Ya Bezzer!

Hammell starts with my support like every other Motherwell manager but we've basically swapped out an experienced manager with a track record for an inexperienced manager with no track record and I think that highlights that no high quality candidate wanted to work with our squad, budget and toxic fan base. When you fire someone you should have a plan to bring in a replacement. I don't think we did and the club has meekly folded to the idiotic knee jerk roasters in our support. Hopefully it works out for Stevie, the club and my season ticket investment but I think he has a very, very hard job ahead of him.

Alexander has a better record than 'big Malky' in the Premiership. He won 2 out his first 15 league matches and has only won 1 out the last ten. He's spent 26 out of 40 weeks in the bottom 3 places in the league.

Goss and Johansen. Kelly didn't have a lot to do. Went for Goss. Rest not good enough.

Of course they can. I thought we were very poor yesterday but we still hit the post and should have had at least one penalty. I don't think we can have any complaints about losing but on another day we could have won 3-1. There are very small margins and as bad as we are most of the rest aren't miles ahead. Just cutting out basic defensive errors could transform things.

I felt our 'improved' second half improvement was more down to St Johnstone sitting back and defending a lead than us actually being any good. Davidson isn't exactly known for expansive tactics. The most alarming thing about yesterday was, apart from the odd snap shot here and there, we didn't actually create a goal scoring chance until about 61 minutes and didn't even look like doing so. You might even say we are looking like last season's St. Johnstone - totally unable to score unless it's gift wrapped in the form of a pen or OG. Too early to judge new players but Morris and Spittal just haven't been at the races. In the two matches I've seen Spittal has arguably the worst player on both occasions. Probably should have had at least one penalty but we couldn't defend an injury time equaliser so we deserve everything we get. Was watching Match of the Day earlier and the way top teams press off the ball is in total contrast to us. That's not a technique issue, that's an attitude issue. Our level of football has far too many guys phoning it in. That's evident from the shocking goals we give away just about every week. Our players just aren't switched on and who ever the next manager is needs to put a rocket up the arse of this squad. O'Donnell is supposed to be the captain and one of the most experienced and he's making rookie mistakes that cost us the game. He needs to be the example but the only example he is is what not to do. If you have no ability, the only guy that looked like he could put his foot on the ball was Goss, you need to work and concentrate on your game. Looking like a long hard season ahead and the managerial appointment is crucial. As much as I like Hammell we need an experienced manager with a contact book who can bring in 3 good standard first XI players ASAP. So far it's four dismal performances out of four.

He makes Kenny Dalglish seem effervescent but in terms of experience and success he's probably as good as we get. The downside is he failed at Livingston (albeit his first job I think) and is used to operating at a much higher level. Also all through his career he's tended to walk away from clubs.

I said in the very beginning despite a 7th and 5th league placing our fans had an irrational dislike of Alexander and were just waiting to get him. I said Motherwell fans should manage their expectations as we might well lose - they didn't and we did. I said that Scottish teams at our level have a negligible gap of superiority over League of Ireland and none with start of season fitness - I was right. I said none of our outfield players would be stand outs in the League of Ireland - Sligo were better in every area. I said we'd probably lose last night - again correct. Now instead of going into some demented Daily Mail reader style rant, Motherwell fans have to face reality. We are a small self financed club, we have probably our worst ever squad because we cannot pay wages and we've sold all the family silver and there is nothing left. Alexander has comfortably kept us up with a very weak squads twice. It would be utter folly and an incredible and dangerous risk to fire him now. Bringing in an unproven manager, with this squad, could be a history altering decision for the club and not in a good way. Falkirk anyone? Dunfermline anyone? We lost a Euro tie. Our Euro record is abysmal. 1 win 15. Big surprise. Alexander doesn't get any free pass. He'll be judged on his league results. Now stop this mewling red faced infant tantrum stuff and behave like thinking adults. Back in the day when I was almost a lone voice trying to protect standards at our club I was derided, dismissed even threatened in private messages. Well you know what, that time has passed, sorry Motherwell fans but we are where we are and it's time to eat the gruel YOU ordered. This ridiculous bi polar fan base standing ovations one match, utter rancour the next, sometimes even within matches (Livingston) is going to drag our club down into a very bad place.

The point eluded you didn't it?

I've made my position clear. I judge him after 11 league matches. My prediction is that our next result will be a win, loss or draw. Your prediction is that we will definitely lose. There is no comparison in positions.

I'm not going to defend Ross but Hibs didn't get any better, in fact they got worse under Maloney. The new manager has them eliminated in the group stages of the League Cup as a prelude to the new season. Be careful what you wish for.

Real world facts, ie results, show that in modern times Scottish sides often struggle against teams from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and even Wales. No one should be surprised but if a Scottish teams draws one of them next season we'll get the same pre match bravado and similar results. Scottish fans need to wake up and smell the cheap own brand coffee. As for our start to the season I've made no prediction, I don't have the clairvoyant powers like you obviously do but I've been around long enough to know that sometimes the last result doesn't determine the next result. If Motherwell win are you prepared to break an egg on your face? Of course not.

If you think we have a decent squad then we have traced the root of your delusion. I'll judge Alexander on our league performances. If we have a poor opening round of matches he'll be under a lot of pressure. I'm not judging him on these European matches where facts show we are the minnows while our support adopts a delusion based assumption of superiority. We had exactly the same situation last season against Airdrie.

Great point supported by facts.

Are you saying not winning a cup is an automatic sacking offence for a Motherwell manager? What exactly is the point you are making? The risk of dumping Alexander is obvious and shouldn't really merit a question.

We've won 1 out of our last 15 European matches and that was at home against Glentoran who caused us all sort of problems until they had a player sent off. Scottish teams don't compete in Europe because they are crap. That's a depressing fact but it's not what we should be defining the club against. I don't mind if we fire Alexander and bring in someone better. But I think our fans need to think very carefully about that. Alexander has a 7th and 5th place finish in two seasons. Are you really that confident that the next guy does better? With this squad of players? With our finances? In our league? What if the next guy does worse? What if he gets us relegated? Fans need to give it a break with the moronic raging two games into the season in a competition that we pretty much had no chance of going further than qualifying rounds.

The league campaign should always be the priority. It's those 38 games you measure your season not a couple of Europa Conference matches in July. If we need to hold off, that's what we should do. Tonight, I think it's possible we can turn it round tonight and extra time and penalties might well be the outcome but I think the most likely result is we will go out. Maybe 60/40 or something along those lines in favour of Sligo.

Obviously Rangers and Celtic at the top. I think Celtic have that bit more consistency and Rangers squad is far to big at present which can cause problems. I think Hearts will probably be third again but I can see them going backwards. Their form in the second half of last season was poorer than the first and their performance in the Cup Final (and at FIr Park) was pretty dreadful. They are nothing special but their home record will probably clinch third. I'd expect Dundee United to do relatively well again and finish Top 6. That's the four I'd definitely expect to be Top 6. Bottom three will be between St Mirren, Kilmarnock and St Johnstone and I think it will be St Johnstone that will finish bottom. If it hadn't been for Callum Hendry they would probably gone down last season and he has moved on. I also think Davidson's behaviour as manager was pretty erratic under pressure and their squad has an injury prone/past their prime look about it. Their goal scoring record is terrible over the past few seasons and they depended on a defence that has mostly been dismantled now - Rooney, Kerr, Clark, etc. The rest of the teams will fight it out for the bottom Top 6 and top Bottom 6 positions and it's hard to determine any order right now. Aberdeen did well in the league cup and their are all sorts of positive news stories coming out but exactly the same thing happened last season when Scott Brown was going to lead them to glory. They had a very weak group in the cup and I think they will find things tougher when the league starts up. Hibs were terrible last season and don't look to have improved much. Livingston are a very well run club with a good manager and surprisingly excellent recruitment history for their size. I think they will be fine. Ross County will probably finish bottom 6 but I think they will finish above the bottom three. Then we have us. I'd expect us to finish somewhere between 5th and 9th.

Lamie was a bomb scare last night. Sligo went straight through the middle of the centre halves with ease about three times last night.

Well when you have a street march before the match you are going to attract a certain type.

Some 'Premiership' standard results this season so far. Hibs 0 Falkirk 1 Greenock Morton 1 Hibs 1 Partick 1 Kilmarnock 1 Livingston 1 Inverness 2 Ross County 1 Buckie Thistle 1 St Johnstone 0 Annan Athletic 0 Queen of the South 2 St Johnstone 2 St Mirren 0 Arbroath 1 Airdrieonians 2 St Mirren 0 Motherwell 0 Sligo 1 I said before the match I didn't have much confidence having seen us struggle against Glentoran and Coleraine, both poorer teams than Sligo, and us with better personnel then. Then you go and look at other Scottish results in Europe in recent times like Kilmarnock being eliminated by Connah's Quay or Hearts going out the Scottish Cup to Brora Rangers or St Johnstone going out to Kelty Hearts and the penny should start to drop. From 3rd down our league is trash. 'Premiership' standard is virtually a meaningless phrase. There is no standard in the premiership.

The only outfield players that get pass marks from me were Morris and Maguire.

Well it went as expected. Fans can go on about Alexander or this or that player but here's the absolute truth here. The team that's fifth in the League of Ireland came to Fir Park and not only deservedly beat us, they looked better than most of the teams we played last season. As I've said for some time the overall standard of Scottish football and the Premiership is very low and no one should be surprised about what happened tonight. Sligo would most likely beaten St Mirren, St Johnstone, Livingston, Hibs etc as well. This probably won't be a popular opinion on here but the rest of us live off the Old Firm. Without them our league set up would be on a par with the League of Ireland. Maybe worse because they probably aren't completely deluded about the level they are playing at in Ireland. You can sack the manager and bring in 22 new players but nothing changes until we tackle the fundamental failures that have plagued Scottish football for 30 years and are getting worse as every season passes.

Looking forward to the match, so begins my 36th season as a season ticket holder! If you've been paying attention to the League Cup we've seen loads of teams in our bracket not doing very well against lower league teams. Start of the season fitness is definitely part of that but I also think the standard of the Premiership teams has never been lower, hence the gap in quality is smaller and the lack of creativity at the top level means lower league sides can defend quite comfortably against 'top' level teams. St Mirren, Hibs and St Johnstone are all basically out and Livingston and Ross County haven't had it all their own way either. Sligo being well into their season will make that fitness factor even more acute. Van Veen missing (most likely) is also a blow. We literally don't have a player in the squad with 10 league goals for the club but Van Veen was the closest. I'll be looking closely at Spittal and Morris to give us the composure on the ball we lacked last season. and what they add going forward. Hopefully we get off to a good start and an early goal would settle everyone down. However if it doesn't come I'd like to think the support can get behind the team. Anyway, time to board the rollercoaster once again....

I was listening to Radio 4 one day and they had a statistician on and he said every team should be 3/1 every time. That's what the actual odds are. When bookies offer 1.5 or 2.0's they are ripping the piss. The whole thing is statistically fixed so you literally cannot win, at least in the middle to long term. I make a £1 bet every day, mainly just to research teams around the world and keep up to date on football, and this season I won the first eight, lost the next three and I'm back to exactly where I was in terms of balance. Yep 8/3 win ratio and I'm even stevens. It's a complete con, play for fun, sure, but never ever think you are going to actually make money.

There are guys out there that are 20 minutes at 0-0 away from losing the plot - at the manager in particular. Like I said some of the vitriolic abuse online before the season has even started is genuinely dispiriting. Last season on this very forum against Livingston we had posters saying they hoped we lost a match that had the potential to get us Top 6. Crazy. Even before that we had the extraordinary scenes at Fir Park when fans applauded Stevie Robinson, who left us in a terrible state and on the brink of relegation, and at the same time booed and screamed abuse at the current Motherwell manager that had just horsed Robinson and his St Mirren side. You couldn't make it up. I know society in general is going to hell in a hand basket but it seems like our a significant section of our support is part of the vanguard. We are a small self financed club with no outstanding talents on the roster. Like I said we need to manage our expectations. That's not to say we shouldn't try to win or try to play good football but there has to be some kind of realistic expectation of where we are.