Yngwie

I think this was another of the refs many mistakes. Having said that Toni did go through his wee routine of placing his towel and water bottle. He then went to the post and kicked the mud of his boots. And then after that, he stopped to pull each of his his socks up, even though they were up already. I think that was the final straw for the ref.

What word describes your reaction the very instant you realised Roberts free kick was heading skyward? (I think under the circumstances we can take a more lenient attitude than usual towards swearing.) For me, it was simply "Ach...."

He's English through and through. Like most Republic players.

Ha ha. So when Terry advised Roberts to "put it where the keeper can't get it" he should have perhaps elaborated a bit.

I think you are right. No subs are allowed but an outfield player who was still on the pitch at the end of the game is allowed to take the keeper's place. It appears to have happened only once, to the Botwana keeper in a 2003 tournament. "After being cautioned for time wasting before Malawi converted their third spot kick, Marumo reacted to a pat on the shoulder from opposite number Philip Nyasulu by punching him in the face. Botswana missed their next kick and when Malawi striker Ganizani Malunga drilled his effort past defender-cum-goalkeeper Michael Mogaladi a dramatic comeback by the visiting Flames was complete."

He certainly didn't do well in the shoot-out. Faced 5 and didn't get within 6 feet of any of them. You could have stuck any player (or fan) in goals and they couldn't possibly have been as unsuccessful, even if they just stood still each time. But that's not the question.

Here's question on the rules of the game. Reguero got booked at the start of the shoot-out for time wasting (which he was). What would have happened if he did it again and got sent off?

In fairness, he had a lot of decisions to make today, and he got some of them right.

I'm not shedding any tears that we aren't in the final, I'm just disappointed that we didn't play anywhere near our best, and didn't take the big chances we had to win it. Some might say that we were against 10 men and we blew it, but in reality the red card just gave us a chance, at a time when Hearts were very much in the ascendancy.

Putting Roberts on for Doran was fairly understandable, but turned out to be pretty disasterous. It just wasn't his day and most things he tried failed to come off. He dangerously and needlessly gave away possession several times. What's the opposite of the Midas touch? A lot of our fans groaned when they saw him walk up for the last penalty, and what happened next wasn't really a surprise. He didn't just miss by a little bit. However, to be fair to the lad, he didn't hide, at any point in the game. He was all over the pitch, picked out a couple of good passes and he was trying very hard. He's a talented but inconsistent player and today just wasn't his day.

Foran was totally knacked, could barely run at all by the time he was taken off.

Good luck to everyone setting out on their wintery journeys this morning (and to those who might already be en route). If I can make it out of my street I should hopefully be past the worst of it, so I'm just heading out shortly with a shovel. Spare a thought for Mantis, who was present in the earlier rounds but has had to call off after needing an eye operation this week. I think he looks something like this at the moment: He'll hopefully look more like this for the final:

Second, n'est-ce pas? Unused sub last time.

We could be up against Hearts new loan signing from Liverpool, striker Michael Ngoo. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21177973

Interesting, particularly as he only signed for Maidstone 2 weeks ago. http://www.maidstoneunited.co.uk/2013/01/stones-bring-in-greenhalgh/ His previous clubs were Welling, then Ebbsfleet.

Old And pished.

Swansea also through to the final - but should they face sanctions for the cheating of one of their ball boys? Time wasting and simulation if you ask me, and its is him and not Hazard who deserved a red card. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHkGTiwQtmM

Not even in the top 10 IMO.

Incredible run for them, beating 3 Premier League sides on the way. Incidentally, Steve Williams hasn't kicked a ball for Bradford due to getting injured after returning from his loan with us last season, but he is recently back in training.

He's certainly playing for a much better team than we were last season. He's now got McGinn to finish off his assists, where last season he had Tade.......

Just out of interest, how do people think Hayes has progressed as a player since joining Aberdeen? Improved? Same? Worse? His stats for goals and assists aren't looking vastly different to his last season with us, but I haven't seen a great deal of him to have an opinion. The reason I ask is that Barry Robson is being talked about on another thread, and he is one of the few players who I would say really improved his overall game after leaving us. He was a fantastic tricky winger/attacker/crosser for us, but after going to Utd his defensive play and overall vision seemed to improve significantly, with the result that he could play comfortably in central midfield and even at left back. He also matured enough to be made captain, which I never thought likely to happen.

And looking at it another way, Hearts will be taking less than their typical home support for a trip just a few miles across the city. We'll be taking about 2/3rds of our home support for a long journey in the middle of winter, so it doesn't compare too badly.

Hampden is Hampden, the national stadium, which we haven't been to for 9 years, whereas Easter Rd is a ground we go to twice a season. And the Scottish Cup simply has a much higher profile than the League Cup, especially for Inverness football fans who for decades have looked forward to it as a highlight of the season.

Ticket sales might be disappointing, but here's a question - how many times since we first made it to the SPL 9 years ago have we taken 2,000 fans to a game that was further than Dingwall? Challenge Cup final in 2009? I can't think of any others. No doubt we could mobilise far greater numbers if it was Hampden, and especially if it was in THE cup, but for now we'll have to make do with quality rather than quantity.

I'd imagine he's got out of his Vancouver contract knowing that he has something lined up. Haven't seen him play recently but surely he'd still be a good player in the SPL.