Ya Bezzer!

Last Motherwell v Ross County attendance : 3,279 Last Ross County v Motherwell attendance : 3,378

Looking forward to the Under 20's final now to get a sneak preview of next seasons senior team!

"With the fans nearly in full control, the onus will very much be on them and the wider community to stand by their club in the weeks, months and years ahead," Hutchison said. "I'll be supporting from afar." Jumped ship in other words.

Especially in a match where we had three players kicked off the park and Dundee Utd could easily have had two players sent off as a bare minimum. If the referee isn't going to protect players it's up to the players to protect themselves.

Our biggest problem is that somewhere along the line Motherwell fan's started thinking mid table was mediocrity.

Apparently Kilmarnock played quite well today while Accies scored with their only shot at goal...

No worse than Anier throwing his arm across Hall's (I think) throat.

I don't see either of those things happening but if I was that good at predicting results I'd be a lot richer than I am! Experience says any team can beat any other team and as we all know it a team can be more nervous protecting a lead than chasing a result. It's the same with points and league placings. I think getting the players to over achieve is a safer strategy than taking the foot off the pedal.

Results and performances. That is all that matters to me. Both have improved immensely and even when we had a bad run of luck, we were miles better than he been. Our season is still in a state of flux, it could go this way or that, but I think McGhee has done a pretty good job.....just remember back to Baraclough's last match at Morton. That's what McGhee had to work with. If nothing else McGhee has brought through two young players that are now automatic first choices, something that's not happened for a long time at Fir Park and something that we desperately need to do. Will be interesting to see what sort of backing McGhee gets in the summer and how our transfer strategy unfolds.

I'd say 4 points will probably do it and 6 points will definitely do it. But as we've seen in the past couple of weeks it only takes a couple of wins to seemingly change the whole outlook and landscape of the season. The bottom 5 all playing each other can radically alter things also and it can get nervy real quick. Like I said last night I think we should be aiming to get the points we need for safety before the split and then we can all have a sigh of relief but I think it would be a mistake to think we are safe right now.

Difficult one as I thought at least half a dozen had a good shout. Going to go for Moult.

I thought tonight was like a match from a bygone age, both teams were wide open from start to finish, the complete antithesis of the modern game. I also thought we showed a lot of bottle tonight, Dundee Utd might be bottom but on tonights display they were far from the worst team we've played this season and looked very dangerous going forward, their pace and movement caused us a bit of bother. Thought we were marginally the better team when Utd scored but they had definately been sharper in the final third. After that we looked a bit rattled and I was really sitting waiting for Utd's 2nd, it looked like it was coming. Luckily Ripley had a decent match on a night that was always going to be difficult for goalkeepers. Slowly got back into the match and scored just in the nick of time before the 45 half was up. Second half I felt we dominated for most of the half and we actually played some really slick stuff at times and is was especially impressive in that we have three players basically kicked off the park and had to make changes at times when ideally we wouldn't have made them. Dom Thomas coming on for Lasley helped set up the second goal, caused problems down his side of the pitch and also got behind the ball and put a foot in. Got a bit nervous in the latter stages as Utd pumped long balls into the box and used their height and strength advantage but we held out relatively comfortably. Hard to pick a man of the match as I thought five or six guys could have got it. Hall and Cadden were excellent, McDonald and Moult did the work of two men each, Ripley had a good game between the sticks, Johnson, who I thought was rubbish in the first half, had a blinder in the second, all the subs came on and did well also. Good stuff, entertaining match, if a little bit frightening at times, and a good atmosphere. Two more wins will guarantee top level football but we should be aiming to finish Top 6. We might not manage it but I think that should be the aim. We have some tough matches coming up but we can take points of any of those teams if we perform to the level we are capable off and we should be confident enough to try and get those 6 points we need from the next 3 matches.

Another former Manchester United star who turned out for The Steelmen.

Before tonights game Cadden's league appearances are split right down the middle 8 starts, 8 sub appearances. All his starts have come this season while he had 6 sub appearances previous to this season.

Only European Player of the Year to wear a 'Well shirt? Sorry about low quality scans, maybe try and get better ones later on.

Or was it the referee that bottled it?

You might also say the Randolph season was the Craig Brown season when we are talking about goals conceded! We had the same sort of arguments about Stephen Craigan when he was turning out for us. I think Craigan was a much better Motherwell player than McManus is but as you say who do people expect to bring in and be much better than McManus? An Andrew Davies? A Stuart Findlay? A Tam Scobbie? A Danny Seaborne? That's the level of player we'd be attracting. I thought McManus had a so so first season, a terrible second season and has been reasonably consistent this term. When I look at the team and think "How can this team be strengthened" I'm looking at goalkeeper (Ripley has been our best goalkeeper since Randolph but he is still inexperienced and of course on loan), right back (perhaps Laing can fix that problem) and maybe a wide player and central midfielder as competition and back up. I'm not really looking at the centre backs right now.

1 defeat in their last 16 league games. Went on a 1 defeat in 21 run last season and were top of the league in January. Don't see how you can say they both lack bottle and are only slightly better than average. Remember Celtic still have about 4 or 5 times the resources of even an Aberdeen. For Aberdeen to run them close for two seasons in a row is a major achievement....even if they don't win the league.

Our record at home to United (like Partick away) is absolutely catastrophic. However we did win at NDP on Saturday so maybe now is the time to win on our own patch against United. I reckon we are three wins from guaranteed safety, (might only need two) so if we could win this one, and it is winnable, that would be a big, big step. As others have said a win also puts us Top Six, regardless of other matches in midweek, so if we can get into the top half that puts a wee bit pressure on the teams below us with games in hand, as we'll have the points in the bag.

One of Craigan's first games for us was a midweek match against Rangers. All our experienced centre backs were injured and he played alongside another youngster, Denham I think. The feeling was a mauling was on the cards but the game finished 0-0. I remember that one cos I skipped work to go to that game.

Will it be a day time kick off? 27th is mid week I think.

It's Sunday afternoon, when better for some spurious stats! I took each teams form since Jan 1st and projected it over the remaining games. If you did that, this is how the league would finish. Celtic-------------85 pts Aberdeen-------82 pts Hearts-----------74 pts Dundee---------52 pts Ross County---49 pts Partick Thistle--48 pts -------------------------------- Motherwell------45 pts Inverness-------44 pts St.Johnstone---42 pts Kilmarnock------37 pts ---------------------------------- Hamilton---------37 pts ---------------------------------- Dundee United-33 pts Goal difference would put Accies in the play off spot.

Now effectively 8 points clear of second bottom but only 1 point off Top Six. I hope we start looking up now instead of down. And I knew we'd win because I wasn't there for the first time in years!

Not sure Craigan ever played alongside Martin. Our centre backs at that time were McCart, Krivokapic, Philliben, van der Gaag. For any of the kids out there Kevin Christie was some player. The lanky white Tony Straker of his day. 90% of the time when the ball came to him it was akin to throwing a ping pong ball at a frightened kitten but occasionally he pull off a sort of Brazil 1970 skill that would take your breath away. Also remember that Kevin Christie co-existed with Stevie Woods and Eddie May. Some back line. Aye, the football in those days put hair on your chest.

We need some old school tactics for this one. Minute 1, put the boot into Imrie and Crawford. No messing about and take the booking like a man. If Psycho is still hanging around give him a start. Otherwise we are looking at you Louis Laing, Stephen McManus. McManus especially since one of the great embarrassments in my Motherwell supporting history was the bullying Imrie gave him in the 0-5 match.