Andy_P

I think its only natural that when the stakes are lowered that you give it a bit more consideration as to whether you are going to go a game. Some folk will point blank refuse to pay to go watch friendlies for example. Some say the upside of the split is the excitement a close run finish for 6th place can bring. The downside of that, as we have experienced in the past - and will do again this season, is that not making it is viewed as failure. Pre-split days you might have happily toddled along to a relatively meaningless Motherwell v St Mirren end of season game and not given the fact there was nothing to play for a second thought. Nowadays the feeling generated by the split is that we've failed and the season is over. All boils down to much the same thing really, a relatively meaningless end of season game, but perceptions are totally different. For me personally the home games are a given and the away ones I'll weigh up nearer the time, though I always try to make a point of getting to the last away game of the season.

Bad result today? Obviously. Could the season have gone better? Yeah, I think it could have. But for me talk of a change of manager at this time is way off of the mark. I'll be only too happy if McGhee's in charge next season.

Clyde fan in the work had said Accies were straight on the phone to them offering New Douglas Park at a heavily inflated rate. Believe the SFL clubs were Morton and Alloa. Story was also reported on Scotland Today as well incidently.

I just wonder what bearing our final league position will have. The difference in finishing position obviously has a big bearing on what prize money we end up with and therefore what kitty McGhee will have to play with. It could be difference both in terms of what deals wer are in a position to offer the guys who are out of contract and what kind of calibre of player we might hope to attract to add to what we have. There's also a psychologial element to it as well. It just looks a better selling the club to someone when we can say that we've finished in the top six and have made a push for Europe in consecutive seasons. Several of the provincial sides like Livi, Dunfermline, Killie and ourselves have had their day in the sun finishing 3rd or 4th. Not so many have been able to consolidate that position the following season. If we could do that then that suggests the building blocks are there and last season hasn't just been a flash in the pan. Not that I'm in anyway adding to the importance of Saturday's game you understand......

I don't see it as a bad result at all to be honest. A bad result for me would have been a Hibs which would have made it highly unlikely that we would have been able to turn around the goal difference even if both results went our way this weekend. Preference ofcourse would have been a healthy St Mirren win last night, but after our failure to take anything at Ibrox I believe we were always going to have to beat St Mirren this weekend to make it. Even if Hibs had lost last night for us to finish 6th by virtue of drawing with the Buds this weekend you would have been looking for Rangers to win by a certain number of goals. Ofcourse that could still happen but I don't really see that happening. It just doesn't seem in that Rangers side or manager's mentality to go out and bury teams. The task we face is now a simple win. Its a must win. I have faith in the team that we can do it. Then we'll see what Sunday brings.

Don't have any rankings but I did hear Chic Young wittering on at some point last week saying how they could get relegated but could qualify for Europe as they were sitting top of the Fair Play League.....then quickly remembered they were in the Scottish Cup too and hastily added that in as afterthought.

Not sure if there's an appetite for a Man of the Match given the time that's passed but just in case...... I went for Stephen Hughes this week. Thought he was comfortably the best midfielder on the park.

I'm running out of time on my lunch but to counter some of that Melvin but I would disagree that McGhee has been exempt from criticism. Perhaps this might be too simplistic but is not perhaps the case that generally when we win and do well and for the most part that's what's what we've done under McGhee that generally folk are happy with their lot and find no reason to dig too deeply for concerns? Certainly I recall in times of trouble such as the run of form pre-Christmas and the exits in the Cups to likes of Dundee and St Mirren that there have been plenty willing to look a bit more in depth at problems then. Likewise you say he has shown no "out of the box" thinking but then go on to criticise him for trying Quinn in midfield, or Clarkson on the wing and deep. He has also converted Klimpl from a central defender back to a midfielder he hadn't played in for some years. Is that not some of the unconvential thinking you are looking for? Ofcourse the Coach and Clarky things didn't go as well but again there were plenty on hand on the boards who were quick to point out the failings of the moves which again leads me to believe that its more a case of folk are simply happier to let things go when the goings good rather than any sycophanitcal devotion to McGhee. Yasss made it with a minute to spare. To the flexi machine.........

It's quite a strange one that we could win the next two and still not make it because of goal difference yet at the same time, extreme long-shot that it is, that we could lose the next two but still make it on goal difference. For me its a case of getting through the next set of fixtures forgetting about St Mirren for the moment. Personally I think if we can come through Saturday and Monday and remain level on points or even just a point behind Hibs, then we'll do it. If they beat St Mirren and we lose at Ibrox then you we're likely to be stuffed.

McGarry's dipping shot early on was another half decent effort overlooked as well.

I suppose if we don't make the top six there will be a number of games that you'll look back on and think if only. The two Aberdeen games are right up there. That's four points they've stolen from Fir Park this season now. I thought it was a really good first half. We played some really good stuff, scored a lovely goal and generally looked as comfortable as you could really hope for in a game of that importance. They were taking turns at booting us up and down the park to try to stop us. Second half, whether they got a boot in the arse or we were slow to pick up the pace, they came at us for the opening 5 or 10 minutes but I thought we'd weathered the storm. Their goal came right out of nowhere, brilliantly put away though it was. We had a fair bit of pressure and had a couple of chances but it wasn't to be and for the second time this season, we've not got what we've deserved against Aberdeen. A bit like Kilmarnock you are left thinking its a missed opportunity. Its interesting that Hibs and ourselves both have St Mirren and Rangers to play in the last two games before the split. The pressure it could put on Hibs if we could even sneak a point at Ibrox next week.....

Much ado but nothing here is there not? It's a potential avenue for you take advantage of info. from the club. If you are interested you sign up, if you're not, you don't and that's it really. It's not something that I'm overly fussed about but if some in the support benefit from it, then why not?

Several candidates today but not really one that was miles ahead of the rest. O'Brien looked lively throughout and great to see him get that first goal for the club, Hughes created a fair bit, McLean looked sound in central defence and offered a threat up front and I thought Coach and Stevie Hammell were good on the flanks too. But Las gets my vote today - particularly for his first half display. Could you say that we really missed Maros today? I don't think we can.

More stock photo than deliberate mistake I would say. It's actually been used about a good half a dozen times at least when advertising the latest issue.

To be fair it seems fairly obvious that Gazzy's simply doing some astute forward planning in terms of the dates. Leave can be cancelled if its ultimately not required. Better that surely than a kick in the stones when your boss laughs in your face and tells you, you should have put your leave in long since. Nae idea about the dates myself mind. Mabye the UEFA website will have something?

I don't know what's the most significant aspect of that report. Nielson going on loan again or from a Scotland perspective, that Iceland lost to the Faroes.

"Why Motherwell?" is a question I've been asked countless times, mostly in my youth granted. Living in Chapelhall and therefore going to school in Airdrie with a squad of Section B wannabees the knowledge that there was a Motherwell fan in their midst caused a bit of incomprehension. Occasionally followed by abuse...... The short and simple story for me is that my old man supported Motherwell and he took me to my first 'Well game when I was four - away to St Mirren in the Anglo Scottish Cup/Texaco Cup apparently. But it could it have been a whole lot different. My grandfather was actually a Thistle fan who hailed from East Kilbride. When Thistle weren't at home he'd take in either a Motherwell or Hamilton game depending upon who was at home. It was purely by chance that when he decided to take my old man with him that both Thistle and Accies were away and Motherwell were at home that day. I don't know what age my Dad would would have been then or what attracted him to Motherwell, but Motherwell became his team and very quickly mine too. Good work Da!

To be honest I've not really been looking at the other teams fixtures and guessing how their games will go. Sometimes it can cause you more anxiety than its worth trying to figure it out as soon as something goes astray.....like United taking a point off Celtic for example. What I will say though while I don't think I'll be that upset if don't quite happen to make it into Europe, I think, given the recovery since Christmas, it'll be a bit of a sickener if we end up with another round of fixtures against St Mirren, Killie, Accies, Falkirk and Inverness.

Though it doesn't state it I would hope that incineration would have been just one option offered to the O'Donnell family. Though it hasn't always turned out perhaps as hoped - I'm thinking of the Villareal game in particular here - it seems to me that everything the club done in aftermath of Phil's passing has been attempted with the best of intentions and in as sensitive a fashion as possible. I would like to think this would have been no different

I think you can understand why its come about though. McLean has come in when Quinn was suspended and given the length of time he was out has done brilliantly and didn't deserve to be dropped when Quinn returned. That obviously left McGhee a bit of a poser of fitting Coach into the team, as he clearly rates him very highly. In theory its not such a bizarre notion - there are often numerous calls to try Hammell in midfield and Reynolds at left-back. Just the same idea on the right. If it comes off he gives you solid cover on the right wing and as a full-back he's not averse to belting down the right flank and trying to get crosses in anyway so not such a huge leap. In effect - how useful its been is up for debate. Perhaps a tactic that is maybe better served when we are looking to see a game out or not lose rather than when want to go for the jugular.

Cheers for the Killie perspective Travis. To roughly respond to some of your points I think its already been acknowledged in the thread that it was slightly hypocritical of Motherwell to ask the question given there was no reduction for your visit to Motherwell earlier in the season. Motherwell fans were however as equally baffled then that there were no reductions for that game given it was a Monday night - and many were as critical of MFC as they might appear to have been with Killie. As a club who were part of the season ticket holder exchange trial a couple of seasons ago and who have reduced prices in the past, why not ask the question of your club. A reduction might well have seen more than 400 away fans make the trip and as such earn your club more money. I can't comment on your experiences at Fir Park but there has been a new general manager installed since your last visit who you may find more inclined to respond to your comments. Briefly though you'll find your paying more than a *section* of Motherwell fans only because the facilities in that area are worse than anywhere else - we've got dustbins catching leaks from the roofs for example in the East Stand! Your last paragraph though I don't think you'll have many disagreeing with.

Time will tell how important the dropped points today prove to be but it does have that air of a missed opportunity about it. Whether we actually deserved the win though is up for debate. Thought they were the better in the first half without really threatening too much with us the better of the two in the second but failing to take our chances. Its frustrating to see the likes of Jim O'Brien last week get two assists and this week seem completely incapable of putting in a cross of note but he wasn't alone. Sutty looked off the pace and Stretch looked to have his most difficult game since his return to name but three. On the positive it continues the decent league run of what is it, one in a dozen, thirteen? and it is another clean sheet away from home which is always good. Still that nagging feeling of a missed opportunity though.....

Who did it for you today then? Stevie Hammell got my vote.

Bear in mind WUFI that not of all those incomings are included in this set of accounts though. From memory the figures issued were up to sometime in 2008 (May I think), the European stuff and Porter certainly aren't included.

Fraser Wishart for me. First time around I hasten to add!!!!!