Big G

Spoken to a friend of mine who works at Thorpe Arch which is the youth academy HQ for leeds (he's a physio) and he says that about 2 years ago great things were expected of Charlie but he didn't come on as first thought. Has a bit of speed but needs to toughen up. Good all round opinion though.

Maybe only for a couple of dozen hours. So far, St Mirren have shifted fewer tickets than we have. That is embarrassing for St Mirren when it is close enough for them to get to.Why is there such an apathy towards this cup these days do you think,is it because they have taken away the european spot or do people just not have enough money to go? i think years back the earlier rounds were included in a season ticket I know it has been devalued in England for a long time but in Scotland it has been the chance for many clubs to actually win a bit of silverware. maybe it just needs a revamp to get the fans excited again,think its sad that one of our national competitions is treated this way I was thinking along these lines today. Would a two legged semi-final generate more interest? A european spot would help the teams but would supporters be excited?

Possibly will be (although Gretna and Livingston have both been in semi-finals). Its not the amout of fans that will decide who goes to Hampden so I am going to enjoy the day and let the teams decide.

What about the 1800 to 1900 season ticket holders that provide money to the club each year and give money direct to OUR club. Do you not care about them going? ( by the way I go home and away)

Major apologies if I sound like a Celtic fan here, but is the Daily Record trying its best to unsettle our season. Today we have two mentions, one being that Andrew Shinnie is on a list of out of contract players that Craig Brown has for Aberdeen the other being the lack of tickets sold for the semi-final. As posted on this forum before over 120 players are out of contract from SPL clubs at the end of the season and as Shinnie is up there with the best I'm sure he will be on most clubs lists. Why haven't they mentioned Randolf and Higdon at Motherwell. On the ticket front, it is not a secret we have a low fan base so how is this news. Since the former P & J comedian has swapped comics there seems to be a lack of "proper" stories about ICT.

Pretty strong rumours about 3 weeks ago about him going to Aberdeen before the end of January. Maybe a possability now.

Heard back from Hibs and as you all say no fans parking. They also added there may be streets closed for segregation purposes but not yet decided by L & B police.

Parking is usually a problem when we play Hibs but I am going to contact Hibs later today to ask about parking with us having one of the home stands.

See Hearts have signed Danny Wilson on loan for rest of season. I thought central defence was one of their strong points? Would he be able to play in the semi-final?

In what way did he treat us like dirt ? Well you may remember he kept the fans on a knife-edge for weeks, by the looks of things for the attention it would bring him. He told the fans about three times that he was going to announce his future that day and then there'd be nothing, before eventually signing for Aberdeen and claiming it was "an easy decision to make". He showed little respect to the fans throughout that whole saga. As much as it pains me to say it, I agree with this. He seemed to love the spotlight and used his twitter to wind just about everyone up including Aberdeen

Facebook I think That explains why I've not seen it

Am I missing something about the singing of TB's name after 6 mins on Saturday. Has this been muted about? If so where?

The most annoying thing about all this is that we are just over a week away from a cup semi-final and the whole focus for the press and fans is on negative situations (Daily Record piece that was pulled from the Aberdeen Mad forum and the Andy Shinnie not signing situation). The next 4 games can shape our season and I would hope some positivity would show its head at some stage.

Hearts fans have launched a campain to make sure that this game will be a record crowd for the new style Easter Road. Record at the moment is 17300 approx, so according to Hearts fans if they sell out and we sell just over 1000 tickets it would set a new record.

its believed Barnsley have approched Maurice Malpas and Steve Marsella after been turned down by Terry Butcher

Look at the date of the article

Re-arranged for 13th Febuary with 19:45 k.o

Didn't know whether to post this or not but the source is usually very reliable. Apparently Barnsley contacted Terry via a third party (possibly Kevin Beattie) on Sunday to see if he would be interested. Terry asked very few questions and told them to contact ICT chairman. One question that was asked was "Is it just me, or all the coaching staff?". The Barnsley director involved was non- commital on this but asked if TB would meet with owners and directors. The rest is well documented.

Barnsley have had 10 permanent managers in the last 12 years plus numerous caretaker managers. Dosen't sound like a club with a long term plan of any kind.

Didn't they beat us 3-1 at TCS during this period?

Barnsley fans ain't that happy. One quote on "Tykes Mad" forum says " I would rather dig up Pat Butcher and give her the job". Owen Coyle is their favorite and they are pretty sure Terry will turn them down anyway.

They were confident that O'Driscoll was going to accept and described it as a body blow to the club when he turned them down. Did Barnsley really say "good vibe" in a statement??

"Barnsley will contact TB within the next 48hrs to discuss the job of manager" The club have given permission to speak so it would be rude not to listen and to make a statement before speaking to them. The club and TB will behave in the manner they always do and whatever happens it will be done the right way and not by giving off the cuff statements and issuing sound bites to please the media

I've been watching SSN all afternoon. Not heard any mention of Billy McKay.

No point speculating on our next manager till anything happens. There would be no shortage of applicants if Terry does go. How often does a manager get the chance to go to a team lying second in the league, in one semi-final of a cup and in the last sixteen of another? Now having looked at that why would TB want to go?