Ya Bezzer!

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.

Far as I know Hateley has another year to run on his contract.

Wasn't at the match today but I listened on the radio and it sounded a poor show. I totally understand fans frustrations because this was a big game today and this squad has had a habit of bottling it in the big matches but perhaps we should wait until next week before there is too much negativity and invective. I certainly won't be writing of the game next week, more like building it up into our Cup Final. More than likely unless Rangers pull off an unlikely result tomorrow, we will have the chance to go second against an out of sorts Rangers. We are actually THE form side in the whole of the UK right now (5 wins on the trot) at home and we shouldn't be writing any game off. We have to put everything into the match next week. Excuses won't play. This is the chance for the team to prove they can do it when it really matters. It's do or die next week because if we don't do it we endanger a whole seasons good work.

Would take a cup win over Champions League Qualifiers. That's on the clubs honours list for all time, a wee jaunt in Europe isn't. That said if you can't win a cup, Champions League qualification is a nice consolation!

Guy on Pie and Bovril wrote that if Celtic and us win on Saturday then that means if Rangers beat us the next Saturday then that defeat for us confirms the League for Celtic. So Rangers would either go 6 points behind us (if we win) or win the league for Celtic (if they win). If that's true then, oh the irony!

Instead of a Top 20 which is too hard to pick I'll pick an A team, my first picks, and a B team, my second picks. Also, only picked players I saw in person (ie from '86 on) Team A 1. Darren Randolph 2. Luc Nijholt 3. Rob McKinnon 4. Brian Martin 5. Mitchell van der Gaag 6. Paul Lambert 7. James McFadden 8. Phil O'Donnell 9. Tommy Coyne 10. Dougie Arnott 11. Davie Cooper Team B 1. Sieb Dykstra 2. Martyn Corrigan 3. Tom Boyd 4. Miodrag Krivokapic 5. Chris McCart 6. Jamie Dolan 7. Bobby Russell 8. Steve Kirk 9. Scott McDonald 10. Owen Coyle 11. Johnny Gahagan

Hard to say which Killie will turn up. Although with us when we won the cup we were living the Final for a full season after! 91/92 was one of the worst seasons ever! It's a massive game though, especially with Celtic playing Rangers. Since there isn't much chance of Killie making the Top 6, maybe they have seen out their season while we still have something competitive to fight for. Hope it goes that way anyway as the next two matches are a huge opportunity for us.

Wouldn't say it was the best but he did a decent job today. I'd say Considine was one or two more fouls away from a red card for persistant fouling but you can't send a guy off for just for any old foul even if he is on a yellow.

Played five at the back against a critically under strength Motherwell side who he had beaten the previous week with an adventureous three up front formation. It was a huge tactical blunder from Brown today.

Ojamaa and Humphrey ran their socks off but their final ball let them down at times. Jennings did a great job of shielding the two centre backs and helping them out. Randolph made an amazing save that saved us two points. The young lads if hardly outstanding all came in and did the job and deserved a clean sheet at the end of it. But I'm going for Stevie Hammell - great game, as the experienced member of the back four he helped the other guys out and scored an absolute corker that made all the difference at the end of the day. MotM - Stevie Hammell.

Probably deserved to win the match although I thought it was a bit low key at times and a little like an end of season match. We'd probably had the better of the match up until Steve Jennings got injured and had to go off for stitches and while we were down to 10 men we started to sit back and we never really got out of that mindset afterwards. Tactically I think Aberdeen let us off the hook a wee bit, last week they played two sitting midfielders and three forward going ones (two of them Megginson and Vernon, actually forwards), this week they played two and we coped with that much better defensively for most of the match. Secondly, Fraser Fyvie makes that team tick and he wasn't there today. Although it was a little low key in my opinion until the end when we were hanging on a bit most of the players did a decent job and Johnny Page and Adam Cummin looked comfortable but Aberdeen didn't really threaten often outside of high balls and both those guys are 6 foot plus and coped with it. The one real chance Aberdeen had Randolph saved brilliantly - looked like a save of the season contender. Hammell took this goal great as well, fantastic hit right into the top corner. Big win today - there's a couple of big matches coming up now!

Our squad is going to be stretched tomorrow but we should still looking to win this tie.

Ah, well Higdon to do a Paterson and play a blinder as an emergency centre half!

If Aberdeen play the same system I think it would be foolish to play 4-4-2 especially with Lasley missing. Think we will have to match them up to get enough ball to cause them problems. ---------------Randolph-------------- Hateley----Hutchy----Clancy---Hammell ---------Jennings-------Law---------- Humphrey-------Ojamaa---------Murphy- ---------------Higdon---------------- I've not heard news about Hutchinson but people seem to be assuming he will definitely miss the match. Is that the case? To me it didn't look like a serious injury, just a heavy clash, and he's a tough boy, I'd expect him to be OK for the weekend unless there really was something more serious to it.

Well I disagree there. He's one of those players where if he make a mistake, people in the crowd jump on him, when if others do exactly the same nothing is said or there is only low key grumbling. His defiances are constantly exaggerated and what he brings to the team is over looked. For instance today, even though he didn't play well he still got at least 2 shots on target which I doubt many others managed and his crossing was a hell of a lot better than Hateley's. I was thinking about Johnny Gahagan who was equally inconsistent and yet he was a crowd favourite almost because half the time he didn't turn up and half the time he did and you never knew what you were going to get but the fans knew that on his day he brought something to the team no one else could. I think with Murphy people need to accentuate the positive a bit more.

Sadly Lasley is getting himself a reputation with referees. Could be another Michael Stewart situation where referees automatically go for a red instead of a yellow, or a yellow when they would let another player go. Still not seen the TV replays yet but if its as bad as being claimed it really does him no favours.

Murphy taking pelters yet Ojamaa who was equally poor today is currently winning the MotM poll... Going out the gates I heard someone saying 'Murphy hasn't kicked a ball in months' - just 2 goals in the last 3 home matches and 6 goals since the turn of the year. People have a short memory. Murphy is the new David Clarkson. Gets in double figures every season and some people still don't rate him and never will because as soon as he has a poor match they'll trot out the 'Murphy hasn't kicked a ball in months' line.