Kmcalpin

In one word TV. I don't like it one bit for the reasons expressed by others, but given, in some ways, it was akin to a democratic vote, I accept it. Many fans vote for live football on TV through subscribing to TV packages (ok I know this is on BBC) and by doing so knowingly hand over almost complete power to the TV companies to do whatever they like, subject to police approval of course. All fans have to accept the consequences, whether we have purchased TV packages or not. In short we, the fans, can't have our cake and eat it. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Would the ref have arrived at the same decision if the goalie was rolling the ball forward with his foot at a kick out and Cadden had nipped in and robbed him? As for Cadden's "goal" I still think Tanner should be credited as the goalie seems makes contact with the ball only after it was over the line.

Yes that was his major failing. I think l most of us would agree he could have yellow carded another 3 Hearts players, if he was being consistent. Had the game gone to a replay, his inconsistency may have come home to roost depending on whether the Hearts players had already picked up yellow cards in earlier rounds.

Its a nonsense isn't it and simply highlights the SFA's bias? If there is any logic to it then it will depend on who we play. If Aberdeen prevail then you'd imagine we'd have the west end and if Killie prevail then we'd have the east end. Time will tell.

Hard to argue with most of that. The only thing that I would perhaps take issue with is Cadden's chalked off goal. By now we all know the rule i.e. the keeper has the ball under his control and his hand is on top of it, with the ground below. However I think there some evidence that the keeper was rolling the ball towards his body. It all comes down to the referee's interpretaion of "under control" . I'd say it was a 50/50 decision which went in Hearts' favour. A very difficult call for the referee, who has to make an instant call. Very surprised that Craig Levein didn't mention that his team got the rub of the green there.

I agree that a replacement scoreboard is a good thing and will be a real asset to the club and to us the fans. Presumably it will have the capability of showing colour images and moving images of replays etc but I get the impression that it will be capable of doing far more. Not being into cutting edge technology can anyone explain to me its wider benefits.

We're the cheapest in the league if you're aged between 60 and 64. £16 for away fans as opposed to £22 at Hamilton. No such concession for the semi though.

Yes its time to move on and just savour what the team achieved yesterday. Whatever else the lads have shown character and an unshakeable will to win this season. Leslie still a papermaking town.

I'm pretty certain that Lafferty placed his hand on Aldred's back and gave him a slight push. There was absolutely no need to do that, none whatsoever, and in my book that was a foul. However I'd rather dwell on our performance and result which propels us into the semis. It will be good for the whole club and will generate more cash for us. It really was an all round team performance although I'd like to see a bit more from Ciftci, as he's a talented player.

Lafferty ought to have been yellow carded at that point, not for the foul itself but for persistent fouling. The actual foul didn't seem that bad but was totally needless, stupid and potentially dangerous.

A separate post from me on today's attendance. A number of reasons for today's poor home crowd. A generic reason to begin with. None of the home teams in the 4 quarter finals attracted their average home crowds. Celtic 18K yesterday; Aberdeen 8.7K yesterday (home average 13-14K); and Rangers 33K today. Fans are put off by having to pay extra for cup games end of. Today's game was on TV and that was always going to reduce the crowd. Finally the weather reduced our crowd by several hundred and Hearts probably by the same. Before the beast from the east arrived I expected a crowd of 8,000 - 8,500 (with about 3,000 - 3,500 Well fans) and I reckon that we'd have achieved that. I know of about a dozen fans (including Al B it seems) who didn't travel because of weather conditions or transport problems. There will have been far more. Not all Well fans live in Motherwell or Hearts fans live in Edinburgh. It snowed heavily and constantly where I live between 10.00 and about 15.00. A gritter got stuck just opposite our house this morning. I just wasn't going to risk it. Maybe a technical question to end with. Does anyone know if the recorded crowd of 7,564 included tickets sold but not used? Looking at the South Stand on TV I was was very impressed with the Hearts fans but there were still a goodly number of empty seats in there. I'd estimate their crowd at about 4,300ish, well short of the much quoted 4,800.

Very happy with the performance. We were the better side.......just. Our "first goal" was scored by Tanner from the corner. When the Hearts' keeper got a foot to the ball it was just over the line but I'm not confident the referee would have awarded it given the mood he was in. Not an OG nor down to Main, who made sure. We bossed the first half but lacked a killer touch in the penalty box. Hearts changed things around and it worked for them. Kipre gave away a silly penalty and the Jambos then overran our midfield but fortunately couldn't score a second. We defended deeper and deeper and narrower and narrower. However we got a second wind in the final 10 minutes and McHugh scored with a volley fit to win any game. A good team performance and I liked Carson, who made a crucial save, Dunne, McHugh for his winner, Campbell and Main for battling hard against big uncompromising defenders. Robbo and Keef deserve great credit for masterminding our win and we now have another Hampden day to look forward to. I thought the referee was atrocious and let Hearts players off with murder yet booked our lads without hesitation. Inconsistency at its worst. i would also say his chalking off of Cadden's "goal" was touch and. had he allowed it there would have been no protest from Hearts players and that says it all. A great all round team performance with character.

A close run thing between Trevor Carson and Carl McHugh for me but I'll give my vote to the latter...just.

Thats my take on it.

Where has our midfield gone?

So far so good. Deservedly ahead. Andre dallas has been totally inconsistent with yellow cards. Hearts should have picked up 2 or 3. Lafferty alone has committed 4 fouls. Come on Well lets do it!

Tell Barry its still snowing heavily here and cars getting stuck on the road outside. Safe journey to all travelling to and from FP. Hope the team rewards you all.

Fife, Perth & Kinross especially badly hit. Its currently snowing heavily again here in this part of Fife. On another tack, if Richard Tait is in the signing zone today does it mean he's injured?

Cabin fever might work both ways. In parts of the east, transport problems will take their toll as conditions are still poor. Some roads still very dodgy and train services from Edinburgh reportedly very poor. Probably around 7 of us, some with tickets, won't make it now and will have to settle for watching it on TV, which I normally loathe . According to the forecast more blizzards on the way. I reckon the weather will knock a few hundred off the gate. COYW!

I seem to recall that the crowd was over 8,000, with most coming from Lanarkshire.

Maybe you ought to read and try to understand their arguments perhaps? If we ended up in the top six, the highest we would finish would be 6th. We'd also be liable to lose more games than if we finish in the bottom six. Its also more likely that we'd end up with one home game less than if we finish in the bottom 6. Financially we might be slightly better off but thats not clear cut. To me safety and a good cup run are more important this season. Its also possible that Robbo might be able to blood more youngsters in the bottom 6. For me there are pros and cons to finishing in the top 6 this season and posters' preferences are not as clear cut as you think.

Uncle Roy doesn't tolerate failure and so I suspect Mr Coyle was given a gentle push.

Good to see our young players make their mark on the international stage.

Absolutely. There's too much negativity going around just now about the team's playing style. In our situation a manager's first priority should be to stabilise the team and sort out the defence to reduce the goals aginst column. Thats what Robbo has done. Once thats been achieved then the next stage is to concentrate on improving the attack. You're right, some of wee Tommy's early teams were "dire" to watch - soaking up pressure, not conceding too many, and then breaking away to score the odd goal. Jim MacLean adopted the exact same approach at Tannadice and was lauded for his "attractive" footballing style. I've only ever deserted our team twice, albeit temporarily, once during the dire Alex Mcleish era; and once in the mid 80s when I went to Tannadice to watch Dundee United and Hibs in preference to our own game. I'd been brainwashed by the media into thinking that Jim MacLean's team was the finest footballing team Scotland had ever produced. I got carried away and just had to see this game for myself. Hibs pounded them for 89 minutes and penned them back in their own box but couldn't score. United broke away twice and scored twice to win 2-0. The Arabs went crazy as did the media over this footballing "masterclass". It just left me cold. I decided there and then that there was nothing wrong with following our own club. Much more recently our 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock seemed to go down very well with the Ayrshire fans despite their style resembling two parked doubler decker buses. I didn't hear many moans and complaints at the game from their fans or read scathing comments afterwards. Maybe some of our fans have unrealistic expectations? Right now I'm perfectly happy with us winning 1-0 by playing defensively, playing the long ball or whatever. Yes, playing flowing silky soccer is nice but that comes later. All that said, it seems to be in vogue for certain fans to criticise fellow fans who wanted Stephen Robinson sacked a few months ago. All I would say is live and let live. These boards and football in general, are all about opinions and no-one should be sneered at for holding a different view. Our team is doing quite well just now and despite internal differences our fanbase should stick together. There's room for all shades of opinion so long as we show mutual respect.

Just watched the replay of the St Johnstone Rangers game last night, when Steven MacLean was in the middle. Morelos was cynically wiped out by Mannus and was denied a clear goalscoring opportunity and yet only received a yellow card . Compare that to the red cards dished out to Dunne, Carson and Kipre earlier this season for similar but less clear cut offences. Where is the consistency?