weeyin

I'll be surprised if we hammer anybody this season. Be happy with 3 points - don't care about style of win.

Any updates on overseas members being able to use the website to renew/ugprade?

The renewal question is a good one to bring up on here. Initially, it turned out, the renewal fee was being used to cover the cost of the benefits being doled out. Not a great deal for the non-locals and expats, but at least their money was being channeled into the Society. From memory, I think that was changed, but don't recall the details as I wasn't using any of the benefits. Either way, if you don't "renew" you don't actually lose your membership or your right to vote. Be good to hear what the current official position is on this, as it was always a little confusing.

I think some confirmation bias is at play here. Of course we had our troubles in the goalkeeping department last season, but keepers are just like every other player on the park - they will make mistakes. Skippy should have hit the target early on in the ICT game, but he screwed up his shot. That was a mistake that could have cost us a goal, but it gets forgotten (rightly so) in the grand scheme of things. In that same game, Long's save at the feet of the striker just before half time probably helped us go on and win the game. The bigger difference this season is that we still aren't scoring many goals. So if we lose one to a mistake, we aren't doing enough at the other end to make up for it. I guarantee if we start knocking in 2 or 3 goals a game, this focus on the keeper will be much less intense and critical.

Half of those guys were "flung in" to a team cruising along in the First Division - not quite the same circumstances. Likewise, Butcher played guys because they were the only guys he had in the squad. Right now it's a difficult balance, because we still have a fighting chance to stay up, so the boss has to be careful. Any youngster is likely to go out and be mince on any given day. I agree with Busta, however, that 5 mins isn't enough - much better to give a guy 20 minutes or so at least. Although, to be fair, Bara is much more flexible with his subs than McCall ever was. As for modern day football bollocks, you could argue McFadden's career never hit the heights his talent deserved because of his injury issues - some of which may be due to playing him too much when he was a teenager.

I can't even upgrade my membership because the payment processor they use only accepts UK bank accounts.

Aye, that's true enough. I'm not sure what the cut off is, but 14 is a bit young. The entire transfer / development fee system has been a mess since Bosman.

Same here. I have received Well Society emails in the past, but did not receive the Feb 24th one.

Maybe, but post-Bosman, it is a rule that partially protects the smaller teams who put time, effort (and money) into developing a kid who is later poached by one of the big teams. If they aren't getting transfer fees for senior players, then it's better than nothing.

Like our recent record against ICT, our record against Aberdeen has been pretty good in recent years. Hoping that will play on both sets of players' minds and sets us up for at least a draw.

Deleting "Herald" cookies also resets your free article count.

Dog racing fans that got their dates mixed up?

4 (randomly scheduled for TV) extra games in June won't stop us going extinct. We need a league sponsor, less live games on TV, more predictable kick off times, more equitable split of revenue between clubs, bigger league, play each other twice only, winter break and cheaper gate prices. Summer football elsewhere has shown it has no positive affect on attendances.

We also struggled to sell on Randolph. We virtually put up a For Sale sign when he had a year to go and we couldn't find a buyer. Very promising that we are giving longer term contracts to these guys though. If we can sell them on, we get a better deal, and if we don't sell them on we get another 3 years of their contributions. Good work all round.

So clubs are going to have to invest in a few weeks training abroad every season? How does that work for East Stirling or Livingston? Or do they not matter. If you don't want poor pitches in the winter, a winter break would help that. We typically start playing in July and run through until May. So June is the only extra slot on the summer calendar. It will no doubt be warmer then, but not necessarily drier. So if we do 'summer' football we will play from say March - December. Pre-season training then friendlies in mid Feb etc. For me, a bigger league, play each other twice and a winter break makes more sense.

Summer football is an easy fix if you don't look at the leagues that tried it. They didn't increase attendances. So, if that is the aim, there isn't anything to suggest it would work. Pre-season would be fun too given it would be happening around now. If we struggle to find facilities to keep players ticking over Jan/Feb imagine how difficult it would be to get a full preseason in during the height of winter. Unless your team makes it into Europe, in which case you'd be playing in the winter too. And June is pretty much the only summer month without games, so we wouldn't be adding much to the schedule. Especially World Cup and Euro years when you need to shut down for 4 or 5 weeks. Winter break has always made more sense to me.

Islam Feruz - signed for Chelsea after coming through the Celtic youth system and currently on loan with Blackpool. Although he played at Scotland youth level too, rumour is he knocked back more recent call ups and possibly looking to play for a different nation at senior level.

Don't worry. He's still only as clueless as you thought he was yesterday.

It is going to be a dogfight, but if we can pick up 3 points in the next game, it might just make some of our rivals a bit more nervous.

I was lucky enough to watch the Skippy Sunday game on a Celtic TV stream. The commentary went from celebratory to concerned after Skippy's first goal. After the 2nd goal the commentary went dead for the rest of the broadcast. Good times.

Breakfast with the Dossers - ye can't beat it.

On the plus side, it prepared me for the heartbreak to come at a young age.

Graham and Pettigrew for me. When I was kid I thought Wullie P was just how strikers played. You often look back and realize nostalgia has made you overestimate the quality of some players, but I'm always happy to see that these guys still live up to their reputation. Graham only kept out of a great Liverpool team by Ian St. John (who was smart enough to bring him to Fir Park), and Wullie P with a burst of speed over 10 yards that left agricultural defenders (on agricultural pitches) in his wake.

One of these days someone will be able to explain to me what is so upsetting about a guy kissing the badge on the shirt of the team he is playing for. I still don't get it. I remember the fairly in depth interview Skippy gave on Radio Scotland (I think it was Tam's show) a few years ago, and he had nothing but good words to say about Motherwell and how much he enjoyed his time at Fir Park.

I'm old enough to know who that is (and his fish and chip diet).