Kmcalpin

Good question. A typical Stevie Hammell performance last night. Fine attacking game culminating in a well deserved goal, and yes, it was his goal. However defensively he was all over the place at times.

Not a great performance last night but we won through and in cup competitions thats all you can ask for. Ross Forbes won it for us with a real cracker of a goal. Too many of our moves last night were just inches out and that was frustrating. It was worrying though that ICT were managing to find spaces in and around our box late on and when playing with 10 men. With the notable exception of our right back our defence had an off night. All credit to ICT though - they were motoring up and down the pitch at the end of extra time even with 10 men. As JG hinted the United game took a lot out of us physically. It was a hard bruising encounter by all accounts and that showed up in the amount of knocks we picked up. I suppose a physical battering on Saturday took its toll last night.

I think you're right. Despite Levein's media reputation for playing great entertaining flowing football, his teams are always big, physical, well organised and designed to stop the opposition. They tend to grind results out.

Nothing at all Andy. Certainly Darren Smith, McGarry, Fitzpatrick and Fraser seem well out of the picture. Of those four only Darren Smith appears to be injured.

Given the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Boards a few months ago, I just thought I'd ask posters who we are missing. FWIW I reckon we're only missing Davie Clarkson. The jury is still out on Paul Quinn.

Not sure about that Peter. United are supposedly one of Scotland's best teams, are at home, going for a win and we were missing Slane, Humphreys and Hutchison. Why would they set out to prevent our midfield from playing? I really don't think Levein is as imaginative as the media believes him to be, either that or he reckons we are a very dangerous force to be reckoned with.

Genuinely sorry to hear that. I feared that might be the case but had been assured that wouldn't happen and United had enough class to go out and not worry about us but simply beat us by playing the better football. Anyway a great result and Jim Gannon is driving us forward with a will, determination and acumen not seen at Fir Park for years. Incidentally, When did we last record 3 SPL shut outs on the trot?

Can only echo what Foghorn has said - what an excellent crop of youngsters we have coming through both in quantity anmd quality. It can't all be down to John Park!

I can see it being a low scoring game. Although we're capable of playing some good stuff and scoring from midfield we might struggle to score. Against Aberdeen and Rangers we drew 2 blanks and lacked a killer touch up front. Still JG is aware of that. Not sure of Robertson is suspended - did he not pick up 2 yellows as opposed to a straight red?

No comment about my age - I was born in the year that Hastie Weir joined the club for the first time. Seriously a lot of good points made and for me the reasons for poor attendances are many and varied. Hopefully the club will carry through Leeann's idea of an open forum for fans to look at ways of increasing our support. Over the years there's been a lot of good ideas on these fora - some may work, some may not but they're worth considering. For me its the single biggest issue facing our club and one we can't afford to ignore.

Thanks for that Brazilian. Its good to demonstrate our support with a financial contribution.

You might not, but real or imaginary, many of our fans over the years have done. This dip in home attendances at OF games has been going on for as long as I've been going to FP and probably well before that. Many fans realise that crowds can be boisterous and of course that does add to the atmosphere but they don't like explicit sectarianism or streams of foul mouthed abuse. I'm no prude but it seemed to me last weekend that some of our guests couldn't utter a single sentence without an expletive. That kind of behaviour deters many folk from going to games especially those with families. If culprits behaved in the same way in the street they'd be done for breach of the peace and rightly so.

How does £28 for a Category C game Hearts V Kilmarnock at Tynecastle sound? The Jambos still managed to attract a fair crowd.

Thanks for the support Tweed, but I was really referring to when we were defending. I can thole a player being caught upfield but last Saturday Stevie kept drifting into the middle, not marking anyone in particular whilst Rangers players were trying their damnedest to hit the by line. At times, those in front of me commented that they didn't know who he was meant to marking.

No, I was simply using the Novo shot as but one example. Stevie had a decent game going forward but all too often (not once or even twice) was caught out of position when Rangers were on the attack. As others have said he's good on the ball but not so good off it.

I thought Stevie had a poor game defensively on Saturday. Much of Rangers' danger came down our left flank. Too often Stevie was caught inside. His error in the 72nd minute almost cost us a goal. He was shadowing Naismith closely, then moved away from him allowing him to interpass with Novo who then unleashed a shot which John Ruddy could only parry. There was no need for our custodian to have to make a save at all, had Stevie stuck closely to his man.

Spot on Big Man. If a manager comes out and says the team could not have played any better and put in a perfect performance then he's not doing his job properly. Teams can always improve. We played well on Saturday but had our faults in most areas of the field. As JG said, not the finished article.

It wasn't pleasant having to sit RIGHT next to the Rangers hordes yesterday. A few season ticket holders had to move to accommodate them, although thats never never been publicised. 90 minutes of sheer bile. We had renditions of Derrys Walls, and the Sash but neither the police nor stewards seemed interested in taking any action. I can also categorically state that it wasn't one or two fans chanting these outdated ditties either - several hundred in the POD Stand. There were also Rangers fans sitting amongst season ticket holders although the ones I saw behaved themselves. Giving the Cooper Stand back to our has come at a cost.

Oh yes they did. They left at the same time as us.

I thought we earned our point today and deserved it. We simply didn't do enough to win the game and although we played some really nice stuff on the deck there was no killer insinct up front. No shots on target from open play tells its own story. The midfield played played very well apart from a 20 minute patch in the 2nd half when they retreated into a shell. For the most part our defence well and recorded a 2nd shut out in two games. Saunders and Reynolds contained Rangers' aerial threat very well and played very intelligently. They knew from the off that they'd never compete with Boyd in the air and didn't try to. Instead they worked hard to disrupt him and focused on the second ball. John Sutton worked his socks off but to little effect. A bit disappointing that we didn't test Davie Weir more - he looked slower and more cumbersome than ever. Watching Whittaker, Weir, Miller and Naismith you have to ask how any of them got anywhere near the Scottish team. A good point today and a decent overall performance with nice football, but JG will know our weaknesses today including a toothless attack and vulnerability down our left side. Still we played some decent footie and outshone Rangers' power play.

Spot on Jim. For more years than I care to remember our average home attendance at OF games is about 3,500 and it was no exception today. As long as Police as stewards adopt a laissez faire attitude this will continue.

I don't agree with you but your honesty is appreciated. Some Main Stands are used by away fans but its by no means common. We rarely get housed in the Main Stands at Easter Road, Pittodrie, Tynecastle, Falkirk, Kilmarnock or Hamilton for example.

Yes most of the larger SPL clubs run just such a scheme. I think Hibs and Dundee United offer such top ups for a "mere" £30-40 extra. The only downside is that fans may not get anything back in return if all a seaon's cup ties are away from home. Still the Hibs and United fans I know think this is a great idea.

Thats correct Tweed. ICT will be due 33% of the gate including money from season tickets. MFC was always going to make a financial loss on this game, but by cutting prices this will be minimised.

I'm unfortunate enough to sit in the southern part of the POD Stand. I eventually supported the return of the Cooper Stand to our own but sadly for many fans its a case of "I'm all right Jack". For years we had to put up with OF fans in the Main Stand but for those in other stands it was never an issue. But, when the gruesome twosome took over the Cooper Stand it was a different matter. The same kinds of problems could now re-occur on Fir Park Street and Knowetop Avenue but I suppose if its Rangers fans from the POD Stand (as opposed to the Cooper Stand) that are the root cause of it it'll be ok. Not getting at anyone, its just human nature.