Ya Bezzer!

He made a couple of decent saves but nothing out of the ordinary. His kicking was garbage at times though.

Erwin burst a gut. And that was all there was.

Looking forward to whatever player they put forward for the pre match interview telling us they believe in the managers ideas. That'll be like a Ricky Gervais cringe comedy.

A horsing, and it looks likely, from Inverness might be the straw that breaks the camels back.

What Scunthorpe players were to blame for his shite record there? 22 defeats from 34 was it? Poor guy really has bad luck with bad dressing rooms.

Maybe he'd cheer up if Mr Wonderful had won any matches this year.

Ah, Gannon. The last time we went for a lower league English clown that talked a good game but was a complete fraud as a football manager.

There always seems to be this passive aggression against the players in your posts and the inkling that there is a divide between the playing staff and the manager.

Ha ha ha ha

Sure the Kenny Black situation hasn't gone down well.

Maybe Lasley wasn't trying because the ball was flying 10 feet over his head the whole match. What's he supposed to do other than invest in a pair of stilts? Fucking woeful hoofball from start to finish. It's 2015. Baraclough seems to be harking back to lower league 1990s football. If you can't pass and move you have no chance. He's brought in Straker who's OPTA stats probably say for pass completions "Fuck All".

Thing I noticed is we don't have a striker on the bench. We really are putting all our eggs in the Sutton basket.

At least this week the line up looks fairly balanced. No innovations there. Flat back four, two wingers, two strikers up front. Assuming we play a 4-4-2 of course...

I am feeling unusually hopeful. Might just be a sub conscious psychological deception to justify going to the match though!

Will be interesting to see who he goes for. I'm going to say Laing - McManus.

From a strictly punter point of view I think Dundee at 2.15 are pretty good value.

4 centre backs available today. Day of Reckoning for Kerr and McManus perhaps?

I'd agree that both those players were probably better than Hammell but neither of them played for Motherwell at 32. Hammell has developed into a very consistent, experienced player but people forget he was a much more exciting and dynamic player in his earlier years. Perhaps if Hammell had left Motherwell in his mid 20's and never come back people would be more likely to argue a case for him.

I accept that the Slane situation wasn't entirely the clubs fault but the point is a wider one. If the three most talented players we have produced in recent years all leave the club, for whatever reason, then there is something badly wrong with the youth set up because not only are we not producing enough talent, the talent we do produce leaves having hardly kicked a ball for us. No one, no on sensible at least, expects a conveyor belt of great talent to come out of a youth system on a regular and consistent basis, that's not how it works, but we must do everything we can to hold on to the boys we bring through that have that little bit extra. You might be right about Paul Slane, maybe he did do it all himself, but you know what I doubt very much if U20 teams are full of mature, intelligent young men with a clear and sensible idea of their career development, none of whom dream of playing for Rangers, Celtic or other bigger clubs than us. That's part of dealing with young players, and it's up to us to put in place a system where our best young players don't want to leave. Perhaps it was unavoidable with Paul Slane but again, the wider point is we can't afford 100% wastage from the three most talented players we have produced in recent years and because of that Dom Thomas should loom large in the managements thinking.

I think when you are older than the players you then become an 'older fan'. I think there are pretty much a generation of post admin Motherwell fans who have had it pretty good and never really known much struggle. Some were better than others but the Malpas season was pretty much our only poor season over that period. The eighties and nineties were a bit different. I'm sure I've mentioned this many times before but when I first started coming I went home happy if we scored a goal rather than anything else. Maybe I should re-adopt that standard!

It's been long enough between games that I'm actually looking forward to this even though I think we'll be lucky to get a point out of it.

Ainsworth was never interested in staying here in the first place. He prevaricated over signing a contract till the last minute. You can be certain he was looking round all summer for a better deal. Then when he did sign a contract it was a 1 year contract. But over and above any other consideration is form. The facts are Dom Thomas has been doing it on and pitch when Ainsworth looks like a ghost player. For me the three best prospects to come through our youth system since McGhee were Paul Slane, Steven Lawless and now Dom Thomas. We can't afford to fuck up the development of a quality player three times in a row.

A fair few goals in his 500+ appearances? You might also say Stevie Hammell has played in more winning Motherwell teams than just about anyone in our post war history.

We can't afford to go into the final straight in poor form. You don't just turn a season of losing round with 5 or 6 matches to go. Doesn't happen like that. 4 points out of the next 9 has to be a bare minimium.

We only have 8 players contracted after the summer. We'd probably run with about a 20 man squad so we'd need to bring in 10 - 12 players. Getting the right guys is going to be crucial in the Premiership, but down a level it would be even more important.