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That was a weird season that one. Some memorable wins, the 2-0 v Rangers you mention above, beating Celtic 1-0 at Parkhead with 10 men and 3-2 at FP, beating Hearts with a last minute Pat Nevin goal in a re-arranged game after the first one was abandoned. But at the same time we had some absolutely awful results. We lost 4-3 at home against Ayr Utd in the Scottish Cup having led 2-1 then 3-2 and them having an outfield player in goal for a spell in the first half. There was also that ridiculous 6-5 loss at home against an Aberdeen side that had scored two goals all season before that game and a 4-0 home loss against Kilmarnock in a midweek game. Dundee cuffed us a couple of times at home as well. And yet somehow we almost managed to qualify for Europe. That was a very expensively assembled Motherwell side too.

“I hope a sixteen year old boy who I had never even heard of up until today goes on to have a terrible career because he doesn’t play for my team any more.” Wise up man.

Murphy has 8 goals and 4 assists in 19 appearances against St Johnstone so from their perspective at least he won't be playing against them. He has 1 goal and 1 assist in 31 appearances against Celtic which I think sums him up. He had so much ability but fell short mentally, if he had a Scott McDonald style attitude he would have had a much more successful career. He was still a great player overall for us though.

Be interesting to see how his knees hold up to playing on that plastic shithole every 2nd week

Loved this game despite the fact we missed out on Europe , the usual few drubbings from Rangers early on that season made this victory a good one Three things I remember is Spencer lifting up his shirt to show a message on his t-shirt The Fridge , at one point people were celebrating thinking Hibs were beating Hearts, only for it to be the opposite , and then the usual pitch invasion at the end , the media were of course giving the Rangers fans great credit at the time for not reacting to those nasty Motherwell taunts , Jim Delahunt in particular I recall

This. It's really amazing that a lot of people have written off Efford after him, as you say, coming in mid-season, playing a whole 16 matches for the club (not all starts), scoring 3 goals and getting an assist. Scottish football is a whole different beast from US or European football and Efford has struggled with the physical side of the game but you have to give guys a chance to settle in and adapt. It might turn out he's not good enough but our single biggest problem as a football club over the, say, last 5 seasons, has been the absolutely monumental turn over of players. We need a settled side and we need to promote 'Maguire' level players and give them game time. Guys like Quinn, Murphy, Clarkson etc weren't great when they first came into the team and we need to get back to developing players over 2 or 3 seasons instead of concentrating on mercurial talent that gets sold on after 6 months to a year. Of course if another Turnbull comes along, great, but we need a longer term strategy for player development, either bringing players in or through our youth squad.

I was taken to a Hibs game in 1975 by a family member, my first time in the main stand. At half time I was asked if I was enjoying myself, I got berated for saying yes, we were 1-0 down. We won 4-1.

One that well and truly stuck in my mind from my early years at Fir Park was the 1976 game against Kilmarnock where the lead changed hands several times before ending up 5-4 in our favour. Why can't that happen every week?

It's a catch 22 situation really. We can say that it's best for a player to stay at Motherwell and look to progress to the first team, but what if that doesn't happen for whatever reason? Injury, loss of form, simply not being good enough. The example a lot of fans use is Jake Hastie, claiming his move to Rangers wasn't a good move for him. I think his level of performance after that short purple patch for us shows he absolutely made the correct decision. If he'd stayed at Motherwell he'd likely have shown the kind of form he did when he returned, which would have seen him slide down the pecking order and eventually get released. I don't think him not signing for Rangers would have seen him suddenly become a quality player who then won a big move a few years later. As things stand, he's playing in League Two. The only difference is he's doing so with a relatively healthy bank balance from his Rangers deal, so he's come out a winner in that regard.

I watched the first two Scotland games at the u17 Euros and out of the two Lennon Miller was far more impressive than Rice. They were both 15 playing against older boys and Rice showed good touches but struggled badly with the pace of the game. In the first game Miller came on at half time and almost dragged Scotland back into it getting an assist and creating a few other good chances. In the second he sat in front of the defence and was effective until he went off injured. Given the fact that we release boys every year without anyone blinking an eye then we just need to accept Rice or others choosing to leave as the flipside of that.

One game I have been looking for , for a while now but unable to find it was a 2-1 midweek game against Celtic when Shaun Fagan and Faddy scored Also the 1-0 win against Rangers the same season