Tweed

We played our biggest game in years in May 2008 against Aberdeen at Fir Park and charged a fiver. We got a crowd of 8,574 and this was pre-recession. I think that tells you reducing the price for Motherwell for run of the mill SPL games is unsustainable. It may seem dear but to keep the club free of the dangers of recession we need to make as much as we can out of home games. I know its unpopular and I wish we could charge less but I just do not see how it can be viable.

It doesn't hit Man U or Chelsea though cos their ground is still full every week. When we are on we lose people and it costs us more than it earns us. Maybe not in that game but if folk decide three games anyway on the telly there is no point in buying a ST and then its a bit chilly for an Inverness game on a Wednesday night they may decide fuck going and its more money lost. Teams in the middle order get shafted more by the TV deal.

If any of these teams are seriously interested you may find Alfred has a diplomatic injury come Thursday. I think our lack of a finishing touch and a lack of match sharpness may cost us hwereas they are going well. If we can nick one it may shatter them though so start of game is key. I think we'll edge it 1-0 on Thursday and 1-0 again in Iceland to go through 2-0 on aggregate.

I think you are not an idiot. However if we are still going our game with Killie could be shifting as well and we could have three Sunday games to start with.

Don't have the stamina to make two trips as far in the one week so won't be going tomorrow. Imagine the two trialists will get another shot and some of the guys we didn't see - Humphrey, Fitzpatrick, McHugh, Hutchinson, Hollins etc. Be interesting to see how they get on. Was also impressed that in the first run out nine of them played 90 minutes so CB is obviously making sure they have full match fitness. Second the comment about the rain. That was unreal between Perth and Edinburgh on the return last night and pretty shit the rest of the way too.

End of the day this is only about getting players game time and match sharpness back. Not going to lose sleep whatever happens as these games are rarely a true indication of whats to come. However will be interested to see the Cypriot, the goalkeeper and how we line up up front. Is there a deadline for signings for the Breidablik games?

Without the OF double header December looks challenging with two tough away trips right before it and a run of four away games in five. Tough run up to the split as well. However a chance to get a decent start and not many real bad runs. On the whole not bad. Good times for the trip to Inverness as well.

Rugby sounded good. Cracking result for us. S&S night was good too. About thirty folk there and a pleasant atmosphere and free scran. Can't ask for much more.

Good news. Whilst there were some disappointing games last season on the whole he was a steady eddie for us and pretty dependable. Rarely injured, good crosser has a shot from a dead ball and a great intelligence. At our level you will struggle to get much more. If we can push him on a bit there is the potential for a good move in a year to 18 months and if not he should remain a reliable professional at our level (a la Craigan). All good.

Pishflaps. Best thing about Inverness is a trip to see a good friend of mine who stays up there and he'll be on honeymoon. And I'll just have come back down the week before from the wedding. However in good news I don't believe it.

Fair enough - but surely the club could have phoned them back. That way the customer would know they could get served rather than maybe phone again when its busy.

Motherwell did 99% of the work to get us into Europe its just a shame that the last 1% had to be done by Dundee Utd. For which I am pleased as our guys have worked hard this season and have exceeded all expectations and this gives them something tangible to show at the end of it. Ross County were poor today, certainly much poorer than in previous games. It took United a while to get going and the tactic of playing it to the flanks was not working as the long balls were going out, too long or short and there were so many throw ins at the start it was unreal. However as time went on Swanson and COnway got more and more into the game. County brought Lawson on for Craig and that got them a further grip of the midfield and they were at their most dangerous just either side of Goodwillie's goal. The quality of the goals in this game were very good and you could see why United came third. I think United's slow start can be attributed to a lack of match sharpness from the selection policy of the last four games and unfortunately for County they did not have the quality to capitalise. But they got away with it. Good result for us and I have a friend who supports United who is a happy happy man tonight. Chuffed for him and Peter Houston too who looked like he was going to be an SPL joke figure for a bit in December and thrilled for him too.

Other thing about these averages. In the 2nd cycle of games Gannon played both the OF, Hibs away, United, Aberdeen and St Johnstone. Whereas Brown got two games against St Mirren, Falkirk, Accies and Killie. So JG definitely had the harder hand. We have played the three best attacks in the last week and we shipped two late on at Celtic when we wer chasing, we lost sx to Hibs, five the cause of was ill and shouldn't have been playing and today we had an untested pairing. Aye, not very good but underlying reasons so won't be losing sleep over it.

O'Brien for me. Wonderful run for the first goal and a number of great crosses in the first half. Cannot believe we scored two goals after he went off. Removing him was a mistake that Brown got away with in my view. Outstanding performance (with the exception of the numerous times he was caught offside in 1st half).

Lets remember the seven changes included the return of their no 1 goalkeeper and also the resting of Webster who has a knock. Houston and United have earned the right to play whoever the hell they like and when you think we missed out by two points and all the ones we threw down the toilet to go and blame United now is petty. Entirely our own fault (if thats the right word) we came 5th and not 4th.

Spot on.

HAving not read the full thread, I thought Rangers first was a foul on Saunders. He could have been stronger, granted, but his jersey was being pulled which allowed Boyd to turn. All that said they could have been out of sight at half time. The offside against us in the first half was correct call. But that dick owed us an error. We started 2nd half brilliantly and capped that start with a wonderful goal. We should have been at 2-2 with Jut's chance and created plenty in that spell but when Lafferty made it 3-1 we seemed to accept defeat. Until the last few minutes. I just wonder if at the first fifteen minutes at 3-1 we had played with the same impetus what might have happened. Jennings should have scored first time with his chance but recovered well and then the soft penalty to square it. United, to me, earned the right to play whoever the hell they liked today. We misseed out by one point and to be petty about United is churlish when we look back at the huge number of points we threw away.

Aye and naw. Had we got to 6-6 with 7 or so minutes to play we'd have sat back a bit and the way we defended could have lost 6-7 and we would never have seen that goal. But aye a pen at saving height in that situation was criminal.

I had another commitment the night and I am a fanny in reverse. It went 6-2 as I drove p the drive. So I only saw the bit we won 4-0 and missed a penalty....and I agree they are fannies.

Interesting that a survey of people who go to the football and pay admission prices show 98% think its too dear. I imagine 98% of drivers think petrol is too dear too. And probably about 98% of taxpayers think taxes are too high. And don't get me started on train fares, I bet 98% of commuters think they are a rip off. So the questions to me are: 1. Is it overpriced for the product? definitely 2. Is there much demand there? probably a bit 3. Will we be able to reduce to bring that demand in? probably not 4. Will we reduce prices then? No We're in a horrible circle just now. The demand is not satisfying the bills of the clubs. I don't know what the answer is but for the quality of product we have in Scotland not enough folk who do not go right now are interested of making a commitment of a season ticket. The club needs the income to sustain the fact we are one of the top six teams in Scotland right not and a significant reduction in season ticket revenue will only drive us to Irn Bru.

We did seem to open up in the last 10 minutes. I thought O'Dea was offside btw. But it hardly matters. Celtic should beat us every time we play and they played reasonably well yesterday, especially defensively, and when that happens we are up against it. We stood up pretty well for a long time. I always felt if we won the two home games we'd be fine. And whilst we lost the last one we countered it with a win last week which was a better outcome. So we are in the same place of win the home game and we're OK. Which is the best we could have hoped for.

Taking the C&A tinted specs off I would just give it to Stokes because he had to control the ball first.

Correct me if I'm wrong but have our last five goals not all come from Hateley's good crossing into the box which is more than 10% of our goals for the season I'd wager. JOB is a good player when he is on his game. He had a good game yesterday, he had a shocker last Sunday. To be honest the hard working steady Eddies are more important to us than JOB - Hateley, Jennings, Hammell, Lasley. Aye I'd like to keep him but losing him would be far from the end of the world.

With nothing at all to play for now I'm hoping Celtic will be on the beach.

I think the reason that this team has quietly picked up so many points is because we have lost so few games. In McGhee's first season we were good for giving a goal away so when the strikers didn't find it we lost. This season we have had six 0-0s (Aberdeen (a), Rangers (h), Celtic (a), Falkirk (a), Hamilton (a) and St Mirren (a)) and these points (most of them scraped after being the poorer team) all have helped us eat into that total. If you could actually take the second half of November and December this season and last out of the equation Motherwell have been the best team outwith the OF in the SPL by miles over the last three seasons.