Ya Bezzer!

Obviously think we can get a £100K for him in the summer.

It's a semi final. I think it's only the fifth one in my twenty five years of following the 'Well. There is no way I won't be there, hoping and praying for a lucky break. They say breaks even themselves out, well we are due one in a semi final versus Rangers. Believe.

Smith had a decent first season with us, then he had a terrible second season where he was dropped for Colin Meldrum TWICE. Since then he has been absolutely useless. Occassionally he'll pull off a good save and he's not bad on penalties but generally he is terrible. The Stevie Woods comparison is pretty close to the truth.

Not slating the guy, he's young and just starting out but to these eyes Meechan hasn't shown much so far, except that he is a big, sturdy lad. Page on the other hand has shown something but he's had more game time.

Did we not pay a fee for Stephen Hughes, that's how I remember it.

Och, he scored a winning goal against Rangers at Ibrox, money well spent!

Em guys, Reynolds had a brilliant first season for Motherwell. Hutchinson still has to match that, never mind anything else. Hutchinson is a very good prospect but lets face it Hibs were the worst team I've seen at Fir Park this season and they could have played all day and not scored. Not the sternest test in the world. Doing well today doesn't make you a world beater. I like Hutchinson but he's a young player and he has a lot to learn.

Went for Hammell, played well and delivered the balls for both goals.

True. None of the guys I played with went pro, but there was some excellent footballers among them. I have no doubts they could have played professional level if they had got the chance at 16 or 17 to join a pro club. It's even worse these days when scouts are picking out young players for their height and strength over skill. It might get to the stage were a supporters 11 could beat the first team!

I never leave before the end unless its an away match and I have a train to catch. My attitude is I want to see every goal Motherwell ever score. Surely to God we will beat this Hibs team today. It's bad enough that they have already beaten us twice this season. I thought we were pretty unlucky to lose the first match at Fir Park, hopefully fortune will even things out today. It's hard to know though how Hibs will react to their cup defeat - will it completely destroy their confidence or will it fortify them into giving a better performance today to prove the critics wrong. I think not having a midweek match when your opponent did is a huge advantage. I'd like to see the stats but I'm sure that the team that had the rest comes out on top most of the time. However, Calderwood will probably change the team to such an extent that it may not be a big factor. We really need to win this one today, and I'm hopeful we will.

Well said.

Randolph (23) Hateley (21) Hutchinson (20) Craigan (34) Hammell (28) Humphrey (21) Jennings (26) Lasley (31) Forbes (21) Murphy (21) Sutton (27) Just so people actually know what age our players are, because they don't seem to. Probably one of the youngest teams in the league. I make it 5 out of 11, 21 or under. Although everyone are weary willies at the moment we still have a lot to play for this season. The top six is still open, we are in both cups including a semi final. What we need is more experienced players coming in during the transfer window, not more youth.

Gannon went for a job interview down south, without the clubs permission, the week before the 2-2 Accies match at New Douglas.

Well they have been talking to Stuart McCall for the last 10 minutes.

Premiership clubs have loads of money and can therefore afford to use lamps to grow grass during the winter. We can't because its enormously expensive.

Aye right! But if you think about what you would pay for Joe Hart or Robert Green or Ben Foster or Chris Kirkland, you'd have to think Randolph was worth a million or so.

Would only work if something could be arranged between supporters of all clubs. The difficulty then is that it will be difficult to get everyone to agree to the same weekend or date.

It's easier to get a TV deal when you have fans than to get a TV deal when you have no fans but the people that run or game are so short sighted they can't see past the next deal to the one after it. This arrangement will last until the end of the TV deal they have obviously got lined up at which it will be too late not to change. By that time it will be change or die.

Good luck to him, he's been an excellent club servant. In overview he looked like a truly great player in the making in his first season. He didn't quite fulfill that early potential but he still has a lot of his career ahead of him and perhaps a change of scenery will do him good. That said he was a good player for us and our relative success in recent years can't be separated from his contribution. I wonder if he will play as a centre back or will be converted into a different position. That level of English football is more about physical strength than finesse and that isn't one of his attributes. Could he move into midfield or left back?

True. How exactly do people expect it to look like in mid January? Maybe the ground keeper needs to have a really stern word with the blades of grass over their insistence on abiding to the principles of photosynthesis.

Since when was airport security less hassle than catching a train to Perth? Prices, we've been through it all before. If you have 30,000 fans and a potential media market of 90 million people you can charge less at the gate if you have 3,000 fans and a potential media market of 5 million. As for the final question, I'd rather see the team I've supported for 25 years over Dusseldorf or Cottbus.

Yep, TV and the media are to blame. 20 years ago, a live match was something special and the amount of media coverage given to sport in general and football in particular was minuscule. The allure and magic of a football match as a social event has been completely lost through over familiarization. I remember back in the Tommy McLean days it was quite common to only know we'd signed a player when he ran out the tunnel and you said to yourself "Who's that? Have we signed Tommy Coyne/Billy Davies etc." Now everything is ploughed over weeks in advance of anything actually happening, and for weeks after wards until the whole thing becomes a bore.

Apparently the assists are Chris Humphrey - 4 Jamie Murphy - 2 Tom Hateley - 2 Nick Blackman - 1 John Sutton - 1 Alan Gow - 1 People have said he is a better player away from home but I don't get to away matches so that may distort my opinion that he is hopeless. He's been at the club for a season and a half now, he looked like he might be coming on to some form after a disappointing start but he has gone backwards again. We don't really have anyone else for his position, so he plays, but I think the major weakness in the team right now is wide midfield. Randolph - Craigan, Hutchinson - Lasley, Jennings - Sutton, Murphy, seems a pretty solid spine.

How much money did we make from consistantly finishing in the Top Six and getting into Europe while he was at the club? Probably not as much as a million but probably a fair whack plus the transfer fee and add ons. That's the reason I would have kept him. £100,000 is maybe worth two league places in prize money plus we are on the cusp of a League Cup final. Sometimes a players worth is more than just his transfer fee.

I've been against summer football because I was just not convinced the switch would increase crowds and I still hold that opinion. If the weather is nice there is so much more to do than go to a football match. Why pay to go to a game when you can sit out side in the garden with a beer, or go to the park or a drive out to the coast or the countryside? And if its difficult now to get kids to come to football matches what chance do you have when the weather is good? There is also an idea that the Scottish summer is idyllic, with blue skies and blazing sunshine. I did the West Highland Way a few summers ago and believe me it was nothing like that, there was two days of snow in June! However I am beginning to come round to summer football. The argument is shifting from increasing crowds to holding on to the crowds we already have. Supporters are leaving in droves and we can't continue with the status quo. We have to do SOMETHING but the problem is any change is as likely to kill the game stone dead as save it, like an operation where you have a 50/50 chance. The facts are people are soft nowadays, especially younger people. I grow up in an era when the only heating in the home was a coal fire in the living room, never mind luxuries like hot water, central heating or double glazing. Most men worked in tough, physically demanding jobs in heavy engineering or the like. Today that isn't the case and people are used to comfort. If the house was freezing there was nothing to stop you going out to a football match but if the house is nice and warm you are going to think twice. If you are used to discomfort and hard work, then discomfort on its own is a holiday, but most people aren't used to discomfort so it is a drag. I'm more open to the idea now but you can't just say "Summer football will cure our ills" we have to really look at it in detail and see if it could work.