Tweed

Well done Motherwell. That was a super performance against all odds. To be honest I've seen players not sent off for what Craigan did more often than they are but it was idiotic to get involved. Remember we had scored a perfectly good goal before he was sent packing but a mistake by the assistant cost us. After the red card we seemed to react best and played a very astute game. The most rattled person in the ground by the red card seemed to be Alan Muir who followed it up by a string of decisions which were bizarre. Second half he calmed down a bit and the ga$me buzzed from end to end. Except from one lapse we defended really well and the hutch and clancy get credit for that. Bearing in mind hutch is only one yellow away from a ban and clancy had been booked these two did well to stay out of bother. Good goals by law and the hump, better shape, better ball retention all in made it a good night. Hopefully we can carry on on saturday and if Higdon misses out be interesting to see how he rejigs it. Least murphy will be fresh.

Still think it was a penalty though it certainly isn't as obvious on the replay as it looked on Saturday. But for me Ojaama had to ride a tackle from a leg that missed the ball and that is a penalty all day long. Higdon was immature but unlike Griffiths his gesture was not offensive so I don't see an issue there. I don't think retrospective action for either Ojaama or Dixon is likely. I thought the whole point of the simulation ones was for when the penalty was actually given and the team gained an unfair advantage. And while Dixon may have fouled him I doubt there would be a card even if the penalty had been given.

I never saw Higdon react but I wondered if he had because when the song 'One Michael Hgdon' was being sung in injury time McCall turned round and applauded the fans. We did concede the first half by turning them when we won the toss but as we were then playing into the gale in the first half it freed us a bit in the second. We started pretty well but United grew into the game and I just had an inkling the goal was coming when they scored. Whether it was Russell's goal or an own goal to me is a moot point, the only reason Craigan was near it was because he was trying to block a shot. Hateley and Jennings had both been sold like a kipper in hthe build up and whoever's name is on the scoresheet the blame lies with those two. We did seem a bit wayward after that until half time though Randolph only had one meaningful save. All in I was quite pleased to get in at half time only one down. The second half was a huge improvement. I think to say Ojamma turned the game does the rest of them a slight disservice as I felt we were on top before he came on but what he did give us was that something a little bit different that they couldn't cope with. Whilst Higdon had a few chances before the one he scored, only the header that he glanced wide was a glaring miss in my book. I thought he had a super game today and that was magnified because Lasley, Law and Murphy were winning the knock downs. If ever a man deserved a goal it was him and I was delighted for the team and him when it came. Though even had it not come and we'd lost 1-0 I would not have been that despondant heading down the road. The big incident in the game was the penalty. To me it appeared that Ojamma was taking on two defenders and was fouled by both of them. From where I was it seemed like an absolute stick on penalty and I still can't believe that trumpet never gave it. Though the free kick he gave against Hutchinson right at the end that allowed them a free hit into the box was even worse as that was as blatant a never a foul in a million years that you will get and I just had a feeling they would nick it from it and send us down the road raging. All in I thought we looked a much better team today and while the shooting boots weren't on we had a large number of attempts and on another day we could have scored more. But irrespective of that if you are creating the chances its half the battle. But the 20 minutes we played at 4-4-2 were electric at the end so go on McCall give it a go on Tuesday. Change the personnel if you want but that formation will win us games at home. Also slightly concerned that Jennings was hobbling for the last five minutes. He had a great game and I hope he makes it for Tuesday.

I think you have hit the nail on the head twice in one post. Yes it should be here and sadly we can't afford it.

Nobody - we have the smallest squad in the league as it is without shifting folk out the door. There are some I may demote from 1st team but flogging them is footballing suicide.

As others have said, decent enough when he has the ball at feet but is far too slow. You have other slower players, for instance Jim Paterson, who was slower than average but his reading of the game earned him two yards of pace and unfortunately Forbes doesn't have that yet. Gannon was a very methodical tactician which was fine until the rest could read it and that suited Forbes as he knew what was coming - as impulse and instinct became necessity he hasn't cut it. Nothing against him as a guy or for his prefessionalism/effort but he just isn't fit enough to play in the SPL.

And I see its his favourite referee!

Regardless of the players can we just play 4-4-2? Also dropping Hidgdon for a team with the height United half is suicide for set plays. Last time at Tannadice he scored twice and won every ball when they had a corner. So aye, any players from the first team squad shoe horned to a 4-4-2 (with Higdone as one of the 2) with nobody massively out of position will suit me.

Praise the Lord someone who can see he is doing his bit. I ended up falling a bit behind my group at full time today and had to briskly walk past a few groups as I came out the East Stand and every one was offering something along the lines of 'that Higdon was fucking murder'. Aye he didn't get in behind but he dropped back in a game we were struggling tried to get involved, won his headers, sprayed the ball wide, occasionally tried to take someone on - when our attacking midfielders and other forwards are creating feck all what else do you expect him to do? We all know he isn't that quick which unfortinately means when he wins the ball and sprays it he aint always up with the game but if he didn't do that the ball would be back down the other end. Unlike Murphy, Law and in patches Daley he wasn't completely anonymous and was bursting a gut to try and get us into a position to score. Of course its disappointing that our home form is so poor - but to try and pick him as the scapegoat is poor form. We need to get someone closer to him at home as playing the wing football we do away isn't so easy on the tight pitch especially when everyone knows its what we want to try. Law was pruchased I assume to make us less one dimensional and we need to use him to that effect. And he needs to stop hiding every time the midfield gets congested.

Well I thought Daley was murder in the second half and needed hooking which just shows you its all about opinions. To me the front half of the team were totally impotent and never looked like threatening at all apart from the odd run and flick by Murphy. Higdon won more than his share of balls but nobody there for the second one unless he was able to spread it wide and if he did his poor mobility combined with our poor crossing meant that nothing came of it. So the best in Claret and Amber for me needs to be a defender and I thought Craigan looked assured. I think blaming him for the goal is a bit harsh as he only got turned because he went tight on him which given the percentages of what Tade had done other time was the correct decision. For me we just accept that as the flash of brilliance that beat us.

Completely missed this and to be fair to Randolph he was going long because there was nobody showing short and last week when he went short he was getting booed then as well. However you cannot react. Yes its fine to disagree with any arsehole in the crowd (me included!) but you can't get involved as it brings unwarranted attention from police, Vincent Lunny or whoever else take a view on it. Your behaviour in that sort of incident has to be beyond reproach and I'm a bit disappointed he reacted though the man in the crowd is clearly 1) a loudmouth and 2) knows precious little about football.

Strange sort of performance as I think back and think we were awful and then think about how many mistakes did the players make and I can't think of many. So if the players didn't make many mistakes and we didn't create many good chances at home to a team who haven't kept a clean sheet all season till today the blame has to lie with the gaffer. Tactics wrong, too one dimensional and just impotent. We need a goal scorer to play with Higdon. Inverness defended reasonably well and scored a fantastic goal. To be honest over the piece I don't think they really did enough to deserve to win but we did that to them up there. And that was a clear penalty for a push on Higdon in the first half which could have given our lot the belief back, the other shouts we had were less clear.

Think that is absolutely bang on the money. When would Page, Forbes or McHugh last have played a competitive game? That to me was evident yesterday that these guys were rusty however I don't think anyone could really argue that they are better than the first team players we have - so how do we sort it? I don't know. Someone like Gannon helped our youth guys get game time but he through them into games they were out their depth. McCall is maybe overly cautious. But if he could see them playing competitive reserve games he may be more willing. Its a concern though because we need these guys to be playing competitive stuff but its hard to farm them out on loan because we probably will need them for ourselves.

I think McCall said they worked really hard at pressing when he saw them and I think basically his plan was to succour their forwards into pressing us, resultantly their midfield would push up and we could then work it to the flank and we would have a much easier time to score with more space. THe first goal came from that and also a couple of real good chances came from balls played by Page and Hammell to Clancy and Murphy respectively. So whilst its not a tactic I would like against SPL outfits I can see his train of thought (first fucking train I've seen all week coming from Hamilton!) Their left back was an obvious weakness in their team and Humphrey running at him for the last half an hour was superb. He and Ojamaa really upped the tempo. In the first half we were competent but not really that good and the first fifteen twenty minutes of the second were disgraceful but the two subs really upped the impetus and the third goal sucked the life out of them. Good finish by both Murphy for the third and Ojamaa for the fourth. Really disappointed in the showings of Page and Forbes and have seen them both do a lot better. Also Page's tackle on half time was a shocker - some refs may have thought about red for that. But this is where the lack of a reserve league hamstrings us as these guys are getting NO competitive football apart from their fleeting visits to the first team. Whilst the reserves is not glamourous it is competitive and keeps them sharper than the bounce games they get now. McHugh was OK but nothing special and even since the Aberdeen game seems to have beefed up a bit. Queens Park were better than I thought and if it hadn't been for poor finishing and at times woeful defending would have been a good match for us. But Andy P is right unless we won 13-0 nobody was going to give us much credit today, though if we had dominated the game and won 4-0 we would probably have been moaning about chances missed.

Your absolutely right about not giving a flying what the Celtic fans think. However we let David Healy score against us. Murder.

No. His suspension was for the next two SPL games and Rangers is now one of the next two SPL games.

Lost the midfield battle - really missed Jennings. Crawford Allan kept Higdon quiet with his total lack of willingness to give free kicks for him not being allowed to jump. After ten minutes I was hopeful but Hearts were too well drilled for us today. At least Lasley didn't get booked so can play on Wed. Poor poor show though Hearts didn't create much so overall we defended fine i- just the daft errors. Second one looked like it may have been offside?

Craig Thomson has Dunfermline v St Johnstone and Calum Murray isn't in the SPL if he is refereeing at all. However Murray does have the Edinburgh derby next week. Though it is actually quite unusual for SPL refs to be in the SPL two weeks in a row because there are 16 referees who have been in the SPL this season and only six games a round so I wouldn't read too much into it.

I thought it was now a 2 match ban violent conduct red cards regardless of circumstance?

Eh? We won it so it hardly makes you a jinx. All other things being equal best away day of the season is Hearts. Cannot wait.

Irrespective of how the referee handled the incident we need to look at whether we have a chance of winning the appeal before we give them £2,000. The fact that there was no media outcry for Jennings to be summoned the way there was with Pawlett and Goodwin suggests to me that we are less likely to be successful as they have found it from their own steam. I remember when McGhee was here he always spoke to ex-referees (Dallas I think) to gauge how likely he was to be successful before spending money and to me that is a sensible policy. To me the referee has been so busy booking folk he has taken his eye off the flashpoint and missed Goodwin's punch and Jennings' putting his hand in his face and I think they will see that as aggressive and we will lose any appeal.

He got booked for the tackle and has now been cited for sticking his arm into Goodwin's noggin. Just like Goodwin got booked for dissent and has been cited for punching him.

I thought we were much better yesterday than in our previous home games and I was thinking about these things you have listed and wondered which ones we have done better. 1. I think Daley provides him better support than anyone else has when we have been at Fir Park. In so many games my criticism has been that he has won knock odwn after knock down only for opposing centre half to win the second ball. Yesterday Daley and Law won their share of them. What came next wasn't always good enough but I think we showed signs of learning. Just take a gander at Pie and Bovril and look at the St Mirren fans commending the knock downs he won. 2. Agree entirely. When Humphrey got on the ball and put the first three balls in after he came on you could hear the buzz about the place. Sadly St Mirren learned and made it harder for him and we were back to plan A. 3. I think this is because teams know if Humphrey gets the ball they are relying on an error by him to get back. Granted that happens often enough but its too much of a risk. Therefore we are forced into the middle or left hand side and we really need to get Law into the games more. 4. Murphy's had a poor season bar a couple of games and whilst he may not be in his best position I would expect an established SPL player to make more of an impact. 5. Sorry but I think this one is mince and goes exactly against the next one which I kind of agree with. We defend conservatively for the most part and occasionally we go a bit deep at set plays and struggle to get out but I think overall ou defensive line is at the right place. 6. Too often when we go for it at the end of games we look too exposed. Dundee Utd had so many chances from breaks in the 0-0 game and likewise yesterday St Mirren had a few too many opportunities towards the end. However I suppose when we have the lead we do in third place it may be a calculated gamble to try and win and risk losing. 7. Absolutely. I think we quite frequently fail to play the percentage final ball. An issue our opponents yesterday had as well.

I think the reason we were more exposed defensively when Humprhey came on is because at the same time Lasley went off for Hughes which made the middle three much more attack minded. I think McCall decided to take the punt that we are far enough ahead in third it was worth really opening the game up and risk losing 2-1. As much as Daley had a decent enough game he looked done when he went off and the change did spark some life into us. The first three balls Humphrey played in were top notch. My other gripe is Calum Murray gave them a huge advantage in the first ten minutes with the booking of Jennings. Just like on Daley at Aberdeen four weeks ago he offered him no protection to a shokcing lunge and failed to even give a foul. Then when Jennings is out of position as a result of it he trips the boy and ends up in the book when we should have been taking a free kick. Given we barely commited a foul today and ended up with five players in the book tells you rather a lot. And to be honest Craigan should have been in it for a foul he was spoken to near the end. The Hibs cup game was brilliant and INverness on day 1 was pretty good but apart from that this was one of the best games at Fir Park for a while. Both sides tried to play and create chances and both sides had their share of let offs. We certainly dodged a bullet with the offside penalty as if Hutch had been booked for that as he would have been off because he'd been booked for dissent at the Jennings yellow which I didn't realise at the time though I did think there had been a third waving of the card. Though Higdon should have scored in the first half and the downward header that Samson saved was a big chance. On the other side they rattled the bar and the improvised shot at the end was a cracking try that Randolph tipped over. It is one of these games we go home thinking What if? but so will St Mirren and I think on that basis it was a decent point. St Mirren, a bit like us at Fir Park, have had the biggest problem of turning their football into goals and that was the same today with a long range effort giving them their goal and two other best tries. They don't seem to score many headers from corners etc. Also I should have said I'm sure our goal was a foul. So back to square one - referee - rubbish today but him giving us goals he shouldn't is a rubbish I can live with.

I think with this one you are never going to get a definitive penalty or no penalty decision as both referee and assistant were behind the incident as were we. Furthermore the only camera shots Alba had were behind it as well which meant that Daley completely blocked the ball. To me there is no doubt Enckelman played Daley and there is no doubt one of them touched the ball as it changed direction. If Enckelman played the ball first then the man the decision was right. If Enckelman played the man then the ball it was a penalty If Enckelman played the man and Daley the ball it was a penalty However scenario 2 seems unlikely given the angles. I suppose the other scenario is the same as scenario 1 but the referee deemed that the goalie was reckless in taking Daley out which could have resulted in a penalty but I don't think anyone could support that argument really. I think if the referee is in any doubt he has to give the corner and I can't imagine he could have been sure. Had their been additional assistants they would have had the best view but there weren't. So no I think on balance he probably got that right.