steelboy

definitely a more conventional peformance from yassin today, i think that answered any questions about whether he was under orders to power up the park or not. i was hoping he'd be more conservative today but after watching the game i think we might have missed him bringing the ball up the park.

i don't think we were ever going to get anything from the match with the approach we took. we were away from home against a team with seven internationalists in the starting line up and we took the approach that we were going to outplay by passing the ball from back to front. unsuprisingly it didn't work and hibs beat us fairly comfortably with makalamby only having to make one real save. today was a day for a hardworking team performance but i can barely think of a 50/50 we won and once again hibs let us beat ourselves and took advantage. everyone wants to see passing football but ruddy, hateley, saunders and reynolds are constantly putting themselves under pressure and even when we are forced into playing it long no one up front is making runs as they're so used to standing about watching the play build from the back. we didn't put hibs defence under any pressure and constantly allowed the game to be played in our half.

haggischomper - you don't know the half of it. we should have had a stonewall pen but murphy got booked for diving. hammell got booked for zemmana tugging hammell's shirt. ian murray handled the ball well above his head and the ref signalled play on. o'brien got fouled on the edge of the box, the ball broke 40 yards out and he played advantage. shocking performance and a clear change in attitude from the ref and linesman towards us. also we've got a contract with the bbc which gets us income. gannon has to talk to them, they mentioned on the radio us not doing interviews means we lose money. just looked at the stats 22-4 with the fouls. add in the two advantages, the pen, the one that went the wrong way with hammell and the real total is 26-3.

to be fair though mowbray is the biggest bullshitter about. he went from slagging his players every week to talking them up when he realised they could quite easily get him sacked. last week he was greeting about how he's never enjoyed football management and this week it's that his family are worried about him. the man talks shite. levein seems to think wilkie, dods, kenneth, kovacevic, bauben, roberstson and gomis should be allowed to kick fuck out of other teams and if the refs don't let them he goes in the huff. the guy thinks the rules of football should be the same now as they were when he played for FHW thugs of the late 80s/early 90s. both absolute tossers. and i saw tam cowan has come out today and slated gannon. was he forced into it by traynor? does he want to say i told you so? could he have a point?

maybe but as i remember it coyne, mckinnon, philliben, shannon etc knew how to fill a pair of shorts.

aye he's employed by the sfa and gannon apparently contacted him about an spl document. if that report is the topic of the second letter he wrote then dallas can't do much but write back that he should contact the spl.

probably because he wasn't asked. it's easier to clear issues like this up face to face than on official letter headed paper.

"yer tea's oot gannon!" will be ringing round dalziel park. dallas has already said that he'll speak to any manager on the phone so i don't think he'd be against a meeting which would be very easy to arrange. you always seem to make more progress with things face to face than on the phone. i was just highlighting how easy it would be for them to have a chat. the papers at the weekend suggested gannon wrote to dallas about the spl delegates report from the accies game which is nothing to do with dallas. that suggests jim isn't up to speed with the football beaucracy in scotland and who runs what (i doubt many people are). i'm sure dallas could give him all the details regarding the match delegate system, referee supervisors, referee training and the correct way to make an official complaint or suggestion then jim could consider his next move.

don't fuck around with him or what? was there any genuine action after the mike mccurry game at ibrox or the shady run of decisons celtic got that year? no the sfa and the referees won't budge and they don't have to. the only thing that can come out of this is that the refs take a dislike to us. right now jim o'brien seems to have been marked out as a diver and the refs are giving him a raw deal. however reynolds, saunders and hateley seem to get a lot of leeway and big giles has had the benefit of the doubt a few times when yellow could have been red. yassin commited six fouls and never got booked on saturday, i think most refs are aware that we are a clean team and we're benefiting because of it. i hope it won't happen but we could get a petty ref who decides to crack down on us because of this. as for the media they'll be loving this. anything that fills their pages is ideal for them and jim is writing their stories for them just now. what can we possibly do to the media? if we get totally on the wrong side of them we'll see stories about youngsters form dropping, so many games without a win and stories unsettling our players. it shouldn't damage us but it might with a young team. if he has contempt for the press give them nothing but the bland minimum, he's actually doing them a favour writing program notes and statements like this.

looking at the stats we only got one booking and it was definitely deserved. i get your point but i think the refs should be looking to punish teams that are continually fouling as a tactic. if we had done the same you'd be looking at a free kick every two minutes which would totally ruin any game. it's not a coincidence that dundee united and hibs are way out in front in terms of fouls conceded, they get a big advantage from constantly stopping attacks. i don't think anyone would be claiming conflicts of interest if they had a chat and a cup of tea in the office at dalziel park. the problem here seems to be things are too official, gannon made his complaints to dallas but dallas isn't in a position to officially respond to them. i generally don't see any point complaining about refs, we're not going to get new ones and the history of fitba shows there will always be someone who is unhappy. the refs seem to have circled the wagons and are unwilling to budge on anything which is annoying but when you hear the shite they take like off levein on saturday there, willie miller after the hibs-don match and walter smith and davie weir after the killie-rangers game it's understandable.

so he sent letters after the dundee united away game and the accies game. i'd guess the complaint at tannadice would be regarding the tackle on hammell in the second half and the accies game regarding time wasting and the amount of added time on. both of them are valid complaints but neither is anything out of the ordinary in the context of our average season. the match that i thought was the worst officiated was hibs when they commited 21 fouls to our 6 but we both got two bookings. i'd say we've had more off refs this season than we've ever had before, the way cards are being dished out this season suits us as it punishes the types of challenges our players generally don't make. when butcher was the manager he never commented about refs even when we had some terrible decisions against us. for all their greeting over the years what have levien, reid, jeffries and macpherson gained from it? just like the comments about players not earning their wages, the ones about scotland and scottish football and the ones about the media i can't see what advantage we can get from them or how anything positive will come of them. hugh dallas lives about 100 yards from where we train, surely this could be very easily sorted out without the need for the media or internet statements?

come on he's a got a smallish looking hand, it's against the law not to mention beadle in these circumstances

and a beadle hand?

it's weird when you look back at old games and all our players are built like 2005 model jim paterson.

i'm not sticking up for any hacks, i'm just saying what i believe. jim gannon thinks only people involved in professional football are properly qualified to comment on it, i disagree. if any other spl manager had made the same comments my opinion wouldn't have been any different. surely having a bit of consistency of thought and an independent opinion is better than just falling into a mindless tribalism. i don't see it as us versus them, i'll make my own mind up. the us versus them attitude gets you into situations where there's a big group of boys at tynecaslte in august 08 with banners praising mark mcghee yet at pittodrie one year later they same folk are chanting about how much they hate him, in other words it's stupid. i will stick up for some hacks. there are guys like traynor, keevins, speirs and jackson that have no interest in what goes on the park and are only interested in the soap opera side of things. but there are a good few - parks, mccarthy and cameron at the record and devlin and ralston at the sun - that show a real interest in the non OF clubs and players. there are a few people amongst our suppport who are trying to climb the ladder in football journalism, would they suddenly become pricks if they landed a plum job at the sun, record or herald? again i don't dislike our manager. i'm actually starting to like him a lot more now he's juked the one up front and a lot of the suicidal passing in front of our 18 yard box, put murphy in the the centre and has realised forbes can't play more than an hour, funny that. however as i said before he's here to win football games for motherwell not put scottish football to rights. he's came up to this country after a fairly non descript playing and management career elsewhere and he seems to think he has the answer to every problem in scottish football. how would 'well fans react if it was the new boss of another club who was coming out with all this? things are getting better on the park, we look dangerous going forward and we'll get better at defending leads. what's the need to start fueds with the press and referees? we've had everything going off refs in scotland this season, 6 pens for none against, no well players sent off but seven opponents seeing red. that's a massive advantage to us, why the moaning?

by the same extension there are managers, players and pundits who do a good job of projecting that they know the exact same fuck all. and as the old saying goes he who plays three centrebacks away to st mirren in the cup should not cast the first stone.

what's getting paid got to do with the validity of anyone's opinions? if you take gannon's comment that football writers can't be well enough informed about the game to express a valid opinion then by extension fans must be in the same boat. someone could quite easily pay you to produce the fanzine but it wouldn't make your opinions any more or less informed.

you better get yourself down to london tomorrow to tell the chillcot inquiry there wasn't actually a war and they're wasting their time, i'm sure they'll be relieved.

i'm sure the half a million dead iraqis are delighted with how things worked out.

maybe nethertonwellfan is intercepting gannon's mail?

that's a boot in the baws. it was some move as well, maybe the best of football i've seen from us this season.

exactly. why do that?

why sign up then?

broke the news to your nephew yet? he's been heavy bumped!

i'm not against anybody but if you sign up, get on a plane to afghanistan and cut abut with a gun there's a fair chance it'll end badly. no one is forced to do it and i don't believe that either war has done anything to improve security in the uk. what exactly should i be grateful for. blaing the politicians is shite argument, everyone is ultimately responsible for their own actions. i don't have the same views of the green brigade about rememberance, i think it's important and valuable. i didn't clap the soldiers today but i didn't boo them either, if other people feel the need to clap them fair enough. people can do what they want but i'm not going to change my opinion about the issue or keep quiet about it on a public forum for the sale of not offending one eyed clowns. anyone - explain what valuable function the military are currently providing.