Kmcalpin

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?

Aye, it was touch and go and was almost called off at the last minute I believe.

Officially the South Stand holds 4,800 but the police may have ordered the club to reduce that to allow for a cordon at the eastern extremity. If there's restricted view tickets on sale it probably would be the POD Stand, worse luck. However like Andy I suspect that the South Stand has sold out.

I think common sense will prevail by the parties involved if the foul weather comes to pass. However we can all envisage a situation where the weather is shocking and travelling conditions are very poor (resulting in a low attendance) but a TV company is keen for the game to go ahead as the armchair audience would be maximised.

Not quite sure on what their position would be TBH. Presumably Police Scotland could overrule them if their was any disagreement?

Pretty much my view too. I don't really think we'll make the top 6 but yes, I can can see Killie's run coming to an end shortly. They've done very well to be fair but they were lucky against us and also against Hibs. I've just seen the penalty and it was a ludicrous decision. To go on a run like Killie's you have to be a decent team but that in itself is not enough you have to have good luck and of late they've had that in spadefuls. That can't last.

Pretty impressive I'd say. Does anyone know though how much is currently owed to Les and John Boyle?

Agree that doesn' t make much sense Andy. Allowing for cordoned off seats I'd have thought about 4,300 maybe?

Good points. Dundee could easily have had a few players yelow carded. Kusuinga again put himself about and was fortunate not to puck up a card, as was Moussa for standing on Tanner's foot. Murray could easily have been carded for dissent. Some suggestion also that MacGowan was yellow carded again after the final whistle. We were no angels, but Dundee know how to look after themselves and won the physical battle yesterday. I agree about Ciftci and think he's more of a penalty box player. the goal was definitely onside and Dundee knew it. Yet another shut out and 3 away points. I'll take it.

This. An important result for us. How Dundee must hate Craig Tanner! Onwards and upwards! Going by his post match comments Neil McCann wasn't happy at all. Had a go at match officials and singled out Curtis Main. Maybe he should look closer to home. he's obviously under pressure.

County's team contained a few home grown players, but also contained first team squad players such as Melbourne, Dingwall and Draper. They picked up other youngsters from Highland League clubs and also from the likes of Bolton, Bury, WBA and Rangers. Maybe not quite so inexperienced and raw as we first thought.