Ya Bezzer!

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.

I raised that point in the main game thread. There is no need to have him there when Law can play there (and in fact that's his best position to) and Murphy can play right. You don't need to change any personnel or even the position of any other player. Just one of those baffling decisions managers make that you can't seem to grasp at all.

Went for Steve Jennings. Tried his hardest but nothing was happening up front or along side him.

Too little too late. To be honest I thought we were pish for almost all of the match and it was more Aberdeen coming down to our level than us going up a few gears. Say what you like about the corner decision it still had to be defended and we didn't do that. Losing a goal in 3 minutes says it all really. Aberdeen came out better prepared and much sharper and even after a few minutes it was hardly a surprise when they scored. It was one of those days when the defence was all over the place and we looked disjointed all over the park. The penalty should have been a way back in but it was a disappointing effort, same side as his last two and an easy height for the keeper to save. As for the sending off, I've not seen TV replays but it looked a 50/50 tackle from the stand. I heard Fyvies leg was broken and I see some criticism of Lasley on the board so perhaps it was worse than it looked in real time. Good luck to Fraser Fyvie and I hope he recovers quickly, he played well today. It was also disappointing to see the return of Law on the right and Murphy on the left when they have shown lately that they work better on the opposite sides and Brown's 4-2-3-1, a change from their last visit, demanded tactical flexability from our manager which he didn't really respond to until it was too late. I'm afraid with the extra man and Lasley off form and then sent off they controlled midfield for most of the match. Our goal sparked a revival but it was still pretty scrappy stuff from us and although we could have nicked a late goal we didn't really show the quality in the final third. We'll need to do better next week if we want to stay on course for Champions League football and I'm guessing Lasley will have quite a hefty suspension coming up.

I had a successful day at the bookies yesterday but I don't know if I'm lucky enough to get cash off the bookies and see my team win on the same weekend. If we lose you can blame me. I think this will be a tough match, Aberdeen might not be great but they have been turned into a typical Brown type team that's hard to beat and doesn't give away much at the back. I think we will need Ojamaa at his best to help break them down. I suspect it could go to a replay at Pittodrie but even if that happened I'd reckon we'd still be in with at least an even chance in the return match.

I don't like Rangers. They are my least favourite club in the world. I am enjoying their current plight but when it comes down to it I don't really give a fuck about them - whether they go out of business, stay up, go into liquidation or any thing else. I'm a Motherwell man, I support Motherwell and that's all I really care about. The fact that a lot of people in here are saying they will walk away from their own club because of something that happens at Rangers or SPL headquarters offends me much more than any slippery skin saving deal Rangers might be able to get behind the scenes. Seems to me too many people hate Rangers and Celtic more than they love their own club. If you think after 26 years I'd throw my own club to the wolves because of ramifications coming out of Ibrox or else where you are very much mistaken.

We have quite a few players, senior and otherwise, that have re-signed by negotiating new deals. I'd imagine re-signing players is more expensive than bringing in free transfers. For instance Tom Hateley will probably be earning a lot more now than with his initial deal. Same with Murphy, Jennings etc. Keeping a playing staff together for a number of seasons I'm fairly confident is a bit more expensive than having a turn over of end of contracts and free replacements.

I hope all this doesn't unnerve the team and we can stay on form.

PATG or season ticket I'll be there as long as I've got breath in me!

I think some people are letting rivalry cloud their judgement! The current Celtic side is probably the best team to play in Scotland for quite a number of seasons. And it would be a brave man that would bet against Celtic to win the treble although I'm sure we all have hopes ourselves of a Scottish Cup win! If McCall finishes second and wins the Scottish Cup that would be a magnificent achievement and he'd come into contention but I doubt very much if he would simply for finishing third with no silverware.