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AGM time again. As ever lots of good discussion and info gleaned. Quite a long one this year as things got quite detailed on one or two points. Jim McMahon spoke of as positive a situation in a while. A "normal" situation. At worst case the club are in a position to finish tenth, have no player sales, have no cup runs and be able to knock back bids and still be able to cope with a loss for a year or so. Happily things are much more rosy than that the worst case next year will be a cash neutral position. The importance of staying up is the key risk going forward. Dundee Utd and their lost millions were cited but later Alan Burrows spoke of the potential to come in the form of increased TV revenue and the fall out from the new UEFA competition and through solidarity payments. The phrase transformational was used. There may also be consequences to domestic football to accommodate the changing shape of European football with potentially less domestic top flight league fans and no cup replays some possible outcomes. Looking ahead the club are keen to do something to improve training facilities with Stephen Robinson mentioning plans and ideas that had been considered. The club still want to get to a safe point where they have two "bad seasons" worth of finance to cover them for eventualities although they acknowledge the stadium still remains something that could unexpectedly eat into finances. Well Society input amounts to around £180k a year currently. On David Turnbull the club turned numerous bids until the point was reached where they felt it irresponsible not to accept the offer from Celtic knowing how much that could set the club up. They believe it was right to accept and they got the best deal. No timescales for his return but seeing a specialist to step things up further and he will go to Tenerife on the break. Positive talks about extending his contract between player, agent and club. Hopefully good news soon. No reason why he can't return to previous levels. Robinson quipped he was never fast to begin with so even if he does lose pace... Budget was increased after review over last year but still srcond/third lowest in league. Robinson knows the parameters and what the club is about. Gallagher, Seedorf and Polworth all knocked back better terms to come. Club have gained a rep for providing a platform to improve and develop players for next career move. Potential for one outgoing and one or two arrivals at the break. Investment made in staff too. Conscious that vultures swooping on staff as well as players. Hastie situation resolved amicably with a sell on included. Cadden not so. Anticipated to run for some time yet. An example given of Kidderminster who believed they were entitled to a portion of Marvin Johnson's sell on from Oxford two years ago. Dundee likely to £15/£10/£5 not confirmed but they seem to have talked around Dundee who wanted to charge more. Sloth was raised. Answer simply that not doing enough to get ahead of others to get in the team. Surprised at Manzinga progress not anticipated to be making in roads as early. Some youngsters nearly ready for inclusion but stressed players are ready at different stages. Some will be in and out at different stages. Banner incidents at both Hearts and Rangers games discussed. Games may be played during Qatar World Cup after Group stages concluded. Winter break likely to be brought forward to coincide with groups. One or two bits more to follow in due course...

For those that couldn't see the scoreboard, we lost 2 - 0.

Our passing has been terrible recently. The midfield needs freshened up and we need more quality on the ball than Grimshaw offers at RB.

The whole shebang was a bit frustrating. I've no complaints about the outcome today. We had that wee half chance in the first half when Long (surprisingly?) cut the ball back, only for it to be whipped off someone's toes and the quick-fire efforts in the second half but that was about it. On another day the goals against column might have taken a bigger dunt than it did. We didn't really do anything at all to take advantage of the extra man in the last twenty minutes. They simply retreated into a well organised setup whereas we appeared to have more a chuck shite at the wall and see if anything sticks approach and none of it did. Before the game you had what seemed like the unnecessary prohibition of flags and banners (on the back last Saturday?) which simply goaded Rangers fans to take the piss out of the club, the stewards and the police by hanging the flags they did sneak in across the scoreboard without anyone of authority having the balls to do anything about it. Whilst the Morelos sending off itself was probably about the most satisfying outcome of the game the missile throwing gives the media the opportunity to feast on the outrage from the angels in the away end and demand action against us from the authorities. And if they do how can we really argue? He deserved the red card. He's a generally loathsome irritant but he doesn't deserve stuff lobbed at him from our stands. Some times you just have to be the bigger man and take some of the stick back that many of us dish out. One to very quickly put behind us and focus on Saturday.

It’s quite simple to fix next game. Cut the allocation and border off the whole front section of the 2nd tier. Anybody tries to stick a flag over the board it’ll be easily removed and won’t put stewards or police at risk with the crowd further back.

I'd imagine that Hartley's on the bench because he was sick from the bug that went round and not yet fit enough to start.

On the whole I've been impressed with Bevis since he came in. Far from the finished article certainly but the physique is there allied to an impressive burst of pace to help recover situations. He's not been without his flaws but I would hope that with greater experience and time to develop he can continue to improve. As he said himself on the Facebook chat thingy recently it's up to him to take advantage of opportunities that came his way. I think he did exactly that over recent games and wasn't deserving of being dropped for the game yesterday (having played pretty well against Rangers at Ibrox earlier in the season also). Up to Robinson to determine what he thinks is the best blend for each opponent but chuck in the likes of Dunne and Tait at full-back and I'd say the options at our disposal currently are one of the better dilemmas to have.

Correct Against Rangers Celtic Aberdeen Hibs we cannot get away with 3 in midfield Robinson seems to have this stubborn when it comes to team selection where he thinks that his favoured formation is a fit for all occasions Im afraid it’s horses for courses and if that means 1 or 2 up front so be it As has already been said on numerous posts our midfield is not good enough when teams do there homework on Alan Campbell and crowd him out and put pressure on him as Rangers and Aberdeen have done recently ( I’m sure others have been watching and we really need to change it for 2nd half of the season) Having said that I’m sure a fit David Turnbull will help

You seem determined to talk up how good Rangers are. They’re not that great away from home and have carried a fair bit of luck to accumulate the number of points they have. IMO we should have had a penalty and a potential red card for Tavernier early in the game which would have changed everything. We lost today because we didn’t get a big decision and ultimately because we didn’t turn up, not because we were outclassed. We also missed a golden opportunity at 1-0 that Long would score 9 times out of 10.

The main difference today was our players did not get as much time on ball as against weaker teams they were always snapping into tackles quickly and their 2 widemen came into midfield to create a 4 against our 3. we got totally overan in midfield. like any game goals change them and after longs great run and cutback in 1st half i felt we dropped out it. 2nd half nit much in it till their 2nd then their experience closed game out. When turnbull is back i think we will play a diamond with a winger sacrificed and this will improve us against top teams.

I certainly did not expect anything from this game, but the way of the defeat was sad. So many players in the team did not show up and that was very disappointing. I said at last week's game that I thought we would be bumped today as the passing is downright schoolboy stuff. That should be easily rectified but I cannot say that I have noticed them improving. Gillespie makes some great saves but his distribution is dire. This again should be rectified by the goalkeeping coach. I have given up going to see them against this mob as we seem incapable of doing anything against them, cramping it at every turn. Steve Robinson says there will be changes as we need to freshen up. Hope this happens!

So nobody is allowed to voice an opinion on team selection because they're not Motherwell manager? Wise up.