Goggles & Flippers

Oh right, because you are aware even if Ross County win tonight, as long as we match them apart from one week and obviously beat them at FP it's nowhere near as much a certainty as you make out. However let's not ignore the 2 legged playoff if we are unsuccessful in finishing 10th. Lot of twists yet however you seem to permeate that it's a certainty.

Feel a bit for Kerr, played well last time he turned out when he deputised for Laing after he was red carded.

For what purpose and to what end?

I think what is telling is the following facts: St. Mirren have very little about them and will certainly finish bottom. Both Motherwell and Partick Thistle have accrued the same number of points in the past 6 games. They've played tougher teams and our gap remains the same however with less opportunities to close it Ross County have managed 13 with a good chance of 16. I think their run will naturally come to an end, just hope it's not in August or September. The potential best hope for us is the two teams not covered. I didn't include them 6 weeks ago as I thought things would pan out between the bottom 4 and they were essentially safe. So I'll look at their last 6 games: Accies (2 points) currently 43, GD, -6 Celtic 0 St Mirren 0 Ross County 1 Motherwell 0 St Johnstone 1 Dundee Utd 0 Killie (2 points) currently 38, GD -8 St Johnstone 1 Motherwell 1 St Mirren 0 Ross County 0 Motherwell 0 Aberdeen 0 Accies have had a tougher run in but even Dundee Utd who have the worst form currently got a result. Killie have also stalled but from watching them I think they have more about them than Accies. What we have in our favour is that I feel both teams could feasibly only take points off of St Mirren, outside that it's a big ask based on current form. When we look at our final fixtures it will hopefully be: Killie (h) 3 (very tough but we have a score to settle over playing 45 minutes and not breaking through) Accies (a) 3 (even on the plastic pitch I have little fear) Partick (h) 1 (a lot of ex Motherwell players have a lot to prove, as do a lot of current ones after yesterday) St. Mirren (a) 3 (chronic) Ross County (h) 1 (We'll be pumped up and when you think back to the 3-2 in Dingwall they scored two wonder goals, there wasn't that much between the teams) Issue is I can't see anyone dropping points to St Mirren which puts Accies safe and us level on points with Killie. Issue is we have to get +8 goals and they have to end the 5 games -8 (or another combination equalling 16). Lot of if's and but's but our best chance still rests with overhauling Ross County. To suggest we win our home fixture is a given so we need to get a win one week they lose. Not beyond the realms of reality to match them every game bar one and tuck them away.

Perceived wisdom suggests that is the case, slower big guy with a wee fast guy, Coyne and Arnott, Sutton and Shearer, etc. I didn't advocate it either way. Yesterday convinced me that with Sutton, wingers are the best option. Hindsight would suggest a straight swap for Johnson with Thomas, however I think Baraclough didn't want to expose him to a potential full 90 minutes. Consequently he opted for seasoned campaigner Sutton and pushed the on form Erwin out wide. You live and learn.

Again, not at all, I'm saying that using Erwin as a winger for Sutton isn't working as he isn't capable of providing enough telling crosses of decent quality. I'd actually quite like to see Erwin and Sutton playing through the middle in a 3-5-2 with Johnson and Ainsworth supporting from midfield. It would be interesting to see how many problems two tall, strong strikers playing in tandem could cause challenging for balls in that 6 yard to penalty spot danger area. To experiment with that was something for the last 20 of the Accies or Buddies games when the victory was assured.

No I suggested a number of people on here seem to have a degree of schadenfreude especially when they can troop out the old "I told you so". Yes yesterday wasn't ideal mainly because we took a good support and that support wasn't rewarded with a result, but by no means were we entitled to one. I said nothing of the sort about Erwin. Normally a strong tall target man striker works best when he has a nippy striker partner playing off him. Higdon and Ojamaa for example. For me yesterday confirmed that Sutton works better from byline crosses than having someone like Skippy. To take greatest advantage of Sutton, the support players have to get to the corners and whip balls in. I don't think Erwin has that at present. I was concerned with the defencive frailties on Tuesday which were exploited by a better team who have been accruing as many points as us over the past month. I take no glee in that fact.

I just can't see County getting to the end of the season with another 5 games and 15 points tacked onto the 22 they've already got from 24. I do think their bubble will burst.

A lot of posters on here seemed to be blessed with the power of hindsight based prophecies coming to fruition. Sutton has scored 4 goals in just over 60 minutes total time on the park over the past 3 games. Two of those games we were in the ascendancy and the opposition are in free fall, however I certainly don't castigate Baraclough for including him in the team from the start. Sutton needs crossed balls rather than a nippy foil to be most effective. Erwin doesn't appear to have that in his arsenal yet and Ainsworth needs the everything from his morning weetabix to the weather to be just right or he's indifferent. Signs were on the wall against St. Mirren though, a couple of their corners we didn't mark adequately and I found myself those around me howling on Josh Law/Straker to cover the wide man who had acres of space at a few set pieces. The defence is still piecemeal and a decent team would have caused us issues ..... fast forward 5 days and here we have the outcome. I personally find it hard to swallow that professional footballers can function adequately or even be impressive, however when asked to move 15 yards to the left or right and perform a slightly different role they appear to go to shit. The fact is, Partick away was always going to be tough, the grand predictions on here after Tuesday nights spanking was premature, Thistle have performed as well as us pretty much in the past 6 games however over the season they've been more cohesive while we searched for consistency and confidence. It is by no means over, I can't see us not getting Killie (h), Accies (a) Partick (h), St. Mirren (a) and Ross County (h) probably in that order (I think the SPFL will schedule the Ross County game similar to last year to ensure a grandstand finish). So based on that our three hardest opponents are at home and the two teams imploding are the away fixtures. Is it definitely plausible to win the next 4 on the bounce. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks suggests otherwise. I do think there is enough grit in the team that when the return fixture is hosted at FP we'll make up for it. Today's result would have affected pride and is a wiff of smelling salts which I hope is timely.

Oh for Christ's sake ..... There were plenty of people who would have accepted Rangers in their reborn status back into the top league. The fact that under a lot of duress and pressure many people in the Scottish game didn't capitulate shows a degree of integrity. However be happy a precedent has been set and any smaller team can cite what happened with them and maybe use that to mitigate their own demise.

Sporting integrity ... no Excitement, entertainment, media exposure and cash generation ... yes Rangers being relegated to the 3rd division was the last example of sporting integrity in this country.

Round of applause for a insightful opening post there

My reading of the leak was the Utd execs (Thomson to be exact) being a bit miffed that McNamara would feel he is entitled to money for GM-S despite having nothing to do with his initial development. Even though it was in his contract I got the impression they felt integrity may have kicked in and he pass on it, so they create a media storm by the use of a leak and hope fan pressure makes the manager turn down the payment in a McCoist £800k a year type scenario.

You only have to look at the article halfway down the Motherwell page on the BBC sport website that confirms this statement. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29886575 I listened to Sportsound on Sunday and I was sure Chic Young had a mouth full of McCall's tattie water, it was sychophantic. With respect to Baraclough I think another factor that didn't help in his early days was another new manager got an immediate reaction. While Gary Locke didn't get many wins, he stopped the shipping of goals and got a number of draws to steady the ship. During the same period we went through our little horrendous run.

I'll give you 1 and 2. As for 3, Ross County banking 22 of 24 points while sitting on 12 after the first 24 games is both annoying and unprecedented. Also, to think that anyone other than Flow was involved in highlighting the availability of Skippy and Pearo is wishful thinking.

If you look at the BBC website SPFL table in full mode you see the form, all the green is at the bottom of the league. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-premiership/table Tomorrow St. Mirren know its probably their last realistic (if not mathematical) chance of salvaging this season and status. If we turn up and play to our abilities then while it'll be tough, we should get a result. However I'd add that the two other games this season have been highway robbery by us so maybe we are due our karma. Hope not though. As for Partick, they've found form too, some decent results of late and a few ex Well players looking to silence our support. The trip to Maryhill will be decisive and extremely tough.

Partick Thistle (I predicted 4/5 points and they are through that with 7, they've scored the same as us, but you would expect them to drop points in the East End) Ross County (A) 0 St Johnstone (H) 3 Inverness CT (H) 3 Aberdeen (A) 1 Celtic (A) Motherwell (H) Ross County (I said 8 and they're already at 10. 19 points scored from a possible 21 in their last seven games, unprecedented) Partick Thistle (H) 3 Hamilton (A) 1 Kilmarnock (H) 3 Dundee Utd (A) 3 St Johnstone (H) St Mirren (A) St Mirren (I hoped for 4 max, don't think I'll be disappointed) Kilmarnock (A) 0 St Johnstone (A) 0 Celtic (H) 0 Motherwell (A) Ross County (H) Motherwell (I expected 10 points, still well on course with 7) Kilmarnock (H) 1 Aberdeen (A) 0 Hamilton (H) 3 Kilmarnock (A) 3 St Mirren (H) Partick Thistle (A)

To be fair, we had 6 points on them a few months back. As for today, no doubt took some strength from the manager to not give Sutton a start based on the Accies game. Seems like he was vindicated. On Tuesday, I'd expect St. Mirren to test Long with a few long shots early on. I bet he was as relieved when the final whistle went as any die hard fan standing in the away end.

Phew, thank Christ. WTF Ross County, can you not give us a bit of a break.

Dancer

Luvly jubly. Also, I'd be surprised if contracts didn't have reductions in salary due to relegation clauses. We've got some clever people running the show you know these days.

Vacancy: Head of Marketing & Commercial Tuesday, March 31, 2015 As a part of the approved business plan for Motherwell FC, it was quickly identified the Club has a real need for input when it comes to how it markets itself. Most, if not all, of the focus has been purely sales driven, giving a lop-sided approach to how the Club is perceived and our ability to maximise revenues. The refocused objective is to develop a revised brand for Motherwell Football Club based on its history and successes on the field and endurance of the local people through recent economic decline. The key aspect of the new brand will be to change perception of the Club, which is now more philanthropic, engaging and community based. With this in mind, both the ‘Well Society and the Motherwell Football Club Community Trust will be fully engaged in helping support the new brand of the Club. This new brand will be used on all marketing to the local, national and international potential fans, clients and customers of the Club. That will involve four key stands: a) Local Marketing b) National Marketing c) International Marketing d) Internet & Social Media Marketing The ideal candidate would be skilled in sales and marketing of a community activity, excellent skills in the effective use of social media to achieve sales targets, developing new revenue streams, media information preparation and distribution, marketing concepts and positioning, people management, sales planning, competitive analysis, understanding the customer, product development, client relationships, sales target oriented. He or she would also demonstrate a willingness to really buy into the Motherwell vision of putting the football club at the front and centre of everything the local community aspires to be. That can be achieved by significant focus on some of the great, untold, stories of not only the football club, but the MFC Community Trust. Main Duties: Achieve an effective sales and marketing operation, develop new and grow existing revenue streams, preparing and completing action plans; implementing change. Meet and exceed marketing and sales financial objectives, preparing an annual budget; scheduling expenditures; analysing variances; initiating corrective actions. Determine annual and gross-profit plans by forecasting and developing annual sales quotas for function rooms; sponsorship; advertising; south stand; establishing effective metrics to measure performance Accomplishes marketing and sales objectives by planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating advertising, merchandising, and trade promotion programs; developing field sales action plans. Build an effective sales and marketing programme using social media and improving current web sites. Improves product marketability and profitability by researching, identifying, and capitalising on market opportunities; improving product packaging. Take the lead on sales to local, national and international companies. Sustain rapport with key accounts, fans and corporate guests by making periodic visits; exploring specific needs; anticipating new opportunities. Accomplishes marketing and sales human resource objectives by recruiting (if necessary), selecting, orienting, training, assigning, scheduling, coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, appraising, and reviewing job contributions; planning and reviewing compensation actions; enforcing policies and procedures. Provides information by collecting, analysing, and summarising data and trends. Update job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organisations. Coordinate sales and marketing activity with both the ‘Well Society and Community Trust. Manage a team of sales and marketing personnel. If you are interested in applying please email your CV and covering letter to alan.burrows@motherwellfc.co.uk. Salary: Negotiable, depending on experience Closing Date for applications: 10th April 2015

If it helps Luc, it was in the week between Christmas and New Year if that helps you search on here

Erm .... Fair play to Sid for asking them to do it and waving his fee for their events, otherwise I doubt we'd have the cash out of goodwill.