Kmcalpin

Well, as the majority shareholder, and to all intents and purposes the owner it should be. It would appear that the Club board is two tier, with Society reps being junior partners. As a Society member, I sincerely hope that our representatives, are actively involved in any negotiations with potential investors.

Whilst I don't agree with your tone, I do agree 100% with your point. This very point is also being made on P & B. I get that the Society is not the club, but it is the major shareholder and as such the owner. Surely the Society is involved in the negotiations. It must know the details. If it doesn't then serious questions need to be asked. That's not say of course that details should be divulged to members at this stage of course.

My view too. However, I do hope and trust that, if and when any external investment proposal is put to the Society membership, then full details will be made available. Members can only make an informed decision if they have all the facts.

Should the game be postponed, as seems likely, then the re-arranged game will need to take place the midweek following the Hibs game, as Dundee have a midweek game next week.

Any progress updates on the discussion with external parties or with the Society proposals?

Given the state of Dundee's pitch and this week's weather forecast, there must be doubts over the game going ahead.

100% agree. There is little or no sporting integrity in the current system. Did Partick Thistle not beat Peterhead in the 2006 playoffs on penalties? Both clubs finished 13 points behind the runners up, Morton. A complete farce. I'm all for discretionary play offs though. You could set a points difference margin, for example, teams finishing on the same points, or within say 2 points of each other. Final league placings in such tight situations could easily be down to refereeing errors. If teams finished more than 2 points apart then there are no playoffs.

I'd completley forgotten about Callan Elliott. Agree that Nicholson should be given some more game time.

Of late, things have been a little argumentative and acrimonious at times on on here. So lets have some harmless fun. Given BobbyBingo's thought provoking post on the Dundee match day thread, I thought I'd try to predict the outcome of the 7 remaining games. It comes with a significant health warning though. Some big assumptions: the bottom 6 remains as is; our post split fixture list pans out as we would predict; and my predictions are inherently biased by being a slight pessimist. Here goes: Dundee (A) 0 pts Hibs (H) 1 pt Ross County (A) 0 pts Livingston (H) 3 pts Aberdeen (A) 0 pts St Johnstone (H) 1 pt Hibs (A) 0 pts So, thats one win and 2 draws and we finish of 38 points in 9th position, behind Hibs and Aberdeen. The one factor suppressing any optimism I might have is that we are virtually certain to concede at least one goal in every game. Post split results are notoriously difficult to predict and we could realistically finish with anywhere between 37 and 40 points. I think Ross County will finish on about 35 points and St Johnstone will also end on about 35 points. Goal difference will be crucial and the scrap for 11th spot could be very very tight.

Luca Ross would seem to be top of the Academy list. After him - Ewan Wilson?

It will until the English lower leagues collapse financially. They're running up huge unsustainable debts. I have always modest expectations of entertainment and whilst I didn't like yesterday's level of performance, I don't get unduly concerned about it.

Yes, we need a bit of a midfield destroyer to protect the defence. Someone similar to Davor, but with a bit more physical presence.

If, as Wee Dougie suggests on another thread, Bevis Mugabi will leave at the end of the season then the central defence will require major surgery. Rightly so in my view. Its been our achilles heel this season and cost us a shedload of points. So: Mugabi - leaves Lamie - off to Dundee Casey - one more year McGinn? Blaney - one more year but maybe out of favour? Butcher - time is up. In my view we need a dominant centre half and a leader.

I have one plea - keep it simple Ketts and don't overthink tactics!!

I thought the referee Matthew McDermid had a reasonable game yesterday but I was curious about his treatment of Hemming. He had a long word with him fairly early on in the game about blatant timewasting. Fair enough. However he then spoke to him again, but despite that Hemming simply refused to desist. Why not speak to him once and then bring out the yellow card. That would stamp out this practice. Any views on Vale's yellow card for diving? Not many refs issue them these days, despite it being a common malpractice.

I think he's 100% safe irrespective. He's a good man manager and coach, but we saw his tactical limitations and tendency to overthink yesterday. He's still learning and lets not forget he's a lot less experienced than his opponent yesterday, Stephen Robinson.

I was reasonably pleased with the result, if not the performance and would have happily taken a draw at 3pm. My expectations were modest and the script for the game could have been written 2 weeks ago. Results elsewhere made it a pretty satisfying afternoon. On paper, the team line up looked reasonable, with the exception of the defence. I’m not a fan of playing McGinn and O’Donnell in a 3 man defence and I really thought we’d ditched that failed experiment. If Blaney can’t displace a 32 year old wing back in central defence then the chances are that he’s heading out the door. That line up lacked physicality, height and leadership. We started off brightly enough but after the initial 10 minutes, struggled to compete against a physical, energetic and well organised St Mirren. Fortunately, for all their aggression and endeavour, they proved pretty toothless. ( I hope the BBC doesn’t read this). The defence, from start to finish, was disorganised and allowed Saints too much time and space in and around our box. As expected, they caused us problems in the air. Although we created a few chances early on, it was no surprise when they opened the scoring with the obligatory gift; again schoolboy defending. Saints then shaded the first half. At times, it looked as though they had 14 players on the pitch. I felt sorry for Bair and Vale. The service to Theo was poor and he was often left isolated. Vale was played far too deep – just not his type of game. Bair and Vale just couldn’t link up. That tactic was a clear mistake and should have been changed early doors when it became clear it just wouldn’t work. Maybe one reason too why Spittal was anonymous? A clear case of managerial overthinking? Captain Hindsight here - at the break I’d have introduced Mugabi for either O’Donnell or Devine, Miller for Halliday and Nicholson for the anonymous Spittal. To be fair Saints had done their homework on him and snuffed him out. After the break we did improve and shaded the second half. I was glad to see us break our scoring duck against St Mirren. The Nicholson for Bair substitution had me baffled. Why take off a striker and introduce a midfielder when we had Moses on the bench and we were chasing goals? In the main, I thought our substitutions were too late in the coming and somewhat conservative. Its not as if those on the field were playing well. Still, we just deserved the draw. Our performance was error strewn and we looked downright rusty. I absolve Bair and Vale from criticism for the above reasons. Spittal didn’t play badly he just didn’t play at all. Georgie Gent was my sole and clear contender for MOTM. He caused Saints problems on the left flank all day with his surging runs.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit. It looked as though he was carrying an injury. He should have been taken off at half time.

I felt sorry for Bair and Vale today. Theo has had better games but he did score the equaliser. Suffered greatly from poor service and lack of a strike partner. Also felt sorry for Vale. He was played far too deep and didn't really link up with Bair. Agree 100% about the defence. I had the fears when the line up was announced. We can get by with one full back in it, preferably McGinn, but not two. I thought that formation had been binned and rightly so. From start to finish we looked vulnerable in the air. Can only assume that Blaney wasn't fit enough to start. Hopefully we'll never see SOD and McGinn both play in central defence together ever again unless it's a dire emergency.

Not a game on which to judge Halliday. He looked nowhere near fit and it was unfair to leave him on the park for so long.

We need to cut him some slack today. He made a few errors in terms of tactics and line up today but he's inexperienced and still learning.

Only one contender for me - Georgie Gent.

I'll see what I can dig out. No doubt quite a few posters will be familiar with Tom Johnstone's 1938 book entitled "Motherwell Memories". Some good photos in that interesting book. Also, as part of the Images of Scotland series, "Motherwell" compiled by Helen Moir published in 1999, might be of interest. As an aside, anyone interested in the history of coal mining in the area could do worse than check this map out https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/coalauthority/home.html This shows the abundance of mine entries and coal workings in the area, including Fir Park. I suspect that many posters will have ancestors who worked in the pits in the area. The nearest recorded mine shaft lies between Dalzell Drive and the East Stand. Another interesting historical map can be found on the National Library for Scotland website https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.6&lat=55.78179&lon=-3.98716&layers=6&b=1&o=0 This shows the nearest mines to have been around what is now Primrose Crecent (Parkhead Colliery Pit No 7); and what is now John Murray Court (Dalzell and Broomhouse Collieries, which most of you will know as the Doctors Pit). The line of the present day Knowetop Avenue follows what was the old mineral railway which ran between the Parkhead pit and the West Coast main line.

If we can score a goal tomorrow that would be an achievement in itself, as we've failed to score in all 3 meetings so far this season. Go for it.

How fit will Bevis be after his international travels?