Ya Bezzer!

Hearts are very strong at home. I did say this would be our hardest match of the season and its certainly turning out that way.

2-0 now. Hope it doesn't get embarrassing. Never fancied us in this match, midfield not strong enough without Lasley and Grimshaw.

Hammell right back, Law in midfield, according to radio.

McGhee saying the shape won't change.

Hearts have only lost twice at home in the league in the last season and a half (28 matches in total), once last season to Falkirk and once this season to Aberdeen. Going to be a very tough match, especially with the personnel changes but fingers crossed we can get something out of it. On form at least getting something from Tynecastle is going to be a better result than the recent win over Celtic at Celtic Park.

Maybe my eyesight is going but I don't see Ross MacLean on there.

As has been said Inverness more than deserved the points last time we played, they performed pretty impressively, certainly our most comphrensive home defeat of the season and perhaps as a whole but I will leave that up to those that traveled to Ross County. Inverness have also only lost 4 out of the last 15 league matches so they are obviously no push overs and would be further up the league if they hadn't had a very poor 5 or 6 matches at the beginning of the season. On the other hand you could, I think with some confidence, say that over the last 6 or 7 weeks we've been the best team in the country. Unbeaten, scoring goals, defeated Celtic away and should have given them a right cuffing with some better finishing. What we need to do is keep our current form going so it's as good when the next round comes along as it is now and then let Inverness worry about us.

Chalmers was poor but who wasn't under Baraclough? The only difference with other players was you knew they had past performances in the bank and you could give them some leeway. You've got to give the guy a chance under the new management but Hammell has improved the side considerably. Louis Laing seems very much like a Baraclough signing now. Probably 4th choice centre back and I bet he's on decent dosh. We'll see how much substance there is to the 'he's a midfielder' chat' next week, with Lasley and possibly Grimshaw missing. Also Scott Leitch hasn't figured at all since Baraclough went, perhaps he has an injury, I'm not sure, but if not you have to wonder if he has a future at Motherwell. And with Taylor also returning we are actually a bit short in midfield. Will we bring someone in before the weekend? I suspect it will be a priority.

El Bakhtaoui looks a good player.

Went for Pearson.

Easy win in 2nd gear. Cove were blown out of the water within a few minutes. Spells in the game when our concentration was lacking but the result was never in doubt and I'm sure we could have gone up a few levels at any point in the game if we'd needed to. Fair play to Cove supporters, brought down a decent support.

Glasgow 0 feet, Motherwell 250 feet, Newarthill 500 feet, Shotts 700 feet. That's your basic elevation guide!

Doesn't Scobbie mainly play in the centre these days, anyway?

Just get the orange ball out and tell the polis to get tae!

If you look at both players Louis Moult had a nailed on goal scoring pedigree before he turned up at Fir Park, something Fletcher doesn't have. Fletcher seems like more of a punt to me.

For me Moult is probably the only sell-able asset we have at the moment and only if he continues his form of the first half of the season in the second. Johnson has talent but has yet to show consistency. BTW a certain Nick Blackman joined Derby for £2.5 million today.

I'm of the opinion that you play your strongest team ever week and only make changes if you have to. Wouldn't like too see wholesale changes. I think it sends a message out to players that "this game isn't as important".

When people say this I'm never really sure what they mean. What do you expect from the 'experience'?

Could probably rule out the two that can't get a game.

These have been easy recently - Scott McDonald.

Being bullied doesn't necessarily mean being fouled. It just means a team is more physical and winning the 50/50s. And yeah, the referees have been shite for the last few games. I still can't get over Crawford Allan watching a player pick up the ball that clearly hadn't crossed the line and giving a throw in!

Probably deserved to win, feels like a loss but ultimately we have lost the lead twice at home to a team that wasn't in great form before today. First half we started strongly and deservedly took the lead but after the goal we seemed to grow a little too confident, as if the game was already won at 1-0. Accies scored a goal from a set piece and suddenly found a lot of confidence from coming back. After that they started to boss us in midfield in a way that has been unfortunately a bit familiar to us in recent times. We got the ideal start to the 2nd half and should have scored before Moult put us back in the lead. As the game came to an end we started doing what we always seem to do and sit back deeper and deeper with the inevitable result. Accies started bullying us in midfield again, pushed the play into our half and started causing us problems. It was frustrating to see as we should have made them pay on the counter attack a few times and every time we took the wrong option or just tried to waste time. I am very against time wasting as I think it makes players concentration go and that was evident to see. We looked shaky for most of the final minutes and Accies went close before the got the penalty. I didn't see anything but going by the reaction of the players it looks like maybe we don't have much to complain about. Today we were good in patches but it also showed that or confidence level can be a little too high at times and also drop off, all in the same game. We need to concentrate and try as much as possible to get a consistency to our performances and remember that although we are much improved you won't get results unless you keep the work rate and concentration going for 90 minutes.

I'd imagine Ayr Utd would want Craig Moore back.

Expires 4th January.

This. Last years New Years match was maybe an all time low for me and I'm now into my 4th decade of supporting Motherwell! Really looking forward to this one, and Cove Rangers match to be fair.