Ya Bezzer!

The Drearies will have to wait until next week to complain relentlessly because this week we played well, scored a great goal and went Top 6. I gave my opinion of the first half earlier but in summary it was an excellent performance where we could easily scored 3, 4, 5 goals. Second half was a little bit strange, Partick threw everything at us to try and get back into the game and we defended deeper and as a result the game became very stretched, it was like the last 10 minutes of the 90 from 45 minutes in. We had a couple of good chances earlier in the second half and Tait and Cadden were both unlucky not to put the points in the bag. McDonald, who was absolutely immense today, should have been greedier rather than trying to pass to Cadden and he'd probably have scored as well. Otherwise though it was about seeing out the lead. Thought we defended well throughout and I think McMillan acquitted himself well again. Ferguson had a couple of hairy moments when he got turned but overall stood up to Azeez quit well in the physical battle.

Did you get a free feather boa as well?

Only half time but an excellent and convincing performance so far - could easily be 4 5 6 up. Partick have been a shambles at the back but we've defended well up till now and pressed the ball high up the park. Might be of interest to a few pre match doom merchants that Lasley has be excellent today and the team shape has worked well. Only half time though an other 45 minutes of hard work required.

Won't Ferguson play left back, McMillan move up and Cadden play on the right? Samson Tait Heneghan McManus Ferguson Cadden Clay Lasley McMillan Moult McDonald No wonder the traffic is down on the site, the resident Drearies out already making even looking at this site an utterly depressing experience. *** WE COULD GO TOP 6 TODAY **

According to Skybet Motherwell 2.90 Partick 2.40 Don't normally beat on us but I'm tempted.....

Laing wasn't worth a place in the team at a time when we are letting goals in left, right and centre. If that's not a failure I don't know what is. Truth is Heneghan, Kennedy and Hall all showed much more than Laing who was on the end of quite a few public humiliations. Therefore I say "See you later chump."

It's poor. It's not an "absolute disaster" when a win could put us Top 6. Get some perspective. As for 'performances that went before' we've beaten Ross County 4-1 and Accies 4-2, in our last 4 home matches. Cheer the fuck up.

Dom Thomas should have been getting an extended run in the team years ago, instead he's been left to wither on the vine. If you add up the 31 fragments of game time he's had it doesn't amount too much and he's not been exposed early enough or long enough to first team football. Does he have a future? I don't know but I'll say this. Probably the best young player we've developed in recent times was Jamie Murphy. Jamie Murphy took probably about three seasons to settle into first team football, in the beginning it wasn't even certain what his position would be - midfielder? winger? striker? What Jamie Murphy got though was a chance starting with sub appearances that gradually transitioned into starts over an extended period until a time when he became an automatic pick. However, we had to develop him into a player, he didn't hit the ground running, like say, Chris Cadden has. For me Dom Thomas has not been given that same opportunity to develop at first team level over an extended period. For a few years we seemed to completely lose focus on youth development. McGhee, who brought through the last batch of really good players (Reynolds, Hutchison, Murphy), seems to be doing something similar again. Unfortunately for Dom Thomas his crucial development years might have come a bit too early.

Jack McMillan has impressed me since he came in. He'll make mistakes of course but I think he looks a promising player. It was a bit unfair I felt to put the other two on at that stage in the game. Dundee were on the top of their game and throwing on two young players weakened us and put them in a difficult position. So I don't think it's really fair to judge either player on yesterday's performance but Dom Thomas was looking to get into the game, certainly didn't hide but I don't think he had one good touch in the match. Very frustrating day for him. MacLean was similar to the other matches in which I've seen him. He didn't really get involved in the play and it seemed to pass him by. But the main thing was that we completely lost our team shape with those two substitutions and until it went to 2-0 we were a bit of a shambles over all. At 2-0 Dundee probably took their foot off the gas a bit and we came more into it again but I felt it was a poor choice in substitutions. Lasley was perhaps not fit and had to be replaced but I felt although Ainsworth didn't have a good game he could have stayed on.

Outplayed and outfought after the thin margins had gone against us. If you were at the game yesterday you should know we were actually doing pretty well, playing decent football and looked like we were good for a least a point if not three. The fact that our goal was a cross is completely irrelevant. It should have been 1-0 Motherwell and if that had been the case the way the teams were playing it looked more likely we would have gone on and scored again. Players didn't go in the huff, we had several good chances just after that incident. What happened yesterday is the better team in the first half had a good goal disallowed and then conceded from an individual error right on half time. Those are game changers. Dundee should be 1-0 down they go in at half time 1-0 up. Their tails are up, ours are down. As for playing Hammell and Lasley being a disaster, it obviously wasn't as we were well on top in the game. Hammell obviously wasn't considered to be half fit or he wouldn't have played and with Lasley there was no one else to play with Lucas and McHugh out injured. In fact we were much worse when McGhee put the young lads on and took Lasley off, the team completely lost its shape.

As the league table shows there is very little between any of the teams operating in the same wage bracket. Right now we are as many points from the Top 6 as we are bottom place. We were well on top yesterday when Beaton didn't give that goal, if it had been given I'm sure we would have gone on and probably won the match. Games will be decided on very thin margins and yesterday one of those margins was outside our control.

Have a few Morton fan friends and they are raving about Forbes. He was also miles ahead of anyone in our team when they gubbed us last season. Although to be fair the midfield we put out that night was Thomas, Taylor, Leitch, Grimshaw.

Samson pulled off three or four good saves.

Today we could easily won today if we didn't have absolute whallopers as officials. We were much the better team in the first half and we lost a goal at the worst possible time right before HT. Second half wasn't good enough but most teams, not just us fold at 1-0. It's almost coached into players these days because of the emphasise put on getting the first goal.

Very poor 2nd half performance. First goal is so important so when we score it it would be nice if the ref or linesman were paying attention. We actually played some decent stuff in the first half but Dundee scored against the run of play in about 44 minutes. Poor mistake from McDonald giving the ball away. 2nd half Dundee were transformed and we looked sorry for ourselves. Substitutions were poor, expecting two kids to turn the game was hopeful, afterwards we seemed to have no shape or game plan. Clay was anonymous yet again, only looks good when the team is firing on all cylinders. Forward players didn't click today - Cadden, McDonald, Moult, don't think Ainsworth should have been taken off though.

Beaton strikes again absolute joke of a referee. Could clearly see the keeper holding the ball against the net behind the post. Been much the better team, Dundee didn't deserve the goal. Haven't created too many clear cut chances though need to be a bit sharper in the final third.

Obviously I wasn't at the Hamilton - Dundee match but it looks like our performance was a lot more impressive than Dundee's, who won, but maybe not in any style. Even there goal came about from the striker missing the ball, the keeper diving the wrong way and the ball trickling into the net. Our record up there isn't bad, W3 D1 L2 this decade although those wins were a few years ago when we had a much better team but it was only a controversial late penalty that denied us last time. As always making sure we get the first goal will be huge as the crowd is bound to turn.

What is this forum like? Now Lucas is some kind of super player that will rescue the season! We need him to do it more than once but he did well today. Hopefully he will but he still has a lot to prove. The main thing though was we worked hard and look like we were playing to a game plan. Early in the match Ross County were actually better than us, we kept giving the ball away and we really need to work on our ball retention. However the first goal gave us confidence and took it away from County. I was actually talking to a Hearts supporter earlier in the week and he was saying how so often the first goal decides a match. Teams just seem to fold at 1-0 these days and that certainly happened today. We did much better today but you also have to temper that a bit with the fact that Ross County were probably the worst side we've played this season. We have Dundee and Partick coming up and it's important that we keep improving and get at least another 4 points before the tougher matches come round because the league is very, very tight in the bottom half and teams are pulling off results that are unexpected.

Team changes made a big difference. Lucas did well and McDonald and Ainsworth gave us a lot more attacking options, pace and movement. Heneghan improved immensely from Wednesday and McMillan has settled right in at left back and deserves credit. A word of caution though, I thought Ross County were very poor. Can we perform like that against a better team? Still a big boost for our confidence and hopefully we can go to Dundee next week and get at least a point.

That's a valid question. I'm absolutely convinced there is something going on, perhaps a deal with an agent, that means we basically we get Lucas for nothing or next to nothing. Otherwise I don't understand why we have signed him twice and not used him. Bowman had a good record at the same level as Moult and that's obviously why we brought him in. Any transfer is a risk and its not worked out so far but may do in the future, bit early to judge but he's not had a great start, then again we haven't created a lot and nothing has really fallen for him either. Blyth and Belic. We've signed far too many crocks over the last two or three seasons.

Serious question - when did Brill last play in a top level match? I'm not hugely enamored with Samson myself but McGhee will know what condition Brill is in better than us. BTW the answer was once since the 24th of January 2015 over which time he's had two serious knee injuries. So basically our goalkeeping saviour has been out for 21 months with a crocked knee.

McGhee has a pretty good track record as a Motherwell manager. Do you want to list all the other Motherwell's who's lowest league position in a season was 7th? It'll be a short list. Comparing McGhee to Baraclough based on a spell of bad form is, well let's just say misguided. It's obvious our costs are being slashed as the club has to survive on its own generated revenue at the same time as player wages are constantly rising, meaning the quality of player we are attracting is plummeting. And this is speculation on my part, based though on various comments that have come out of the club, but I believe that McGhee has not even been given a proper player budget, rather drip feed small amounts of cash to build the squad throughout the transfer window. Financially we are down to the bone. That means that managing Motherwell is going to be a tough, tough task for anyone in the foreseeable future. Clubs like Dunfermline and Falkirk (by nearly 1,500 so far) get higher average home attendances than us in the Championship than we do in the Premiership. As long as huffy fans stay away the clubs hands are tied. With 3,000 supporters coming to matches we are operating at what is close to the bare minimum for a professional club at this level. Look at St. Mirren, it could easily be us in a couple of seasons so let's try and do everythng we can as fans, to make sure that doesn't happen. Be as positive as possible and help the club, instead of throwing toys out the pram, staying away, slating the players and manager etc.

Ross County have scored 2 goals in 8 matches. We have conceded 2 goals in 4 of our last 5 matches. Fucked if I know what is going to happen. We need to change the system and personnel though. Need something new, would bring in Brill for Samson, even though Samson didn't do much wrong tonight. It would give fans and perhaps the team a wee boost. McDonald has to start. Bowman drops out. Clay and Lasley can't play together. Clay to drop out. And we need to find a left sided midfielder from somewhere. Oh and McManus needs a kick up the arse. He's supposed to help the young guy next to him, not scare the shit out of him and destroy his confidence by being a complete train wreck.

We were abysmal. But it wasn't as someone put it "a new low". I could make a pretty long list of matches even worse than tonight.

Our squad management has been poor. We have signed far too many players that have offered nothing within a very small squad. This season - the Louis Laing situation, signing Craig Moore and then immediately loaning him out again, Jacob Blyth, Dom Thomas not being used, the insoluable mystery of Lee Lucas, Luka Belic, remember him? Kieran Kennedy's not kicked a ball all season, and of course Carl McHugh injuring himself with a ridiculous challenge that he might well have been sent off for in different circumstances. That's 8 players from a very small and limited squad that we have or are paying this season have have contributed nothing. We just can't afford to not have a fully functional squad.