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The final will be on the 30th of May, right? Yeah, that's right. Should be a good match. I think we'll beat Falkirk over the 90 minutes.

One wonders if McNamara really means that nonsense. Maybe one of his players threatened to shove him in the back, elbow him in the neck and kick him in the head unless he said it. Comparing Ciftci with the likes of Zidane and Cantona is absurd for three reasons. Firstly he is not fit to even lick the boots of those two when it comes to the genius stakes, secondly the infamous episodes McNamara refers to happened when they lost the plot following provocation, and thirdly, Zidane and Cantona did not routinely cheat. Ciftci needs no provocation to behave like a thug. It is, however very interesting that McNamara has used the words C1C3 has highlighted above. Presumably that is an acknowledgement that doing something even more serious is very possible knowing the nature of the man. Instead of making limp excuses in trying to defend the indefensible, McNamara should be apologising for his player's behaviour and pointing out to Ciftci that truly great players like Pele and Law, for instance, never ever resorted to Ciftci's kind of antics. Ciftci doesn't behave the way he does because the behaviour is linked to genius, he behaves the way he does because he's a thug. The message Ciftci must be getting from his manager and the SFA is that there is nothing wrong with his behaviour. It makes you wonder just what he might do next - grab a match official by the throat perhaps?

The dates for each game HAVE NOT been confirmed yet and I would take the date on the BBC website with a pinch of salt. Like our fixtures system, you have to put in a date/time in order to list a match and they have listed that semi as the "default" Saturday at 3pm settings. Please do not go booking travel/accommodation based on one or the other.

There's SFA on the SFA website but interestingly the Hibs website has got their semi listed as being on the Saturday - albeit to be confirmed. Perhaps the clubs the SFA would like to be in the final get asked when they would like to play. Just assume that date time and place will be about as inconvenient as possible for the North fans and you can't go far wrong.

....BBC get it wrong??!! They'll probaby have it down as Celtic/Dundee Utd v Ross County......you know - that team that Ryan Christie plays for!