TheLip69

This is the point that has been nagging at me ever since the Well Society was first mooted, I just dont believe we have the fanbase to make this viable. While I can see the merits of the Society as a whole, it's almost impossible for me to envisage it working in practice. I hope I'm wrong.

We cannott take this down the personal route. Regardless of anyone's feelings over McCall, and I think everyone is well aware of my own personal take on his appointment, he is the man in charge. He has, whether by luck or judgement, had a good run and taken us to a Cup Final and a fairly healthy position in the league. He's surely earned enough brownie points to be given a fair shot at getting us out of this current slump. Talk of ditching him halfway through what has been, by Motherwell standards, a fairly successful season, so far, is a bit drastic.

I've never been a fan of McCall, but I think questioning his continuing employment when we drop to 4th is just bloody ridiculous. I take the point that we've been a bit of a shambles recently, but we've still managed to keep our noses in front of the chasing pack. In fairness McCall hasn't had too many bad times since his appointment, although the last few weeks of last season were bloody awful, this is probably his first big challenge as 'Well boss. He has to stop the rot and get the team back to playing the kind of football that was earning us plaudits at the start of the season. If he fails and the slide continues that's when you start asking those kind of questions. At the moment we're in a decent position, lets hope it stays that way.

Correct, Morton was the quarter final. How could I forget the Falkirk game that was a belter.

We were, and still are, a football club. Celtic were set up originally as a charity. We are still true to our roots, are Celtic?

We played them at the same stage in 1991, I hope this match isn't as fraught as that one was. I was a nervous wreck at Cappielow that night.

A real true Motherwell man. RIP

That seems to be the attitude most teams take into Old Firm matches, why are we so different? With all due respect to Killie and ICT, we're better than them, yet they go to Ibrox and turn them over while we go there and fucking roll over. We've got a terrific away record so why did McCall need to make wholesale changes to the team and the system for Ibrox? I dont mind getting beat by Rangers at Ibrox, I dont care how long it's been since we last won there, I dont care how long it goes on, as long as we give it a fucking go. I've came away from Ibrox plenty times disappointed with the result but rarely with the performance, recently it's gone past disappointment it's now embarrassing.

Cant get that VIP link to work, but at least I've won 3 Ipads.

First post from you that I cant argue with, what a let down.

Regardless of how confident I am, I still get quite nervous when I see threads like this. These kind of statements generally have a tendency to come back and bite you on the arse. Up to this point we're looking good but there's a long way to go.

Magnificent!!

Superb! Bring on part two.

The same people who turn up for it now, and who've always turned up for these games. These games tend to be the best to watch anyway, without the threat of relegation there's a freedom there which allows the team to experiment and try new things and blood new players. The fact is 10 or 12 is far too small, every season all of our teams outwith the OF are well aware of two things, One, they aren't going to win the league and Two a bad season could well see them relegated. There is very little margin for error and that's whats stifling our game. Every league needs that buffer zone, that wee band in the middle where clubs can take a breather and build for the future. There's a lot to be said for mid-table mediocrity. The punishment for relegation doesn't fit the crime, the sudden loss of TV money coupled with lower gates and lower admission prices could see some clubs forced into liquidation. At the moment every one of our clubs excepting the OF starts the season knowing relegation is a distinct possibility. Just as an example, probably the last really good Hibs side was Eddie Turnbulls team of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Hibs finished third in 1968 behind the OF, in 1969 they finished 12th, in 1970 3rd, in 1971 12th again, and then for the next five seasons it was 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd. That team in it's early years was a work in progress nowadays that progress would have been halted by relegation. That's the price we pay for 4 Old Firm matches a season, and I dont think it's worth the price. You can fill in as many surveys as you like but it wont change a thing only Sky can do that.

Who?

Born in William Smellie in Lanark, lived originally in Mossend till I was 2 then to Uddingston and up to Viewpark from the age of 7. Dont remember any 'Well fans at St Columbas when I was there, but a couple at Our Ladys in the late '60's early '70's. Have since lived back in Uddingston, then Hamilton, then Cleland, followed by Manchester, and now Sale.

The MST represents it's members. Apart from that the rest of your post is spot on.

I have never understood why Dixie won so few caps, I thought when he signed fo Celtic his cap career would take off, but eh only won two and they were at the tail end of his Celtic career. He seemed to perform even better on the big stage, two hat tricks in separate Cup Finals is an astonishing record at any level. I think Davidson and Graham both suffered through the fact that Scotland in the mid 1970's had a surfeit of good midfielders. Souness, Rioch, Gemmill, Hutchison, Hartford, to name a few. Plus if any of them dropped out the tendency was to nip along to Ibrox and Parkhead for replacements. Hence the solitary caps for Alex MacDonald and Ronnie Glavin.

MacRae was on the brink of a full cap when he got injured playing for the Scottish League, broke his wrist after diving at the feet of the striker after Jardine and McGrain had fucked up if memory serves. When he came back he was out of the picture and his career at Maine Road took a nosedive shortly after that. Stewart Rennie would just have been another Scottish goalkeeper for the English to laugh at, I still have nightmares about that semi-final agaunst Airdrie.

Danny McGrain was played at left back to accommodate Sandy Jardine. A fucking travesty in my opinion but it kept both halves of the bigot divide happy. McGrain was a better right back than Jardine and Wark was a better left back than either of them. Just another example of how the OF have fucked up this country. I believe that a lot of the refusal to cap Joe Wark was because he played for Motherwell, umpteen Scotland bosses systematically ignored players at Fir Park. Erich Schaedler and John Brownlie of Hibs were both capped at full back at a time when Wark was at his peak. In a strange twist to the usual, if he'd played with the OF he'd have been capped, moan, I'm sure I remember reading that Tommy McLean won all his caps with Kilmarnock and never got another cap after he joined Rangers.

No, I dont know them well enough to class them as anything in fact I dont know them at all. What I do know is that is how they will be seen, and I would repectfully suggest it's a bit nearer the mark than equating them with the suffragettes and the NAACP. Could you try not to make this personal, all I'm doing here is playing Devils Advocate.

Feels like it. I dont disagree with the point being made, but you aren't going to get very far just refusing to obey the rules, they'll just throw you out and as they've already had your money it's no skin off their nose. As for the argument about th OF getting away with it, they'll just tell you it's far easier to spot and identify an individual in a crowd of a couple of hundred than it is in a crowd of 5-6,000. Which is a fair enough point, but not exactly fair.

Good idea, stay seated the whole game, only get up for a piss, dont go for a pie or a bovril and see how they like the downturn in sales. That would probably hurt them more. Getting thrown out after you've paid in only disadvantages yourself, hit them where it hurts, in the pocket. They'll listen then.

This is what he said. "Once its passed, the government will expect it to be used against its intended target, or senior police will be taken to task" I take that to mean taken to task for not applying the law properly. Do you actually believe that would ever conceivably happen?

Fucking amazing how you can equate some wee ned who doesn't want to sit down at a Football match with Emily Pankhurst and Rosa Parks, (who did want to sit down but not where she was supposed to). I think you'll find the battle in both cases was against the law, UK Law and State Law respectively. I do not believe any of what you accuse me of and neither do I believe for one instant that any of those who were thrown out were doing it for altruistic reasons, so the analogy is ridiculous. The point I'm making is that the rules are there and they dont have a complaint as the stewards acted within the rules. You cant just ignore them because you dont agree with them, that's anarchy. The reason for the rule is because standing in a seated area enhances the risk of serious injury should anyone trip or fall, thus the club must, if only for the sake of their Public Liability insurance, advise you to sit down at all times. Some clubs may see that as enough to cover them if anything happens, others may try to enforce it. Hopefully Motherwell's stance will stimulate debate, but the one thing that will stop any change is the issue of finance, how much will it cost to install standing areas at grounds around the SPL? It's probably more bother than it's worth for most clubs, so don't hold your breath waiting on any changes.