Kmcalpin

I haven't seen it Alan, but in that case you'd be right. It had to be a clear cut scoring opportunity. Intent is irrelevant though as accidental obstruction is no excuse. Louis Laing was red carded when he stumbled and his opponent fell over him.

I don't get the controversy about Priestman. Its stonewall red all day long. Unlucky very much so, but thems the rules, as Louis Laing will tell you. Folk have short memories.

Well!!!! Lets hope we prevent Aberdeen from firing high balls into our box. No corners either please. Presumably, we're prioritising Saturday. Briiliant or foolish? We'll soon find out.

Thats my major concern. We've been hard to beat away from home, but haven't actually picked up many wins.

Pretty much my view. We're still work in progress and far ahead of where I thought we'd be with JBA introducing a new system. There's still a few weaknesses for JBA or someone else to sort out. I'll be a bit down if we don't make the top 6 but thats becoming increasingly unlikely. I think we've got a better chance of winning a cup next season. Thats not to say that we shouldn't go all out for a win tonight. Aberdeen were kind enough to give us a few friendly warnings on Sunday; lets hope we learnt from them.

We have an exceptional team this year, but is it a cup team? Many excellent teams don't win cups and many bog standard teams win cups. You need a bit of good luck too and do we have that? Certainly we have the potential in spades but what concerns me are 2 factors: * Do we have the bottle? Some questions after the League Cup semi. * Will we be more clinical in front of goal? In our favour, we have a good record against Aberdeen this season; but they did seem a bit reinvigorated last Sunday. COYW.

I'm sure it is.

JBA must be impressed with him. Where does that leave the Ox now?

I think it'll be a close game on Wednesday, possibly going to 120 minutes or even penalties. There will be no love lost between the players given Aberdeen's cynical approach yesterday and the ref will be need to be strong and consistent from kick off to ensure a fair contest. I doubt if we'll change our game plan much but it will be fine tuned in the light of lessons learned. JBA should find it a bit easier, as he'll now have seen Aberdeen's various newbies in action. I wonder if we'll continue with our long ball experiment. Not sure if it worked yesterday - the idea was good but the execution not always great. Will our tank be running on fumes? There will be some squad rotation in that Welsh will sit this one out and Fadinger will come back in. SODs may also come back in. Possibly one or two other tweaks.

A strange game that could have ended 7-3 or thereabouts to us. We deserved to win but made it awfully hard for ourselves. We should have had the game sewn up by half time were it not for some incredible misses. Aberdeen weren't bad themselves and could have scored 2 or 3 were it not for some bad luck striking woodwork etc. Not our best performance it has to be said. A Jordan McGhee assisted OG saved some last minute nail biting. We looked a bit jaded and defensively weren't as secure as normal, although we achieved another incredible clean sheet. Maybe we missed Fadinger's presnce in the middle? Like Rangers before them, Aberdeen were cynical, picking up 6 yellow cards which should have been even more. Perahps a back handed compliment to us. Quite why 2 defenders weren't yellow carded for blatantly hauling down Said is beyond me. Someone was also very very fortunate not to be red carded for a deliberate elbow on Paul McGinn. David Dickionson was in charge and he let his assistants know it. Still another win and clean sheet. Top six is becoming increasingly likely. Happy days indeed.

BBC Sportsound were also distinctly unhappy with the result. They went to great lengths to emphasise that Jordan McGhee didn't score as it was an OG. No doubt thery're right but they didn't need to go an and on about it. Did it matter? They also suggested that Just's goals should have been chalked off for handball - even Peter Leven didn't bring that up.

There's certainly something wrong with him. A real shame though as he alwyas had a great attitude even when he wasn't playing well.

Anyone heard anything recently about Alan Campbell? It seems that he's yet to make an impact in Paisley. Presumably working hard to get fit.

Dan Casey scores again for Wycombe.

I haven't yet seen the annual accounts but would have expected a profit. Did some of the KVV and Bair money not fall within that year as well as a League Cup semi final? SK pay off?

As our standard of football is the highest its been for decades, its no surprise that our attendances have risen; certainly moreso that I would have expected at the start of the season. Over the past 20/30 years we've had a variety of short term initiatives to boost them, all with very limited temporary success. As many of you would have expected, success on the field and also entertainment value have had a lot to do with the encouraging statistics. Stating the bleeding obvious I hear you say. Many of us felt that a average of about 5,500 - 5,900 was our absolute ceiling. So far this season, our average has been 7,944. That seems to be the highest since 1998-99, when the average was 8,511. Of course there are always annual factors such as top 6 success or number of games against the gruesome twosome that affect the detailed statistics. The bottom line is though, that our average this season is roughly 2,000 more per game than our long term average. Thats quite an achievement. It means a better atmosphere; bigger gate receipts; increased hospitality; increased catering income; higher programme sales; half time draw income; and boosted shop sales. This will be reflected in the balance sheet. All good. Then we have increased wider benefits to our good friends in the likes of the New Century Bar, Steelworks, Upper Crust, Tim Hortons, Dalzell Bowling Club and last but not least the HMRC. Sadly, our one failure was our inability to save Club 100. Although I was never a customer, due to personal circumstances, I know quite a few of you were devastated at its demise. Our challenge now is to maintain this increase in future years irrespective of managerial and other short term changes. We have to retain these new or lapsed fans. This season does show though what can be done, if the product is right. It will give the Well Society a tangible fillip.

Thats my understanding. Presumsbly, Watt was just bring managed last night and is fit.

Great post Joe. What got to me was when he rightly pulled up Rangers players for stealing yards at throw ins. They retreat, as instructed, but then continue to steal yards before the actual throw in. No action taken. At Fadinger's yellow card he is surrounded by 3 Rangers players, including Ratkins, mouthing off at him.

Aye, thats true Grizzly, but he failed to penalise Scott Vernon in the build up and to red card Mark Reynolds. What a day though! More recently he was in charge of the Falkirk game, when Ibrahim Said's wonder goal was chalked off.

You must sit near us in the POD. We had a clear view of the incident and it was a stick on red. However, it was a mistimed tackle with no malicious intent. No complaints about that. What did annoy me though was Raskins getting in Steven MacLean's face after Fadinger had been yellow carded pleading for him to be sent off. His opinion obviously carried great weight. Very poor behaviour which needs called out. Steven Maclean had a very poor game as mentioned by many others. His decision making was riddled with inconsistencies. * His failure to play on when Said was fouled. We assumed, wrongly, that he stopped play to card the Rangers player but no. * Why wasn't Soutar red cardd for cynically bringing down a breaking Just? I'm not one to push conspiracy theories with referees but Steven Maclean really does seem to dislike us for some reason. Agree with your comment about the crowd. Yet again, our figures are substantially different from the BBC's. Aunty says 9,800 whilst MFC says 11,200. I very much doubt if there were about 4,000 empty seats. Great to see increased crowds.

Overall, happy with last night's performance and result especially as we went down to 10 men but never gave up and went at them. I did have a feeling before HT that we'd see a red card but thought that it would be Said. As someone in our group said, Sevco played like a more expensive version of Livingston or Killie i.e. kick everything that moves. Sevco adapted their game to nullify us and it worked to a certain extent as we saw through their effective policing of JT. I thought we played at about 75% of full capacity but lacked that killer punch up front that you need to beat the gruesome twosome. One point of concern was that in the last 3 games we've gifted the opposition an early chance and last night it cost us dearly. We fully deserved our draw and probably even the 3 points but weren't quite good enough to pull a win off. Some excellent and exciting football but with some sloppy edges but JBA knows that. This season will be a vintage season, probably in the Ancell Babes mould i.e. a great footballing team that wins nought. I'm really looking forward to next season though and if we can improve in our weak areas, with or without JBA, then a cup is a real possibility. A good team performance last night but I thought our best players were McGinn, my MOTM, Welsh, O'Donnell and Priestman.

This. He's doing exactly what he was signed to do and its now his second assist despite limited gametime. Not a spectacular striker but one who can cause opposition teams damage in their box. Had Ap Stam or Hendry been brought on instead last night, we'd have lost the game.

Thats a question for a particular minister in the Scottish Government. Political pressure was brought to bear on the SPFL to apply strict liability for pyro abuse but they lack the backbone and political will to tackle sectarianism. Tonight's chanting was medieval and offensive but as usual, the media is complicit in concealing it.

And thats precisely why we won't finish in the top 3 or win the Cup this season.

I've been going to Fir Park for too many years to get my hopes up. As you say, tonight will pretty much tell us where we stand. Without going full MJC, I still think we're a little short, relatively speaking, this season to be considered as serious league or cup contenders. Next season though?