A penalty given for a foul in the box will only lead to a red card if the defender is the last defender and the forward is heading towards goal with the ball in his control. Otherwise it is not a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Chirpy wrote:
A penalty given for a foul in the box will only lead to a red card if the defender is the last defender and the forward is heading towards goal with the ball in his control. Otherwise it is not a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Kenny Millers lack of ball control clears that up then!

(from Fifa.com)

There are two sending-off offences that deal with denying an opponent an obvious opportunity to score a goal:

- If a player denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball.
- If a player denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick (direct or indirect) or a penalty kick.

Criteria for deciding when to penalise for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity:
- The direction of the play.
- The location of the foul.
- The proximity of the player to the ball.
- The probability of controlling the ball.
- The location and number of opponents.
- The opportunity for the attempt on goal.

Note that the latter are criteria not conditions, there is absolutely no requirement that the defender be the last man (though obviously there will be a large amount of correlation).

Not quite 5-2 Yoss but still, good result for Dunfermline, did you go to the game? What happened with Bell?

Not looking forward to seeing Jim McIntyre cutting about up front at Stark's Park on Saturday, almost convinced that Rovers will win that but if we do get out of that with a win we'll be laughably close to the top of the league for about one week.

Really good game that, I thought. Threw everything at them second half but couldn't find another goal. Granted we had the extra man but that doesn't always make as much difference to the balance of play as it did there - we'd had to take another two first-half injuries in our stride too. No argument with Dunfermline taking the points though, started the game the better, and Gibson was the difference between the sides as he had been in the League Cup game early in the season.

Not entirely sure about the Bell thing, it certainly looked ugly but both of them seemed to go in pretty clumsily and I wasn't at all sure who caught who or who was the worse offender. I see even McIntyre accepted the decision though, and he's not a man to do so if he thinks he's got any wriggle room left at all.

So yeah, fair play, no argument with the result but still just as proud of the team and of the effort last night as on Saturday.

I'm going to miss this Saturday's game unfortunately.

And we do it all again this Saturday ...

By the way, where can I find a clip of Raith's second goal on Saturday? Laurie Ellis is teaching one of my colleagues how to drive.

Here's an amateur clip from the away end:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOFfjnP8jB4

And the full Sportscene highlights from Saturday are also available.
Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2g3I4wtM5g
Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYwSDZp2D4A
Part 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWko1NEMfM

Thank you.

Mr Ellis is apparently "one of the nicest guys I know" according to my colleague. That's something you don't often hear in relation to a footballer. (Or a driving instructor, for that matter.)

Pleased to hear it, he always seems that way.

My mum met John McGlynn a bit back and said he's a lovely man too.

I interviewed Ellis for the match programme earlier in the season and he is a really articulate, pleasant guy.

My one conversation with McGlynn revolved around who I was, and why I was there. As I was hanging around the ground waiting from Graham Weir.

/name-dropping

Very, very happy after getting those two games out of the way. A tough game and we didn't start particularly well.

Simmons' sending off changed the game, not sure if it was a dive or not but the ref must have been pretty convinced. Graham has proven to be a fantastic signing, especially lately.

Still think any talk of promotion is a bit premature, though the results bizarrely all went our way today, so if we win every single game between now and then, Dundee, Ross County, Inverness, Queen of the South lose a few and pigs fly, we'll be in the SPL!

- Also Dundee have sacked Big Jocky, not sure why but I imagine they must have someone in mind for the job.

I'm sure getting pumped 3-0 by the league's bottom side had something to do with it, coupled with a fairly disastrous cup defeat. Dundee have been given permission to speak to Ian McCall about the vacancy.

Still 4 points clear at the top though.

League Cup final, Rangers have two players sent off, McCulloch gets booked for diving and a guy on the radio can be heard chastising the referee for 'ruining a game of football', I'm sure entertainment value is what that gentleman is most interested in.

I'd expect Rangers to win this, in a laughably inept penalty shoot-out, 4-2.

Or Rangers to score even with nine men.

Doc Scranton wrote:
Still 4 points clear at the top though.



They're one of only two teams in Scottish football with money to spend and yet Scott transfers in numpties like Kerr,Klimpl and just lately the horrific Bob Malcolm. They should have won the league alraedy. Ross County are 6 points back with two games in hand. Big game in Dingwall on Saturday when Dundee visit.

St.Mirren seemed to get worse when Thomson walked, then declined further when Wilson saw red. They had no cutting edge at all and barely created a chance against 10/9 men. It was all a bit reminsecnt of Rangers-Falkirk in teh Scottish Cup Final last year. Great header from Miller to win it. As much as I wanted St. Mirren to win it was slightly amusing to see the Buddies make such a mess of it. deraie me, they'll want have a better chance to win a trophy for quite some time me thinks.

Yeah, it was like St Mirren had a very specific gameplan, which was to play tight, defensive football, and not give too much away, and when Rangers went down to 9 and the onus was on them to attack, they couldn't handle it, and couldn't make the switch. Whether it was the pressure, or just an inability to adapt their game, they just couldn't create any decent chances against 9 men, and basically justlumped the ball into the box hopefully.

St Mirren bottled it. Soon as they smelt the brasso their arses went. Dominated the game without ever looking like they were going to score. Gus couldn't change from his kick and rush football style.

Keeping the ball and stretching the game doesn't seem to be in the tactic handbook of Gus.

That could well have been my last Cup Final for a while and I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. As a Rangers supporter we don't go into matches, domestically at least, as underdogs very often but with 20 mins to go yesterday we suddenly took on that mantle. I've not seen the any of the game on TV since so I've no idea how correct or otherwise the red cards were but at the match our feelings were that Wilson's red was justified but Thomson's harsh, not least because of our anger at the ref for ignoring the rugby tackle on Thomson seconds before. No one around me thought we could win with 9 against 11 but as has been noted above St Mirren played worse and caused far less problems for us that they had been. Certainly Rangers are good at the backs-to-the-wall stuff our current team are reminiscent of the 9-in-a-row teams in their resilience. Miller's goal was a cracker and I enjoyed it as much as any I've seen Rangers score at Hampden over the years.

I travelled to and from the game with 3 St Mirren fans. I'm close to each of them and particularly fond of one of them, my 13 year old nephew. He was heartbroken after the game, nothing could console him, he hasn't long begun attending matches and this was by far the biggest of his life. I had forgotten how much you can emotionally invest in football and I felt awful for him. All my delight and enjoyment at an unexpected cup win had left me by the time I got home. I know it sounds condescending but I would have given up the cup had I realised how unhappy he would be.
I think it might be time for me to stop going to football matches.

Playing shit for 89 minutes and then scoring twice in the final minutes for a thoroughly undeserved victory may just be the best way to win a game. Results like Saturday are beginning, despite my best efforts to resist, to make me believe that we just might win the league. To have managed to pick up seven points in our last three games has been a fantastic achievement, especially with the number of players that we have missing, and if we can manage to scratch out a win or a draw against Stirling Albion tomorrow night then we will be in a really good position to kick on and win the division.

The signing of Bryan Prunty has been a real boost for the run in and his goals are one of the reasons that we have been able to maintain our form. His strike for Saturday's winner was genuinely classy, drifting in to space at the back post amd hitting a fantastic half-volley from a tight angle. Prunty has also brought out the best in Stuart Noble who, prior to his injury, went on a good goalscoring run for the first time in his Alloa career.

AMMS that is one of the saddest things I'm likely to read today, the only experience I can compare it to is watching the Scotland England game in 1999 and my 11 year old self bursting into tears when England went 2-0 up.

I'm hoping Alloa and Cowdenbeath come up this season, Alloa do seem to have a really good squad and it's just a few miles down the road, does that qualify as a local derby? It should do.

And Gordon Chisholm and Billy Dodds to take over at Dundee, Chisholm I reckon was probably the best manager in the division, just glad they didn't go for McGlynn or McIntrye. Hopefully this will mean Dodds is too busy to do his shite analysis on radio scotland now. Fingers crossed.