Dev

To be honest I'm blaming the curse of dunblanemike. Did you take someone to the match? I'm sure you said that's been the cue for a defeat in the past. It's all your fault!

Goran, played like a man possessed! All of the ten men today deserve credit for the passion and fight shown though, they were really excellent.

Just back from the game. I kind of lost track of the bookings, but I think only Ruti was booked for a foul. The rest were for dissent. For QoS, their two late bookings were for failure to stay ten yards back at a free kick and an off-the-ball confrontation after the final whistle respectively. I think they also had a player booked when Hardie was sent off, presumably for the elbow/challenge that caused Hardie to react. Ref was a joke. Despite the bad result, it was actually a game I really enjoyed. Our players were really up for the match and with plenty of action, excitement, goals and contentious refereeing decisions I reckon the fans got value for money. The game began in a very open manner and continued that way throughout. I thought we were looking quite good until poor defending saw Simon Mensing concede a penalty. A decent through ball by Queens saw Weir through on goal and Mensing clearly brought him down before he could shoot. The referee initially waved away the Queens protests but the linesman on the far side flagged for it. After much deliberation the referee eventually went with the linesman's opinion and awarded the penalty. Goran Stanic went mad at the linesman and referee and got himself booked - James had to physically drag him away to stop him getting sent off. John O'Neill stuck it past Glennon. Hardie was sent off for a stupid kick out after he appeared to be elbowed while challenging for a header. To be honest there wasn't a lot in it, I wouldn't have said it was violent conduct and a yellow card would have been fine but the ref went straight to his top pocket for the red card. It all kicked off and the bookings for dissent continued. The ref had no control of anything and by throwing yellow cards around he wasn't helping things. We had a succession of corners and were on top again before Queens went two up. More poor defending and a swipe at fresh air by Sheerin saw the ball find its way through to Weir who finished well. It was looking pretty bad at that stage but we were well up for the fight. We brought it back to 2-1 through a Kevin James tap-in after great work by Jason Scotland and then equalised through Paul Sheerin after Savo somehow won the ball off a Queens defender. He had no right to get the ball but sheer determination saw him snake out a foot and block the clearance. The second half wasn't quite up to the standard of the first but we still fought hard and were clearly the better team. Kevin James own goal was very unfortunate, he just lost his bearings for a moment and headed over Matt Glennon when Queens appeared to be going nowhere. It was devastating and James was clearly upset about it. We were excellent today even with ten men and did not deserve to lose the match, although I don't really grudge giving Queens the points. The players deserve trememdous credit for the passion shown and on another day when circumstances didn't conspire against us we would have taken all three points. Queens were better than I've seen them but they weren't great and it's disappointing that the team that performed better and fought harder did not take the points. Well done though to the players, couldn't have asked for any more.

To be honest I think Hazel clearly has the winner above, but thought I'd add Derek Lyle to the mix...

Don't get me wrong, I'm as pleased as anyone with the way Owen Coyle is managing us at the moment, but I can't help but think it's a little undeserved. In March we won two and drew two matches - there were other managers (e.g. McPherson) with better records than Coyle for the month of March. Still I suppose it is good he's getting some recognition. Congrats.

Congratulations to Jason! Would be absolutely gutted if he was the one player to drop out. I notice Tony Rougier is in the squad as well, thought he'd have been in retiral by now.

That is simply incredible! Dundee for the drop next season by the looks of things!

The amount of money isn't the issue, I think it's more about the treatment fans receive. It seems a bit like business club members, sponsors, etc. are treated like royalty while there have been a number of incidents lately where the average fan has been treated like crap. I don't want to make this something it's not - the business club is not the problem at all. Nothing to do with them. The problem is the current poor relationship between the club and the fans.

There's no chance of any of us turning it down but that doesn't make it right. It's not like these guys have particularly hard jobs, it's an easy life for most of them. Even the figures for the Championship are shocking - the average wage of a Championship footballer is almost £200,000 a year. These guys are nowhere near top footballers and some of them are just rubbish!

Clicky - Independent Anyone else find that absolutely sickening?

FAO anyone who might be interested, Owen Coyle is scheduled to be a guest on Radio Scotland's 90 Minutes programme tomorrow night at 6pm. That is all!

I think there is a perception at the moment that the club may be more interested in looking after business club members rather than your average bloke-on-the-street fan.

These are the kind of players who will end up at Gretna I suspect. They can offer them a better deal than we can.

You think I'd miss any obvious opportunity to points-score against you??

Amazing - I was sure you'd forgotten. The money looked safe for months and months! Think it was a tenner.

It seems to me that the votes may have been affected by where people watched the match from. Most of the folk who voted for Mensing or gave him an honourable mention were those who were down the hedge side and saw him close up in the second half. Maybe that was an influencing factor and perhaps Milne was the popular choice for those in the stand?

Not quite everyone - West Brom are the only Premiership team not to have beaten Sunderland this season.

I'll plump for solid Simon Mensing.

Not a wonderful game but a win is a win! There was a bit of a pre-season feeling about Glebe Park today with the sun shining and a relaxed atmosphere. When we went two ahead after twenty minutes or so I felt we could have gone on and scored four or five, but in the end we seemed to just settle for 2-0. With the number of fitness doubts we had going into the match, maybe that was a sensible idea though it would have been nice to have seen more goals. We were very comfortable throughout the match and Brechin only really had one opportunity towards the end of the first half. Glennon's kicking was pretty poor in the second half but he had next to nothing else to do. Lastly, how mince is Craig Nelson?!

I'd be gutted if this was off, but it should be ok I reckon. Oooh, the Davester!

Anywhere but the north-east tour we've done the last few seasons. Ideally I'd have some sort of Irish tour but you can guarantee we'll just be playing Forfar again. Happens every year!

The point about Boro's attendances has been made before but yet again it left a lot to be desired. A UEFA Cup quarter-final with less than 25,000 turning up to see it - pretty unimpressive. Those who did turn up will be feeling smug though having seen one of the best results in their history.

The only point I would make about him is that he could do with keeping himself under control when the topic of discussion is Jenson Button. When Button was on pole last weekend Rider was going a little bit over the top with his praise. Yes he's English and yes he's a good driver, but keep some perspective please!

Sorry, you're not getting him back! Steve Rider has been superb so far as the main man on ITV's Grand Prix coverage. He's very cool and professional, he's been a big improvement over Jim Rosenthal in my opinion.

*Coughs* Erm, think you've missed something there Chopper. Sunderland AFC, Football League Championship Champions 2006-07 - but only if by some horrible twist of fate we get relegated.