Ya Bezzer!

Excellent away win. Phew! Watching flashscores from 85 minutes was harrowing.

YES!!!!!!

County fans on P&E say he had a bad day against Cads but has been better since then.

Should be... Cadden, McHugh, Pearson, Frear.

No.

Ojamaa signs for Dundee. Hopefully they get Ojamaa Mk II.

All the goals scored in the final 5 minutes of Premiership league matches. Sadly we are joint top with Hearts. Interesting to see two of our rivals are joint least - Kilmarnock and Inverness. Will need to improve on this in the 2nd half of the season. HEARTS : 6 93 Haber (Dundee) v Hearts 92 McFadden (Motherwell) v Hearts 91 Sinclair (Celtic) v Hearts 87 Draper (Inverness) v Hearts 86 Boyce (Ross County) v Hearts 85 Kane (St. Johnstone) v Hearts MOTHERWELL : 6 91 Miller (Rangers) v Motherwell 90 McGinn (Aberdeen) v Motherwell 90 Rogic (Celtic) v Motherwell 90 Tansey (Inverness) v Motherwell 87 Dembele (Celtic) v Motherwell 87 Hyndman (Rangers) v Motherwell ABERDEEN : 4 91 Erskine (Partick) v Aberdeen 90 Rogic (Celtic) v Aberdeen 88 Schalk (Ross County) v Aberdeen 87 Sinclair (Celtic) v Aberdeen HAMILTON : 4 93 Moult (Motherwell) v Hamilton 93 Polworth (Inverness) v Hamilton 93 Nicholson (Hearts) v Hamilton 86 Paterson (Hearts) v Hamilton ST. JOHNSTONE : 4 92 Christie (Celtic) v St. Johnstone 91 Meekings (Inverness) v St. Johnstone 91 Osman (Partick) v St. Johnstone 87 Paterson (Hearts) v St. Johnstone DUNDEE : 3 92 Forrester (Rangers) v Dundee 89 Johnsen (Hearts) v Dundee 88 McLean (Aberdeen) v Dundee PARTICK THISTLE : 3 95 Burke (Ross County) v Partick Thistle 94 Dodoo (Rangers) v Partick Thistle 90 Watt (Hearts) v Partick RANGERS : 3 94 Considine (Aberdeen) v Rangers 92 Armstrong (Celtic) v Rangers 90 Maddison (Aberdeen) v Rangers ROSS COUNTY : 3 93 Dembele (Celtic) v Ross County 91 Sinclair (Celtic) v Ross County 90 Longstaff (Kilmarnock) v Ross County CELTIC : 2 89 Fisher (Inverness) v Celtic 89 MacLean (St. Johnstone) v Celtic KILMARNOCK : 2 86 Doumbouya (Inverness) v Kilmarnock 85 Rogic (Celtic) v Kilmarnock INVERNESS : 2 89 McLean (Aberdeen) v Inverness 87 McDonald (Motherwell) v Inverness

Ross County are highly inconsistent so its difficult to make any predictions about this one except that we will have to keep an eye on Liam Boyce because he scores most of their goals. To highlight their inconsistency they recently beat Aberdeen at home then followed it up with a 3-1 defeat to Partick Thistle. They haven't managed two home wins on the trot all season so perhaps that is a nice wee omen as their most recent home fixture was a 3-2 win vs Inverness. They have 8 draws in 22 league matches so perhaps a point a piece wouldn't be a huge surprise.

From Jan 2015, Rangers won 8 out of 18 Championship matches including dropping points to Livingston, Cowdenbeath and Alloa. They were put out of the Scottish Cup by Raith Rovers and lost a Challenge Cup Semi Final to Alloa having been 2-0 up with 14 minutes to go. They finished 3rd overall in the Championship and scrapped through to the Play Off Finals winning only 2 of the 4 matches against QoS (2-1, 1-1) and Hibernian (2-0, 0-1). Rangers were an absolute shambles when they played us.

It just comes down to players in the end. St. Johnstone can put out Alston, Wotherspoon, Davidson, Swanson, Paton, Liam Craig and Chris Millar in midfield. Pick any 4 out of the 7 and its better than any midfield we can put out. St. Johnstone have also tended to have a different recruitment approach, generally bringing in proven players at this level - Easton, Foster, Alston, Swanson, Shaughnessy etc, they all played in this league before. Sell on potential is probably not that great but overall they tend to get less garbage.

When you are shopping in the 50p barrel you are going to get dross. Poor quality signings aren't just a McGhee problem, they go back to the McCall era when the cash was cut and we went from quite good to rubbish. Lee Hollis, Paul Lawson, Josh Law, Mark O'Brien, Louis Laing, Tony Straker, Nathan Thomas, Joe Chalmers, Wes Fletcher, David Clarkson, Jake Taylor, Theo Robinson etc. All brought in by managers in the last few seasons who's impact has been nought. Let's be honest about this, We've signed 3 good players in the last three seasons and 2 of them came in when Barraclough got a wee bit of a windfall with Les Hutchison coming in - something that latter era McCall or now McGhee have never had. Our transfer deals over a longer period than just McGhee have been poor and we need to improve in that area but at the same time I think you also have to accept that at the level we are at you will be doing really well to even get a 50% hit rate of decent players.

When was the last time we finished a season above St. Johnstone? The conclusion to draw there is they are better than us. You say we have the best front 2 in the league, well Liam Boyce is the top scorer in the league. Ross County have a chairman who's willing to put money into the team, we aren't in that position. Even so there are only a couple of points between both the teams. As for the rest there is barely anything between between them. Again the conclusion to draw is if you are a provincial team in this league then we are roughly equivalent to where we should be. If we won our game in hand we would go Top 6. A lot of our supporters are having their Brexit/Trump ragin' moment of mass stupidity.

Since 19th of November he had 4 matches playing 26, 28, 37 and 57 minutes. So that's the equivalent of 1 and a half matches in over two months.

Samson.

Yeah it was "baffling". Truly baffling. We've not had a left sided midfielder since Johnson left. Ross MacLean was injured as far as I know and Frear just signed yesterday and has hardly played since November. He could put Ainsworth on this wrong foot or put McMillan who's been playing on the left all season. That was his options. Still baffled?

The problem with these kinds of posts is they just automatically assume that the course of action not taken was better than the course of action taken. In the imagination perhaps Ainsworth comes on, runs their defence ragged and sets up a goal. But equally likely, if not more so, he comes on, looks completely disinterested and leaves a huge channel down the wing for the Rangers full back to romp down. We'll never know what a different course of action would have made but having seen the match I'd suggest Rangers were just much better than us today and it's a bit churlish to suggest some tactical tinkering would have changed that, especially after far and away our best player has been sent off.

Well, I called this a while ago. Lasley is better, even now. That's part of the problem. We have a generation of very good players who are coming to the end of their careers - McManus, Lasley, McDonald, Hammell - and the types of players we are replacing them with are way, way below that level. But like I keep saying, that's the economics of it. If you are shopping at a level where 90% of the players are poor to mediocre, even with good scouting and contacts the likelihood is you're going to end up with poor to mediocrity most of the time. And there isn't a lot of point in screaming at players for not playing at a level of football they literally aren't capable of playing at. We are a bottom 6 level club right now and without our best players we are perhaps even below that. That's just the reality of it. Blaming the manager smacks of desperation to accept reality. If we stay up, McGhee should be getting huge praise, not 'out' chants.

That'll be why they haven't lost to a provincial club this season and the only team to beat them in a home league match in two years has been Celtic. Without McDonald we are struggling against other strugglers, never mind Rangers.

I'm guessing tonight that Ainsworth will be elevated to superstar status.

McGhee has three seasons at the club and our lowest finish is 7th. He's got a decent track record, a lot of experience and has done well in terms of bringing youth players through. Getting rid of the manager does nothing to change the fact that we are running a professional football club on a small budget, that we will only be able to afford mostly mediocre players, that about half the clubs in the league are operating on a completely different financial scale and a bunch of other factors that put us where we are. I don't think a lot of our fans really appreciate what a tremendously difficult job Mark McGhee is doing right now. Maybe when he does leave it will suddenly sink in and we get some new Barraclough type. Remember St. Mirren fans hounding Danny Lennon out because the football wasn't good enough and they ought to be Top 6? They will be playing in a league where the average attendance is a 300 or so next season. Be careful what you wish for.

Key decision was the McDonald red card. Up till then we looked like we had a goal in us and were in the game. I didn't think it was a red but I'll be the first to admit it was on the far side and I didn't get a good look at it so I might be wrong. After that we weren't ever likely to score a goal. McDonald is not only our best player but also is absolutely essential to bringing Moult, our second best player, into the game. So in essence we lost our two best players in one stroke. After that Rangers were utter dominant and deserved their win. The people who think they are 'shite' need to simmer down. They are miles ahead of us and so are most of the city clubs. I keep saying it but a lot of our support needs a big, big reality check. The standard of the league has gone up while the standard of our team has gone down. We are a bottom 6 club these days and screaming at the players or manager doesn't do anything to change that the clubs economics.

When you see goalkeepers at the very highest level punching and parrying then I think you can rest assured that we aren't going to see any Sieb Dykstra's any time soon, It's the goalkeeping convention now.

If they were average they would be in the pack. The game at Ibrox clearly showed they pass the ball far better than we do and have a lot more pace all over the field. Two huge advantages in football. They are beatable though due to their vulnerabilities at the back. They have scored in every game bar two but have only scored 3 once so if we can score we'll at least be in the game and if you are in the game you've always got a chance.

You don't have to come - but if you don't you should at least accept the consequences of not coming. Don't make out like you are doing anyone a favour, even yourself, cos one day you might not have a club to come back to, or at least a much reduced one. What you are doing is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Look at another fan owned club St. Mirren - attendances almost halved in 5 years and now heading to League 1 and with rumours of having to go part time to survive. If that's what you want fine, but don't blame the manager, or even the players, because we have to operate at a lower budget due to a good 20% of our fan base being in a huff. Fan revenue is absolutely crucial now. Like I've said - we are in a new era. You get what you put in. If you don't put in, we are only going one way. So back to the game. It was tremendously disappointing to lose in the last minute to Rangers. But if you were there, or even listening on the radio or watching on TV just think about how it felt when Louis Moult scored that goal? Where else in life do you getting a feeling like that? That's what Motherwell FC is, and that's what's at stake.

First of all it's not about 'entertainment' but even if it was didn't you get anything out of beating Accies 4-2 or Ross County 4-1 or getting an equalizer at Accies in the last minute or taking the lead against Celtic (even if we didn't hold on)? But you know what - when you come through the gates you don't know what you are going to get, it might be garbage, it might be great, it might be mediocre, it's the same world over, whatever the set up is. If you want entertainment go read the review section of the newspaper cos you fundamentally don't understand football or even it's basic appeal. Secondly, good luck changing the entire economic and political structure of Scottish football when we can hardly break 3,000 at home matches. Stay away fans only weaken the club, financially and politically. The club seem to be putting but a fight against Project Bravo but good luck with that if we are in the Championship next season. Facts are it's stand up and be counted time. You don't come, the budget falls and we struggle even more but some of our 'fans' want it all on a plate, like they are owed a successful club. I'm absolutely tired of the general negativity of our fan base. People these days have completely unrealistic expectations and a tenuous grip on reality....but then look at the world we are living in, a bunch of adult babies constantly crying because the whole world isn't personally customised for their needs. Here's the deal - you have no divine right to fantastic football, away wins, home wins, good players, a Scottish football system that you personally agree with, Premiership status or having a club to support. If you can't deal with that then there are some big shocks coming your way.