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Am I right in thinking that every single Premiership team has taken something from Pittodrie this season - except Hearts? Had they won at Pittodrie earlier in the season, they'd already be champions. Basically, Topi Keskinen is this season's Albert Kidd.

That last night is not a penalty, never in a million years. Yes the hands up, but you have to raise your arms to jump, that’s natural, its not fuckin Riverdance. The well boys arm is then knocked by the jumping Tim (its not an elbow either, the Tim jumped with and into him - he actually elbowed the Well lad in the guts too so that could easily have been given as a foul too). That knock to the arm moves his hand towards the trajectory of the ball but its still obviously headed clear. Anyone who’s ever played football knows a ball only flies through the air like that when its been cleanly headed. No ball could or would fly like that off the palm of your hand. Its just impossible. Its a scandalous call, even for Scotland, one that would never have been given at the other end, and one that was given either because of: Blatant cheating to engineer a last day decider, or Bottling officials too scared of the flak they knew they’d get from those unhinged weegie minkers if it wasn’t given. Its how football works up here. Always has been and its why the rest of us are all just wasting our time…

Everyone's a critic Al

@tlg1903 the lad Rico is dissing your good work

Of course they will. Its a well known fact that the CIA, FBI and ICE use Scottish football as a Guantanamo Bay type interrogation tool. Nobody can be forced to sit through watching shite like Tuesday night without cracking and spilling their guts…

You think they'll be showing the Scottish league cup games in ICE detention centres?

Streeting has made a total fool of himself. He’s a busted flush. On to Burnham and this is the seat he’s hoping to stand in:

From the official site: Central defenders Jamie Mercer and Lewis Carrol, midfielders Aaron Cummings and Zak To, and winger Jack Searle will all remain at Cormack Park next season as they continue their football journeys with the Dons.

Now, don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say it was good work.

Think Wes is going to learn a lot about himself over the next few days and it’s going to come as a complete shock to him

Cheatin' Beaton is TBITB for Sunday's game. Easiest bet of the day is that twenty two players won't be on the park at the end

It is handball, but as they jump for the header, Trusty's shoulder actually pushes Nicholson's arm up and into the ball. And even so, the trajectory of the ball doesn't change, Motherwell gain no advantage from it, it hasn't stopped a goal being scored. But, referees aren't instructed to use common sense anymore. Beaton spent 20 seconds looking at it - as soon as he saw handball he was satisfied it was a penalty.

But they have consistently not done that. I’ve seen so many penalties given this season where an attacker has pushed a defender, as a result of which their arm ends up in “an unnatural position”, resulting a penalty. Much as it would be fun to put this down to conspiracy, I don’t think there’s anything unusual to see here. And seeing McInnes melt down over it is a Brucey Bonus.

Did anyone else read that as Maradona? It's a totally legitimate use of the new thread function. Although I'm not sure about this whole World cup section of the board, it's not pleasing on the eye.

Yes. It's not a penalty. They are supposed to take into account the other factors at play. Yes, the ball hit his hand (in my opinion, but it isn't clear), but his hand was pushed into the ball by the opponent - very, very clearly. It's the equivalent of pushing the goalie over the line with the ball in his hands. They have used an expression, I forget what it is exactly, about normal contact in the course of the game, for incidents such as these. If you're giving the handball, then the contact from the Celtic player that causes the handball precedes it and should be given as a foul. In reality, common sense suggests you ignore both. They were even discussing it on the radio Scotland phone in this morning (I missed most of it) where two refs both said it was incorrect. The most important part is that this was a manipulation of what VAR is for, and deliberately so. It's an extreme bias that occurs regularly in this country, where refs live in fear of getting decisions for or against the cheeks wrong. It's, correctly, play on for every other team. Just as the blatant use of hand in our game Vs St Mirren was playing on, because - correctly - use of hand ≠ handball.

Not breaking any rules at all mate This section is for general World Cup chat and your post certainly fits right in there. Heard about this being planned earlier this morning and is just a typically American nonsense thing to do.

Celtic were always on about "sporting integrity" when their rivals died in 2012. If they truly believe in it, then they should have just rolled the penalty towards the goalkeeper for him to pick up.

Last night ruined it a little I have to say. If they were going to lose it, I'd have wanted it to be in hilarious circumstances, such as the keeper throwing one in in the last minute. Not through the worst bias seen since Mike McCurry. Last night wasn't sport, it leaves a bitter taste. I probably won't even laugh when they get beaten at the weekend now. The Tims are going to have to dive into the asterisk box again and place at least three alongside the 25-26 winners on their Wikipedia.

The Blue Nile - Downtown Lights

A lot of fun tonight switching between Ryan Stevenson and Biscuits on the radio and then John Robertson, Paul Hartley and Boyd on TV. All absolutely spewing. I know I’m supposed to be rooting for the underdog and all that fair and reasonable pish but fuck Hearts.

Aye, just saw it on the highlights. Absolutely ridiculous. Never a penalty. Exactly the scenario that VAR exists for though. It gives them that extra safety net where they've got more than one chance to make up an offence. There's no chance that a ref would have managed to make that one up on his own. Also, had the challenge on Slattery (which I don't think was a pen) been up the other end, the subjectivity would have adjusted its bias and given the pen. A total con.

You have to say that although we all know fine well how it works up here, that VAR call is truly incredible, even for our league. Anyone think Motherwell (or anyone else bar one team) get that pen at that stage. Nope, me neither. I’ll shed no tears if those diet fucks don’t win the league, canna stand their deluded arsehole support, but we are all genuinely wasting our time up here, it’s just pointless…

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I don’t want hearts to win the league. All their crap about being the third best team in Scotland will be more than painful. I'm also intrigued to see who hearts lose this summer. Their players have stood out and teams will be paying attention. I’d expect them to sell. And as we’ve found out, it’s not easy to replace like for like, we haven’t replaced Hayes, mcginn, Kenny McLean, and more recently miovski and Rama. and will Mcinnes get offers from England, or ibrox?

Kevin Nisbet has scored in every game he's ever played at Dens Park. This includes when he played for Dunfermline. He never played there for Hibs (though did score v Dundee at Easter Road). Whether he scores or not is the real story in Scottish football this week.

I really don't think we have seen even remotely enough of Kjartansson to be making the judgement he should leave.

Tobers and to a slightly lesser extent Gyamfi aren't earning their keep because of injuries. They can go. Suman and Bratveit can also beat it and Vitols can back up Mitov or a new signing (Shamal George).

Thanks for that, it is appreciated. I know from experience that folk rarely thank IT staff for changes that work fine and don't cause issues.

So I gave this one a go, but afraid to say I really struggled with it early doors and subsequently stopped reading. The problem with audio books for me, is that because I only really listen whilst walking the dog I'm hearing them in short snippets and if they don't grab me right away, I'm always going to struggle to continue with it, whereas it takes a lot for me not to finish a book that I'm actually reading. Don't know if that'll make sense or not, but just the way I am. Rattling through paperbacks and kindle editions at some rate as I'm now onto my 42nd book of the year and I have finished all of them