Ya Bezzer!

With Moult and McDonald you could say the same about us, therefore it should be a few goals in this one, therefore it will end 0-0.

Strange because I thought Aberdeen were closing in on Stuart Bannigan at Partick.

Pssst, don't tell anyone but Paul Paton will join Motherwell from Dundee Utd before the start of next week. Heard from a friend of his that used to play with him at Partick Thistle and now works in my office. Nah, just made this up. Thought we needed a good rumour.

Problem is we will never be able to replace Hammell and Lasley with the same level of quality. That standard of player isn't available to us through any other means than youth development. That's why they have been around for so long, and by the way, are still two of our best players and will be two of the first players on the team sheet ever week if they are fit.

Even at his best you rarely get any more than 60 - 65 minutes out of him. Serious stamina issues with that boy.

McDonald by a distance.

Just one of those games when it wouldn't go in. Thought we started very poorly, in fact the whole place was very flat. Ross County were certainly the better team at that stage and their goal wasn't really a surprise. Neither was the fact that it came from a poorly defended corner. About 25 - 30 minutes in we actually started to play and from that point on we were the dominent team. Not sure how many chances we missed but on another day we could have score 4, 5, 6. Second half I thought we played very well, except for that final touch. County were obviously playing to hit us on the break and to be fair they had a couple of chances before they got the second. Even after we scored we were very unlucky not to get an equalizer, Fox pulled off a great save from Lasley and did well to stop McFadden as well. Overall, I felt the performance was pretty decent but or slow start allowed County to get a hold on the game. Hammell going off injured might be a major problem though, hopefully its nothing serious.

If we play the same back 4 today and win or keep a clean sheet will there be 12 pages of apologies on here? I actually don't think we should play the same back 4 but look at the bigger picture, some of the criticism over this has been way over the top, especially on the back of an unbeaten run and a big improvement in the quality of football and a big increase in goals scored. The thing with McGhee is there are too many people with old agendas simmering on the backburner. For god sake, let it go.

In our entire history we have sold 10 players for north of £400,000.

The club needs money now though. We've had big loses and there is probably poor cash flow at this stage in the season. Can you put your hand on your heart and say Marvin Johnson is worth £400,000? It's a big gamble to turn down that amount of money on a player who even his most fervent fan would have to say has been inconsistent. If he drops out the team or doesn't kick on while his contract runs down, he loses value. Someone mentioned Ali Crawford and there is a case in point. He was superb last season but hasn't played at that level this season - would you pay more or less for him now or last season? £400,000 seems more than a fair price to me and would represent significant income for the club. Could you get more in the future? Possibly but on what we've seen I think the odds would be against you.

4 in 11 I think.

If we could cut out giving away penalties that'd be 33% of the goals conceeded.

He didn't change a settled defence because he wanted to, he changed it because he had to make changes. He tried something, it didn't work, move on. We have very, very few options outside our strongest XI and he was damned if he didn't, and damned if he did, going to maybe the hardest ground in the country to get a result. Do you think we'd be sitting here with 3 points if Louis Laing had played in midfield or if Jack Leitch had replaced Grimshaw. I'm going to speculate we would still have got a drubbing, making those simple mistakes, showing that attitude and playing against a good team in what is to all extends and purposes a fortress for them. As for 100% blame, its never anyone to blame 100%. We put out eleven players today who we are all paying for and they got absolutely steamrollered. The players need to put up their hands over this as well. Hardly McGhee's fault we gave away two penalties, couldn't win headers in the box etc. Just please do me a favour and think back a couple of months.

How can you say when a team loses 6-0 that the blame is 100% at the managers door? About three months ago everyone on here was saying we had a squad full of players that weren't good enough. That is still the case. The reason our results have turned around is because of the manager, not despite him.

It's all very well having a go at the team selection but this is a game we could easily have lost with our first XI out. The big problem here, as has been apparent for a while, is that without the leadership and quality of Lasley and Hammell we are a pretty ordinary team. Did anyone really think we were going to go to Tynecastle and get a sniff in midfield without Lasley? If so, you must watch a different Motherwell team to me.

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.