Ya Bezzer!

I knew I had heard the name before. He had a spell at Falkirk.

Murphy for me. He was our best player for most of the match and was unlucky not to get a goal in the first half when his volley was cleared off the line and then got us back into the match with his goal.

Option A. I think ZFA looks more like a first team player than Carswell.

Strange game. Although we didn't play any where near as good as we were against Aberdeen I thought we were creating more chances and pressing forward more than Kilmarnock but we weren't clinical enough and Kilmarnock took their chance with a peach. Second half Kilmarnock matched if not slightly bettered us and Randolph had to make a couple of useful saves. Then at 2-0 it looked like it was all over and Kilmarnock would be taking the 3 points. However when Murphy scored, Kilmarnock seemed to fall apart. Ojamaa got an excellent goal soon after and I felt, probably like most Motherwell supporters, we were going to get a winner. We certainly had their backs against the walls and perhaps should have got a third. Overall though, a draw wasn't a bad result all things considered and the last 15 minutes or so were certainly exciting.

Jamie Murphy is surely worth more to us staying, than going at £100,000. Between them Higdon and Murphy have scored 21 of our 35 league goals, we can't afford to lose one of them and only have one regular scorer in the team.

Five teams in the SPL have better away records than home this season - Celtic, Inverness, Motherwell, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd. You'll notice Kilmarnock aren't one of those teams but playing at home doesn't seem to be a major advantage these days.

The list with up to date league stats START+SUB (GOALS) Aberdeen Russell Anderson 19, Gavin Rae 17 (3), Isaac Osbourne 13+1 (1), Ryan Fraser 12+2, Josh Magennis 11+8 (3), Chris Clark 6+4 (1), Gary Naysmith 5, Rory Fallon 4+4, Mitch Megginson 1+2, Jason Brown 1+1, Rob Milsom 0+2, Danny Rogers 0. Celtic Paddy McCourt 2+6, Thomas Rogne 2+1. Dundee Rab Douglas 19, Gary Irvine 19, Jim McAlister 19, Iain Davidson 18 (1), Kyle Benedictus 15+2 (1), Matt Lockwood 15+1 (1), Ryan Conroy 12+6 (3), John Baird 11+6, Kevin McBride 11 (1), Nicky Riley 10+3 (2), Declan Gallagher 9, Steven Milne 7+3 (1), Davide Grassi 6, Mark Kerr 5, Neil McGregor 5, Stephen O'Donnell 4, Mark Stewart 3+5, Brian Easton 2, Martin Boyle 1+7, Graham Webster 0+3, Alex Baird 0, Carl Finnegan 0, Jamie McCluskey 0. Dundee United Willo Flood 19 (1), Jon Daly 17+1 [8], Barry Douglas 12, Steve Banks 0. Hearts Marius Zaliukas 18 (2), Darren Barr 18, Ryan McGowan 18, Andy Webster 16, Danny Grainger 13 (2), Andy Driver 11+6 (1), Arvydas Novikovas 11+5 (3), Scott Robinson 5+4, Kevin McHattie 5, Dylan McGowan 4+3, Dale Carrick 2+5, Gordon Smith 2+2, Jack Hamilton 0, Brad McKay 0, Fraser Mullen 0. Hibs David Wotherspoon 20 (3), Eoin Doyle 19+1 [8], Alan Maybury 16+1, Gary Deegan 10+1, Lewis Stevenson 8+4, Ivan Sproule 2+8, Shefki Kuqi 0+12, Danny Galbraith 0, Pa Kujabi 0, Sean Murdoch 0. Inverness Aaron Doran 20 (1), David Raven 20, Andrew Shinnie 20 [8], Gary Warren 20 (3), Owain Tudur-Jones 16 (2), Ross Draper 16+1 (4), Antonio Reguero 13, Shane Sutherland 5+9, Gavin Morrison 2+7, Nick Ross 1+3 (1), Scott Mathieson 0. Kilmarnock Liam Kelly 17 (5), Ryan O'Leary 16+3 (1), Cammy Bell 13, James Dayton 12+3 (1), Borja Perez 10+1 (1), Danny Racchi 7+4 (1), Kyle Letheren 6+1, Mohamadou Sissoko 3+2, William Gros 0+6, Garry Hay 0, Anssi Jaakkola 0. Motherwell Michael Higdon 20 (12), Nicky Law 20 (3), Tom Hateley 19 (2), Darren Randolph (19), Jamie Murphy 18+2 (9), Chris Humphrey 17+1 (1), Simon Ramsden 11+1, Zaine Francis-Angol 5+8, Omar Daley 2+8 (1), Robert McHugh 1+10 (3), Steven Saunders 0. Ross County Scott Boyd 20, Iain Vigurs 20 (4), Grant Munro 19+1 (1), Richard Brittain 19 (4), Marc Fitzpatrick 18+1, Stuart Kettlewell 16+2 (2), Rocco Quinn 16 (4), Michael Fraser 15, Mark Fotheringham 11, Mihael Kovacevic 10+2, Sam Morrow 6+5 (1), Mark Brown 5, Alex Cooper 4+4, Steven Ross 4+2 (1), Mark Corcoran 2+3, Paul Lawson 2+2, St Johnstone Alan Mannus 20, Liam Craig 20 (2), Frazer Wright 19 (1), Chris Millar 15+1, Gary Miller 12+3, Rowan Vine 11+6 (3), Pat Cregg 10+2, Callum Davidson 9+1, Dave MacKay 9+1, David McCracken 4+1, David Robertson 1+5 (2), Jamie Adams 0+4, Craig Beattie 0+2, Kevin Moon 0+1, Liam Caddis 0, Zander Clark 0, Jonny Tuffey 0, St Mirren Craig Samson 20, Steven Thompson 19 (9), David van Zanten 18+1, Marc McAusland 17+1, Gary Teale 11+7, Graham Carey 11+3, Paul McGowan 8 (1), Sam Parkin 7+9 (2), Graeme McGregor 0, Chris Smith 0. Looking at the list I think realistic signings that I think would be good additions would be Iain Davidson, Craig Samson, Scott Boyd.

I think we are in danger of building this guy up a bit too much. He's come in and done reasonably well. I agree with the school of thought that he's not a left back and would be better up the pitch a bit. He played well on Saturday and if he keeps his place in the team for the Kilmarnock match he deserves it. But some folk need to calm it a bit with 'Hammell is finished now' talk. Stevie Hammell has had a couple of ropey matches but he's also had 300+ games as good as anything Francis-Angol has produced in his short career. Give the guy time to develop, he's a teenager and still has a lot to learn.

Agree with Shaka, looked more like 3-4-3 to me. I think the reason it worked so well was because you had a sort of 'spear tip' up front with Higdon as the 'point' laying off balls to Ojamaa and Murphy who were playing through the middle and just behind. Francis-Angol and Hateley provided the width. The central midfielders could sit more instead of straining to support one up front. I'm not sure if it's going to be as effective next time though as I think we completely foxed Craig Brown as to the way we were going to play yesterday and managers will be on to us now but it's worth a try. The thing is that Kilmarnock are a team that try lots of different set ups but it looks to me, by looking at the recent team line ups, they might play a 3-4-3 themselves although I'm only guessing from looking at the personnel(Bell - Tesselaar, Nelson, Sissoko - Fowler, Pascali, Kelly, Harkins - Perez, Heffernan, Sheridan or possibly Pascali could play at the back, Fowler move into the centre and Tesselaar play right midfield) so if that was the case it would make sense to match them up.

Would have given it to Jamie Murphy if he had scored the penalty. Three goals and an assist? I think that ought to get you the man of the match award. Two goals and an assist though? That ought to get you the man of the match award as well, except you have to give it to Ojamaa. So Ojamaa it is. First player to get a second man of the match award from me this season. Sadly it looks at least one of the two won't be here for much longer.

Excellent and well deserved victory. No exaggeration to say we could have score 10 today. Nice to see us try something different with the 3-4-3 formation and although in the initial stages we looked 2nd best and very shaky in defence once we got the first goal we always looked in control. The front three were all excellent today.

Just watched the last Sportscene and looking at McGinn's performance against St. Johnstone and then thinking about our defensive problems at the moment, well, it's hard to be too positive. I'm putting on a crazy coupon with all the Premiership and SPL games on, and I can't very well sit at the game and hope for a draw or lose, so I'm still putting home win on my coupon.

Not seen Ferguson play recently but you have to admit he had a wee bit of quality. 34 isn't that old these days, surely worth a half season contract to see how it worked out. I wonder if those not keen on Ferguson would also have been against us signing an old, slow, fat, Rangers reserves winger called Davie Cooper!

The St. Mirren result doesn't bother me as much as the cup defeats and the home form. On the Home Form table we are 11th this season, only Dundee are below us. That's basically the problem. We might be 3rd in the league, we might be doing reasonably well OVERALL but 85% of our support have been watching a struggling-against-relegation season.

St. Mirren have now only lost 1 of their last 5 matches and that was to Celtic. 2 wins, 2 draws and that defeat at Celtic Park so there not actually in bad form. Something has to be done to shore us up defensively. 3 clean sheets in 26 matches just isn't good enough. We've also conceded 2 goals in our last 4 matches, again not good enough, especially when you consider 3 of those teams are Bottom 6 teams. I'd have Saunders back in as soon as he's ready but even then you can't expect him to come back from his bad injuries and make everything OK in an instant. He's going to need games to get back up to speed.

Probably going to go to this so there goes our away record!

I think with low bids for players we do have to look very carefully at it but especially at this time of the season there is a need to get cash flow into the club that can sometimes influence the decision as a short term one, rather than a long term one. Also I feel a bit sorry for Murphy. I suspect he doesn't really want to leave but as a sale-able asset there is a bit of pressure on him to sacrifice his own wants for those of the club.

Pretty much agree with this. Looks a lot more comfortable in forward positions. Not sure of him as a left back though.

To be fair we are in a very unusual and perhaps unprecedented situation here. 2nd top of the league, 1 defeat in 8 with 5 wins - great. But also, out both cups, only 2 home wins all season and generally woeful performances at Fir Park. I think it's silly to suggest McCall should go because you have to look at the bigger picture but there are actual issues here that should be addressed and if it was based purely on home matches I think there would be a case for McCall's dismissal. I'm a pay at the gate fan this season and when I hand over £20 plus to get in and I'm served up the performances we've seen at home this season then I think it's perfectly understandable to be annoyed. Away form is great, but McCall HAS to do something to turn around the home fortunes. If he doesn't our already faltering attendances are only going to get worse and worse and that is going to have repercussion next season when we are going to have to replace a lot of playrs and the cash isn't there.

Aberdeen were playing 5 across the back with a bank of 4 in front of them after they scored. Very difficult to break down. They also hold a straight line defensively which is something we completely fail to do with players getting caught out of position (especially Hateley but they all do it) all the time. Towards the end Aberdeen played with 6 players in a line right across the back.

McCall seems like a nice enough guy but I don't really rate him as a manager. I could sit here and type out a list of what I think are legitimate complaints about Stuart McCall, I think his transfer record is patchy, I think he's released players that should still be at Fir Park, I think he is tactically limited, I think he is a negative coach, I think he is not a manager who dares to dream. However you can hardly be taken seriously to suggest Stuart McCall's time is up when we are sitting third in the league, after finishing 2nd last season. You can't sack a manager for losing a cup match. Overall we have done pretty well with McCall in charge. Like I said, personally, I have my doubts about him and think a significant number of factors that have lead to that relative success are outside of McCall's managerial ability but that's just my opinion. I think we could struggle badly next season if we lose a significant number of our better players but until we are actually struggling badly sacking McCall shouldn't be an option. It does worry me that the appalling home record could drive fans away when we desperately need bodies through the turnstiles but you have to remember our home form is only half of the story.

Fans are entitled to criticize players/managers if they don't feel like they are performing, especially consistently over a long period. However, you don't like to see people go over the top as has happened on occasion, for instance during Billy Davies time as manager when things got really poisonous for a while. However I'm quite interested in your post above because you seem to be saying you think you should be entitled to be able to have free reign to criticize players but at the same time are moaning about other supporters criticizing you at matches. Isn't there a bit of hypocrisy there? I'm basically for freedom of speech but that applies to everyone and different supporters see their role differently. Some think they pay their money and they can say what they want, others think supporters should always support, I'm kinda in the middle of those two positions but you can't really complain about being shouted at if you are dishing it out yourself.

Randolph - made about 5 great saves tonight.

Especially since the League Cup isn't even concluded. They should play the League Cup in the first half of the season (like they used to) and the Scottish Cup in the second half. But this being Scottish football straight forward common sense doesn't get a look in.

It wouldn't be that different if it was just one player. Nicky Law wasn't playing tonight and look at us! A shadow of the team on Saturday.