Kmcalpin

Good away win and a vital 3 points! This was a tricky game.

Some good points being made here. In youth football its all too easy to be influenced by size and brute strength. It takes a good scout to pick out talent. That said, to get to the top it usually takes a combination of size, brute strength and talent. I've said this before, but Premiership players tend (and of course there are always exceptions) to be far bigger and stronger than our own lads. The EPL is a very physical league. I know that scouts of top clubs consciously look out for big lads with talent. One of the main reasons Mark Reynolds has not yet moved south is his lack of physique and clubs have been honest about that. By comparison, a leviathan like Gary Kenneth will always attract attention - wrong I know but thats football. I was shocked at Faddy's appearance just months after he moved to Everton. He must have been "forced" or "encouraged" to put on about another stone of beef. If he hadn't done that he would never have competed in the EPL. Part of that may just have down to natural development but most of it was down to the gym.

Good post Dee. I'd much rather read text language than foul language. Who knows - maybe text language is the future? Anyhows the original poster has raised a valid issue, that deserves to be discussed. We should be encouraging open debate and new members on these Boards.

Joking aside, and its no worse than the Duck Sauce remix comments, the lad has a point. If there was no more to it than confiscating a beach ball then thats a very poor show. Now if the ball had had a Tricolour or Red Hand of Ulster printed on it would it still have been confiscated?

Gven his remarks at the club's AGM a few months ago, Craig Brown rates him as being a good prospect.

I wouldn't want to see Brian Kerr re-sign for us. First time round he was lightweight and totally anonymous for most of the time. What has he done since leaving us? He also showed no respect to the club when he left. In short, no thank you!

In see that Dario Quinn had a good game for Linlithgow at the weekend, scoring a goal and turning in a bandaged Terry Butcher like performance. It was interesting that he said that he hoped the club would clarfy his position shortly.

Spot on. John Sutton lacks mobility but if you're pressurising the opposition in their own box, slinging over crosses and corners to a big defence then he's your man. Yet again I'll say that Alan Gow will never be a centre forward so why play him there? I don't get the Bob McHugh thing though. He might come good but we've no evidence either way about that. Al B is also spot on. I've seen many derbies against Hamilton just like yesterdays - stretching right back to the 60s. They're up for it and we're not and consquently get caught cold. Stephen Craigan's comments on Frday evening were a bit alarming in the respect.

Some fouls will always go undetected during games and refs, like everyone else do make mistakes. However, yesterday Craig Thomson allowed much of yesterday's game to be played outwith the rules and thats not on. He made so many errors, both large and small, which influenced the course and character of the game. That said, CB got his tactics and team selection wrong. Even allowing for that he could have rectified matters, through changes much earlier in the game. Ross Forbes was not a success, and could easily have made way for Mark Fitzpatrick (how match fit is he?) or preferrably John Sutton. Alan Gow should have been moved either back to play behind the strikers or out to the left wing. John Sutton should have played alongside Nick Blackman. As an aside do we ever practice set pieces? They were woeful. CB has done an excellent job so far but he got things badly wrong yesterday.

Absolutely no contact was made.

Yes we had a good hand in losing, ourselves, but the ref had a huge influence too. Had he clamped down on Accies fouling and play acting that may well have forced them to change their tactics. For example, McGlaughlin looked to have had Nick Blackman in his pocket all game but much of this was achieved through illegal means. Had the ref clamped down on this, Blackman would have been far more effective. Our loss was due to a number of factors - poor decision making off the the pitch, a jaded tired performance on it, weak refereeing, and a streetwise Accies performance.

Craig Thomson deserves a thread on his own for a totally inept display. His weak handling of the game played right into a streetwise Accies hands. Why was Canning not red carded at the penalty? Why were Canning, Hasselbaink and the Accies no 18 not yellow carded for cheating and diving? Ross Forbes' booking was a total disgrace - the "tackle" took place just in front of us and despite not being touched the No 18 fell to the ground as if poleaxed. Martin Canning gets hit with the ball in the stomach and then falls to the deck holding his head????? These are but 3 examples of a very long list of injustices.

Spot on, Al. After Accies scored this game was made for John Sutton - physical challenges in the box against uncompromising defenders. Alan Gow is great is great on the left wing or behind the strikers. He is not a target man. Not sure that lasley or Murphy would've made much difference today - this wasn't their kind of game. We got it wrong off the park.

Seconded. Keep our feet on the ground folks.

Whatever the eventual outcome it'll be a tough hard game. We should put all thoughts of a walkover out of our heads. Accies usually always play out of ther skins when they meet us.

Does anyone know how much we stand to make from reaching the semis? I believe that Steven Pressley said that Falkirk's failure to make it cost them around £250K? There would be pooled gate money, programme/food sales, TV/Radio money and sponsors' money. Anyway it'll have our Chief Executive rubbing her hands and rightly so. A badly needed cash windfall for us.

Pitch will take this rain no bother. We've even had to water it recently. The surface certainly looked better than McDiarmid Park's last night.

Now that we've beaten Dundee United twice its time to look forward to Saturday's derby. I reckon the outcome will be heavily influenced by our injury situation. Assuming that all our casualties fail to make it (unlikely I suppose) how would you all rate this line up? Randolph Page Saunders Craigan Fitzpatrick Humphrey Hately Forbes Sutton Blackman Gow

Do you sit in Row E just to the right of the aisle? If so, you sit only a few seats away and will know us. Your comments did indeed bring a reaction from Mr Houston.

I would have thought about 600 - 800? More than Saturday anyhow. Very disappointed in United - again they were over physical and didn't allow us to play any football. Any time we looked like doing so, our lads were hacked down or impeded. In David Robertson, they have an able successor to Mark Kerr - he lashed out any anything that moved. Still enough on United. We deserved to progress and although we never hit the heights we did last Saturday we were ok. Probably our best players were Reynolds, Craigan, Jennings and Hately. Couldn't fathom out why Gow was played in the middle and Sutton on the wing though. The goal was a bit of scramble but they all count. We also survived an almighty scramble in our 6 yard box. Due to much of the action being in midfield neither keeper had alot to do. Upwards and onwards.

An absolute shocker. Had he made contact Chris Humphrey would have been out of the game for months. A yellow card and if he'd made contact a straight red. Kenneth committed his first foul of many in the 4th minute. It was only justice that he gave away a needless corner that led to our goal.

I would doubt if Keith Lasley will be fit, although I hope so. In my view he was having his best game of the season to date. Up until now he has been lasting for the first halves and then seems to drop out of games in the second halves. Maybe he's not 100% fit or is carrying an injury? Tom Hately in my view is better in midfield and I thought he was one of our best performers yesterday.

He missed a lot more than a couple Tweed - well into double figures in my book. Refs are entitled to make mistakes but this ref made a lot more than most. Rookie refs have to learn but he is clearly not ready for SPL football yet. We should expect the same quality of refereeing as every other side - he would not be considered for tomorrow's OF game. Decision not to red card Bauben was totally unfathomable. According to the Official site he was going to book the Prince until he realised he'd already been booked. Surely a yellow card offence is a yellow card offence?

Thats because he was being used for spells as an out and out centre forward which he never will be. A good win today but some poor defending could have cost us. We played well in spells but didn't have the killer touch in front of goals - we just can't seem to get the striking pairing right can we? Blackman played well but at times was a bit greedy. I felt United let us all down. As expected they were very physical and cynical but at time seemed to be happy to adopt spoiling tactics to stop us from playing. I think that was United's first away defeat to a non OF team for about 18 months? 3rd place and still going strong - happy days.

It'll be hard physical game today and will be close. Added spice with next week's encounter looming too. I can see John Porteous being a busy man.