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How often do we see people falling over in the street allegedly elbowed or punched? The Dundee United players in general - Rankin and Gauld excluded - were falling about on a regular occurrence seeking some sympathy from the referee. Play acting is a major problem for referees. Billy appears to be getting a bit frustrated but I rarely see our players doing a 'Neil Lennon'. On Tuesday a stack of Dundee United players tried this trick. The Mackay Steven fall was directly in front of Terry - a few feet - and the main stand. It was pure theatre and in my view he was the player who started the brawl. It looks as though he was withdrawn at half time probably to stop his being sent off. As for Cuffki, his armlock and hand in the face to the linesman was so blatant that he should have been given a second red card immediately. However, I think the officials were quite stunned by the whole episode.

I reckon the linesman attacked Ciftci with his neck. If you look closely you can see him attacking Mr Ciftci and wrapping his neck around his fingers. Nasty man.

The United fans would be better served in finding a Doc at an ENT Clinic to treat GMS's balance issues. GMS clearly has talent, but that's twice this season against us, he has spent the majority of the time floundering on the ground. Good bet for Commonwealth games diving team/ or part in River City. Man up!

I'd have to say that attempting to unscrew Graeme Shinnie's head is not within the rules of the game, and any attempt at going for the assistant ref (I've been tempted myself this year! ) is liable to be really frowned upon. I've been surprised and really disappointed by the United fans reaction to this, with the majority of their fans blaming Foran for starting the whole thing off when none of them were in a position to witness what happened with him and GMS. It's a real shame, as it looks as if it could blight the relationship that we've always enjoyed with DUFC. I would also caution people not to give any credence to the lunacy that is "United mad" There are few places in the internet poster's gene pool that are as murky.

Hopefully one of the Highland League teams can get through - and we get them in the draw! We've never played a Highland League team before. I think the only non-league teams we've played are Annan Athletic (our biggest ever win 8-1, they're obviously a League Two team now) and Whitehill Welfare. We won that 3-1 and TheMantis has never ventured north of Perth since!! Just joking, Mantis!

We have a serious chance of getting to the final now , which is on the 16th March, which I have currently booked as a flight and hotel in Inverness for the weekend...now trying to work out a contingency plan (which I can't put into effect until early Feb)!

As noted in the answers to "Ask the Club" here on CTO (link), the club are listing some special offers for October/November. Click images to enlarge.

While Shinnie has been alright since he moved over to the right, one thing that has become apparent very quickly, is that he doesn't seem to have a right foot. At all. Obviously there's times when coming inside can be effective and even if his right foot was just mediocre it wouldn't be so bad, but he seems to need to come inside every time, which doesn't help much when he overlaps the winger. Would swapping him and Tremarco round make a difference? Could Watkins fill in at right back? He's certainly tall and fairly strong. I've also thought about playing Draper there in the past, but I think we'd lose a lot by taking him out of the middle. Cooper is of course, another option. On Curtis Allen (not Kurtis Byrne - he's ex-County player!), apparently he's been struggling with getting up the fitness for this league. I've only seen him play once in the U20s and I thought at the time he looked a bit tubby. He's certainly highly rated in the Northern Irish league, and supposedly is very skilful, but I wouldn't at all be surprised to see him released if he doesn't come into the squad in some capacity fairly soon.

Just back from my sojourn and would appreciate some comments about the following "criticisms" from Tuesday: Biggest one is regarding Tremarco as he appears to have scored well in the POY scoring. I thought that he played well. I thought that as a defender he is an asset to the squad. I feel that he is and always will be a diehard, play for the shirt 110%'er. But I would have pulled him off around the hour mark - why ? - it was clear to me that the Arabs recognised that he was not a threat going forward and basically left him uncovered. He therefore saw plenty of the ball but apart from a couple of crosses he mainly passed to Doran or sideways. He looked good but didn't add any specific threat. We could have changed things around and put Shinnie on the left. I reckon that we could have won in the 90 if we had done that. Is Billy McKay carrying a knock as he didn't look as full of running and a yard slower ? Watkins, Williams and Toby all have the potential. Toby disappointed me and I can see why he is on the bench. Watkins needs to take defenders on more - lets face it he has more to offer than Rastamouse did. Also showed to me how important it will be to keep our main men fit and ready - we are lacking in depth as much as any other season.

Seen the sending off from the bbc camera angle last night. No question about the sending off, wonder if Mcnamara will be so peed off about him wrongly sent off when he see's that, instead of the Arab tv angle from the main stand. And the linesman was standing 2 foot away when he scratched across Shinnie's face from behind and then put him in a headlock. Maybe it was just because there was other incidents going on. As for Mackay Steven and Foran, GMS is getting quite a reputation for being light weight and going down looking for a BAFTA, all be it he does get a few clatterings.

Maybe if the United players had catually tried to stay on their feet instead of going down clutching their faces as if struck at every opportunity, the referee would not have had so many problems. United very very cynical on the night, which I have not seen them do before, so they got what they deserved. It also finally seems that our guys are getting more streetwise in learning how to deal with this anddeal with the opposition