SPL fanzone

ABERDEEN

HAVING successfully made it to a fictional Uefa Cup final in midweek, it was satisfying to keep our chances of getting back into the real thing next season alive by beating United on a glorious Bank Holiday weekend in Aberdonia.

Shading an evenly-matched tie, we managed to contain United's physical presence, looking creative whenever we had the ball, even though Dangerous Dave Bus made an appearance.

We enjoyed serenading the Arabs with, 'You're not going to Europe', and now if we beat Motherwell, we could teach Lazarus a thing or two about coming back from the dead.

A few weeks back, even the club had written off our chances but now many fans may be forced to return, including at least one guy from the Supporters Club whose season ticket was last seen lying on the Hampden turf against Queens.

European Qualification AND denying Rangers the title?.... Carlsberg don't do last days of the season, they make awful lager, but if they did....

Mark Alexander
www.aberdeen-mad.co.uk

CELTIC

AS I was at charity function in Cork I had to make do with watching the Motherwell game on TV this week . Well done the Cobh CSC who raised 10,000 for cancer care. While the performance at Fir Park left a lot to be desired, it has to be said, again, that at this stage it's only results that count.

Winning ugly, grinding out a result, call it what you want, it's three points banked!

McDonald's quick reply to the Motherwell goal prevented them settling on their lead.

I don't know why we persist in marking zones rather than players but it causes panic every time a ball comes into the box.

We need to up our performance for the remaining fixtures. There's no point in seeing our rivals start to crumble if we don't do the business ourselves.

Two more games to play and we need to secure the points to keep the pressure building on the guys that apparently nobody likes. This is what championships are all about.

Tommy Dornan
www.celticsupporterassoc.co.uk

DUNDEE UNITED

AN INJURY-STREWN Aberdeen side coupled with the boost of Motherwell losing to Celtic earlier in the day and a very respectable and enthusiastic travelling contingent would seem like the perfect incentive for United to grab a vital three points on Saturday but, again, it sadly wasn't to be.

Danny Swanson certainly gave the Arabs something to cheer about with yet another brilliant solo goal, marking him out again as one of the brightest prospects on United's books and one of a slew of brilliant signings by Sir Craig of Levein.

Aberdeen prevailed, though, and brought themselves right back into the Uefa Cup hunt.

On that subject, I'm glad to see the SFA did not make even more of a mockery of the SPL by shifting Saturday's game against Rangers. Thankfully they remembered Rangers' intransigence in accommodating other teams requests to re-schedule games. The world does not solely revolve around the Old Firm!

Hamish Mackintosh
www.dundeeunited-mad.co.uk

FALKIRK

IT'S nice to get back to winning ways and Monday night's clash with The Jambos saw the Bairns return to the confident football of earlier in the season and yet another of our conveyer belt of youth talent, Chris Mitchell, making his debut in place of St Mirren-bound Jack Ross.

The youngster fitted in with ease alongside fellow academy graduates Scott Arfield, Darren Barr and man of the match Tam Scobie and when you consider that fellow academy players Mark Staunton and Mark Stewart were on the bench, John Hughes and his youth head honcho Eddie May deserve all the praise possible for the direction they are taking the club.

Right now with two games left, the chance of a second consecutive seventh place finish and the estimated £100K extra that it generates for the club is back on and with the sparkle and determination returning to the Bairns' form, we could be on for a rousing finish to the season.

Brian Guthrie
www.bairnstrust.com

GRETNA

RECENT performances from Gretna had offered some encouragement and had overshadowed the club's uncertain future. All that ended, however, within the first minute of the game at ICT on Saturday.

Lack of money at the club means overnight stays are a thing of the past and players had to report at Raydale Park for 7am in order to board the coach ready for the long haul to Inverness. Hardly ideal preparation for a game in which the spirit shown in recent weeks was missing and players looked like they wished they were already on holiday – which, given the season they have had, you can hardly blame them.

The SFL have said Gretna will be allowed to compete in the First Division next season, so long as the necessary improvements are made to Raydale Park. However, time is rapidly running out for a buyer to come forward and save the club. It's going to take another remarkable twist in the Gretna FC script to ensure that there will still be a club next season...

Scott Leslie
www.gretna-mad.co.uk

HEARTS

AFTER a couple of reasonable displays against St Mirren and Inverness, Hearts gave one of their worst performances of the season at Falkirk on Monday. There was little fight from Hearts and Falkirk deserved their victory for the effort they put into the game.

Eggert Jonsson and Christos Karipidis got pass marks from most people, while the rest of the players seemed to have their minds on the summer break.

While most supporters will probably be pleased to see the end of this season, there are still two games to play over the coming weekend. On Saturday, Hearts play Kilmarnock and on Sunday there will be a lot of old familiar faces at Tynecastle for Robbie Neilson's testimonial match.

Robbie has been awarded a place in the Kick Out Bigotry campaign's Hall of Fame and will attend a presentation at Downing Street next Monday. It is an honour for Robbie, who joins players such as Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs in the Hall of Fame.

Derek Watson
www.homst.com

HIBERNIAN

WITH our hopes of Europe all but gone if we didn't pick up anything from Sunday's game against Rangers, a battling performance from Hibs was required, and that's exactly what the home fans got.

While the match hardly set the heather on fire, it was pleasing from a home point of view to see some decent passing, effort and discipline – something that has been sadly lacking of late.

The point gained, allied to results elsewhere leaves us still very much in the mix for third although it's looking likely that we will need to gain a point from Parkhead this weekend if we are to keep the battle going to the last game.

I had the (mis) fortune to witness Lord George "it wasn't me" Foulkes' team in action at Falkirk while in front of the telly on Monday.

My, my how the mighty have fallen, which must be extra galling to the 'honourable' Lord since it was he who helped bring the misery onto that lot. From all of us, cheers Dode – we look forward to your rant next week………

Eddie Henderson
www.hibs.net

INVERNESS CT

I MENTIONED last week that Gretna would be no pushovers when they visit Inverness as their previous games have all been gutsy performances and despite their troubles, their players have done themselves proud in recent games.

Unfortunately for them, they came across an ICT side who showed no mercy for their plight by storming into the lead in a matter of seconds and going on to secure a 6-1 victory – our record SPL win.

It was good to see ICT youngsters Iain Vigurs and Rory McAllister getting in on the act with Vigurs making his mark in the final ten minutes of the game by setting one up and scoring another. Veteran Barry Wilson also impressed as he ran Gretna ragged.

Hopefully ICT can keep this kind of scoring form going in the final two games of the season and go to Falkirk in the same rampant mood. After this game a group of fans will be walking back to Inverness for charity so please give them a toot if you see them on the road.

Dave 'Gringo' Wilson
www.caleythistleonline.com

KILMARNOCK

WE HAD a chance to make sure we didn't finish second bottom on Saturday when we visited the Paisley Buddies; a fixture which had produced one goal in three outings so far this season.

Clash of the Titans it was not and it took us all our time to try and stay awake. An injury-time goal was enough to rob us of what little dignity we had left after this season and don't think any Killie fan would complain if we stopped the league now to give us more time to recover for our next assault on the SPL.

On a more positive note, the Killie Trust has announced the details of their upcoming annual Fifty for the Future fundraiser. Their Summer Ball will take place in the Caprington Suite of the Park Hotel on Saturday 7 June at 7:30pm. Tickets are £25 each and can be purchased by calling the hotel on 01563 545999.

All proceeds go to youth development and it will be a great night where we can at least put this season behind us and build afresh for next term.

Barry Richmond
www.killiefc.com

MOTHERWELL

DOES anyone actually want to finish third this season? Certainly the three who have been challenging for some time have been doing their best to throw it away.

We definitely haven't been moving forward but results elsewhere have meant that everything has stayed the same, and with Hibs and United facing tricky trips to Glasgow next week, a victory over Aberdeen could have us looking out the passports.

Aberdeen will not be easy to overcome, as they are the form team at present and have shown they can deal with pressure in the last two weeks. But we have beaten them twice already this season, and if we repeat the performance of the last time they visited Fir Park then there will only be one winner.

Motherwell are well known for throwing away glory when it comes knocking on the door but Mark McGhee seems to have brought a new mental toughness to the side. We are within touching distance of a wonderful achievement and it is time to rally for one final push.

Derek Wilson
www.firparkcorner.com

RANGERS

A JOYOUS, joyous week! Rangers showed magnificent poise to resist Fiorentina and progress to the Uefa Cup final. Kudos to all for a battling performance, especially the penalty takers.

I thought it was a great result for Scottish football, but after witnessing Scottish football's reaction to it, I'm tempted to say that it was for us and just us. There's no doubt that Rangers' achievement in reaching this final hasn't been met with the same fervour as greeted Celtic's run.

The attitude of Greater Manchester Police has also been pathetic.

Rangers fans have behaved magnificently on our travels this season and deserve to be treated with the respect others enjoy. As for their laughable insistence that fans without tickets should stay at home, I'd like to say that our law enforcement should visit Planet Earth more often.

There will be 100,000 Bears there – deal with it. And roll on next Wednesday – I simply cannot wait!

David Edgar
www.theRST.co.uk

ST MIRREN

THE summer can't come soon enough. The last two games at Love Street have been dire and the only bonus has been that we've managed to pick up three points in both.

In any other league in the world, a game between the second and third bottom teams would be a tense, nail biting affair in front of a big crowd. However, thanks to the SPL's rules, there was nothing to play for and we got a boring game. Not that I'm complaining too much – I'd rather been in this sort of situation than the one we were in 12 months ago.

Mark Corcoran didn't play on Saturday as he's heading back to Hamilton in the summer. On his day he was a fantastic player but he never produced the goods often enough.

It seems a number of other players could be following him through the exit door, although quite what other managers see in them is a mystery. Their departures will give Gus MacPherson the opportunity to strengthen which has began with the capture of Jack Ross.

Stuart Gillespie
www.saintmirren-mad.co.uk