Ya Bezzer!

I have a soft spot for Kenny Shiels. He's mental and a good laugh who made Scottish football a more entertaining place. Would I want him at my club though? For those complaining about the youth system at Motherwell, I think you'd have to take a serious look at him and weight that up with the other factors.

I've decided I'm wearing last seasons trainers tomorrow rather than the current ones that haven't been working out too well this season. Lucky shoes = 3 points in the bag.

I don't think it's a "really disturbing" trend. Post 2008 financial collapse our figures are fairly similar (5307, 5255, 5362, 5175). You might actually say they have held up quite well considering our biggest crowd of the season was always against Rangers and they haven't be around to boost the total. This seasons total will increase significantly over the weekend but even then it can't be meaningfully put against complete seasons although you have to suspect when it is all said and done it will be our lowest for quite some time. It will be interesting to see how many come out for the crucial matches before and after Christmas.

When did we ever beat Celtic when we expected to? We've as much chance of winning this next match as any against Celtic. To win against Celtic you need to get stuck in, you need a slice of luck and Celtic to have a bad day. Well we are surely due a slice of luck some time soon and Celtic might have picked up in the league recently but they are still inherently inconsistent and defensively vulnerable. We probably won't win or even get a draw but that would be the case at any time. Like I said, we have as much chance in this match as any against Celtic, a small but definite chance if various factors come into play. We can't control the luck and we can't control Celtic players performances but we can roll up the sleeves and give it a go and if we do, then I'll be happy. Now's the time when Motherwell supporters should be actually supporting the team and they are all drifting away or going into despondency mode. Folks need to give themselves a shake, there is a fight to be fought.

He didn't defend it but Watson (six one) is probably going to beat ZFA (five eight) for a header 9 times out of 10 anyway. If we wanted to avoid conceding that goal we didn't press Townesend and stood off him so he could put the cross in.

I agree. I'm actually quite heartened by the improvement since McCall left. It's been night and day but right now you just have to accept that teams like Inverness and Dundee Utd are a long way ahead of us and that quality and confidence is going to see them through. If we put in performances like we have done in the past 3 weeks or so I'm fairly confident we can win the important upcoming matches against the other strugglers. Contrast yesterday with the performances against Hamilton or Dundee where we came out the tunnel looking like we were already 5-0 down.

It was no surprise because Motherwell FC in their infinite wisdom took it off the season ticket and asked people to pay £15 on a Saturday in the run up to Christmas.

I assume Ainsworth was amply rewarded for last seasons performances in his new contract but so far it's another wasted wage although I wouldn't blame Ainsworth for that. He didn't start two league games in a row for McCall this season and he only managed two under Black before being dropped today. 7 League starts from 14 for Ainsworth this season and he's still our top scorer.

Dan Twardzik was immense today.

Law was better today but he missed the chance that would probably have won us the game.

I can understand why he didn't want to put Ainsworth while we were still in the game because it would have left big spaces for Dundee Utd to exploit. I think he should have come on at 2-1 though.

Black is really just picking up where McCall left of. Twardzik saved us from a heavy defeat.Law getting a start is surely a piss take.

Disappointing to go out, especially having taken the lead but I was reasonably satisfied with the performance and right now, in our position, that's more what I'm looking at. First half we were probably the better team, had spells of real pressure and played very well. Lots of good performances across the park - Lasley, Vigurs, Ojamaa, Angol etc. If we'd got that second goal it would probably have changed the match and we'd probably still be in the cup. Second half Dundee Utd nullified our creative players. Ojamaa and Vigurs were taken out of the match and let's be honest, Dundee Utd are a team with pace and technique all over the park. They dominated the second half and the goals weren't a surprise, if it hadn't been for an immense performance from Twardzik it would have been more. Some times though you just have to put your hands up and say you were up against a much better team. I still think it's night and day between our performances with McCall at the helm and the two matches since so I'm reasonable positive because, although we lost today, I think we have got our belief back to a certain extent. Bring on Ross County on the 13th.

Had a nightmare couple of days, hopefully Motherwell don't add to it today as I'm hoping for some escapism!

I'm guessing you probably said something similar before the league match. We might be shite but we have a chance and nothing is "inevitable" especially when we beat the same team a couple of weeks ago. The level of negativity says more about some of the posters than the football team. It's not great right now but I can't be bothered with people throwing the towel in before a ball has even been kicked.

We can't hold off for ever but I still don't think there is a big rush to make an appointment. We need someone in before the Ross County match and the run of games immediately after but the 13th December is still two weeks away. We were told the club ownership issue would be settled before then and as far as we know it will be. If nothing still hasn't happened in 7-10 days then that's a different story but right now we just need to be patient.

If budget was important as you are making out we wouldn't be anywhere near the Top 6 anyway because there are 7 city clubs in this country. This used to be the case back in the McLean era when we were competing in a 10 team league against 6 or 7 strong sides that were just much better than us but I don't think that's the case any more. Those days are gone because the overall quality of the league has been completely diminished. There was a time when Aberdeen could have a European class, perhaps even World class player on the books. Today, even though they pay out more than we do, the quality of player they can attract is no where near that level and that's really my point. The difference in quality between a £800 a week player and a £1,400 a week player in Scotland is negligible. The idea that we can sustain Top 6 finishes every year is cloud cuckoo stuff, as is any notion that we can lose £1,000,000 every three years and stay viable.

I don't agree with this. Hamilton and Inverness are probably spending a lot less money than the likes of Ross County and ourselves. And ourselves and Ross County have been spending a lot less money than the likes of Hibs and Hearts when they got relegated. The gap in quality between European places in the Premiership and even lower in the table in the Championship is very small. Much smaller than the wage gap that currently exists and I think it's really time clubs like ours took advantage of that. There are players in the Premiership who are only very marginally better than players in the league below, if at all, who want twice the money. I think we need to start saying "No". With a good manager that gets the right players for the right price and you add in youth development, scouting players at an affordable level (ie lower Scottish leagues) I don't see why the bar would be set so low.

Dundee United are undefeated at home but they have been pretty poor away this season and there has been something of a stark contrast between those two sets of results, especially recently, so all the glum types should cheer up at least a little bit. I think they have three straight defeats on the road in the league and only won at Easter Road in the cup on penalties, and we more than matched them a couple of weeks ago. I think we'll have a decent stab at it although whether we win or not is impossible to say. Unfortunately I don't see the OP's prediction of a big crowd coming true. If anything it might be a smaller crowd than usual with no cup matches on the season ticket and Christmas coming up. Dundee Utd was also the last home match so there isn't a lot of novelty there and our general poor form and cup record won't draw a lot of folks in. That said, I'll be there and I'm hopeful we can get through to the next round but really I think we are all waiting for the crucial run of games before and after Christmas now.

Probably worth giving Bobby Donnelly 4 games if we also get a top class defender that plays over 150 games in an era of success and then is sold for a six figure sum.

We need to start looking at this as won 1, lost 1. So far Black has done better than expected to be honest.

Inverness - You can't expect to go up to Inverness and win at any time but especially not when they have been very good and are undefeated at home and we have been very poor. If you think we should have won yesterday when you need a big dose of reality. I said during the game that I'd bite your hand off for a point but it wasn't to be. We should be judging this team on it's performances against fellow strugglers not teams that are joint top of the league a week shy of December. The Clarkson and McFadden decisions - Clarkson should have been signed. I said it at the time, no hindsight required and I think McCall's decision to actually leave the club was partly down to that bad decision. Not entirely but I think it weighed heavy on McCall's mind. Managers have to make good decisions and when Clarkson scored against us and basically sunk us a couple of minutes into a very important match I reckon McCall's confidence in his own decision making was effected. McFadden was not the McFadden of old last season but he would easily deserve a place in this team and I bet we would have more points than we do now if he had been playing this season. For me the McFadden decision was a money one. He didn't deserve and we couldn't afford to pay over the odds for him but if he'd been willing to play on a reduced wage then I would have kept him. You can point out he wasn't great last season but there are people out there who aren't willing to acknowledge McFadden's contribution last term which wasn't insignificant. He contributed to 10 goals in the league scoring 4 and setting up 6 just for a start. The squad is worse off without him especially as he wasn't replaced. Dom Thomas - If he is as good as we are all hearing he should have been played before now. I saw him against Fulham and I thought he showed up quite well making his debut in a match where we were comprehensively beaten. We've been crying out for a left winger for a couple of seasons which makes McCall's decision not to play him even more baffling. I don't know if Dom Thomas is the answer but that's kind of the problem. No one does because he's never been given a chance. Even the players that have like Lee Erwin have been played out of position. The Dom Thomas situation is just part of the complete pigs ear Motherwell have made of youth development over the last few years and whether you like it or not that coincidences with Stuart McCall's reign. Meanwhile Dundee Utd have actively tried to develop a player like Aidan Connolly, even though there are several players in his position ahead of him in the pecking order, and he scored yesterday. The fact is our youth development has gone backwards by a long way and has turned into some kind of Walter Smith 1990's dinosaur stuff. Wonder where that came from?

St. Mirren seem to be in free fall but Ross County are battling away. We need to roll up our sleeves with these important matches coming up.

Inverness are undefeated at home this season, won 4 out of the last 5, this was always going to be a tough match to get anything out of.

I don't know for a fact but I'd guess that's probably about correct. I've read from a decent source that £800 a week is about average at Championship level (excluding the big teams down there at the moment). Assuming that's correct you'd have to assume we are paying roughly £1100-1200 to our average pros and more to the high earners.