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Less than two weeks until the match, much longer since the draw than it is to the match itself and we still don't know the day far less the time the game will be played. Plenty of people will now not be able to attend because cheaper travel and/or accommodation options will have gone and no doubt the Weegie press and media will be slating us again for a poor turn out. I know that the SFA have sold the soul of the competition to TV but the fact that no date has been confirmed is grossly unfair and a bigger farce than the draw itself. Increasingly clear that Scottish football needs a change at the top.

Rather than just moan on here about it, I have just written to the SFA Chief Exec about it. I don't suppose I'll even get any sort of reply, but I'll keep you posted.

Last Monday.....

Ideally, like all important decisions in life, one should spend as much time as possible carefully researching the facts before coming to a view. On the other hand, if you lack the time or inclination for detailed research you could do worse than ponder whether you really ought to be voting on any issue on the same side as Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Pat Cash, John Redwood and Charles Bannerman......

What is the point of trying to have a serious discussion on anything when Charles Bannerman uses every opportunity to highjack topic with his unnaturally obsessive anti SNP drivel. Do you notice Charles nobody else wants to comment. Probably all sick of your p!sh

Isn't the net supposed to have lots of holes in it?

You and me both! I had a fiver on him at 13/1 as an anytime scorer

Could well be that I'll be in the same boat. Looks like we won't know until later this week at the earliest what day and time our game at Hibs will be. Absolutely outrageous. SFA treat travelling fans like s***. They should tell the TV companies to stick their cameras where the sun don't shine. There is absolutely no excuse for keeping us waiting this long. Wish there was something more constructive we could do about it.

Which is why, when he can't populate the bench with first team players, the manager should always give the place to a young player rather than just naming five or six subs which, apart from everything else, looks unprofessional.

I think people are indeed waking up to the reality that the slashing of Council services is happening because the SNP will neither give Councils enough money to pay for decent ones, nor allow them to raise enough for themselves. In the first instance they would prefer to put the cash elsewhere such as crowd pleasing free prescriptions and free passage over an ever more decrepit Forth Bridge. In the second instance we have a Council Tax freeze where they are relying on enough people not to twig the cause and effect link between SNP policy and the state of their services.These are therefore SNP-imposed service cuts which the SNP have cynically engineered in an attempt to create yet more grievance. As for the Breferendum, I once again curled my toes right through my socks at the Leader of the 53.5 in the Commons today. Here was our National Parliament debating an issue which could have implications for the UK and for an entire continent and here's Angus Robertson still not even sure where the kailyard fence is and banging on about Scotland. Give any of these SNP people a full tractor and trailer, with an order for a London address and they would roll up Oxford Street and ask the first person they saw "Where do you want your tatties then?" They really are such an embarrassment that they make you ashamed to be Scottish. Indeed I just wonder how many of these 53.5 muppets actually know where Europe is? The threat of a second Scottish referendum is an interesting one and I wonder what the SNP really think. I'm sure the likes of the Gelluns wing of the party and "Branch 1314 Willie Bell Memorial" are just desperate for one. On the other hand there will be others who will positively be bricking their tartan knickers at the thought of this in the continuing absence of overwhelmingly positive polling, since if they lose again they are dead in the water for the foreseeable future. But, come any second referendum, there would have been not one but TWO of their so-called "fundamental changes" namely 1 - the oil panacea which they've been banging on about since the mid 70s is now worth damn all, is fast running out and is in some respects a liability. and 2 - they would now be asking for a Yes vote in order to create this wee half-arsed EU exclave welded on to a substantial non-EU state with 11 times the population, a massively larger GDP, a different currency, passport controls, no obligation to pay benefits or provide health services to Scottish foreigners and a Darienesque competitive spirit in the face of an economic basket case of a neighbour whose ruling party has been the source of decades of hostility and Anglophobia.

robbylad, in all elections from trade union at work, local council, Scottish, UK and European I read the material sent out or in the media and make up my own mind who to vote for. The one thing that has hacked me off over the years is other people telling me who I should vote for!

Aye! Surprise, surprise! Make's Alex's opening salvo of a 'plea' to 'leave the SNP out of this' look a little naïve! Of course those opportunists (SNP) will use this to their advantage! I imagine they'll (SNP) return a crushing majority win in May's elections - but ultimately be disappointed the following month when the UK agrees to stay within the EU, foiling their 'backdoor' attempt at forcing another Independence referendum, which nobody with a sense of democracy would welcome, anyway. The door slammed on that in 2014. From there, the UK agreement to 'stay', we'll see a gradual return to the status-quo with former Labour voters returning-to-their-roots - and a gradual diminishment in support for the disillusioned Nats, who'll slip to a fringe role in the opposition at Holyrood. Happily, folk are starting to see through them. Councils are being starved of money...Highland Council (for example) are laying-off folk and are having to make draconian cuts. They simply don't have the money! Any attempt to raise more money for the good folk of Inverness and the Highlands would be going against SNP austerity mantra and the Council would subject to sanctions, including a crippling fine. The SNP like to think that a year-on-year Council Tax freeze is a vote winner! For some it may be! But, the Highland Council is hamstrung. It simply can't operate on it's budget without enforced cost-saving cuts. It's really starving towns like Inverness... and preventing us from providing adequate, or better public services!

He is right, though, that thanks to Sturgeon's pronouncements, for us the forthcoming referendum is nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with Scottish independence. Look, another once in a lifetime opportunity, only 2 years since the last one! Still, we can all look forward to a few months of unashamed hypocrisy from the SNP, as they extol the virtues of being controlled by a distant parliament that Scotland didn't vote for. The line Charles quoted is indeed a belter, and I notice that nobody is even attempting to defend the double standards.

It also continues our run of having conceded in every away league game so far this season.

The aggregate score from our last 6 trips to Celtic is 24-2 - and the 2 came when we were already 4-0 down! I can't imagine any other team has done so badly there in recent times.

Game tomorrow at Airdrie's ground v Motherwell (2pm). Just had a look at the table and am surprised to see us second-bottom - last time I looked we were in 7th! However, It's extremely tight between 6-16th place. http://spfl.co.uk/development-league/dev-fixtures/ Certainly, It's been a lot better, as hoped for, in this campaign. Last season we were last with just 23 points. As the table shows, we've already got 22 points, with 11 fixtures still to play. But, as always, it's questionable how 'important' actual results are in this league. Incidentally, it was good to see one of the Development boys on the bench at Parkhead - Blair MacLennan...obviously he was unlikely to be 'used' but still a great experience for the guy - and I'd imagine, hugely motivational!

I will be voting to remain in the EU although it is far from perfect. Over the last 40 years I have travelled throughout the Highlands and Islands where there have been many roads upgraded from single track and bridges built with money from Europe along with upgrading of telephone exchanges. The Tories that are campaigning to leave are not interested in anything north of Watford!

Thank you! Especially as it was typed one-fingered from the bottom of a deep well of pre- and post-match Guinness,,.

Neither played in a particularly advanced position - at times it almost looked like we were playing 4-2-4, with our forward midfielders playing just in front of the Celtic defence and trying to pressurise them into mistakes that someone could run onto, or trying to pass our way through them when we were in possession. When Storey and/or Roberts did break forward then yeah, Storey was tending to pull out wide towards the right, and Roberts was all over the place, but in a good way. At times he reminded me of Mckay in the way he was willing to receive the ball with his back to goal, and in the way he tried to pull defenders out of position. Much less of an out-and-out striker, obviously, but I think he's a good addition who will cause a lot of probems. Whether this formation works against a team that plays a deeper defensive line than Celtic remains to be seen, however. I should mention, by the way, that Vigurs had one of his best games for us - looked a lot more dynamic than in recent games, used the ball well and seemed to enjoy the greater space Celtic gave him - and that when Horner broke forward, he looked tricky and willing to take players on. I still wonder if there is any chance of Yogi trying Horner in a wide role ahead of Raven at some point, but then that doesn't really fit in with the way Hughes seems to prefer to set up.

I will be there. Really want to know about the CJT and get involed with it

Now I am getting results but went through a 3 week period of utter misery , stress and 5 crashes before my tech friend, also at his wit's end to know what to do, finally decided to open the back of the new computer and have a good look. Lo and beho, we find a loose connection to the bios where the usb wire was almost falling out. Once it was pressed in firmly all started to go well as it should and the problems have been resolved.I do use IE11 with Google as the search engine. However, although the web pages pop up quickly enough ,they fail to display contents until at least 4-5 seconds afterwards, which is irritating. Scotty, you seem to favour EDGE so did you find using IE11 was not the best browser to use with W.10? I have two banks that I use so need to access the accounts frequently. But if you go to Tools/ Internet options and open the Security Tab you will see at the very bottom the added security instruction to tick the box named "ENABLE PROTECTED MODE". My technician friend strongly recommends that this box be ticked except that when I browse to one of the Banks I have no difficulty with gaining access but I can't open the other bank's website until I de-click that wee box.. He recommends that I talk to the bank which I am unable to access and I intend to do that but it's a big national entity so you would think that they would already have all their security protocols in place wouldn't you? He also suggests that within 2-3 weeks it is a strong possibility that Microsoft will have updated the Windows 10 programme again and this problem will disappear by itself. Any input on this?

To be honest I'm more disappointed that County, St J and Utd all snatched late wins in games where draws might have been better for us. Utd, by the way have taken 7 points from their last 4 games which is considerably better than any of the teams in 4th to 11th place.

Massive rebuilds work when there's some direction to them. The lower league up and comers that Butcher and Marsella used to scout for example. Some of Yogi's have been like something out of Football Manager! And what about Raven? Pleading for a new deal in the press last month. One of our most reliable and consistent players. Still nothing.

I just don't get our retention policy at the moment. We've been stung with guys leaving on frees before - fine if our squad is buging at the seams and a player is "surplus to requirements", but we have precisely 5 players (one of whom is permenantly injured and another who might well attract interest again from down the A96), and a goalkeeper coach signed for next season. I understand that, to an extent these things have to be done one at a time, so that the budget is kept under control, but we're in danger of needing a massive rebuild next season, which carries enormous risk. I know Draper and Warren are good, but they can't beat 11 men on their own! Give Polworth an offer ffs!

Predictably, they're at it again...... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35625067

Its a difficult one...Should you always fill the bench with youngsters so they gain matchday experience or should you have that place derservedly earned and used as a reward for effort and performances It would be a motivator for a youth player to join the first team on a match day for sure, however if its then expected you or another U20s player will be in the matchday squad because the first team are short again next week then it devalues the whole experience. I think perhaps the young man has been given this opportunity as a reward on this occasion. Hopefully inspire him to achieve when the odds are firmly stacked against him.

The SFA tried to decide who plays when by drawing plastic eggs out of a fishbowl. Two of them contained small plastic toys and another turned out to be a real one which cracked open as it was taken out of the bowl resulting in a bit of egg on Stewart Regan's face. In the confusion the fourth egg was dropped and rolled under the sofa. An emergency egg retrieval committee meeting has been scheduled for 7th March to decide on a suitable strategy for getting it back in the bowl. When they realised that this is the day after the quarter final weekend an emergency 'meeting rescheduling meeting' was scheduled for 4th of March to investigate whether the egg retrieval meeting can be rescheduled. If not the results of the quarter-finals will be decided impartially and those clubs with the biggest fan base will progress to the semi-finals. Then they'll only need two eggs which surely even they couldn't feck up.....

am going to vote yes to stay in the eu and i have snp membership snp care about people Conservatives are evil

I've just heard an absolute belter from Sturgeon in defence of the EU - "It's good for independent countries to come together to pool sovereignty...." Wonderful example of oxymoron from the SNP.... and I use the second part of that word advisedly! I just wonder, if the UK polls swing towards "in"... will we see the SNP correspondingly swinging away from same - just to preserve that potential sense of grievance?

Sorry Alex, but the SNP forged the firmest of links between the EU Referendum and a second Scottish one a long time ago, so up here the two have inextricably linked by them, not by me. Hard on the heels of declaring that the outcome of September 2014 settled things for "a generation", they were backtracking furiously and using the possibility of an "IN - OUT" difference as possible grounds to bore the backside off us with another Scottish vote. I can appreciate why any SNP member may not want the two to be linked - until after any "correct" IN-OUT permutation may emerge - but it was you folks who "invaded Poland". In the event of a second Scottish referendum following a "UK out/Scotland in" EU outcome, one would presume that further issued additional to those in 2014 would include - * How happy are you to base your economy on a commodity feverishly promoted by the SNP for decades but which at best is subject to the backside frequently and unpredictably falling out of the price and at worst is getting towards done anyway? * How happy are you for a country which is as independent as EU membership will allow to have its sole land border with a much bigger non-EU market and all the implications that has for customs posts, passport control, trade tariffs, Scots south of the Berwick - Solway line who need benefits..... etc etc? Or will that just be dismissed as Project Fear? Once again I ask.... does the SNP's current position on Europe derive from a fundamentally held viewpoint, or does it represent the best chance they have of creating more dissent?