Ya Bezzer!

Well Ali Crawford and Michael McGovern would go straight into any team outside of Celtic in this league. Don't think you could say that about any of our players. I think they have more strength and depth than us in midfield and reckon someone like Darian McKinnon would be ahead of Jack Leitch if they were in our squad. The big Brazilian lad Lucas has looked more solid than any of our defenders over a period.

Kinda missing the point there aren't you. All I'm saying is the small club/big club argument is pointless in terms of actual achievement out on the park. Accies, I'd imagine pay smaller wages than we do, but there are more than a few players at NDP that are, quite frankly, better than players we have. It's all about getting the right players in and then utilising them correctly, not how many sides your stadium has or what your budget is, or how great a tradition you have Hibs supporters might well claim the big club/greater tradition against us but a fine lot of use it's doing them losing to Dumbarton.

Most of what you say is reasonable but I have to take issue with a couple of things. First of all, you say there was no "new manager bounce" but actually we got significantly better after McCall resigned. Under Kenny Black we beat Dundee Utd that was at the time top of the league and were one kick of the ball away from beating Ross County. We then went on and won the first two matches under Baraclough with basically the same team and set up. So I think that the team was performing better in the aftermath of the McCall resignation. The decline under Baraclough starting at Hamilton came after he was in the door and started making his own changes and I wouldn't put it down to a 'continuation' of the form under McCall. Secondly while you are correct to say McCall inherited a much better team than Baraclough did I think it is also worth pointing out that he also lost much better players and had to replace good players with players not in the same bracket. Also it's fair to say that Baraclough has received more backing than any Motherwell manager since probably the post admin Billy Davies days. I was never McCall's biggest fan but I think we was quite severely restricted in his transfer dealings and general budget in the latter half of this spell at the club when we posted several large losses and the clubs finances were in a precarious Pre-Hutchison malaise. In terms of support Baraclough has had everything he's basically wanted and had very few restrictions placed in front of him and yet improvements expected have not yet materialised. You also say you have "zero interest in going to watch a team defined by a short-termist outlook" but I'm afraid while it would be great if football was all about grand designs extending far off into the future, Motherwell FC has no future unless it focuses on the ultimate short term outlook of actually winning on a Saturday. You can have all the plans in the world but if we are relegated or the club goes into a sort of Kilmarnock style results recession/fan alienation then they are all in the vain. I think there could have been improvements and a longer term strategy in some areas such as player contracts but ultimately we have to divide our ambitions between first team results and longer term youth development and club modernisation perhaps skewed 60/40 in favour of the former, and more so when we are in real danger of relegation.

Felt the TV pictures were inconclusive on the penalty and that Moult was probably offside for the disallowed goal.

We aren't "rank rotten" in midfield. Against Dundee Utd it was pretty even with both teams playing the same system, matching up and the general play showed that. Against Aberdeen they dominated, but they had an extra man in midfield and when they went to a four man midfield taking off Flood and putting on a striker we came more into the game. Against Kilmarnock we were fairly comfortable for most of the match but our final ball was poor and the longer the game went on we started to get nervous about defending a 1 goal lead and started getting deeper and deeper, as most teams do in that circustance. Rather than being "rank rotten" I think we are very small margins away from being half decent but so far our final ball, whether its shooting, passing or crossing hasn't been good enough. We need a mobile midfielder that can get up and down the pitch and has an attacking instinct because playing Leitch and Lasley together isn't going to unlock many defences and a more offensive midfielder will help us score more goals but I've not seen teams completely dominate us in the middle of the park.

Explains why I have a sore neck looking up at Accies and their 800 season ticket holders for two seasons.

They were fading away bit towards the end of last season, Rangers game aside.

Kennedy for me. Thomas did well but his final ball was lacking at times.

Bit of a laboured win in the end against a poor Kilmarnock team. Started well in the first 15 - 20 minutes. Chambers, McDonald and Dom Thomas were linking up well and we were getting a lot of joy down that side. However when we scored (didn't see the penalty incident) that good start just seemed to dissipate. All the energy and confidence was sucked out the stadium and the rest of the half was a pretty dull affair with not much happening. Second half was all about poor final ball. Time and again we got into promising situations but McDonald and Dom Thomas needed to improve their final touch. I like Thomas, he's got talent and a great attitude but that part of his game needs to improve. We need to give him game time though so he can because otherwise he did very well. Don't remember Jamie MacDonald having too many saves and while we were the better team and deserved to win it wasn't quite a satisfying result. The fact that we couldn't score in open play against a team of that standard means that we are still in a very precarious position. At the back I thought Kieran Kennedy was excellent and fully deserved his MotM award. Something to build on but we will need to raise the standard if we want to get anything of Ross County.

I came home from work yesterday and went straight to bed so this is the first I've known about us signing ANOTHER striker. Utterly bizarre. You really wonder what he's thinking about because our weaknesses are fairly obvious and it wasn't another striker we needed to bring in. Having said that Theo Robinson might do the business. We really need a win today but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was rapidly losing confidence in Baraclough and if even some of the players feel the same way then we are staring trouble in the face. Think Kilmarnock will have Obadeyi and Slater back from injury, they haven't played yet in the league but Slater started against Berwick and Obadeyi came on as a sub, and they are probably their two most creative and dangerous players. Not ideal from our point of view. Also need to keep an eye on the youngsters Kiltie and Splaine. Always liked the look of Kiltie when I've seen him and Splaine has got some good reviews recently.

Goals conceded so far this season. Certainly seems most of them are coming from the right side .

Most teams in the league play 4-2-3-1 most weeks. And most teams play two attacking wide players (McGinn/Hayes or O'Halloran/Wotherspoon or Spittal/Erskine or Amoo/Lawless or McGowan/Stewart etc. etc.). I've seen us twice this season and the first time we played 4-2-3-1 and everyone complained that McDonald wasn't close enough to the striker. Second time I saw us we played more of a 4-4-2 with McDonald further forward and Aberdeen dominated the midfield with an extra man until they withdrew Willo Flood. I don't really see the formation as a big problem to be honest as long as we play something along the lines of 4-2-3-1 and match up against other teams. Doesn't matter what the formation is if you can't defend or pass, don't make chances or finish and play far too much long ball and that's our problem so far this term. And in terms of personnel I think Johnson and Ainsworth (or Thomas) should be able to be accommodated into the system provided they are in form and doing a job. I also think McDonald can play the behind the striker role. Our weak areas are right back and the position left vacant by Pearson's injury.

Watching the post match interview - Baraclough looks frightened and clueless.

For me you are looking for good young players to go out on the field and make it happen - no excuses. When you get the chance you've got to show what you can do. Look at Dom Thomas, about 80% of the time when he comes on as a sub he turns the game around and transforms the team. Leitch doesn't do that he just sort of melds into the mediocrity.

Neither is our record of scouting and buying from the lower leagues.

I'm not contesting the result. I'm saying you can't compare Hamilton playing away at Raith Rovers to us playing away at East Fife. It's a totally different level of opposition.

By far his best performances last season were the two matches against Rangers. I think ending on a high has skewed some peoples memories of his overall form last term. I do think he has something about him though but he's a long way from the finished article.

Dunfermline have been in great form and are to all extents a Premiership team in terms of attendences and budget. Raith Rovers are also in good form and it was always going to be tricky for Hamilton. Reckon Raith can challenge for a play off place this season. Falkirk are a stronger team than Partick, even if one is in the top division and the other in the division below. BTW would take Peter Grant at Motherwell in a flash. Meanwhile we played East Fife, part timers 3 divisions below us.

Glad we are through but please 2 goals in extra time against part timers isn't anything to brag about after a listless performance .

Well Saturday will certainly be interesting.

Twitter guy says it was "undeserved".

Write a couple more of these and we might win.

You know what that means? Knocked out on penalties.

OMG!

Do we pull straws to see who makes the hilarious/tragic rant video that goes viral?