DoofersDad

Sanchez is another worth considering but we have done well for midfield players over the years. Having said that, I think it is a measure of the quality of the current side that there are really very few ex players who would actually be in the starting XI if they returned. Munro and Cowie for sure but Robson has gone off the boil a bit so would you drop Hayes to bring him in? And would you play Tade or Rooney or both? It's a good topic and gives me a good feeling about the current squad.

So, of our former players they'll have Duff and Duffer

We've got a fairly young squad on the whole. They will improve with experience and playing together more will improve the effectiveness of the team. There will be disruption in any case because whether they want to stay or not, some of the loanees will be recalled by their clubs. We need to maintain cohesiveness as much as possible to get away to a much better start next season and if we do that we should finish comfortably higher than this season. Therefore I don't really see merit in getting rid of anyone we don't have to unless there was some serious money available to replace them or to be gained as a transfer fee. I don't think either Proctor or Tokely will ever be first choice players again but both have served the club well and can come in as squad players. They also have a lot to offer on the training ground.

"Neither should anyone allow themselves to be searched unless the searcher has their hands covered appropriately." As if anyone would want to search a tink without their hands being covered appropriately.

They must've seen you arrive.

Or Ness Bank church on a Sunday morning.

Whether we sit in 6th this time next week is of no importance. What matters is that a win puts us firmly in the mid-table pack and relative to St Mirren who are already there, it is a 6 pointer. We are on a good run but should take nothing for granted. Midden are a decent side this year and Imrie will be out to prove a point or two again. Neither he nor the Midden should be underestimated. Having said that, I think it is a game we should win. Foran appears to have come into a rich grain of form now that he is playing where most of us felt he should be playing and Tansey has settled in brilliantly on his return from injury. They will be the key players next week and if they perform well we should create enough to win the game. Hopefully the players will be focussing on the game in hand and not the match against Celtic the following week. Hopefully TB will tell his players that anyone not giving 100% against the Midden will not be in the side for the Cup match.

Wow! what a result with such a makeshift team. Well done lads. :clapping: That's us up to 4th in the recent form league, level on points with Rangers. Great to see Sutherland start and even better to see him score. Happy to see the Pars win. They won't catch us and every point they take off other teams boosts our chances of top 6.

It certainly hasn't stopped for Dunfermline though.

I would have thought that Celtic would rather win the league game. Winning the title and getting into the Champions league has to be their goal and they really can't afford to drop points at home against teams in the bottom six when they are neck and neck with Rangers. So that's settled, they let us win the cup match and we'll let them win the league match.

DD... the poll question asks specifically whether respondents would prefer to beat Celtic in the Cup or in the League. Instantly, responses come back based on a totally different scenario which is the huge extrapolation to ICT actually WINNING the cup. If that's not an inconsistency, then I don't know what is. I'm not actually advocating a response of "League" to the original question. I'm only pointing out that on the basis of that question, the answer is perhaps not totally black (green?) and white. On the other hand if the original question had been "Would you prefer to WIN the Cup or beat Celtic in the League" the answer would clearly have to be "Win the Cup". That, of course, is provided that the three points surrendered to Celtic were not the ones which cost a second relegation which - as I said before - would be literally catastrophic. I, and I suspect everyone else are well aware of what the question is. The answer remains that I would rather beat Celtic in the cup than the league. I would rather win the league than the cup but we have a better chance of winning the cup than the league. Also, losing in the cup ends your chance of winning it, but losing in the league does not end your chance of winning the league (or coming 6th or wherever). There is no inconsistency in talking about winning the cup. We would rather beat Celtic in the cup than the league because we want to win the cup and beating Celtic in the cup keeps that dream alive. In other words the answer to the question would be exactly the same if the question was "Would you prefer to WIN the Cup or beat Celtic in the League". There would only be a different answer if you didn't want to win the cup, but why would you want be beat Celtic in the cup and not want to win the cup!

With respect Charles, that's rubbish! Of course there is no guarantee that if we beat Celtic we will win the cup (after all, we've beaten them twice and not won it!) but what there is a guarantee of is that if we don't beat Celtic in the next round, we won't win it. No inconsistency at all.

It has to be the cup. It's like asking whether you would rather Scotland win the worrld cup or get into the top six of the FIFA rankings - OK so I know it's not quite the same but I'm sure you get the point. Apart from the fact that a cup win is what is remembered, a cup win does help to generate income and attracts people to the club as a result of the media attention.

What do you mean? My goal was lucky! Don't know who the Pars' player is but he can't believe what he's seeing. He had exactly the same expression earlier in the game when Barrowman scored.

I think he was referring to the number of home fans left in the ground.

Dunfermline seem to drag other teams down to their level but still can't beat them. Two cup games against them and we were unable to edge them over 90 minutes in either and only scored in 180 minutes of normal time courtesy of defensive errors which would have been bad for a primary school 2nd team. I can't see the team improving sufficiently to get themselves off bottom slot. There is just no quality in the side. To be honest, they need to strengthen just to stay in Div 1 next season. Having said that, we play the Pars in the league in February sandwiched between games against the OF. Whilst we have often done well against the OF we may well get no points from those 2 games and therefore the Pars game will be doubly important. Losing that could give the Pars hope, If we win then there is simply no way they will catch us. There is also the small issue of pride. How dispiriting will it be if we have played them 5 times and still not beaten such a poor side over 90 minutes. Whilst the Pars can concentrate on the league now, I think they will reflect on the fact they are the only side in the current SPL no longer in the cup. It must be a blow to them and the message is pretty clear: next year they will be the only team in the current SPL no longer in the SPL.

How about "Condolences on your sad loss...........of form, of career, of friends........." ....and several thousands of pounds of revenue for the club ...

Tuffey obviously had a great match at both ends of the park. According to the report on the BBC website But Smith's poor clearance gifted Jonny Tuffey a 54th-minute tap-in

Phew! It sounds as though we rode our luck a bit there. Dunfermline are a poor side but they could well have put the game out of sight by half time. Perhaps these two matches and the prize at the end of it are the change of luck we need and there won't be such a nervy performance again. But what on earth was going on with Foran and Hayes? Is the atmosphere within the club not as good as we are led to believe? That sort of thing does not happen to guys who get on well together. Anyway. We won and that's the main thing.

BBC commentator saying Golobart was the best player on the park.

Is this the togetherness IHE was talking about?

Yes we should win but we will only win if we give it 100%. Dunfermline will certainly give 100% and we will need to be at our best. We have gone on a bit of a run and there is a sense of togetherness in the side. Personally I would change the side as little as possible with the exception of bringing Foran back and the enforced change with Gillett out. If this means Proctor comes in I have no problem with that - I'd far rather have Proctor in my side than Barrowman. I don't know if there is an agreement that Tuffey plays in the cup games but Esson should play. We need to win and a young and inexperienced defence needs the confidence of having the number 1 keeper behind them. There may not be a lot of difference between the 2 (we shouldn't judge Tuffey on his performance in the first game) but the players in front will play better with Esson between the posts. No messing, please. This is an important game for the club to win.

I'm surprised so little has been said about Gregory Tade's goal yesterday. Folk at the game said it was good but it is only when you see it on the highlights that you appreciate the way he made space for himself and the sharpness, accuracy and power of the shot. Young Nick Ross played his part by playing a good ball in and immediately running into space to give the defence something to think about. In my view it was a better goal than Jonny Hayes' last month and had Wayne Rooney scored it you would have had the English media going into raptures over it. Talking of Rooney, it was good to see Adam score a decent goal for B'ham yesterday and with Chris Wood back to West Brom and then out on loan to Bristol City, it may be that Adam will get a bit of an opportunity again to show what he can do. But to get back to the subject of the topic - who is better, Gregory or Adam? I was impressed with Adam from the start and felt he would be a very hard act to follow, but Gregory is proving himself to be a very able replacement indeed. Clearly he is capable of scoring good goals and his attitude and work rate are superrb. To me it really doesn't matter which of the two is better - all that matters is that Gregory has proven to be a really good signing. Just one question remains - can he take a penalty?

Great result. It is also 7 points from the last 3 games and the first clean sheet of the season. This and the pars dismal form should give the team some real confidence for the rest of the season. If Dunfermline accumulate points for the rest of the season at the rate they have for the season to date, they will end up with only 25 or 26 at the end of the season. We already have 22 and even if we continue to average a point a game we will end on 38. Dunfermline are going to have to improve their form considerably to catch us. This thought should give the lads some confidence to go out and play the kind of attractive attacking football they are capable of. We are also only 5 points off 6th place. After a shakey start, this could turn into a pretty good season.

The BBC have listed some games twice. It's the Wednesday for sure.