WishyWell

So if the game is called off at noon, the bus will have to turn round and we will have lost a day's training three days before playing at Easter Road.

Sports hacks - Yep. Most of them, national and local.

I agree on both counts, insofar as they couldn't fit in a run-down of the various hefty (to euphemise it) challenged. However, it would easily have been possible to put in a line about the number of dangerous challenges that went in, if the reporters/subs had wanted to. However, the closest allusion to this was the Sunday Mail quote about the ref losing control, and even then it doesn't tell you much. Just because professionalism prompted our manager to play it down doesn't mean that the journalists, supposedly objective and looking in from the outside, need to do the same. However, it is fair to say that MMcG is always courteous enough to give a reasoned quote to a reporter, whereas Hughes is just as likely to give a headline-making rant as he is to fall out with a reporter/paper, so maybe the journalists are playing safe and ensuring that there is no chance they will miss out on his soundbites in the future. Doesn't make it right, though.

For a moment there I thought you were referring to me! Thankfully I managed to be literate enough to make it to your second line.

Does anyone know what John Hughes was saying to fans in the Phil O'Donnell stand when Hammell was being treated? It looked like he was finding it all highly amusing, which was crass insensitivity when our player was being lifted onto a stretcher. But then again, when he sends out a team of thugs like he did today, why am I surprised at such an attitude?

Personally, I feel that any player who comes from a youth system these days and has only one foot should be told to hop it.

The pitch is old-style astroturf and is not the greatest surface. The long room in the South Stand is used by the Pro-Youth youngsters and by the Community kids at the weekends for training when the weather is too bad to go outside on the astroturf. It is also used by the first team on a Sunday morning (and as a side note, the players have really impressed by the good-humoured way they dealt with wide-eyed children training beside them on occasion). While these facilities are much better than we had at the stadium before, they could be better (eg one Sunday recently the weather meant that the Sunday morning community kids couldn't train outside and the floor inside was too slippy, so the training had to be cancelled that day). A move to better facilities could only benefit everyone, from first team, to youth players, and to the wider community.

The younger age groups train on the astroturf at Fir Park, where the specialist goalkeeper-, defender-, midfielder- and striker-training is held also. I think the older age groups train there, too, or they may train on the grass at Dalziel Park. Home games are played at Fir Park astro, Wishaw Sports Centre and Dalziel Park. I suppose the cost of new training facilities depends on their scale and what they include, and they vary enormously from club to club, eg Rangers and Hearts youngsters train and play at the same facility as the first teams, Murray Park and Riccarton, whereas Celtic's still train at Barrowfield rather than Lennoxtown. I had heard that we would have been guaranteed £2m if we got through to the group stage of the UEFA Cup, and that this was earmarked for the new Youth Academy, but I don't know for sure if that is true or not or, indeed, if the whole £2m would have been used on the facility. Having said that, I can't imagine a full-sized indoor astrograss pitch would come cheap, and that's before you add in at least one grass pitch and changing facilities etc. The astroturf at Fir Park is getting fairly threadbare so, similar to the main stadium, the move to decent 21st Century facilities can't come quickly enough IMHO.

I know the talks about a stadium move are at an early stage, but there is a big push at the club to relocate the youth facilities to Ravenscraig. The new signings for the youth system were told at the start of the season that the intention was to move to a youth academy, including a full-size indoor pitch, within two years. I also heard that the land has been agreed and they are just waiting for the funding to be in place. If we had won through against Nancy, the money we would have been guaranteed for that was earmarked for the Youth Academy and work would have started the day after the game. Although it in no way is certain that one would follow the other, if there is a Youth Academy there, it's not too hard to imagine that it would be a first step towards a stadium move.

In a radio interview last night, MMcG said that if we sign 3 or 4 players, then 3 or 4 existing players will have to go, as our level of finances means we can only run with a squad of about 20. I wonder who is most at risk of being moved on? Boab, McGarry, Dairylea and Fizzy? Have to say I'd be sad to see the latter two go.

MMcG was on Clyde 1 sports news at lunchtime saying he would love top get 4 players in during January, but would settle for 3. He believed that if we got 3 or 4 of the quality he is looking for then we could look at seriously challenging for 4th spot, but that a lot of things would have to fall into place for him to get the players he wanted, and he also said he hopes to keep Porter. Plus: The Daily Mail says Simon Lappin has been told he has no future at Norwich. Oops - just beaten to it with the Lappin one!

I think the Ark shares a boundary with the college where the college-owned Firtrees Nursery buildings are. Also, I have a feeling Fir Park school was to be relocated under the schools modernization programme, although I'm not sure if that proposal ever went through. It's a good point about sitting tight, especially till the housing market improves, but I am told one big site would also have been a valuable asset, especially at the time of the sale. Anyway, water under the bridge now - hope we can maximize the situation we are in.

It's journalistic-ese for "gonnae no' sue me..."

Allegedly, the college approached John Boyle with the suggestion that their land and Fir Park be sold as one package, maximising the potential value, but JB knocked it back... but then went back to them later to say he was interested, only to be told it was too late and a deal had been done on the college land alone. If this is true, I hope he takes advice from someone with a better business head if we ever do go through with a move.

My wife andI met him just before Christmas and he said he expected to be back to full fitness in a month from then, so shouldn't be long now. What a nice guy he was too, by the way. Happy to talk to us and made my boys' day by speaking to them more than us!

Best wishes to one and all for a 2009 that we can all be proud of!

Make sure you get there in the morning - the ticket office shuts at 1pm.

Just got mine. There are just 100 left out of a total allocation of about 950.

RIP, Phil. Never forgotten. Forever an inspiration.

Sorry - just noticed this. Done now - good luck with your project.

Driving from Motherwell into Wishaw, approaching the Heathery roundabout, there is a series of billboards. The first one has an advert for Windows (one of their 'I am a PC' ones) and every time I see it all I can think is that the guy on it is a dead ringer for Ritchie Foran. Windows... Foran... Surely not an omen for the transfer window??!!??

If Klimpl is mobile and right-footed, why not stick him in at right-back?