DoofersDad

Foran

Rooney

McBain

I thought after a bit of a nervey first half everyone did well with lots of contenders for my one point. Eric set up Forans goal beautifully and generally played well. Good to see him getting a good few votes.

Tomorrow's Sunday. Let's hope the results go our way today!

I think Pele is saying County's win is the biggest only in the sense that it has got them further in the competition. Nobody can argue with that. Whilst giving generous praise for their performance, I don't get the sense that he thinks it was a better performance or bigger shock than ours in 2000.

I agree with Bauhaus that the 1-0 in Inverness was the best avievement. That Celtic team was by far the best of the 3 Celtic sides and they came to Inverness keen to avenge the earlier humiliation. Whilst it didn't have the novelty shock impact of the 1-3, it was an absolutely brilliant performance. So really, all 3 matches are each the biggest result in their different ways.

If I felt the Lib Dems had a real chance I might vote for them because I feel they would deliver on some level of electoral reform.

If everyone who says that votes for the Lib Dem, they would get into power.

OK then. Lib Dems it is!

The players you list performing in the EPL are very average journeymen in real terms (Gordon the possible exception). Going back, not too far in time, the spine of the great Liverpool team (Hansen, Souness and Dalglish), Man Utd (Jordan, MacQueen, Albiston, Buchan), Leeds (Harvey, Eddie Gray, Frank Gray, Bremner, Lorimer and Jordan), Notts Forest (McGovern, Burns and Robertson) and no doubt many others in many teams. We are now delighted to talk about players in "The Championship" which is (no matter how you flower it up or rebrand it) the old English Division Two.

Bottom line is that Scottish activity in English Division One (proper name) is limited at best. Three guys at an over performing Birmingham City and the rest in teams in the bottom six/eight.

This bares absolutely no comparison with the huge Scottish contingents that dominated the top English teams of the 70s and 80s. We even had Stevie Archibald at Barca, idolised in a fashion his replacement Gary Lineker could only dream of. Add to that Jordan's spell at the San Siro, John Collins in Monaco, Eric Black at Metz, Mark McGee at Hamburg, Mo Johnston at Nates even Brewster at Ionikos. Where is our prescence how? Second Division of the Finnish league or Cyprus?

I think we have a huge problem and don't know what the solution is.

Ban computer games!

You make a fair put and mention some great players there. But another relevant point is that the English top flight is now dominated by the best players from around the world. That was not the case in the 70s and 80s and therefore the best Scottish players were able to compete for places in the top English teams. The likes of Dalgleish and Bremner would have held their own against anybody but many of the others you mention would have struggled in today's Premier Division.

Without looking it up, anyone name the Greens leader?

After a couple of frivolous posts I suppose I should take this thread seriously. However sceptical people may be of the motivation of some of the politicians, the fact remains that these folk make the laws that shape our lives. It matters that we use our vote and it matters that we do so to vote for someone or some party that is genuinely wanting to make the world a better place rather than voting for short term personal gain.

For that reason I will be voting for the Greens whose leader is Caroline Lucas. Those who watch Question Time may have seen Ms Lucas on a few occasions and she has always been most impressive. She consistently gets more applause from the audience than other panelists for her commonsense approach on all issues.

The Greens have consistently got a high vote in elections where there is proportional representation and it is really nothing short of criminal that when they get in the region of 10% of votes in some elections (and have been considerably higher), they get no seats in a UK parliament of over 630 members. If I felt the Lib Dems had a real chance I might vote for them because I feel they would deliver on some level of electoral reform.

Where did Lionel come?

He won the award for best penalty kick in the first round of the Alba cup.

And what are the different economic policies between Labour and Tory? You couldn't fit a cigarette paper in the gap.

My understanding this time round was that we were to vote on which leader's wife we fancied...or have I been reading the papers wrong?

I thought so too. This was reinforced with the rumour that John Terry has said he is going to stick his X into every box he can.

It appears from your duplication of the post that the plan is already well in hand. Good man.

Dundee lose on saturday, County draw or lose and we win - the league is ours mathematically

Dundee draw on saturday and we win - the league is ours on goal difference and if Dundee then draw or lose midweek to Raith and the league is ours before Ayr

dundee lose, we win, = title. county out of it as long as we win and barring goal difference miracle.

anyone care to do a flow chart?

No flow charts at this time of night.

If we and county win on saturday we will have 67 points. If county win their remaining 6 games including the one on saturday they will have 67 points.

For the sake of argument lets say we beat the pars by a single goal and then lose to Ayr by 2 and then, heaven forbid, get humped by dundee with a 3 goal deficit. The net result of that is that our goal difference goes down to +26.

County's GD is currently +5 so they would need to get up to +27 to beat us. That is a total of plus 22 in 6 games. 6 games where the average margain of victory is 3.5 goals is highly unlikely but possible. Therefore if dundee lose on Saturday but County and Caley both win, the title will still not be ours. However, I think it would be certain enough to be an excuse to open some bubbly and then one can open some more when it becomes mathematically certain.

At this stage of the season last year it looked as though staying up was a formality. Buthcher needs to forget about the goal difference and just make sure we win our next two games. Remember that if Dundee or County catch us it will be because we are losing matches and as a result our goal difference will get worse. It is very unlikely our goal difference will be bettered but lets not risk it. I see no reason why the attitude will not be right on Saturday and I expect us to win by at least 2 goals.

A win against the Pars will secure the title if Dundee lose and County don't win.

A win against both the Pars and Ayr clinches it whatever anybody else does.

He's a promising manager but yet to prove himself. The team has had some excellent results this season - not only did they comprehensively beat Celtic but they outplayed Hibs over 2 matches and beat Hamilton earlier in the season. Even more noteworthy, they outplayed us in the first 2 derbies of the season. However, you don't achieve that without having an excellent squad of players and cynics just might suggest that their overall league form suggests Adams is not getting the best out of his players on a week by week basis.

The club is financially sound, has all its players signed up for next season and will have a further cash injection from their cup success which will allow them to further strengthen the squad. It's all set up for them to do very well in the league next year and I think we will be in a better position to judge him after that. Personally I think he would be mad to go.

I saw McGhee outside the stadium before the match so I can vouch for that... Don't know why he was there but Jonny was my first guess! B)

Perhaps he just wanted to watch a decent game. :004:

Let's face it, our Irish trio have been superb this year and are head and shoulders above most of the players in the first division. I would expect all the SPL managers will be keeping tabs on them. Not only will they want them in their teams, they won't want them in ours when we play them next season.

My worry is that whilst they will want to stay, they will get good offers from elsewhere. It may come down to how much money the Board is prepared to release to satisfy their wage demands. We need to get this league sown up and then get the celebrating stars to sign contracts whilst they're still p***ed.

County are crowing about beating Celtic, but next season we will beat them twice.

Why only twice?

I'm voting for Terry Butcher - candidate for Promotion Celebration Party!

For a team that has never won it before it just has to be the cup.

Just think of some of the young County supporters 60 years on. In the future County may get into the top flight league from time to time but they will never win it. They might have some great matches, great victories and they might win the cup again, but I'll tell you this, if they win the cup this year, those youngsters will still be talking about the cup victory of 2010 as the greatest day in the club's history and as their best memory.

I'm really quite envious of County fans at the moment but try to put a brave face on it by asking them if they know how to get to Alloa because that will be where they will be playing next season.

I think they rank pretty even. Ours was the bigger shock as such results were much rarer back then and we also scored 3 goals at their home ground. But County are a smaller club and have reached a final. Remember that Celtic are all but out of the title race and this was their only chance of silverware this season so Celtic should have been really motivated today as opposed to 10 years ago when the game would have been seen as a routine match on their way to the business end of the competition.

County winning the Cup and us getting promotion to the SPL - what an advert for football in the Highlands that would be!

But the interesting thing for me is how poor the premier division is this season.

I was thinking this myself. Just how bad is it with Celtic running away (pretty much) with 2nd place. I know there's been an odd challenge from DU and Hibs but Celtic still have got it to lose.

Three of the top 5 in the SPL have gone out of the Scottish cup to !st division opposition and unless Dundee United win the cup, it will be 4 out of 5. In addition, Raith knocked Aberdeen out. Next season should be a doddle for us!

Well done to County. It is clear that the scoreline was no more than they deserved and just as we did 10 years ago, they played Celtic off the park. And let's be honest, theirs is an even bigger achievement than ours because they are a smaller club and they have reached the final. In doing that they have achieved something we never have.

But the interesting thing for me is how poor the premier division is this season. Clearly Celtic were there for the taking and are probably the worst Celtic team in living memory but in the 2 cup competitions the first division teams have shown that there is very little to choose between the SPL and the SFL in standard. Whilst it's a great day for the romance of the cup and for Highland football, sadly it is also a sad reflection on the quality of Scottish football at the highest level.

They might find Raith a tougher proposition in the final

has he not put 3 past queens before?

Putting 3 up the Queens. I think you might be thinking of Brewster! :023: :cry03: :cry03:

Heard on the news today that the manufacturers have decided to change the rules of Scrabble to allow proper nouns and names. This must be the only situation where Barrowman scores more than Rooney.

TB will be well aware of how we clinched relegation from the jaws of survival last season and will not be wanting it to go to the wire. Now is not the time to rest players. Some players may be tired but they should still be motivated enough to give of their best. I expect a very pumped up, full strength team to take the pitch at Morton. I certainly don't expect Morton to roll over but I do expect us to win by at least 2 clear goals to send a clear signal to those desparately trying to keep pace with us.

Pumped up?

Were you at the game today? They quite clearly hadn't fully recovered from their midweek exertions, and your expecting another gung ho approach from them 3 days from now?

As Tree said on another thread, they hardly have time to recover from minor knocks and niggly injuries, when cramming so many games into such a short period.

I was looking for a pumped up performance from them today, but very soon realised (11 minutes) that wasn't going to happen. They did of course grind out another incredible result, but (like me) they are soon going to have problems trying to keep it up.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the match today but I understand what you are saying. A reaction to the Tuesday result was always on the cards, particularly in a match which the players might have seen as the easiest of the remaining fixtures. We are lucky that despite what seems to have been a fairly poor performance, the Gods were with us today. However, having gotten out of jail today and taken another very important step towards the title there should now be no let up on focus.

Of course, if players are injured they may need to miss games to recover, but if they are not, I don't see us having the depth in strength to rest players. There is a bit of flexibility around which 2 play out of Proctor, Bulvitis, Stratford, Sanchez and Odiambo but other than that the team picks itself and looks weaker when any of them are not playing. It's only a 36 match season and there's only one more midweek match to go. If the players can't cope with that when they are on the verge of a historic return to the SPL then they shouldn't be wearing the shirt at all IMHO.

This is a really important match for us. Another win keeps the squeeze on the others but it will not be easy. Morton are playing well and are second to ICT in the recent form league. They are also highly motivated as they are playing to avoid facing the play offs. But they must also be feeling the pressure as other teams at the bottom are also picking up points which means they need to keep their form up. Their next three matches are against us, then County and then Dundee so whilst they will be very up for the match, they will be feeling the pressure too.

Sitting back will only give them confidence. We have scored the most goals in this league by some way and all of our strikers are scoring. Morton have conceded the most in the division and we should aim to exploit those facts. My view is we need an attacking approach and to go at them right from the start. Even if the team was not at its best today, the late winner will have been a huge boost to the confidence and they simply need to go out and do what they do best.

Neither County nor Dundee will find their visits to Morton easy and we need to get a psychological advantage by turning them over first. If we can then beat Queens and Dundee and County drop points, we could find ourselves cliniching the title at home against Dunfermline on the 17th. How good would that be!

TB will be well aware of how we clinched relegation from the jaws of survival last season and will not be wanting it to go to the wire. Now is not the time to rest players. Some players may be tired but they should still be motivated enough to give of their best. I expect a very pumped up, full strength team to take the pitch at Morton. I certainly don't expect Morton to roll over but I do expect us to win by at least 2 clear goals to send a clear signal to those desparately trying to keep pace with us.

According to the BBC Website match stats for tonight's SPL match Hibs had 2 shots on target and Dundee united just 3. Interesting when the score was 2 - 4.