weeyin

Makes sense, but Alison at the Well Society will be able to give the definitive answers to these questions. At the risk of repeating the contact info: wellsociety@motherwellfc.co.uk 01698 338006 Always found her to be very helpful.

Likewise. I thought the 50 quid was going towards administration fees for the fund or similar. That's not unusual for the management of things like this. Even if I wanted to make use of the offers, I couldn't, so it was 50 quid I could have kept in my pocket.

Last interview I read, which was a few months ago, he was desperately looking for a club to play for. The problem was, he had no idea when (or if) his injuries would allow that.

Intersting "Free Agent XI" from The Guardian today. If McCall is still looking for a Hollis replacement, Craig Gordon still available (although not necessarily fit).

What result had you predicted beforehand?

Hampden. Airdrie semi-final replay. First taste of despair as a young 'Well fan.

Like I have said in other threads, it's a testament to our club that our rivals have had to push the boat out financially to try and match our success over the past few seasons. We can't be the best of the rest every year, but the fact we are still well in the mix after such a big change in personnel is quite an achievement.

One that springs to mind is a trip to Kircaldy (which I normally enjoyed) in the old 1st division - 1979/80 I think. We were a bit up and down that season and Raith Rovers stuffed us 5 - 2.

The Scottish media are the worst culprits. The English overhype their game to a ridiculous degree, but ours seems to revel in cynicism and misery. Guys like Lionel Ainsworth are doing a better job of talking it up.

It won't cost a position or two in the league any more than, say, our strikers missing chances in a game. The difference, however is that if a striker screws up the score stays the same and people tend to forget about it. However, they play on confidence as much as a keeper does.

That's the same Langfield that made a name (Clangfield) for himself with his howlers when he took that spot? Amazing what happens if you show a bit of faith in a guy.

I only know one, and he is from Inverurie - which is fair enough.

Two things all SPFL backup keepers have to contend with that work against them. 1) Obviously, as a backup you aren't playing with your team mates every week, so the understanding isn't there to the same extent as first choice keeper. 2) With the current lack of reserve teams, you get zero competitive games and cannot possibly be match fit without a run in the first team. I don't know what Neilsen's longest run of consecutive games is, but it can't more than a small handful. Not to say that we haven't a signed a player that just isn't going to work out (it happens), but when you are an outfield player like a Porter, Higdon or a McManus, you get a couple of months to settle in without the same pressure when you make mistakes. But while he is our starter, he needs a bit of support.

Willie Miller said that when he was playing that tackle wouldn't even have been a booking - that's good enough for me.

Given the stature of our defence, there is really no need for that though. In all the years I watched Jim Leighton play, he barely came out of his 6 yard box, and never came to claim a corner. Yet that was one of the most difficult defences to play against I have ever seen, because guys like Big Eck and Rougvie took care of the cross balls and let Leighton concentrate on the shot stopping. There is no excuse for guys like McManus and Hutch not to do the same.

To be fair, neither had Ruddy. Goalkeeping is a strange one, especially for a club like us. Most of the time, if we bring in a keeper, it's going to be some other team's backup. Nothing wrong with that, as there are many more keepers than starting slots, but it's always going to be a bit more of a gamble. The biggest irony in this situation is all the experts we have in our fan base who wanted Neilsen in immediatey to replace Hollis and are now screaming for him to to be replaced.

There's no doubt that Motherwell have set the bar for the 'best of the rest' in the last few seasons and with their comparatively large resources, Dundee Utd, Aberdeen (and even Hibs), have been spending money we can only dream of to try and overtake us. It's testament to the club that even after losing some key players and another drop in our budget, we are still in the mix at the right end of the table. A draw was probably about a fair result yesterday, if a bit of a sickener. I was watcing it "as live" on Alba yesterday and, Motherwell being Motherwell, when I saw Kerr going off, I thought to myself "I bet Aberdeen score in injury time now".

"Especially a popular one"? So that means you are more likely to boo a popular ex-player than an unpopular ex-player?

So why not boo all the Aberdeen players?

Always found it a little strange. It's like if one of your workmates leaves to join a another firm and when you meet him down the pub you start booing in his face.

Not to bad here. I can watch a couple of EPL games and then sit down with my lunch to watch ours on Alba. Aye, no argument there. That's the downside - and you can't fast forward even though it's a recording!

England? They aren't stupid enough to invite them in. They want to be Irish, let them go and play in the Irish league. And if they take their obnoxious brother with them, even better.

To be fair, a successful New Firm will attract a lot more viewers than Motherwell/Accies is likely to draw. It was a relief when those 2 were winning leagues instead of the Old Firm, and if it happened again I wouldn't be too disappointed (apart from it not being us, of course).

Agree with both points. If we are looking for a long term replacement, let's take our time. I'm sure there are plenty of options out there and we can point to Ruddy and Randolph as examples of career development.

Couple of years before I started following the 'Well, but a lot of familiar faces who were still playing during my early days. Think I had all of them in my football card collection too.