Kmcalpin

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.

Like any signing he's a gamble and was signed as a young long term prospect. To date, I agree he hasn't set the heather on fire. That said he's hardly been a first team regular and has been playing mostly in the Under 20s. he could aslo take a few months to settle in to our club and the Scottish game. i doubt too if he's on massive money.

Equally as good or as poor a case in the East I'd say. Dundee & Dundee United and Hearts & Hibs are two examples. There's also 3 senior clubs in Falkirk. The whole would be less than the sum of its parts as Goggles & Flippers suggests in the case of the forced marriage in Inverness. Its not how football works.

In the match at Fir Park, the penalty was correctly awarded when O'Hara brought down Kipre. I don't call that good luck. O'Hara made a slightly rash challenge and rightly got penalised for it. In the same game Andy Rose was incorrectly yellow carded for diving; I term that bad luck. In the previous league game at Dens, the referee had already blown and play stopped before the Dundee player put the ball in the net. As far as the recent cup encounter goes, Tanner did well to get his shot on target and the keeper made a blunder, just plain poor goalkeeping not good luck for us. Aldred's goal was wrongly chopped off; that was bad luck. For our second goal Main did well to harry the defender. The defender, Holt I think, made a blunder and Parrish didn't look clever either. Again examples of rank poor defending, not luck. Had Holt aimed his header outwith the posts and the ball had taken a random and awkward bounce at the last minute and landed in the net, I would have termed that bad luck. Dundee were very fortunate not to pick up 2 red cards and yes we should have lost Ciftci to one. I also want to reassure Al B that I don't maintain a spreadsheet going back 48 years or whatever detailing every single perceived injustice or instance of bad luck; but I can't speak for other posters. I simply look back over a season or half season and take an overall view. Last season was memorable for not being awarded goals when the ball had the crossed the line and several wrong offside decisions, and this season, so far, for wrongly given/not given penalties. Do many posters really believe that our luck against Rangers & Celtic has evened itself out over the years? Before I finish I'll readily admit that on some occasions we do benefit from good luck, but they are in the minority. Apologies for wandering off topic.

Saturday's game at Dens Park will be very different to our recent cup game there. With a couple of new players Dundee will be a different proposition although I suspect they'll be just as cynical. A draw will represent a decent outcome.

I used to think that but not any more. Last season we suffered from a number of good goals being chalked off because the ball was deemed not to have crossed the line and that never balanced itself out. This season we've suffered from a barrowload of poor penalty decisions (most recently 2/3 on Saturday) and that hasn't evened itself out so far. General speaking the big city teams always benefit from refereeing errors at the expense of smaller clubs. Thats the way its always been.

Can't agree with you, on this occasion, Superward. Going back to the Accies game in December, we had a stonewall penalty denied when the Accies defender armed the ball away in the box In the Thistle game Osman ought to have seen red but didn't. Doolan's goal was touch and go offside but was allowed but Kipre's seemingly legit effort was chalked off. In the Dundee game they should have lost 2 players to red cards (and us one) but didn't. Also Aldred's disallowed goal seemed fine. Killie game: we could have 3 penalties (2 clear imho) when Ciftci and Aldred were pulled to the ground. Also Broadfoot's attempterd clearance cannoned off the post. Hearts game I admit some penalty calls went for us. As a caveat I'm not saying that we'd have scored with all the disallowed penalties or that 10 men would have been easier to beat, but chances are that we would have fared better. As far as own goals are concerned I would say that in the Accies and Dundee games it was down to downright poor defending. If you argue it was simply bad luck in respect of our opponents then you should argue that O'Donnell's goal yesterday was bad luck on our part. In conclusion I'd say, although I'm biased but have tried to eliminate that, that our bad luck hasn't been repaid recently.

Yes he did. His main contribution was holding onto the ball or running away with it at our free kicks.

I don't disagree with most of that Iain but I don't class own goals as being lucky. If we're being consistent then Killie got lucky with their goal as it shaved the post on its way in. Our own goals against Accies and Dundee were down to very poor defending. Broadfoot's effort too yesterday was down to poor defending and he got lucky. A measure of our luck yesterday was when two Kille defenders collided with one another and the ball spun away randomly.....landing right at Mulumbu's foot on the edge of the box allowing him to break upfield. We just didn't get that kind of luck yesterday. In all my years of watching football I never believed in bad/good luck but events have changed my mind in the past 3/4 years.

I didn't realise that Cadden was injured. What happened? In any event he's wasted at right back.

The pitch didn't look quite as good yesterday, but compared to other clubs' pitches and our past problems its not too bad at all.

We have plenty of luck but the problem is that most of it bad. In our last two games we've "enjoyed" pretty poor luck but still managed to win one. This has been some season for poor penalty calls though. They just keep coming don't they?

That about sums it up for me. Pretty much my view. The first goal was always going to be crucial and so it turned out. As so often happens in this league there is precious little between the teams and one error decides the outcome. We made 2 and were punished Killie made one and got away with it. Yes, Alan Campbell was a huge loss. Having looked at the highlights, Ciftci was definitely hauled down in the box but when you’re on the kind of run Killie are on you simply don't concede penalties like that. The shot of Main going down, on Well TV, wasn’t clear enough to call. A mixed bag of performances. Tanner flattered to deceive and we struggled to create for a large part of the game, with the exception of the early stages when we missed a few chances. That said, I doubt if Macdonald had a save to make (neither did Carson for that matter). I’m still not convinced of Nadir Ciftci and he didn’t do much yesterday. I don’t get the criticism of Frear. That was the lad’s first full game back for several months. I though he had a reasonable first half in which Killie struggled to contain him. In the second, they parked several buses and he was crowded out by 2 and sometimes 3 defenders. His biggest asset is his speed which is of little or no advantage when playing against a packed deep lying defence. Dunne was my MOTM but Aldred also put in a great shift. Bowman too looked impressive when he came on, dragging defenders about and winning balls in the air. It was one of those days when nothing went right and the best you can hope for is no red cards and no bad injuries. On that form Killie would have beaten every team in the league - they deserved a draw yes, but they got every break going. Steve Clarke has them well organised and is proving to be a lucky manager – a great asset in football.

Dunne for me, followed by Aldred.

Yes, it'll be a difficult game and common sense says that a draw will be a very good result indeed for us against what is Killie's finest team in decades. However if we don't win we can pretty much say goodbye to 6th place. Whilst 6th spot would be nice, 7th place would represent considerable progress over last season for me. So I guess there's mixed messages there.

According to the BBC, Alan Campbell will be fit, if required.

I don't think its quite so clear cut as that. There's also the option of moving Dunne into the middle and playing either Hendrie or Frear at left wing back. Given Robbo's comments about McHugh's importance in central midfield I can't see him moving the skipper back, moreso if Campbell is unavailable. I think most folk would agree that Killie seem to possess an absolutely outstanding midfield just now, maybe even the best in Scotland, and so we'll need to be very combative in that area.

I'm sure they will be. A lot will depend on who is fit and available on both sides. Cedric will be a big loss as will Peter Hartley. We don't know about Alan Campbell but he too could be a big loss, if not fit. Hopefully everyone else will be fit. All that said Charles Dunne is a decent central defender. Again the mix of players in midfield will be crucial and we have to get the balance right between being competitive and creative. Its a huge game for us and one I'd ideally want to win comfortably. Killie are close rivals, and whilst I have a soft spot for them, on this occasion, I want us to win, but not only that rub their noses in the Fir Park turf to help convince them we are the better team and will finish above them. Psychology has a big role to play in competitive sport. In reality though a narrow win is much more likely.

I very much doubt that Hearts will bring anything like 4,000 to the game.

Agree thats the least worse of the TV slots Iain. Its debatable whether we'll be any worse off or not; a finely balanced calculation if you like. On top of gate money we'll lose additional catering/programme/hospitality/half time draw cash. Our own crowd will be down by about 1,000/1,500 and Hearts will bring maybe 2,000/2,500 less. A lot depends on how much we make from TV - perhaps £30,000? From sporting perpsective, maybe the Aberdeen V Kilmarnock game is marginally the game of the round, but commercially our game is more attractive to TV "companies". Its the away supports that will be hit most and the BBC has rightly calculated that more Hearts fans will watch the game on TV than Killie fans. In such calculations, might is always right.

Media's tie of the round surely?

I think you can forget Russell Griffiths for next season.

Depending on prices and TV the tie might attract 8k - 8.5k fans