CELTIC1CALEY3

Northern Ireland has a match againgst Cyprus on the 5th March so any further re-arranged game that week, if one is needed, would mean Billy being unavailable. As an aside, Billy should be playing againgst Luis Suarez on 30 May in Montivideo. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26045794

Bad news, the SFA has just confirmed that Willie Miller, will be the Cup Final Referee, with the game starting at 3 pm . Neil Doncaster has been quoted as saying this was to boost the Television audience and was not a further attempt to re-inforce post-Culloden controls over the Highlanders following the injustice meted out to their supporters attending Easter Road after a 7 am start. CJT are apparently appealing the appointment with Sky TV suggesting the referee should be Andy Walker to boost Celtic supporters attending as neutrals. On a brighter note, Hanna-Barbera Corporation is believed to be considering a late bid to sponsor the final after they discovered that Yogi would be there supported by the Little Magician. Aberdeen Reds based in and around Inverness will, we understand, be seeking to upstage this by all dressing in Batman and Robin costumes to highlight, once again, their achievements in Gothenburg City.

The extra game also meant Man of the Match, Hamill, just fell over in Nick's wake and Paterson was so tired he just pushed the ball to Nick. In 10 days time the next fixture against Hearts could be quite meaty with their team possibly fresher than ours. Remember Hearts have a free weekend whilst we have a very tough game against Stranraer in what could be quite tiring weather conditions. In addition we might just have a replay next week so we need to watch out for the Hearts revenge ambush. We need three vital points from them.

I am sure Ross County have the answer to that and other questions!!! They may indeed have transport in mothballs that they can rent us!!! Countyair anyone?

I believe Ryan has not seen the Adams Hitler video which indicates 'even the BBC thought we were through' when we left that goal even later!!!

Maybe we have appealed to the SFA for the three points on the basis that the boy Adams believed their job was not only to live in our shadow but play in it too!!

The referee bottled the decision with regard to the two footed tackle on Billy. He went into the match conscious that he had sent Hamill off for heading the ball at Inverness when we first played Hearts and this may have influenced his judgement. All commentators have been critical of him in their assessment of the semi final. Players have to adapt to the personality of a referee in every game. Warren was certainly walking a tightrope. He will argue that Hamill deliberately ran into him whilst Hamill and the referee deemed it a body check. Dundee United felt their player was body checked in the box against Partick this weekend but no action was taken. Warren did commit other fouls but it is unclear if he was at fault in any way with the apparent foul that lead to his sending off. It is irrelevant how many fouls Meekings committed before the straight red. He was completely innocent at that point and the referee could only judge him on the impulsive foul he gave away. With both Warren and Meekings the referee seemed impulsive with his red cards. On the face of it the referee became the centre of attention. Josh's straight red lacked credibility but for one reason or another, just like Hamill's sending off in Inverness, the decision was rapid and impulsive. I have also pointed out that I believe Hamill actually conceded a penalty one minute before Nick equalised. He went to tap his goalkeeper for taking the ball cleanly but he inadvertently touched the ball in the keeper's hands. Not only is that a penalty but also a sending off.

Pretty certain Jamie Hamill touches the ball with his hand in the BBC iPlayer record at 2.20.57. He goes to tap his keeper but I thought this at the time and the video seems to confirm it, he actually touches the ball, which of course is a penalty.

We now have to set our sights on the Stranraer game. This will be as tough but just as important. It may well be played in difficult weather conditions and will require the players to forget yesterday very quickly or be 'giant killed.'

One interesting point is that 9 versus 11 actually worked in our favour because Hearts always seemed to provide 4 markers for Billy. That meant we had 8 ICT players against 7 Hearts players and has resulted in significant abuse by the Jambos for both Locke and Brown. Billy was actually quite remarkable as a team player because he held the ball up so well for the 126 minutes and worked his socks off as did every player. Having seen the tackle on him in the first 5 minutes, I find it a dreadful career threatening one which only seemed to draw a yellow when we complained. We were Beaton by the referee, but not by nature.

We have to recall that Beaton sent Hamill off at the Caledonian Stadium for heading the ball!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24915504 Celtic Park?

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/invernessct/article5417908.ece

Just watched the You Tube video of the penalties and it looks like Danny Wilson came over during the celebrations to congratulate the Inverness team. That was magnanimous and is a credit not only to Scottish but world football. An amazing gesture after a very difficult season and such a difficult end to the game for Hearts. An example to all football professionals.

Was hearing some of their texts on the train back to Inverness ..'winning 2-1 in the 94th minute against 9 men and still lost..' Their cup final this year will be extracting the shares from UBIG to prevent liquidation. Where are those within Hearts FC who entrusted their assets and history in Vlad the spiv?

There will be stacks of footballers looking for contracts despite the closure of the window. 100's have left clubs by mutual consent as a way of getting around the window. Yogi has said that he will be on the look out.

He is probably quoting BBC Radio Scotland who claimed we had just 600 supporters going. In some ways it made the point to those who arranged the fixtures that they had got it terribly wrong. We could have played on the Saturday and Aberdeen played ST Johnston on the Sunday at 12.15 to secure TV revenue to be split four ways. However, that was too logical and the conspiracy theorists amongst us will believe the SFA wanted to make sure Hearts survived financially by being given a major boost by playing the Semi in their own backyard. That said, the suggestion seems to be that we may end up with nearer 2,000 present.

Ross County have been to a national final, we have not. We are living in their SHADOW when it comes to major national cups. Come on St Mirren start a brawl around Jamie MacDonald and get him sent off on Wednesday.

Not sure. But I'll get in early and say that in every one of our games which he has refereed this season he has made numerous glaring errors which benefited the opposition. Also, he is probably biased against Highland teams as he resents having to travel up here for the same amount of money he would have got for reffing a game in the Central Belt. It is his fault if we lose. Sounds like a Terry Butcher rant here. 4-0 thrashing and it was entirely the referee's fault. Let's hope he and Maurice take their seats in the Director's box on Sunday. That should help inspire us more than who the referee is.

We have never made a big final. Hearts have been to numerous finals. Hearts have had better results in their last two games than us. They won the previous round of this competition at Easter Road. They will have thousands cheering them on in what is a home game. We have to beat the odds.

Ryan Stevenson may not play if he leaves for free as Gary McKay hints might happen after the Ibrox photo!

One of the problems we have currently is 'not scoring goals'. We have become too predictable expecting Billy to score regularly. He is currently missing quite a few opportunities. Other players are not filling in for Richie in terms of goal contributions. It is unlikely to happen but there has to be something to be said for resting Billy and then bringing him on possibly after 35 minutes so that he concentrates his efforts and achieves success. This is a massive game for him personally because he has last year's semi final miss permanently in the background. With Andrew Shinnie doing a Rooney down south perhaps he could sign a one month loan deal and provide the change that we need.

With Hearts beating RC we might end up as underdogs next week.

"I'm delighted that St Mirren have kindly agreed to rearrange that fixture," Hearts boss Gary Locke told the club's official website. "It's not ideal in as much as we've got a game four or five days before the semi-final. But at the end of the day, it's great that we've got Ryan available for such a big game." .......................St Mirren are said to be interested in Aberdeen's Josh Magennis and Ryan Stevenson of Hearts, with Lennon having already bolstered the forward line with Adam Campbell this January. But he shot down suggestions he is also after the Pittodrie striker and refused to comment on claims he wants to take Stevenson away from the capital.

Adams was certainly wound up by the ICT crowd in the recent derby. Hearts might put them in their place tomorrow.