Shadow Play

Bell deserves a lot of credit for keeping the score down. Looking forward to the derby against Brechin?

Why wouldn't cup finals before you were born not count? Unless of course your only interested in what your club can do for you.

4 cup finals we've won at Hampden. You've won 2. Anyway, events have overtaken our little discussion. Thank goodness Simon Murray was free to play. The number of times he got caught offside so took the pressure off the Hamilton defence was unbelievable. I'd go as far as to say Hamilton's 12th man.

On this occasion I'd prefer a one off game at Hampden. United usually bottle it there.

Seems a good shot stopper. A bit quiet for my liking. I prefer a keeper that has some banter with the fans

Not me. Too many United fans comming out the woodwork as it is.

Doubt they would be above Hately's, Vincent's or Williams's pay scale. If only we could free up their salaries.

I don't want to pile the pressure of Stephen Thompson but when Angus Cook laid on free buses for an away dayt at Motherwell in the early 90s they were giving away free bags of crisps and cans of juice on the buses as well. Can United's budget stretch that far?

Yes. Down side is my son just missed out on the £1.00 renewal. Hope the club invest the extra £114.00 wisely

They've been away for a year and less than 24 hours after United are involved in a Premiership thread their already moaning. Some things never change.

A big clear out is definitely needed. Hoping I won't see Williams, Hately, Gomis, Ojamma, Vincent, Yordi, Low and Julien at Dens next season. None of them good enough / worth the wait. Unfortunately due to their contracts at least three of them will be next to impossible to move on without Dundee paying a fair bit of their future wages. Obviously means even less to invest in new players. What a sorry mess Hartley has left.

Any new manager will struggle to get rid of some of the higher paid players at the club that are simply hopeless. Who is going to match the wages of Williams and Hately? Actually who is going to want Williams and Hately no matter how cheap they can get them for?

Should Hartley have been sacked earlier? A definite yes IMO. He should have gone after we lost 7 goals at home to Aberdeen, especially given the bad cup runs, his general lack of tactical awareness and his apparent inability to get out of his signings what he presumably thought they would bring to the team. Can't help but think we would have beaten Hamilton at home if McCann had been in charge. Would I have thought about McCann - a definite no. Who knows why the board didn't punt Hartley sooner. Wanting to remain loyal? Hoping against hope that Hartley knew what was going wrong and could turn it around? Waiting until the right man was available / persuaded? If it's the latter then, yes, 100% praise to the board.

No Morrisey tomorrow please. Daniel Boone and Petula Clark on repeat please.

He's one of our own!

100% Kerr. For attitude and consistency no one comes close.

Worth Adding that during the Hamilton match Bain deliberately walked towards the Derry to 'engage in a debate' with a couple of lads who were shouting at him about his poor distribution. Is that sign of someone who is being professional? Let's all be honest here, Bain would have been dropped if Hartley had signed a reserve keeper he had confidence in.

I reckon Bain, Gomis, Hately and Williams should have been forced to go to the Night of Champions at the Whitehall Theatre. Maybe they would have learned something about attitude from club legends that have truly achieved something special in the game. If they had half the attitude of Liney, Ure, Brown and Gilzean we might just have a different set of fixtures over the next 5 games! Great night. Credit to every one involved.

That list from Ludo makes grim reading. Football Agents across the country will be shedding a tear or two over Hartley's departure. Can't surely be many other managers that have given them so much buisiness in such a short space of time.

Bain certainly didn't do any to dispel the rumours he wasn't getting on with Hartley by leaving Dens 5/10 minutes after Hartley's sacking, getting in the car with Kevin Holt and the two of them immediately laughing / giggling. They could have been laughing about anything but given the press was about 10 metres away a simply straight face until around the corner would have been a better and more professional option IMO.

Let's be honest the butcher fae Asda could have done a better job this season!

Sorry but I won't have a bit of sympathy for him. Perhaps if he owned up to making some mistakes I would but remember even after the 7-0 defeat against Aberdeen he claimed he had prepared the team correctly. Did the tactics deployed that night even remotely look like the preparation was right? He was given a top 6 budget and only just achieved that once in 3 years. Let's be brutally honest here, if it wasn't for Stewart and Hemmings we would have struggled big time. He has shown little or no ability in finding other good players, or at the very least getting the best out of his signings. The success of Stewart and Hemmings fuelled his arrogance. At the Q&A session at the start of the season when one or two fans were suggesting all was not well he shot them down. He actually said (and this sums up how confused his thinking is) that he was happy with the team's passing ability and thought we played good decisive passing. Why change to the big punt up the park if that were the case? Talk about muddled thinking. No, sorry, but being a manger in the top flight is just too much for him. Like some players, he will be fine in the lower leagues but when he comes up against top flight tactics he is nowhere near good enough.

Just like most clubs Dundee have a set budget for each season and Hartley knows this. It it's true Hately is our top earner then Hartley's judgement is truly appalling. Both on a footballing level and a 'spending resources wisely' level. Hately was clearly yet another panic singing. Then again, Hartley knew better than anyone that after three years of him brining in midfielders to the club the midfield was nowhere near good enough. The more you look at Hartley's team building efforts over the period he has been at Dens the more it is blatantly obvious he is not a good manager.

Hope Hartley and Hately watched Sportcene tonight. Hately getting slated for his pathetic defending. Couldn't help but think he's not much good at going forward either. Oh, and he's not even a dead ball specialist. Apparently he's one of out top earners though. Totally unbelievable piece of business if true.

I would have thought all the upset would have brought back too many painful memories for you seeing as that's all you did last season. You appearing on the Dundee thread is a sure indication Dundee are in big trouble.