weeyin

It was like returning from an achilles injury - never quite the same player after a gluing.

While I don't have any problem with a manager not giving away the injury situation, it was disappointing to see Goss missing as he has been instrumental in our last 2 victories.

We sometimes put the pitch on the floor which inevitably led to at least one kneeling-on-a-player incident per match.

Reporter: Are there any new injuries? GA: No new injuries this week. (Narrator: There were many new injuries)

Last Subbuteo team I bought came in a box like this:

The forecast around kick-off time is cloudy and cool with winds of 10 - 15mph. So as long as the Friday weather doesn't do too much damage to the pitch, it should be OK.

The funniest thing about this is Rangers complaining they are receiving a smaller allocation having stiffed other away fans with zero tickets.

Stuart McCall the new assistant manager at Sheffield Utd.

That was the pleasant surprise from the Hearts game. I don't think anybody would have thought that was our best starting 11, but they managed to produce the best performance of the season.

And everyone would take a couple of early season European games over the League Cup group ties against the same 3 teams. Seeing as winning the Scottish Cup gets you into Europe anyway, you'll just need to take both and put up with it.

The "european pointless pish" is a side effect of consistent league results. Only Motherwell fans would be upset by that. (And despite rumours to the contrary, it pulls in some additional cash for the club too). Still, I suppose playing Queens Park, Morton and Edinburgh City for the 2,375th time in the League Cup group in July is much more exciting.

I always enjoy a good battle with Hearts and this one has been up there.

I don't know the last time Hearts beat us by 3 goals at Fir Park, but all the recent games have been pretty tight.

Soccerbase has our team listed as : 1(G)T Carson 2(D)R Tait 4(D)L Grimshaw (71) 6(D)P Hartley 8(D)C McHugh 18(D)C Dunne 21(D)C Kipre 7(M)C Cadden 15(M)A Rose 9(F)L Moult (89) 12(F)R Bowman (56) SUBS: 13(G)R Griffiths 14(D)E Plummer 11(M)E Frear (56) 20(M)D Petravicius 22(M)A Campbell (71) 17(F)A Fisher (89) 27(F)C Tanner 1 (G) T Carson 2 (D) R Tait 4 (D) L Grimshaw (71) 6 (D) P Hartley 8 (D) C McHugh 18 (D) C Dunne 21 (D) C Kipre 7 (M) C Cadden 15 (M) A Rose 9 (F) L Moult (89) 12 (F) R Bowman (56) 13 (G) R Griffiths 14 (D) E Plummer 11 (M) E Frear (56) 20 (M) D Petravicius 22 (M) A Campbell (71) 17 (F) A Fisher (89) 27 (F) C Tanner

I don't disagree, btw - just pointing out that we've done it before. Also, as much as I enjoyed the Scotland game this week, we haven't actually qualified yet.

Wee (Hall of Famer, Stand Namer) Tommy did that for his brother's Dundee Utd team that had just made it to the UEFA Cup Final. It worked too, because then we beat them.

I don't disagree with this at all, but the modern game doesn't seem to care about full backs being able to defend - it's all about their attacking play, Drives me nuts as guys like Joe Wark were excellent going forward and even better at defending. So it's perfectly possible to be good at both.

I'm a fan of Mugabi, but while he's a decent stand-in at right back he's not what we need there week to week. O'Donnell offers more width going forward and has a better delivery into the box.

I don't think the Rangers fans could handle that on top of Gerrard leaving.

Yes. or no.

If we avoid our usual, sluggish post-international-break first half we have a decent chance of winning this one. Assuming, of course, we haven't performed our usual trick of injuring a couple of our key players in training.

The bottom line is we're having to try and replace Campbell and Turnbull in the midfield - which is an impossible task. We do need to try and find some balance, though, and like the defence, having or choosing to play a different starting combination every week isn't helping continuity.

I remember saying at the time that felt worse than losing with a poor performance.

Bowman on the scoresheet again in his FA Cup tie against Stratford Town.

KVV's finishes were excellent and Kelly's saves were made at crucial points in the game, but I ended up voting for Goss purely because it was good to see a midfielder put in a couple of quality balls. I read today he had a chat with KVV at half-time and told him he thought there was more space on the left and he was going for the early cross straight away - and it worked first time.