weeyin

He was referring to steelboy who said none of our strikers would score five this season.

Bobby Watson always looks like he's from the 1950s, regardless of when his picture was taken. It must be the hair cut. Jumbo Muir, on the other hand, looks like an extra from The Hills Have Eyes.

Best of the rest?

Paul Tracey was the guy I was desperately trying to think of in the "Never made it" thread. He was supposed to be the next big thing and, from memory, made a few appearances in the first team when he was 16 or 17.

I know. I was just making a useless contribution to the "Fact" debate.

What if Kennedy is a better right back than Law, but more useful to the team in the centre of the defence?

As Ya Bezzer points out, he's hardly inactive in that position. I only mentioned he was irrelevant because Rooney is definitely offside.

Not really complaining, it's not an easy shout for the linesman as it was very tight and he couldn't be in line with the taker and Rooney at the same time. In general, I'm in favour of giving the benefit of the doubt to the attacker, and this time it worked against us. Just pleased we turned in a performance.

He's half a yard off. Not the greatest screenshot ever, but Rooney is 100% offside here, and this is just before the kick is taken. He's moving forward at this point.

Agreed. I watched it on Motherwell FC channel on youtube and stopped the video just as the free kick was taken. He was half a yard offside at that point. Pawlett is irrelevant, Rooney was off.

New manager still trying to get his ideas across, I'm in the "not yet" camp. Obviously ideal if we do win, but at the risk of sounding like a happy clappy, I think McGhee has what it takes to get us away from the relegation battle. And for this season, that is all that matters. I'll gladly settle for a few meaningless games as we approach the split.

Given the overemphasis on speed and power we have in Scottish football, I'm surprised Forbes couldn't find a coach to add a yard or two to his game. I know you can't create natural speed from nowhere, but you look at the training a team like Arsenal does to build their players athletically as well as their ball skills, and you wonder if something like that could have helped him out.

Would it not just be easier for one reader to change their habit than every poster? PC gone mad, I tell ye.

McGhee was right about Aberdeen's goal too. Just watched the highlights and it was at least half a yard offside.

I know what he means though. I remember exactly that Aberdeen formation he was talking about, and it was incredibly effective.

I still think that was due to the expectation of the fans though. If Butcher had produced the same performances after, say, McGhee left the club, he'd have been out after season 1. The whole "we're all in it together" mentality, which was galvanized by Butcher's presence, meant fans were a lot more forgiving (which was a good thing). Suddenly, it wasn't just about playing nice football or winning games - it became about survival as a club and the identity of a town. And none of this is knocking Butcher. My position has always been he was the right man at the right time and I'm glad he was there when he was. I just think he gets an easier ride because of the circumstances. McGhee was slated for the way he left the club, but he was much more up front and honest than Butcher was in that regard. Overall, though, just one more reason to make the most of enjoying our good seasons, because most years are going to be mediocre at best.

Being better than the last 2 seasons isn't exactly setting the bar high. Fans expectations were much lower after coming out of administration, but on pure footballing terms, there was a lot of mince on show.

Aye, he definitley thought a Celtic move was guaranteed. I don't know if it was his agent the misled him or Celtic were messing with him, but the St Mirren move was definitely not a career progression at that time. Great player, though.

He was quite happy, though. Loved his day job and just played football for fun. I remember reading an article about him after he 'retired'. I think he had moved to London as his job, from memory, was working with troubled and underprivilged kids - basically Social Work. He was still playing for his local amateur team and nobody had a clue who he was. So they were always amazed when this overweight Scottish guy turned on his ball skills. Amazing talent. Arguably the most naturally gifted Scottish player I have ever seen. Could curl a 40 yard free kick with no run up and could literally beat defenders without moving. And loved chatting to the fans - mostly in the middle of games.

3 at the back then - that'll confuse them.

Had forgotten about Bernie Grant - also, a good shout.

The curse of the Scottish game. Running about better rewarded than footballing skill. Remembering my post in another thread, John McKeever looked a prospect at one stage. Then there was that season in the First Division when the players were raving about how Paul Mills had a great future if he just kept his head screwed on (which I assume was code for "he needs to screw the nut"). Was never seen again.

The point is a huge section of our fans don't have the patience to let our youngsters develop in the first team with inconsistent performances and inevitable mistakes. I'm all for giving them the opportunity, but I defer to the U20s boss when it comes to assessing readiness.

I don't think he's going backwards - I just think it's unrealistic to expect him to step into the right back slot and solve our problems. He's still pretty raw and inconsistent despite his talent and any decent SPFL winger is likely to take advantage of that.

Did you see Watt's performance in the last U20s game? Amazing goal he scored, but had a bit of nightmare defensively. Crags didn't sound like he thought he was quite ready for the step up.