Ya Bezzer!

To be fair I think nearly every player in the team slows things down. They all want an extra touch, they all want to pick a pass, when good football is played instinctively. Because no one wants to make THE mistake they are all playing it safe and as a result we don't create anything because the play is too slow. Lasley is certainly guilty of that but I think so is most of the rest of the team. Your other two points - definitely. Maybe it's worth noting that our last really poor season was the Malpas season when Hammell was down at Southend. Coincidence?

"Jim showed me how to do that in training"

Well it wasn't pretty and it wasn't even deserved but we got the three points and that's all that really matters because we've opened a wee gap up on the bottom two now and hopefully we can move forward from here. In terms of performance it was very similar to the Ross County match. The team looked very nervous and inhibited and it was obvious players were lacking confidence and didn't want to make mistakes, which is of course when players do make mistakes. We created very little and I thought that the team Baraclough put out didn't really work. Ainsworth looked very uncomfortable down the left and didn't have much impact on the match, and Reid behind him was also playing on his wrong foot which didn't help. As a result we didn't get any width down the left hand side. Likewise there was a problem on the right. Ferguson is a rookie and can be excused but he sat very deep and was obviously worried about leaving a space behind him when we really need our full backs getting us up the field. In front of him Josh Law offered nothing in terms of giving us an attacking right wing option. As a result we were getting bogged down in a congested middle area and created next to nothing. The most obvious talking point in the first half was the Thompson red card. It was a bad tackle but I was surprised when the referee gave a straight red. He may have been right or wrong to do so because I didn't get a good enough view of it to say one way or the other but Alan Muir's overall performance was terrible. He made mistakes all afternoon and it really takes a special kind of ineptitude to stick out as bad among the throng of referees that we have currently. Second half St.Mirren went closest to scoring when they hit the bar and it came down off/in front/behind the line. Impossible to tell from the far end but we definitely got luck one way or the other as it looked a goal all the way until it crashed off the bar. However that was really St. Mirren's best chance and they had no real cutting edge. The main problem wasn't so much St. Mirren creating chances as much as us not creating anything ourselves although we did improve slightly with the two half time substitutions. However the best (only?) move of the match got us the goal. A great wee triangle move between Ojamaa, Law and Sutton. I've given Sutton some stick this season but that's two huge goals he's scored for us in two weeks. After we scored St.Mirren's heads went down and they looked rattled and I though we might get a second but it wasn't to be and we were under a little bit of pressure in the final moments but nothing too hair raising. Overall 3 points were crucial and more important than a good performance. It's just disappointing we were only one kick away from getting the full 6 points out of these two matches but at least we have something to build on now and I think, well hope, that playing teams outside the bottom 2 will see the team loosen up a bit, take some pressure off them so they don't look so frightened to play football.

Pulling one performance out of four is fine if you want to look at individual performances rather than a trend. Last week wasn't the best but we've been better over the last 5 weeks or so. And we did score 2 goals when we struggled to score any earlier in the season.

I would rather it was wrapped up by half time.

12 matches under McCall 7 points from possible 36 OR 0.58 points per game. 4 matches under Black 4 points from possible 12 OR 1 point per game. And we were one kick of the ball away from getting an extra 2 points last week. The improvement is already there to see if people could pull themselves out of their self imposed suicide watch. With a new permanent manager let's cross our fingers and hope we can improve even further. If I was the manager I'd be asking the players to aim for 40 points this season. So that's 29 points from 21 remaining fixtures, a relatively small improvement over our recent form with Black, who had some tricky fixtures lets remember. If we can do that we'll almost certainly be safe at the end of the season by a decent margin.

Was at Hibs, wasn't he?

...........Carswell.......Lasley............. ............................................. Ainsworth.........Vigurs...........Ojamaa.... ............................................. ..................Sutton..................... Not much wrong with that, if you can get the confidence up and get them playing to anywhere near the standard of the past couple of years.

If we can't beat St. Mirren then we are fucked. Simple as that. And that's why I'm going to the match expecting victory, spending money I don't really have at Christmas even though I've been to Hamilton, Kilmarnock and Partick this season. BARACLOUGH P1 W1.

To be fair I think Black had a point about the announcement. On the morning of a game? An important game against a relegation rival? Obviously it disturbs the preperation, is a bit disrespectful towards Black who is taking the team and interviewed for the job and everyone knows professional footballers are like skittish horses and it doesn't take much to unsettle them. When we were enduring McCall earlier in the season everyone was bringing up his previous record in defence. Well newsflash, McCall's previous record is also Black's previous record. Also Black made a much better fist in charge of the team this term than McCall did. To be honest I don't know much about what Black does or doesn't do and I suspect most are in a similar position. The scape goat chorus obviously only have two names at the moment - Vigurs and Black.

He's out of contract in the summer. He actually played really well against Celtic a couple of weeks ago and then he's absolutely shite against Ross County. He's so inconsistant I don't know what I'd do with him.

I voted Lasley. I didn't think anyone was great but for me Lasley was the only one bothering his shirt in the first half. He put a shift in and was constantly trying to get the team to step out a bit. Unfortunately we had absolutely nothing up front or down the sides until Ainsworth came on and he was flogging a dead horse to a certain extent.

Not many keepers come off their line these days. We were defending deeper and deeper because we were trying to hold a 2-1 lead in the last few minutes. Seen it time and time again watching Motherwell even when we had Randolphs and Dykstras in goal. Twardzik's kicking was shocking today but frankly any decent manager would be telling teams that the goalkeeper does not kick the ball out anyway. Good teams roll the ball out and build from the back like Celtic did every time last week and even Ross County were doing it this week.

Hope so. I'll be there but I honestly can't remember the last time I saw us win away. Might be the St.Johnstone semi final win!

Well at least we aren't worse off than before and put another point between us and St. Mirren. However the new managers has a big job ahead of him. First half was absolutely woeful. I've not seen many more depressing 45 minutes at Fir Park. The entire team was shitting it at home from the bottom of the league team. Absolutely no ambition to even try and get forward, just play hoff ball and try and keep it 0-0. AGAINST THE BOTTOM TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. AGAINST A TEAM WE COULD HAVE GONE 5 POINTS AHEAD IF WE WON. For me, the attitude of the players was very, very depressing. Everything was flat and there wasn't any belief around the place. From the very poor and quiet support, on the field from the players. Nothing. Ross County unlike us, took the game to us and scored and deserved to score. Second half Ainsworth made a huge difference. Suddenly we had an out ball and someone with pace to take the ball out of our half. Suddenly we looked like a team and might have scored a few more but as the game got closer to full time we went back into our shell, absolutely terrified of losing another goal, which of course we did because once that mentality gets hold of players its almost inevitable. Overall we didn't deserve to win and I am quite disturbed by many aspects of that performance. Not too many strong characters out there.

Why would you put a guy with one top league goal in his entire career and who isn't a regular first team starter as a first goalscorer?

Black's in charge today so you'd have to suspect he'll be in the stand.

I'll moan the face off you after a terrible display or result but to moan and slate a guy when he's just in the door is unbelievable. The future of our club is in this guys hands so let's have a bit more positivity and support please, at least until such a time that we can actually judge Baraclough as a manager and that will be season 2015-16.

However the new manager is is the new manager. I don't have a favourite and I trust the club, with much more information than I have, to make the best choice. I just want it sorted out so we can try and move forward.

Depends what you mean by must win. It's not going to relegate us if we lose these matches but if we want don't want to be immersed in a desperate relegation struggle all season we probably do need to win these. Remember we have lost 7 out of the last 8 league matches and 8 out of 9 overall. If we lost these up coming matches then it would be 9 out of 10 (or 10 out of 11 overall) and not many teams do that and stay in the league because that is rock solid relegation form even at this stage in the season. I do think we have played much better since McCall stepped down and I'm going into these games with improved confidence in the team but Ross County are also improved and St. Mirren might get a lift with Craig being punted so I don't think these matches will be a stroll by any means. I'm hopeful we can do what we need to do though.

Maaskant. If you look at his record he's never been anywhere for very long and I don't think that bodes very well. There is something not right when someone wins a championship, as he did in Poland, and then is fired when the champagne in the bottles is still fizzing. He also seems like he's upset a few people along the way, is quite outspoken and likes a bit of cash to spend. From what I understand he's left clubs that had spent money and then found themselves in financial trouble. Is he the right guy? I don't know but from what little I have managed to glean I have suspicions that his appointment would be a risky one. van der Gaag. I was a massive fan of his as a player and he usually makes it into my all time Motherwell XI along side Brian Martin at the back. On the face of it he's a decent managerial record but you just wonder if his ideas of Motherwell are 1990's ideas rather than a more modern awareness of where we are now. Also he doesn't have much experience of fighting relegation, his coaching has been in a completely different footballing culture that won't be replicated at Motherwell and he seems to have long lasting health problems. Would he be able to take the strain? It's bad enough for supporters when we are at the wrong end of the table so is this a job for someone with a serious heart problem? Barraclough. I don't know much about him but managers coming out of the League of Ireland to Scotland don't exactly have a great record of success in recent times. On the other hand he'll be used to having no money and dealing with players that aren't technically gifted. He might also have 'affordable' player contacts in the English lower leagues and in Ireland.

Give us a break. You sound like a paranoiac. When the media get whiff of a story they run it, they don't hold it back for a time that is more appropriote for the subject. Yesterdays news was almost certainly leaked to the media by one of the three parties involved anyway.

From Wikipedia. "On 23 May 2012, Groningen announced that the 43-year-old Robert Maaskant would be the new manager. He signed a one year contract. There were a lot of controversies before the season had even started. Maaskant was unhappy with the new signings. Especially Serbian winger Filip Kostic. The season was a dissapointing one for the club. Despite finishing 7th, the style of play was far from encouraging, with mostly destructive football. The fans were far from pleased. Maaskant was also known for his controversial statements about certain players. All of which damaged Groningen's reputation as a quiet and decent club. FC Groningen announced on 11 March 2013 that it would not be renewing its 1-year contract with Maaskant."

Two things about that match. The Clydebank winger Joe Robertson had an absolute stormer and I was convinced he was going to be the next big thing. Didn't turn out that way for Joe. The polis moved the Motherwell buses to an obscure location so when we came out the ground we literally couldn't find the buses and we're pure shiteing we'd either get left behind or get a bollocking off Liz Mullen for holding the bus up!

Am I right? We have interviewed a short list of 6 potential managers and they are 1. Kenny Black 2. Nolberto Solano 3. Rob Maaskant 4. Mitchell van der Gaag 5. Kenny Shiels 6. Terry Butcher