The Mantis

OP = original poster

Caley Stan's a part timer. Interesting that a guy on the Pars forum started a thread about Duff wondering if they should move for him. Thought he was impressive compared to their two in the middle. I'm not saying much but wait till Naelifts gets here.

Including that wee sub that came on for Hayes. What's he called again, Inman or something :D

You can see in your photae he's just about to cement that poor guy from behind.

I don't think on today's evidence that Duff is any better than what we have. Obviously I've stuck up for Duncan in the past so that's no surprise. We can't attract better players than Duncan and Roy and so on - so we just have to bring them on from young boys. Like Starchief I reckon we ain't got much to play for. We are well capable of beating Dundee next week but it seems we are just drawing games while others win. It's like chalk and cheese from the Pele days and even the Robbo days when you always thought Denzil or Baz or Peanut or Ritchie would pop up with a late winner. I actually got round to watching the final again this week and Dundee were no better than us, even in the second half, but they had belief, and the interviews seemed to back this up - they've got a good squad morale and the fans believe too. I've already decided its a good season with plenty happening, but it's mid table for us. Need to rebuild next year with new management.

Looked pretty much a 4-5-1 today. I was interested to see how good Duff was, as people said he was good last week. First five mins I thought we had ourselves a player, after that I thought he was poor and reminded me of Brian Kerr. No lack of effort though, but you can get that from Russeldinho anyway. MoM for me was Dani and Cox not far behind. I thought the Pars had better movement than us - great passing from midfield and ability to spring people down the wings, one or two cocky backheels and one-twos, but I can't remember Ryan having a save to make, apart from one that was going wide anyway. In comparison we had loads of possession in their half but we just ended up passing it sideways, nobody wanting to take a risk and run at them. Wee Johnny was beaten for pace and physique by the left back and never contributed anything - probably could have come off at HT. Anything we did create came through Dani. Pitch was very slippy, with signs that the Pars all had the right studs as our lot slipped more often. We were a bit more direct overall though and made more chances. There's just never any belief that Rooney can take one of these through balls and finish it. It's so predictable. Wee Stewarty would probably never hack it at this level, but he could show Rooney how to finish - he is so knackered by the time he gets the shot away he never lifts it, just aims to hit the target. Low and straight at the keeper every time. To be fair to Rooney he never got any runners supporting him today. Foran was busy looking for scraps in midfield or helping out at the back. Did anybody mention it was cold? It was cold.

Well, er, thanks Dan - I'll lay off the whooshy smiley just this once

Those County boys are good banter though. I wish they had their own website so we could carry it on more often.

Yes you're right, sorry if my post looks a bit ambiguous. I suppose you could argue that the capacity of Ibrox has been cut in half by the seats so it must be safer. If you imagine the Mount Florida end ('Rangers' end) at Hampden, IIRC it has loads of exit stairs all round it. Ibrox had 2 huge terraces like that but with only a stair at each corner. Anybody will tell you how scary it could be on those stairs after a big game.

I suppose it's a parallel to the situation in the SPL where everybody hates the OF but takes their money. Imagine turning up to watch Cowdenbeath in div 3 and seeing a couple of thousand tims/huns, all kitted out in their replica strips, filling your ground because it's nearer than where their big team is playing.

I miss terracing too. I'm a bit foggy on the details but as I remember it, it had nothing to do with the OF, but was imposed on us in Scotland by the Taylor Report and the tory government following the Bradford and Hillsborough disasters (and the Heysel one in Belgium). Nobody can seriously argue that sitting the fans down would have prevented either of those. It seems more a political thing to me - makes the masses easier to control and manipulate, and at the same time the clubs can raise prices. Maybe if we had our own parliament back then things would have been different. I don't think seats are necessary in Scotland (or England for that matter) even though there was the Ibrox disaster in 1971. I could be wrong on this, but it was well over 20 years ago.

If you look at the 10 mins highlights that the boy posted on youtube, I'm sure it's the incident bang on 3 mins where the ref books Duncan and the other boy.

I reckon if Russeldinho was as good as he thinks he is, he wouldn't have been at TCS for 8 years :023: Yes he's one of my fav players, mainly because he gives 100% and because he's been here since the Pele days. Also I think he is quite good, he tracks all over the place and wins the ball, but we all know about his passing..... Usually I stick up for him because it's the opposite of what you say - some people can't give him any credit at all. He was getting booed in the SPL by our own fans FFS. A big factor with Russell is, very few people go to away games and see the shift he puts in. His name got chanted on Saturday (and it wasn't me who started it) and I don't think any poster said he was crap this week, unlike Eric and one or two others. At home games the whole team suffers because of the poor support they get. Russell in particular suffers IMO because he refuses to hide on the park.

Can't disagree with much of that - apart from being overgenerous...

I was sitting next to Mannie, and though I remember him being booked in the first half, I can't remember it now, but was it not along with the Quinn booking on 40 mins? Anyway, when the ref turned and flashed a yellow after sending off Lilley, I immediately thought, that's Russell off, the red is coming up in the other hand. On the other hand, if it's just Mannie and me having a senior moment, you'll be reading about an appeal from ICT in Monday morning's papers.

According to the BBC reporter, Foran went crunching in on one of their players just before half-time. The ref gave a free kick, but took no further action - the reporter considered he was lucky not to be booked, and sent off at that stage. But he was booked for a crunching tackle before half time (don't remember two crunchers). Could have been red on another day.

Oh well, you have to say hats off to Gary Lineker for making a joke on MOTD about the group being so easy they've won the cup already....

Maybe the back four should wear Santa outfits next week.

I was trying to decide if Foran's second card was for persistent fouling or for dissent. There's a fair chance that he screamed at Mr Muir for being a 'feckin stupid blind c**t' and who are we to argue

More a subjective account than a scientific one though eh Renegade? One man's 'hasty' is another man's 'firm' etc etc. Due to everybody's different work patterns, some people can be off the site for a good spell then very active for a spell. Some are on during the day, others at night, etc. One thing you can be sure of is that the team reads, on the moderators' forum, the reports of what's happening and decides as a team what action should be taken. So often it's immaterial which mod has warned you or raised your warning level or deleted your post or smacked your botty. It's usually a team decision.

:029: :019: :lol:

Just in case anybody can't be ersed trawling through the thread, Lilley got a straight red. Duncan got a second yellow.

It's funny how everybody who missed the game is jumping to conclusions about Duncan. What about Foran? An absolutely shocking tackle in the first half which alone could have merited a red card, but left him on a yellow and almost certain to be sent off. I'm a big Foran fan, but today the post match talk should be about how he cost us the game, not Duncan. Baz made the most of it, but it looked like there was contact. BTW the ref Mr Muir was out of his depth today. An absolute snorter of a game but never dirty. You always know the ref's poor if he upsets both sets of fans.

He never got a straight red, the Queens man did. Duncan was booked before. There was a tussle as they went to get the ball out of the net after the equaliser. Quite a few players were involved. There was another brawl in the first half after Lionel was fouled and Lionel and the Queens no 2? were booked. I personally think Duncan makes us a better side and had a decent game today - covered a lot of ground, tracked back, all the usual stuff he does in away games. Much better than anonymous Cox anyway. The only people who foam at the mouth are those who don't rate him. Why do people say things like 'get the f**k away from our club Duncan' if they're not foaming at the mouth. BTW he got a chant today :( :) Only a hundred away fans but plenty of noise - ask somebody who was actually there whether Duncan put in a shift. I don't know if it's clear from all the posts, but it was a 'foul' on Barry by Foran that got the equaliser from Bob Harris's free kick, otherwise we would probably have won. I know Baz was getting dog's abuse (and apparently he just shrugged over at us at full time as if to say it was his job) but he won us plenty soft free kicks over the years so I'm not complaining.

Never mind 6 months - you'll have it won by xmas anyway :023: