Duck snort

Ainsworth's always been decent against Thistle, but the Motherwell fans have been very critical of him this season. Been in and out of their team all year.

Both teams should be a lot more relaxed now tomorrow after the Motherwell result tonight.

When the goal line officlals were first used they were on the opposite side from the linesman but they moved them after refs said they didn't like it because they were on their side of the diagonal they take when the action is near the goals. They said they were automatically finding themselves in bad positions in avoiding getting too close to the extra official and asked for them to be shifted over to the linesman's side. You don't see them make a decision because all the discussions with the ref are via their headsets. I have seen them miss some obvious decisions though.

Absolutely. The line about the refereeing was his closing summary. Think he had to stop there because he was about to burst into tears. Really unprofessional. There's no doubt that the missed handball changed the result as ICT would have struggled to come back from 2 down, assuming the pen was scored, with 10 men in the 2nd half, but that's football. Refs get things wrong. Until the authorities get their fingers out and allow video reviews we'll continue to get those mistakes. It's not as if Celtic have never profited from similar errors. Never been to a Scottish Cup Final so might try and get along if ICT and Falkirk can't sell it out between them.

Took a trip to Stenny today for East Stirling v Berwick to see how Kevin is doing. Turned out to be a bit of a waste of time as Berwick were so much better than East Stirling the poor lad was barely in the game. He was unlucky when he smashed one off the underside of the bar that came down just the wrong side of the line at the end of the only decent passage of play East Stirling had in the 90 minutes. Other than that he had to live on mainly a diet of long balls with very little support from a woeful midfield. He held the ball up pretty well and kept working hard though. It wasn't a popular decision with the home fans when he was subbed with about 25 minutes left with Berwick 3 up. Chris Dillon was on the bench for Berwick but didn't get on.

Is it not Motherwell that have screwed things up? They must have been predicted to finish in the top 6 after finishing runners up last season. The whole system is a farce. A league that can result in one team playing another 3 times at home and once away, as is going to happen this season, has got to be wrong.

Nesbit just made it 4 from 5 with a last minute winner at Elgin. East Stirling just outside the play off places now.

I didn't actually think Collum had a bad game yesterday. There weren't any major decisions to make so that probably helped. He should have given Davidson a 2nd yellow for the blatant handball, but given we were 3 up in stoppage time when it happened it didn't affect the game. Having seen him ref us 3 times over the last few weeks it's obvious he's become card shy since the SFA sat him down, and that's probably a good thing. Before that he was far too quick to get the cards out.

Anyone else read Tommy Wright's post match comments? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31889149 Aye ok Tommy so your keeper only had 1 save to make. What about the 3 he didn't make, and the one off the post! Your team had 2 attempts on goal in 90 minutes. Anyone remember the penalty claim he says could have changed the game? I've no memory of St Johnstone players appealing for anything.

Nonsense. I wouldn't for a second expect the club to divulge the reason. As other's have said that's standard practice when it comes to employment law. I do know they wouldn't sack anyone without due cause. McMillan's no longer a Jags player and that's that as far as I'm concerned. Couldn't care less what he's done.

Yes! Great 3 points.

Mackay Steven was offside when van Dijk played it forward. Very close but was offside. Izaguirre's handball was very similar to the two penalties Osman has conceded this season. Not deliberate handball but arm raised. Now I have no doubt Celtic could have raised their game if they'd needed to, but when you're as far ahead as they were tonight you don't need the debatable decisions going your way too. We did make it far too easy for them though. Osman and Bannigan should have been in about them from the start. Let them know they were in a game. I think it's time to give Bannigan a rest. He just wasn't at the races tonight. I'm sure he'll come back but would like to see Fraser alongside Osman on Saturday.

Just rewound to watch the 2nd goal again. Tight but Mackay-Steven looks offside from van Dijk's pass. Not mentioned at all by the commentators. Doesn't alter the fact they're streets ahead though.

Just been trying to check the rule. Certainly not allowed to play top flight league games on Champions League nights. None of those games on 9th Dec involved top flight clubs so not sure if it applies to the Cup games or not. Ridiculous rule anyway.

Wouldn't be allowed to play it on the 17th/18th. There are Champions League games that night. UEFA rule.

Hayes has said on Twitter that Paton didn't spit on him so no idea why the SFA have still charged him.

Open all mics on Radio Scotland was hilarious today. Don't think the woman who was covering our game identified a Thistle player correctly the whole 90 minutes. She thought Higgy scored the first, then missed the sitter and Bannigan was fouled when Imrie went off. Every time she was on the PTFC commentary identified a different player from her.

I refer you again to the link I posted only earlier this afternoon (post 584) to the opinion of a man with 40 years experience at the EU which contradicts almost everything you state here. I'm sure you'll understand if I place more weight on his opinion.

Cameron has already said that if Scotland votes Yes he would support our application to the EU. Similarly Spain have said they wouldn't veto a Scottish application as the referendum is a democratically agreed process, unlike the one in Catalunya which has not been agreed by the Spanish government. I don't believe for a second that Scotland will have an issue being accepted by the EU. You can go through all the legal arguments either way but ultimately the EU is a very pragmatic organisation and removing Scots who have been EU citizens for 40 years would cause all sorts of problems. The Scottish Govt has already said it wouldn't be looking to enter the EU to the detriment of any of the current members, so why would any object. It's worth reading the opinion of Graham Avery who was involved with the EU for many years and took part in previous enlargement negotiations. He has no side in the argument and knows what he's talking about. http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_EuropeanandExternalRelationsCommittee/Meeting%20Papers/Graham_Avery_Written_Evidence.pdf

Yep, and got the pish taken out of him by a punter that had paid the most in an auction to play in the game. Ricksen never seen again!

McCall says he's looking for someone with more pace.

Excellent programme. The chat with him, Souness and Dalglish was good. Had never seen the Dalglish open goal miss after being set up by Hansen before. Shocker! However, Hansen may be a good pundit himself but he's not a good judge of one if he thinks Shearer's one of the best of the new brigade! Don't suppose he was going to say anything else having worked with him the last few years right enough.

Love the World Cup but that game leaves a bad taste in the mouth. This is a seriously ordinary Brazil team. They've kicked Rodriguez for 90 minutes and the ref let them do it. Brazil conceded over 30 fouls and only got yellow cards for stopping the keeper kicking the ball and at the penalty. Any time Colombia looked liked building anything they were stopped by a niggly foul. Really hope Germany win the semi.

John Oliver gets it right. Love the World Cup, but hate FIFA.

You're right of course. I didn't phrase my post very well (it was late!). I should have said countries of a similar size with comparable economies to Scotland's. The No side of the debate love to bring Greece up, but there are very few similarities with them economically.