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Even had Killie and Livi both scored I'd still have fancied us to beat them because we have better players and play a better game.

Correct, I hear so much pish about that semi final, the Robbo Masterclass, St Mirren playing us off the park. Its bollocks. The only people who beat us at the semi final was ourselves. St Mirren played as they always do nothing special we just didn't turn up but we still had more of the game than them and created as many chances and fluffed them.

Will Welsh play on Wednesday?

Furlong was the LB we signed to replace Penney when he went back to Ipswich, he played LWB for us and the delivery from wide areas from him and Max Johnston and the switch to the back 5 was basically the reason for us staying up.

Did Furlong play under Bellend?

Only slightly negative because Jens is very meticulous and hinted at getting at least one more in. If we had covered left back it would be a B+ from me. FWIW, Im not convinced Robinson will be straight out the door. Obviously depends if he is able to come back to peak fitness. But he is young enough and his attitude wasnt in question. I think Jens will at least have a look at him or at least test the data. Id like to see what he is like without the ball bouncing around his ears....

As JBA said, the problem with any player is that, in January, they need to be able to immediately fit into the system. Otherwise they are better off being summer signings with a full pre-season. Does Furlong fit into that category? I remember him bombing up the wing, but under Kettlewell he certainly wasn't coached to play all the short passes across the penalty box, or to find a man rather than punt a clearance. As the manager said, however, clubs don't just start looking for players during the window. It's a 365 days a year process. So if we didn't bring in a new left back it's either because we couldn't find one that was ready and available, or that JBA didn't think we needed one at this point.

Is JK not also injured or am I imagining him coming off against Livi.

There were definetly Lb's available we could of got James Furlong was looking for a loan move from Hull that he never got I'd of taken him to the end of the season.

Not signing a left back doesn't concern me too much as Johnny K can play that role as can SOD if required. We have a good cushion over Falkirk and Hibs and be great to maintain that. Sellik cup tieing Welsh makes no sense to me but he is going to be crucial for all of our league games

I’m glad he’s back, we know what he can do, he’ll slide back into position and I have no doubt he’ll have that bit between his teeth to show Celtic he’s better than this young boy who’s played 3 games in his career from Brentford they’ve got on loan(bizarre club) also with Watt and RCC back this month …. Potentially Hendry too (although not seen anything of him so far) I think we have a bit of depth to survive and kick on the rest of the season. my only slight concern is Maswanhise being a bit irked by the millions being discussed about him and transfer talk. But I think Jens will be able to deal with that. It wouldn’t surprise me if we’ve gave him a few quid more each week to keep him happy until the end of the season

A slightly negative assessment of the transfer window, we needed a big strong striker and we got one, we wanted to hold on to our prize assets like Maswanhise, we did and as a bonus we got a very good CB back and ready to hit the ground running, so for me it was a good window. You mention Robinson, he is obviously still not fit and will be moved on as soon as he is, he has no future at Fir park under Askou. As for signing a left back if there is nobody available at the standard we require then we dont just sign a player for the sake of it. We have a strong squad that has been made stronger this window getting Thor and Welsh back so we are in great shape to kick on and secure a great finish to the season, my rating for the window B+

And from the stands

Not a million miles away from my view Joe. In short we have to keep ahead, if only slightly, of our peer clubs. Its not just what we do or don't do, its what they do too. Performance and results wise we've done really well this season, and I didn't expect, at the outset, that to happen this quickly or at all to be frank. However we can't rest on our laurels. We have got a little cash in the war chest and whilst we can't afford to squander that or eat into other budgets, hopefully it'll help to boost summer recruitment.

Slightly underwhelmed with the window. Obviously delighted we didnt lose any players. But the club were in a real position of strength on that one, with money in the bank and long term contracts all around. Signing a striker is good, and although getting Welsh back is to be welcomed, he is still cup tied and cant play against Celtic, so tinged with frustration. Not signing a left back is disappointing, unless we couldnt get who we wanted or there is maybe a deal still to be announced this morning. Overall, we are stronger coming out of the window than when we went in, with Nicholson and McGhee coming back. Hopefully Watt and RCC not too far behind them. We also managed to get Stuparevic out the door, so Robinson is really the only unanswered question. I think we are in decent shape, but we will have to see how the business our peer clubs have done pans out before we can assess our expectations for the rest of the season. C+

Can you picture the reception that Welsh will get when he walks into the dressing room. You can't buy that togetherness.

Have to be fairly pleased how the window has worked out for us. Glad to have Welsh back. Would have been, or probably was, very difficult to find an other option that would fit in as well. Hope the fact he is cup tied doesn't harm us too much.

The establishment will never let a wee team win the league

Might be time for a wee flutter. £5 Motherwell to win the league (125/1) £5 Motherwell to win the cup (16/1) £5 Motherwell to win the league and the cup. I can honestly say we are the best team I have seen in the league this year, so why not!

The 800k bid for AP in the summer was as much made up paper talk as all the JT stuff this month. Completely unsubstantiated but some folk are taking it as gospel for some reason.

Another 80 minutes played, another win.

i suspect we're hoping he hits form and we can recoup what we sold him for the fact we turned down 800k for him in the summer baffled me doubt we'll get anywhere near that come the summer

I'm surprised we have not moved AP on

I suppose you could look at it as we brought in Bjorgolfsson who strengthens our existing attack, Nicholson coming back creates competition for Just who has been our best player so far. He's also in the sort of 10 mould I felt we lacked at the start of the window in that he can score from range so another potential threat for opposing teams to think about. Mcghee is an upgrade on Balmer and has had time to settle in. We could definitely done with another LB but we're stronger than when we started. Squad for the season now looks like GK - Ward, Connelly, Oxborough RB - JK, Sparrow, SOD CB - McGinn, Welsh, Mcghee, Gordon LB - Longelo CM - Watt, Fadinger, Preistman, Halliday RW - Maswanhise, Just AM - Slattery, Nicholson Lw - Said, RCC St - Bjorgolffson, Hendry, Stama. Robinson 25 senior players with Ross, Mcallister, Mccolm etc on the fringes probably the strongest squad we've had since the 2011/12 squad so hopefully this 1 delivers a trophy.

Overall, I'd say its been a decent to good window; probably rating around an 8 out of 10. It could have been much worse, for example if we'd failed to secure another striker, lost a centre back and lost TJ. It could have been slightly better if we'd signed another LB. To add to the mix we have McGhee and Nicholson back now. I always believe that the time to strengthen is when things are going well and if we want to hold onto 4th or even drop to 5th place then more of the same simply won't do. To clarify, I mean the personnel not the system which will continue to work well. Ostensibly both Aberdeen and Hibs have strengthened and even if only some of their new recruits hit the ground running then they'll threaten us. Fortunately we have a decent cushion over both. We mustn't ignore Falkirk either as they are a credible threat and may have strengthened slightly. If we fall to 6th I'd still be delighted. If we drop to 5th place I'll still be over the moon and if we can hang onto 4th place I'll be ecstatic. Finishing in the top 3 whilst theoretically possible is pretty much beyond us. A Scottish cup run? Not so sure this time round. I really think we can achieve something next season though, with or without JBA.