Andy_P

If you look about on youtube here for example, and here and there around Steelmen Online you'll find some pre-East Stand games.

Indeed. Many a night I'm awoken quivvering unable to get back to sleep as the mental image of Jim Goodwin firing in that shot plays over and over in my head..... Scars? Just a shade over-dramatic there steelboy.

As ever, your thoughts and votes please folks....

Is this you seeking to offer some balance in your arguments Dazzer. Balance in that its now Daley and Murphy now getting the bitchy wee remarks because they are getting the nod ahead of Hump? Disappointing as it is to be without Higdon the positive it brings is that St Johnstone will have been forced to prepare to defend against for one of several possible attacking formations from us. If we're speculating about the possibilities than likely so will they. I'm not sure how McCall will go the permutations all have pros and cons. Daley will give you a shade more height and unpredictability but is unlikely to offer too much defensively. Murphy has more experience and goals than the rest of the contenders for a place and would allow either Hump or Daley to come in, in their more natural position. Bob McHugh, whilst not having a huge amount of time on the park this season has managed to chip in a with a goal (should have been more) and the odd assist too yet hasn't quite cut it when playing from the start. It's good that we have options, and the ability to mix it up further if the need arises. Defensively though its an easy one with Clancy coming in for Craggs. It was looking a tight fixture without the added issues of Craggs and Higdon's absences so I think I'd be content enough if we come out at the end of it, with no ground having been lost to Saints. EDIT: Beaten to the Daley question.....and the answer!

Last night perhaps was one of the most satisfying results of the campaign for me. Ok you can point to the fact Dunfermline are bottom of the league and have been for much of the season but I don't think you can understate the result, performance and character shown. I thought we'd startly brightly as it was but to go on and win as we did with 10 men for over 70 minutes was just tremendous. And we did it intelligently by playing good football, scoring a couple of cracking goals and in the face of refeering that made you feel it was 12 against 10 never mind 11 against 10. I didn't see the Craigan incident last night, other than him being caught in the face, so I don't know what's gone on there. Tweets last night seemed to suggest a headbutt, which appears unlike him. He's been known to do a bit of ranting and raving over the years if things haven't gone his way but not his style to react in that manner. But so much credit to the team for the way they about it after that. I just hope they aren't running on empty given the effort that was put in, and that we don't have half a team sitting in the stand suspended when Saturday rolls around. I'm assuming we did get some credit and the importance of the win for us was highlighted on the radio post match as by the time we got back to the car it was all talk about Dunfermline's missed opportunity with talk of penalty claims and missed chances that could have turned the game their way and how the biggest winners of the night were Hibs. What??!?!?! Anywyay a great three points won in some style by 'Well.

Your thoughts and votes please folks - was tempted to chuck in an option for the whole team tonight!!

In the style of the Viera & Mancini ditties, this came Ojamaa, Ohh-way-ohh Ojamaa, Ohh-way-ohh He came from near Tallinn To help the Steelmen win Ojamaa........(repeat) I'll go and hide under the desk now for the rest of the afternoon But aye, however you prefer to be labelled, recapturing some of the spark that was there early would be great, certainly added to the matchday experience.

In one sense Dunfermline's eye-raising win on Saturday is no bad thing as there will be no danger of the team going to into the game with a complacent attitude thinking it'll be a doddle. As much as Dunfermline have an incentive so to do we, to regain 3rd spot and start to get a little bit of consistency and momentum back after an awkward few weeks. The inclusion of Ojamaa is a poser for McCall. One the one hand he has appeared an industrious type who describes himself as more of a creator than finisher. Could this partnership be what we've been needing to allow Higdon to concentrate more on he does best and take this target man onus off him? Looking solely at the league table a home game against the team at the foot of table might in the face of it, offer an ideal opportunity of assessing that potential partnership further. Set against that is the fact he has been shown to have an effect as an impact sub, which is always a useful asset and there is seemingly a question of how much off full fitness he is. Personally I'd be willing to give him a try from the start to see what he can do and he might yet be under Dunfermline's radar in terms of what he can bring to the team. As for the game, I think the team will be well aware of the opportunity that is there for them on Tuesday and that getting that point at Tannadice will have been something of a watershed for them in terms of sticky results. 'Well to win by a couple.

Your thoughts and votes please people......

It was far from just the Old Firm's doing delboy. There were lots of clubs in favour of scrapping the reserves, largely down to the financial aspect of carrying a larger squad. Look at some of the Motherwell team photos from the past for example when the reserves were an established feature. I know there were season's where we had 44 league game seasons but some of those team photies have enough players for about 3 teams in them.

Actually I think you've hit the nail on the head Tweed with your answer. Finance is the killer. Much as I think many people are coming around to the idea that perhaps football wise the scrapping of the reserve leagues wasn't the best idea I think it's going to be something of a struggle to convince directors and administrators that the costs involved make it worthwhile. From something as simple as being able to organise a bounce game off the cuff on your own terms such as on your own training ground, during the day, with the opponents of your choice as opposed to having to adhere to a fixture list, pay costs to use another team's ground etc. right through to the number of players you would have to carry in the squad or the potential impact on the set up of the youth sides, now that its gone I just can't see clubs re-instating the reserves. Much as I am personally opposed to it, I could actually see the one or two clubs who have the resources pushing for B teams in the lower leagues before a full re-instatement of the reserves. I got to quite a lot of reserve games in my youth and have some good memories. Like a 6-5 win over Rangers in the Reserve League Cup at Fir Park in 1991 for example or the Reserve League West campaign of a year or two later that saw us take six, seven, eight, nine and thirteen I think it was off the likes of East Stirling, Stenny and Stirling Albion. Good times!

Cut and paste is a fantastic innovation isn't it

The punter that coined the phrase "one man team" probably didn't have a Scouse defensive midfielder in mind when he conjoured up the tagline and whilst I'm jesting ofcourse about the "one man team" bit, I think the return of Jenno will do so much for us. That his return go some way to sorting out the balance of the midfield by freeing up Lasley to contribute in a more positive sense, it should strengthen the defence by getting Hateley back to where he performs best, illustrates how important he is for us. Still several big decisions for McCall to make though. I get the feeling as others have said recently, that he is guilty of trying to work his preferred players into the side and gamble on the balance of the team rather than go with an arguably weaker player playing in a more natural role. Jennings return limits the scope for that to a slight degree but assuming the tried and trusted central two of Lasley and Jennings reconvene then he's still got to decide who from Humphrey, Daley, Murphy and Law are going to be playing wide or if he's going to put someone up alongside It seems a little strange that when you think McCall had the guts to with two up front and two attack minded wide players on several occasions last season - some of which we blew teams away (Dundee Utd and St Johnstone 3-0 for example) that he appears so cautious of unleashing the same this term. If it was me, whatever the choice of personnel I'd give that a stab on Saturday. Let's try to get that first goal and see what the confidence of scoring again and getting a lead can do for us.

Never good to learn of player-fan relations being soured but pleasingly, going by his tweet last night Randolph appears to be happy enough to forget the incident and move on.

Bit of a pisser that. Don't think we did enough to win but equally a bit harsh to lose. Some might say it sort of evened out the win up in Inverness but I don't know. Thought we started quite brightly but the longer things went on the more we seemed run out of ideas and creativity. Whilst we had most of the game they seemed to be the ones getting more shots in. Albeit the majority of those efforts were pretty straight forward stuff for Randy to deal with, it wasn't that much of a surprise that one of them eventually found its way in. Tight margins when you think that Daley and Tade find themselves in broadly similar positions. Daley sends his effort skywards and Tade near bursts the net and they get the points. Getting into sour grapes territory our first dealings with Bobby Madden will have hardly endeared him to 'Well fans with one stick one penalty claim in the second half ignored having already waved away a decent claim in the first. Is he allergic to giving handball's or something? Not for the want of trying today but the result, and a third league game without a goal, does crank the pressure up a little to stem the tide and a trip to Tannadice leaves me a little unsure of if we're going remedy that at the first opportunity.

Thoughts and votes please folks, hard as it might be.....

Crazy talk..... .....he's already got half a dozen signed pairs in that glass cabinet in his living room along with that locket of Humph hair, the sock with the hole in the big toe from last season's away strip and that as yet unsued plane ticket to Jamaica for his international debut In all seriousness, well done with the auctions!

Like one or two I have a lingering niggle in the back of my mind that perhaps Inverness might be due something against us. But by the same token we've a fairly decent home record against them and we should go into the game in good spirits after last week's win. We also have a handful of the first team returning hopefully reinvigorated having sat last week out. Tight game but 2-1 'Well.

Really sorry to hear this. Bill has been around the club for as long as I can remember. It'll be difficult to imagine him not being there. I can't say I've had a lot of dealings with him personall, but the last seems in keeping with many of the comments already posted. Arriving early at St Mirren earlier in the season with the Brazilian and his nephew Ross, Bill saw the claret and amber colours and took time to ask Ross how he was, how he thought the game would go and offer him a complimentary for the game. Alas we had only just returned from the ticket office but so he had to politely decline but Ross was well taken when he discovered the vice-chairman of MFC had just offered him a ticket. RIP Bill

You could argue that the expectation level amongst supporters and type of the season the team are having are also factors in when young players can be included. One of the positives of Jim Gannon's reign was the number of younger players who got opportunities but bear in mind at that time the expectation level of the support wasn't great given so many of the squad from the previous campaign had moved on and that it was a pretty non-descript season. There were other factors such as the date of his appointment, we had European ties just days away and the majority of players left on the books were youngsters then that sort of forced his hand to a degree to start with. To be fair to Gannon he continued with the policy but by the time Craig Brown took over he had a different set of targets to work towards, firstly steadying the ship and then by the end of the season we were trying to secure a European place. At the start of the next season he had a European campaign and we were as high as third just a couple of weeks before he jumped sheep. McCall again had that ship steadying job to do once again and by the close of the season had a Scottish Cup Final to prepare for. This season we've again been sitting in the top three for much of the campaign. I've always been keen to see our own talent promoted and I agree we've lost it a bit with the transition from youth player to first team player but I can understand to a certain extent that if we're chasing Europe or something like that why a manager might stick with the tried and trusted rather than through in the youngsters. I guess it comes down to finding the balance between short-term and long-term plans.

But it did for the most part allow us to keep possession and force the opposition to have to do more than their fair share of chasing about trying to win the ball back. You could argue that with them having to as press high up the park to try to win the ball for much of the time we were in possession at the back, allied to the fresh legs helped us ease clear of them in the last half an hour.

You're right. He'll be absolutely shitting three Man U defeats in a week #19

Games like this can be something of a no-win situation. You don't get the result or the performance isn't of the standard expected against that level of opposition, and you get slaughtered. You get the win and nobody bats an eyelid because it's expected. I actually thought it was quite a flattering scoreline for and the summing up on the radio was very generous towards us. There can't actually have been much difference in the amount of efforts on goal between the two sides over the 90 minutes and I don't think comfortable would have been my choice of word for the first 15 minutes of the second half when they seemed to camped in our half. But as I say it's a bit of a no win situation so to win 4-0 having mixed the team lines up a bit, without playing anywhere near how you can certainly isn't the worst possible outcome. Some nice goals to enjoy and pleasing to see Ojamaa get off the mark so quickly. Again you have to take into account the opposition but quite refreshing to see a hungry striker keen to get a shot on goal. Hopefully the draw will continue to be kind to us on Monday.

Your thoughts and votes please folks....

Clearly in the minority by the looks of it, but I sort of still view him as one of our own. Local boy with a genuine affinity for the club, up through the ranks, several years good service in the first team, over 150 games for us and always stated he would try to ensure the club received a fee when he went and left on good terms. If Motherwell players are going to move on at some point, then that's pretty much the way I'd like them to go. So for me, it'll be pretty uncomfortable to see him turn out for one of our direct opponents in the league. I hope he rebuilds his confidence and personally does well.....although that said I hope he plays in a team that loses every game they play in between now and the end of the season!