Kmcalpin

This sums it up for me. For our appeal to fail Thomson has to clearly demonstrate that Kipre stamped on Brown. In short, there was no stamp. Irrespective of the outcome of the appeal, anyone with half a brain in their head in the SFA will ensure, that Thomson does not referee another of our games. Is that likely to happen? No.

I meant the original challenge and even thats being kind to Thomson. Just can't see how the slight foot flick looks anything like a stamp.

I suspect that Thomson had made his mind up to red card Kipre before he flicks his foot out.

I think an Appeal Panel of three is chosen from a pool of referees/ex referees, former players and one other. You are right in that the referee's view, as taken into acount by the panel, carries more weight than it should i.e. if the referee changes his mind or not. If the Appeal is deemed to be independent, fair and just then Thomson's explanation should be given equal weight to the evidence submitted by the appellant, in this case, our club. However I'm not sure that will happen. Two things stand out for me about yesterday's incident. Firstly, his view of the incident wasn't clear but yet he quickly and unhesitatingly issued a red card. If I was on the panel I'd be asking him about his view of the incident, whilst replaying it on a screen. Secondly, he clearly indicated a stamp and I'd want to know if he still considered it to be a stamp by Kipre . Presumably thats why Kipre was given the card?

That doesn't sound good. What exactly are we doing in training to pick up all these injuries?

Its being suggested in some of the online redtops that Brown "pushed away" Kipre, implying it seems to me, that he tried to calm things down. On another tack, no Andy Rose yesterday.

Yes, thats it. Thomson clearly and erroneously gives a red card for a "stamp", which never took place. Having watched the highlights, Brown brings Kipre down in the challenge (not necessarily a foul BTW). The initial challenge seems fine to me. Brown then pushes Kipre in the chest and as far as I can make out Kipre stretches out his leg and Brown falls back down and rolls about. I'm not even sure that Kipre made any contact at all. I certainly don't think there was even any intent to do so. In hindsight Brown should have been yellow carded for simulation and perhaps psuhing Kipre in the chest. Kipre should not have been punished. Given Thomson's record against us this season (Dunnes red card at Perth rescinded; Kipre's dismissal at Hampden; and now this) we now have rightful cause for concern.

I don't know if that is true or not but if it is why wasn't Brown red carded for retaliation?

Yes, but who is doing the retaliation? In my view both Brown and Kipre ought to have been issued with yellow cards or a stern talking to but to issue one with a red and the other with nothing is downright wrong. Thomson made a complete mess of it end of. We thoroughly deserved our point with perhaps Carson saving our bacon. He never put a hand wrong. Our defence did well but perhaps Tait, Campbell and Main were the others to shine that little bit more. Once Campbell puts on another stone in weight he'll be a colossus in midfield. He battled for everything and drove us forward. I thought we were the better side in the first half until the sending off turned the game. If we had a couple of faults in the first 45 it was our lack of cover out wide. MacGregor was given the freedom of our right flank. Also, we were very reluctant to tackle in our own box, probably for fear of conceding a penalty. Tait did very well but had little cover in front of him. Main put in a great shift up front largely on his own, and he's certainly a very strong lad.

Some strong candidates like Campbell, Main and Tait but Trevor Carson gets my vote.

With 6 of their players picking up yellow cards last night, are Aberdeen a dirty or overly physical team?

Minus 3 first team players.

It sounds a real boring, dull and turgid encounter so far. Edit: Quote from the BBC " If you are wondering about the lack of updates from Rugby Park, the game has fallen into an even deeper hole of mediocrity. "

4 Yellow Cards so far in the Killie Dons game and its just half time.

True up to a point. However of the 4 players you mentioned how many were signed as long term replacements for Stevie Hammell? Maybe Chalmers and although you don't mention him, ZFA. The others have been short term stop gaps. For too long our managers were complacent with Stevie and just assumed he'd keep on going for as long as they themselves were in charge. I tend to agree on Hendrie though as he's hardly made much of an impression so far.

Absolutely. If you play one up front it either suggests you have very few strikers available, which wasn't the case, or you aren't confident of matching the opposition ie you think the opposition is better than you are..

Ok Andy I'll accept that ...I was just going by some of the comments I've read in social media.

Hopefully yesterday will teach Robbo and Keef some valuable lessons, as they are a relatively young and inexperienced management team. We need to cut them some slack. The change in team formation seems to have backfired and perhaps it sent out the wrong message to the players and to Accies. It smacked of a lack of belief or confidence that we were capable of going toe to toe with even a weakened side at NDP. It tells me that Robbo and Keef didn't think we were good enough to match Accies, not Celtic, Aberdeen or Hibs, with a 3-5-2 line up. That can't have done the players'confidence any good and it immediately told Martin Canning and his charges that he had a psychological advantage if we were running scared of his team. Maybe if we'd been more adventurous and gone 3-5-2 Accies would have given us a real doing? Thats all food for thought. Maybe the pitch was a factor in team selection, maybe injuries were, who knows? What it suggests to me though is that we don't quite have the players yet to implement Robbo's preferred style of play. We've improved our competitiveness and aggression this year but Accies taught us that we've still got a bit to go yet. We don't have enough creativity especially in central midfield and that left Cadden as our only outball as Canning would have known. We're not yet suited to playing the long ball, if thats required; and we need more effective height up front. I'm not for a minute suggesting that we rip up the team sheet in the summer and have a major overhaul but some changes are required. We're still in the midst of a team rebuild and our final position in the league will tell us how far we've progressed. Our excellent cup runs have to be factored in too of course, but a good season doesn't just mean an appearance at Hampden it also means not being outfought, outbattled and outplayed by a badly weakened, and not overly great, Accies side.

Yes, top six has now all but gone and our target has to be retain 7th spot and that will be hard enough. As I've written before I won't be downhearted if that ultimately proves beyond us but I'll be disappointed if we can't finish 8th, which would represent progress since last season.

I agree with most of what you say but I'm not sure the pitch as much a leveller as you say. Other teams seem to be able to compete well enough with them at NDP. OK its a very poor pitch but other sides seem to be able to adapt and outscrap Accies whilst we can't. We're very much a side in transition and we still haven't got the character of the side quite right never mind the footballing aspect.

Agreed. Although I wasn't there today I know exactly what you're talking about. The way to handle this is to submit a mass petition/complaint to the Well Society. I'll happily add my name.

Absolutely. Certainly a very cautious line up today which seems a bit toothless up front. Didn't make it so will be interested in the views of those who did. The stark scoreline suggests that we were well beaten but that might be misleading.

I think Nadir has been better in a supporting role and shown some very nice touches. However his eye for goal hasn't been so apparent. If he plays, Martin Canning will ensure that his temperament is tested thoroughly. If Ryan Bowman plays at some point, expect Accies defenders to fall about all over the place (see Evening Times article).

Sensible post. Stewards have to be consistent with the advice they dole out and fans have to respect each other. Either way the cash turnstiles are likely to be busy so those without tickets should turn up reasonably early and not at 14.55. The same applies to those with tickets. That said there's always a few who just do as they want anyway and to hell with anybody else. Despite the enforced absence of Sarris, Imrie and probably MacKinnon and Crawford, I think Accies will play their usual game and those who fill their boots, irrespective of their age, will be streetwise and cynical as most of Martin Canning's charges are. They've brought through some decent players though. Thats how they survive. Their tactics and the horrible pitch will ensure its no classic. Still we know what to expect and this current team of ours can compete and showing a bit of character.

There's a huge difference between being a good player and a good coach. Similarly the brightest students rarely go in for school teaching. The best school teacher I ever had, was not the brightest (by his own admission) but he certainly knew how to teach kids and impart his knowledge.