Ya Bezzer!

The simple fact of the matter is Stuart McCall isn't really a contender this year. Regardless of your views on Celtic, you have to acknowledge Celtic's superb form in the league this season. They wrapped up the title dropping only 9 points, set a clean sheets record and at one point won 15 matches in a row. When you consider that the Celtic squad this season was probably weaker than their squad last season and the league in general was stronger than last season that is fairly impressive regardless of the chasm in budgets. Derek McInnes has undoubtedly turned Aberdeen around this season from perennial disappointments and under achievers to being in the running for the Best of the Rest title. Add to that actual tangible success in the form of a league cup win that in my mind eclipses McCall's achievements. McCall may have made an very good job of challenging this season after losing so many good players and having to replace them on a reduced budget but if bubbling under on a small budget is the gauge by which to measure managers of the year then perhaps Tommy Wright should be in with a shout? St. Johnstone have made the Top Six again as well as two semi finals and potentially could still win the Scottish Cup. I don't know what St. Johnstone's budget is but since they attract significantly lower crowds than we do and keep themselves out of debt then I'd suggest it's quite a bit lower than ours. If McCall has a tough job then getting St. Johnstone to where they are at the moment on 2,000 - 2,500 attendances must be even tougher. If Aberdeen win the double you would have to be pretty biased to say that McInnes did not deserve the award. If Dundee Utd or St. Johnstone win the Scottish Cup I think both their managers would put themselves in the running depending on various factors. And Neil Lennon will be a contender due to the overwhelming superiority of Celtic in the league this season.

I bet Celtic drop more points in the next 6 matches than they have in the last 20. If we don't pick up points off Celtic you can guarantee our rivals will.

From what I've seen Craig Reid is much more suited to playing right midfield than Fraser Kerr.

If Celtic want a more competitive league they could not spend £7,000,000 on three duds per close season (this season - Balde, Pukki, Boerrigter) that have no impact on their league win and which they clearly don't need and split the money evenly among the other teams to the tune of £630,000 each. Celtic even save on carrying three wasted wages. Everyone's a winner.

Without Foran this season Inverness are P8 W1 D4 L3. Important player for them. Of course we are missing some as well...

Moore won a lot of fouls on Saturday, although some of them were a bit dubious! That's an asset that we didn't take advantage of.

I think a win or a draw more or less guarantees at least 4th place in the league and if we manage that we'll have achieved roughly what I think we should have done over the season. Given that Inverness have drawn 4 of the last 5 at home I think we have a pretty decent chance of getting at least a point. Of course, a win is the preferred result as it enables us to do perhaps even better in the league. 4 points from the next two matches would be a decent tally.

If you have a small squad and less players play more games then obviously that has an effect, especially at this stage in the season. We've also had 8 matches in the last 6 weeks to exacerbate that. It's clear to me that fatigue has been a big problem in the last few weeks and yesterday was just another example of that. There are up sides to having a small squad and consistent selection but now we are seeing a down side. Battering the players with extra training is just going to make things worse. Footballers are human beings not super men. Most of our key players have more than 30 matches under their belt this season and most of them aren't in the flush of youth either. Some others are coming back or have been playing through injuries. Nielsen (18) - Samson (33) Reid (6) - Clohessy (25) Hammell (31) - Tesselaar (31) Hutchinson (33) - Slater (19) McManus (34) - Ashcroft (18) Vigurs (29) - Maksimenko (1) Lasley (34) - Muirhead (15) Ainsworth (23) - McKenzie (28) Francis-Angol (30) - Eremenko (6) Sutton (31) - Boyd (30) Moore (13) - Irvine (23) 282 appearances - 229 appearances So our players have played about 5 more matches on average each.

I think you are being harsh on Reid. We threw players forward to try and get the three points and it backfired. That is going to happen sometimes but while I'll criticize a Motherwell team for not going out to win the match I'm not going to criticize a Motherwell team for trying to win the match in the final few minutes. Do you really want players sitting back for a 1-1 draw against bottom six teams at Fir Park? We didn't play well today and Kilmarnock were the better team in the second half so the points were hardly stolen. Actually, I thought Craig Slater looked a really decent player today.

All the best stuff today came off Vigurs boot.

Not going to criticize the team too much for getting caught on the break in the last minute of injury because we were trying to win the match but it was a poor performance today. I thought we looked pretty flat and tired, we've had a few matches in the last 5 or 6 weeks and I thought it showed today. Second half especially we just didn't seem to get anything going. Poor passing, midfield, wide players, forwards not linking up well enough, no real penetration. Just poor fare, overall. We got lucky with the Aberdeen v Dundee Utd result, we will need to rest up, try and recharge the batteries and get the energy levels back up for the next couple of fixtures.

He scored a decent goal against Dundee Utd in his first start but he's been on the bench for the last two matches. Perhaps not match fit at the moment.

I think I've mentioned this before but I work in central Glasgow most of the time and I've seen all the fans from the various Champions League clubs at close quarters and Manchester Utd are easily the scummiest I've ever come across.

Sounds like Gordon McQueen. In those days beating Celtic was par for the course and as the closest stadium to Fir Park we often took big crowds to Celtic Park. Must have been 3,000 at least at that match. 20 years ago....kind of alarming!

I think we could sell out Fir Park but I don't think we'd get as many as you seem to think. The Motherwell diaspora aren't going to come in from all corners for a Europa Cup qualifying round match. They will for a cup final.

I'm pretty confident Ainsworth will sign on for next season. Of course he might get a better offer but by the way he has been talking he really loves it here. Reading between the lines I think he is pretty keen to stay on.

Kilmarnock have gone into a bit of a slump again after a period of decent results. They are conceding a lot of goals so that should give us a bit of hope that we can continue our good goalscoring vein. Although they concede they also tend to get on the score sheet themselves and Kris Boyd is a player that always puts the fear into me. You can rate him as a player or not but the guy knows where the back of the net is.

Don't think Celtic will bring a big crowd to Fir Park as the league will be wrapped up by then. I want them at Fir Park because we should be looking to beat them at Fir Park. We beat a better Celtic team twice last season at Fir Park and we should be looking to do it again this term.

I agree Ramsden has been a good signing, bit of an unsung hero for me but I think I'm right in saying he is 33 on his next birthday and he has had a few injuries. We can't really afford to be sentimental when we can only afford to carry a small squad. I think Reid has fitted in very well, he's only been with us for a short period but I've been reasonably impressed. Highly mobile, gets up and down the wing and unlike a lot of players like that he looks like he is a decent defender as well. If he keeps up the standard of performance he had today he would be a very decent squad player at the very least. I'm convinced McManus will be here next season but I think we will need to bring someone in because I'm not convinced any of those other guys are ready for a first team central defensive spot. Cummins I don't rate, Kerr hasn't really played in central defence, Murray is just starting his first team career.

Cult player in the making.

Thought Reid, Hutchinson and Vigurs were the stand outs today. All might have won a Motm on a different day but I thought Hutchinson just shaded it.

Ross County were a tough nut to crack as they had 6 behind the ball and were pressing us pretty hard but I thought we played pretty well, with some excellent individual performances from the likes of Vigurs, Hutchinson, Reid etc. Neilsen didn't have much to do but we did get lucky when they hit the post but we could also have scored a few more as well. 9 points out of 9 is still on.

They have an almost identical record to us in the league in 2014 Motherwell P10 W5 D2 L3 Ross County P11 W5 D3 L3

If Rangers want Hutchinson they will get him unless someone has a better cash offer for the player. That's just the way it is and we need to deal with that and if I was at Rangers looking for good/cheap players to bring in then I don't see too many other central defenders of that quality with no fee and a wage that is easy to treble. Given that is the case, surely Aberdeen might also think about making an offer since Russell Anderson going to be 36 next season? I think Hutchinson is a good player but I think he might struggle to find a club at a decent level down south by which I mean a good Championship club or above. For me, although he's a good defender, he hasn't really developed as a player as well as I would have liked. He has good parts to his game but I don't think he's improved noticeably in the bad parts of his game. He still makes the same mistakes you'd put down to 'inexperience' a couple of seasons ago - he has the worst disciplinary record at the club, he gives away too many fouls in dangerous positions, he still charges out of position and misses tackles leaving a gapping hole in defence. Overall he's good enough up here but would a decent sized club down south want him? Young defenders from the SPL/SPFL haven't exactly prospered down south in recent years - Mark Reynolds, Danny Wilson etc. I guess we'll find out where he ends up.

No real stand outs tonight. I voted for Hammell, had a solid enough come back and set up both goals, the ball to Ainsworth was worthy of the top level. That ball really changed the game for me so my vote goes to him.