DoofersDad

...and if so, who will pay for the expense of 2000 ICT supporters travelling to the game? Why should we be out of pocket if it is adjudged that Hearts broke the rules? If they broke the rules they should be disqualified. End of.

I like cricket but I am not going to spend any time watching either of the capital's 2 sides playing the game and I don't think many other people are either. Therefore I don't see why a team needs to play the game in a facility which caters for the viewing public. I can see no good reason why the two teams can't share the pitch at Fraser Park. Failing that, is there any good reason why a square could not be developed on the wide open spaces at the Bught?

The conundrum to me is how come Toni gets a yellow card for cleaning his boots whilst MacDonald is allowed to scream at an opponent without the referee taking any action at all? Threatening behaviour is surely a foul and as Roberts had a goal scoring opportunity, should MacDonald not have been shown red? OK, a bit tongue in cheek perhaps but what Toni did is no different to what keepers do all the time and there is a difference between trying to unsettle your opponent indirectly by a bit of gamesmanship and putting your opponent off by behaviour specifically directed at them.

Just a word on the SPL games this weekend. all three games were draws so the 6 clubs involved shared 6 points between them instead of 9. We are 7 points ahead of the team in 7th with 2 games in hand.

Their ban on signings has not been lifted. The punishment was always that they could only sign players 21 and under. No it wasn't http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21061338

If Butcher picks the takers, how are the others gutless besterds? They may have been just as willing to take a penalty as Philips but Butcher might have opted for Philips first.

Hearts won't get thrown out for this. A bit of a coincidence too that the ban on signings was suddenly lifted less than a week before the game with a couple of good players all lined up to go immediately to Tynecastle. I'm sure the fact that a final with a team with a small fan base might not be what the powers that be are looking for has nothing to do with any of this. By the way, great to see Liverpool humbled in the FA Cup today!

Likely not...but we didn't win and the 18 year old who lost it for us was a Marsella pick, endorsed by Terry,,,and not one of the homegrown youth players. I feel for Roberts because I think that losing a match as a result of his failure is going to do bugger all for his confidence going forward....but I do wonder why he was picked to take the penalty in the first place......I really do! Shame on you! We did not loose the match because of his failure. It was great work from him that set up the chance for MacKay in extra time. We lost because Billy failed to tap in the easiest of chances and because Andrew Shinnie missed a less easy chance a little later. Had either scored then there would have been no penalties. Even then, had more experienced players such as Draper and Warren demonstrated the same willingness to take a kick as he did then maybe he would not have been put in that difficult position. You say "I feel for Roberts because I think that losing a match as a result of his failure is going to do bugger all for his confidence going forward". What will do bugger all for his confidence is people like you blaming him unfairly.

First thing to say is that Hearts deserved their victory even if they were lucky to get it. I know that sounds contradictory but let me explain. Hearts players and fans were really up for this and at times there was a wall of sound coming from the main stand. Our fans were great but the Hearts players couldn't help but be motivated by the level of support they were getting. And their manager out thought ours. The tactic from the outset was to stop us from playing and they did that very effectively even if it was also often very unfairly. But for me, what beat us yesterday was not the opposition but the referee. Hearts laid their stall out early and the referee did nothing about it. Ngoo could have been in the book in the first couple of minutes and his persistent fouling should have had him off before the end of the first half. Billy MacKay was being constantly fouled but never getting free kicks awarded. Foran may have been lucky not get a second yellow but he was unlucky to get the first. Hearts were committing more obvious fouls than that and not even being penalised. The referee was correct to turn down Hearts' early penalty appeal but why no yellow card for simulation? Three Inverness players were yellow carded knowing that if we were to win, they would miss the final and all three were yellow carded when Hearts players who committed more and worse fouls got off scot free. How we could end up with 2 more players in the book than Hearts simply beggars belief. It is surely difficult for the rest of the team to be fully fired up in the knowledge that should you reach the final an incompetent official has seen to it that 3 of your best players will not be there. Despite all this, we should still have won. Billy's miss in extra time is inexplicable but hopefully he can put it behind him and carry on in the league where he left off. Hopefully he will learn that if the ball is there to be hit - hit it. It seems that everything conspired against us yesterday but still we lost only by the narrowest of margins. But let's take the positives from this. To have come into the match expecting to win and then losing so narrowly despite everything conspiring against us is a measure of how far we have come this season. It's been a good season and it is important that this disappointing result does not stop our momentum in the league.

Leaving aside the politics of what harm this might or might not do in terms of relationships and discussions with the authorities - a subject I do not feel I can comment on, although clearly it is not going to help - I wonder just what the point of doing this was? If the person who threw it thinks of themselves as a supporter of the club I wonder how he (or she) thinks their actions demonstrated support to the club? I can think of none. The potential harm had the flare fallen short and landed in the crowd is obvious. And the risk to the person who threw it of being identified, prosecuted and banned from future games is also obvious. Utterly, utterly stupid.

I got up to 21 before I ran out of digits.

I agree with Luke that it is a test of the penalty taker and not the keeper. However some keepers have more of a presence than others and this puts added pressure on the taker as they sense they have a little less margin for error. Whilst Reguero has done very well since he's come in I agree with the poster who felt he really didn't fancy it. I think Esson has more presence for a spot kick and is the more likely to stop a penalty. As we had only used 2 of our subs, I think we maybe missed a trick here by not bringing Esson on a couple of minutes before the final whistle. Coming back to Luke's point, this would have placed no particular pressure on Esson as you don't expect a keeper to save a penalty. It would have put pressure on the Hearts players who would know that the reason the substitution was taking place was because Esson was felt to be a better spot stopper.

Forecast for Easter Road tomorrow is that a hurricane will be blowing in from the North. It will be raining goals and Hearts won't have the foggiest what to do about it

In my experience most papers get the stories completely wrong even when given the correct information. They seem to think that the Freedom of Information Act gives them the freedom to use information in the most inaccurate or misleading way they can manage.

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) Why are these people choosing this game as one to attend? Because its a cup semi with the chance of profession to a final (which is of course a massive achievement for us) My issue is where were they when it was a baltic day in Perth or when we battled back from 3 nil down at Tannadice. There are people travelling huge distances to this game because they recognise it as potentially an historic occasion and I respect that. But if we assume all the regular away fans are ST holders then there are 1600+ others who do not regularly travel away and I have to question why. OK. I'll bite. This smacks a bit of the "only the regular away fans are real fans" nonsense that crops up from time to time. Time for a reality check here I think. There is a small minority who regularly go to away matches and make a lot of noise. That's fantastic. Obviously those fans personal circumstances allow them to do it. But amongst those are a few who are central belt based and who don't get to all the home games. Some will actually attend fewer games in total than those who attend all the homes games but don't travel. In another post you talk about folk being disrespectful but in doing so you are being disrespectful of others. OK, so there are a lot of season ticket holders who don't go to away games but there are also a lot of season ticket holders who aren't able to get to all the home games but have supported the club by buying a season ticket all the same. Respect to them, please. Bear in mind also that supporting the club at home puts more cash into the club's coffers than going to an away match. And it really is disrespectful of the many hundreds of fans who go to home games who are rarely able to go to away matches because of work and family commitments. Just be grateful that so many have been able to rearrange their lives so that they can support the team on Saturday. Remember too that there are many who, because of their health or the health of loved ones they care for simply can't travel. Of course we would all like the support to be bigger but we all have our personal reasons for whether we choose to attend any game or not. If you are able to get to most games then that is just great. For whatever reason, most supporters go to half the games or less and if we want the club to flourish we should make them all feel welcome whenever they are able to or choose to come to a game. Make them feel welcome and who knows, they just might help swell the ranks at the next away league game.

Eh! You mean drop down to the 4th tier and then have one good cup run? No thanks. We are comfortably above Hearts in the league and should be favourites for this.

Hibs have decided that they will NOT be opening the "Behind the Goals" bar on Saturday as the majority of fans have made alternative arrangements. How do they know? Have they asked everyone? A couple of pubs in particular have been mentioned on here - they might be a bit cramped with 1000 fans in each.

Hmm. Hats off to Bradford who have done brilliantly to get to the final. The Villa are my English side and whilst this is all really a bit embarrassing one really must focus on the positives here. By getting to the semi-final Villa have received a welcome boost to their finances. By telling the players not to convert chances and not to defend set pieces Lambert has avoided other clubs coming in for their best players during the transfer window. By letting Bradford win, Villa can now turn their attention to the more important business of avoiding the drop. Letting Bradford win also means Villa won't have to play Chelsea in London again So, all things considered it was a pretty good result for the Villa.

IMHO if we take 2000 to a league cup semi in January, that's really pretty good. It means that loads of people who are either unable or unwilling for whatever reason to go to away league matches are sufficiently excited by the team reaching the semi final of this secondary cup competition to make the effort and devote the whole day to go. That sounds really positive to me. The semi final is, after all not the final and is only one game after the quarter final when we played away at Ibrox - a rather tasty prospect in anybody's book I would say. And how many went to that game? I don't know but I'll bet it was not a lot more than our usual away support (I'll also bet someone will soon correct me if I'm wrong). If we get to the final we will get a significant increase in our support and if we get to the final of the proper cup we will get even more. Kingsmills makes the extremely relevant point that Celtic and St Mirren have sold just 13,000 for their clash at a ground local to both clubs. We are taking over half our normal home gate to a ground nearly 150 miles away. The 2 of them between them are taking about a quarter of their normal home support to a local ground. A league cup semi final is simply not the greatest attraction there is and as far as I'm concerned if we have 2000 at Easter Road that will represent a excellent turnout. Bring it on!

Argue amongst yourselves - it will all be academic if Andy Shinne moves to Aberdeen next season

I can understand the elderly wanting to avoid the crush, but why not leave after the crush? If I was in that position I would watch the end of the game, stay seated, rummage in my pockets for any Wherther's Original that had escaped me earlier and then get up and go when the exits were clear.

I was impressed with Draper's lay off for MacKay's goal but surprised nobody has posted this. Who say's there is no skill in Scottish football to admire! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/21114412

Have you seen the age of some of them? There's only so much excitement you can take at that age!

Hope he does.

did we not offer hayes the best deal ever to an ict player ?. could not see us paying a player the higest wage ever and not even having him on the bench. if he was still here he would be first name on teamsheet every week for me Whether you play someone should depend on how well they are playing and not on how much they are being paid. He was dross today. If he was out of contract there is no way Butcher would offer him as much to return here as he offered him to stay.