Kmcalpin

Sorry, I should have explained myself better. I agree with your logic. We don't know what thinking and discussion went on behind closed doors, but the Police would have been consulted and, unofficially, possibly even taken the final decision. The SPFL, I hope, would want to make stewarding cheaper, arguably easier and create a better atmosphere. I suspect thats where you're coming from. Police Scotland however, may wish to keep the 2 sets of fans as far apart as possible to minimise the potential for unrest and conflict. Also it may be that they'd prefer to keep the supports apart for reasons of traffic management. Just speculation on my part however.

Shall we run a sweepstake on which player will be surprisingly out through injury tomorrow?

I wish this initiative every success, but I suspect it will be of limited interest to the vast majority of the membership.

I suspect the Police would have a say in this and their interests may not coincide with those of the SPFL or participating clubs.

Yes, for once we showed a bit of consistency ... and lost both games.

Some years ago, Stewart Robertson told me that in cup ties and the like 1/3 of the gate receipts goes to the home team, one third to the away team and one third in costs. In effect then, the home team takes 2/3 of the gate money. (Dundee is an exception LOL). In the semis, the SPL/stadium owners will pocket 1/3 of the gate money for costs. The other 2/3 will be split 4 ways. Thats the theory. However, I'd imagine the SPFL will take a cut over and above costs. Also, I don't know if the 20% VAT is included in the 1/3 allocated to costs.

We'll get £150,000 for reaching the semi final. Gate money is then pooled and we'll get approximately 1/6th of that (minus the SPFL cut). We also receive about 1/3 of catering and programme sales from the actual game (these are not pooled). The bottom line is that we should make about £500K from the game. Of that figure of course, we'll have to deduct player/management bonuses. Worth noting that the Government siphons off 20% of the ticket sales in gate money. A tidy sum though which will keep our accountants happy.

A good draw for us as its its a tough but winnable tie. Given that the gate receipts are shared, I doubt if the draw will make much difference. Had Sevco and Celtic been kept apart, neither tie would have been anywhere near a sell out. As it is, the OF game will be a guaranteed sell out. Almost certainly, the Police will allocate us the east side of the stadium. Anything else would be ridiculous.

Apart from our goal I Ioved the yellow card awarded to Kevin Nisbet. Memo to referees - more of this please! Good luck for your transplant Exile.

Unlikely I think. My prediction is: Motherwell v Celtic Rangers V St Miren

I reckon between today's game and the semi final we'll rake in north of £500K. That'll boost our coffers somewhat. Its also given us a crack at another final and cup. A good day at the office. Good to get that elusive win as well.

Great result at a difficult venue. All the more satisfying given our ever lengthening injury list. Another Hampden semi to whet our appetites and more cash flooding into our coffers. Well done!

The good news is that there's no longer 8 players out injured. The bad news is that it's now 10. We do seem to be good for for one injury surprise per week. Hope that Eli's not out long term.

The lack of information, in some cases, may be required by contractual provisions. I suspect in many cases, much, although not all, of this information, will be known by rival managers.

Yes, we do need to get on with it. You're right in that other teams do have injuries, but are their lists as long as ours? Dundee, for example, had 2 players out last Saturday. By my reckoning we had 8 players out.

Maybe not, but through Transport Scotland, it did design the surrounding infrastructure and serious questions about capacity and other related issues were raised at the time but these were ignored. Its a long story and not for this forum, but in short, the Queensferry Crossing was deemed to be a straight replacement for the Forth Road Bridge and in no way was it to increase capacity. Sorry, I digress from the Dundee game.

Tell me about it. We have to negotiate it travelling to every home game. Blame the Scottish Government. Trust me, I know about it all too well.

As usual, I agree with most of what you say. However we also have Hendry and Osong. I know almost nothing about Hendry but his record suggests he's not a prolific scorer. Osong - too early to assess him, although someone did suggest he's more of a facilitator or "foil" in archaic language. I agree 100% about Stama. Michael Wimmer opined before he left that we need to boost our firepower up front and he & Nick Daws, presumably, were working on that element of recruitment. However that seems to have been derailed after his departure and the business we did during the window seemed somewhat disjointed and haphazard. As for the defence, perhaps due to circumstances it was neglected somewhat during the window. We had bad luck with McGhee's injuries and Longelo, whilst a good signing, looks to have defensive frailties. I did like Gordon when he first joined us but now I'm not so sure. Can we work on the defence to give it more solidity? Time will tell, but again I'm not 100% convinced. Either way, I can see us having a very busy January woindow.

I don't think that the main issue; in any event its academic. Whats more relevant is the manner of those draws. In probably 4 of those games we've been the better team, should have won but yet failed to win any of them. That and the fact that we've drawn 3 games on the trot having taken the lead. Today we had 16 shots at goal compared to Dundee's 7. However they managed 4 on target, the same as us. Thats been a feature in more than one of our games. The words "frustration" and "concern", but not "panic", sum up the thoughts of a few, including me.

More of the same I suspect.

Looking back with my Captain Hindsight hat on, we recruited well in midfield and that seems like a well thought out and planned process. However our recruitment of strikers seems late and somewhat haphazard. Defence was largely ignored. Maybe we are now paying the price for that approach.

Everyone has their own footballing philosophy. There's a complete range from "win is the end all and be all" to "I want to watch entertaining football end of". I was never a fan of Alexanderball or Kettleball but was content enough with it so long as we were picking up wins. I really like JBA's style of football, as its very entertaining and good to watch but I'm not yet fully convinced it will be successful in terms of results. I'm onboard with it but still have an element of scepticism. Hopefully he can convert good football into points and take me that extra mile. He's not long in the door; we have a swathe of new players settling in; and they are still adapting to his methods. So, its early days. The support seems to be largely on board with his methods, but will it be if we don't get the results it deserves? Some seem to have gone overboard in support of our new style and thats fine up to a point. Yes, its good to see our fans entertained and happy but we do need to start winning. Today will be a real test against a team which, theoretically, is on a par with ourselves. We should have beaten Sevco, Hearts and Kilmarnock and I don't want to add Dundee to that list. My hope today at Dens is that we add lethality up front and solidity at the back to our game.

Rumour on P & B that they are. Presumably Welsh will start.

Slattery and McGhee will be out, as might McGinn and Hendry. I suspect TJ and Just might not start, given their international travels. A draw tomorrow with us again playing good football would send many, probably most fans home very happy indeed. Not me though. I want to see a win.

Ditto