Ya Bezzer!

Well said. Craigan isn't the greatest defender we've ever had at the club but there have been a lot more worse ones than better ones. I remember Kevin Christie! Guys like Craigan, Hammell, Lasley and Reynolds are or were the spine of probably the most consistantly successful Motherwell team since the 1950's. You can't give them enough praise as far as I'm concerned. He is getting older but I do think he probably still has a least another year in him. However if he goes to get one last pay day good luck to the guy. A great servant to the club.

Unless I'm missing something I don't see how the timing of the fixture really changes anything. We have next to no chance of finishing Top Four so we basically want Celtic to win the league to have any chance. That doesn't change if we play them first game after the split, in the middle or last.

In that case let him be a 'Tom Boyd' with his last sighting in a 'Well strip holding the Scottish Cup!

A little worrying that we have a few players on yellows. Surprisingly Hutchinson only has two yellows in 15 matches this season so hopefully he keeps it at two! I'm trying not to get carried away. I've not actually seen St. Johnstone this season as it was two away matches and I missed the midweek home match so they are a bit of an unknown quantity for me. I'm pretty sure I'll spend most of the match day afternoon in a terrified state though!

I guarantee you that if we lose next week the first McCall must go post on the site will be up within 5 minutes of the final whistle!

Excellent result without some important players. Hopefully finishing in the Top Six will see McCall get a little extra money during the close season, even if it is only a players wage. By the way that's only 3 defeats in McCall's last 11 games, P11 W6 D2 L3

Funnily enough I kinda feel that doing that isn't a good idea. You don't want players resting up and not being 'on' for a match. Sure switch things around a bit and bring people off the bench but making a wholesale change one week and then the next I tend to think actually backfires a bit because the team get a little rusty even with only one game out. I don't know how many times teams in World Cups and European Championships have looked like potential winners, romped the first two matches, rested a whole team for the 'meaningless' third match, brought in the first team again for the next match and then gone out.

Think you are a bit carried away tonight!

Oh man, the scoreboard was at 87 FOREVER. Anyone know when we last won 4 home matches in a row? Didn't manage it last season under the good run under Brown or under McGhee so I imagine it's been a wee while since the last time.

Poor Hutchy, always my second pick! Got to give it to Randolph, outstanding display and without him we'd only have got a point at best.

Randolph to the rescue! The save he pulled off from (I think) Goodwillie deep in injury time was amazing, looked a goal all the way. Both teams looked like they were out of gas almost from the start of the match. The two goal cushion at half time was a little fortunate but we took our chances when they came. Second half, Dundee Utd went up a gear and to be fair we more or less matched them for most of the game until Utd got the goal and you could see exhaust and panic creep in. Randolph made about 4 great saves in the final stages to win us the points. Overall not a great performance but the team worked hard, took their chances when the came and surely booked a Top Six place.

My guess! Randolph Saunders-Craigan-Hutchinson-Ross Humphrey-Hateley-Forbes-Lasley-Murphy Sutton

Would take a draw as I'm pretty certain 41 points would get us a Top 6 place. Players must be feeling it a bit now with all these matches in a short space of time with most of the season over and a small squad with a number of them carrying injuries and niggles. It was noticeable that although we deserved to win against Aberdeen we didn't have the same level of energy as against Dundee Utd. Hopefully we can find a second wind from somewhere and more or less guarentee our Top 6 position with a win or even a draw. If they do that I'll give them the Hearts game off and we can concentrate on the semi final.

I had a look at the fixtures after the match on Saturday and by my predictions and baring any shock results I couldn't see anyone getting more than 39 points, which would mean we where already there. Of course things generally don't go as you would expect them to or else I'd be banned at the bookies! I reckon a draw against Utd to put us on 41 points will do it. Better making certain and getting two more wins!

All this secrets stuff from Brown is embarrassing. The fact is he has made a total arse of things since he changed his mind and he knows it.

I'd like to see more of Jeffers before deciding to give him a contract for next season but so far he's shown more than Gow.

Boyle probably said something like 'get it up ye ya two faced wee rat'. Good on him. The fact that this is a police matter now is a total joke.

Agree with this, the two goalscorers were the two candidates and not just for their goals. Good to see Hutchy have a good game today as I thought he was pretty ropey against Utd midweek, but he cruised it today and he looked like he enjoyed his goal! Still not Humphreys biggest fan but I'm going to give him the MotM, if only he gave that level of performance more often but good to see him with two good finishes in the last two matches.

Not as good a performance as Celtic or Dundee Utd but thought we deserved to win the match by the two goals. Never really felt under pressure even when Aberdeen got the late goal back. Having said that Randy pulled off a save today that might be the difference between us being Top or Bottom 6. Missed Jennings today and Lasley didn't have the best of matches although you can't question his commitment so we didn't quit manage the midfield dominance we had over Dundee Utd but we always looked more likely to score than Aberdeen, Langfield pulled off a couple of good saves and Jones missed a sitter. I've been a critic of Humphrey but he played well today, Murphy followed up his performance in midweek and Jones was good in patches. Maurice Ross looked a little rusty but defended well enough and it was good to see him coaching our younger defenders.

Bring back the old square posts! Anyone know how many Scottish Cup Semi Finals we've contested? Last time against Rangers, 1990/91 of course, and I vaguely remember one before that against Rangers but that's as far as my memory goes back. Anyone got the answer?

Really important match today, hopefully we will have the energy to get through it after the midweek match but I think if you look closely teams don't tend to do well after a midweek match especially when the opponents didn't have a match. I suspect we will really have to win this one to get into the Top 6, especially if St. Johnstone beat managerless Kilmarnock today, lets hope that doesn't happen! As for Brown give him plenty of stick in the ground and none outside, people that take these things outside of the football match itself show us up as morons.

8,000 tickets seems pretty optimistic to me but you never know. Would be surprised if there are more than 10,000 at the match, can't see either side bringing more than 5,000 at the current ticket prices and with it live on TV.

Like most have said will be decent cover for Saunders enabling Hateley to play in midfield. He is a decent standard of player who knows the Scottish game inside out and will bring valuable and much needed experience into the defence and the side in general. He had a bit of a temper on him earlier on his career though so I hope he has cut that out, we don't want to bring in a player only for him to get sent off or suspended.

I've said this before and it might not be popular with home fans but if you want to attract bigger crowds you aim to attract away fans, not home fans. Basically the home fans turn out anyway and reducing prices only attracts a small increase. Say from 4,000 to 4,500. However if Dundee Utd have a support of 7,000 fans you have a much bigger market to aim at. Get 1,000 or 2,000 of them to travel to that match and you get bigger attendances. I also think having a good away support at a match makes it a much better experience. The last two games have been great because there was two sets of supporters in the ground. A lot of that excitement is lost when, say, Hamilton Accies bring over 100 fans. I don't go to away matches any more because its just not affordable but I would if clubs made it financially viable. Honestly I think clubs have to look at away fans being much more important than they are at the moment.

Thought Stevie Hammell, Jamie Murphy and Steve Jennings were the pick of a very good bunch. Went for Jenno in the end.