PerfICT

Can't argue with his record, despite still being unfit.We should try to keep him: if you're most potent attacking weapon is crosses from full-backs, he has the right style of game.

Should not have lost that. Strange subs from Hughes: Ross and Christie played well. Well done to the sheep for their support for Josh Meekings! Next week's games massive now.

Hope they know what they're doing here...don't want to blow Europe on account of playing an ineligible player!

How about a huge surfer with Gary Warren all over it? Really feel for the guy missing his second final!

I'm not so sure, OCG. I put together a team of 7 for the semi and I've had interest from over 30 people so far in cup final tickets. I think it'll capture the imagination as the build-up gets into full swing!

Wow! A monumental ****-up by the SFA...who'd have thunk it?

"You want the truth, you can't handle the truth!" Celtic LOST because JH out-thought Delilah by going 4-4-2 Celtic LOST because Draper/Tansey outfought and outplayed Broon/Biton Celtic LOST because Warren/Meekings hardly gave Griffiths a sniff Celtic LOST because Matthews couldn't cope with Watkins' pace Celtic LOST because Gordon made a poor decision to dive at Watkins' feet Celtic LOST because Delilah took off the only player on Celtic's team who was anywhere near a match for ICT (Forrest) Celtic LOST because they failed to score from open play Celtic LOST because ICT played better footbal Celtic LOST because Ross/Shinnie and Raven combined to score a fantastic goal 3 minutes from the end of extra time Celtic LOST to the better team on the day, who wanted it more Celtic LOST because they thought it would be a cake-walk to the treble Dry your eyes and learn to take defeat gracefully.

This will rumble on because of the incompetence of the SFA throughout, but this will be my last word on it: The SFA's handling of the whole thing from the sound of the final whistle on Sunday has been pathetically weak and short-sighted (excuse the pun, given the vision impairment of the officials!) Once the graceless eejits at Celtic had decided to lay the blame for their defeat on everybody else bar themselves, a firm decision should have been made to shut the whole thing down so as not to undermine the authority of officials on or off the pitch. Something along the lines of "The referee's decision is final. Mistakes that are made by officials will be dealt with through our standard processes. This will be dealt with in the same way as every other incident of this nature.The end." Instead, the CO became involved, subsequent to the receipt of a whinging letter from Celtic FC to appease a sizeable proportion of their support who were hell-bent on blaming SFA links to Rangers for the defeat!!!! Another opportunity was missed to close the whole case down and instead the SFA sets a worldwide precedent and takes the case to the panel amidst global condemnation. Now they're in a real stooshie because the issue of whether the officials saw/didn't see the incident/offence of deliberate/accidental handball is scrutinised in every detail. Now the outcome can only end in humiliation for the SFA: (a) 6 officals did not see the incident and are therefore either blind or biased (b) the officials saw the incident but believed it to be acciental, in which case it shouldn't have got through the CO (who must therefore be bised/incompetent) © the officials saw the incident, but thought it hit his head, in which case they'd have to take the unprecedented step (worldwide) of banning Josh and facing the wrath of FIFA for setting the precedent The outcome looks to me to be a bit of a fudge, which opens the door for the Celtic mob to continue crying about SFA bias. That's what you get for being spineless!

Quite right, DD. It sounds like the incident was in the ref's report and Muir said he thought it hit his head. On that basis, the compliance officer should not have taken this forward because the process is for incidents not seen. The finding was that it was an "honest mistake by the officials". Shambles!

Cue a Celtic backlash claiming this is proof of institutional anti-Celtic sentiment at SFA. It won't end here - the SFA put themselves in a no win situation.

Superb! Now let's get back to looking forward to an historic event in our history. Move on - nothing to see here.

I don't blame him. I have no doubt that the whole sorry affair will have the effect of losing some people to the game - mainly fans!

According to STV Sport's piece on the whole affair, there is no cost to defending this - apparently it is different from appealing a red card (!?) The only cost would therefore be travel and I think club officals are at Hampden today anyway for discussions about the cup final. I think it should actually be the SFA that should pay Josh for "pain and suffering". Not sure I know any lawyers that come free tbh??? You do wonder how some of these journalists have a job? ...in fairness to the journo - he/she only claims there is no fee due to SFA, so bughtmaster is right to point out that there will be legal costs (which are not mentioned at all in the piece).

According to STV Sport's piece on the whole affair, there is no cost to defending this - apparently it is different from appealing a red card (!?) The only cost would therefore be travel and I think club officals are at Hampden today anyway for discussions about the cup final. I think it should actually be the SFA that should pay Josh for "pain and suffering".

He has to change it with Draper missing. 4-4-2 worked well on Sunday. Could even go to a diamond (ooh, err!) with Tansey behind Christie. Esson Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Ross Tansey Christie Williams Ofere Watkins subs: Polworth, Doran, Tremarco, Devine + others Think Devine needs to come on at some point for game time - same with Doran.

...hadn't seen this from FIFA head of refs: Boyce said: “This decision to suspend the player is setting a very, very dangerous precedent. “FIFA allow associations to make their own decisions but if this decision stands and Inverness feel it is unjust they would have every right to bring this matter up with the powers that be at FIFA.” (Daily Record) Bring it on!

So D-Day in Meekingsgate has arrived. I really don't know which way this will go. Given that the compliance officer only gets involved for incidents not seen by the officials, you have to assumre that the referee's report has no mention of the incident and that they will all claim not to have seen it. Watching the video again, the movement of the arm is not in Josh's favour, but the position of his head is. Unfortunately, all the furore in the background is irrelevant for the panel now that it has reached this stage. My hope is that the SFA will realise that they have bitten off more than they can chew and someone will have a word in the ear of the panel members to suggest that if there is any element of doubt, they should return a "not proven" verdict. Let's face it, if even Neil Lennon thinks this is a nonsense, it really must be obvious to every man and his dog.

Good find, Davie! Need to get this widely circulated. With any luck it will tee the SFA up for ridicule should the verdict go the wrong way tomorrow, which will help to fuel the fire and (hopefully) keep the club keen on pursuing the issue. Edit - It's OK - BBC have got hold of this now, so there should be good coverage.

Please, please, please let there be a contentious handball in the area by a Celtic palyer against Dundee tonight...letters of complaint, compliance officers, retrospective bans - bring 'em on!

....and a terrible decision by Gordon to race off his line and bring down Watkins, not to mention the tactical car-crash that was Ronnie Delilah taking off Forrest instead of Commons for Gordon! They need to look closer to home for reasons that they lost.

....you would think!

I am (naively) assuming that the compliance officer only gets involved if the incident does not appear in the ref's report and is therefore deemed to have been missed by the officials at the time. This is the only way the SFA/officials' stories can stack up. So, McLean and Muir will presumably say that their views were obscured and Muir will have to stick to his alleged story that he thought it hit Josh's face/head. The case for the defence therfore has to centre on the deliberate nature of the action. The close proximity is one aspect; the other is the head movement towards the ball, the eyes closed expecting impact, which clearly point to an attempt by Josh to head it. To deliberately handle it, he'd need to be looking at the ffffing thing! You could even argue that Muir's misconception that it hit Josh's head was driven by the player's movement with that intent. The Mail's poll is 75% in favour of the charge being dropped.

His opinion is irrelevant, as this is now a "legal" issue. Only facts count and if the panel go with opinion rather than fact then this needs to be taken to a proper court.

Glad to see that there's outrage across social media about this (apart from the irrelevant green-eyed monsters, of course). Even some Celtic fans acknowledge that Josh is the wrong target here and that he is a scapegoat. Michael Stewart has tweeted that this is nonsense. I hate that this has totally overshadowed the performance of our team and fans on the day.

I really can't see how this can be seen as deliberate. However, I fear that he'll be the scapegoat to appease the disgusting hoards. I'll say this: if Josh is banned for the final, we'll win it for sure. The sense of injustice would be irresistible and the boys would do it for Josh and Gary. Let's hope that, for once, there's a sensible outcome. There's rage about this from across Scotland.