Ya Bezzer!

Bit pissed off about the rescheduling of this match as months ago I took tomorrow off as a holiday so I could go to the game and I only realised last week it had been moved! At least this is the last one I'll miss in the foreseeable future.

The 2011 Cup Final is an obvious one but I'd go for the 2002-03 semi final against Rangers. Not only did we deserve to win the match but I have no doubts whatsoever that if we had won that match we would have won the Final against Dundee.

I've not bought a fanzine in a while although I was more a GLF man, but I've bought OSB in the past as well just not as regularly. I guess there are two main reasons why I don't any more. The first reason was that you bought a fanzine to see what other fans thought about your team. Nowadays we have internet message boards for that sort of thing and I think the internet has completely usurped the fanzine in that role. Secondly it was something to read while the teams were warming up and you were tucking into your pie. Back in the day there was very little content in official programmes and you only really bought them because you collected them and because they were the only source of club stats in the pre-internet era. The fanzines generally had a lot more reading in them so while you could flick through the programme in 2 minutes the fanzines had a bit more to them. Again things have changed there. The programmes have improved a great deal (although at a cost) and there is much more content in them. Funnily enough the cost of the modern programme is something which puts me off also buying a fanzine. It might only be a pound but if you've already bought a programme at £3 I think you are a lot less likely to also buy the fanzine. I'm getting old(ish) now and I have a nostalgia for the way things used to be when I first started coming to Fir Park so I wouldn't like to see the fanzines go out of business but at the same time I used to buy and I don't any more.

I don't think they'll have a Scottish manager down there any time soon.

Dundee Utd are like us, they have a very small squad and if they are missing key players gubbings off 'lesser' teams are by no means impossible. I think they will improve again though but we have to make sure its not against us at the weekend. Hearts also have a fairly small squad this season with a lot of kids in there. Some of them look quite good like Callum Paterson but they are thread bare in some positions. I don't think Hearts are by any means guaranteed a top 3 or 4 spot. I said it before the match at Fir Park but St. Johnstone probably have the strongest squad of any provincial team this season.

I'm not saying we are going to get relegated or we are even going to struggle but are very insecure at the back and the poster has a point about the Inverness match. We created a lot of chances but Inverness could easily have score 3 or 4 as well. As long as we are conceding goals, and we've only kept 1 clean sheet out of 12 this season, then we are going to be vulnerable. We are second top now but there is only 5 points between us and 11th we could easily drop down and the one thing everyone knows about young players, young squads is when things turn against you they are harder to get back up again. We're catching Dundee United at a good time so I think it will be a test of character.

Obviously, overall McCall's record is good but I think about the story about a French officer being on the verge of being promoted to general and Napoleon asking 'Is he lucky?' I think McCall has been pretty lucky over the course of his tenure. He was lucky to take over a team doing well in the league. He was lucky to take over one of the best squads in the league. He has been lucky that the squad has basically been kept together - can any one believe Darren Randolph, the best goalkeeper we've had in the 25 years I've been going, is still here? He's been lucky most other clubs are downsizing especially Top Six clubs like Dundee Utd, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, basically the teams you've expect to out perform us over a season. He's been lucky with injuries as well. He was even lucky last season Dundee Utd started so poorly or they would surely have overtaken us for 3rd. I'm not trying to take anything away from what McCall has achieved but he has never really had a crisis to deal with. He's never really been under any pressure. Of course you could argue a lot of that is down to his relative success. But I think we've just kind of muddled along in a league rift with inconsistency. I sometimes wonder what he would do if we lost key players or the squad breaks up and we have to start again (as looks likely next season). It's also disappointing that for all the good league form I have no real belief we can win a trophy under McCall. As a Motherwell fan that is your one big hope each season. I've said it before McCall is a steady Eddie. No great football, decent football. No great wins, decent wins. No great league positions, decent league positions. It's not that exciting but it's still a long way from the dark days under McLeish or the years of perennial struggle under McLean. At the same time, despite his generally good record, I have a kind of lingering feeling that we should have done better than we actually have, as if we've missed a rare opportunity. I'd say McCall is a good manager, not a great one.

Going to miss this one as I'm working - maybe not such a bad one to miss! I think it's going to hard to get the players heads up for this one after that midweek defeat. We've been beaten so many times now it must be next to impossible to get the players to believe. Last night was a huge opportunity for us to break that record and instill some confidence but obviously it wasn't taken but the important point is last nights defeat will, I think, affect our league performance. Already this season Ross County, St. Johnstone, Hibs have taken points off Celtic but it's hard to see how we possible can. Just a point. This time last season we'd kept 4 clean sheets. This season we've kept 1 and that on the first day of the season. We miss Craigan a lot and we are going to have to improve defensively because Higdon isn't going to score 7 goals every 7 games all season. I've only seen Ramsden once due to not making it to many games this season but you'd think he'd have to come in if fit. We desperately need some experience at the back. Sadly you can see someone like Tony Watt to score and their new guys Miku and Lassad to get their first for the club because we just don't look capable of defending well enough at the moment.

I got Rangers at odds of 3/1! Next best thing to a cash machine shooting notes out into the street.

Aberdeen have draw their last four home matches 0-0. Over the same period we have two 0-0 draws and two 2-1 wins. So if forms means anything you'd probably go for a 0-0 draw!

I don't see there being a great demand for McCall as a manager down south. His record in England was mediocre and once you have 'failed' down there you don't often get a second chance as what ever you do in the rest of your career you are considered 'not good enough for England'. If McCall moves on I think it will be to a bigger Scottish club - Aberdeen, Hearts or perhaps even Rangers.

You're right to think that.

I'm pretty sure the only goal Andy Roddie scored at Fir Park was for Aberdeen! In fact I'm pretty sure Andy Roddie never actually scored for us in about 60 matches. I remember the match you mention well because its one of my favourite ever Motherwell matches and Roddie definitely didn't score in it. I think Coyne and Arnott both got 2 and Billy Davies got the other.

"A magnficent goal! A sensational goal by the Motherwell captain Mitchell van der Gaag!"

Also, Stevie Hammell has one cap. The mid 90's side had a few international players - McKinnon, Lambert and Martin all played for Scotland. Coyne was a regular for Ireland.

To be fair McSkimming was a decent player when he was fit. It's just he had a lot of injuries and wasn't worth the fee McLeish paid for him. I might be wrong but wasn't he the last Motherwell player to score a winning goal at Ibrox? The other two were haddies. I'll always remember when the greatly feared Roy 'The Bear' Aitken joined St. Mirren and made his debut at Fir Park. Luc Nijholt wasn't having any of it though. First chance he got he went right into him and put him right over the advertising boards and then trotted back into position.

The Rangers side we'll face in the cup isn't really all that weaker than some of the sides we played last season. On one occasion they had youngster like Ross Perry and Jordan McMillan in the back four and they still gubbed us. I also think some of your 'analysis' of Rangers players shows a bias that doesn't give a true reflection of their abilities. Black is not mediocre. He's a good player and has bossed games at Fir Park both with Inverness and Hearts. Templeton, I agree, is hot and cold but he'll probably be on an up now having moved to 'his' team. McCulloch scored the winning goal against us not so long ago didn't he? You don't have to be young and speedy to win a header or hit one from 25 yards. He's scoring goals most weeks albeit at a lower level but if you think he's not worth worrying about these days I think you are mistaken especially if he's up against 19 year old defenders who you suspect he'll bully all match long. Shiels - you describe Shiels as a good player but he was probably the player of the season last year, outside the Celtic team anyway. Little - suddenly banging them in in the Third Division? Were you paying attention last season? Little scored a bundle in the SPL when he got the chance at the end of last season. Personally I think this was the worst possible draw we could have got. On paper we have a chance of winning, I'm not ruling it out, but we certainly aren't going to turn them over and I'm concerned about the psychological hang over of our records at Ibrox and our record against the Old Firm while McCall has been in charge. One thing though, Rangers generally haven't performed very well in the league cup at home in front of a smaller crowd. If Rangers fans don't turn up (or boycott us) and there are big spaces in the stands that will give us a boost. If there are 40,000 there, less so.

Difference is Offiong never kicked a ball for us, the two times I saw Lawless in the first team he was very good, scored a goal and was unlucky not to get more.

Seems everyone agrees tonight! Kerr and Randolph deserve a mention but Higdon wins MotM from me.

Thought Inverness started the better and Randolph had to make an excellent save to keep it 0-0. Inverness were certainly passing it around better than us and we got the goals against the run of play. Didn't quite see what happened but it looked like the goalkeeper had a howler and bundled into his own net. A minute or two later we were two nil up after Humphrey got to the byline and found Higdon. Inverness then scored what looked like a preventable goal but considering the inexperience of our back line today they did reasonably well overall. The first half was nothing special despite the goals but it livened up a bit in the second half as the game got stretched a bit. The standard of goal Inverness gave away was awful and you can imagine Big Tel going absolutely ballistic after the match and they did it again when a slack back pass from Raven (I think it was him anyway) went straight to Higdon who easily tucked it away. The last goal was the best of the bunch, Ojamaa skinned his man and sent a good ball in for Higdon who fired it into the top corner. We didn't have it all our own way, Randolph made three excellent saves in open play and of course saved a penalty. Kerr was excellent again today at right back, the back line did quite well considering they are all basically inexperienced teenagers, Law showed some class, Humphrey was raping their left back but his delivery was a mixed bag, still he set up the second goal. The two guys at either end though were immense - Randolph and Higdon.

Inverness are actually the top scorers in the league at the moment with 7 goals (joint with Dundee Utd) so we can't afford to take them lightly and we'll probably have to score at least a couple of goals to get a win. They have also got 2 away draws this season and their away win in the cup against Arbroath so they have traveled reasonably well so far. For me this is the type of game you have to win if you are going to have a decent season so I'm hoping for a win but I don't think it will be easy.

What happens if the deadline passes and we then play on Sunday and lose to Inverness and drop down to 9 or 10th in the league? Not impossible since they beat us at Fir Park last season! I'd say there would be uproar in the support about allowing the deadline to pass without bringing experience in. I think we could see a unknown loan deal or two coming in but I'm not sure about contracted players. We definitely need to improve the squad and I don't think it's good for young players development when they are thrown in when there is no back up.

Its the oldest trick in the book. He wants to go back to Hearts, this agent contacts Hearts secretly and Hearts offer a package. He gets his agent to have talks with another club and makes sure it is publicized. The agent then contacts Hearts and says "my guy is close to signing to this other club, better up your offer". Hearts then increase the pacakge on offer for the player. 1) The player gets the move he wants and a better deal 2) The agent gets a better percentage 3) The club get the player they were after. The only loser is the 'other club'. Happens all the time, just happens it's us who are the loser this time.

I thought he was really maturing the season before his bad injury. I've said it before but he reminded a lot of Paul Quinn, a young player that came in at an early age, made mistakes, was a bit rash but grew and matured into a very good pro. Potentially a very good player for us and hopefully we see him back soon.

So did I!