Ajja

Hopefully there is a level, neatly trimmed playing surface for them to play on as well. The ploughed field that was Starks Park certainly helped the agricultiral brand of football on display from Raith and Ifil. EDIT: When is the draw for the next round ?

Thought that referee looked like a racist.

I thought there were section of play where McLean looked like an intelligent player but he was not coping with the close attention. He seems to want more space to play and against teams like Raith or Falkirk he won't get it. We may see something more from him against Hibs and Celtic. I actually think we might do better in these games as they will come out and play us. When Hearts did that we destroyed them, admittedly they came at us with nothing.

Kerr and McDonald had another poor game yesterday, they never got hold of the midfield, no crunching tackles or creative play whatsoever. Actually thought McDonald was marginally worse despite scoring the goal. Yet again, when we are without our 16 year old we look very light in midfield. The state of the pitch did not help our players, especially those who rely on pace (like Foster) but for me I though Ifil was the worst player in our team. I honestly thought he was going to gift them a goal everytime he went near the ball.

Yet again the lack of intolerence and understanding from so called grown ups in our support surfaces. What we are experiencing now is nothing different from what we have experienced since about 1995. With some pockets of moderate 'success' thrown in we are, and have been for 15 years now, a distinctly average football club. Every other club in Scotland outside them is dealing with the same disappointments and inconsistency. The environment has shifted down a few gears in this season in particular for everyone, even them, and possibly with the exception of a reasonably decent Hibs side we are all sinking fairly fast as Scottish football is drowned in a football industry starved of resource below the top tier and dominated by commercially marketed products coming from England, Spain and Italy. Why do we have to always be benchmarking our performance on the past ? We were doing this throughout the Calderwood years and now we are already doing it again. I don't believe that Calderwood would have done anything with our club this season, we are losing any player who shows any sign of consistency and we are increasingly disabled by money issues. Calderwood was losing a grip on the club because of these pressures, that is why he had to go. Its easy to say that he would do better without the measure of reality. Nobody is suggesting that McGhee is doing any better, results and performances would make a mockery of such claims. However, we are where we are and pissing and moaning about how we got there and who is responsible serves no purpose other than to promote divisions in the support and to make individuals look idiotic in their rants. The support yesterday was incredibly divided and almost duplicitous in its message. It was a drunken, baying crowd who were looking to blame and demonise almost every aspect of the club, even its own support. I'm surprised there were not people punching themselves by the end of the game. Cheering and booing players as they leave the park, fighting with fellow fans because they come from another part of the country, celebrating a goal like the cup itself had just been secured and then minutes later booing the team off and chanting 'your not fit...' and 'one Zander Diamond' with equal ferocity. It was all a little bizarre to be honest. I don't profess to know where the responsibility lies or the accountability but I am pretty sure that trying to run a football club in the current climate must be a pretty fucking challenging job. To manage a club like ours whose only real achievemnt in 15 years is levels of inconsistency that would have you tearing your own finger nails off must be just as challenging. Given the attitude of players prevelant in football these days, the lack of resources and the demands of a fan base starved of success I certainly wouldn't want to be giving it a go. If we are only willing to give the guy 30 games to make any sort of impact before we cry for change again then we should just get used to the idea that we will be this way for ever more. I used to enjoy posting on DT because I always thought it was the place where fans who can take the long view operate. They have understanding, they can show tolerence and patience in pursuit of the right answers. Sadly, its turning into a site where the primary concern is to turn in on itself and criticise, ridicule or punish everyone else.

There is often a fine line between a 'great' atmosphere and a hostile one. Today we saw both, the crowd was in good form early on but it was getting nasty as the game wore on. Its pretty fucking frustrating following the Dons, generally.

There was a little bit of niggle in the support. Mostly just the tension of the way the game was going. Folk not happy with the performance and making it known and other taking offence. some of it was due to folk standing the entire game. Didn't hear any chants for JC.

If he plays at Fir Park thats a cert. How old is Keane ? I'm convinced he will take the SPL for granted and will get very close attention from most defenders in the league. I think he will struggle.

Stick to predicting his death, you're better at that

If x = number of pounds and y = cost per week then z = number of weeks then z = 7.7. Ergo, we could have funded him until the end of March. Canny bit o' business that. Besides, Keane will be shit in the SPL. He will come up thinking its like playing against boys and get kicked around the place for 4 weeks then give up. I'll start the sweep now - total goals by season end = 4.

Do you think UTD negotiated a sell on fee when we stole him from them along with the bread from their kitchen table and the food from their children's mouths ? ....na, didn't think so.

While I am pleased to have McLean on board its not a move for the future, its only really trying to shore up this season. Scenario 1: He puts in a great performance over the next 4 months and gets a better offer in the summer. Best we can hope for is that he sees us as a shop window and lights up the rest of this season. Scenario 2: HE turns out to be horse and we look to offload him or worse, offer him a deal because he is the best we can get. Best we can hope for there is to cut our losses after a dull and disappointing end to the season. Back to the drawing board. Scenario 3: He takes time to settle and play reasonably OK but fails to attract any interest from bigger, richer clubs. He then goes on to sign for us and sets the SPL alight next season. Scenario 3 is the only outcome that will give us some long term prospect but it depends on us giving up on any progress this season so we can 'hide' McLeans talent in an average peformance. Fucking hate loan deals.

Kelly Clarkson at 11:55 would be nice

Did Killie manage to get Seve yet?

This eclipses the £200K for Chris Clark event. Any news on Jim Paterson yet ?

Is anyone else a little depressed that the main excitement this transfer window for us is whether we manage to SELL a player ? Someone on Mad saying Sky reporting McLean hoping to get out of his contract with Plymouth to sign for us. I fucking hate the tarnsfer window :hammer: :hammer:

Don't think Celtic could agree a fee with them for McDonald.

Good point, although both Mackie and FF seemed to be deploying the 'lean backwards and fall over 'cos the defender isn't willing to keep you up' tactic against Hearts. I think FF might have won the free kick for Young to score when he did it.

Stewart would be like Mark Kerr with goals in him and a bit of passion. He is a decent player but his petulance would have to be tempered. We are going to need a penalty taker now.

From the BBC transfer Day section:

Was probably always going to be a pre-contract with JoB so nothing new there. Hopefully without Miller or Wright on the books we will be forced to play football on the deck. I'm clutching at silver linings here....

There will still be Dons fans who employ the 'sit where you like' strategy. They are often too drunk to give a fuck or be able to find the right seat.

If they are not allocating seats for the Raith end I wonder if that means they anticipate Dons fans in there and would want to keep them together. They have made it as easy as possible for away fans to buy in the home end. I know there are a few have bought in there already, depsite our end not selling out yet.

Michael Stewart

I thought Murray blew it in the 3rd set. He had given himself several opportunities to close out the set and might have had a chance at a stirring come back but was not able to deliver on some very simple shots. There were a couple of points in the tie break where he had done all the hard work, got Federer out into the corners with some very good angle shots and he only had to get the ball over the net and the set was his. He blew it. Yes Federer was playing superb tennis and it was a major challenge for Murray but to get yourself into those positions and not deliver the basics is the problem here. Its about mental strength as well as technical ability and when the mental strength breaks down there is only one word to describe it.......