Tweed

Every time there is a draw that is one point taken out of the league. THere seem to have been a lot this year so I wouldn't be surprised if 57 or 58 got us 3rd. Actually the next three games are huge. St Mirren and Hearts are in decent positions but both have had wheels coming off the bogey in recent weeks so a chance for at least four there and Dunfermline seem to be murder. Therefore we could potentially be on 40 on New Years Day. If we manage that then I think we are a shoe in as we will have further deflated Hearts balloon. Also I think Hearts is an unhappy club and whilst I don'tsee us replicating the first half of the season in the early part of 2012 I have no reason to think we will do a Hearts style collapse either.

It wasn't an outstanding game of football but we made very few mistakes and as such deserved to win the game. We got the wee breaks with Enckelman's mistake for the first goal and it rattling off Murphy's backside for the last one. But really I never felt worried after we were 2-0 up because Hutchinson and Craigan were in control on the rare occasion that they got past Jennings and Lasley who were absolutely magnificent. These two are on a purple patch right now which is why we are losing so few goals. I thought Daley was superb, he seemed to pop up everywhere and made a nuisance of himself.

I think Friday night shows that there is a market for a bigger crowd than the ones that we have been getting and also a bigger away support than Hibs have been getting. Was it because it was Friday? Was it because it was cheaper? Was it because of the new manager? Was it because of the words coming come out of Fir Park about improving the experience? Truth is nobody knows. Obviously when we look back to the £5 entry for Motherwell v Aberdeen in May 2008 the crowd was larger than it was on Friday. But that was a Saturday. But there was a tangible gain at the end of it (for both teams). But there were no free tickets. The price is undoubtedly the constant. I prefer a Saturday afternoon kick off but I don't prefer it so much that I wouldn't go on a Friday night irrespective of the venue or the opposition. We need to work on these people who attended on Friday night who do not normally attend. I know Friday would have been a mince experience due to the game not finishing but these folks should all have a voucher so will be able to attend the rematch and that is an opportunity for an entertaining game to be served up and entice them back. Another reason it may work is I may go along and watch Hamilton v Partick on 13/1/12 and can then go and watch us the next day and having both games on the Saturday would have lost my entry money at New Douglas Park. To that I also know of three Accies fans who paid in on Friday night because of the history of cracking games between us.

He reffed the Hibs cup game superbly a few weeks ago. Sadly his east stand assistant made an arse of the offside call. He also had a super game in the 6-6 draw. He is an absolute by the book ref which rubs some folk up the wrong way but as long as he is consistent I don't think anyone can grumble.

I think we coped better than them at defending into the teeth of the wind. But they looked much more dangerous when they were hitting us on the break in the 2nd half. Both teams tried to play the game the right way and tried to take the conditions into account. However in fairness both teams also defended very well for the mostpart and with that and the wind it just petered out. I don't think we played especially badly but I don't think we did enough to win. I'm slightly disappointed that what had the makings of a good game never flourished the way it threatened.

Unfortunately I was in a hurry after the game yesterday so I didn't have the time to have a look at it in the dark but I shall make an effort to in the future. In the daylight it looked fairly ordinary though however to be fair, all involved said it would so I find it hard at this stage to be critical. However I think the number of folk who went and stood in the pissing rain to see it unveiled and the collection of guests that were there showed the esteem in which the man was held. At the end of the day whatever they unveiled some people would like it and some people wouldn't and it sounds like the most important people in this like it so to me its job well done.

Every single one of these games is a tough nut to crack. Dundee Utd seem to have improved since we played them last time and they are quite a streetwise team and we haven't won at home since we played Aberdeen back in September so who knows what will happen. We are going to likely play Hibs in the period of bounce of a new manager. Form dictates both the Saints games will be tough and Hearts away is never a gift. The only one that looks like it should be a gimme is Dunfermline on December 28th but with five games worth of potential injuries and suspensions between now and then it would be folly to tick that up as three points now. However we have beaten five out of the six of them this season and we all know we didn't give a true account of ourselves against St Johnstone so it could go completely the other way. But the way I see it is we have 29 points from 14 games. I reckon if we get another 29 from the next 24 we will come 3rd. So if we get 10 we are well on track. However we are capable of more.

I think you're right in that it does serve to highlight your point. But on the other hand I think it was taking the discussion away from the campaign and focusing on once incident. So I think it made sense to split the threads. Not that it was anything to do with me.....

I never said they handled it well. However no matter how they handled they didn't deserve a bunch of drunken guys calling them arseholes, wankers and any other expletive you care to mention in such an aggressive manner. For that there is no excuse.

A definite team effort today. Lasley and Jennings won everything in the middle but for me in the first half they wasted too many passes to be MoTM. Daley played all over the place and provided a bit of individual brilliance so going for him.

Aberdeen really did play like the away team which does not suit us. So therefore it was fantastic that they gifted us a goal by conceding a cheap free kick though in credit to Hateley defending that ball was nigh on impossible. But just like against Celtic we then undid our good work by letting in a daft goal. As much as Hateley's ball for our goal was immense the non-tackle he put in half an hour late with the wrong foot opened up our defence and I'm not sure who was watching Vernon. And that put us back to 1-1 after ten minutes and Brown could go back to plan A of sapping any football out the contest.. The rest of the first half doesn't really merit any time and that is all I'm saying about it. 2nd half started with a great goal from Omar Daley. What a bit of skill and finish. And from then on Aberdeen had to push out which they really don't look like comfortable doing. And apart from a couple of headers we reduced them to long range shots. We were comfortable. All in a good day.

I think Andy P is pretty much spot on. I was about five or six rows behind the back of the carry on. To begin with it was a group of about 30 fans who were standing, bouncing and singing. There were a few folk in the three or four rows behind them who moved to another part of the stand so they could sit and watch the game and we had a situation where all the 'Well fans were content, they could all see and they could all enjoy the game in the manner they wanted. Now I get that you are not allowed to stand in an all seater stadium but to me, there was no danger to anyone nor any prospect of danger to anyone. The stewards and police then waded in and ejected a couple of folk and a larger group of about 40-50 started going for them and the atmosphere became thoroughly poisonous. There just seemed to be a running battle between stewards and fans while a much larger group than before (including myself) could see precious little of the game which at a cost of £23 is irritating. If I wanted to see drunk, grown me fighting with each other I'd have gone to a pub crawl in Govan. Furthermore it was more dangerous as the passageways were blocked and more and more people became frustrated as they could not see and it really was a bit silly. I suppose what is annoying is that the stewards technically had a point with the first group, who as I said, were at worst a group of dafties but certainly not causing anyone any bother. But the way the folk from the other side of the passage reacted was disgraceful. There were Motherwell fans abusing stewards and policemen in a way that nobody deserves when they are at the work and did us as a club no favours at all.

I hope that there is a list of things they have considered and they have looked at a quick win to start with. Because if this is anywhere near a priority we are all doomed.

Most of that I agree with but I can't agree Celtic put in more effort. Every single Motherwell player to me gave their absolute all today, the heads never dropped and never hid and for all that they all get a pat on the back. I think he played the role he was asked to play in a very indisciplined manner. Whether he was asked to perform the correct role is another debate. He tracked a right back that didn't need tracking half the time and ended up far too close to Hammell when he should have been trying to get close to Higdon. Some of that may be down to Celtic's movement however he always ends up much closer to Higdon when we are away and hence we get more out of both of them and he needs to try and replicate that at Fir Park. But I agree Murphy hasn't had a good game at Fir Park since the opening day yet he is frequently very good when we are on the road. His inconsistency will hold his career back. I think McCall's ethos is that no matter where you play you graft. Whilst the likes of Murphy and Law are maybe better at creating I like that they dig in as well. Its what makes us such a tough nut to crack. I think he does the grafting pretty well though his problem is so many teams now come to Motherwell to soak up the pressure and it makes it much harder for him to create.

Cutting edge was sadly lacking from us for long spells of that game. I don't necessarily think it was the forwards' fault though - I think as a general rule our midfield and forward line are too far apart when we are in possession. That means no matter what Higdon does with the balls played to him, Celtic will as a minimum win the second ball. Equally Celtic were pretty hopeless as well until they brought on McCourt and he just had the wee magical ingredient that we couldn't cope with. And all that served up was a pretty enthralling game of football that pinged from end to end with little goalmouth action. Quality was thin on the ground but you could never take your eye off it. So much so I forgot to go and get a pie. What really frustrates me though is the first goal we lost. Clancy made an arse of it to concede the corner in the first place then BOTH their forwards get a free run on the ball in our box. Sorry boys but that was shite and no team will let you away with that. Also concession of the goal seemed to knock us off our stride for twenty minutes and the power of steam we'd built up in the opening ten was gone. Normally I try and defend referees but I'm having hard work today. However I don't think he cost us the game. It became quite a niggly one to manage with some players love affair with the deck but he had no consistency with free kicks awarded and his yellow cards seemed a bit random. I could point to worse fouls by all three players who were booked that went unchecked. I didn't see the incident with the red card so will refrain from comment but overall I just felt he was all over the place. However to his credit he did give us ones when there were little tugs and no falling over and I imagine a lot of refs would just have let the game run.

I lost mine before the inverness game and they told me to go to ticket office, buy a ticket for the game and then they would reissue a book during the week for a nominal cost and refund the cost of the game ticket. But then I found it so the process was never tried.

What we need to do is not concede a mental goal from a set play. We were ticking along nicely against rangers until we did that and we'd had two warnings already. Even after that we dominated possession and territory but they were happy to defend properly and hit us on the counter. And eventually we ran out of ideas and petrol. Celtic are more open than rangers though and I think that should suit us better. Though on the flip side they are a better creative unit too and if they play as they can they can hurt us too. The old firm have a tendency to up it against form teams so that must be a concern also but can really see it going any way.

I think the first tackle was over enthusiastic rather than purposefully designed to injure (like Black's on Shiels) but that doesn't change the fact it was dangerous and deserved a red card. Got to say in the stand on Saturday Hogg's looked like a clear red card and given that the referee was running behind Murphy and closer to the touchline it is possible how close Tokely was was outwith his eyeline as it was mine. Yes it was a poor decision having had the benefit of television but it was certainly an understandable one. However from the other side of the pitch where Butcher was it would look even more ridiculous a decision than it did on the television. He also denied us a penalty in the first half and booked Murphy from diving which our beloved BBC failed to show us. From down the other end it looked like a foul and a penalty at most or a string shoulder charge at least - certainly not a dive. The only thing that makes me wonder is that Murphy didn't argue. Whilst I thought Inverness had most of the game they really let themselves down with three really bad bits of defending. Failed to mark the Hutch, let Lasley run at them and have a free shot and then almost let Murphy do the same before that fatal tug. Whilst we didn't play that well on the most part we defended reasonably and without wanting to sound too harsh that is why we're 2nd and they're last.

The best player on the pitch by a mile was Gregory Tade who dragged Craigan and Hutchinson all over the shop and therefore left us with Clancy and Hateley at centre half which wasn't ideal. But our best for me was Hateley. Good deliveries, good free kick and only once wasted a ball. Nothing overly brilliant but to be frank we were not that good yesterday.

Hutch played centre half. Clancy did right back till hammell crocked with hateley in middle. When forbes came on he moved into middle, hateley to right and clancy to left back. Forbes was non showy and did nothing wrong. Picked up a textbook booking and committed another couple of fouls and I guess that's why he was hooked.

Thought we were a bit lucky today. Inverness were the better team for long spells in the game. Also we seemed to get a bit rattled after Hammell's injury which I hope isn't as bad as it looked. But we dug deep and got back into it though their defence will be kicking themselves. In the second half it only looked a matter of time before they scored. And they duly did. But we again fought back. Nobody closed lasley down and we were level. Again they blew it with a moronic foul that led to the red. And we jammied the free kick. Though the trick is to win when you don't play your best and that's what we did today.

This particular game makes no difference to me as I'm in London from 30/11 to 4/12 so whenever it was played I was missing it. We are where we are though and crowds are dwindling and we need to be creative to try and bring them back. However it doesn't take Einstein to work out that the biggest loss has been away supports and that is where we need to work and playing games at night only reduces the away support - this is not a dig at Hibs by the way because the same would be replicated if it was at Easter Road. Selfishly if I was here I would be delighted for a night game if I was at home as a once or twice a season thing but I do think if the SPL intended doing this this season it should have been made public before the season started and therefore people could have made an educated decision whether to buy a season ticket or not. But to me its wrong to dismiss or remain with Friday night football on the basis of one game involving two teams.

Thing is you can look at Dunfermline. They went through a spell of scoring two goals and getting no points. At least when we score we tend to get the full benefit of it because our defence is generally secure. Our problem is at the other end but even in the five games we have ended up on 0, 2 were against the Old Firm, 2 we got a point from and there was that day against St Johnstone. I don't know what the answer is though it is a concern. I don't think the 4-5-1 in itself is the problem. However when we are away Nicky Law seems to get closer to Higdon, And by that happening we tend to be able to spray it about in a more offensive area of the pitch and the performance comes from there.

Murphy didn't get booked that I can remember and his name aint on the list on either the BBC or FPC? Hammell, Lasley and Craigan were all booked for us and I really don't think I could argue with any of them as every time it broke up a promising Killie move. I don't think any of the yellows in the game were because of the ferocity of the challenge - they were all because of the cynicism of them. Therefore he didn't create a yardstick like that for the foul on Lasley. Though from the once I saw it that was close to being worthy of one if not. I couldn't criticise him for the dive decision as from down the other end of the ground it was impossible to tell whether he took a tumble, lost his balance or was clipped after the ball had been won. Though it was pretty clear there was no foul by Craigan. Thing about niggly fouls is it cuts both ways and I really think we are a better team when the game flows rather than is interrupted all the time so I would rather referees try and let it run. And I don't remember ever thinking that we ended up in bother because of a blatant refereeing error also there were cries for fouls from the East Stand at times yesterday (and in every game) that were frankly nonsense.

Killie have been draw specialists all year long and we've only had two in twelve games, ironically both against them. For the first half hour today we were the dominant force but just couldn't get the strikers and final ball delivery players on the same wavelength. But as we approached half time they came more and more into it. And that trend continued through the second half. We generally defended well enough but we made poor decisions, poor final balls and striker just wasn't in the right place. But thats a tough nut to crack and given where we are a point is a good result. Agree with some of the comments about Craig Thomson. His foul detection was A1 but he gave us an advantage where there was none right at the start and then pulled the game back when they were developing later on. He also seemed to get in the road an awful lot. Overall a point is no disastser against a good outfit but I feel we could have done a little more to have got the three.