TheLip69

Cheers mate.

I believe the meeting was yesterday, could someone let us know how it went down?

Wrong. Arbroath were entitled to a percentage of anything Hearts received once Webster moved on, that's the way the clause is written in case a player moves on in a straight swap with another player, then a tribunal sets the price and the club are rewarded accordingly. So had Hearts given Webster away for a cold fish supper, they would owe Arbroath some chips. Football clubs aren't that stupid they wouldn't see that loophole. Any compensation Hearts receive then Arbroath are entitled to their fair share. Your club are only trying to weasel out of it because you DONT HAVE ANY MONEY. Arbroath are only accepting a lesser fee, because the alternative was spending years in court fighting for it and spending more in legal fees than they would eventually get. Guess who put that hypothesis to them? Good old Hearts.

Hearts wage bill is currently 125% of their turnover, which is ubsustainable in the current economic climate. As evidenced by the fact that on several occasions over the past few months players wages have been late going into the bank, in some cases the payments were deferred. Apparently, Shabba hasn't had a single payment since he took over at Tynecastle. Now we've all heard the old excuse about it being a bank error, but when the guy who owns the Football team also owns the bank, what are the chances of it being an error? Once is an error, twice is a major problem. How many times has it been now? So embarrassing was it becoming that ALL Hearts staff are now paid monthly rather than weekly. Thus the damaging headlines will only be once a month rather than weekly.

We've had that balloon for years, i reckon they are doing a belt and braces job and making sure Wednesday's match is on. The good thing about the balloon was the players could train on the pitch while it was up apparently.

That's terrific news, always been a fan of the big man, much more impressed with him at right back though than in central defence. I'd rather have him in that position than Coach to be honest.

Cup-tie at Easter Road in 1995, had been pissed from the night before and was hungover pretty badly so my mate handed me a hip flask which he normally took with him, a few sips from that and I began to feel a bit better. I had almost finished it when we got to Edinburgh I bought a half-bottle of grouse and topped it up for him. A couple of pints later we went into the match and I finished the hip flask in there. My only memory of that match is having to be held down as I threatened to go on the park and malky the ref after the sending off. Never before, or since, although the hospitality at Eastlands a few times has had me fairly merry at kick off.

Did you ever get a reply to this mate? I know, from personal experience, that the Trust have a tendency to IM people rather than reply through these boards.

How can I misquote you when I reprinted your whole post? If you are talking about me paraphrasing your words into McGhee having "lost the plot" I would say that's a pretty fair assumption giving the gist of your post. I would have thought that given what happened over the first five months of this year you would have reassessed your comments accordingly. Your comment about respecting my reply is patronising in the extreme, and doesn't for one minute alter my opinion that your original post was a load of witless tosh perpetrated by someone with scant knowledge of the game of football.

Get some of the players to go round the Primary schools at the beginning of every term and hand out some free tickets for a league match. Take some goodie bags for the kids with some club favours and the like, a voucher for a free drink when they come to the match. Make their day special and encourage them to come back, special prices for kids under 10 would work, what parent wouldn't be happy to give their kid a fiver to go to the football. £3 to get in and a couple of quid for a snack. Going to the football is habit forming, it's what you do on a Saturday afternoon, or used to be. Get them young, get them interested in the local club, the other good thing about that is it takes them away from the sectarian side of things, which will be a bonus for society as a whole.

I've highlighted the phrase which particularly annoyed me in your post, although the entire thing was tiresome. To say Mark McGhee "misjudged his leadership from this time last year" a period which coincided with the death of Phil O'Donnell, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. Mark McGhee impressed everyone in the way he handled events surrounding Phil's untimely and tragic demise. Not least the players. There were members of the team who found it hard to bring any enthusiasm to their game, others who couldn't bear the thought of playing football again, and yet others who just wanted to get out there and kick anything that moved. Mark McGhee had to remotivate some of his players and get others to rechannel their aggression in a more positive way. To do all that and hold the team together and still finish in third place is nothing short of remarkable and a great deal of the credit lies firmly with Mark McGhee. Don't get me wrong, I'm no apologist for McGhee, sometimes his selections, tactics, and substitutions (or lack thereof) leave me mystified, but I doubt whether any manager anywhere worked harder or was more effective in the first 5 months of this year. So to say he lost the plot this time last year is complete nonsense and invalidates the rest of your post.

It's much more likely to be that one, considering I would only have been about 10 months old when we beat them in the cup in 1958.

I had to think long and hard about this and while the Cup-tie v Celtic was a truly great day, and the Cup Final no less fantastic, I've had to plump for a pretty obscure match. It was in the early 1960's and we were at home to Airdrie, I have no idea if it was a League Cup, Scottish Cup, Lanarkshire Cup, or a League match. I was only 6 or 7 years old and it was my first football match. We were in the small enclosure in front of the Main Stand and, while the match, players, scoring etc escapes my memory, the atmosphere never ever will. It's what draws me back to football in general, and Motherwell in particular. Men, and boys, were laughing, shouting, singing, swearing and generally having a good time. Grown men on the field were kicking lumps out of one another, (apparently it's what passed for tackling back in those days) and there were goals, plenty of goals, 8 in all. Motherwell won 5-3, who scored? Haven't a scooby. What I do remember though is my reaction to each goal, I was jumping and cheering like a madman, had I known of the word and the emotion at the time, I would have said it was almost orgasmic. I was hyper on the way home, I was also exhausted and was happily esconced in my bed early that night at the end of what, at that point, had been the greatest day of my life.

That Cup-tie will live long in my memory also, I had to take my 13 year old cousin, a Celtic fan, to that match. The wee sod was so confident of a victory and kept niggling me all through the game but we were in the Celtic end so I couldn't say or do a hell of a lot. He was supremely cocky when Celtic were 2-0 up and I kept thinking when I get him back home I'm going to boot his arse. Then Motherwell started to play and he was getting more and more anxious at 2-1 he was screaming at his team, along with everyone around me, at 2-2 he was almost apoplectic with rage, when Pettigrew sealed the win his voice actually broke. He manages to gloss over the match by just referring to it as the day his voice broke. I never did boot his arse, there was no need. Standing in amongst the Celtic fans that day with a look of indfference on my face while my inner self was jumping for joy was revenge enough. Their tears and tantrums as they trudged from Fir Park kept my cockles warmed for months. I remember a mates Dad telling me how he saw Motherwell put 5 past Rangers in the 50's or 60's and how on the walk back home his feet never touched the ground, that was the day when I really knew exactly what he meant.

I dont see the sense in cutting the prices for the Old Firm when they just about fill the ground anyway? All you are doing is reducing your turnover. Cut the price for the games where there isn't going to be a big crowd and entice the punters along. I'd half the price for matches against the likes of Hearts and Hibs that would surely add a fair few hundred extra to the crowd. Aberdeen and Dundee United might bring a few extra as well if they know they are going to be saving a tenner or so.

I must admit I have said Inverness from day one, and I haven't seen anything to change my mind so far. Inverness to pip Accies to the drop and St Johnstone to replace them.

Done, would also like a swatch at the results

Couldn't agree more.

Martin Rose is the Chairman of the Well Trust, you can contact him on martin@welltrust.net So why are we relying on someone who is a personal appointment of John Boyle to put the fans points to the board. I find the whole relationship between the Trust, the board, and Mr Rose all a wee bit too incestuous for my liking. It's not about what gets said at AGM's it's the normal weekly/monthly board meetings where the real work is done. That's where the fans need representation and that representation must be independent, without that independence you'd be as well letting John Boyle appoint the Fans Tsar.

I've got a fair few questions I'd like to ask the Trust, for instance, How many members does the Trust have, and how can it claim to reflect all sections of the fanbase?

My mate's Dad used to wax lyrical about Pat Quinn, he wasn't a fan of St. John but Quinn was his idol.

Fair point, but I would question whether the Trust is independent enough of the club. This is the phrase that worries me; As well as owning a significant shareholding in the club, rewarded by owner John Boyle in recognition of financial contributions made, the Trust continues to successfully organise and run events as well as representing fans at boardroom level through Chairman Martin Rose. That's taken from the Motherwell website. I think that "significant shareholding" compromises the Trust. As for the boardroom representation by Martin Rose, laughable in the extreme. Martin Rose has been in or around Fir Park for as long as I can remember, he was part of the Development Committee back in the early 1990's I seem to recall. What has he actually acheived for the fans in his time there? Frankly, If the fans are going to be represented he/she needs to be independent of the board and the Trust. I'd rather we were outside the tent pissing in rather than inside the tent pissing out. As to how we go about it, let's see what the consensus is first then we'll look at the logistics.

Hasn't someone already elected those guys? We need someone independent of the Trust to put the fans points without fear or favour.

Couldn't agree more although the Well trust appear to think they are the fans tsar, and are asking that all queries, suggestions, etc to the club should be made through them. Let's get someone independent in there, we need someone off the terraces who is more in touch with the ordinary fan and his needs and wants. Someone who doesn't already have an agenda with the club and can put forward the fans view's without question.

Had a long hard think about this and find it difficult to pick any particular one. My first 'Well hero in the mid '60's was Dixie Deans. I dont suppose I will ever get over the shock of his move to Celtic, I broke my heart for days. I haven't seen a better 'keeper in Motherwell colours since Keith MacRae, he was another idol of mine. I was fortunate enough to meet Malcom Allison a few years ago and tore a strip off him for disappointing me by signing big Keith. Joe Wark, Willie Pettigrew, Bobby Graham, Vic Davidson, Bobby Watson, all of them through the 1970's. Peter Millar got a bad press but, when the guy wasn't playing keepie uppie with the opposition, he was a better player on the ball than he was ever given credit for. When you get into the '80's and 90's you have to include Gahagan, McAllister, Mauchlen, Boyd, Coyne, Ferguson, Nijholt, McCart, and of course Kirkie, the list is endless. Ifg pushed I would go with Dixie Deans he was my first big hero.