Lukemfc1

Glad this has come around so quickly after the shambles that was Wednesday night. If you are unsure about coming along, get yourself along and support the team regardless of yours thoughts on the manager. I'm never going to be a Mark McGhee fan but I think we owe him at least another 2/3 games to turn things around. A convincing win on Saturday could make a massive difference to the outlook of things. I've been saying for weeks we need to get Lionel Ainsworth in the starting eleven, clearly this system the manager has elected to pick doesn't suit him but the system itself isn't working so why not change it. McDonald also needs to return to the team. Forget the system, how about we get the BEST players we have on the park. Regardless of anyone's thoughts these two players are along with Moult our biggest goal threats so leaving them out should be pretty unthinkable. My team would be Brill Tait Heneghan McManus Hammell Cadden Lasley Clay Ainsworth Mcdonald Moult

Really looking forward to the run of home games coming up. Feel as if this season has been very stop start as McGhee alluded to in his press conference. Ultimately these are two games we should be looking to win if we want to retain a top six slot. Inverness have impressed me with their passing any time I have seen them, they seem to play some decent stuff, however I've not been impressed by their goal threat. The big boy up front is a handful but for the most part his output is very poor in terms of quality. Hopefully get some of the youngsters blooded into the team as the majority of them done fine at Celtic Park.If we can get any playing half as well as Chris Cadden we are on to a winner. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance we have tonight, I'm going to go with a 1-0 Motherwell win. If we can win these two games coming up I think it could make a huge difference to our season moving foward. Fingers crossed.

Not disagreeing with the fact Ainsworth can be lazy but my point is that we had 20 minutes to get a goal away from home. No matter what you think of Ainsworth, of the people on the bench he has the most proven track record of 1. providing assists 2. scoring vital goals 3. making a match winning contribution. So my question then is why would you not put him on for the last 10/20 minutes? Let me rephrase 'personal gripe' and just say McGhee doesn't fancy Ainsworth. I take on board the points you have made regarding the system but McGhee has actively went out and bought players (Bowman) in order to play this which goes back to my original point that he does not fancy him. I applaud McGhee having the bravery to put in so many youngsters at Parkhead but as a Motherwell fan it frustrates me to see someone of Lionel's quality as unused sub when the team was crying out for a bit of creativity

Had nothing better to do on Saturday so decided against my better judgement to go along.. Thought for the most part we did better than our recent outings at Parkhead. We looked far more comfortable on the ball despite the fact we didn't really create any clear cut chances. Our passing and ball retention was encouraging. I was sceptical at giving the young guys a debut at Celtic Park but I thought they were fine and perhaps they had a bit more fearlessness than some of the older squad members. The boy Maclean in particular looks like he could be a playler. Also Craig Samson had a really good game and pulled off numerous saves that kept us in the match, so hats off to him. Chris Cadden, I thought was tremendous throughout and by far our best player. His pace running the line is a real threat and I think with the right mentoring he can go very far in the game. Negatives; In regards to the penalty it was clearly McManus fault, he as a senior member of our team should be taking control of that situation. Also Richard Tait looks completely out of his depth, I've tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but he really looks no better than Josh Law and that is saying something. I appreciate he was playing against a higher quality of player on Saturday but his defending of crosses is non existent. He gets turned every single time and does not press his man effectively. I can count on my one hand the amount of times I have witnessed the guy block a cross from wide. His defending on the whole is pretty poor. He is a bit better going forward but nothing to write home about. At this point I would be looking to the u20s to supply competition to him. Another grip from Saturday was Mark McGhee's mentality at the end of the game. 10 minutes to go at Celtic Park 1-0 down and we didn't look as if we were trying to win the game tactically. Granted he hasn't been great recently but one of the fastest, most technically gifted guys in our squad Lionel Ainsworth is left on the bench in favour of a 17 year old. No harm to the boy that came on but he offered no threat, I find hard to comprehend McGhee's thinking and I'd to hear in terms of this match what his thinking behind this decision was. I want to put it out there that McGhee has got a personal gripe with Lionel as he has consistently been overlooked in big matches. Against Hearts he offered more from the bench than the majority did for 90 minutes. I understand the work rate argument but it's my opinion that McGhee should find a way to utilise his talents from the starting 11 or let him go elsewhere. I guess this is more of a general feeling from the last few months but it irked me on Saturday that after paying £26 Mark wasn't using the best options at his disposal to win the game.

Just a general question for some of the older members of the forum. I find the media spin on declining crowds very interesting. They seem to use this to paint a picture of overall decline in the Scottish game. Whilst clearly in the 1950/60s crowds were lightyears ahead of what they are now there are periods in the 1970/80s where other clubs including the Old Firm had far lower attendences than they do currently. I've previously seen some rough figures in a book I had years ago but I can't find any statistics online. I appreciate historical figures aren't terribly accurate with the whole jumping over the wall culture football had. - Does anyone have an idea of rough home attendences for say 1950s through to the late 80s? Have we always had a 'hardcore' 4k? - Also I would be really interested to hear any anecdotal numbers regarding away crowds. Always found it intriguing the lack of support we have at Old Firm games for example (home and away) and wondered if this has always been the case. Cheers

Would normally go to this one, especially given the recent international break but really doubt I will after the terrible league cup display. I expect us to show Celtic too much respect, stand off them too often and be exploited at the full back areas as a few have already mentioned. If we remedy these issues we might stand half a chance. We also need to have some sort of outball to alleviate pressure and give us a chance of doing something on the counter attack. This is something we didn't have in our last outing as soon as Chris Cadden came off.

Desperately need a win here, feel as if we haven't really started this season. We have been decent in spells but had a couple of horror shows too. We have no excuses now that Moult is back. Keen to see Bowman/Belik to see what they can offer. As I've said before I'd like to see Ainsworth be a key team member from the start and not just off the bench. With Johnson away we are limited in terms of creative outlets. We need to make the most of the guy's like him who can provide assists. Thought it was interesting McGhee saying Hamilton have a bigger budget than us, pretty worrying if that is the case. I know we aren't in the best of shape financially but given the crowd difference I thought we would ahead of them wages wise. Accies don't have the greatest team at the moment but they have guys that will work hard and experience in Donati in the middle of the park. Say what you want of them but they have turned us over a few times in recent memory, hopeful of good win tomorrow to kick start our season. P.s let's see if Hamilton can bring more than the usual 300 away fans, frankly the fact the can't bring atleast 1k over the dual carriageway is shameful.

Decided to go on Saturday against my better judgement. Ultimately left the stadium fuming.On the way home I eventually calmed down a bit. I thought for the most part we were excellent on Saturday. It is the same old story against the old firm but I really think we need to take the positives from Saturday. Couldn't fault any of the players at all. Thought Chalmers & Clay in particular were terrific. Our use of the ball in the midfield was very calm and assured especially in the first half. I thought Lasley and McDonald were terrific with this. McManus done better than usual at the back too. Make no mistake the team we were playing on Saturday will struggle to get top 3 this year but that doesn't take away from the performance we put in. If we can play like that we will beat the majority of teams in the league. Only criticism i would have is we should have made a sub earlier, I get what McGhee said about lack of depth but I think at that stage of the game it was more about legs than quality. A lot of the players had put so much into the game they weres simply exhausted. Overall I was really encouraged by the perfomance and still believe if we can play like that most week and with Moult back in the squad we can easily achieve top 6.

Debating whether to go to this or not. My head says keep your money but heart says we could do something.Will probably make a decison on Saturday. I know there is a lot of negativity after the last couple of games but I genuinely think we are improved in some positions from last year (RB, CB) we just haven't showed it on the park for the most part. Just to give everyone a heads up. Rangers are still an average team. They can be very good going forward but are nothing special. Defensively they can be easily got at. I still think they will be 3rd/4th this year when all is said and done but they are nowhere near their ugly twin sister. I don't think they are any better than Aberdeen/Hearts in a lot of departments. Samson Tait Hennegan McManus Hammell Ainsworth Cadden Lasley McHugh Johnson McDonald As important as the team selection is the tactics need to be addressed by McGhee. This sitting in shite simply won't do. We cannot do the same as we did at Parkhead. We need to press the opposition and keep the balll when we get it. We need to get the ball wide to Johnson and exploit Tavernier's terrible defending. We need to stop playing high balls to Skippy. If Hamilton can get a draw there, no reason why we can't.

After watching Saturday I would really like to see another centre mid. Someone with a bit more legs, doubt we will see this though. Also another striker would be lovely, not judging Blyth this early but we could be doing with someone with a bit of flair up there. Even a loan deal? Blyth seems like a target man to me

That was one of the worst games of football I've seen in some time, especially the first half. So flat. Basically in agreement with McGhee comments for once, I thought we were really lethargic looking from the off. No pace or innovation. I'm confused regarding what the attacking philosophy is supposed to be for this team. Any time we got the ball we would either lump it up to McDonald who is one of the smallest guys on the park and has no pace or we tried to play intricate passes which never came off. The thing that struck me defensively was similar to Wednesday we didn't seem to press the opposition when they had the ball, instead electing to stand off them. We are badly missing Moult and McHugh. I'm hopeful once they are back we will look more like a team. In my opinion we need to start playing to our strengths, get the ball wide to Johnson or Ainsworth and get up the line. Too many times Johnson would hesitate or pass inside on Saturday. Special shoutouts to Lasley for being 4 yards off play, Cadden for having a mare, McDonald for standing moaning with a petted lip and McManus for being generally shitty. Only players that did okay for me were Clay, surprised at the flack he's got tbh and I thought Ainsworth movement was pretty good.

St Johnstone are a good side, watched a bit of the game against Aberdeen and they are very resilent at the back. Never really been impressed by anyone in terms of technical ability but they always seem to have a good team of players who are very hard working. Not particularly optimistic about this one after Wednesday night but I suppose this will be a completely different game. Team wise I'd go with; Samson Tait McManus Henghean Hammell Cadden McHugh Lasley Johnson Ainsworth McDonald Fingers crossed we offer more dig than we did during the week. I'd also enjoy if we stopped punting long balls to McDonald, he can only do so much when he's that height. Also big balls over the top for him run on to are futile as he has limited pace. Get the ball wide and let Johnson/Cadden run with it and let Lionel link in please.

Most infuriating game I have attended in some time. Wasn't really the fact we got humped, more the performance and manner of the defeat. From the offset the players had clearly been instructed to stand off them and camp in our own half. This tactic has been employed by McGhee far too many times. We gave Celtic FAR too much respect and looked like we were merely following the opposition players around rather than actually attempting to win the ball. Regardless of Celtic having far superior players this is simply not good enough. We have employed these tactics multiple times and it simply doesn't work. The fact that this was a cup game made this even more irritating. Celtic nearly had a second string team out, Griffiths, Roberts, Toure & Tierney were all absent. This was by no means a brillant Celtic team, we however have made them look like superstars.

I'm genuinely optimistic about this one as long as we don't show Celtic too much respect like we have in recent memory. Wasn't overly impressed by them against Hearts. Naturally we need to have a defensive approach however we still need to press Celtic enough to put pressure on them. I was over the moon with Heneghan at the weekend, I think he looks like a real find so I'm hopeful we can keep them out at the back. Johnson is on fire just now and I think we can have the beating of the likes of Lustig. Overall I was pleased with how the team performed on Saturday and I think our counter attacking style might suit a game like this more than it did previously. Samson Tait Heneghan McManus Hammell Cadden Lasley McHugh* Johnson Ainsworth McDonald *Presuming he comes back from the head gash. A bit bored of the excuses trotted out by some regarding going to Parkhead/Ibrox. This is a cup game, if you are on the fence get yourself along and get behind the team. It's 15 quid. The postiive attitude of the fans on Saturday was really refreshing, lets take this into Wednesday and keep the momentum going. Mon the well'

Looking forward to the season starting back properly. Hopeful we can bring a good crowd through to Kilmarnock with it being the first game back. From what I've heard in the media Killie have been terrible for the most part during the cup games. 11 new players, oldest at 22 year old and apparently a lot of arguments going on behind the scenes resulting in rumours of Lee Clark quiting. I think they were very very lucky to stay up last year and I think this year might be the year they finally go down. Team picks itself I would suggest; Samson Tait Heneghan McManus Hammell Ainsworth Cadden Lasley McHugh Johnson McDonald I'm hopeful of a comfortable win, not seen every league cup game but from what I have seen I think we look a lot stronger than some in the stands are suggesting. Football isn't player on paper but even with Moult missing I think the above team looks as strong if not stronger than the team last year. Tait and Heneghan look to be improvements on what we had last year, Cadden is growing stronger game by game and Johnson seems to be hitting form. McHugh also seems to be a worthy replacement for Pearson. Fingers crossed I'm actually pretty optimistic about the season ahead, I think if we could push for one more to come in for midfield and we hold on to Johnson it could be a good season.

Well done to the club, losing Skippy would have been a massive blow. Some of the comments on here basically saying if he wanted to go we should let him are pretty wild. We are trying to run a football club, we shouldn't be a soft touch. At the end of the day, he has just signed a new deal last week, expecting him to honour this a week later isn't too much to ask.

Instead of folk complaining about players getting hut with pies I think we should be more concerned about the Police action on Saturday. This is now getting to tipping point where people are going to start voting with their feet (if they already haven't) The OTT actions by the Police on Saturday summed up the way our support and many others has been treated in the last year or so. Absoutely not on. Has anyone had any word from the club about what their findings are? I've tweeted various times but no findings as of yet. If the club agrees with the fan's position then they need to make this clear in a strongly worded statement to Police Scotland as well as the media to put exposure on this. This sort of situation has been on the go for far too long.

Not a fan of Moore from what I have seen he will be lucky to last another year but why would we give the boy a one-year deal then put him out on loan for a year? Bizarre

I agree that Thomas has had limited first team chances however the fact of the matter is when he does get a chance he has done nothing. He consistently gets the ball and tries to beat numerous men and 9/10 loses the ball. He has been in the first team squad for quite some time now and if his performances don't change I would look to loan him out to a championship side.

Usually coming out of a defeat with the Old Firm I am generally pissed off. Not sure if it was the first half display or the fact this was in new early league cup format but I was surprisingly upbeat. I thought we started very very well. Johnson's pace was reeking havoc and exposed Rangers' defensive frailties. McHugh added bite in Midfield and I thought the new boy at the back looked steady enough adding extra presence. Ultimately we didn't take our chances, throughout the game we had atleast 5 good ones. Rangers didn't have much more than this despite their second half possession, difference was they made them count. I was disappointed with our second half approach, we gave them too much respect and deliberately stood off them. On the few occasions where we did press high it resulted in them giving the ball away. On the whole I thought some of our attacking play was really encouraging and at the back I think the two additions will leave us stronger than last year. The only big worry I have is Stevie Hammell. Thought he looked a mile off the pace. Could be his age, could be that it's pre-season but he was caught out of position numerous times. It's time for Thomas to make an impact as well. There was a lot of hype about him but the sub appearances he has had in the past year have resulted in him trying to beat 4 players then giving the ball away. Clearly talented but he needs do more. As for Police Scotland, it basically sums up the way football fans are treated in this country. Absolutely disgusting scenes, and a problem that was CREATED by the Police. Had they not attempted to kettle fans in there would have be no issues. The fact this was going on whilst Rangers were singing sectarian songs makes it even more ridiculous. This is driving people away from football and the club needs to make a statement expressing that the action of the police was inflammatory and could have caused a crush scenario. Media attention needs to be drawn to this incident as the decision made by Police Scotland here was totally moronic.

Price wise we are getting nowhere near this figure, we will be lucky to get £1M for him (and that is a push) I don't think Marvin's strength is his technical ability. I think it is more his atheltic ability. I would argue that guys like Ainsworth and Scott Mcdonald are streets ahead of him in technique. Marvin beats guys mainly with pace and power his technique is sometimes clumsy.

I think some of crticism off the back of friendly results has been OTT but things aren't looking particularly great performance wise. I will reserve judgement until Saturday. What I don't enjoy is McGhee playing down the league cup fixtures. There can be no excuses for not being ready either in terms of squad or finess. We have known these fixtures were coming for many months now.

Oh my. Was totally unaware of this ha

Care to share? should I go back to school..

http://footytweets.com/plymouth/news/314493 Plymouth are not happy bunnies. Apparently he had agreed an extension and reneged