one m in motherwell

Frear needs an intensive pre-season behind him, and to be played in the right position, before we can judge him fairly. Stamina at the moment is an issue but the bare bones of something is there...

Faddy starting for the U20s...primed for a recall on Sat?!?

Who plays RB in the U20s? Going to a more traditional 442 would be my preference but don't think Cadden would be suited there. Notwithstanding that he's been off the boil for so long, I'd throw Ainsworth and Frear in to try and give us some genuine attacking threat down each side. We seem to fare better when we try and pin teams back from kick off and the current formation just doesn't give us scope to do that at the moment. Bowman hasn't offered much, so Skippy and Moult stay upfront. In the centre, I'd probably keep Campbell and Lasley but it's really much of a muchness between those two, Pearo and Clay (if Pearo's fit). More worryingly on Sat was the lack of attacking options we had to bring off the bench...definitely a case for Hastie and Turnbull and to play a part depending on how we're doing. I'm not confident but we shall see...

On paper I didn't actually think that team looked too bad. One thing that the first half showed was how unbalanced it actually was - Frear got forward pretty well in the first 30 mins but Dundee soon clocked onto the fact that he was our only outball and compensated accordingly. Cadden has been poor for weeks and sat far too deep all day to the extent that we had no threat on the right hand side. Ainsworth should have been on at half time, although the heads collectively went down after their second goal and we never really recovered. The high ball pish was a joke and its telling that both of our goals came from keeping it on the deck. The basic errors that crept in were ridiculous, and the sight of five players sitting in a line across the back waiting for Dundee to attack them (and subsequently letting them score) was laughable.

We'll still fuck it up.

Cringeworthy performance today. Heads went down after Samson's howler and didn't recover, not helped by a chronic inability to hit passes that weren't two yards behind the man, Skippy and Hammell's worst performances in ages, and a return to godawful route one hit-and-hope stuff. These next few weeks will be agonising.

Were we not in for him years ago, perhaps before he went to St Johnstone? Wouldn't be a bad should at all, always been a solid stopper.

Chris Maguire (unless he's been debunked). Ross Wallace?

Aye, and stop calling him 'Tom' Wright too.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Coyle, in all honesty. He's trod a reasonably similar path to McGhee in recent years and could be looking for an opportunity to kickstart his career after a few years without much success in England. For some reason I could see the board seeing him as an attractive option, but who knows what kind of expectations he would have. I daresay we wouldn't be what he's after and could just as easily see him at somewhere like Aberdeen if/when McInnes eventually goes. The next appointment is a huge one. McGhee has a vast amount of experience and a pretty good pedigree, and whilst he's ticked one box in terms of bringing young players through, his reliance on the old guard for far too long (as well as a pretty shocking transfer success rate) has left us in quite a sorry state. I'd hope/assume that this will be the last season we are relying on Lasley et al and it's therefore vitally important that we have someone who can perhaps work a bit of magic in the transfer market. On that line of thinking, someone like van der Gaag may be a shrewd appointment - whether the board have the confidence to punt McGhee in the first place is one major hurdle however. I can't help but think that the board are somehow in awe of the illustrious shovel-faced egomaniac.

Shitest protest I've ever seen. (And I say that hoping he walks)

Unless he won't be sitting on the bench...

Marvin never struck me as the brightest tool in the box - with an agent whispering in his ear for presumably a number of months, Craggs' comments are no surprise. I still want to know the full story about Nathan Thomas...

The biggest culprit there of recent years is probably Jake Taylor - played far too many times despite appearing to have little or no footballing ability whatsoever. Did Calum Elliot not actually play a fair bit when he was here?

All joking aside, the transfer request is a strange turn of events. We've made no secret of the fact he's available for transfer if the right offer comes in - the only thing might be that we've turned down a bid from someone he wants to move to?

Glorious return for step over!

So McHugh plus a completely hypothetical additional player? Right you are.

I'd imagine his short term deal runs out at the end of the transfer window (or shortly before). You would think we'd have clarified his position well in advance of that though.

Smart arse taxi drivers are worse than ISIS.

Imagine getting this worked up about the relative profitability of the taxi trade. Dearie me.

Watching the highlights I was really encouraged by some of the passing play we had, particularly during that first spell in the first half. The end product still needs a bit of work, but as far as I can tell there was a real effort to spray passes about and for our forward three to interlink - no doubt the usual long ball shite will set in by mid November but nice to look at for a wee while anyway...

Oh I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if that came to pass. Our support has some right weirdos in it.

And give him a dictionary while you're at it.

...for now. CMWellfan will be beelin' at the the missed opportunity to put another boot in though.

The seethe on here when be goes for £400k will be a thing of beauty.