Lukemfc1

Very high if you can tolerate Ranjurs TV

It'll be interesting to see whether Robinson reverts back to the old system. I'm actually hopeful he will show a bit of faith and stick with what we have been doing recently i.e including our best ball players Turnbull and Bigi. As much as formations aren't everything and have been talked about to death amongst the support the diamond thing has made a clear difference. The directive from the manager and players has been to play down it's influence in results but it has changed our playing style significantly. The real test of it will how things look against the better teams in the league like Sunday. I'd stick with a similar team on Sunday but I would include Johnson for Main/Bowman (probably Main) take your pick. As much as he hasn't been amazing, Johnson looks like the only one of our strikers with that killer instinct and could get us a goal from the limited chances we will have. Carson Cadden Aldred Hartley Tait McHugh Grimshaw Bigi Turnbull Johnson Bowman I did wonder about Dunne's fitness? I'm not sure if he is in a position to come back. From what I remember he wasn't as good at left back as centre back but I think that was when he was still finding his feet at the club. If fit it wouldn't surprise me with Robbo decides to back to the three at the back but certaintly another option. Their defence is dodgey at best so you never know if someone gets firing we could get something from the game.

Totally kills the atmosphere stone dead as well tbh. Regardless of numbers we should be housing them in the lower section of the south stand. I get there may be financial reasons but having a huge away stand sitting there doing nothing is pretty mad. It also looks bogging on the tele.

Over the moon with the result today. Those 6 points were essential and have given us a good gap going into a tricky run of fixtures. Turnbull the match winner is quickly looking like a huge talent. We need to get him signed up asap as it looks like his contract ends in May. Cadden again looked like a different player. Grimshaw too was great again. Only negative for me was up front. We literally have no natural finisher. We need someone who can convert those chances today. Bowman worked tirelessly and Main was decent at times but we need cutting edge up front. There's an argument to put Johnson in with Bowman. Really pleased for the boys and Robinson. Say what you want but the change in system and playing style seems to be making a real difference. So refreshing to see some good passing football at Fir Park again.

Last night was a pleasant surprise. I was sure when the team line up came through that we were sticking with the same old system. Fortunately it quickly became evident that McHugh was indeed in a more advanced position rather than part of a back 3. I have to give Robinson some credit for finally changing this, I genuinely thought he might refuse to change things following his interview yesterday. I'm hopeful this isn't just a one off and we can use this going forward. Looking at the actual players I thought a lot of the guys acquitted themselves very well. There seemed to be a lot more relaxed approach on the ball rather than just lashing it up the park. There were occasions where we reverted to type but there was a lot more football played last night. Special credit needs to go to Chrissy Cadden who finally stepped up to the plate. Regardless of position he has been underperforming for some time now and showed last night what he is capble of. Again, I thought Turnbull was class. Technically he is head and shoulders above the majority of the senior players at the club. Grimshaw was also very good at times and done a lot of important running for the team. I do want to caution somewhat that St Mirren were absolutely horrendous and are probably the worst team I have seen in the SPFL for a good few years. I suspect even Dundee will give us a much stiffer test on Saturday. We did play a lot better than we have been but you need to take into account the calibre of the opposition. Regardless if we can get a win on Saturday things will start to look a lot different. At the moment though one win is all it is and it will mean nothing if we don't follow this up on Saturday. Given the circumstances I thought our support deserve some credit. Great numbers (despite horrific traffic situation) and vocal but positive. Hopefully we can continue this on Saturday.

This is now a genuine must win, St Mirren are absolute dirge. From what I have seen they look even worse than us at the moment. We should have more than enough to get the job done here. A defeat is unthinkable and if we lose I would suggest a change needs to be made straight away. Unfortunately I suspect Burrows would leave it until atleast after the Dundee game. To me, a draw is a case of prolonging the agony somewhat. If we can't beat the likes of St Mirren I think we need to look at someone else who can take us forward long-term. The fear I have is we need to get points on the board going into the tough run of fixtures after the Dundee game. When I say points on the table we need wins. 6 points to me was a minimum expectation going into the St Johnstone, St Mirren and Dundee trio of fixtures. Bit doom and gloom but I genuinely hope this week can see some big changes to the way we play both stylistically and in terms of results. Won't hold my breath though. In terms of line-up I can see Robinson sticking with the 352 but keeping Turnbull involved given he was the best guy on the park for us last time out. Everything else I fear basically picks itself in Robinson's mind despite his threats to 'change things up'. Only question for me is will McHugh come back into the side? Should be interesting as he seems to be a firm favourite of Robinson. Main concern I have just now is goals. I have a feeling he will stick with the Main/Bowman combination. For the life of me I can't really explain how he continues to leave Johnson out of the side. He looks like the only guy in the squad who has a genuine eye for goal. Other than Johnson I can't see any striker getting even 10 league goals this season. There was a lot of 'told you so' type remarks following Curtis Main's purple patch last season in response to fans who sighted his absymal goal record. Unfortunately Main has went on to prove a lot of the doubters right. His goalscoring record is starting to take shape and looks pretty similar to what it looked like at his previous clubs. Basically he has some good attributes but will never be a natural goalscorer in my mind therfore was never ever going to fill the Moult void. In short, you can't judge players solely on their career statistics but if they have scored 5 goals in 60 games for Darlington it might give you a wee bit of a clue. I would honestly drop Main and start with Bowman and Johnson. Bowman clearly isn't a natural finisher either but his workrate is usually a wee bit better and I think he could link up well with Johnson. Regardless of who starts we need a striker signed in January. I actually think we might win on Wednesday. More to do with how bad St Mirren look than how good we look right enough.

I hear the drummer got some sort of ban, maybe temporary along with a few others. You get folk moaning about them but without them and the last half of the east stand the atmosphere is abysmal.

I agree that Aldred is limited but I can honestly count on one hand the amount of times he has done anything massively wrong. Technically he isn't great but what he does do he does well. I said towards the end of last season that I think he is actually better than Hartley and I stand by this. I think Hartley has looked a lot worse since his injury too. His mobility appears to be very poor. If we were to bin one of them for the first team I would bin with Hartley. Tbh though I would suggest defence isn't the main problem here. I would go with with Dunne and Aldred as the centre backs in a four , there you have a mixture of pace and no nonsense defending. Hartley + Aldred seems too similar and I'm not convinced Dunne is an actual left back.

Aye, you are right. Robinson has been guilty of misusing the funds he has at his disposal. There have been numerous examples of this, even last season bringing in guys like Demi who had less ability than the youth players in the same position. I totally agree there. My point regards budget is probably off-topic in regards to the Robinson discussion to be honest with you. I just feel like the level of investment in the team could be better and may be something we need to review if we are to comfortably stay in the division. Yes, Robinson should be recruiting better and more intelligently but I have serious reservations about the current club model if Hamilton Accies are paying basically the same money on wages as us: Motherwell - £42,662 per week v Hamilton £41,488 (last year) This ofcourse could have changed over the summer but I doubt it. Regardless of manager we can't continue to invest at this level and expect to be challenging for top 6. Yes, most clubs in the SPFL have some sort of single benefactor but it is the job of the fan model to present and implement a model which is realistic and in-line with fan expectations.

It's crazy the difference a year makes. This time last year we were being treated to that Moult chip in the semi-final, one of my favourite 'well memories in the last few years. Aye, maybe the cup runs skewed our judgement a bit but I think we all starting to wake up now. To be honest the cup runs last season gave me more satisfaction than any top 6 finish so I think that's the reason many have had so much goodwill for Robinson. The goodwill now though is quickly evaporating. Saturday was complete dirge. Anyone who was there could tell you it was a match devoid of any quality. The ending was so predictable. That p***ed me off but not as much as Robinson's now trademark nonsense post-match interview. 'I thought for 60 minutes we played well, we had chances' 'we got the ball down and played' followed by standard and empty threats about changing the line up. Obviously Robinson is trying to put his own spin on things but I'm not sure why he thinks it's acceptable to suggest we played well for 60 minutes. If that's us playing well we are in for a very traumatic season. Having possession does not constitute playing well in a football game. I am fed up of going to watch utter drivel then being told otherwise after the match. The standard of football we are being served up is very low. At the moment it would seem that Robinson has turned us into a poor EFL League 1 side who play for set pieces and percentage football. The level of technical ability in the side is much lower than even most of McGhee's sides. This is demonstrated very clearly when you watch David Turnbull on Saturday. The boy has more ability than the vast majority of the senior team, so much so that his creative passes were far too well thought out for Main and co to understand. If we get beat against St Mirren I think it's time for Burrows to step in. Generally though even if we win our next 2 games there are some serious questions about where we are going as a club. In terms of Robinson himself - Style of play is awful and tactics are one dimensional. - Techincal ability of players is very poor. - Recruitment is limited. For me, there is also wider questions here surrounding the fan model and whether this is funding team recruitment to a high enough level. Is the current spend going to comfortably let us achieve our club ambitions? Why (going on last years figures) did we have the 2nd lowest budget in the SPFL? We need to be prudent yes but our model should allow us to spent more than the likes Partick and St Johnstone. We are an established top division club and need to fund this accordingly. Our current budget is mainly limiting our recruitment to utter dross from the lower reaches in England. We seem unwilling/unable to compete for Scottish based players for example. Ultimately there has been a lot of positive noises coming out of the club for some time but at the moment it looks like this was lacking very little substance.

Robinson literally just said we played well for 60 minutes. What planet is he on atm?

I like Robinson. I was against his appointment originally but he completely changed my mind last season. With that being said, I think the next few weeks is a bit make or break for me and many other supporters. St Johnstone at home, St Mirren away and Dundee at home. After this we hit another tricky run of fixtures playing Rangers, Aberdeen, LIvi, Celtic and Hearts. In my mind, we need atleast seven points from the next three fixtures to try to obtain a comfortable gap away from the relegation zone going into the tougher fixtures in November - December. If we don't come out of the next three games with a decent number of points I'm not sure I will be backing the manager. One added pressure this week is the Neil Mccann sacking. As enjoyable as it is to see a wee fud like him get sacked it isn't very good for us. Chances are that Dundee will get the 'new manager bounce' and start to pick up some better results. This puts even greater importance on the fixture against Dundee and the teams around us. I'm trying to go into tomorrow's game with as positive an outlook as possible but it is difficult to keep this going throughout a game when watching Motherwell this season. Ultimately if we don't perform or get a result Fir Park is not going to be a pleasant place to be for the manager or players. We have all seen it numerous times before, Malpas, Mcghee etc etc. I'm hopeful most folk will encourage the team as much as possible rather than creating a negative atmosphere from than outset. In terms of the game itself I genuinely don't think Robinson will change things. As I have said before I am starting to fear he is tactically quite one dimensional. I think most of us are hoping that his interview means he is going to throw a couple of the U20 boys in but I don't think that will be the case. For the majority of the year he has rhymed off numerous boys names but they have barely been given a sniff. I really hope I am wrong there btw. If I was me picking the team I would go for something like Carson Tait Aldred Hartley Livingston Campbell Turnbull Rose Cadden Johnson Frear Play Campbell/Rose slightly more deep lying. Turnbull in a more advanced role with Cadden/Frear as actual proper wingers. Johnson looks like our most natural goal scorer to me so if I had to choose one I would include him. I'm probably miles off the mark here but this is what I would do. Unfortunately I can smell our standard selection and 352 from here.

I'm first to admit that there is a big difference between U20 level and the first team but given what the U20s done on Saturday is there any chance of any of them being included on Saturday? I understand that it's likely that some of them will not be able to make the step up from Silgo Rovers to x SPFL side however there must be some that are in with a shout. I'm not sure what level we would say Silgo are at maybe League 1/Championship? (that's a guess as I wasn't there on Saturday) Is there any point putting emphasis on youth development if we refuse to include players when our first team is doing so badly? It also seems pointless naming the likes of Turbull, Maigure and Scott in interviews if they aren't going to get a decent sniff. My personal opinion is that the players coming out our youth system look like they have a higher technical ability than a lot of the guys we have taken from down south. Physically they aren't there in some cases but I think Robinson needs to do more to bring these boys through.

Just listened to the Robinson interview.... Bang goes any chat of changes to systems. 'We have to play Livi at their own game and get back to what we are good at' I have fear

Saturday is vital for obvious reasons but the impact a result would have on fan opinion and player confidence cannot be understated. Let's be honest here. If we lose a lot of the fans that were on the fence will start calling for Robinson's head. Conversely if we win it will keep detractors at bay for the moment and should breed some confidence in the players going into some winnable fixtures. The table and general outlook will look entirely different if we win our next 4 games. It's a big if yes but we could easily be sitting here in a month wondering what all the fuss was about. At the moment I'm still behind Robinson. We have 4 games coming up, Livi, St Johnstone, St Mirren and Dundee. All are winnable. If we don't come out of these games with a fair number of victories I think it's very fair to say my opinion might change. As much as it has been an overused excuse by the manager our start to the season has been a tough run of fixtures. My main concern: the system we are using doesn't seem to work well for the group of players we have at the moment. I suspect with Dunne back and a couple of other additions that might change but for the moment it simply doesn't work with the players we have at our disposal. Every manager has their preferred system and style of play but could it be Robinson is a bit one dimensional in this regard? His first game I remember was against Killie at Rugby Park and it was evident that day that he shoe horned a system to a team that didn't really fit. As time went on that changed and he got the right personal for the system but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I might be wrong but it looks to me more than just the players under performing. I'm really hopeful Robinson can prove us wrong here and change things up for the better. To me though any team should have 2 or 3 systems which they are able to consistently implement. We've seen the diamond in midfield used a few times with mixed results but nothing really for a prolonged period of time. Injury wise I don't know where a lot of the guys stand at the moment but my suggestion would be not to try to 'out-livi' Livingston. Revert to a simple shape try and play some decent passing football, get the ball wide and use our wingers as wingers to get balls in the box. Sounds really simplistic aye but we've not been doing any of that effectively as of late. If we are going to beat Livi we are going to have to actually compete as well i.e actually win aerial battles and most importantly the inevitable second balls. Guesswork but I'd go for something like: Carson Tait Aldred Hartley ATS Cadden Rodriguez Campbell Frear Bowman Johnson I've been very unimpressed by ATS thus far but I'm not sure we have any other left sided options. In midfield if Rodriguez is fit I think he deserves a chance from the start. To me , he looks like more than just a 'fancy footballer' and can put in a decent tackle. He's been given very little opportunity since coming in and looked a decent player. I'd also like to see Turnbull given a more prominent role. If Robinson says he's going to ring the changes then make some. Both the team and system hasn't been working so let's change a bit of both and see how it goes.

By all accounts I have heard he is still a couple of weeks off. I believe he only resumed training this week. We need him back ASAP.

Immediate thoughts.. I don't really agree with Robinson and some others assessment of the match. This wasn't a brilliant performance by any means. We were decent in spells but quite disjointed. We started well but Hearts quickly grow into the game after the penalty. Bigi's mistake was absolutely horrendous at this level. He had a shocker overall. From there Hearts had total control and had various chances. 2nd half we came out and managed to play even worse. There was a 15 minute period where we actually didn't seem to win a single header or challenge. We sat deeperand deeper and to me Hearts could have had 2 or 3 easily. We had some decent blocks in there so credit where it's due for that I suppose. It's just disappointing at the moment. I know Hearts are a much stronger team but I don't feel like we are playing to our full potential just now. The midfield balance looked off to me, I think we lacked Rose's legs in there. In terms of positives I thought Cadden looked a lot better in spells than he has been recently. Bowman's overall performance, hold up play and goal were fantastic. He deserves his place in the team back. I actually thought Donnelly done well too, someone I hadn't been too sure about. I don't think we should have any kneejerk reaction here but I think it's fair to question the current form and this constant chatter that 'decisions aren't going for us but we are playing well'. Ultimately we have had a hard run of fixtures and I still have faith in the guys to beat the teams around us over the next month or so.

It looks like we have a fair few players out tonight, this could be a good barometer of how well the squad player signing policy has went. By my count Rodriguez, Main, Donnelly, Hartley and Andy Rose are all fitness doubts. Sammon also can't play as he is on loan from Hearts. Granted not all of these boys are first team starters but it certainly tests our strength in depth in a couple of positions. If everyone above doesn't make it I'd revert to our normal shape with something like the below. I really just hope we don't totally change the system (due to injury) to something the players aren't comfortable with. Carson Aldred McHugh Maguire Cadden Campbell Bigi Grimshaw Tait Bowman Johnson I didn't see Turnbull on Saturday but on the face of it I wouldn't be adverse to seeing a midfield of Campbell, Bigi and Turnbull. It sounds like it could be decent but with the manager calling for 'more high baws' I don't think we're ever likely to see it. I understand what Robbo is saying and to a degree the headline has misrepresented him somewhat. The notion however that we have been playing any sort of free flowing football and 'the media should be giving us more credit' is nonsense. Bigi playing the ball side to side isn't my idea of total fitbaw. The worry I have about these tactics versus Hearts is this will be their bread and butter. Playing the long ball against a Craig Levein team is never going to be an easy way to victory. Going along in hope more than expectation tonight but it's the cup so you never know with this team. If you are on the fence about going along get yourself through to Edinburgh and let's get behind the boys.

Admittedly I wasn't at Aberdeen on Saturday but I don't think we should be pushing the panic button yet. It sounds like it was a similar story to the Hearts game in which we narrowly lost out. We have had a very tough start to the season in terms of fixtures with the exception of Accies. We really need to judge the team on how we do against the Kilmarnock's and Livingston's rather than the top 4. There is some valid longstanding points here regarding league form and I think these are more than fair but we need to give it some more time to really get a clear picture of where we stand this season. The biggest concern for me is up front. I mentioned in August that if Johnson isn't prolific we are going to struggle and at the moment it's not looking great. Main, Bowman and Sammon aren't goalscorers. My biggest critic of Robinson just now would be that at the end of the transfer window he somehow thought we had enough in attack. We look devoid of any guile or flair and I think it was quite clear to see that was the case at the end of August. I hate to harp back to it and single someone out but to me the Sammon signing was a big mistake. Instead of getting someone in the Nadir Ciftci mould we went in the total wrong direction. The narrative about improving squad players also should be questioned. I'm not convinced Donnelly, ATS and co are any better than what we had on the bench last year. I would much rather we spent the wages from 2 bench player on one higher quality first team player and allow the younger boys to fill in the slots on the bench.

It's obviously going to be a really difficult fixture but I'm not as apprehensive as I usually am going into Aberdeen away. They haven't really hit the ground running so far this season and I've been encouraged by some of our play in the last couple of fixtures. Up front they seem to lack goals at the moment, I'm confident our backline will be able to deal with May/Cosgrove. A point would be a great result but our record up there recently would suggest a win isn't totally out of the question. Clearly we need to show more of a creative spark than we did on Saturday but I think we have looked more assured for the most part in our last few games. Team wise I woudn't change a great deal but I think it's time for Cadden to sit out for a week. It's funny I've been pretty critical of Cadden for the last 6 months or so but I seen on the Youtube feature it mentioned that it was his 22nd birthday. This makes me feel I've been pretty harsh on the guy. Cadden has basically been a main stay in the team for the past couple of seasons since breaking through. I'm all for breaking young Scottish guys through to the first team but realising he is only 22 has made me think we are maybe putting a bit too much pressure on him. I think guys at that age should be taken out the team from time to time particularly when they have had an exteneded season with the international team to Peru and Mexico. Frear for all his detractors has looked a bit better from what I've seen of him this season. Against Rangers for example he done very well when he came on. Give Frear the LWB role and revert Tait back to the right for this one. Gillespie Aldred McHugh Hartley Tait Campbell Rose Bigi Frear Johnson Main

I have to agree with the last few posts. As much as I left the game frustrated, I really enjoyed the contest and thought we did pretty well at times. First 20 minutes I thought we were in full control of the game up until the madness from McHugh. Moments before the incident I was thinking to myself how well McHugh had been doing defensively. To be honest, if you take that massive mistake out I think he was one of our best performers which makes it even more unfortunate that he made such a fatal error. His handling of Ikpezu in particular was very good and he managed to make some very street wise tackles against him. I don't buy into the whole foul chat for the goal, watching that full speed there was no way you could say with any confidence it was a clear foul. The guy Ikpezu was perfectly entitled to go for the ball and it's just really unfortunate what happened to big Carson. Fingers crossed it's just some bruising and he quickly recovers. In terms of positives I thought we battled pretty well for the majority of the game and even thought some of our passing was a wee bit better than previous games this season. We seemed to string a few passes around first rather than just lumping it straight from the back like we had been doing earlier in the season. Rose and Campbell were good in the middle of the park and I thought Bigi was decent for the most part. Again, apart from the lapse for the goal I thought our back three looked good. I also thought the sub goalie done pretty well when he came on so that was another postive. On the negatives, I'm really concerned about Chrissy Cadden's form. I feel like a broken record here but I can't remember when he had a couple of really good games. He was rotten on Saturday and he needs taken out of the team for a few weeks. Saturday seemed to be the perfect opportunity for this given his knock from during the week and Frear's impact in the Rangers match. My worry for Cadden is he seems to be going backwards and not progressing. This is probably a really basic view of things but to me the last few months Cadden essentially does a bit of running, can't beat a man and then either loses the ball or wins a foul. I was firmly in the RWB isn't his position camp but at some point you need to look at the player and what he is actually doing on the park. Cadden needs to get back to doing what he is good at, to me that's using his pace to get in good positions to get balls into the box. Ultimately our downfall on Saturday was a stupid mistake and a lack of quality in the final third. If we play like that against the bottom 6 teams and add a little bit of spark in the final third we will be fine. Special shout out to Bobby Madden who failed to deal with Hearts horrible tactics of constant diving, time wasting and moaning. Not sure there has ever been a worse guy on a football pitch than Steven Naismith?

This is a big one . There is a fair chance McCann could get his jotters if we comfortably see Dundee off on Saturday. Their fans are restless and you can understand why. I'd honestly love to get it up him at the weekend, he has brought nothing but moaning and excuse making since he has came in. The term wee man syndrome springs to mind. If we could follow up Sunday's display with 3 points and a good performance I think the momentum could really swing in our favour. Should we lose negativity will creep back in rightly or wrongly. Unfortunately the facts are we would be bottom with a defeat so regardless of your outlook Saturday is a really important fixture. Clearly the season is not won or lost at this stage of the season but a good/bad start can go a long way to determining how things go in a campaign. I am very wary of Kenny Miller, i think he might start. From what I've observed Dundee are shocking up front. They play some decent stuff but no cutting edge. Miller could provide that tomorrow, like him or not he has the ability to pop up with goals even at his age. We need to be on top of our games at the back. I'd go with the same side as Sunday. If we can get anywhere near the level of intensity and pass the ball like we did at times we will be just fine.

I among others was pretty negative prior to kick off on Sunday. I'm now really hopeful that performance can kick start our season. I thought we were terrific at times and got back to doing what we are good at for parts of last season. We actually should have won the game given the pressure and chances we created. The most important thing now is following this up with a performance and win over a rubbish Dundee side at the weekend. The reality is despite the performance on Sunday we are still rooted to the bottom of the league (albeit it is early doors) The most difficult thing for 'diddy' teams like us is getting that sort of performance level consistently but if we can get anywhere near that I would suggest we will overawe Dundee. Johnson was tremendous, I never realised how sharp he is. Perhaps he wasn't fully up to speed earlier in the season. I have really high hopes for him now and can see him filling the void that I felt we had in terms of goalscorers up front. He made Goldson and co look like amateurs, smashing the myth of their 'rock solid' defence. Main too looked back to his best in terms of general play. I said earlier in the season that I couldn't see Bigi being a fixture in the first team this year and I'm happy admit I can see I'm wrong about that. If Bigi can play with the strength and ability he showed on Sunday he could be like a new signing this season. To me where he improved was being especially strong in the tackle. Last year I don't think he would have looked as rubust as he did on Sunday. He also seemed to better understand the frantic speed of play too albeit he nearly got caught a couple of times. I thought Rose was tremendous. He gets such a hard rap off folk but the work he done in the middle was excellent. Special mention for Frear too who came off the bench and caused a number of problems. The pressure we had in the 2nd half was totally relentless. One of the differences to me on Sunday was the direct balls we played actually seemed to have some sort of purpose. We played the ball in behind and into the flanks rather than aimless hoofs. At the back we were fairly solid as well, McHugh and Aldred dealt with the majority of what came at them. It was great to get it up them on Sunday, again alot of the media hype has been founded to be complete drivel. Make no mistake we bossed Rangers for the majority of that game so credit to our boys for stepping up. McGregor won't be banned because it's Rangers but should be. It really is unbelievable the difference in reaction to this compared with our 'hammer throwing' antics last time out.

The referee could greatly influence a game without causing a win so hard to quantify this really. As always stats don't take into account alot of different variables. The most noteworthy thing is that the more high profile guys generally get the bigger games. Regardless of stats I'm not really buying a team having a genuine bias against Motherwell. On the whole refereeing is pretty bad but I put the majority of the mistakes down to general incompetence. Make them go professional, if they are training day in, day out they should improve. Whilst I don't think there is anyone 'out to get us', there is definitely still a few who concisiously favour either side of the Old Firm. I also believe that given the support and pressure by both the fans and the media that some referees often give wrong decisions in favour of the Old Firm rather than the smaller team. This may be a subconscious thing but I am 100% sure this still happens. A classic example of this was McGregor at Fir Park last year to save the timmy unbeaten run. Collum in that case either had a severe biased towards Celtic or felt the pressure to 'save' the situation at hand. Following the incident we were fed obscure camera angles filmed on a pizza to justify the decision. Ultimately the reverse angle and view that Collum had that day showed that it was a ridiculous decision. This is the sort of decision that I think frustrates most of us. Given the David against Goliath situation we face against the Old Firm I think we all just yearn for someone who can call it straight down the middle and isn't pressured by the fans/media in the ground.

I've got the fear a bit about Sunday to be honest with you but hopefully I'm totally wrong.. I don't think Rangers are brilliant but they are certainly looking very solid at the back and have improved their quality in the majority of positions. Still, on our day we can give them a good game but everyone needs to be on it. To me, this isn't a game for a midfield containing both Bigi and Gorrin. Yes, I want us to play more football generally speaking but against Rangers probably isn't the place for it. A happy medium can be achieved by having one of them in the team but having another combative player (Rose) in the middle of the park. If there is a game to play sh*tfest football and rough up the opposition, Fir Park against the Old Firm is probably the place. I'd like to see us get back to the pressing and harrying we had at some points last season. For example the way we played against Celtic at home, we made the park small and pressed high at any opportunity. I don't feel like we have done this properly for some time now. I like Hartley and on the face of it love the comments he has made but once you take a step back and think about it has he just given Gerrard his team talk for Saturday? Not sure it's the brightest. On the pitch, everyone needs to step up on Sunday. I wasn't at Livi last week but it still doesn't sound like we were back to any sort of great level of performance. I'd like to see the likes of Chrissy Cadden start to get it together, I love Cadden but I don't feel like we've seen anything from him for some time now. Time for some of these guys to provide a better than average perfomance. That's what we will need to get any sort of result on Sunday. Carson Aldred Hartely McHugh Cadden Gorrin Campbell Rose Tait Main Johnson