grumpy

I agree that we didn't play much (or possibly any) football tonight, the only thing that mattered was to get three points, which we did. Earlier in the season our tactic was to impose ourselves physically on the opposition before trying to outplay them. Tonight, whether because of the conditions or because of the bad run both teams were on, the match was a shitfest, but ultimately, only one thing mattered, three points.

Very difficult to choose between Main and Aldred, picked Aldred in the end. Carson and Campbell had their moments and Ciftci again showed some nice touches and a great assist.

He has scored literally, physically, metaphorically and actually 4 goals this season

Tough but winnable, when there were three teams left in the hat, and I knew that us and the green uglies were two of them, I was expecting the worst.

We went 2-0 up in the 35th minute, Aldred was injured straight from the kick off and played on for a minute or so before being subbed in the 37th minute, during that two minute window Carson made a decent save from a Bingham header. Are you seriously trying to blame Robinson for Aldred playing on for two minutes to see if he could run off the injury? Wow!

That was an incredibly comfortable afternoon in the end, Carson had two important saves in the first half but had little else to do. The back three (or two and two halfs) were solid, Dunne, in particular, looks to have benefited from the winter break. McHugh and Campbell complemented each other which went along way to helping the keeper and defence have their easy afternoon. Rose, Tait and Main all worked their socks off allowing Tanner and Ciftci to show a little bit of the talent. That all said, we didn't need to get out of second gear today because Accies were truly awful, they seemed resigned to losing after that initial flurry of pressure at the start of the second half. Roll on Wednesday, a result then and hopefully we can start looking up the table again.

Pretty easy pick today, Tanner had that little bit of extra class.

My 1991 scarf is the one I bought when the 'Well shop was in Windmillhill Street, opposite the Rex, in about 19-canteen. It's still being worn but I'm scared to wash it in case it disintegrates. I've bought a few others over the years but I keep going back to that one.

Sorted it for you

I'm 55 and have been watching Motherwell since 1967 so I should know better....... But so have I

So, did we change our system to compensate for them changing their system to compensate for our system? Did we change our system and they didn't change their system? Did we not change our system? Are we better than them? Am I confused?

Hartley, he's the captain of that team whether he wears the armband or not. Bigirimana made a big improvement to the mid-field second half and, apart from the goal, Carson did ok. The rest were below par. It shows how far we have come when we play as poorly as we did and yet could still have taken something from that game.

Yea, but we've papped two of them out the cup so cheer up a bit.

I'm going to show my age and vote for either of Ian Clinging's double against Thistle in about 1980, both very similar in that he picked up the ball just outside our box dribbled it 60 or 70 yards past half the Thistle team and knocked it past the keeper from the edge of the Thistle box. Sadly no youtube to confirm my memories (or more likely show me up for an addled old fool)

I wasn't at the '76 semi-final because it was the Easter holidays and my parents had dragged me off to a concentration, sorry holiday, camp in North Wales, no internet etc in those days, all we had was a BBC mid-week sports program presented by Harry Carpenter starting at 10 o'clock. He introduces the program by saying the 'Well are 2-0 up and we then get an hour of boxing, at 11 he closed the program with the full time score. it wasn't till I got back to school the next Monday and my mates revealed the true horror of what had happened. I still don't know whether that year or the Airdrie semi the year before (I was at both those games) was worst, but I do know that, even though it's 40 plus years on, I wouldn't piss on Derek Johnstone if he was on fire.

I think the best description of our performance yesterday was efficient, how much of that is down to how much better organised we seem to be this year and how much was down to how poor Thistle were is open to debate. The inclusion of Hartley seems to have turned our back three into a very solid defensive outfit although, it probably helps them that the work rate of Campbell and McHugh ensured that Thistle rarely threatened them, Carson cold have worn slippers yesterday and still kept a clean sheet. Midfield going forward we were arguably still too reliant on Cadden's energy although Tanner grabbed his chance with both hands yesterday which gives the management team more food for thought and Bowman is turning into a very important cog in the machine, who would have thought that last season. It was by no means a flawless performance, Dunne and, to a lesser extent, McHugh, need to practice their passing skills and Moult is drifting too wide too often but, given where we were last March these are minor quibbles. It's good to see a team playing for themselves and the manager, look at Fisher's face when Tanner is celebrating his goal and you can see how 'together' the squad is. One final thing, I was disappointed the highlights didn't show Cerny's challenge on Bowman, from the Cooper stand it seemed a clear goal scoring opportunity, and given some of the decisions we have already suffered from this year, I'm not sure why the referee decided to only issue a yellow card, not that it mattered much 'cos we were totally dominant.

I voted for Tanner, for the first time he looked like the player I thought he might be. No failures today, Tait, Kipre, Hartley, Campbell and Bowman were all under consideration but I'm sticking with Tanner.

Unfortunately we couldn't scale the heights of Thursday and most of the team looked slightly jaded. A close call between Campbell and Hartley with , IMO, Campbell just shading it.

Might as well, we'll get loads of bookings no matter what the challenges are like.

Good shout

That's it in a nutshell for me, I can forgive all the honest mistakes the team will make, as long as they are giving their best effort and I don't think anyone will argue that we are seeing a team that is playing for themselves, each other, the manager and us.

************Cliche alert********** The most important game is the next one. That said, before last night getting to the semi-final was my priority, of course, now that we are there, I'm getting greedy

I have no idea where to start, that was as good a performance as I've seen at F P in many a year. From the first minute to the last and from player one through to eleven we were superb. We chased, harried and harassed them from the first seconds of the game and didn't let up even after the third goal when the result was assured, there will be a lot of tired legs today. Carson dealt with everything he needed to, which wasn't much because our defence, superbly marshalled by Hartley, hardly gave them a sniff. The midfield totally bossed the game, Rose and McHugh had, arguably, their best games of the season, Cadden and Tait did everything we could expect and more and as for young Campbell, wow, just wow. Bowman and Moult tortured their back line and I hope and suspect that they will improve further as their understanding grows. As for Aberdeen, 3-0 flattered them, I hardly noticed that the much vaunted May was on the park (I hope McInness feels a bit of a fud after his comments about not being too bothered about not getting Moult because they ended up with May ), Shinnie did ok and Christie looks a decent player but shouldn't be available for Sunday, his assault on Tait looked even worse in the highlights than it did in real time. Only downsides are 1. Watching the game means I couldn't listen to Gordon and Miller on the radio, I suspect that would have been very entertaining. & 2. I'm heading off to France for a short break for my wedding anniversary early on Saturday 21st so I hope I can find a pub to watch the semi-final.

One of those games when there should be a "whole team" option. In its absence I voted for Hartley as he is the kind of player we have been missing for years, assured at the back, reads the game well, a natural leader and a goal threat to boot. Honourable mentions for Hammell, Rose, Campbell, McHugh, Bowman and, of course, Louis.

Fair enough