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Excellent post Bobby. I just don't get the "retreat into our own box and let the opposition fire in crosses" approach. In fairness we've done this for quite some time. That might, and I stress might, be ok if you have an outstanding goalie with very few weaknesses, and 2 excellent giant central defenders and 2 decent full backs......but we don't. This is the reason why we have conceded so many penalties this season. If you allow the opposition free entry to your box any manner of things can go wrong including individual mistakes, brilliant finishing, deflections, bad luck and refereeing errors. Why leave this to chance? Defence? McGinley may have recovered in time; O'Hara to right back where he's played before. Midfield? Crawford to come back in and maybe one from Hastie, Polworth and Roberts. Its a case of least bad options. Apart from individual ability, the midfield mix just isn't right. The St Johnsone game is not one to blood youngsters. We have to revert to a 4-4-2 to try to compete better in midfield, protect a vulnerable defence and support 2 hard working, but isolated, strikers. The January signings? Lawless, Smith and Foley injured; Magloire doesn't impress; and and where is Eddie Nolan? Where is the point in signing players in January if they are unfit and will take months to get up to speed?

The manager said "up until the first goal there wasn't much in it". That is an absolutely ridiculous comment. The first goal was at 7 minutes. I turned it off after the third goal. What a waste of 12 quid at a time when like everyone I'm scraping the barrel. The squad will be fine. They'll go home, chill and roll into training next week. Then move onto new clubs or jobs while leaving our club in a mess feeling nothing because they are nothing but a spineless shower. Not seeing anyone in the squad who truly has this club at heart at the moment. In past years we had the Lasleys, Craigans and Hammells of this world to name a few who so clearly loved this club. There is noone in this team who I get that vibe from and it shows. Even down to 10 men I'd expect more. There is a batch of individuals at this club who need to go. Managers are hounded out, why can't players be run out the same...?

WHERES DECLAN?

If Gallagher returns next Saturday and plays his part in keeping us up I’ll eat my words and accept I called it wrong but for me there is definitely something in the timing of this injury that seems very suspicious.

I've watched them a few times recently and like you say, they play the way I would like us to play in that they are solid back to middle, give little away and are set up to be hard to beat. That is why we need to match them in the middle of the park. Offensively they don't worry me as much but if we let them get the first goal they will be hard to break down. Saying that its in our own hands and if we don't get a reaction to yesterdays debacle then I'm not sure what will motivate this set of players. Hopefully it was just one of those days and we get back to the way we were playing prior to this game.

State of play shows its in our hands. We still ahead of killie. Ross county and hammer throwers! Lets do this! Playing most of game with 10 men not reflecting true game. When we see these plastic fraud monkeys relegated. I will be happy. 5 nil to well on next derby! I remember super moult header beat them. Come on ye well!

What’s the streaming equivalent of throwing your season ticket on the park? Losing your login password and not re-setting it?

Where to begin... I didn't see it coming. Results of late have been half decent, even with the much maligned central defensive pairing of Mugabi and Lamie. Performances have been half decent (in spells of games at least). The noises beforehand seemed to strike the right note of being confident but appreciative of the fixture and what it has generally entailed. I felt positive we could keep things going. Firstly the start. Again, another lacklustre opening. This time there would be no opportunity provided by the opposition to build our way into the game. Three goals and a man down, the game finished before most of them looked like they'd brushed away the sleep from their eyes. Ridiculously bad. The first was bad enough but for a player who has played however many times for his country, who has been handed the armband in a fairly obvious attempt at tempting him with a long term contract Stephen O'Donnell has an incredible lack of awareness at times. From that shot at Tannadice in injury time to whatever it was he felt he was going to achieve in the box today, Red card, penalty. Out for the next game too. Well played Stephen! And then we wait for the obvious substitution from Alexander to attempt to shore things up and prevent a confidence sapping pummelling. And wait. And wait. And..... fucking hell we're now 3-0 down before we decide to take off one of three strikers moping around the pitch whilst Accies are now cutting through us like a hot knife through butter. It was a ridiculous decision not to react. Take the sting out of the game. Slow their momentum. Who knows you might sneak a goal and then be able to chase it in the latter stage. They are hardly the most attack minded of sides at the best of times. Instead we invited them to kill us off and are now looking back on the end of a potentially confidence sapping hammering. The second half was pretty much a write off. A training exercise for them in trying to pick off a beaten team and for us with debut for Johnston and some messing about with positions. You would have been hard pressed to believe that a derby game this season could be any worse than the pathetic performance over there at New Year, but there you go, Motherwell never cease to amaze. Thee deficiencies and weaknesses in that team, if they had been hidden or disguised in any way in the weeks following Alexander's appointment have been laid bare for all to see. In the longer term that might well be a good thing but for now its concerning how easily and quickly they were again exposed. The faith, belief and confidence that many had built up in Alexander has taken a considerable dent today. This wasn't just a smash and grab. This was an embarrassing hammering. He has a job to raise spirits/kick arses/do whatever he feels requires to be done to ensure that, at least in terms of the period since he took over, today will come to be seen as a blip - a fucking horrible blip, but ultimately a blip. Over to you Graham...

Accies midfield pissed all over the top of us today and not for the first time either. They had pace, bite and decent link up play. Everything that we never had. We have had a dysfunctional midfield virtually all season.

Reached double figures for Burnley, Rangers, Hearts and Palermo, despite Soccerbase showing he never played a game for them, which takes some doing. Add in 20 international goals anaw. Strikes me as a player who'll do the business, if he can be arsed - we'll see how that goes with Killie. But I don't see any of our January signings scoring more than he will.

AGM was online last night. It took me a bit to login so not sure what I missed at the start but basically all the board, secretary, (accountants possibly) and Graham Alexander were all present. As ever an informative hour or so the contents of which I'll try to sum up. The main thing as ever was finance. Several questions were submitted by shareholders beforehand and Jim McMahon lead straight into it and referred back to it several times. Key things were that the the current situation is currently manageable in the medium term. There is an insurance claim in and the club have applied to take advantage of the Government's 20 year interest free loan of up to £1.6m (they reckoned 11 of the 12 clubs had) so with these things to be confirmed, they couldn't be certain of how things would look this time next year, but are sure that as long as we aren't relegated and even without fans in the ground there would be cash in the bank come the end of next season regardless. The question of the robustness of the club should the worst happen and we are relegated was discussed and whilst nobody wants this they clearly have to plan for such eventualities and the phrase used was the club would "get through it". The view is the club is in a significantly stronger position to deal with it now than it would have been 5 or 6 years ago. The club haven't taken/accepted any monies from the Well Society this year or last in an effort to allow the WS to build up towards the previously stated £1.5m fund that would play a significant part in helping the club through any traumatic event such as relegation. In addition contracts are structured in such a fashion that costs can be taken of the business quickly. No regrets from the board about the Season Ticket offer of committing to the 19 games as it was the correct thing to do. They envisage more details about what will happen next season in around a month to six weeks. Staying at Fir Park is not off the table. Happy they have been able to undertake some significant modernisation and upgrading of parts of Fir Park e.g. replacement of Hunter stand seats, paintwork. Will work on contactless entry and perhaps in time and re-design of the entry points to the Hunter stand. Some brief chat about contracts stemming from a question on Declan Gallagher. View from one board member was that in general terms specifics of contracts that appear in the media should largely be taken with a pinch of salt. They did however say they have made offers to Declan but he is currently keeping his options open. On a wider point they acknowledged that it is difficult to tie down players to extended contracts with agents advising players to let them run down to consider options. The flip side to this is that get it wrong and you may find players locked into deals that are unsuitable for both (e.g. Casper Sloth). On training facilities there appears a change in thinking in that seeking to enhance what they have at Dalziel Park is likely to be more cost effective and beneficial than a new development. Plans are ongoing with a sub-group of board members and reps from Dalziel to achieve this aim at some point in the future. Could potentially see the club be an anchor tenant and based there day to day but there is an acknowledgement that what is there at Dalziel is the envy of others already and would benefit all if that could be built upon. Graham Alexander "took the floor" once the board had answered the submitted questions and spoke well, and at some length, about him taking the job, his first weeks in charge and his hopes for the future. He spoke of his and his families excitement to re-locating Scotland to be fully committed to the job. He had a gut feeling when applying for the job and when talking to the board that this was a challenge he wanted to take on. He spoke of the warm welcome given to him by all within the club and the good people he had found. He mentioned his disappointment as not having been able to interact with fans but expressed gratitude for the welcome from supporters who had sent warm wishes, letters etc. He is keen to meet fans when the time comes. He said he found a squad of players naturally somewhat dejected on the back of previous results and offered credit to all players and staff for a great attitude and how they have turned that around. A lot of work has been done but still much work to do and nobody can relax. He complemented many behind the scenes for the support in helping him implement changes and made the observation that small improvements that on their own might not seem much combined had helped things improve. He stated he had a positive outlook and preferred to focus on the positives of what he had in a team rather than concentrate on the negatives. He feels he has a way of working that brings clarity to the players about the plan they have to follow, based on his experiences as a player. The initial aim is obviously to keep the club in the division then look to add quality to the squad. He envisages working with a smaller squad than that currently. He has aspirations to see us take on and compete with bigger clubs in the division, for his team to have the drive and ambition to compete consistently. He is learning of the challenges that face a club like Motherwell but wants to see us change historical patterns and not to take a step back against anyone (the inference being the two recent Old Firm games). He wants to change the mentally of how we approach such games and create an environment where players all buy into that mindset.