Ya Bezzer!

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.

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.