Tweed

I think the elite status is fine, it is the criteria for becoming it that is the problem. I actually think it is quite a good idea to a point as we could be talking about persuading families with limited knowledge about football about where to place their kids. However rather than rather arbitrarily decide eight is the magic number, the SFA should develop a criteria about what makes an elite youth set up. It then becomes up to the clubs whether or not they go for it or not. In an age where just about every Scottish club has a strategy of develop young players, sell them on at a profit, reinvest in youth team and start again to differentiate these teams based on nothing other than fanbase and geography is completely unfair to all concerned and has the potential to strangle the growth of the clubs that miss out. Hamilton and Motherwell are one point apart in the league just now but if Hamilton get the status you could foresee in ten years from now that they'll swallow up the potential best talent and then thrive while we'll flounder. I wouldn't want us to get it at their expense either as the same impact of destroying competition will remain.

Behave yourself, that was never a penalty in a million years. The most penalty happy referee in the league didn't even flinch.

McManus and Heneghan won everything in the air, Killie never got behind them all day. McManus just shaded it.

For all we all agree we could and should have won, we've all seen Motherwell lose that game 1-0 umpteen times.

In which case I don't want us practising our defending...

Got to say it wasn't great, but I've seen a lot worse. MacLean, Ainsworth, Moult and McDonald all had a chance that I would expect them to score - two of them even missed the target. Undoubtedly we had the best chances. Kilmarnock were lively, quick and exciting until they had to cross the ball but Heneghan and McManus swept everything up, we defended very well in the penalty box for the most part. Subbing Lasley made a difference to the midfield, we were getting deeper and losing every ball and he looked like he was a second yellow waiting to happen but when Hastie came on we won more than we lost in there. Also, Dom Thomas - much improved from any other time I've seen him - maybe a baby step but a bit of improvement. Overall two very similar teams more or less cancelled each other out and nine times out of ten we'd have won that because one of the four mentioned at the start would have scored. Definitely two points dropped but it at least stopped the losing run.

I think all seven goals were pretty soft defensively if you look at them on their own. Likewise I think all seven had a lot of positive things about their attacking creativity. Stuart Armstrong is generally speaking for the benefit of the Celtic fans and I'd fully expect him to speak on their perspective, the same was I would expect whatever player we bundled out for post-match to speak from ours.

Were a few things at the game I thought were poor decisions, including the potential penalty offence by Toure. Having watched the game back on the TV, the only thing I think he got wrong was booking Moult as that was barely a foul.

Moult's first is one of the best finishes I've ever seen from a Motherwell player. MacLean's tackle and cross for the second were just both absolutely perfect. McManus won everything, in a defence that shipped 4 I can't see any fault with his performance. Cadden is the first Motherwell player I can remember forcing a Celtic manager to change their team inside half an hour. So they were my four contenders and I've decided to go for MacLean.

Correct. I watched the game back yesterday afternoon and Neil McCann that Celtic had 75% possession in both halfs. So even in the first half when we had all the best chances, we still spent about 33 minutes chasing the ball (I know it would be out of play some of the time so that's too high) but even so it shows we spent a lot of energy running. Whilst we were doing that Celtic spent a ridiculous amount of time standing still and passing it sideways. So although we amassed a lead they were already on their way to winning the game by tiring us out. In the second half Celtic changed their tactics (as you would have expected) and upped their intensity because they were hellish pedestrian in the first half. Easy to blame people for the first goal but to be fair it also came from a lovely slick one touch move, and the drag back by McGregor to open up the space was excellent. We defended OK for the next wee bit but we just couldn't get out and Celtic upped and upped their game. Goals 2 and 3 were definitely the worst from our perspective. Hammell completely lost Roberts and I also think Tait, Ainsworth et al hadn't quite worked out who should be where after the subby meaning the deep cross went in unchallenged. And the third one, the midfield were sleeping at the centre and Heneghan made a total hash of it. However it's hard to be too critical of him because he had a super game. Ainsworth has to take some of the blame for the fourth one. I get he was trying to be offensive but it really wasn't the percentage thing to do - a bit like McDonald conceding the ball in injury time at Ibrox. But the real problem was that the energy had gone, we were struggling to get out and really the pressure told. Very unusual for Rogic to play the full game which probably shows how worried they were.

Completely agree with this. We got more and more tired and as such stood off them more and simultaneously they got better.

It drained our confidence, caused a whole series of in-fighting, morale was shot. So aye, I reckon it probably was. In fact I reckon you owe us £100.

Despite our round 7 collapse, was an excellent quiz last night. Good variety of challenging questions to get the brain working. Only complaint is I have spent the last year trying to forget Jake Taylor and you've gone and reminded me of his existence.

Did he not say in the post-match interview of the Partick game that 'winning here means it should be easy/easier for me to make them believe they can beat Celtic here'. I thought that was pretty optimistic.

I think the issue with the Cooper is twofold. One is that our own season ticket holders are inconvenienced. But the other issue is that it means there are fans of both sides spilling out on to the street at full time meaning fans in the O'Donnell and Hunter stands are intimidated.

It's a free hit for us, nobody expects anything. We must must must do better at keeping the ball though, if we don't it'll be a mauling.

The game improved when Ainsworth came on and everything good we did, he was involved in.

We all know Hearts are strong and powerful and we all know we aren't. I think the formation McGhee set us up to play was fine. We had a good shape, we looked reasonably robust. However we had a problem that when we got the ball back, we kept giving it straight back to them which in turn meant that we spent most of the game around our 18 yard box. Had we been able to relieve the pressure for a couple of minutes at a time when we did get the ball back we may well not have succumbed the way we did. And that concession of possession was our downfall. Lasley gifted the ball to them on a plate and two seconds later we were behind. It was amateurish. We crippled into half time at 1-0 despite a disallowed one and a good fizzing shot which Samson parried. Ainsworth for Ferguson was a good change. Hammell for McMillan seemed a bit unnecessary. Ainsworth gave us something we were lacking - he seemed right on it and I feel that if we had stayed at 1-0 when we put the pressure on them we may have nicked a goal as Hearts haven't won for a while and it would have been interesting to see how they coped with pressure. But we giftwrapped them a second by not marking the centre forward. Even so we had a good spell and the second half formation seemed to work but we then sold the sloppiest of thirds. What the france Hammell was doing letting a clearance bounce and Walker managed to pounce and punish us. Three goals conceded, all completely our fault, gave the ball away time after time but I think there was enough in the second half to show we can compete with Hearts. But individual errors were the thing of the day and we need to stamp them out. Also think if we keep the ball better there is less pressure and the opportunities for making these errors will be reduced.

Hearts at the moment are scoring plenty but also conceding plenty. They are only five points ahead of us so there is no massive gap there, we should go there, be positive and see where it takes us. For all milo is a bit doom and gloom, his analysis of the league is spot on. We go on a long winless run we'll be under pressure and given the fixtures we have between now and Christmas, Kilmarnock and St Johnstone look like two huge games unless we cause a wee upset or two.

There is no doubt in my mind that central midfield has been our biggest problem this season. Last two home games we have done better in that area and hence we've taken six points. Lucas and Clay were very good against County. Yesterday Lasley, Cadden and Clay were much better than the Thistle midfield three in the first half - not that they were perfect and there were mistakes but they were good enough. In the second half Thistle edged that area of the field but we were good enough that we were tough to break down. Hopefully McGhee will have learned that if that is our weakest area of the game, we need to give ourselves the best chance of mitigating that weakness by playing three in there. I think if we do that, only the better teams in the league will overrun us.

I would love to vote for David Ferguson because for the first time when I've seen him, I thought he looked a Premier League player today. Also showed awareness beyond his years when he got carrrumped in the first half. He was walking diagonally off the pitch despite Dallas asking him to get a move on so he was ready to come back on in as useful a place as possible when he was waved on. Know it is a stupid thing but just showed a maturity. He of the eleven was the one who absolutely exceeded expectations today. BUT McDonald was immense (that pass to Cadden apart) and giving it to anyone else would have been sacrilege.

From the BBC Motherwell manager Mark McGhee: "We changed our shape today and we didn't give Thistle a lot of room. I thought we won the battles all over the park and worked very very hard. "(Scott) McDonald always amazes you, doesn't he? He plays against all these huge defenders and he still manages to take the ball down and control it. The strikers played very well today. Equally pleasing is that we have a clean sheet for the first time this season." I know the Dundee game at Fir Park was instantly forgettable but thought he might have remembered the clean sheet....

Got to say when I saw the eleven names on the team sheet I was worried. When I saw the way said eleven were shaped at the centre, I could see a logic and within five minutes it was working quite well. So we'll start with a big well done to McGhee - he nailed it today. That said it was a turgid opening and we were gifted a goal by Stuckmann. You can see why McGhee was so irked by the disallowed goal at Dens. We went from being the marginally better team to one who were in complete control and stroking it about nicely. In games like this when a goal gives you that lift it shows the importance of getting in first. Tait and Heneghan should both have scored headers and Clay's drive went for power instead of position when a bit of composure would have had another goal but McDonald's goal was a peach. Super pass and finish. Though it all came from some honking defending. Second half and we defended very well. For all Thistle had most of the ball and territory they only got in once when a shot was skied over the bar. What was apparent was Lasley, Clay and Cadden had gone from dominating the midfield in the first half to being second best in the second half. However it was not the complete overrunning it has been in other games and they still functioned reasonably. We had some great chances on the counter and really should have had a third but as the game entered the final knockings we managed the game in a very competent but unspectacular fashion and they completely ran out of ideas. It really wasn't the Motherwell way.... Given the tough tough run we have coming winning was the alpha and omega today and we did it with some flashes of very good football, not quite the flowing stuff we got against Ross County and hopefully we can take something from that to the tough tests against HEarts and Celtic. Starting those two games in 6th is an excellent bonus because starting them in 10th could have meant a murky murky outlook by mid-December.

I'm with you with Hearts, Celtic, Aberdeen twice and St JOhnstone five of the next six after Saturday we need something here. I wouldn't advocate McGhee being removed/removing himself if it doesn't happen but it could become a belts and braces sort of December.

I agree but from what I've seen McMillan is slightly ahead of him.