DoofersDad

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.

Having turned down a contract offer here he is obviously out to impress. But he needs to remember that those he is trying to impress will look at his overall contribution to the team and not just any spectacular goals he scores. He needs to avoid the temptation to be selfish and go for the glory himself when there are better options. On one occasion in the first half he started a penetrating run and then lost posession going it alone when Billy was clear in the middle and screaming for the ball - he really should have passed it. Not so for his goal though. He did well to get clear on the by-line and Langfield, clearly expecting him to square it was way out of position in anticipation of intercepting. Shinnie saw the gap and exploited it ruthlessly. Mind you, if he was thinking of going to Aberdeen he'll maybe want to think again. Players often look good because of the way their team mates play. Shinnie gets great service from his team mates and when he scored today MacKay was in the perfect position for the cutback which was why Langfield was out of position. I really don't think he would look as good in a red shirt as he does in a blue one (with a little bit of red in it). If he plays to the team's collective strengths for the rest of the season he is going to get offers from much better clubs than Aberdeen

A really important result for us in keeping the momentum going after the break and all the off the field issues. After a fairly indifferent first half for both himself and the team, a touch of real quality from Andy Shinnie turned the game and after that we were different class. If Shinnie's goal was good, MacKay's first was even better - and his 2nd wasn't bad either. For me, MacKay was MOTM by a country mile because apart from 2 great goals he never stopped working for the team. Meekings was superb as well. Just a mention for Nick Ross and Philip Roberts who came on as very late subs. No sooner were they on than they were involved in a great move which nearly produced a goal which would have rivalled if not bettered MacKay's first. There is real quality on the bench and you have to think that if Hayes was still with us, not only would he not get into the starting eleven, he might not even get on the bench. Very impressed and happy with that performance.

Applause at 6 minutes! Why? Applause at 90 minutes works for me.

Great opportunity to remind everyone of England's 1938 shame! untitled.png Shame? England won 6 -3! This is actually quite interesting and my comment above is not entirely tongue in cheek. It is, of course easy to regard the Nazi salute as shameful in hindsight but however uncomfortable it may be, one really needs to see it in the context of the time. The match was pre-war but clearly there were huge tensions. The German government saw the game much as they had seen the '36 Olympic games as an opportunity to demonstrate to the world the superiority of the German race. Whilst Hitler was not at the game, most of the other leading Nazis were. There was a crowd of 110,000 expecting another German victory to extend their 14 game unbeaten run. The English officials (in consultation with the British Government) did much agonising about whether to give the salute or not. The view was that to refuse would be seen as a petulant gesture which would just ensure the hostility of the crowd and, more importantly, the wider German people and Government. Give them respect in the formal pleasantries and give them a beating on the park where it matters was the view. They did just that rounding off with a superb Stanley Matthews goal to seal a great victory. At the time this was seen as real setback to Germany in their propaganda campaign. Had England not given the salute and then been on the receiving end of a 6 - 3 scoreline the boost to the propaganda of the Nazi regime would have been huge. In retrospect I think it is fair to say giving the salute was a mistake. Snubbing the Nazi's by refusing to salute and then giving them a hiding on the park in front of such a huge crowd would have doubly deflating for them. But of course, because of the terrible events that followed, it is the picture of the salute that is the enduring image and the impact of the match on the German people at the time is forgotten. But we stray off topic. Had he been there as an honorary Englishman, what would wee Gordon Strachan have done? Would he have followed instructions and given the salute? No. I think he would have done this

In my hurry to post I must have missed the fact that the tongue in cheek emoticon hadn't loaded up!

But I'm sure his bank manager does.

Someone cleverer than me once described education as what is left when what was learnt has been forgotten. I rather like that because whilst obviously not completely true it points the way to the reality that there is much more to education than the simple learning of facts. What is important is to know how to think. There is no point in knowing facts if you can't apply them. If you know how to use facts and address problems, it doesn't really matter if you don't know certain relevant facts because you can always look them up. But my perception is that things are improving. There was a time when we saw a lot of youngsters with top grades all through school and university who were hopeless in the workplace because they had no idea how to apply their knowledge. These days the education system, particularly in the universities, trains students in the practical application of knowledge and hence academic qualification tends to be a better judge of how they will perform in the workplace. It seems to me that that is partly due to teachers such as the Mantis. The best gift a teacher can give a student is not the tools to pass an exam but the curiosity to thirst for knowledge and the skills and desire to learn for themselves. Youngsters who have embraced that gift from their teachers may not pass all their exams but they won't fail in life.

Punctuation is important. It can be a matter of life or death. Take Romeo and Juliet for instance. Romeo wrote Juliet a letter and this is what he meant to say. Dear Juliet, I want a woman who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other women. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart. I can be forever happy - will you please, please, let me be yours? Romeo This is what he actually wrote. Dear Juliet I want a woman who knows what love is all about you are generous kind and thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other women I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart I can be forever happy will you please please let me be yours Romeo This is how Juliet read it Dear Juliet, I want a woman who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind and thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other women I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we are apart I can be forever happy. Will you please, please, let me be? Yours, Romeo

Speaking as an Englishman, I would say that English players would far rather face a Scotland team led out onto the park by Levein than one led onto the park by Strachan. Scotland is too small a country to have a team of top quality players but it can have a top quality team. One of the key ingredients of that is passion. Not only does Strachan have that, he can transmit that to his players. I think he's the man for the job.

German league football went through a poor period but it has got its act together again. German club sides may well become the dominant force in Eurpoean football in the next 4 or 5 years and this success will be reflected in the national side - much as it pains me to say it. I think Pep has made a good choice and if he can instil some of the Barcelona style into the German game, they might even be good to watch as well.

No it doesn't matter. Some of us just like being pedantic, that's all.

Should fit in well then.

But whilst the team is usually known as England, it is in fact, the team representing the England and Wales Cricket Board and therefore as a Welshman, it is your national side. And whilst you hear of Ireland and Scotland competing in ODIs, you never hear of a Welsh side. Cricket is still fairly healthy in the central belt and is boosted by the number of players of Indian and Pakistani origin. Someone told me a few years ago that there are actually more Cricket Clubs in Scotland than Rugby clubs. Not sure that is still the case.