Goggles & Flippers

I agree, dwindling support and interest in Scottish football from sponsors to TV exec's at present combined with 5-6 home games with teams who bring decent supports replaced with Ross County and alike with little or no developer interest in our current ground means it's a very hard one to sell or envisage unless MJC wins the Euromillions. Like anything through the trust, they tap into quango money and allow the first team and u20's get first dibs. Good deal all round with minimal club outlay and more importantly maintaining as much cash as possible for the player budget. Would have been nicer attached to Ravenscraig as the Muirhouse site is out the way but its probably because Ravenscraig carries a premium than this site is being considered.

and you should stick to crayons and leave the keyboards to the adults.

Simple answer .... not Next!

Legend. Either need white sleeves or white body and claret sleeves to work. Not enough of a differential from the home strip for Dundee Utd, Partick or Aberdeen

I see Arsenal have moved to Puma from Nike. wonder what their home strip would look like in C&A hypothetically if we'd stayed with them ..... UBH?

I just don't think we've consistently bossed a midfield since Steve Jennings left, even during the 2012-13 season.

The East and West points of your diamond aren't really known for their work ethic and tracking back. I also fear Josh Law may be a bit aggrieved as he's been one of the few players to offer much so far. Needless to say I doubt McCall would ever play such an attack minded formation, it not in his DNA. I reckon our boss is more inclined with the following as HIS preferred and strongest starting XI at present (when all fully fit): Dan Ramsden Reid McManus Hammell Carswell Law Lasley Vigurs Ojamaa Sutton With Vigurs and Sutton the first to be subbed based on how things are going.

Have a like Yassin for scrolling through all those pages to find another example of Steelboy making a dick of himself. Anyone fancy finding the Vigurs and Higdon ones too?

Well this place is going a little nuts. Good news as we have a known quantity back in the team and you would think its the sort of player that would compliment a tall ball winning striker (whither it be Sutton or Erwin - lets be honest though, McCall will favour Sutton for quite a while before opting for Erwin starting ahead of him). Vigurs to supply the balls and Keith to find his form again and we're back on track. Amazing how one piece of news increases optimism exponentially.

Must be pretty sweet being a Dundee Utd fan at present, 100% record against the 2nd and 3rd in the league last season.

Reading through the comments a lot of encouraging things here and there against a team that did spank us a few times last season. OK, they've lost a few players, so have we, however we are threadbare with a debutant 3rd choice left back playing 45 minutes for us there. A result like this in their manor is certainly an improvement from recent results and based on their game against Aberdeen, maybe not too bad? I'm never a fan of setting up totally defensive, I think its been proven so far we don't have the personnel to close out games. Playing 2 strikers don't seem lean towards that but when it looks like we will be looking to counter attack, I have to wonder why Ainsworth wasn't started ahead of Sutton to support Erwin unless there were injury concerns. McCall does like his favourites and no doubt felt that Sutton would hold the ball for support to come up. Other posters have said it, unfortunately too many of our experienced players with pedigree aren't performing anywhere near the kids with the hunger are.

Why was Angol replaced by Ferguson? Injured or awful?

Aye all right, don't know how I missed it. I assumed it would be further up the club chat page. Ever so sorry.

No MotM thread for this game? Itching to give it to Dan the Man and silence some of the detractors.

I don't know but maybe he thought he had a chance to break through at Aberdeen so wanted to stay and fight for it, 12 months made him realise he wasn't going to feature.

Anyone think Gregg Wylde could have done us a turn on the opposite wing to balance Ainsworth? I didn't realise how fast he was until yesterday, however I appreciate he didn't cut it at Aberdeen in McInnes' eyes but to be fair they are spoiled with quite a bit of depth in that squad.

Just watched the STV news there, wonder if anyone can answer a couple of questions: First, Killie have a massive star above their badge, what's that to commemerate? Second, I seen they've just signed Eremenko on a 1 year deal, so he was available, does anyone think he would have been a welcome addition to the squad or too similar to the role we're looking Vigurs to fill? (I know they've got a bit of cash to spend with Boyd leaving their books but to be fair, so have we).

I echo Ya Bezzer entirely and some of Shaka's points. I think the club has only been guilty of trying to manage expectations in these days of heightened social media and access. I understand what sometimes they are doing and why they are doing it. However, I don't think every fan needs to know the full workings of the club or the club should feel they need to tweet or come on here and justify their decisions. On the subject of club communications, I do get annoyed when I see the gaffer talk us down before a game at Parkhead, you know what Stuart, we've been following this club long before you came on the scene. We know its a task and infrequent, but we don't need reminded at every opportunity, your pragmatism while sensible and true doesn't need to come to the fore. I doubt it happened at half time against Hibs in the 6-6. However I really detest and cringe the "aww we'll we've had all these high league finishes, kinda balances the poor cup performances, we are Motherwell after all" along with more of this ying-yang pish you see peddled on here No, we put a decent team on the park, who fought for results generally but we underperformed in a few key matches that would have injected decent money when we really needed it. Why can't we follow through on our superiority and close things out is an endemic issue that needs addressed at our club. I think the result in Iceland topped off a calendar year with a lot of indifferent results and too few highs. That resulted in a little soul searching and closer inspection of what we have after the highs and wave of good feeling from Aberdeen on the last day. That is what has made the pessimistic snowball gather pace and size.

Will all the talk of Robertson moving to Hull in the space of a year can anyone answer the following question. Has anyone from junior football been picked up by a SPFL club and turned out decent or is the natural progression for them into the lower leagues?

I suppose to implement a 3 centre half, 2 wing backs or sweeper system is McCall would have to be an advocate and one thing we've found during his tenure is he prefers to tinker with known quantities opposed to major changes. So I doubt it'll happen. I suspect a couple of signings in a months time and therefore wonder why they aren't here today unless he's holding off to pick them up cheaper.

Considered Higdon was written off after 10 games into wearing the C&A and the club captain despite probably getting the most SOL MotM awards last season has been written off after two, I tend to have a bit more faith in the manager and what he can see over an extended period during training.

Do tell Burn Broomfield, how much did you stick on the coupon?

No difference of opinion at all, as I said 99% of us thought they'd be 2 competitive games between now and St. Mirren. As for nothing guaranteed, I agree but looking at UEFA coefficients and our previous results against Icelandic opposition and 20 minutes into the first game, most of us thought it would be a formality. I'll direct you to Alan Burrows post on the facebook page where he explains the reasoning and the fact the club are obligated to field the strongest team possible and commit many weeks in advance. Now you're advocating that if we hypothetically progressed last week, getting back from Poland early tomorrow and jumping on a bus for anything from 8 hours return on Sunday. Ever felt you're flogging a dead horse?

Do you accept that if we were playing competitively tonight then there wouldn't be a need for a game? Do you think the club (along with 99% of fans) expected to progress through the last round and therefore didn't see the need for an intermediate game this weekend? Don't you agree the plug was probably pulled by the ultra cautious police due to their commitment to the games? Don't you take any notice of the fact the club has listed the fact that most Scottish clubs are playing away this weekend? Do you accept we started our first competitive game 3/4 weeks before most others, therefore starting pre-season earlier than many of our potential opposition and a strong possibility they wouldn't be in a position to field a team against us? Would you rather we didn't play because fans can't get access to watch? Rather than poor management, I think its quite impressive the club managed to do this at such short notice with a team playing in one of the top leagues in Europe, sorry it doesn't get you out of getting hauled round Silverburn on Saturday around 3pm.

Justify "poorly managed" if you don't mind.