Ya Bezzer!

ICTs away record is quite good but they don't often score more than one goal so I think if we can get a goal ourselves we should, fingers crossed, at least confirm our European place.

Twardzik was 2nd choice at Dundee for most of the season and keep out by Kyle Letheren who apparently had a very good season. If you are the second choice keeper and the 1st choice is having a stormer of a season you aren't going to get many opportunities. If we had your 2nd favourite Motherwell keeper ever behind Darren Randolph for the last few seasons he probably wouldn't have got many games.

Dan Twardzik made the best save I've seen this season from open play against Partick Thistle. The Nielsen's penalty save might equal it though. I can't help but notice our goals conceded has gone into melt down since Simon Ramsden got injured in January. In fact in his last five matches played we kept four clean sheets. Since then we've only got one clean sheet. Over the season we averaged 1.16 goals conceded with Ramsden starting and 2 goals conceded when he's missed out. If you exclude the 5-0 drubbing by Celtic we actually only conceded 16 goals in 17 Ramsden starts, against 38 conceded in the 19 without him. Might just be a coincidence....or it might not.

Hope this is right! Motherwell WIN Aberdeen WIN Aberdeen 68, Motherwell 67, Dundee Utd 58 - Motherwell secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell WIN Aberdeen DRAW Motherwell 67, Aberdeen 66, Dundee Utd 59 - Motherwell secure Europe, must draw at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell WIN Aberdeen LOSE Motherwell 67, Aberdeen 65, Dundee Utd 61 - Motherwell secure Europe, must draw at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell DRAW Aberdeen WIN Aberdeen 68, Motherwell 65, Dundee Utd 58 - Motherwell secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell DRAW Aberdeen DRAW Aberdeen 66, Motherwell 65, Dundee Utd 59 - Motherwell secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell DRAW Aberdeen LOSE Aberdeen 65, Motherwell 65, Dundee Utd 59 - Motherwell secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell LOSE Aberdeen WIN Aberdeen 68, Motherwell 64, Dundee Utd 58 - Motherwell secure Europe, cannot finish 2nd Motherwell LOSE Aberdeen DRAW Aberdeen 66, Motherwell 64, Dundee Utd 59 - Motherwell secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd Motherwell LOSE Aberdeen LOSE Aberdeen 65, Motherwell 64, Dundee Utd 61 - Must draw at Pittodrie to secure Europe, must win at Pittodrie to secure 2nd

I like Ramsden a lot but with his injury record and the fact that he's getting on a bit (33 next season) I think we might not want to go into the season looking at him as being a first choice centre half. My preference would be for Ramsden at right back, a new centre half (assuming Hutchinson is away and McManus signs up again) with Reid as a good squad player providing cover for a couple of positions.

Not the most reliable source. From Pie and Bovril, regarding Kenny Miller. "My brother text me at 8am this morning, he does coaching in Vancouver. He was out with Carl Robinson last night and he told my brother. Aberdeen, Dundee United and Motherwell all sniffing around Also been confirmed by the Whitecaps he's been released now."

I think it goes beyond our tactics though. Don't know if he has been a little bit naive stepping up a level and been caught out by the pace of the game or if his positional sense isn't what it could be sometimes. He can definitely play right back and do relatively well there but it looks to me like a central position is more a 'natural' fit for him.

Might be difficult to get families out for a midweek match so I doubt if we'd get anything like the crowd we got on Saturday. Looking forward to this match. Don't think I will make it to Aberdeen so this will probably be my last view of Motherwell 2013/14 and hopefully we can pick up the 3 points and take it to the final game. Inverness aren't in the best form (2 wins from 11) but they draw a lot of games so I don't think they will be push overs. Ryan Christie has recently pushed himself into the first team and he's looked a decent player for me. Might need to keep an eye on him.

I think he's done quite well overall but I do think he can get caught up the field after bombing up the wing. He's done well screening in front of the back four and I think when Ramsden gets back that's where I'd see him fitting in. Overall his adaptability would be a good asset next season so I'd be quite keen to get him into the squad permanently especially since I doubt he would be asking for massive wages. A good squad player.

Vigurs was superb in the first half, virtually every touch he had was pure quality. Second half we were over run in midfield so he didn't shine as brightly. I thought Hollis was really composed today. Came for all the crosses, made a couple of good saves and skilled Stevie May with his footwork! I'll go with Vigurs.

First half we played well in patches. Second half we were hanging on for most of the 45 minutes but although we didn't play well we at least defended better and restricted St. Johnstone to few real chances but it still made for some nervous watching. At this stage though, it's about winning and getting the points. Roll on Wednesday.

The thing about 'if he was the all round player he wouldn't be with us' doesn't chime with me regards Ainsworth because all we're really looking for him is to show a bit more effort off the ball. If it was a technique issue or something fine but there is nothing stopping him from working a bit harder. I think Ainsworth has great potential because he's fast, he strikes a ball beautifully and he knows where the goal is but this one aspect of his game is letting him down and I don't think it would really take much from him to sort it out. All it really is is a wee bit more discipline and effort.

In that case a forum might not be for you because it's where you get a cross section of different views.

I don't really like the sash style strip so I hope we don't get it. I had a wee look and we only wore a sash for 3 years of our existence so it's not like it was anything more than a very minor fad.

Offensively Ainsworth has been great. Defensively he's been terrible. Overall I'd like him here next season and hope we can work on him to try a wee bit harder on the other side of his game. If we can't drill that work ethic into him I think he's the kind of player where you pick and choose what matches he starts according to the opposition. For instance I think McCall got it spot on to leave him out of the Celtic starting line up. But I'll reiterate that overall I think he's done well, he is an attacking player after all and that should be his main focus. He should be looking at Motherwell as a spring board to work on his overall game, hopefully he'll be here next season and do that.

I'm not really bothered who manufactures the strip as I'm not really interested in labels. As long as it is a good design I couldn't care less. I'm a traditionalist right down to the white shorts but I don't think it does any harm to change things around once in a while, as long as most of the elements of the strip are Motherwell elements and we always go back to the traditions on a semi regular basis.

The 'last Saturday match of the season' confused me. Didn't realise the Inverness match was a Wednesday. Must be the first time our (home) season has ended mid week. Of course St. Johnstone have battered us twice this season already and are in a good run of form but we have a pretty good record at Fir Park against St. Johnstone,it's P8 W6 D1 L1 since Jim Gannon got his jotters.

Ramsden is signed until 2015.

We need someone new coming in. No reflection on Ramsden's ability but he's 33 next season and he's injured half the time. We need new blood coming in anyway with this seasons record back there.

I've also noticed that Hammell often has to cover for a midfielder or central defender and has to play centrally, leaving a gap down the wing that isn't filled by a midfielder. The centre backs also fail to hold a line, usually Hutchinson is the culprit rushing out of defence to lunge into a tackle. We've also missed Ramsden who is a good solid defender.

I think there are probably three or four reasons why we have conceded so many goals this season and it shouldn't be reduced to something simplistic. That said considering we have 6'3 goalkeeper and Hutchinson and McManus at centre half we lose a hell of a lot of high balls in the box.

Expectations change throughout the season. Also not having a 'successful' season does not necessarily mean having a 'disasterous' season or even a 'poor' season. Back in August we had no idea what kind of team we'd have or what kind of teams our opponents would have. Generally I think any kind of Top 6 finish shouldn't be sniffed at but with Rangers out the league, Hearts rooted to the bottom and Hibs in disarray that's three of the teams that should outperform us out of the running. We are the 'biggest' of the provincial clubs and therefore I think we should have looking really for a top 4 place this season. However as I said expectations change throughout the season. Normally 4th place would be a strong league placing but to fall out of the top 3 now and potentially miss out on Europe at this stage in the season would, I think, have to be looked upon as something of a failure, especially as 2nd should have been in our grasp, never mind 3rd. Right now 3rd and guarenteed European qualification is my demarcation line of a successful season. If we don't achieve that it doesn't mean we had a terrible season, it just means overall we didn't achieve what I think we should have done going into the top 6 split and therefore I will be a little disappointed.

If we don't tighten up at the back we will finish 4th lose a fortune in prize money and potentially miss out on Europe. 1 clean sheet in 13 matches says we have a problem to address in the coming matches. 14 goals conceded in the last 5 matches is dire anyway you slice it.

I'm all for an attacking, entertaining team and I don't want to see us grinding out results but you can't have a situation where we are conceding over 2 goals a match on average. The number of times we have conceded 3 or more goals in the last couple of months is shocking and it simply cannot continue. I don't think today was, as some have said, about playing Dundee Utd. In recent times we've conceded 3 goals to St. Mirren, Hibs, Partick Thistle, all times scrapping against relegation. This goes much deeper than simply one team having a sign over us this term. This is something that is happening week in and week out. There must be reasons for us conceding so many goals and McCall really need to address these because it should not be happening with the players we have available. As for 2nd, I think we can still do it if we win the final three matches, so we just have to take each game at a time and try and take it to the final day. However we are going to have to defend a lot better than we have been doing to have any chance.

Northern Premier League Division One North. Barely back in football.