Tweed

We proved yesterday that missing both your centre halfs does not guarantee defeat. After the Lord Mayor's Show for them with a bit of luck. Surely it won't be another 0-0!

Jennings for me. Page, Carswell, Cummins all did much better than I expected they might so you could certainly make a case for them but Jennings marshalled them, talked to them and it was clear to note that when he wasn't there was when the defending became last ditch. Outstanding performance from him.

Agree he had a good game. But remember last season we played Celtic and won 2-0 with a makeshift back two pairing. McCall then decided to let them have another bash on the basis of that performance and we went up to Inverness and got whacked 3-0. Pleased he did well, proved a point but we need to play the experienced two if they are fit as youngsters are erratic. Sure it will come for Page and Cummins in time but keeping them in every week would be suicidal. And lets remember Aberdeen barely tested them.,

Take a bow number 8. Absolutely outstanding today, played just in front of the back four, talked them through the game and barely wasted a pass. The centre half pairing did really well too. I actually thought our biggest area of concern early doors was the leftback channel though Law and Hammell where they seemed to be getting in far too easily. But Law retracted deeper when Aberdeen had the ball and as we did that Aberdeen became more and more impotent. Stunning goal and we did very well. Played a bit deep at time in second half but we seemed pretty secure. We could have had a second if Humphrey had had a better final ball. Thought Brines had a decent game too. Special mention for remembering the yellow card for the pull after the game had ebbed and flowed for a couple of minutes. I don;t think I ever remember a referee receiving a round of applause before. However, Considine should have been off for persistent fouling and you could argue that the number 11 could have been off for an elbow. But neither decision changed the course of the game which is why refereeing is a harsh game because Thomson made fewer errors last week but the one he and his team made changed the outcome.

I think you could argue about every ref and their bad calls. I have seen Thomson referee games very well on many occasions and apart from that one decision I thought Sunday was one of them. And as I've said on several threads on different websites this one was definitely one the assistant has to take responsibility for. Thomson was behind the players so no matter what he saw, the assistant had a clear view and if you wathc it back on Sky they show the flag point to the flag straight away and him shout Corner twice into his mic. Had Thomson overturned that 99 times out of 100 he would have looked like a fanny. Sadly this was the 100th time. McCall is right but the difference between the best players and the good ones is concentration and I'm sorry we lost ours then. And worse than losing it for the goal, it took us 20 minutes to regroup. Sport kicks you in the bollocks all the time and you need to react better than we did. However I could write a book on poor decisions Thomson has given against us in the last couple of seasons. A total failure to send off two Accies players and award one penalty in the 0-1 last season plus his inability to clamp down on timewasting in that game being the main one and I seem to remember Hibs scoring with a handball when he was in charge as well. Strange thing is, he does seem to give us a huge number of penalties. Shame we always miss them!

They do do it up here. Mike Tumilty has been demoted from the SPL group this season; Charlie Richmond was last season and has only had a handful this season. Steve Conroy missed half a season twice and has disappeared off the SPL scene again since the two diving incidents he was involved in with O'Connor and Aluko. However I like that the SFA don't demote on the basis of one rick, they do it over a series of performances. The best officials will all throw in a clanger and doing it once, while a pain for the team who suffer does not make them bad officials. Actually I thought the officiating team did really well on Sunday take that corner out of it. To be absolutely fair, that was not Craig Thomson's call. He was instructed by a guy that had a ten times better view that it was a corner. Any referee worth his salt, no matter what he thought, would go with the assistant's call on that one. Hpowever the assistant is also on the Edinburgh derby this weekend. However giving the number ofr games he is getting with Thomnson just now I am suspecting he is part of his Euro 2012 team and demoting him now would be really counter productive for Scottish refereeing as he can't go from running the line at Forfar to Spain v Italy or whatever.

Not sure, but I don't think so.

My understanding of the red card suspension rule is that it only carries into the league if its violent conduct, whereas that was Serious Foul Play so I think Lasley will be playing. Could be wrong though.

Shocking tackle, to be honest I think Lasley is a guy who always trys to win the ball and he just got a bit over keen to do it and went flying in for it above ball height and Fyvie's shin was in the way. Dangerous aye, stupid aye, deserved aye malicious only Keith Lasley knows that but watching where he was watching I think on balance probably not. Its a bit bizarre that we've had five reds this season (Lasley x 3, Craigan and Clancy) and they have all been at home. Also red card suspension will carry on to next season's Scottish Cup if its Serious Foul Play and for next Saturday if its Violent Conduct. Given the proximity to the ball I'd guess thats SFP.

Got to say at 2-0 down today a bit of Olly Murs was just what I needed to cheer me up. No - that other thing,

Because we were totally outnumbered in midfield and we didn't have anyone on the bench to rectify it.

I think Ojamaa was exactly what we needed in that he gave us another option, gave defences someone else to think about and added another dimension to our play and brought Higdon more into the game. Today, though he was pish. Offered absolutely nothing in my book. The assistant made an absolute howler for the first goal. I really don't blame Craig Thomson at all as he was looking through the players so no matter what decision his assistant gave he was going to agree with it as he had a much better view. However for an assistant to get that wrong is appalling. But McCall is right, we turned off then and really until we got the penalty the concentration never really came back and I think the penalty was another setback and again we didn't recover. For all that Aberdeen didn't create much until Hateley fell asleep for the second goal they did appear to be the better team, Second half was an improvement though we did look that we may concede again on the break. Aberdeen's defence is big and slow (Reynolds apart) and I think we'd have been better with Humphrey today and the game was crying out for him earlier. The red card was a shocking tackle but to be fair Lasley never took his eye off the ball and I'm pretty sure he was just done. However it was maybe the best thing that happened as we gave it a right good go after then though if Brown hadn't made a dick of it we would never have scored. Really didn't get going today at all and I grudgingly have to admit that the better team over the 90 won though I think if we had another ten minutes we may have nicked a draw. I know we were moaning about Brown timewasting but to be fair the natural stoppages were only 2.5 minutes for the stretcher plus a couple of subs and we played 5 and I think its much more effective for a referee just to add the time on rather than book people and slow it down some more.

Manager of the Year is a funny beast. There is no tangible way of deciding whether the Old Firm winning the league is a greater achievement than a club finishing above the four non-Glasgow city clubs. Because at the end of the day you could point to Rangers being 1) in administration and even without that being 2) dreadful. For our achievement (should league standings stay the same) we have come in front of 1 Edinburgjh team who are a financial shambles and have loads of off field issues, the poorest Hibs team in a decade, an Aberdeen team that can't score and a Dundee Utd team who lost its four best players. On the flip side you could argue Celtic are so many points better off than last year and we have been immensely consistent for our budget. So aye, you could make a damn good case for either and you could make a case against the other as well. At the end of the day Manager of the Year is a US style accolade that nobody gives a shit about it apart from some oneupmanship with the Old Firm. So after all that I'm indifferent to the whole thing.

Aye, Dundee Utd's wings are needing clipped - the real form team in the SPL at the moment (outwith Celtic) though they still are throwing in draws at home. If they could lose to Inverness I will be happy to support them against Rangers in a fortnight. However if we keep doing the business, in particular beating Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Hibs before the split the rest of them can do whatever they like, all we need to worry about is Rangers. That just sounds mental.

In a five minute highlight package they are going to show the chances rather than the possession football or the 50 50 decisions that had no bearing on the game. I didn't go yesterday but what I would say was noticable was that every chance they had we had defenders chasing everything down and they had to hit shots quickly which meant we forced a lot of mistakes. The one time we didn't and Hooper had a bit of time and wallop it was in our onion bag. What a ball by Nicky Law by the way to set Ojamaa up for the one chance they did show.

Thats a game we would have lost a few months ago. Its bizarre that from being a team who couldn't score at home that we have rattled in 19 at home in the last month. To be honest every single goal in that game was a defensive shambles. Granted Hibs got a couple of lucky deflections but we didn't pick people up and passing the ball back into the middle of the goal that led to the corner was crazy. However at least the goals we lost came from mistakes rather than not having the right shape or communication which is a much bigger issue to sort. Higdon was immense last night and was supported by Murphy, Ojamaa, Law and Daley. Hibs did a good job on Ojamaa for a half but in the second half they loosened their watch and he wreaked havoc. Some really good passages of play from us in the second half that should be encouraging and we were very mature in keeping the ball for the most part.

Not sure its as simple as that. Pretty sure that Lasley may miss Saturday because it was a 2nd red and I'm pretty sure his yellow against Hearts doesn't count in the totting up because he then got a red. Suspension list will be out on SFA website tomorrow. I thouhght Clancy hit six at Paisley and was missing Saturday but don't see that on current suspension list. So aye Aberdeen at home could be interesting - Craigan and Page probably.

You know what I love is that the Motherwell players all have a smile on their faces even Higdon when he missed.

Actually our home form was disappointing it wasn't terrible. We've only lost four and two of them were against the bigots so if you think about that in the other eleven we've lost twice. The problem was up top and it was a constant form of frustration but even before this run we had a better home record over the season than St Johnstone, St Mirren, Hibs and Dunfermline and on a par with Inverness, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen plus an incredible away record. Aye I'm glad its got better and it needed to but I never really thought it was as bad as it was made out to be. And I think the difference has been Ojamaa and moreso because he has given Law and Murphy a new lease of life.

Wonderful Motherwell. We played incredibly well yesterday especially a man down, in a way it seemed to spur us on. Having almost scored in the first couple of minutes it took us a wee while to get right into the game after that but we were just building into it and got the goal from a corner. Fell beautifully to Lasley and a lovely hit. The second goal was a stunner too with a beautiful ball in, again by Lasley, and Murphy's use of his neck muscle to guide the ball where he did was outstanding. Not quite the same power on the header but similar to the goal Hutchinson scored in Gannon's first game at Perth. The third goal was just from another planet, Hutchinson and Jennings won the ball, a lovely feed to Ojamaa who then took the mickey out of about half the Hearts team (some of them twice), fed the ball to Murphy who found Law on the overlap and the finish was just a pearler. Certainly after a couple he missed didn't seem to be lacking in confidence. Hearts came at us a bit after that but a combination of good defending and poor attacking meant that all Randolph had to do were stop shots withy average pace in the middle of the goal. Even then at 3 up with ten men we looked much more lively going forward than Hearts. Super super day. Given how good a day it was I don't want to moan about the referee and his decisions but some of them were just baffling - again with this guy! After about 70 minutes we had had two bookings, both for Lasley. Andthe worst two fouls (by miles) we had conceded had been by Ojamaa and Hutchinson who were never even spoken to. After a performance in the Dunfermline game that was a complete joke and that yesterday you have to wonder why he has had so many SPL games as he clearly just isn't up to it. Yet, we have a referee who is on the UEFA list and receiving good reports wherever he goes refereeing Stirling v someone yesterday. Bizarre.

I think everyone in football is deadly aware how little money there is in the SPL and therefore how little persuasion it would take to sell someone so I don't think it will have any negative impact. I hope he has stayed because he doesn't think Blackpool are the right move for him. We do well because we have a combination of young up and coming ambitious players wanting to progress themselves and guys who are steady Eddies seeing their career out. If he hasn't gone because he has shat it then I think it tells you that the guy doesn't have the right mindset to go to the next level. But thats one for McCall to judge.

I disagree with you here. I think when you have players like Ojaama and Daley it actually makes players look dirty when they are basically just done for skill and or speed and they mistime their challenge. Even the bookings they got (apart from Sandaza's) were just attempts to play the ball when their opponent outfoxed them. I have no problem with that at all. There were a couple of times the elbows went up for leverage and could have been seen as reckless but their lot did it no less than Jennings and Hutchinson. The referee seemed very keen to let them all just get on with it and I think both sets of players were happy enough with that as were the fans as the game would have been nowhere near as good fi he had punctuated it with free kick after free kick. I don't remember seeing Ojamaa being done off the ball but I did a couple of times note we were getting an advantage when I had seen no foul so may have been then.

Thought that was a super game of football which we were never far away from being in control of. Three super goals though a hint of luck about the last one, a great determination to get back in front and some lovely passing exchanges. Daley had the best bits and worst bits in Motherwell colours today but showed himself as a viable alternative for up front. Jennings had a super game in front of the defence and played his part in making sure that Craigan wasn't missed. Some of his tracking back was different class. He seems to have sped up in the last week or so now he has had some game time. Given that we had lost our best organiser and biggest player from defending set plays we coped reasonably well defensively. Shame an individual error by Hammell let them in right on half time and thankfully the carbon copy by Hateley wasn't punished so ruthlessly at the very end. At the time I thought the penalty was the right call but having seen it again it is an absolute shocker. I'm not convinced I would say it was a dive or simulation as I don't think they were really looking for it. Thankfully it didn't bite us too much. Overall I think Calum Murray had a very good game but that really blotted his copybook. I think the best thing Ojaama has brought to the table is that we are much less one dimensional and he really used the space Higdon created with the knock downs the other night. He had to work a bit harder today to get involved but passed the test with flying colours. What a beautiful ball by Law for the first goal but apart from that he and Murphy were pretty quiet. St Johnstone possibly deserved a point as they certainly contributed to a cracking game but its a magnificent three points for us.

No offence to anyone who has emailed Stewart Regan but I cannot believe he is replying to emails personally. Nor should he be. Football is an emotional game and passions run high which is clear from the opinions from folk on here tonight. Not that I disagree what anyone has said, I think the decision is a total joke but for the Chief Exec to risk getting into a public slanging match with supporters of any club is just asking for his credibility to be shot. I actually think the compliance officer was a good idea in principle for ridding the game of diving, the shot across the bough provided by Aluko and Pawlett has seen a reduction in that in recent weeks. Granted I think the Pawlett one was harsh because although it wasn't a foul I don't see where he could have gone apart from down given the angle of the Hibs players on him. It punishes folk who have blatantly cheated and got their team an advantage. Again, violent conduct like the Steven Naismith incident where the punishment would have been a red card being retrospectively looked at. However the flaws are how it is communicated to said compliance officer. As well as the four officials there is also a referee's observer in the stands. ALl these incidents have been noticed in the stand and he should be the person saying to the compliance officer 'have a look at the incident between Craigan and Barrowman' or whatever. Orf alternatively you forget compliance officer and let these guys review the incident post match independently of the referee and report it to the SFA. That therefore means someone at the game decides what they want to relook at on TV. But with the goal celebration and gesture issue, I can see why a point may want to be made but punishing the player more than a referee would is disproportionate. When you look at the two guys to be done for diving; they gained their team the opportunity to score the winning goal. They gained two points by cheating so a ban to me seems fair enough. If its spotted at the time the punishment is less because they haven't made a false gain so thats fair enough. But Griffiths and Higdon (even if we assume for a minute both are guilty) gained Hibs and Motherwell no advantage so to punish them more than they would do during the game just isn't rational.

See the bit I've bolded - it's so bang on the money it's untrue. It reminded me of Butcher's team and his us against the world mentality the way we played. Actually wonder if our team have got so comfortable because there has been so little adversity this season and now a wee bit came along they feel there is a point to prove. Over the last few weeks we've had fans and players bickering, a poor run of form and last night a red card and a few bizarre calls from a referee and all of a sudden we got the bit between the teeth. Whilst I don't doubt the referee had a 'mare we should remember Dunfermline had one very strong and two decent penalty claims so it didn't always work against us. The one bit of credit I would give him though is while he seemed to crack having made the big decision (which on balance was probably right) in the first half he did compose himself at half time and had a decent enough second half. Ojaama was superb. He also seems to be everywhere. Cult hero in the making.