Kmcalpin

I'm not saying that there wasn't drunkenness amongst our support but I didn't see any evidence of it being widespread. I was however disgusted at the sectarian singing by thousands of Celtic supporters.

I'd imagine so. Our budget for the current year would have been set out well before the start of the season. We're having a good cup run; attendances are well up; we'll have 3 home games against the gruesome twosome; we'll have the Celtic euro money; and we've picked up a wee bit in transfer fees. All good news. However (there's always a but) the reroofing of the John Hunter Stand will have been costly, bonus payments will be up this season; we may have had to pay off a few ex members of staff (eg Mark McGhee and Jacob Blyth; and youth Development costs may well be rising.

Just watched the BBC TV highlights and Cerny appears to turn his body towards the Hunter Stand, grab Bowman from behind as he passed him and haul him down. Great bit of trickery from Hartley for our third!

We shouldn't put too much store on one game though Andy. Your assertion that "Hammell's performance against Aberdeen in the League Cup was of a level that Dunne has yet to get anywhere near since he came to the club." is 100% spot on of course. However we must take into account the number of games both have played for the club. I can't say hand on heart that Stevie's performance was his best ever in hundreds of games, but it must certainly rank in the top 10. I would say that it was atypical of his career with us. There's no doubt in my mind that he's better with the ball in terms of passing and crossing and that part of the 2 players' games is easy to pick out. However Hammell's weakness has always been his positional sense or lack of it whilst off the ball. That part of his game was never as easy to pick out. Too often he's given attackers too much room or got on the wrong side of them. Thats the stronger part of Dunne's game. As I say they're both different kinds of defender with different strengths and weaknesses.

If we had a tall, fast, defender who could pass, cross and defend he wouldn't be with us long. At our level no player is going to be perfect. Its hard to judge just how good our defence was yesterday as Partick were so poor. However, Carson was given sound protection and didn't have a shot to save. Some of that, at least, is down to our defenders including Dunne. I suppose many are comparing him to Stevie Hammell, naturally, who is a completely different kind of defender.

Absolutely. Too often today and this season so far he's been playing the role of provider either from the wing or behind the other striker and midfielders. A small issue in the great scheme of things though. No doubt Robbo will address this and other weaknesses from today's performance. Lets put matters in perspective though, we won and won well against a poor Partick side who never at any point troubled Carson. Perhaps that was down to our defence which protected him well. I thought that Kipre, Hartley and Campbell were the pick of the bunch. In particular Hartley goes about his business unobtrusively and effectively but not quietly. The whole team shows fight and determination and that is great to watch. Three different scorers today as well. Dunne is not as accomplished as Hammell whilst on the ball but is a far better defender than him whilst off it. The referee today was not the worst we've had this season although he made several major errors being a failure to red card Cerny; a failure to issue a second yellow card to Partick's big midfielder, and a failure to adequately punish a Partick player for a 2 footed lunge on McHugh, who has been red carded for similar tackles. All in all a good day's work that keeps our good run going. A lot of credit is due to Robbo and Keef for completely transforming the side. Its great to know that even after winning 3-0 they'll be poring over our mistakes to rectify them. What more can we ask of our management team? Its a great time to be a Well fan!

When considering bringing in Hammell for Dunne we should be mindful that Thistle are a very big side and will be quite happy to play aerial football. .

It doesn't matter if you're in the minority or not you're entitled to your view. I think we'd all rather that the club was self sustaining from commercial sources and, as far as I know, its the intention of our directors and the Society to make it so. Every effort should be made to increase revenue streams whilst minimsing unnecessary costs. However, football clubs are strange entities and for most part they're not out and out businesses in that many of the their "customers" are fans and yes they take advantage of that. If some fans want to contribute to the club ie through the Society, why would we turn them away and refuse their money?

At some point in the hopefully not too distant future our outstanding debts to Les Hutchison and John Boyle will be paid off. So, I suppose that is the Society's main priority at the moment. Thereafter those who can afford to do so and wish to can continue to join the Society; pay up their instalments; or start / continue to make monthly donations. Jim McMahon has already said as much. This ongoing revenue stream will continue to help the club. I have no problem with this as long as folk are not forced, against their will, to contribute - this won't happen. Each to their own. Those who wish to continue paying will and those who don't won't.

Robbo will have had to do a bit of head scratching for this one. Thistle are a big side (aren't most of them) and high balls lumped up to Moult and Bowman, if both play, won't be an option. We don't want a repeat of last Sunday's tactics. Still as Robbo says our first priority is to win the physical battle and with it the ball. If we can do that our next issue is what to do with it. Its possible, but very difficult, to score when you don't have the ball. I don't know much about the current Thistle side but I do know that they are hard and have 3 or 4 leviathans in their side. Maybe they are susceptible to speed? I'd like to see Frear start,and copy Davie Cooper's tactics against such opponents - rattle across low hard cross after low hard cross into the opponents 6 yard box. I always enjoyed seeing the ball canoning off big defenders legs at random angles and sometimes into the back of the net. By all accounts Thistle have been very unlucky so far with poor referees and a start featuring top six opponents. Still the 3 points are up for grabs and we have a team full of fight and spirit. No reason to be pessimistic.

Surely thats still important though? Although some monies would go to them its still paying off our debt. If Moulty went for say £650,000 then, if rumours are true, Wrexham would net £130K. JB would get £120K, which might wipe out his debt altogether; Les would get £195K and we'd get the same. You could say we'd collect £520K and pay off some of our debts. All that said I'mnot saying that we should sell Moulty for £650K in January. That would be up to the club to work out transfer income against the benefit of him staying.

On Jay's advice I contacted Tom Feely about the proposed share sale and he responsed very quickly within a few hours. Tom confirmed that the Society has a 74% share holding and that a share sale of 50,000 shares would reduce that to about 57%, which is still a controlling stake. To be honest though we may not sell anywhere near 50,000 shares. A 75% share holding entitles the holder to force through certain matters irrespective of the views of the minority shareholders (the Romanov situation at Tynecastle). the Society has no intention of increasing its shareholding, as it would be of no benefit and I agree with that. My view is that the sale of say 25,000 shares would allow more ordinary fans to have a stake in the club they love but still allow the Society the retain a safe majority of the shares. Hope that clarifies the situation. Credit due to Tom for providing a quick and helpful response.

Semi finals don'tcome around too often for us. How many concerts at the SECC or Hydro charge £25 or less?

It does indeed Andy. It proved we have come a long way since last season but still have a wee way to go before we can match the likes of Aberdeen consistently. Despite the huge difference in budgets I don't think that Aberdeen are any more talented than we are. Where they still have a slight edge is in terms of solidity and physicality. I think it also proves that you don't have to have megabudgets to recruit well, despite what many posters were saying over the summer. What we still lack, and I'm pretty sure Robbo will address this, is a big battering ram striker or a smaller guy in the Dixie Deans or perhaps Dougie Arnott mould who can successfully compete with the likes of Aberdeen's central defence. Dixie was an amazing header of the ball for his height (5-9) and Dougie would never attempt to beat the likes of McKenna in the air he'd just stand on their toes or kick their ankles.

Agreed. I've questioned them before on occasion. Its unlikely that a manager is going to get them 100% all of the time. We struggled to compete in midfield for much of the game and Aberdeen soon worked out that apart from long high punts up the park if they smothered Cadden we'd have little left in our armoury. Yes, we're all wise in hindsight but the time to bring on Frear was when we were still on level terms and the game was a little more open ie just after half time, perhaps 10 minutes before we did. Those around us did mention bringing on Frear before half time, when it was obvious things weren't working. I'd have brought on Grimshaw for McHugh a god bit earlier as he would have given us fresh legs, aggression and energy just what we needed in a struggling midfield. Fisher for Bowman I wouldn't question as I think Bowman took a knock. What the game did show was that we still don't have a big enough sriker or rather a striker good enough in the air to cope with huge defences. I, and maybe Robo, had hoped that Fisher was going to be that man but that isn't his game despite his height.

I think yesterday proved that we're not quite good enough at home to go out and play our own game and not worry about the opposition. Almost but not quite. A lot will depend on who is fit ie Andy Rose. However I'd like us to start with Elliot Frear in place of Richard Tait to give us more pace and creativity. That would would give Chris Cadden more freedom. I suspect Thistle will prove very tough physical opponents and a midfield scrap is more than likely.

Absolutely. Had the referee red carded him on Thursday this may have defused some animosity today but both refs bottled it big time. He acted like a total idiot today and lost my respect. The amount of off the ball nonsense going on today was appalling and not what fans want to see.

We had trouble winning the ball for a good part of the match. Then when we did, we had no creativity as you say. Lumping high balls to our strikers was never going to work, especially as Cadden was outnumbered and snuffed out.

Hartley by a country mile although Campbell and Dunne also impressed, the latter for his foresight and some vital interventions..

Pretty much the dominant feature of the game. Aberdeen deserved their win, which was earned off the park today. They came to nullify us and proved that they can outmuscle and outfight us, but maybe not outplay us. The team fought well, but just came up against a bigger more physically side, who wanted the win a bit more than we did and took full advantage of a shocking referee, who looked totally out of his depth. I thought that Hartley was once again MOTM; what a signing he's proving to be. The defence was pretty solid although Kipre looked a bit dilatory at times. Our midfield didn't function well at all. McHugh didn't play well and Bigirama found the physical side of the game a bit too tough. Campbell fought well but simply met bigger and heavier opponents. I felt sorry for Cadden as he was smothered for much of the game due to our lack of an alternative outball. Felt sorry too for our strikers who were asked to play the wrong kind of game - long high balls against huge opponents. I think we found it hard physically to replicate Thursday's high work rate and in hindsight more changes were required. Grimshaw should have come in for Rose to give us more fight and aggression. Frear should have replaced Tait to give us another outball, pace and take the heat off Cadden. We made our substituions too late. Robbos a good young manager and he just got it wrong today. The referee was horrific but I can't find it in me to blame him. He looked totally out of depth and simply not ready to cope with this level of game. Thats 100% the fault of the SFA for appointing him. It was always going to be a tough one to referee after Thursday and he was completely the wrong choice. He allowed himself to be bullied and conned throughout. His performance was characterised by complete inconsistency. If May committed one foul he committed 12. The foul, not given, for a defender throwing Moult out of play was nothing short of earthshattering. Ryan Christie might be a good player but he won no fans with his cheating today - really disappointing. However I left Fir Park feeling the most optimistic that I have done after a defeat for years. The team tried as hard as they could and can't be faulted for lack of effort. Had we fielded a different starting 11 then I'm confident we would have picked up a draw at the very worst. Its a long time since we could say that.

Sorry wrong thread.

Why was Tait booked at HT?

Aberdeen will be better prepared this time round and won't make the same mistakes twice. They'll know us better. However Robbo and Keef will know them better too. I would hope and expect us to make one or two maybe unforced changes to keep McInnes on his toes and keep players fresh. Maybe thats hard on player losing out but we have good lads waiting to step in and it keeps things unpredictable. It wouldn't surprise me if one or two of our lads were nursing bumps and bruises ie Rose. It'll take a strong ref to cut out ongoing feuds and niggles and he should so from kick off but in a consistent way.

Welcome HMlarsson and Yorkyred. You're following a great club.

Mr Thomas was an unused sub at Kilmarnock today.