CELTIC1CALEY3

...but more well chipped balls to the 6 yard box.

Ross County would love to be still in the Scottish Cup..........anyway, Raith Rovers this Saturday is now far more important for us.

Misread the SFA website - games go to extra time if level at 90 minutes. That means game might finish at 10.30 pm.

Austin is close to a return. George was basically out of his depth with us so good to see him move on.

If we can avoid defeat and injuries against Raith this could be a piece of luck for the club allowing more players to return. In addition I think it could a cracking cup tie with maybe a plum in the next round. Unlike Andy Murray this morning finishing at 4 am, the cup match will finish either before 10 pm or just after 10 pm if it goes straight to penalties after a 90 minute stalemate. The long term weather seems reasonable. Let's focus on Raith - they are playing really well at present.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46362879 There is a lot in this article but silence on the fact Richie Foran was about to head home the winner with a few minutes to go but was clearly pushed by Considine. The referee that day was Steven McLean. However, he also missed this 'Meekings’ handball from Leigh Griffiths’ header in the 3-2 semi-final victory against Celtic was not penalised by referee Steven McLean at a crucial stage in the game.' Griffiths subsequently imploded but McLean had a good game yesterday...

One can but hope no one suffered an injury yesterday and that Cameron Harper returns next week. The draw was a fair result yesterday and re-established us as a tough team. We can be optimistic that next weeks game is a great cup match. Our bench is definitely getting stronger by the week and Lewis Nicholson gained more experience yesterday. Woods needs to improve on his physical and match fitness after rejecting a new contract with Burnley in the summer so we should reserve judgement for a while. Oakley at some stage must start scoring as does Boyd who both need to be motivated to gain new contracts or move on.

An interesting signing especially as we are likely to see a lot of our injured players back in the next 4 weeks. With the two new players and indeed the younger players back from loans, the future looks optimistic. Our previously injured returning players will after settling back in be like new signings. February is certainly the time teams need to gear up for good runs. If we can get a bit more out of January our strength will definitely be greater from February onwards.

By definition another win against what looked like the odds. Lewis Nicolson gets his second goal for the first team - another benefitting from the injury crisis. Two wins gives us a glimmer of hope next week against the league leaders.

A result and performance like the good old days..... Thought Dodds might have mentioned Ridgers as part of the experienced players key to the result....Duffy should be back this Saturday as hopefully will be Harper so potentially a slightly stronger squad for Arbroath although the younger lads were certainly very active and enthusiastic .

One problem is that Dodds indicated that Jim McIntyre would see it as a success if he kept Cove up this year. That will no doubt be drummed into his players on the coach along the goat track and possibly motivate them more than us to prove Dodds wrong and place us in that position instead!! I hope I am wrong.

Good to see someone take a stand against players going down easily and conning referees. VAR in the world cup stopped this to a large extent but back in domestic games it will continue. The law should be changed so that dives at one end should be given to the opponent at the other end. Very difficult for referees to judge though.

We can do this....

Really good news!!! Another week to help some players recover.

So often young players do not get a chance given the dominance of senior players on teamsheets. I am sure the players who represented the club yesterday will be really proud that they were given a chance. This can only be good for these players and adds to the experience we can call on.