AlexJones

James Vincent, what an absolutely world class run that was for the winner. Take a bow son. Not a particularly good team performance overall, but who cares! The better team won.

I think the nerves come from being favourites. Always more fun being underdogs.

I reckon we should do a Leeds at the 1975 European Cup Final. Have our former manager lead the team out to the pitch, and let him pick a team of his favourite former players for old times sake. Never mind actually winning the match.

Doncaster set to announce plans for a 14 team top flight next season.

Impressive that he's now ranked above Michael Sprott and Matt Skelton. It'll be tough for him to push on into the top 5, some big names there, all potential World Championship contenders once the Klitschkos retire. Particularly if the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF belts aren't unified. I reckon Cornish could sell out Hampden Park if you put him up against an English World Champion.

This should lead to a lengthy ban. Suarez got 4 months. A Dagenham and Redbridge player recently received a 6 month ban from the FA for the same offence. It's a health and safety matter as much as anything else. The authorities have a duty to protect players from this kind of thing.

I would rest the entire starting 11 for next weekend, bar Raven (assuming he gets his place back). This is a completely meaningless game. As others have said, it's easy to get a red card at Celtic park with the play acting and crowd reactions. Simply not worth the risk. And obviously, you don't want players picking up knocks. Sometimes when a player is afraid of injuries, and not fully committing themselves in challenges, they end up actually being more vulnerable to injury. On the other hand, match sharpness could be an advantage for us come the final. So giving a few players a 'run out' as a training exercises might not be a bad idea. I would be more prepared to 'risk' the likes of Watkins, Christie and Williams, safe in the knowledge that we have similar players in Doran, Vincent and Ross ready to step in and replace them. Probably sounds a bit harsh! Esson, Shinnie and Ofere aren't currently so replaceable. And our only other obvious shout if one of our centre halves get shelved would be Draper, who hasn't spent much time there this season. It's also a good chance to give our reserve players a 'cup final' of their own. Celtic Park is the biggest stage in the league. Polworth, Tremarco, Horner, Kink etc deserve a chance to show what they can do after waiting patiently on the bench for most of the season. There's no guarantee that we'd get hammered, on the contrary, I think a fully committed, hungry team desperate to prove a point, and wanting to produce a big performance to earn a place in the final, would be more likely to get a result against Celtic than a nervy, anxious, distracted first 11.

County surely on course to break into the top 10 next season... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32815544

Cue the Mike Bassett England Manager jokes.

Can't fault his record as Scotland manager, but truly abysmal to keep omitting Shinnie who has been arguably the best Scottish player (if not the best player, period) in the SPFL this season. Andy Robertson has missed half the season through injuries, and he's only played one game in the last couple of months. It's an absolute joke that even under these circumstances Shinnie still doesn't get a look in. One silver lining, at least he can focus 100% on the Scottish Cup Final without the added distraction of an international 6 days later. Hopefully a man of the match performance in that showpiece game will push him over the line, and get him into the next squad.

I don't see anything wrong with it. If they're producing products that people want to buy, fair play I say. Wish I'd bought one of the Ronny Delia Treble scarves on sale outside Hampden from one of said entrepreneurs. It would probably be quite valuable now.

Ryan Esson back to his best today. Probably man of the match. Vincent and Doran both impressed and played their way into contention for the final IMO. We made Dundee United look very average at times, no mean feat. (aided by some horrendous finishing from Ciftci!) I hope Hughes gives Kink, Polworth, Tremarco, Horner, MacKay and the rest of the fringe guys a run out at Celtic Park next week. Firstly, they deserve it. Secondly, we obviously don't our first 11 picking up injuries or red cards ahead of the final.

Slightly off topic, an in-depth interview with Ronny Delia. The reporter is banging on about Aberdeen, big Ronny retorts that they are the best team he has seen 'besides Inverness' in Scotland! Predictably, the BBC jobsworth completely ignores this response, and quickly asks yet another question about the Dons. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/32673556

Disappointed that there isn't a picture of the £1,225 jacket. Must be pretty fancy. That's almost enough to buy Dougie Imrie.

Wonder if he's used all his time off to do something productive, like his coaching badges? Or watching the entire DVD boxset of 24?

I concur with Morayjag's optimism. Collum was much more level-headed in his last outing at TCS. Hopefully he plays it cool on the big day! Think he has a touch of the Joey Bartons, every now and then the red mist descends and he just feels an uncontrollable impulse to do something extreme, except in his case it's flashing a red card or awarding a contentious penalty, rather than actually punching someone in the face (thankfully). Does our resident psychologist have any theories as to what makes Mr Collum tick? IMO, someone should send him a couple of Buddhist mediation tapes. Get him chilled out. The everything should be fine!

Surely with Hughes modelling our footballing philosophy on Guardiola's Barcelona, it makes sense for us to go back to our vertical red and blue stripes? Just a suggestion.

I would prefer we kept faith with the guys who got us where we are. The players who qualified for Europe should be the players who play in Europe. We should reward them with long contracts before we go out looking for new signings. Let us also not forget the club's philosophy up until now, to sign hard working young(ish) players from the lower reaches, and give them the platform to fulfil their potential. Shinniesta is the classic example. He certainly wasn't the finished product when he broke into the first team, in fact he was arguably the worst left back in the SPL. But persistence paid off. Today he's the best left back in the SPL. Would we have been better off shelling out for an 'experienced' player like Gary Naysmith back then over the green, rookie Shinnie? I think not! Let's not deviate from the strategy that has brought us so much success.

I was hoping Man Utd's slump would continue so we'd get them in the Europa. Looks like we're going to have to settle for Liverpool instead. Dave the Rave will nip in at the back post in the last minute to knock his former club out. I guess we could still draw United in the later rounds if they finish third in their CL group.

It doesn't feel like so long ago that we were getting humped by Albion Rovers and East Stirling in the 4th tier. A truly meteoric rise! Congratulations to the players and coaching staff.

If Chick Young were here, he would say "Danny Williams doesn't score ordinary goals!"

Phew, what a game. Massive, massive result for us. Glad I wasn't out there, horrendous conditions! Credit to the players for a great performance. Lots of brave challenges and solid last ditch clearances. We pressed United hard all over the pitch and won the midfield battle. The only other time I've seen us press so hard this season was in our 3-1 home win over Hamilton. Wish we played that way more often, the players are good at it. Williams, Vincent and Eddie caused United problems every time they got the ball. Meekings looked dangerous when he surged up the right flank, if he was more selfish and willing to have a dig he would probably have gotten on the scoresheet. One thing I would say though, you can see why we've had so much trouble holding a lead recently. Sitting super deep and hoofing the ball straight back to United every time. That was precisely the tactic that undid us time and again late on in matches under Butcher. It just invites wave after wave of balls into our box. United had 2 gilt edged chances late on. We need an out ball. The hoof over the top for Marley or Doran to chase almost never works. Hughes keeps telling them to stay on the last man, but coming deep for a ball to feet from time to time would be a safer bet IMO and relieve the pressure. Just a small gripe!

Doran's goal-scoring record is second to none. I wonder how many more he'd have if we'd put him up front rather than Watkins? Surely it's worth swapping the two around, even if only for 20 minutes in a game. The team definitely needs shaking up. Everyone has figured us out. Our current form fills me with dread for next season. Look at what's happened to Motherwell. Second place last year, relegation dogfight this year. That could easily happen to us. All the lower teams are improving, and we're going backwards.