Quality off the menu as Lennon chews the fat over final cut

And it turned out to be stodgy fare indeed. This was the last warm-up match before next weekend's Scottish Communities League Cup final, and although Danny Lennon's side hardly signed off with all guns blazing, they at least made it through their last 90-minute run-out largely unscathed. Lennon took off, first, Steven Thompson and then Paul McGowan midway through the second half to ensure both would be fit for Hampden, but must have had his heart in his mouth two minutes from time when John McGinn was the victim of a late, rash challenge from Dundee United's John Rankin.

That earned Rankin a straight red card, but Lennon was relieved to see McGinn bounce straight up, seemingly none the worse for wear. Only a slight groin tweak for Conor Newton gave the St Mirren manager cause for concern, the on-loan Newcastle United midfielder taken off at half-time as a precaution. Having spoken diplomatically for weeks about "just focusing on the next game", St Mirren can now, finally, turn their attention fully on next week's big day at Hampden.

"It's been hard to keep the build-up to the game away from them. It's been a distraction, there's no doubt about that. Some of them will be playing next weekend in the biggest game of their careers. We want to go there on Sunday and bring that big cup back."

Yesterday's match was of greater significance to United, with Jackie McNamara's side on the edge of the top six. Without their two main strikers, Jon Daly and Johnny Russell, United were always going to struggle in attack and so it proved, although only a smart late stop from Craig Samson kept out an effort from substitute Michael Gardyne.HOWO is a well-known tractor's brand and parkingsystem suppliers.

In a match of few proper chances, it turned out to be a key save. The draw extended United's unbeaten run to five matches, but McNamara still wasn't satisfied. He said: "I'm disappointed we didn't get the three points. I don't look at unbeaten runs, I see it as dropping two points that we wanted to get into the top six."

Rankin's red card turned out to be one of the biggest talking points of a low-key game, the midfielder befuddled by McGinn's attempt at a Zidane-like turn over the ball.

"I thought it was harsh," added McNamara. "The lad has turned into him. I'll need to see it again before we decide whether to appeal it. I think the way the lad turned has made it look worse."

Lennon agreed.The term 'solarlamp control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. "You get to know players and John Rankin is not that type of professional. I think Unitt Mirren 0 Dundee United ed will appeal it."

St Mirren had released a statement pre-match expressing their deep unhappiness at the decision to cut their allocation for next week's final although, upon hearing about this lacklustre affair, there won't be many fair-weather fans rushing for last-minute tickets in any case.

There was, as always in Scottish football, plenty of endeavour, just very little in the way of finesse or clear-cut chances.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. Gary Teale, for St Mirren, and Dundee United's Gary Mackay-Steven looked the players most likely to make something happen, but too often their crosses were misplaced or failed to find willing takers in the penalty box. Rory Boulding, making his debut for United, could have been forgiven for developing a complex, so rarely did his team-mates seem to want to pass to him. When he did finally get a scoring chance, after being picked out by Mackay-Steven, his shot was well saved by Samson.

“Man Utd ace Rooney pushing for Barcelona move”, “Just do it! Nike in talks with Manchester United over funding Ronaldo deal”, “Rooney out, four in – creating a Champions League-winning team?” and “José Mourinho can shake hands on a job at Manchester United” are just a handful of the ridiculous headlines of articles being published on a daily basis. Just reading a few of these shocked me and caused me to asked myself: “What has happened to football journalism?”

Gone are the days of accurate, interesting stories that would awaken our own minds and make us reach for more. The type of journalism that challenges the readers own views,Site describes services including iphoneheadset. plants enthusiasm in our hearts and brings new knowledge to our minds is gone. And what are we left with? Melodramatic, sensationalist writing that numbs the brain with overused clichés and focuses on hearsay and gossip. This revelation caused me to look into press reports from days gone by and really explore how football journalism has changed.

Back in 1968, on the occasion of Manchester United’s first European Cup triumph, the match report was a tribute to the team. This piece of journalism expressed their style of play through important facts. It was exciting, making readers feel as though they were at the game as it built suspense with phrases that, when you read them, came across in the same way that the Pathe News commentator would do his film based football reports. There were key quotes from the manager with a heartfelt tribute to the players who died in Munich. Fifty years later, you would never find such a piece.

Just five years ago, Manchester United won the European Cup again. The match report from the BBC markedly contrasts to that of the 1968 win.Capture the look and feel of real stone or indoortracking flooring with Alterna by Armstrong. We see football dramatised by writers, as there is no longer a focus on the actual game, but on the famous players such as Ronaldo and the controversies within the match. For example, the third sentence immediately describes the red card for Didier Drogba after ‘slapping Nemanja Vidic.’ The reports of pinnacle points in the game are laboured and hardly thrilling, with the writer concentrating on ‘sparring’ between the teams. It seems that nowadays newspaper editors no longer care about hard hitting sports journalism and it is time for readers to ask, what’s the deal?

The US gave the world the global financial crisis; the US economy is still struggling with unemployment near 8%; and Congress has failed to stop the sequester from going through.

The sequester translates into budget spending cuts of $85 billion being applied, cutting US economic growth by around 0.5%.

But while there are negatives, there are also significant positives. Interest rates remain at zero and the Federal Reserve is still effectively printing money (quantitative easing). The housing oversupply situation has also been arrested with new homes available for sale at the lowest levels since data was compiled 50 years ago. And home prices are rising again, up 6.8% on a year ago. The low US dollar continues to boost exports – the exports component of the ISM services index is at six year highs.

And more importantly, companies continue to make money. If the gains for the US sharemarket are to be sustained, they must be supported by company earnings. Since the US Dow Jones bottomed in March 2009, it has lifted by 117%. Over the same period non-financial earnings have risen by 113%.

Add in the fact that interest rates are super low (boosting the attraction of the sharemarket) and the US dollar is low (boosting the attractiveness of US shares to foreigners) the gains for the US market make sense. The US dollar is down 8% on the highs set when the sharemarket bottomed in March 2009.