my good luck is saving itself for 3pm sat!

Why? Its been made clear its a one off and it happened because of the SPL's poor administration and making decisions far too late. The Old Firm shouldn't have battered on and organised it, no but on the flip side if they turned it down and then the league started in mid August again that would have annoyed them as well. Nobody can change it at this juncture and its not going to happen again so why waste time asking people's opinion on it.

I think there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Yeah. I kind of guessed bank hol mon may be most popular day for going as people off work. Will make time next couple of days.

Rant about most things but at every ground I've ever been at the away team is announced first.

First half give or take there wasn't much in it - one long ball up that Gunning lost in the sun and we'd have been at half time level. Craigan made an arse of the second goal and from then on our heads dropped and they could have had as many as they liked. See if that had happened a week ago I could have understood it but this was the same bunch that were 3-0 down last week and nicked a point so its not as if there is no precendent. I said on the way up to the ground from JDs today that I was concerned that we'd gone with a four instead of a five in midfield as the reason we'd beaten Celtic was that we outnumbered them in the middle channel and today we sacrificed that. Then you throw in that Jennings and Lasley looked a bit jaded today and Jennings looked heavy! I thought the referee looked really nervous at the start today. Its a huge game for him, and one which he has earned from what I have seen of him this season, being involved in the title race and he seemed to spend most of the first waving advantages one way or tuther that probably weren't fouls but done to abate a baying crowd. And I think to be fair to him once it went 2-0 he settled down and went on to a real good game. Should he have booked Lafferty for tapping the ball in? Yes he probably should have. But when he refereed our games with Killie, Hearts and Inverness early on in the season I liked him because he didn't go in for booking people all the time for petty little things. So I think it would be hypocritical of me to lambast him this time (though I did at the time!) Not going to be too critical of the team today - yes they were ganting but they have given us a great wee run to get us into the top six and a cup final. I think they did try hard but I think when McCall looks back he got the midfield wrong, limited our supply and it was coupled with a day our defence just didn't play.

Of the games we have left before the final this is the one we could really do with winning. No three goal starts this week Motherwell please. They are not nearly as good now as they were when we lost last two league games to them and we have improved so reason for some belief. Keep them quiet for thirty mins and they'll get twitchy. Really hopeful.