Goggles & Flippers

Something very steelboy about that post. It's almost as if you want vindication of your preemptive call when you started the thread. I didn't expect to get anything other than a point in Inverness, thought the fact Dundee Utd had a complete personnel change from what we last faced would result in 3 for us and expected to lose at the home of the team the cantered the Championship and had galvanised things over the summer. Therefore I see us as a point down, sitting in 7th, and still to field a full strength team. The players who have been misfiring will find their form at some point.

My bad, I thought I got it, the perils of copy and pasting. Now fixed. As for coverage, BBC get on my tits at times, the Celtic vs Killie game is on BT Sport and they also cover it on radio. While there's two other games including a near sellout at Tynecastle that would benefit their audience better. Michael Stewart is monotone and an absolutely chronic contributor. Maybe the BBC will get other folk from TV ads on, maybe the GoCompare Singer or Juan Sheet from the kitchen roll one as that seems to be an endorsement for BBC inclusion.

------------------Ripley--------------------- ----Law--Laing--McManus--Hammell--- -Ainsworth--Taylor---Lasley--Johnson- ------------McDonald---------------------- -------------------Moult-------------------- subs: Twardzik Chalmers Kennedy Clarkson Leitch Thomas Cadden

Well he's considered better than Leitch or Cadden, is that's high praise, then fair enough

I'm not getting sentimental, I'm basing things on merit and so far an unseen and untested player has your choice ahead of Lasley who has his faults yes, but nothing so far I've seen to dislodge him from the team. Your sentimental charge was already dead in the water when I said "I'm all for him replacing anyone in the squad ......" I'm not suggesting we have to drop anyone, he has an opportunity to start for the next 6 or so games, in that time he may shine, he may falter. Lasley may lose form or get injured, we may go 5 in the middle, what I'm saying is in this game with all the randomness involved to assume we'll have a full squad to pick from in 6 weeks time is ambitious.

So you'd drop our club captain, who in the two games this season has performed above average certainly compared to his contemporaries, for an untested/unseen guy from mid level Championship, unfancied by his manager that was loaned out to a relegated team in the 3rd tier of English football. Riiiiiggggghhhhhtttttttt I'm all for him replacing anyone in the squad, but on merit opposed to reputation or hearsay.

You are assuming nobody else will get injured and we won't change our tactics to say a 5 man midfield to combat certain opponents of course. Unless they've upped their fitness levels, you'd struggle to get a good 60 to 70 minutes out of both Ainsworth and Johnson.

I'd be happy with this, gives them as many problems to think about and deal with defensively as how they're going to try and get the ball in the back of our net.

I'd be interested to know if we were in for Jackson Irvine and if so, how close it was.

This will be the first time we've got Ainsworth and Johnson on each wing, frightening prospect. Hope the sharpness in front of goal has improved because looking at a 2-0 loss otherwise. Great if Taylor can hit the ground running, but with it being such a pivotal role I'd be surprised. Hopefully his arrival will allow Skippy to play in a more advanced role than Saturday where he was subdued.

Up to 6 weeks for Pearo http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/08/11/stephen-pearson-injury-update/

I sense Anthony Straker is turning into a Chuck Norris-esque figure on here

Can Anthony Straker play right back?

To be fair, Cadden and Leitch to step up, they fit the model we now we aspire to follow, namely young, Scottish and home grown. By all means bring in alternatives but only if they are better or can make us money, otherwise we have to give them a chance to blood themselves.

We had a one season strip last year because Cash Convertors were initially on a 3 year deal, therefore I was very surprised to see them adorning the 'sash'. Reading between the lines, they didn't really want to continue but took a lesser offer with less exposure.

First 15-20 we were looking really good, in fact in the whole first half there was what one save for our keeper (was the acrobatic effort a save or missed high?). From 25-40 Marvin looked .... well .... Ainsworth-esque if that makes sense, lacking concentration and drive. Still when he goes forward he excites the East Stand the same way Humphrey did, except he has a final ball and can shoot on target (not much evidence today though). Losing Fletcher up front certainly contributed to our decline, he was big and strong and when he drops the shoulder he has a burst of pace that took him past his marker 4 times or so. Jack Leitch could do with a few more games to get up to speed so not going to be too critical. Can't help but feel it would be an entirely different game if Pearo was on from the start. Bit surprised of the tactical ineffectiveness of the subs, once they came on it was pretty much even and we lost our superiority, was expecting a bit more from Baraclough. I understand Moult has been brought in as the primary striker but Fletcher is the one on form at present. Chalmers impressed, As did the keeper, Law didn't, as did Skippy but I'm sure he doesn't appreciate being played where he is when he must know how effective he is further up the park. Next week we've got Lionel back and let's be honest, only Pearo short of a full squad. Could be doing with a few players hitting form and taking our chances. We could have had 4 last week and got 1. Never a 2-0 loss.

I thought he was wearing black and white? Shortly afterwards there was steward movement in their area.

Is Cornelius Tabernacle the Latin name for what Geedub has just found on the end of his fishing rod?

that old chestnut eh?

I'm sorry, but eh? So the club has to just regard the guys who sit in section E of the East Stand as revenue neutral? Maybe put their season ticket money straight into a separate "fines" bank account for when it's next needed? I don't suspect I'm the only one who thinks: no pitch invasion = no drama = no fines It's from the same school of thought as: no smoke bombs = no drama = no fines I think we will get something, it will be a token gesture as the club can easily demonstrate they had taken more than adequate precautions. Still galls me after a 6-1 mauling over those who don't walk away, the "afters" have consumed more column inches and pitted Well fan against Well fan on here.

Please tell me I'm not the only one a tad excited about the potential we have in this current squad?

Could you have seen Lee McCulloch as a centre half 15 years ago?

Reading between the lines I reckon Pearson's injury will have had this reaction. Up until 3pm on Saturday, if we got the right central midfielder for the right deal then ideal. Otherwise our current young lads would have maybe been enough cover to get us through to the next window where you assume we'd be able to pillage St. Pat's. A loanee? perhaps .... but again only if the right guy with the potential of owning him or he comes from a high flying team looking to blood him. At 4:45, the search is galvanised, while what we already have could see us through, our midfield have been lacking and the only major difference from what we had available at the start of last season is the loss of Carswell (and sorry to say that isn't a bad thing). Therefore I reckon the search has switched from being passive/opportunistic to being full on. A loanee being a distinct possibility in the short term as Pearson's arrival was key to our turnaround.

You can understand them doing that, it's like us in the past (I say that as I hope it is) being approached in January for a player who's out of contract in the summer. Do we take 50k or 100k or do we think his presence in the team will benefit us more than that lump sum? Needless to say as Weeyin (?) pointed out, Chris Forrester is also out of contract at Christmas and his stats are pretty impressive. However as Hibs and we've shown in the past, quite often multiple Irish imports have gone down as well as Iceland Lasagna in the UK.

Oh geez peace, if your boss came and took a big dump on your desk you'd probably be a tad upset.