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Then on Saturday, Jefferies side face the tricky task of ending Inverness Caley Thistle?s year long undefeated streak away from home. A reason why Hearts could very well put an end to that run is, that unlike both Rangers and Celtic, who have dropped points to the Highlanders at home this season, the Tynecastle outfit will respect the threat that Terry Butcher?s side hold and that is ultimately what could seal all three points. So if they do win both fixtures this week, that will mean they are at the worst three points behind Celtic and six behind Rangers, which will no doubt help amp up the pressure on the big two as they go into the New Year and will give the Edinburgh side the type of confidence needed to challenge, what Mr Romanov describes as ?The Forces of Darkness.?

It would help the game if video evidence could be used each week to provide players, where they warrant it, to receive a verbal warning. If all clubs signed up to respect including action against diving, each club would nominate a Director to view contentious moments, and if 10 of the 12 Directors agreed, the player would receive a verbal warning. In mitigation the player would be able to appeal to a panel of three directors not involved in the original decision. So yesterday the most contentious point would have been 'did Beattie dive or did he use skill to invite Duff to put his hands on him forcing him to fall?'In retrospect Duff did appear to touch him but Beattie is a big lad and would not topple over in the High Street with such minimal contact.

Johnny's goal today has to be one of the best ever scored by an ICT player. Rankin's goal would surely have been in the top 20 also. Duff's goal against Motherwell was very impressive as of course was Kevin's goal at Tannadice this season. Barry's belter over the head of Gordon Marshall at Motherwell in the Cup will take some beating. Could our memories stretch to the best 20?

Hearts have now won 5 in a row scoring 13 and conceding 0. Retaing the record at Tynecastle is going to be some achievement because that Hearts record is better than the equivalents for Celtic and Rangers. It is fantastic being in this position though. Let's hope we can hold it and then go on a wee run after Christmas. The players minds will certainly be focussed on this enormous game for the club.

Miller tends to do his hamstring in at the Caley Stadium so that would be nice early on.

'Pressure Mounting on Keane in Fifth Straight League Loss' may be more of a worry although Terry seems much happier in Scotland. I genuinely believe Terry is happy here because this is probably close to his best spell as a manager and I can see he is getting pleasure in seeing players develop individually and collectively. I am assuming money is not his main motivator.

They give David Cameron a simple job and he bodges it. They send Beckham out instead of Terry Wogan. The world is bored stiff by Beckham. Russia should provide a fascinating venue.

Was the Inverness Half Marathon this year your first? Why did you improve so much after you left Ross County?

Chairman Stewart Milne said: "On behalf of everyone at the club, I would like to thank Mark, Scott and Colin for their time at Aberdeen." "It was pointless recently" Milne added. Far east Company, Wunwinsoon, denied that Mr McGhee was being paid commission to advertise their company.

Hypnotic Malpas influences Lennon to instruct Majstorovic to pass ball to Foran leaving significant gap from Rogne (of Only Fools and Horses fame) and then give away simple corner. Lennon panics with orange fire leaking from body but obeys obediently.

Malpas secretly lights touchpaper as Lennon takes off with classic Brewster pose

27/11/2010 a.m. ABERDEEN FC today announced an operating loss of ?667,000, up from the previous figure of ?337,000. The club?s annual accounts also show turnover dropped by ?1.5 million to ?7.057m up to June 30 of this year. Aberdeen FC blamed the financial performance on the revenue lost when the SPL?s television deal with Setanta collapsed. The operating loss was offset by a transfer fee profit of ?415,000, mainly from the sale of striker Lee Miller. Chairman Stewart Milne warned he will expect to see better performances from the first team to help them increase turnover and profits in the future. A few hours later....... "Hopefully, something somewhere along the line will break for us and we'll get some sort of form in the sense that someone produces something," said McGhee. The players themselves have got to dig it out. If they can produce something, we'll get the rub of the green one of these days and it'll give us an advantage.We didn't lose today because we weren't able to lift them - the boys were in a good frame of mind but they just didn't play well enough.'' To be continued.....................

Should we be putting money on Ross County and Aberdeen to get relegated?

I have the utmost sympathy with referees. They are ordinary guys like most supporters and yet week in week out they get abuse. There has to be far more respect for them with severe punishments handed out to clubs who seek to impose their own rules on the game. Mistakes by players and officials are an historic part of football's history. The ruling bodies should begin by insisting that demented managers or players who abuse fficials with foul or abusive language should be given automatic 10 game bans. Repeat offences would result in a double punishment. Such disgraceful behaviour as we have recently witnessed would then result in 'offenders' being isolated to prevent them repeating their offensive behaviour. Finally, officials should receive fixed sum compensation for abuse. We do not have to put up with this in our workplaces. As an aside it would be great to make 12 months without an away defeat - is there another club near that record in Britain?

We all know Mark is a shrewd manager with a deep insight into the mind of a multi millionaire chairman. A modern day Christmas Carol in reverse is being written to commemorate the Dandy Gothenburg Dons modern day team with all proceeds going to..... fund compensation package. Well known author, Barley Channerman, is currently writing 'Against All the Odds - Mister McGoo's guide to excuses'. Based on anecdotes gleaned from fans who lost faith in famous excuse makers such as 'I'm a County fan at the Moment'Brewster and Tommy Neil Cooper formerly a County fan, to name but a few because they are leaving in droves,the book has a distinctive Dickensian twist. On page one it begins ' "A refereeing decision conspired against us and cost us the game." As we move onto Christmas the scene is set where a worried 'Stewart Scrooge Milne' is sitting up in a luxury four poster bed. 'Willie or Wo'nt he Miller' enters and pleads with 'Milne', 'Stuart you must end this nightmare now. Do you not have some cash under the mattress?' 'Scrooge Milne' mumbles in distinctive but almost incomprehensible Scotland the What tones 'Wiki has this that now worries me: Brighton, a club he would lead to relegation, after his side were soundly beaten by Derby:"Their forward play and their movement was excellent and their tempo gave us problems all night, we just couldn't cope with that." Wolves with his failure to reach the top flight prompting a tirade from Wolves owner Sir Jack Hayward, who moaned that he would no longer be "the golden tit", supplying the club with endless finance.' Willie reassures a sweating Milny that he looks nothing like the legendary Sir Jack as he sits staring into his on line bank account with night cap slightly to one side and dressed in Paddington Bear pyjammas. Milny pleads with his Director of Football that McGhee has set some new records for the club in just a short time. 'Aberdeen, a club he would set two records with - 8-1 defeat to SK Sigma Olomouc in his first competitive games ( remind me who they are said 'Milne')and 9-0 to Celtic which 'you Mr Scrooge' said 'Willie or Won't you Miller' gave complete backing to after we emptied Pittodrie's biscuit tins and found just ?31.56p of tea monies to compensate him for such performances. 'Stuart, remember it got so bad that Zander lost the plot and forgot which end he was playing at when Mark promised the fans a win against St Johnstone.' Willie reminded his landlord of further Wiki quotes ' 'McGhee has also stated to the press "Go and look me up on Wikipedia. I've got a track record", prompting many to question the validity of this comment.' 'Baa humbug' said the sheeps long standing Chairman. 'No, I cannot afford to sack him' said Scroogy Milne 'I blame Adam Rooney for McGhee's troubles. He scored that damn hattrick for Stoke that got Mark sacked at Brighton. And you know that the referee should never have given Inverness a penalty for Rooney to rub Mark's face deeper into the Pittodrie mud. We cannot keep compensating Mark every time Rooney causes more pain' 'But Boss' pleaded Willie, the ex nightclub owner, 'when you appointed Mark you will recall the headlines ''The arrival of McGhee and assistant Scott Leitch heralds a new Dons era''. OK he did say his dream was to manage Celtic but he was only joking and the new era with low crowds, first division football and lots of flats on Pittodrie with us playing miles awayfrom public transport in a spanking new stadium (using cash on deposit from the ground share agreement with ICT not used to pay off the two very successful Jimmies) was not what I think we meant.' 'Willie' choked 'Scroogy' tell me that Hamilton are just 4 points above us at the moment, tell me the top 4 teams in the First Division have non compliant stadia, tell me I do not have to give McGhee ?250,000 as a reward for this?' Willie, informed his trusted multi-millionaire friend 'Scroogy, sorry I meant Stewart, it makes me spitting mad. You have all that cash, a lot made from houses and flats sold to our supporters. Can you not sacrifice a few pennies? It is hard to know how many more of these 'worst results of my managerial career'we can stomach: ''Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee has revealed he was spat at by some angry Dons fans after the Scottish Cup defeat by Raith Rovers at Pittodrie. McGhee described the 1-0 loss to the First Division club as the "worst result of my managerial career". To be continued.

Strictly photo merits its own caption competition. However, Brewster on its own is clearly a previously unseen picture of his first interview at Ross County when he tries to demonstrate to Roy MacGregor what he thinks a Ross County goal keeper has to do for 90 or so minutes.

Whilst every player will next week play out of their skin, I predict Wee Johnny Hayes will work his socks off. The crowd were fantastic to him today after his little error. That moment in itself may change our home record this season. Absolutely pleased with the support all round today. For the second half we were relaxed by the Mascot entering into the spirit of Christmas and struggling to work out the route back to the tunnel. The sports bar could well be the boost we need with team support and singing. Apart from the Mascot the most humorous moment was greeting Adams entrance through the tunnel with 'where's your Daddy today?'

At least he will get to sit in the comfort of the main stand and use his mobile phone to keep Calderwood on his toes!

Having heard today that Ross County have attracted 40 + applicants for the vacant Manager's job, I wondered if we should sign a petition supporting Brewster's application. We owe it to County surely?

Three points against Hibs is the target. If we achieve that we should not fear Celtic. It would be treated like a cup game by our players and after a 6-0 rogering and on the back of Celtic pumping the sheep 9-0 in their last home game strange results occur.

http://www.pitchcare.com/magazine/groundsman-of-the-year-sports-award-winning-fertiliser.html Tommy's secret is, according to the sponsors, 'Entrance R' the magic fertiliser that wins the groundsman awards but cannot help the team win SPL home games. When asked about this phenomenon Tommy indicated home players are put off Entrance R's although felt it helped them beat the Sheep. Tommy has since his award decided to treat the pitch with 'Rooney Essonce' the new winning formula that will be tested against Hibernian next Saturday. Rooney Essonce was successfully tested on paddy fields and Tommy believes it is the ideal base for a Highland fortress. Well known football manager Fergus O'Alex is quoted as saying ''Rooney Essence'will unite ICT players, fans, management and groundsman to stop the Hibernian charge. After that, take a bit to Parkhead and secretly sprinkle some on the penalty spot.'

Just back and I have to save this was inspiratiuonal stuff. Imrie took up a lot of our energies in the first half but from the kick off in the second half Hamilton were finally put in their place. As the SPL's spoilers they have extracted a lot of points from ICT but within 14 minutes of the restart they were a disheartened side. Reid is a cagey little manager but Terry and Mo relaxed everyone at the tea break and out they came to ram it right up the SPL's leading timewasters. Rooney scored two great goals from open play. That will be the breakthrough for him I suspect. He gets lots of good chances and sooner or later he is going to look top drawer. Nick Ross looked very skilful as he celebrated his international call up and birthday.

Hamilton will be our toughest game of the season so far for which we need grafters.

You do realise which referee he cheated in the Juanjo incident? Juanjo stood on Lennon's foot and the two players raised their hands as a confrontation developed.The Irishman, who assumed the captaincy for the day in the absence of Jackie McNamara, then fell to the ground clutching his nose. Referee Dougie McDonald was unsighted but Freeland advised him to send Juanjo off, much to Inverness boss John Robertson's disgust. The player who had been red-carded kicked the advertising hoardings in anger and frustration and his team-mate Roy McBain was immediately booked for a reckless challenge on Lennon that underlined how the controversy off the ball had been more notable than anything taking place in open play. When Lennon does not play or cheat, ICT win fairly under the same referee: Teams: Celtic: Gould, Boyd, Tebily, Mahe, Riseth, Healy, Blinker, Moravcik, Berkovic, Viduka (Wright 46), Burchill. Subs Not Used: Kerr, Petta. Booked: Tebily, Wright, Healy. Goals: Burchill 17. Inverness CT: Calder, Teasdale, Golabek, Mann, McCulloch, Hastings, Sheerin, Tokely (Byers 90), Wilson (Glancy 87), Christie, Wyness (Bavidge 79). Booked: Tokely. Goals: Wilson 16, Moravcik 24 og, Sheerin 57 pen. Att: 34,389 Ref: D McDonald (Scotland).

If they beat us there will be little between the clubs in terms of points. We had a bit of a hangover yesterday so Tuesday will be about who can recover quickest from such pain. Aberdeen will be no pushover. This is a major challenge for Terry and Mo.