weeyin

I can only imagine the busmageddon that will ensue if by some chance we win.

Totally agree. High pressing is our best chance in this one. However, it's going to be interesting to see how both teams line up for the subsequent 2 games as I expect those to be played differently.

Good to see Tanner staking a claim. Hope he makes the most of it.

Sure it is just up to 5 per person, regardless of whether you are a Society Member, a Season Ticket Holder or both.

It's the same situation as usual. Every 'Well fan who wants a ticket will get one. In all the years I have been going to Fir Park, I have never heard of anyone missing out on a game because they couldn't get a ticket.

I'd much rather be us without a Cup in the last 10 years than St Mirren now.

We have a couple of insiders in the media, though - in the press and on the radio. Which is more than many of the "smaller" teams.

I know I'm incredibly biased, but it seems to me the SFA and the Compliance Officers were spot on with every single decision for this game. Vincent Lunny's explanations of the process were excellent too. A shame they don't provide commentary like that for all the hearings as it really clarified what does and doesn't get reviewed - and why.

Big Mick will also be pleased he doesn't have to be running up and down the Hampden stairs again.

One game ban (and one suspended) to take effect immediately for this weekend's Ross County match.

I understand the motivation behind the idea. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, though, there is no need for us to rush and pay Les back. We have a very favourable interest rate (0%), and a creditor that isn't exactly pressuring us for our installments. It's literally free money that we can leverage for the good of the club. I'd still choose low risk over no risk though. In a previous work-life, I saw the results of numerous once-in-a-lifetime events kill some business stone dead. The overall number that went to the wall was small, but they were all completely wiped out. Years ago, I attended some finance training, and the speaker was talking about how smart people often make stupid decisions when they have money. His classic example was mortgages. This was in the US where mortgage rates are fixed for the duration of the loan, and the interest you pay on them is 100% tax deductible. People that would come into money (typically from an inheritance) would often rush to pay off their mortgage of 3 or 4% interest. Not only were they losing that tax break every year, but if they invested the money in a safe fund, they would be getting a return of 5 or 6%. But because it felt good to pay off their home loan, they were costing themselves tens of thousands of dollars (or more) in the long run. We just need to make sure that what we do in the short term here, however good it feels, isn't costing us in the long run.

Nice work!

The point is that we could sell shares at zero risk. So why introduce any, however small? I have no idea what the club's finances will be like in 30 years, but I'd want the Society to still be the majority owner.

We'll certainly need to be better than we were in the first half of the semi. We do have a tiny advantage in that we haven't played them yet, so they haven't had a chance to work us out first hand.

WWE and no mistake.

The nightmare scenario for me goes something like this. We reduce our holding to 57% 5 or 10 years from now, we hit an issue where we need to raise capital quickly. Could be relegation. Could be a failed TV deal. Could be a major stadium repair. Could be Brexit screws the value of the pound. Let's say 250k is required. Joe Money comes along and says "sure, I'll give you 250k for 10% of the club's shares". Not a terrible deal if we hold around 70%, but would push us into a minority holding if we start at 57%. I know this is unlikely, but I have seen businesses hit problems like this in the past. So whatever we do, we need to make sure we don't spread ourselves too thin. Especially at a time when we are picking up financially. Smart businesses make the most out of loans. We are fortunate that our creditor has given us an amazingly generous repayment schedule, interest free. Let's make the best use of that we can.

Aye, he looked good in the 30 minutes I manage to catch. Let's face it. They are miles ahead of everyone else in the league. But sooner or later, someone is going to beat them.

Defence didn't look too clever at the 2nd goal either.

You don't need to demand anything. You just need to keep chipping away at the shareholdings, make overvalued offers here and there. We're not talking about tomorrow, here, but 30 years from now, who the hell knows what will be going on with the club or the market.

Aye, 57% seems low to me. Not right now, but gives me the fear that 10 or 20 years from now - maybe during a property boom, for example - somebody can manipulate their way to getting control of the club and start building a supermarket on Fir Park. I'm also still unclear how voting works i.e if I suddenly find myself with shares and Well Society membership, do I get 2 votes on certain matters? If so, which matters? I like the idea of one member, on vote we have in the Society and wouldn't like to see that disappear. In general I'm in favour of selling some shares, but with all the good work the Society has done this season, and our success on the park so far, I don't want to see us extend ourselves too far. Once the shares are sold, we have no control over what happens to them. If the percentages above are correct, I'd be more comfortable with about half that number being sold, and with no voting rights. It all seems a bit rushed for something that has a potentially significant impact on the club's ownership and future.

I don't even want a tribute, thanks. I just don't get this need to keep rolling out tributes, silences, hand claps etc. all the time. They don't even do that at games over here - in a place that can be the most overly-sentimental, syrupy, maudlin country in the world. I'm sure we all have friends and family we have lost over the years and find ways to remember them privately without walking around the house asking everyone to clap. Nobody at the club is going to forget Phil, or any of the other people young and old we have lost. In the meantime, can we please just go ahead with the game and enjoy it for what it is - a game of football where we have a (small) chance of winning a Cup.

Also note that the convention was to never have an "I" or an "O" in case people confused them with ones and zeroes.

You've every right to be. As normal as it seemed at the time, it is a weird system. Made weirder by the fact that it was only the half-time scores that were reported. We had to listen to the radio on the way home, or get back to a telly before we found out the full-time scores.

I could be misremembering, but I think the "secret" was that clubs listed the matches in different orders rather than the standard "alphabetical by home team" they do now. It still wasn't difficult to work out though, as there was always somebody close by with a programme.

Basically this ^^^