eightball

Agreed. When fully fit and with lots of match practise Smith may be first pick, but at the moment he has a heck of fight on his hands to get his position back. Papac has done very well at LB this season especially considering it's not his natural position. Whittaker has looked better on the left than on the right when asked to play there IMO.

League, without a shadow of a doubt. Anything else is a bonus. Grinding out results in the league from now to the end of the season would do me!

Can't disagree with you really. A win is a win though, and it is difficult to maintain a high level of play when challenging on 4 fronts. The game on Wednesday was just tremendous though, if we can play like that over March then we'll be well on course to having a very successful season come May.

This article in the Scotsman with Dailly has an interesting little paragraph: Compare that with the state the team spirit the club had under PLG! IMO Walter Smith is doing a magnificent job both on and off the pitch with the players he has at his disposal.

One other argument that you could make is that if the teams and player involved in the transfer were higher profile then the transfer could have been ratified. Not that I'm cynical you know...

I think FIFA may have procrastinated so long over this decision just to put teams/players off in the future. The rules are clear, and although there are various arguments on their merits, Cousin did not meet the criteria to make the transfer. TBH I feel sorry for Cousin, he could have been playing more often if FIFA had come out straight away and said 'No'.

I'm happy enough with this. We need as big a squad as possible to make sure we win the title and at least one of the remaining cup competitions.

This is the biggest non-story ever! Definitely just a warning to the Spaniards though. Having said that, as part of the GAWA I would fooking love it if we did end up going to Euro 2008!

And do you think we have the right players at the club to successfully play a 3-5-2 system? I'm not so sure that we do.

I think he might actually be worse!

I've met both Hartson and Ivan Campo, and neither were fat in real life, but when you see them on TV they look like a couple of bloaters!

Generally agree with you. However, where do a fit Webster and Smith fit into your plans?

From what I have read on Cousin's history at clubs in the past is that he tends to start really well and looks like a quality player. But then for whatever reason his form tends to dip, then he falls out with someone at the club, then he falls out with the fans (in one instance he gave them the finger when he was at Lens) and then moves on. Personally I'd like him to move on ASAP, but that is in FIFA hands. He's a decent player, but not as good as many make him out to be.

Do you not remember how bad we were in Europe when employing the 3-5-2 system??? 4-4-2 for the away leg in Greece with Boyd and Naismith up front would do me. Wattie will not do this tho...

Do they do a nice salad?

When he was on form and fit he was probably one of the world's greatest. Unfortunately those times were few and far between. It would be interesting to see who could eat an apple through a tennis racquet quicker, Ronaldo or Ronaldinho...

Bryan Robson always has and always will be an appalling manager. I was astounded when he got the Sheff Utd job. as he is totally talentless. Steve McLaren could do a better job...

Agree with the above. Broadfoot did well, although when he did get forward his corsses weren't great. Cuellar was awesome again tonight. One or two lapses towards the end, but recovered well. Davis was quite good on his club & european debut. A few good passes although i thought he looked a little jaded towards the end - lacking match fitness. McGregor didn't have much to do tonight, so that says a lot for the defence.

I'm off to Hungary on Tuesday so I'll miss the game. Hopefully when I check the scores we'll have gone through, however going by tonight's performance I doubt it!

Trapattoni is a great manager, there is no doubt about that. However ROI are an average team at the moment. I'm with Gav on this on.

You make a lot of good points above, but I think this is the most salient point.

So how do we think Cousin did tonight? Thought he did OK, had a few good touches. That one desperate pass will stick in the minds of most I think. What do we think the outcome of the FIFA review will be? Personally I think they are stalling and stalling as if to give hope, but the final outcome will be a 'NO!'.

It seems plain daft to me that WS didn't play his form strikers in this game. Naismith & Boyd would have had a field day against this team. Agree with the comments on Adam, he didn't deserve the chance he got tonight and Burke should have been starting. Hopefully WS will learn from this as next week now becomes a cup final.

Aye, Steve Davis must have thought he was back at Fulham under Lawrie Sanchez! LOL!

Have to think that had Boyd been given the chances that Novo missed that we'd have a comfortable lead in this tie. Davis and Broadfoot did OK, although the final pass sometimes was the wrong choice or just off target. I thought Hemdami was far from his best tonight. Very disappointing that we didn't win this tonight, it leaves us with a big challenge next week. Anyone know of a bar in Budapest that will be showing the game?