Ya Bezzer!

I think it has it's place for things that aren't worth starting a new thread for or for live updating/discussion during matches and that sort of thing. I never really use the internet on my phone so any problems associated with that don't affect me.

Excuse me! All my own work. My end of season Excel sheet is going to blow your mind! If it's impressed by football stats that is. ha ha.

I would agree that it is good research (ha!) but disagree that it is worrying. To be honest I'd be happy to go into the split ahead of St. Mirren and 1 point behind Ross County. Obviously it would be better if we could stretch away from them but with 5 games to go and Ross County are our place it could be a lot worse. As long as we are within 1 win of 10th it's still in our own hands.

Based purely on the last five results between the clubs at the stadium at which the fixture is played. All form/results for Motherwell/Partick/Ross County/St Mirren. When relegation rivals play each other form is for the home team. ROUND 30 Motherwell v Hamilton - 0-4, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0 (L-W-L-W-W) Prediction - 1-0 win for Motherwell. Partick v Inverness- 1-2, 3-1, 0-0, 0-1, 2-1 (L-W-D-L-W) Prediction - 1-1 draw Ross County v Kilmarnock - 1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 0-1, 0-0 (L-W-L-L-D) Prediction - 2-1 win for Kilmarnock. St. Johnstone v St. Mirren - 2-1, 0-2, 0-1, 1-2, 1-0 (W-L-L-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for St Johnstone. Motherwell 3pts, Partick 1pt, Ross County 0 pts, St Mirren 0 pts. 09 - Partick--------------30/2/31 10 - Ross County-----30/-24/25 11 - Motherwell---------30/-31/25 12 - St Mirren-----------30/-26/21 ------------------------------------------------------- ROUND 31 St Mirren v Celtic - 1-2, 0-4,1-1, 1-2, 3-2 (L-L-D-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for Celtic Aberdeen v Partick Thistle - 0-2, 0-4, 0-0, 1-2, 1-2 (L-L-D-L-L) Prediction - 3-1 win for Aberdeen Dundee Utd v Ross County - 1-2, 0-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0 (L-L-D-D-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Kilmarnock v Motherwell - 0-2, 2-0, 0-2, 2-1, 0-2 (L-W-L-W-L) Prediction - 2-1 win for Kilmarnock Ross County 1 pt, Partick 0 pts, Motherwell 0 pts, St Mirren 0 pts. 09 - Partick-------------31/0/31 10 - Ross County----31/-24/26 11 - Motherwell--------31/-32/25 12 - St Mirren----------31/-27/21 -------------------------------------------------- ROUND 32 Motherwell v St Mirren - 1-0, 3-0, 2-2, 1-1, 1-1 (W-W-D-D-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Ross County v St Johnstone - 1-2, 1-0, 1-0, 1-2, 2-2 (L-W-W-L-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Celtic v Partick - 0-1, 0-6, 0-1, 1-3, 0-4 (L-L-L-L-L) Prediction - 3-0 win for Celtic Motherwell 1 pts, St Mirren 1 pt, Ross County 1 pts, Partick 0 pts 09 - Partick-------------32/-3/31 10 - Ross County----32/-24/27 11 - Motherwell-------32/-32/26 12 - St Mirren---------32/-27/22 --------------------------------------- ROUND 33 Partick v Motherwell - 3-1, 1-5, 1-0, 3-0, 2-0 (W-L-W-W-W) Prediction - 3-1 win for Partick St Mirren v Ross County - 2-2, 1-0, 2-1, 1-4, 5-4 (D-W-W-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for St Mirren Partick 3 pts, St Mirren 3 pts, Motherwell 0 pts, Ross County 0 pts 09 - Partick------------33/-1/34 10 - Ross County---33/-25/27 11 - Motherwell-------33/-34/26 12 - St Mirren---------33/-26/25 So at least going by previous results it is going to be very tight between the bottom three going into the split.

This has been one of the worst season I can remember to follow Motherwell but I'll tell you something, I am right up for this game. I actually have a job interview on Friday as well, so it's potentially a very good or very bad day!

We've maybe not had a severe winter but I bet the number of days with lying snow was a lot more than average. At the end of the day we are sitting at 55 degrees N lattitude, it's hardly been out of single digit temperatures for months, there is hardly any sunlight and on top of that we have one of the highest grounds in the country. Grass just doesn't grow in those conditions. The miracle is that there is any grass on the pitch at all and if you go back and look at your old videos you'll see how much better the pitch is now than it would have been in years gone by. There were a few ropy patches on the pitch but really it's mid March - what do you expect? I'm also of the opinion that professional footballers should be able to perform in a range of conditions and not just on perfect pitches, so I don't really have a problem with the pitch, as long as the surface is relatively level (albeit with a slant!)

We need to forget about Partick Thistle. They have the points in the bag. They have 10 points on us and probably only need another 6 to be confident of being safe. They might have the top three coming up but we very nearly took three points at Pittodrie and two of our rare wins have been against Inverness and Dundee Utd. In fact Partick only lost 1-0 to Aberdeen last time and have beaten Inverness twice this season. It means nothing. I've said it before but Partick can lose 7 out of 9 and still be safe. If they got 3 points before the split they are home and hosed. Our trip to Firhill is going to be a very tricky one but even if we win it it's hard to see Partick going into complete melt down and not picking up the points required else where. They aren't even in bad form at the moment and they have beaten St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd in the last couple of weeks and have managed to pull results out of the bag when needed, a 4-0 win against Inverness, a 5-0 win against Hamilton. What we need to do is match or better Ross County, beat them at Fir Park and at the very worst we go into the last match with everything to play for and at best, might even be safe if Ross County drop points else where.

Steven Fletcher was playing at the top level in Scotland at 17 though. Lee Erwin is no kid, it's his 21st birthday the day before the Accies match. We blood players far too late and hinder their development. If you look at the players we've brought through and who have gone on that have gone on and done something most of them were playing at 17-18 years old in the first team.

They aren't lacking in stature in the back four though - Canning, Hendrie, Garcia Tena and Devlin all over 6 feet. I'd still have Sutton back though.

We need to win this one and we will win it and we'll win it handsomely with Scott McDonald scoring more than one.

Where is he? Yesterday he was picking the ball out the net three times at Peterhead in the illustrious capacity of Brechin's No.1

They might lose ground but that will be (probably!) all. I'd be amazed if 37 points didn't keep them up. That's 2 wins from 9. They can lose 7 out of 9 as long as they get those 6 points. Realistically we need to match or better Ross County's results up until we play them post split and then win that match, and then do the same after. At the very worst that takes it up to the last day. What we can't do is let Ross County get 5 (effectively 6) points ahead. Then it becomes pretty difficult for us and the odds of survival get quite a bit longer.

Does anyone really believe all this stuff about Marshall recruiting the goalkeepers. Goalkeeper is arguably the most important position on the field. No manager worth his salt is going to put out a team where the most important player on the pitch wasn't ultimately his choice.

Thomas Cerny sitting on the bench at Hibs as well, but Oxley is only on loan so he might be 1st choice next season.

1. I said before the game I felt we had to pick up something from the match. Later this afternoon the league table could look very different. 2. We were 1-0 up and we blew it in catastrophic style, not a morale booster. Neither will be going bottom of the league today if St. Mirren do the business or Ross County pulling away. 3. Again we were 1-0 up and blew it. Their defensive record had nothing to do with the defeat. 4. People were talking about Long's goalkeeping last week with justification. 5. Partick Thistle could be potentially safe before the split if they win their home matches. If they win today they go 9 points ahead with a huge goal difference and then play us at Firhill after a match we absolutely must win the week previous against St. Mirren. There is not a single person here that wouldn't take Partick's position over our own. Really Partick just have to take something from the 2 home matches coming and then win at home against us to be fairly confident of being safe.

It's difficult to protect the goalkeeper when he's not in the 18 yard box. The truth is if you can get away with murder if you are goalkeeper who is a bit taller. The mistakes last night were as bad, if not worse, than Twardzik's against Dundee when Twardzik was absolutely slaughtered. And Long's mistakes were certainly more crucial to the defeat and potentially more disasterous for our season. The facts are that Long has made as many bad mistakes now as Twardzik in a third of the games. I don't think it's a good idea to keep chopping and changing the goalkeeper but Long situation is like that of the team, he's getting close to the last chance saloon. He/we cannot afford any more mistakes.

Are you aware that it's March? We've 9 matches left and we probably have to win 5 of them to avoid a play off at the very least.

If Accies can beat Ross County or even get a draw we still have a chance to over take Ross County but unfortunately our terrible goal difference could really hurt us now because basically all our rivals are points +1 ahead of us. For instance if County win tomorrow they are essentially 6 rather than 5 points ahead of us and I doubt if we are going to make up that many points on a team in decent form. If County win tomorrow, I think our best chance of finishing higher than 11th is drawing Partick into it by beating them at Firhill. Before that we will need to beat St. Mirren. In the meantime Partick have two home matches so we will have to at least match their results when we play Hamilton and Kilmarnock. We just simply cannot afford any more slip ups barring post split miracles.

I genuinely want to see his pass completion stats. Must be something like 10%!

Unfortunately I think tonight is going to be highly significant in our eventual fate. Tonight was very much like the St. Johnstone match earlier in the season where we did well to get ahead at a tricky venue and then just imploded and made terrible, terrible individual errors. We desperately need our near neighbours to do us a big favour tomorrow or we are getting very close to the last chance saloon. If County win tomorrow then we simply have to beat both St.Mirren and Partick before the split to have any chance of finishing outside the bottom 2 in my opinion.

Goalkeeper to blame for both. Defender did the right thing heading it back except the goalkeeper wasn't even in the 18 yard box!

It's a strange thing but even though we have seen a big improvement over the last couple of weeks and as you say most of us would have been happy with 4points, results elsewhere have not gone for us and we are in probably a worse position now than we were a couple of weeks ago in terms of avoiding the bottom 2 spots. There is still a lot of football to be played of course but I think if you are looking at our situation in any kind of impartial way it's looking less and less likely that we can finish ahead of Ross County. Not only are they in better form than us, on paper at least, they have the easiest run in of all the teams. Partick Thistle could still be dragged into things but they have (realistically) 7 points on us, have two home matches coming up and entertain us at Firhill before the split. I reckon Partick only need 9 points to be more or less guarenteed safety, so taking that on board we are probably going to have to go there and win. Next week is going to be a big week. Both Ross County and Partick have winnable games (St. Mirren also) while we have a tough one at Aberdeen. I don't think we can afford to come away from that one with nothing but time will tell.

I think it's very difficult to sell English players back to English clubs. The reason these guys ended up at Motherwell was they weren't deemed good enough in England to play at a certain level - the level with the transfer cash - and it's going to take a lot of convincing to get English clubs to buy them back. Our main focus should be on developing our own players or bringing players on from the lower Scottish divisions and that's where we have failed badly in the last ten years or so. Who is our most successful sale over that time? Probably Jamie Murphy who has never played higher than League 1 down south. Livingston, Dundee Utd, Hamilton, they have all produced very good players that have gone on to play at the top level of the English game. If you can get a reputation for producing players like McArthur, McCarthy, Robertson, Snodgrass etc, especially more than one, then clubs are seriously going to look at your home grown players but at the end of the day it comes down to producing quality players that can play at the top level and we just haven't been doing that. There is a good argument for saying Airdrie have brought through more good young players than we have over the past 6 or 7 years and when you consider they have struggled badly over that time with just a few hundred supports that shows just how badly we've got it wrong.

I can't remember the last time I saw as much blatant diving but to be fair it wasn't just Kilmarnock that was doing it. You'd have to point the finger at Marvin Johnson and Scott McDonald as well. There was one where Johnson did about 5 'sausage rolls' across the pitch that was especially ridiculous. Maybe it was all down to having an especially weak referee - Beaton vies with Willie Collum as the worst in top flight Scottish football.

The best I've seen of Josh Law today. Mentions for Keith Lasley and Marvin Johnson