Tannochsidebear

Reflecting back, I am actually gutted we didnt take all 3 points as our performance, second half especially, certainly deserved it, but yet again we take less than we deserve in a vital away match which is worrying as this is quite a trend in these group games now as you could easily say we didnt get what we should have in Moscow, Vienna, Bern & now Porto (I dont think we could claim to deserve more than a point in Spain). At the end of a 6 game group that can and usually will be decisive. In my book this now means we have a MUST win against Porto at Ibrox, which is a tough ask as Porto will be much smarter against us second time around. If we fail to win that one, it means we have to go to Holland and win, which hardly anybody does, and then beat Young Boys at Ibrox to have any chance which is a big ask. If we take a point next time out and the Dutch beat the Swiss at home as I expect then the group has Feyenoord & Young Boys on 6, and Porto and us on 5. If we can take a point in Holland and the Swiss & porto draw it leaves us in a great position going into our final home match against the Swiss where a win would take us through. That however is a lot of ifs and buts and that is why I think we need to win our two home games to go through, which I am worried about as we have never managed to win our 3 home games in any group in European competition since groups were brought in in the early 90's. I might be wrong but I dont think we have ever won more than 1 out the 3 games before? I'm really enjoying the ride though, and it is of great pride to watch us competing at this level against some really good sides and more than holding our own against them. I for one cant wait till next year and we step it up to the big cup instead of the Thursday cup. Only the small matter of beating the bheasts and their referees to the title this season then negotiating 4 rounds of qualifiers against other Champions to get there, simples!

I went for Morelos for another outstanding display. As well as a fantastic goal, he cracked one off the bar when outjumping bigger defenders, forced a fantastic save from their keeper from another header, got 3 Porto players booked when they had to bring him down as he went past them, and ran the whole back line ragged all night. On another night he could have got a hat-trick but when you look at what he contributed it was another immense performance in a big game against one of the top sides in Europe. Barasic, Helander & McGregor deserve special praise as well and there were no passengers as everyone put in a great shift. Obviously Jack had a brain melt and gave away a very poor ball and then failed to close the man down to prevent him getting his worldy into the top corner, but he played well and won a lot of tackles that aside.

Morelos, I thought only he and Barasic got pass marks. I'm surprised at the positive comments for Goldson, he was roundly slated on our bus going back from the game, and the general consensus is that he is clearly the 4th best of our 4 centre backs, yet is the only one certain to play. Of course there were many more disappointing performances than his yesterday, Ojo is an empty shirt when the battle is on, Arfield hasnt hit the heights this season, Davis looked like international football is too much for him, (he can play for us or NI but not both!), and of course for the second time in 3 games Tav has cost us a win with a defensive howler, which impacts on his creativity as he tries too hard to force an assist to make up for it and then nothing goes right for him. I wouldnt argue if Polster plays any time soon and Tav is "rested". Morelos was his usual handful for the opponent, drawing 2 bookings (should have been more) when he has escaped his man, and getting his goal with another cool finish. Barasic contributed and we were far more dangerous looking down that side than Tav's all day long and even more so when Kent came on. I am excited by what that partnership could develop into. With the bheasts at Pittodrie and us entertaining Motherwell after them on Sunday, we have the chance to outscore them and go back to the top. I dont expect Dolly to get anything from that game (other than bragging rights for hating us more than their guests), but if the tims win 2-0 we can go top by winning 3-0. That is the least I expect from the next round of fixtures.

On the bus through to Edinburgh and really looking forward to this game, but with a lot of anxiety. Never an easy place to go and win, and win we must, and it’s always difficult after the international break to hit the ground running again. I expect the usual direct style from a very physical hearts team and I expect no protection from Clancy who we seem to get with alarming regularity. It will of course be entirely in our own hands and if we start the game at the right pace we can enforce our game on our hosts and should be too strong and have too much firepower for them. I will gladly take any kind of win today and move another important step towards our goal.

So they can’t slag his discipline, goals, overall play or attitude so they attack him for not giving himself up to a Scottish media that have done nothing but attack him since day 1. shameful article by a useless journo at a paper that hates us passionately. Ban the rhebel!!!!

I cant see the tims dropping anything with their 4 home games plus up to Dolly where they havent lost in years, so to stay in front we will need to pick up the maximum.

Our game v Ross County is away @der Berlinerand we will have 3 away league games in a row at Ross, Livingston & Hamilton (due to our home match v St Johnstone being cancelled for the semi final) all before the next international break, so 5 league games in the next month and 4 of them are away. It’s a big ask but get 15 points out of that and we are bang in contention.

I didnt realise the Hibs game is on the Friday before Christmas, I thought it was midweek. That is absolutely disgraceful. What is usually party night for workplaces all over the country and they schedule this game for a Friday night, which leaves a completely blank weekend. Disgusting.

These were all pretty much as expected I suppose. Dolly midweek and trying to get to the other side of Junkie city the midweek before Christmas are 2 lovely trips for Bears to not look forward to.

Superb once again @26th of foot, I had been waiting since the full time whistle for your unique insight into all matters Dandy and you didn’t disappoint. “Flaccid big dick” indeed! Wonderful stuff!

Fantastic content being provided for a fiver a month. Every bear should be subscribing to this instead of buying a paper or paying for content elsewhere. Watched a few of these behind the scenes videos this season and they are a superb insight to the before and after of the game with the main highlights thrown in as well.

Agreed @Gaffer it was a truly fantastic save, of which shagger himself would have been immensely proud of. There were a few other good saves as well but that will be save of the season I am quite sure.

I did say that was what we should have got a year ago, when we should have sold him and kept Alnwick as back up. If this is the last year of his contract we have handled this badly.

Great spot, that is an absolutely cracking quote!

Under no circumstances should we be releasing Wes on a free. He is a good keeper who has a real value in terms of selling on to the right market. A fee in excess of £3M should have been achievable this time last year, but with him not playing much last season this will have gone down but he would still be a good investment for a team looking for a dependable keeper, and a seven figure sum should be the minimum we should be looking for.

Great summing up of the difference in him this year, and yesterday's added movement in coming deep to let Stewart go in behind and ensure Dolly hadnt a clue where to go or who to follow was an absolute joy to watch, and I hope we get the chance to see those two improve their understanding and connection as it has the potential to be sensational. One game doesnt win you anything in the big picture, and it could all come crashing down over the next 7 days of course should we lose in Switzerland and then not break down Accies but for now we have the right to enjoy what was a simply sensational team performance. As good as Morelos was yesterday, and I loved every minute of his performance, he didnt even get MOTM for me as Davis was on another planet yesterday!

That was one of the finest midfield performances I’ve seen in years from Davis today. I wasn’t too fussed about bringing him back but he has been top class this season. I think a lot of the improvement in Jack this season is down to the influence of Davis in there beside him. Stewart was impressive today as well and a big shout out to the manager for changing our normal formation which I’m sure Dolly has worked on how to play against as they didn’t have a clue what to do when Morelos came deep or went wide.

Looking forward to the game today and hope we are right up for it from the first whistle. We we still owe Dolly an absolute tanking but we may have to settle for a comfortable win (i’ll Take any win!) as their brand of physical anti-football will be in full flow as usual today and will no doubt be ably assisted by the totally incompetent Madden (that’s as nice as I can be about that rat) I can see another very similar line-up to the last couple of games with McGregor, same back 4, Davis Jack Kamara behind Ojo & Arfield with Morelos trying not to fall for McKennas antics. If we play with a high intensity and tempo Dolly can’t live with us.

Best consigned to the dustbin that one, the only saving grace is we won. I was toying with Kamara just for the goal but the keeper had it covered until the deflection so went with the other end and picked McGregor, made one good save, controlled his box well, tried to start counter attacks and wasn't as bad as the others. If I was to give marks out of 10, only McGregor, Barasic & Morelos would get a 5, the rest lower.

That was just as bad a performance as the league game at this ground 12 months ago, the only difference is that we got a scrappy goal this time instead of them. Totally bullied, every midfielder lost their battles, attacking players made really poor decisions when in good positions, defenders were second best in physical contest. Livvy outfought us, outworked us, and for most of the game outplayed us. But we won! We we now have 2 massive games coming up and we cannot have any repeat of the attitude too many players (who have been fantastic so far) showed tonight. Jack had his worst game in months for example, and he wasn’t even the worst in the team!

I must say I’m absolutely astonished at that line-up, but I can’t be as surprised as Stewart, Defoe, Edmundson or Docherty. Three of them would be as well getting their agents to start working if they want to play first team football.

I must say I’m absolutely astonished at that line-up, but I can’t be as surprised as Stewart, Defoe, Edmundson or Docherty. Three of them would be as well getting their agents to start working if they want to play first team football.

It was interesting to hear Gary McAllister say he felt there would be one or two changes but not wholesale changes as we got a tough game off Livvy a couple of weeks ago and we lost there last season so no room for complacency. It then does ask the questions of why we have such a huge squad in terms of numbers if many of them are not considered capable of rotating into important games. With Dolly on Saturday and the Swiss next midweek this is the only opportunity to keep the team fresh for those massive games around the corner. If they cant trust the likes of Stewart, Polster, Edmundson, Docherty to be better than tonight's opponents then we really need to offload. Strength in depth cant be only for suspensions and injuries. Be one of the more interesting team news line-ups I suspect, full of talking points no matter the line-up, and as long as we win, the management will have got it right!

8/11 is a great price for Porto, the top seeds in our group, 3rd top seeds in the whole competition, to win a group where they have already beaten the second seeds and the third best (in rankings) lost to the bottom club. If Porto beat the Dutch in MD2, this price will shrink considerably, to about 1/3 or less, so anyone doing accas would be well advised to include them at that price. I cant as it would be betting against my own team and I dont allow myself to bet on us not to win, or for the tims to win anything, but that is very tempting.

Was it not outside the box? I was pretty much in line with it in the main stand and it looked outside to me. It’s a clear handball though and the ref had a clear view of it.