DoofersDad

That's not correct. The interpretation of the rule is not simply seeing the ball and putting your arm in the way, it is also placing your arm such that you widen your profile and make it more likely that the ball will hit your arm. There is no doubt that Josh is going for the ball with his head but the SFA could argue that he was also deliberately holding his hand in an unnatural position thereby increasing the chance of the ball hitting it. They would need to prove this and I don't think they can. Yes his hand was raised, but I would argue that is just a natural movement of the arm consistent with the rest of the body movement in trying to throw his body in front of the ball. I am not Dundee Utd's lawyer but I would have thought trying to prove intent was far more difficult in Josh's case than in that of Ciftci's off the ball assault on Garry Warren.

I've just had a wee trawl of the SFA website and have come across the Judicial Panel Protocol which is a 212 page document (I haven't read it all!). On page 9 section 9.4 it states "A Notice of Complaint may be initiated by the Compliance Officer in respect of an incident which would generally be the subject of a match official(s) report". There is nothing that I can see which restricts Notices to violent conduct and so the the alleged offence would appear to fall within the remit of the Compliance officer. However, the protocol then goes on to say on page 188 in an appendix section 2.1 on "Reporting of Offences by Match Officials" that "The referee shall administer cautions and sendings-off in accordance with the Laws of the Game and report them to the Scottish FA." Linking this with the section above would suggest that it is not just red card offences but also yellow card offences that the Compliance Officer is empowered to serve Notices of Complaint about. Appendix section 3 on page 191 then goes on to list cautionable offences and section B2 refers to "Dissent by words or action". Was it just me or did anyone else see a number of Celtic players demonstrate dissent at the referee's decision? So why have they not been issued with Notices of Complaint? Others have said that this opens up a can of worms and looking at this document makes clear just what an enormous can this could be. However, some good could come out of all of this. The extent of the powers to issue a Notice of Complaint clearly extends to issues which sully the reputation of the game - all this diving, shirt pulling and holding. These are all cautionable offences and if the SFA had any genuine wish to "protect the integrity and reputation of the game" then it is within their power to serve notice to clubs that the Compliance Officer will be looking for such incidents and will be serving Notices of Complaint when such offences are spotted. In the meantime, whilst it would appear that Josh's incident is an appropriate one to refer to a judicial panel, the fact that there is no precedent for referring such incidents is indicative of poor judgement and vindictiveness. The sensible course of action would be for the SFA to withdraw the Notice but give clubs due warning that next season they will use their powers more extensively. Until they do that it would be fair game for clubs to write to the SFA reporting every incident involving a Celtic player for which a caution should have been given within the laws of the game and request they apply their rules and issue a notice of complaint against the players concerned. If they can't exercise their powers fairly and consistently for the good of the game then others need to disrupt their activities until they get the message that they are ruining the game whose integrity and reputation they have a duty to uphold.

From the BBC website "Celtic - who later had goalkeeper Craig Gordon sent off by referee Steven McLean - wrote to the SFA to ask why Meekings was not dismissed and a penalty awarded. BBC Scotland understands that Celtic will receive a reply acknowledging that the match officials made a mistake." Does this mean they have already decided on the outcome of Thursday's hearing? Just when you think the SFA can't get any more incompetent they somehow manage to plumb even greater depths of ineptitude. This is actually also an unwarranted slur on their own officials. Even if a penalty offence was committed, if the positioning of the officials was such that they could not be certain that the offence was committed then they were quite correct not to award the penalty. There is a difference between not being in position to make the right decision and making a mistake.

If Nicola Sturgeon will pledge to nationalise the SFA I'll promise to vote SNP

Now that I have managed to stop the steam coming out of my ears I can actually write something. Yesterday on the match day thread (post 132) I argued that not to award a penalty was the correct decision for these reasons. "In the incident yesterday what is absolutely as clear as the fact that the ball struck Josh's hand, is the fact that Josh tried to get his head to the ball. Imagine yourself in the position that Josh was standing and imagine trying to head a ball going just below your right shoulder. Try the move yourself! As your head goes down your right arm naturally comes up. I think the ref got it spot on when you consider three crucial factors. 1. Josh was attempting to make contact with the ball with his head. 2. He was not holding his arm deliberately in a position which would make it more likely to block the ball. Instead, the position of his arm was a natural consequence of his genuine attempt to head the ball. 3. The closeness between Griffiths and Josh was such that Josh would have had no time to react to consciously withdraw his arm when he realised he would not make head contact with the ball. Indeed he probably wouldn't have realised that the ball was going to hit his hand until it actually struck. The only conclusion you can draw from these factors is that Josh did not deliberately handle the ball and therefore it was not a penalty." Apart from giving the referee credit for a good decision when he didn't actually see what happened, I think my points are valid. Others have made the good point that Josh couldn't possibly have reacted in time in response to Griffiths' header and pictures posted provide compelling evidence. However, if the case is heard the SFA will probably argue that Josh had moved his arm into an unnatural position and that the action of moving his arm started before the ball was struck in a deliberate attempt to increase the chance of the ball hitting him. That would be consistent with the concept of "unnatural position that McLean talks about in the clip Alex has posted above. This is why my 2nd point above is important. It seems to me absolutely beyond doubt that Josh was, as he says, just trying to get his body in the way. You can see how he lunges across with his right leg and dips his head towards where he expects the ball to go and as I say above, when you do that your right arm naturally comes up and in the circumstances it would be almost impossible to deliberately hold it down to minimise any chance of the ball striking it. The pictures seem to tell a story of a brave young man preparing to take a sore one in the face for his team. Instead, the SFA at Celtic's bidding are branding him a cheat and threatening a punishment in a completely unprecedented way. Yet again, the body that has responsibility for upholding the dignity of the game in Scotland drags the reputation of the game into the gutter. Credit to the club for a prompt and very strongly worded statement in support of Josh.

Probably just a reflection of the media central belt bias refering to a Falkirk v Inverness final. Just checked on the SFA site and as always there is SFA there to enlighten us.

Are we not officially the away team for the final?

He scores when he wants, He scores when he wants. He's David Raven He scores when he wants. Some good suggestions above but as long as we get to sing "We are the champions" at the end, I don't really care what folk sing before and during the game.

Simulation is classed as serious foul play Maybe they'll decide Josh only simulated trying to head the ball.

Apart from being unfair on the players it is just another silly rule that favours the bigger clubs with greater squad depths. What is particularly galling is that yellow cards are often dished out for very minor offences whilst more serious offences don't seem to prompt a card. There is also no opportunity to appeal them so players can miss out on what ought to be a career highlight simply on the whim of an incompetent referee or as a result of an opponent who has conned the ref.

Shinnie's performance yesterday was outstanding. Not just was it the best performance of the day it was probably the best performance of an ICT player this season. His workrate was phenomenal and the quality of his play outshone that of his multimillion pound opponents.

Three starts, three goals, two against Celtic. That's some record! I thought his hold up play was pretty decent, apart from that one near the end when he trapped it further than I can pass it. The first half miss looked easier to score (from the other end of the park, admittedly), but all strikers miss them. Should have had a penalty too, but lets not be greedy, eh! Well said both. Actually I don't think his miss in the first half was as bad as it first appeared. From the highlights it is clear that his anticipation of where the ball might fall was good but that when the ball came to him it was quite quick and slightly behind him. It was actually a more difficult chance that it seemed at first. He had to almost scoop the ball out and it only went narrowly wide. He also did very well for his goal. The ball came to him agonisingly slowly with a couple of bounces and it would have been so easy in the circumstances to snatch at it. But he had the composure to wait and then drill it low and hard. There were some other very nice touches to his play and I think he could be a real find.

Leigh Griffiths was a lucky boy to stay on the park yesterday. Deliberately heading the ball against Meekings' hand in an attempt to get a fellow professional sent off is quite shameful Seriously though, the ref got the decision spot on. I accept that 99 times out of 100 the referee would have given a penalty for the handball incident but just because that is the case doesn't mean it would be the correct decision. Remember that the handball law refers to deliberate handling of the ball which is commonly extended to holding your arms in a position which make it more likely that the ball might strike the arm/hand. And yes, we've had these discussions before. In the incident yesterday what is absolutely as clear as the fact that the ball struck Josh's hand, is the fact that Josh tried to get his head to the ball. Imagine yourself in the position that Josh was standing and imagine trying to head a ball going just below your right shoulder. Try the move yourself! As your head goes down your right arm naturally comes up. I think the ref got it spot on when you consider three crucial factors. 1. Josh was attempting to make contact with the ball with his head. 2. He was not holding his arm deliberately in a position which would make it more likely to block the ball. Instead, the position of his arm was a natural consequence of his genuine attempt to head the ball. 3. The closeness between Griffiths and Josh was such that Josh would have had no time to react to consciously withdraw his arm when he realised he would not make head contact with the ball. Indeed he probably wouldn't have realised that the ball was going to hit his hand until it actually struck. The only conclusion you can draw from these factors is that Josh did not deliberately handle the ball and therefore it was not a penalty. This was a correct and courageous bit of refereeing which we should be applauding. Our "luck" yesterday was the fact that the referee got two crucial penalty decisions correct. The fact that he did so meant that his failure to award us an absolutely stonewall penalty late in the game did not affect the outcome of the match.

There is a nightmare scenario here if we slip to 4th in the league and then lose the final. In that case, 4th in the league would not get a Europa League place. But had we lost yesterday with Celtic then going on to win the cup, slipping to fourth would still have given us the Europa place. Best to make sure of the Europa league place by securing 3rd spot and then win the cup. Coming in a round later may well be important because there is precious little time between the cup final and the first European qualifying rounds. The lads need both a holiday and the pre-season training whilst Yogi will need to do a bit of work in reorganising the side after whatever departures there may be.

Celtic wanted a treble - so, how about this one? Success in a semi-final at our third attempt The third time we have beaten Celtic in the Scottish Cup We scored 3 goals. Happy now Ronny?

Never any doubt they would be. As a Villa fan from my years in England it has been a rather good day. Hampden it has to be so let's hope the occasion inspires the folk of both Inverness and Falkirk and encourages neutrals to turn up to a final that epitomises the dreams of smaller clubs in a game dominated by the money that is poured into the big clubs.

Are they sponsored by Guiness? It would explain a lot.

I thought that feelings against the England and Wales Cricket Board were finally becoming a little more passionate when I saw a headline saying "Protester attacks ECB boss at press conference". But no. Turns out the conference was being held by the European Central Bank!

In truth I think that those citing the 12.15 kick off as the reason for not going are mostly making an excuse. If it was 3.00 they would probably be saying it's too late on a Sunday cos they have to work on Monday. Of course there will be some who can't make it for perfectly good reasons but by and large those that want to be there will be there. I don't think our numbers will be great but as long as those that are there get behind the team then the team will get a lift from that. They will need one too - a Griffiths hat-trick tonight shows that he is a player on form and we will need to be on our very best form to beat Celtic on Sunday.

County highlights are now on BBC website. I have to say that Boyce looked very sharp indeed. It may well be that County will offer him more than we can afford.

I think you should omit scarifying from your future lawn care schedule.

I noted that the team physio ran down the line and waited for the referee to allow him onto the pitch despite Brill's urgent call for help. Surely when a player is clearly badly hurt the physio's and medical teams must have the right to attend straight away as they do in rugby. I can't help but think that this apparent need to wait for the referee's call is a consequence of all the feigned injuries from the all too many cheats in the game.

One should remember that some of the North O.F. fans who watch their teams when they play against us and County actually come from Glasgow but now live up here. We really can't object if they continue to support the team they grew up with in the same way as some of the folk who make up our excellent away support now live in the central belt. Having said that, the OF's continuing ability to attract support from far and wide is not healthy for the good of the game in Scotland as a whole.

Hamilton will be disappointed to have lost out after their good start to the season. Indeed is is still possible although highly unlikely that they could be in the play offs

Aside from the footy, there was a complete lack of traffic management at the roundabout yesterday. Coming from OTB I set off early and just before noon hit standing traffic just North of the North Kessock slip road. 10 minutes later we had moved to just South of the slip road and still a mile and a half from the roundabout. Fortunately my wife was driving as she had things to do in town, so I decided to get out of the car and leg it. I got into the ground 5 minutes before kick off whilst my wife finally reached the roundabout 5 minutes later. There must be quite a few who missed the early excitement because of that.