[Angle_eyes]

It looks like we've blown the league, but nevertheless we still have to win our last two matches, starting tomorrow night against St. Mirren.

Walter has to pick the team he thinks will win the match, but personally i'd make sure Cousin isn't near the team. We haven't looked like scoring goals from open play recently, so surely Boyd has to start.

I know there's the goal difference issue, but we should really forget about that and only concern ourselves with winning the match. If we can get a couple of goals ahead then of course we can go for more goals (although Walter probably wouldn't).

St. Mirren have nothing to play for, but don't concede very many goals. It'll probably be a struggle. It's a disgrace if we can't win though. We've virtually handed the title to Celtic already, but at the very least we should ensure they must win their last match.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I don't know about you guys but I feel exactly like I did three years ago in that I just wish the league was over now- the sooner the better. After not being able to beat Motherwell I just can't see any light at the end of the tunnel. Even the Scottish Cup final doesn't hold much appeal. Regardless of what happens it really won't have been what we would call a bad season. More a frustrating season. We have one cup. We done way better than I would have expected under Walter in Europe. In the league I didn't expect us to win this season and even less so after selling Hutton in January but the frustrating thing is we had such an advantage and threw it away game after game.

I really had to laugh at some of the comments on FF about scoring 6 or 7 goals tonight. There is not a chance in hell of us scoring even more than 3 goals tonight and if at the end of it we win 1:0 I'll be happy that at least we have taken it till the final day- albeit with Celtic in the driving seat. St Mirren are no mugs at home and we saw that the last time Celtic visited there when Nakamura had to cheat them out of 3 points with a dive at the end. I think tonight we will be lucky if we can scrape a win and it will be a much tougher games than the majority of our support think- mind you on FF there are even people calling for Walter's head. :dielaugh:

Cuellar might still be a big miss for us tonight. I think they are capable of scoring and if we play like we have played at the back in Cuellar's absence then we could get caught. At this time we don't have a settled side still so god only knows what the team will be. I was surprised that when Walter decided to bring McCulloch and Adam back on Saturday he played Novo in left midfield.

I think he will stick with Cousin again tonight and maybe play Darcheville alongside him in a 4-4-2. I'm still not sure about Boyd but as Angle said he's the only one in our squad with goals in him. If Smith doesn't start him then he'll have to give him at least half an hour if he does bring him on.

I think we'll set out like this tonight:

----------------Alexander

Broadfoot-----Weir-----Dailly---------Whittaker

Davis-----Ferguson------Thomson-----Adam

-----------Cousin-----Darcheville

Then again who knows. I just hope we don't see more of that hopeless and desperate long ball pish we were treated to in the second half at Fir Park. St Mirren would soak that up all day.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Like you, i'd settle for any win tonight. I don't read FF at all, but nothing surprises me with some of those clowns :howler:

I'm pretty apathetic about the rest of the season too.

 

[Teddy Bear]

i think Thomson is injured

can see this being a real struggle and dropping points tonight, never mind scoring 6 or 7 goals!

 

[Teddy Bear]

Thomson not injured obviously

alexander
broadfoot
weir
dailly
whittaker
davis
fergie
thomson
novo
boyd
jcd


looks like a shite defence...

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I read today that Thomson had a virus at the weekend but has recovered from but his foot is still giving him problems.

A 4-4-2 then by the looks of things. It's a very attacking looking side and maybe even a bit too much so. As you say TB the defence doesn't look too clever so I thought Smith might have made the defence more solid to begin with.

I think it will be very cagey. It is up to us though to impose ourselves from the off, dictate the game and then make sure we turn up for the second half.

 

[Angle_eyes]

I think we'll win tonight. Probably 2-0.

The defence isn't great, but that team should be strong enough to win this.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Boyd scores after 4 mins. I bottled out of backing him to score the 1st goal and backed him to score at anytime :doh:

 

[Angle_eyes]

2-0 Darcheville after 24 mins. Just when it looked like St. Mirren were getting back into the match.

 

[Angle_eyes]

3-0 Darcheville after 68 mins. Too much of a gap between the 2nd and 3rd goals really. For goal difference to be a factor at all I feel we'd have to score another 2 goals in the last 15 mins or so.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Good to see Beasley back on the pitch for the first time since November :thumbsup:

Cousin coming on for Darcheville. Maybe he'll score, but I still say he's a waster and we're well shot of him in the summer.

 

[Angle_eyes]

3-0 final score.

We take it to the last day at least, but goal difference certainly will not be a factor. What really annoys me is the difference in attitude between this match and the Motherwell match at the weekend. We scored early enough against Motherwell and were dominating the match, but as soon as we scored we got edgy and you could visibly see us getting deeper and deeper instead of playing the same way and killing the game off.

Tonight we get the early goal, but because we need goals we continue to get forward and try to score a few more. Who do we blame for this difference in approach? Personally, I blame Smith, because even if he hasn't told the players to sit deeper he can obviously see what's happening and should be out screaming at them to push further up the pitch.

Nothing's really changed tonight. Celtic were massive favourites before and they're still massive favourites. So many things are in their favour it would be a bigger shock than helicopter Sunday if they don't win it.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

Good result and decent performance. Much better than I expected as I thought St Mirren would be tough to break down but we applied ourselves well and it could really have been double figures with better finishing. Not to worry though. Not scoring more is not going to lose us the league ultimately. If it does come down to goal difference then we would still have lost it at Fir Park after not capitalising on dominating the first half and then throwing away the lead.

It now goes to the last game and all we can do now is try to win our match which is no forgone conclusion. Aberdeen always give us a tough match up there and recently have done very well against Celtic in the 3 games they played. I expect an equally tough match for their last home game of the season. Aberdeen could still finish 4th which is a difference in money at the end of the season. And likewise I expect Dundee United to give Celtic a tough match for exactly the same reasons.

 

[Angle_eyes]

And likewise I expect Dundee United to give Celtic a tough match for exactly the same reasons.

You'd like to think so and we have to believe they will try their best, but there also have to be doubts. We've done them out of a European place for next season twice, a lot of them are probably friendly with Barry Robson, and I doubt that Noel Hunt has the same integrity as Scott McDonald.

Actually, anyone offering odds on Noel Hunt to score an own goal? :lala:

I work with a Dundee United fan and even he admits he wouldn't mind handing Celtic the points. Wee [email protected]

 

[Teddy Bear]

Decent performance but i thought we tired in the game, much like we did against Motherwell.

I suspect it will be the same against Aberdeen as well, which would have been a difficult fixture at the best of times.

Already written off this season to be honest as i dont see there being any way that celtic are not taking 3 points off dundee united - if their performance doesnt merit the victory then there will be another innocent and entirely coincidental refereeing mistake to help them out.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

You may be right Angle. I don't see Noel Chunt and Willo Fud taking any gratification from doing Rangers a favour. Neither do I see the Polish goalkeeper doing the same. Also I heard today that Levein may rest Lee Wilkie as a booking would see him miss the first 3 games of next season which would not help us. But at the same time I can't believe these players would cheat the fans who pay their wages and hopefully their bonuses at the end of the season are linked to their league position or at least their win bonuses are important to them.

More than that though I think they have a manager who demands the best from every game and passionately loses the plot if he thinks he's not getting it or he's been cheated out of it. Their chairman is not in a good way and I think that will ultimately play the biggest part in their performance over who their favourite team is. That might be naivity on my part though.

I think we all knew when we failed to beat Motherwell we fecked it up big time and that will ultimately seal our fate. Over the course of the season and more so in recent weeks some decisions have not helped but at the same time we had it in our own hands and gave it away.

 

[lions67]

You'd like to think so and we have to believe they will try their best, but there also have to be doubts. We've done them out of a European place for next season twice, a lot of them are probably friendly with Barry Robson, and I doubt that Noel Hunt has the same integrity as Scott McDonald.

Actually, anyone offering odds on Noel Hunt to score an own goal? :lala:

I work with a Dundee United fan and even he admits he wouldn't mind handing Celtic the points. Wee [email protected]

THAT is weak!!...if you guys lose the league, your gonna blame it to a fix??
how about blame yourselfs first. you guys had this in the bag, yet let it slip.
no one to blame but Rangers....PERIOD!

 

[Angle_eyes]

Excuse me, where did I say that? I think if you bothered to read other threads you'd see that I say we have no-one else to blame other than ourselves. Must still be sore over the hockey or something

 

[maradona10]

In Lions defence Angle, there are other posts which I've deliverately ignored until they are worth something that do state that people on here are annoyed at certain decisions (Aberdeen for example at Celtic Park) but I am sure deep down its the results and performances that annoy you most p

 

[Angle_eyes]

I honestly don't give a damn about refereeing decisions that have gone in Celtic's favour at this stage. If we'd won 5 out of our last 6 matches we'd have won the league. Simple as that.

I also wonder if it's worthwhile reminding people that this is only football we're talking about and it doesn't compensate for real life