Ya Bezzer!

Apparently there were some managerial changes at Derby and he didn't figure in the new managers plans. According to the Ojamaa interview in the match programme at the weekend Nigel Clough favoured British players and released a lot of the foreign guys. Also sometimes players need to find the right club before they show their true potential. We are a small, friendly club and have a good record of developing players, giving them a chance to play at a good level and then move on to higher levels. We've done it with our own youth players and with players brought in that didn't have impressive backgrounds or had fallen by the wayside (Scott McDonald, Ross McCormack, etc).

If he changed his name to Henrik Ojamaa-Swanson and started talking in a south of England accent I reckon that would do it.

OK, who was the last Motherwell player to score an overhead kick before Higdon got one tonight. Can't remember one off the top of my head.

Even if he hadn't scored a goal I would still have voted for him. Higdon was absolutely immense tonight.

ESPN or BBC reports don't list a booking for Hutchie and I only saw the referee show the yellow to Sproule.

Yeah the Proclaimers one was a shocker but I'm a bit superstitious so while we're on this winning home run I think we should look (or hear) the other way.

Entertaining but crazy match showing the best and worst of supporting Motherwell! Hibs started strongly and Griffiths and O'Connor caused us all sorts of problems, defensively we were very poor tonight. Clancy had a bit of a nightmare, Hutchinson got dragged all over and even Randolph missed a few crosses and looked nervous - although he did make a very important save from Griffiths. Once we got the goal the game was much more open although we always looked like losing goals at the back. That said we were excellent going forward and equally looked like scoring whenever we went forward. Some nervous times in the last ten minutes but another good win, albeit with flaws at the back, with goals at Fir Park.

It would be a mistake to bring in Carswell. Along side Jennings there would be no one to make the runs Lasley has been making. Fine if you are away from home and looking for a point, not so good if you want win on your own patch. It's far too predictable to have everything coming down the sides. You need someone running from midfield to support the forward players. I think it nullifies the offensive threat quite a bit. Forbes is more likely to get into those position and has a decent shot on him from 25 yards in. In any case I think Hateley will go there and Craigan will come back in, that seems to be McCall preferences when these decisions have to be made.

When has Humphrey ever played down the left? Usually when Murphy and Humphrey both played, Murphy played left and Humphrey played right. I'm also not sure about Law in a central position where his form hasn't been great. I'd keep Law on the left and bring in a central midfielder. There is no direct replacement for Lasley but I'd go for Forbes because he is more experienced and seems to have more of an attacking style to his play which is a better match for Lasley than Carswell who seems to be more in the defensive Jennings mold. -----------------RANDOLPH------------- HATELEY--HUTCHINSON---CLANCEY--HAMMELL MURPHY---JENNINGS-----FORBES---LAW---- ---------HIGDON-------OJAMAA---------- I think with that line up you have the minimum of change from the side that has done so well recently.

Don't agree with this. Lasley has been a great player for us throughout his career at Motherwell - Jennings or no Jennings. They have a good partnership and anything good should be greater than the sum of the parts but Lasley has always been a great wee player. He's definitely one of the best midfielders at the club in my time as a supporter and that's based on a career starting back to 2000 or so. As for his more attacking role this season, he played a similar role in his first spell at the club so it's not so much something new to his game, more going back to the old days.

I think its hard to play well on a Saturday and then take that into a midweek game. Doesn't often happen and I'm not sure we'll do as well against Hibs as we did against Hearts. Also the Hibs teams that turn up at Fir Park this season seem to be completely different ones that go everywhere else, they have not been the worst team we've played by a long way. Also, Keith Lasley is a very important player for us and assuming his suspension will mean he is missing it will be a big blow for us. There is no real replacement for him in the squad and not having him in there seriously weakens the midfield. It's one thing playing without him, 2-0 up for 40 minutes, it's another thing going 90 with everything all square. On form we should win this one but I'm tempering my expectations for this one. Wouldn't be unhappy with a draw although a win and a 12 point gap would be magnificent.

Rather than punishing players for gesturing to the opposition crowd we should be encouraging it! Only two things get the crowd going these days - hard tackles and player gestures. We need more of both to get the atmosphere going.

This. Plus the huge and unexpected impact Ojaama has had. And the fact that we have Nicky Law and Jamie Murphy in more comfortable positions. Then there is the fact that once you've scored a few the pressure suddenly lifts and the team gets much more confidence in itself. But the main reason is switching from a 4-2-3-1 to what is basically a 4-4-2.

Murphy has found form again since moving to the right wing and Law went to the left and it's no coincidence we've scored more goals since the change - Law and Murphy of course scoring a few themselves in the past couple of weeks, it's not just been the Ojamaa show. Today was Murphy's 11th goal of the season, not bad for someone that's played most of the season wide midfield. He's had spells where he was off form, usually when the team as a a whole was poor, but I think he's taken some unfair stick this season and today was a nice little reminder of what an important player he is for us. His top tally in a season is 12 so I'm pretty sure with 11 league matches and at least one match and hopefully more in the cup he will post his best goal tally yet in 2011/12.

I'd feel a lot more comfortable about this thread if it had come after a midweek win against Hibs! I think we should concentrate on consolidating our third position first before we look ahead of ourselves. If we can win midweek and go 12 points clear then I think we should feel comfortable enough about finishing 3rd to look ahead of us. If we don't take the points midweek then it only takes a couple of poor result to feel the pressure again. Personally I don't see the administrators getting rid of Rangers better players since they are sellable assets and suspect it will a lot of youth players and maybe poorer fringer players that go so in order to finish second I think it will be more down to the attitude of Rangers as much as anything we do. The Kilmarnock result though gives a hint that perhaps moral is low down Ibrox way. With 11 games to play their is still a lot than can go for or against us. What I think we really need to do is get the heads down, get points out the next few few league matches and if we can do that we have Rangers at our place on the 31st March. Then we will have a better idea of what the situation is.

You could make a case for a lot of the players today. Thought Clancy was solid as a rock and has done really well since coming in. Jennings was excellent in midfield. Law and Murphy caused a lot of problems for Hearts and Higdon did a lot of great if unheralded work as the target man. But I'm afraid I have to give it to Ojaama again for the third time in the last five. I thought he actually had a quiet first half but in the second half he came on to his own. Had Hearts in knots on various occassions, brilliant attitude, chased everything, even put in a hard tackle on a Jambo and got a booking! Good lad! The set up for the third goal was superb - quite simple made something out of nothing.

YESSS!!!!!! Result of the season so far! Great team performance, Hateley perhaps wasn't at his best today but I don't think you could fault any other player in the side. Randy made everything he had to do look easy, we were pretty solid at the back, midfield did tremendously well especially after Lasley was sent off and up front we always looked like getting a goal with Murphy and Ojamaa looking dangerous and Higdon doing a good job as a target man. Was a bit worried when Lasley was sent off but if anything we got better rather than worse and should have scored a couple of times before we eventually got the killer third. Lasley's second yellow looked harsh to me but probably others got a better view of it than I did. Ojamaa's set up play for the third goal was a joy to behold but really we could honestly have won about 5 or 6 nil today even with only 10 men for half the match. Great stuff!

I wouldn't put money on it!

He's had 3 seasons to establish himself as a first pick starting XI player under 3 different managers and he still hasn't managed it. And it's not like he hasn't been given a chance. That should tell you something.

Hearts are strong at Tynecastle but not so good on the road. They have only won 2 out of 13 away league matches this season - against the two bottom sides in the league. We should go into this game confident of victory. It will be a tough match most likely but we should be absolutely resolute going into this to further strengthen our bid for 3rd place. You don't get many better opportunities than this, hopefully we grab it.

I've not contributed to the 'Well Society but not through apathy, through simply not being able to afford to. If I had the money spare I'd put in the full whack, I'm sure most supporters would, but I'm also sure there are many supporters in the same boat as me, guys that put in probably about £600-700 into the club through season tickets, merchandise, programmes, food etc which is already more than they can really justify and who only do so because they are fans. I do contracted work mainly, and I've only had a years work in the last two. My last job finished a couple of weeks ago and I don't know when the next one will be. I'm afraid the economic uncertainty and the dismal job market means I'm canceling all unnecessary direct debits instead of adding to them - it has nothing to do with my love or commitment to the club but I simply cannot afford to put another £300 in, I cannot afford to put another £150 in. I hope the 'Well Society is a success but I'm not sure we have a large enough, or affluent enough support. Good luck to them anyway but I'm afraid I'm out.

Any particular reason that Ojamaa is wearing grandpa glasses and a bushy moustache?

Good draw for us but I hope some of the other teams do the heavy lifting for us. QoS to put out Aberdeen, Dundee Utd to put out Celtic. Taxman to put out Hearts!

Saw them - pure spazzy squad, the lassies at the pie stalls could have run them out of town.

He's a bit different from Scott MacDonald when he first came to the club because he could hardly hit a coos arse with a banjo in his first season! I remember writing on these forums or somewhere else that he looked a great wee player but he couldn't shoot and wouldn't score goals. Obviously he came on a bit in his second season! I wonder what Ojamaa's shot accuracy is so far? Must be 70-80 percent you'd imagine.