Andy_P

Your thoughts and votes please....

You can indeed. But I'd counter that by saying its retained its popularity because of who wore it and what was achieved wearing it rather than for its design. And besides what happened to that shirt the very next season......they stuck a band on it!!

First class as ever. Always look forward to seeing your photos after games against ICT.

Yip, hence the post. No amount of raking over coals is going to change the views held by those who held contrasting views. We've all debated it do death so for me its best to focus on where we are now, especially as we're doing no too bad.

Gannon left me uneasy when he was here no doubt but I don't really see the need or trawl up everything that happens now with a player to what happened under Gannon. Happy enough to enjoy where we are now - that we've a solid and reliable partnership that includes Lasley in the midfield, that we've a terrific prospect benefiting from working alongside Craigan in defence and we've got a potential sensational left hand side combination that includes Hammell. It's Stuart McCall's Motherwell Army!!

First of the new campaign. Over to you for your thoughts and votes....

Ahh the wide eyed excitement and optimism of the opening day of the season. And its sunny too, as it should be on opening day!! First of all pleased that we've got a Saturday 3pm game and its at home too. I've always found that opening day buzz is diluted a little if you have to wait to the Sunday to start or worse still if you are unlucky enough to git with that Monday night gig. So what a good opportunity to be at home and have what should be a winnable game. ICT will as ever be no mugs but we're going into this one with a good pre-season behind us and a team that on its day is packed with creativity. Lets hope today is our day then!! Mon the 'Well!!

Different and nice. But my immediate first impression was how nice that would have looked if it was simply white with the claret and amber flashes.

It's actually quite a tricky thing to vote for to be honest. If any newly issued 'Well kit has the claret band/hoop set against an amber jersey then really that's the main thing for me. Whether we have amber, claret or white shorts, a roundneck, V or foldover collar and whatever flashes and shadow designs happen to the trend of the day dictate I'm fairly relaxed about that. If pushed I'd probably select B as it was so visibly pleasing on the eye at the weekend but as I say follow the above and I'll go with it.

Not really to be honest. It's generally been the done thing for many a year to have an 'XI' in games against junior or non-league sides. In fact if you go back to the heady days if the 44 game Premier League campaign in the 80's and early 90's you'd have two Motherwell 'XI's' playing on the same night - now that was a dilemma as to what game you went to!

I think it will be but thinking back to the AGM earlier in the year and what they were aiming for wasn't solely about making money. Fully understandable that the focus has been on the operating fund they hope to build, since there hasn't been anything much else in the way of statements of intent and strategies to be followed thus far, but they talked was to grow the club throughout the community. If it was just about trying to rustle up a rainy day fund then a bog standard share issue would probably have been the way they might have gone but supporters' involvement I got the impression was just one tier of ownership/partnership alongside other investors, sponsors, private companies and local government bodies. It's seems a hugely ambitious plan and whether we have the means to pull it off to the level the club hope remains to be seen but I don't think its just going to begin and end with making up the rainy day fund that most speak of.

Welcome to the board div1309. No news yet as to where you'll be housed, I'm guessing that'll more likely be on one of your forums or your official before ours. I'd imagine they'll try to get an indication from ICTFC about how many are likely to be in attendance before deciding whether its worth opening the South Stand or not.

Yeah, last season's away top with the Provan Sports Logo on it and yes from memory Lasley was number four, albeit they were wearing old school numbers 1-11 rather than squad numbers.

I quite enjoyed that, albeit it ended in a defeat. Much to be encouraged about there I think. A lot of good, incisive passing and bags of creativity in the team currently. If we can just nail the finishing a wee bit then we have the potential to out gun most of the rank and file in the SPL this season. Law and Murphy continue to impress hugely and I think Stevie Hammell looks to be benefiting from playing alongside them and thriving on it too. Thought we were a bit unlucky to not have got at least a draw from today given the chances created. We held our own for long spells too, apart from perhaps a twenty minute spell in the second half where we looked quite ropey and were conceding corners every couple of minutes. Highlight was the lovely goal Murphy put away and hopefully we'll get a chance to see it again on SSN sometime over the course of the weekend. A lot to be positive about going into the new campaign.

A bit of clever thinking whoever came up with the idea of wearing them today. I'm sure seeing the team sport them in the flesh rather than just on a website or a hurried look in the shop won't do the sales any harm and I'm certain that at least one or two of them will find themselves on to the club's ebay items sooner or later too thus generating more income. And ofcourse there's the nod to the 125th anniversary celebrations.

For anyone not there but seeing a 1-0 Motherwell win with Craigan scoring the winner in his own testimonial think it reeks of a "set up" but ofcourse it wasn't actually the case. Didn't look that comfortable at all getting co-erced into taking the penalty did he? But he finished it well. For the first 15-20 minutes we looked like we could run riot but it just seemed like all of a sudden it seemed to stop which was a wee bit of a disappointment having started so brightly. Ofcourse we still had near complete control of the game, loads of possession and were still carving out the odd opportunity here and there so hardly a disaster by any manner of means. Perhaps says it all that Randolph had his first save to make with three minutes left. It could well be that, assuming all are fit and available, that will be our starting eleven for Inverness so I would expect much the same on Saturday team wise. Will be interesting to see how we deal with the step up in quality. But all in all nice to honour Craggs, another win, and another step in the preparation towards the opening day so not a bad night at all.

To be fair what you've been told ties in with what I was also told yesterday (further up the thread). In this in case I'm not overly anxious just yet. If you are still concerned and haven't got anything by Saturday why not take in your mandate from your bank as proof of your purcahse and payments thus far and see if they can sort it out.

Early days ofcourse but I might have thought that if Devlin was in any way in contention for the first team squad he might have been involved in the Morton or Dumbarton games no?

Having checked the mandate as I instructed I gave the Ticket Office another call today. Again they were helpful and offered reassurance that all would be well. Having expressed my concern about the 3rd installment only due to come off after the Inverness game I was advised that the issue had been acknowledged and as long as two payments had come off, the season tickets would be issued in the next few days. I was told they are still printing and processing and sending books out on a daily basis.

Some added significance for me this one now. My mate, who's an Airdrie fan, will be joining a former work colleague and Leeds fan in the South Stand on Saturday. He'd lap up the opportunity to see us take a pumelling in the flesh so thereafore a win and good performance would be even more welcome than usual!

I suppose in the mirth about his numerous oggies there is a question about how this game is going to shape up. I'm assuming that seeing as he's still playing - and arguably now playing for his place - it's going to be a serious friendly (if you can have such a thing) with no 45 minutes each team, scoring own goals for fun tomfoolery is it?

Wee bit from the Dumbarton official might be of interest on the beer front....

Funnily enough I just queried the whereabouts of mine earlier having learned my mate has had his for some weeks now. Elaine in the Ticket Office advised that books are still being printed and sent out. They were hopeful that all would be out or ready for collection by the Leeds game. She did however, that those who had bought through the Standing Order method weren't being printed up until the 3rd payment had cleared. This concerns me slightly as I'm sure I've only had two payments out thus far and the 3rd isn't due until after the Inverness game so I'll need to double check the mandate at home tonight. She seemed pretty confident it would all be sorted out though if need be.

Sounds a bit tongue in cheek but at the same time it reads a bit like you are completely discounting the youths coming through. Half our first team's starting XI next season in Saunders, Hammell, Hutchinson, Craigan, Lasley and Murphy have come through the ranks. They all needed an opportunity somewhere along the line and so to do the dozen or so guys that will be the backup to the first team. It remains to be seen how many can stay the course but I actually as well as a testament to the club's scouting and youth development set up think it's a positive that the bulk of our squad have come from within the club's ranks and would be delighted if that continued to be the case in the future. The club will ofcourse will always be hoping for a McFadden style player to come through and earn them big bucks in a transfer but the contributions of guys like Craigan, Hammell and Lasley all giving around a decade's worth of service is not to be understated either. Home grown works for me!

I can see why you would want to compare them but Murphy set against Goodwillie isn't quite an exact like for like comparison. For me Goodwillie is much more a clinical striker than Murph whereas Jamie is a more rounded forward capable of creativity as well as chipping in with his fare share. Repuation wise I think an out and out striker usually gets the more acclaim, whether that's fair or not. EDIT: Beat me to it Sieb!!