Ya Bezzer!

I think I know who is going to win this one! Hutchie was immense at the back but Ojaama just gave us a massive injection up front.

Since the Alba cameras were no help at all I'll give my version of events regarding the Craigan sending off which I was close to. Barrowman and Craigan went for a high ball, Barrowman flicked his head back and catch Craigan. Looked accidental but Craigan had a word or two with Barrowman for what he felt was dangerous play. He then held his head for a bit in the affected area and Barrowman came over gave him some verbals and moved off. Craigan lost the plot and then rushed right over to Barrowman and gave him some hair dryer treatment. Then, as far as I could see, with Craigan right in Barrowmans face, Barrowman seemed to lean forward and 'butt' Craigan, not hard or anything but it seemed to me like there was a butting action by Barrowman and he touched Craigans face. Craigan then clutched his face again and the referee ran over and sent him off! That's what I saw, perhaps I'm a little biased of course but for me it was a booking for the pair of them and if anyone should have been sent off it was Barrowman. But Craigan shouldn't have reacted like he did, you expect an experienced player like him to keep a cooler head.

I think tonight proves we need two up front. Higdon did well tonight and formed a good partnership, Murphy and Ojaama haven't played up front so that's just conjecture but again the main point is - TWO UPFRONT.

Things didn't look good when Craigan got sent off. I had a decent view of the sending off and I thought it was harsh but Crags should be using his experience not to get into those kind of situations. However, it didn't really alter things very much - we dominated before and after, except for a little spell immediately after Dunfermline scored. Some great defensive performances and up front Higdon and Ojaama were excellent. Left clapping, not done that for a while - hopefully we can put in that level of performance on Saturday.

In Italy though there are huge numbers of loan deals. Often lower league clubs only have a small number of contracted players with the rest of the squad loaned in from larger clubs. In essence what we've been doing with our younger players isn't that far from the Italian system except it's not quite on the same scale.

I don't see any reason why they can't continue the U19 league but allow a number of over 19 players to take part. It used to be the case with U21 international football and of course there is the Olympics. Perhaps 3 players in each squad could be over 19 and that would give over age players a chance to get games.

Don't disagree with any of this but the fact is the players mentioned aren't keeping us back, they are still among the best players at the club. Take those three players out the club and where would we be? Probably going out the cup a couple of rounds earlier and finishing lower down the league. I certainly don't think we'd see silverware flooding in. To win things you need genuine talent, experience of winning things before and confidence/belief. We had that in 1991, even in 2002 but we don't have that now. There are no Davie Coopers or James McFaddens or even Craig Patersons, Iain Fergusons or Bobby Russells. Currently the 'stalwarts' are the best we have.

Hope I'm wrong but I don't think this is going to be a walk over. Dunfermline are coming off a great result at Kilmarnock, have brought in some good signings during the window and confidence will be up coming into this match - in fact if Dunfermline could get 3 points it would lift them off the bottom of the table - surely a major motivation for them. They also have a decent away record this season, if the league table showed only away points, Dunfermline would be Top 6, 5th in fact. However this is one we must win. It's a chance to arrest our recent poor form and wipe the slate clean regarding our terrible home form. Since we probably won't finish near the European spots with our current home form this match could literally make or break our season.

To those that want to drop Murphy - take a look at who has been scoring the few goals we've got recently. Then take a look at the squad goal tallies. Then remember back to the Dundee Utd game at Fir Park when Murphy was dropped and we gave probably our least penetrating attacking performance of a season filled with them. Then when you've done that come to the conclusion that without Murphy in the side the chances of us scoring a goal drop by about 50%.

I still think Forbes could do something for us if he was developed properly. He has a level of ability on the ball that is quite rare and I think we would be foolish to give that away at this point. Obviously there are flaws in his game, mainly athletic ones, but I think it would be to our detriment if the player with the best eye for a penetrating pass didn't have a place at Fir Park. At the end of the day Forbes fate rests with the managers tactics. If we play a 4 midfield as the last two managers have (mostly) then Forbes is probably surplus to requirements. If not, and we play 5 in the 'Gannon' style Forbes comes into contention. Maybe McCall needs to take that option into consideration as on several occasions this seasons teams have shut us down by playing 5 in midfield. It might not be something we want to do every week but in my opinion Stuart McCall needs to show more formational flexibility and as a result should be using Forbes more.

I don't think many people are saying that McCall should be sacked just that the home form and performances has now become unacceptable. It's down to McCall now to do something but in my opinion he doesn't seem to have a surplus of ideas for doing so or is unwilling to deviate from his current ideas. I just hope to god the football gets better.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I understand you don't make it to many games these days. I started supporting the club in 86 and I've seen plenty of relegation battles. The football we are playing at the moment in the home matches is consistently dire and worse than a lot of the seasons we were at the opposite end of the table.

If you can only score 4 league goals in 5 and a half months you deserve abuse. If you can't win a home game in 3 and a half months you deserve abuse. What footballers need to realise is when normal people in normal jobs fail to that abject extent they don't get shouted at or booed, they get fired and sent down the dole office. Motherwell players don't get paid fortunes relative to other footballers but they do get paid a lot of money relative to a lot of the supports and these guys that earn 3 or 4 or 5 times less than the players are putting their money down and getting absolutely nothing back for it. There are guys doing a full days graft just to pay for a day out at the football and what do they get - an entire season of utter tripe, not one game, or even a wee bad run, an entire season of tripe. Zero entertainment, a goal ever other three games and winless streak that goes back months. But yeah, no one has any cause for complaint.

You must be earning more than me if you are so blase about throwing £30 away every second Saturday.

He's scored 4 of our last 6 goals.

Do we really need a striker that doesn't score goals? He might have various qualities but goal scoring isn't one of them. He averages a goal every 10 matches in the SPL!

Went for Daley as well. That substitution was a total joke. Easily our most dangerous attacking player.

Last season we got to the Scottish Cup Final took our foot off the pedal, put in some terrible performances and looked a poor side. This season we got to 3rd place in the league took our foot off the pedal, put in some terrible performances and looked a poor side. Sometimes you wonder if this side has a real winners mentality or if they are happy just to be 'doing OK'. They don't seem to be really 'hungry' and I don't think McCall has really done much to change that, if anything he's legitimized that mentality with some of his comments.

Another shockingly bad home performance. We just about passed muster in the first half when we played the ball round well enough without causing too many worries for Inverness but the second half display was woeful from the very start. The players actually came out the tunnel looking lethargic and deflated and it only got worse from then on in. Inverness were the better team and deserved to win and we need to have a serious look at the way our players and management team are performing at the moment. No win since September is bad enough but a measly 4 league goals at home since the first game of the season back in JULY is absolutely pathetic. I have nothing personal against Higdon but it is obviously not working as a system to play Higdon up front in a 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1. It is obviously not working to have our most talented player wide left when his best position is up front. It is obviously not working to use Tom Hateley in a midfield role when Lasley or Jennings are unavailable. It is obviously not working to keep Nicky Law in the side when he's hardly kicked a ball in months. McCall waits far too long to make changes to the system and the personnel and when he does, such as today, he makes the wrong change. It's not good enough. I realise our away form is much better but I've only been to two away matches this season and can honestly say, hand on heart, this is the poorest season since Maurice Malpas was in charge. It is absolutely garbage and I put the blame on a one dimensional and very negative managerial set up. It has to change because if it doesn't people just going to stop going to matches. Home results since win over Hearts 7th August 2011. 0-3 0-3 1-0 0-0 1-2 0-0 0-1 (abandoned) 1-1 0-1

OK maybe the exact time scale isn't correct but it wasn't much longer that stated and the general truth of the statement stands. That's if you accept, like me, information broadcast on a BBC religious affairs programme which looked at sectarianism in Glasgow and which seemed to be pretty well informed since it quoted figures from Celtic's accounts.

Celtic gave up their charitable origins within a very short space of time from their foundation. Within a year or two of being established Celtic had no links to charitable organizations or the Catholic church and were being run for profit. Basically as soon as they realized their was money to be made out of it long term, charity got shown the door quick smart!

Inverness are a lot better now than they were in August so I'm expecting a tough match. Davies going back down south is a bit of a blow for Tel but we'll still have to be on our toes to get a win on Saturday. I think Daley is much more of a goal threat than Humphrey and Humphrey is better coming off the bench so I'd keep Daley in the side.

Can't remember having any personal dealings with him apart from occasionally bumping into him around the club it's amazing to think that from the season I started to regularly attend Motherwell matches (1986) to this weekend, Bill Dickie was there behind the scenes (and sometimes in front of the scenes!) working away for the club. That's an incredible period of service for the club. I think when I remember Bill Dickie it will be in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup win and how pleased he was to win the trophy, he obviously enjoyed it as much as any player or fan. This legacy will be the history of the club over the last 30 years. From being a lower division team to achieving promotion and staying there, winning the Scottish Cup, qualifying for European football for the first time in our history, finishing 2nd and 3rd in the league on a number of occasions - I'm sure his name will be always linked to a 'golden era' in the history of Motherwell.

Morton of course have Peter McDonald as their main striker - unhappy memories. One of the boys in the work is a Morton fan so we need to win this one for the slagging rights!

This is probably correct but that shows a bit of a bad attitude in my opinion as if players only want to do 'enough' and not put that extra effort in to go above and beyond. Maybe that's why we can't do anything against Old Firm.