Ya Bezzer!

Don't agree with this. McDonald and Ainsworth didn't start and when they came on they were the catalyst for our best spell of play. McDonald hasn't been in good form but I don't think you could doubt his effort, doesn't hide like some players. Ainsworth has been far from the poorest player in the team. On the other hand contrast Johnson's performance last night and against Rangers. Same with McManus.

Well I guess the point is to give a more specific picture of a 9 month period. Bar a short period of form numbering a few weeks around March time where he won a good portion of his overall wins, the Baraclough era was fairly abject and bookended by two very poor runs.

His league win percentage was 30%, 9 wins in 30 matches. 3 of those 9 wins came in a three week period against three struggling teams (St. Mirren, Kilmarnock, Hamilton). Take that period out of the equation and it was down to a 22% win ratio. Since the 5-0 win against St.Mirren he had only managed 3 wins in 14 in the league (21%). In those 14 games we only scored more than 1 goal once, and kept only 3 clean sheets. Perhaps more importantly was this overall league loss percentage was 53% due to a small number of drawn matches, (57% loss percentage in last 14).

I'm having my dinner just now. You'll need to wait!

When we are as bad as we've been there is no risk in getting rid of a manager. The only way is up or to continue the current trajectory. The more resources Baraclough got, the more players he brought in, the worse we got. He was a liability. Anyone watching that team in the last few weeks should have known that it was absolutely bereft of even the most basic level of semi competent management. Sacking Baraclough was the easiest decision any Motherwell board has had to make. No good previous track record like McCall. No offsetting a lack of support and resources. No playing well but not getting the result. Just rank rubbish and Championship football waiting in the wings. Anyone could see that. Taking up any kind of contrary position can only be due to complete ignorance or utter stupidity. No one is under any illusions that the next manager has a tough job but it will be just a little bit easier for every week we might have hung in there with Baraclough, when really he was already finished.

We need someone with a track record in team building and youth development. The whole "contacts in League 2" is a dead end. We need to produce our own players, not become a dock for the flotsom and jetsom of the English lower leagues. Organisation, motivation, a game plan. Someone with a bit of an aura. A guy players can respect. We need to get back to basics and build from there.

The only decision that could be made. There was no where else to go. I'm afraid Baraclough was badly caught out as nothing more than a patter merchant without out any leadership ability, tactical thinking and a long hard streak of self delusion. In short, one of the worst managers in our history. After 9 months in charge we are further back than we were when McCall left. Whoever takes over will have a very difficult job due to 15 months of poor morale and terrible results, as well as a poor squad of players with huge holes in vital positions due to negligence by a manager who was found to be quite simply out of his depth.

If Baraclough is still in charge the future of the club is at stake, I'd rather lose one or two games in exchange for a new start, than scrap by and allow this current situation to continue. Sometimes you have to cut off a leg to save the patient. Show some long term thinking. Hopefully he gets the bullet today.

We should be so lucky. How often do you go to games hoping to lose? If Baraclough is still there, and he probably will be, I'll be supporting Partick. This guy has to go for the long term future of the club, hell, the medium length future of the club.

The standard of player brought in by Baraclough is dreadful. Blame senior pros all you want but you need 11 players in a team. Taylor would be bad enough but there was another 3 or 4 Baraclough signings last night that were absolutely howling. Marvin Johnson looked like an alien from a different planet who was being introduced to football for the first time. And barring Kieran Kennedy that team last night was full of utter shite bags that won't take a bruise for the team.

Just the bit in bold makes him 100% better than anyone that played last night. Especially Robinson who looks like he feels sorry for himself that once he graced the English Championship and is now 'playing' at Cappielow on a Tuesday night. When Morton scored their first goal, his body just sort of flopped and he did a little prayer with his hands. What was he praying for? A move in January to Shrewsbury? An equaliser? A new manager? The suffering to end?

I think everyone ought to know Lasley is our best available midfielder, McDonald is best available forward, Ainsworth is our best available winger. Those three weren't in the team and should have been. If McDonald and Ainsworth hadn't come on it wouldn't even have got to ET although maybe that wouldn't have been a bad thing.

He specifically said it was an aim to do well in the cup this season, so what the fuck was that line up all about? We should have all our best players out there. We all know who they are. Rumours of several fall outs behind the scenes - did that influence the team line up?

By tomorrow, Hutchinson. Baraclough out!

Home. Truly dismal performance. In the first half we were outrageously bad. I mean it wasn't even juniors level football we were playing it was literally pub team stuff. No movement, no running, no touch, no passing, no pace. And what was even more worrying, a look of total disinterest in even making any effort to win the match. It was a cup game! Baraclough is finished not because of the fans, but because he picked a team tonight, a team that should never have been picked, but a team none the less, and not one of those players tried a leg for him. Every one of them wanted to be somewhere else. Absolutely shocking performances from the likes of Robinson, Johnson, Chalmers and Taylor. What's the common link there? All brought in by Baraclough and all dreadful. Ross Forbes made Grimshaw, Taylor and Leitch look 3rd rate. I was never a vociferous critic of Forbes like some people here but he can pass a ball unlike any of our guys. And anyone that thinks we can do without Hammell, Lasley etc got a rude awaking tonight. I left at 90 minutes due to having to get trains home and therefore missed ET but even if we had turned it round Baraclough would still have had to go. We are dire. Worse than last year.

Had to leave at FT but that was an absolutely dismal performance. Morton should have been 4-0 up at half time. Hope Morton win. Spent a days wages to watch that shit.

I'm not saying they weren't good results, especially under the circumstances of the play off. What I'm saying is that in people's minds we beat the old Rangers 3-1 and 3-0. Not an utterly useless mob that was failing to beat bottom of the table Livingston multiple times, had been put out of cup competitions by Raith Rovers and Alloa and was generally dysfunctional. Beating Rangers boosted Baraclough's reputation more than it would have been done if we'd beaten, say, Dumbarton or Raith Rovers, but the reputation Rangers carried into the game was total poppycock, and as a football side they were at best a middling Championship team by the time we played them and at worst no better than teams at the very bottom of that league. Really people ought to be making the connection between players that day giving their best performances for the club, while totally failing week after week at a higher level. It's because Rangers were just a bad team and their results against other teams confirm that.

From November Rangers won 9 out of 23 matches at Championship level. They were closer to being a 3rd tier side than being a 1st tier side. I said from the very beginning I wanted them in the play off final because they were the only team we were going to beat. Too many people think those results were better than they were and didn't stop to think why we were in the play offs in the first place. As far as I am concerned what is holding the Baraclough reign up is the scaffold of those results but if you actually look at those results they weren't that good. Queen of the South had beaten Rangers 3-0 a few weeks before and Livingston and Alloa Athletic both got results against Rangers twice each. Baraclough should be judged on his Premiership level league record and I'm afraid it's pretty dismal.

Was the stand even half full? Contrast with Baraclough's first match at NDP when we filled the stand and the gazebo. Says everything about his time in charge. Said it before and I'll say it again - fans don't call for your head any more, they just stop going to matches.

They don't make much of a difference to a good team but they can make a hell of a difference to average or poor teams.

Also have only scored more than 1 goal in a league match once in the last 14 matches.

What games does Baraclough go to because I want to watch those matches instead.

Away league record under Baraclough P15 W3 D0 L12. 12 out of 15!

Well wasn't exactly enthused about the prospect of this game and wasn't going to go but in the end I did - but I saw exactly what I thought I would. I wonder how many hours of football we could have played today without scoring? Accies well worth their win and they had what looked like to me a perfectly good goal chopped off in the first half. Also hit the bar and forced saves out of our keeper. Us? I think we made maybe two chances in the game. When Accies scored there was only going to be one winner. Football should be a simple game but we sure make it complicated sometimes. Pass and move. We haven't mastered doing both and in some cases can't even do one or the other. Turgid, weary, hopeless performance from players that don't believe in themselves, the team or their manager. The huge gaps in the away end told you what the supporters think. Although no one gave a vintage performance today I thought our three best players were Lasley, Robinson and Ainsworth. All three were subbed by Baraclough so I have no idea who I'm going to give my MotM award to. For me it's a big week for Baraclough - fail to win against either Morton or Partick and his time is up. We are staring another dismal season in the face right now, with relegation a distinct possibility.

As for being 'on budget' this season it's obviously a speculate to accumulate type cash injection. This seasons budget is not actually sustainable over a longer period and has risks attached. Like Fergus McCann, Hutchinson will walk away with all his money and more at the end of the day. Whether the club is better off remains to be seen but we are going to have to improve a hell of a lot on the pitch for that to become any kind of possible reality.