2.30pm

Speaking after yesterday's defeat by Hearts, Eric Black sympathised with 'Well defender Eddie Forrest after his red card:
"The referee felt Eddie had pulled back the Hearts player and maybe he pulled him a little bit but Eddie is annoyed about it because he wanted to do very well for us.  He is a young defender who gives his all and it was unlucky for that to happen because it did alter the game completely as far as I'm concerned.

"We had to reshuffle to a 3-4-2 formation and even though we still had periods of ascendancy and we were passing the ball about well by that time the game was running away from us.  After the sending off, we defended a lot deeper and that proved fatal because of Hearts' aerial strength.  I felt we had got ourselves into a very reasonable position by leading 1-0 away at half-time but everything changed in that 10 or 15 minutes after the break.

"Our next match coming up against St Johnstone is now like a Cup Final. It's a vital game for us and I will be looking for a strong reaction from the players as a result of today."

An interesting article on Eric Black appears in today's Scotland on Sunday.

Today's Sunday Mail contains a short feature on our new French goalkeeper, Francois Dubourdeaux.  The 21-year-old signed from Bordeaux in midweek, and he believes that the standard of football in the SPL is not too dissimilar to that in his home country:
"There isn't an enormous difference in quality between French and Scottish football. I watched Celtic play Bordeaux last season in the UEFA cup and was impressed.  People think of the French league as being the national team to a certain extent. I don't think it is a strong as people imagine it to be having watched the national team.

"I was sad to leave Bordeaux but it was always going to be hard getting a game and I always wanted to play in Scottish and English football.

"My wife Melanie is here now and my parents are coming over. I've settled well.  It helps initially that the manager speaks French and there are other Frenchmen at the club but it's up to me to learn English.

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