RiG

I thought you were singing UB40 when I heard the "I can't help falling in love with you" http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxmthbKZYU

absent friend - I assume these people pay no attention to some of the language used on the pitch by players which is also colourful to say the least! :015:

I think Markus will be used there when fully fit.

If he had played him he would be Cup tied thus this would have lowered his value to potential buyers.

I thought the Celtic one was a bit odd. What was the Elvis one? I always liked the "O'Connor flies over the ocean......" song.

Good point about Burke actually. *warms up vocal chords*

It's the same every time though. He is always "unsettled" and we are always "monitoring his situation". Nothing ever comes of it and to honest I don't think he would move to us. If he wanted regular first team football he would have left Hibs long ago.

I think what he says about ICT is fair enough but he is simply spouting the same kind of stuff any new signing would do. "This club is a sleeping giant" or "should be higher in the league". Usual clich?d stuff from the newest signing.

Revenge had to be sought! I'll buy you a pint next time I see you lad :011:

Actually, lets not beat about the bush here - Morais is an complete **** for his play acting yesterday. I am surprised that McGuire managed to resist lamping him to be honest.

2 disappointing things for me: 1) The manner in which we have limped out of both Cups this season 2) The way our good Cup record seems to have disintegrated over the last few seasons Hopefully we can get somewhere next season :003:

Thing is though, in theory, Bayne was the one who was going for the flick ons and Niculae might have been the one who was going to be looking for them. Bayne had at least some chance against Jones. Niculae didn't. And Deano certainly didn't! :015:

To be honest I have only noticed it in the last couple of weeks...

You hurt me today :007:

I thought we were fantastic as well :001: In seriousness the support as a whole, in terms of numbers, was very healthy indeed I thought. 500 maybe? I reckon that's good for us.

Benji was terrible for it as well. I think Morais is rubbish but Benji is a decent enough player to ghost past our players without having to resort to blatant cheating. I know they won't but I'd love it if the SFA took a look at Morais dive at the end. I knew it was bad but when I saw it on the TV there I was staggered at to just how abysmal it actually was. Approx 1.5 minutes of highlights. Lithgie got longer Yup. The goals and the sending off. Bit sad really. Hearts v Motherwell was good though.

I think I will go to the re arranged Cove v County game.

I realised that ages ago! :016: He would be fine if we are looking to conserve a lead but when you want to win a game I just feel that Rankin is the better option when we are looking to attack. His crossing was really good last week and, while his corners some of the time were poor, he poses so much more of an attacking threat than McBain does on that side.

Noted yet again he was going for balls and colliding with other ICT players. Also saw Black as well as Hastings have a go at him. Where is our resident psycho(logist)?

His 2nd yellow was a joke. Morais should have been given a straight red for his lamentable dive at the end. McGuire simply gave him a bollocking for his pathetic play acting and was sent off for it.

Cover - yes. Quality - no. We saw today that our left side is nowhere near as effective minus Rankin. We ALWAYS get linked with him. It's lazy journalism.

He was? Erm.... That's a bit harsh. He quite rightly told Morais, who had been diving all afternoon, to get up and stop cheating and Morais repaid him with what looked to be a nice shove in the face. I am not 100% certain McGuire didn't retaliate but I didn't see anything so I think, if in fact he did just say "Get on with it" then he was quite harshly dealt with. We aren't playing 4 - 4 - 2. We are playing 4 - 4 - 1 - 1. Bayne was the target man with Niculae looking for the knock downs. But as you say, it wasn't working. Mainly because Hibs twigged after about 3 minutes and we never changed our tactics. What was even more hysterical was when Dean MacDonald came on and we still launched high balls to him up against Jones :015: Hibs had a game plan - use the pace of Benji and Shiels and Zemma and have them play in the other(s) round the back of our defence. It worked brilliantly. I wasn't happy and I paid ?11 to get in :015: Ian Black is our best player. He looked to be the only one capable today of creating anything. No other midfielder offered anything aside from him and he was the only one capable of playing a pass that found it's intended recipient more than 50% of the time. Just a C n P from P & B: We were rubbish. Dean Shiels was excellent. Took all his goals really well. Hibs should have had a 4th but somehow they missed an open goal from about 2 yards out. Bizarre. Our passing was nothing short of pathetic. I lost count of the number of misplaced passes in the midfield. We never really got anything going in that area and thus were very blunt in terms of an attacking force. Cowie has been a victim of his own success. After a blistering start he has now turned in some quite average performances but it's hard and perhaps unfair to really have "a go" at him given his start to his ICT career. What was disappointing was that, with an off the boil Cowie, and no left midfielder to speak of, we had NOTHING coming down the wings. Only last week we were being praised for our marauding full backs but they got nowhere today. I noticed after about 10 minutes that Hibs were cleverly playing in their men behind the back line and it was working really well. By this point Hibs were already one up after Shiels, supposedly a target for us, left Tokely standing before he cleverly passed the ball round Fraser to give Hibs the lead. Benji, when he wasn't throwing himself to the ground along with Morais, was troublesome and he had a shot just creep past Frasers left hand post. I can't think of too many ICT chances in the first half..... EDIT: The Niculae chance when he was alone in the box and didn't make good connection with the cross in to him. Shiels extended Hibs lead when he took on ~ 3 ICT players and beat them all before lashing the ball past Fraser. Pretty much game over really as we still lacked any ability to pass the ball and appeared to have nothing on the left hand side of our team. Hibs missed an open goal from only a few yards out before Shiels got his 3rd. What I noticed from an ICT point of view was that, and not for the first time, Niculae, having lost the ball, stood and watched and never bothered to try and win it back. Hibs broke up the pitch and scored. As Hibs celebrated both Munro and Hastings berated Niculae for his lack of effort in trying to win the ball back after he had lost it initially. McGuire and Morais were both sent off. Morais for being a diving little prick and then appearing to raise his hands to McGuire who was also given a yellow card for wagging his finger at Morais and telling him to get up and stop cheating.* So nothing really positive to take from the game from an ICT point of view. A shadow of the team that we saw destroy Gretna and while Hibs are a much tougher proposition it was the fact that we created so little and failed to even get the basics right that will prove something of a concern. Furthermore, McBain is not the answer on the left should Rankin leave. He can perform as a left side midfielder but not an actual left midfielder in my opinion. We were completely devoid of anything down that side and Hastings found himself exposed on numerous occasions as Roy moved inside. The pubs we went to were nice though... *I will wait and see what Sportscene have on this but that's what it looked like from where we were.

I'm on the 8:09 bus to Dundee from Aberdeen then getting a train to Edinburger from there which gets in about 11:30. Braw.

That's the problem - they are VERY ambitious. They want to be in the SFL1 ASAP and be part of any SPL2 should that ever happen. Marino Keith is on a prt time deal there and is getting over ?650 a week!