Ya Bezzer!

Must win game and we won so congratulations to the management and players. It was an odd match though and although we deserved to win our opening two goals came against the run of pla after a very sluggish start and I wasn't altogether convinced by the performance in all areas. Luckily though our forward players all did very well and that combinded with St.Johnstone having an adhoc defense today meant we created lots of chances. The reintroduction of Murphy made a made a big difference, Law was playing in his best position and Chris Humphrey probably had one of his best performances in a Motherwell shirt. Defensively though I wasn't entirely confortable even though St. Johnstone didn't put us under to much pressure and our midfield duo of Jennings and Lasley were quiet today - luckily their opposite numbers didn't distinguish themselves either. All in all though you couldn't complain too much and today is a massive step towards Champions League football next season although we still have a bit to do before we can get too cocky but today has to be a big confidence boast after a shaky spell.

St. Johnstone have won more points away from home than we have at Fir Park, scored more goals away from home than we have at Fir Park and conceded less goals away from home than we have at Fir Park! It's going to be a tough match but hopefully we can overcome them and Hearts do us a favour.

I think it's in France where they have all there player and manager of the year awards around Christmas/New Year. Always seemed a much more sensible idea to me to judge a manager over the second half of one season and the first half of another. You not only know who won what in the previous season but also how they followed it up in the first half of the current season.

Derek Adams deserves it. Apparently he turned Michael Fraser into a goalkeeper!

Administration was the best thing that every happened to us and gave us at least a 5 if not 10 year start over most other teams in running the club on a financially realistic basis. Just look at what is happening to Rangers right now and think what would have happened to us if we'd accumulated our debts over a further decade. It's no coincidence that the last 10 years has probably been the most consistently successful for the club since the 1950's. Just a pity we've not gone one step further and actually won a trophy in that time but there's always next season! I'm not sure I really understand the antipathy to Nevin. People made mistakes and we moved on. Now and then I had much more distaste for some of the players that passed through the club at that time, earned very good wages and gave nothing back in terms of performances or value for money.

It would be nice if we could repeat the semi final performance with 3 first half goals and the breeze through the second half but it's probably not going to be like that. I hope to God we get the first goal because if we don't you can see it turning nasty in the East Stand and that's not what we need right now.

First of all it's plain daft to be thinking about getting rid of McCall but that doesn't mean people can't voice concerns or observations. We are 3rd but Celtic won the league and I don't think anyone (away from Celtic Park that is) thinks Neil Lennon is an extraordinary manager. Basically he won the league not because of his tactical ability, his ability to motivate players for important matches or anything else - he won because of the playing staff he has available to him. There have been times when I think our league performance this season has been more down to our playing staff being better than most of the rest than Stuart McCall. But it's also important to recognize that being the manager of a football club isn't all about match day. There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and I have no reason to believe Stuart McCall doesn't do that side of things very well. We seem to be well run behind the scenes, a good dressing room, we haven't had too many injuries and players all seem fit enough, although I don't always agree with his after match comments he conducts himself well in the media etc and all that preparation during the week may be just as important as what happens during the 90 minutes of a match. However I rarely agree with his line ups, his tactics have often been inflexible, he is conservative and defensively minded in my opinion, his use of (or lack of) substitutes is often baffling, he is over loyal to some players and hasn't give others a real chance, he seems to make the same mistakes over and over, we have not seen a single young player of note emerge in the year and a half McCall has been at the club and our record against the Old Firm and in important matches isn't that great to say the least. So there is good and bad about McCall. I always say finishing Top 6 is a good achievement for a Motherwell manager and McCall will certainly do that. He has a smaller playing staff and a smaller budget than many sides and his options are limited and he deserves praise for his achievements but I just wonder if we ever find ourselves in a bit of a hole if McCall is the kind of guy that would get us out of it. Decent at keeping the motor running, perhaps not so good if we need a road side mechanic. I heard a while back that McCall was worried about finishing high up the league because it would increase fan expectation. Understandable perhaps but I think that sums up Stuart McCall in a way. A bit of a steady eddie. Some one who isn't going to push the team on to bigger and better things. Someone who is happy to have relative or modest success rather than actual success. It could be a lot worse. I just fear when we look back on Season 2011/12 some of us will feel a little disappointed that we had 'once in a generation' chances (finishing 2nd, cup competitions, weak Old Firm sides, and now the battle for Champions League) and didn't take them.

He didn't come on in two of the five matches recently. In the three he did come on in we were already well beaten in two of them and the only game that was in the balance we scored an equalizer after he came on. Just so you get your facts right.

I thought Jennings struggled a bit. He seemed to be grimacing and on a couple of occasions lay down on the ground and did some twisting and stretching exercises. Looked to me like had was carrying an injury or knock of some kind, maybe his back. I thought Hutchy defended OK for the most part but was pretty sloppy in possession. Went for Humphrey. I'm not his biggest fan to say the least but seemed to me anything that was going to come off for us was going to come off Humphrey and I think he forced the only real save of note from Zaluskas.

Playing the system we did today was a bit of a joke. On one hand you can perhaps say McCall tried something a little different and it didn't work but I think it was obvious it wouldn't work because Higdon needs someone to play off. This we knew. Daley was poor today and how he started ahead of Murphy I'm not sure. In fact I think dropping Murphy has been a disastrous move by McCall. Murphy, who I ought to remind you is the clubs top goalscorer from open play this season, has missed 6 league matches this season and we've only won one of them, even though 4 of them were home matches, and we've scoring a whopping 0.5 goals per game when Murphy hasn't started. The only match we won in those six we had to rely on Stevie Hammell hitting a 30 yarder against a hopeless Aberdeen team. Our attack is denuded without Murphy. He has quiet matches of course but we are a hell of a lot worse without him. Can anyone honestly say we have been improved by dropping him? At Kilmarnock? At Hibs? Earlier in the season against Dundee Utd when we hardly got a shot on target? Today? Carswell? Don't want to be harsh on the lad I've never seen anything from him to suggest he's a SPL player. I was at Accies last week and I saw youngsters who impressed me more in 90 minutes than Carswell has in almost a full season. Tom Hateley? Has been absolutely rank rotten for quite a while now. I don't know if Saunders is ready to come back into the first team at this crucial part of the season but I don't see how he can be any worse than Hateley. Next week is a must win but it will not be an easy match. St.Johnstone gave us our biggest humping of the season at Fir Park last September and gave us a very tough match in the last encounter.

Just a thought; maybe if we had a better support we would have played better. We are on the verge of Champions League here. I was in the East Stand today and it was standing out on Rannoch moor - nae other fuckers there! If it doesn't matter to supporters....

Still think we need something from this match, remember Dundee Utd's goal difference is so superior the gap is effectively only 2 points and they have an advantage in the scheduled fixtures of having the same old firm matches but Hearts at home instead of away. I might be wrong but I can't see Dundee Utd not getting at least a point in their two matches against the OF and I'd fancy them more than us to get points off Hearts. That's why I think we need a four point advantage going into these last four matches. We really need a two point cushion over these next four matches and that's why we need to get something today. A win of course would be magnificent!

I'd say Randolph is the best goalkeeper we've had in my time coming to Fir Park. As for Ruddy making more saves, I'd suggest we are defensively better now than we were back then and that has something to do with that. Back then the team was chopped and changed alot, we had less experienced defenders like Saunders and Hutchinson playing and generally were a bit more open than we are under McCall. I also think Ruddy definitely tailed off in the second half of his season here and wasn't as impressive as in the first half. In 2009/10 we conceded 54 goals, this season (so far) 38.

Was at the Accies/Morton game today. Morton were nearly as brutal as they were against us but I thought Fouad Bachirou looked a decent player that could maybe step up like Morgaro Gomis did. Couple of OGs at the game that big Crags would have been proud of, one from Fir Park reject Simon Mensing!

Just gone through all the fixtures with reasonable guesses at results. According to my estimated results a draw in the final match would see us lose out on goal difference....

This weekends match is enormously important. If we can get 3 points in that one we have a fighting chance. If we lose and Dundee Utd and/or St. Johnstone win then I'd be very worried. So rather than looking at the last game of the season we should be looking at the next game in the season. Hibs might be shite but they have given us plenty scares this season. I don't think you can say with any degree of confidence that we'll go over there and blow them away. It's going to be tense, it's going to be nervy but I think that's one we really need to win.

Think this match is now a must win. Would be pleased if Griffiths was missing because I think he's one of the top players in this league, at least when I've seen him.

The Motherwell support today was pathetic. You could have counted them in the POD with a hook hand. Cooper looked about normal but the East stand was half empty, worse than it usually is for run of the mill matches. I know its Easter, its on telly and it was an early kick off but this was a big game.

Strange game. We probably didn't deserve to lose over the peice and I thought we looked comfortable for most of the match but that was probably down to Rangers being just as poor as us. However we took the lead and lost it in a couple of minutes. We had a point in the bag with a minute to go and couldn't defend a corner. If you really want to finish second, if you really want Champions League, if you really want to win, that's not good enough. We looked shakey defensively, we couldn't pass, our midfield never really took a hold of the game, our final ball was atrocious, players were bailing out of responsibilites when they should be taking them on, we weren't clinical enough in front of goal. It was a journey man performance. Also McCall sat on his hands. There were players on the pitch who were ran out, exhausted who should have been off and he did nothing.

Sadly they were just as flat in the Final. However, I'm hopeful and excited for Saturday. We have the best league home form in British football (5 games, 5 wins) so let's be positive about the up coming match because the support has a part to play if we are going to do this.

He switched the team round but it was still the same players from the same small squad. Apart from a few appearances for Stuart Carswell and one start for Lee Hollis is was essential the same 14-15 players that had saw out the season. McCall's rotation didn't help but I also think trying to get a squad as small as ours through a whole seasons when almost everyone has 35-40 games under their belt is a problem towards the end of the season.

We have a very small squad and have used a core of 13-14 players pretty much all season. Last season about this time we ran out of legs and their was no energy in our performances and that's one of the major problems with a small squad you have too many players toiling in the final straight. If your form is good you can keep it going, but when you have to pick yourself up after defeats that's when the problems start. It's not so much we have to beat Rangers, more we have to get going again quickly after last week. If we lose two on the trot I can see us going into a sustained dip in energy and form and with St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd on our trail again that could be fatal. Also remember 3 of our final 7 matches are against the Old Firm. We need to get rid of this hoodoo on Saturday.

I will be extremely disappointed if we don't get at least a draw. Rangers have nothing to play for, we have probably a once in a life time chance to get Champions League football. I think some times Motherwell fans are too accepting of failure. This team needs to be told quite clearly on Saturday - this is the one, you have to do it today, failure will not be accepted. I honestly think if we lose this one we will lose the Champions League place. So in my mind that's what's at stake here and I hope the players are thinking that way to, that they don't shite it and they fight like fucking devils to make sure we get the result we need.

As far as I know the contracts expire as below. Summer 2012 - Hollis, Bradley, Saunders, Hammell, Craigan, Page, Clancy, McKinnon, Lasley, Forbes, Jennings, Pollock. Summer 2013 - Randolph, Hateley, Humphrey, McHugh, Higdon, Murphy Summer 2014 - Hutchinson ? - Halsman, Devlin, Carswell, Smith.

He did well as a deep lying midfielder under Gannon. But like Forbes he's not suited to a 4 man midfield.