Ya Bezzer!

There were folks on here this time last season saying they weren't bothered about qualifying for Europe. Love the European games and would be buzzing if we had some to look forward to next season.....however we aren't there yet. It would be interesting to see Craig Brown taking a team into Europe. You never know with all his experience of top level football we might get a few rounds in depending on the draw.

Do you remember the European games? Most Scottish refs are better than most of the European refs that I've seen. Probably the worst refereeing performance I've ever seen was Anders Frisk against Borussia, supposedly one of the top refs in Europe at the time! The Forbes goal was a disgrace but you can't tar everyone with that brush. My main problem with Scottish referees is things like the lack of accountability, not speaking to the media, the general incestuousness and aloofness of the refereeing fraternity, the ridiculous appeals system etc...

We only had one sending off in season 2007/08 - Bob Malcolm at Celtic Park. In 2006/07 we had quite a few 6 in total, including two double sending offs - Paterson and Clarkson in the same game at Kilmarnock; Fitzpatrick v Rangers; Quinn v Dundee Utd; and McDonald and Reynolds in the same game at Dunfermline.

Really? Where was all this great football we played under Gannon? It must have been away from Fir Park cos I didn't see it. A good second half against Kilmarnock and a battling display against Rangers (in which we created very few goal scoring chances) is all you could point to and say was better than average. I was probably one of the earliest and most vociferous critics of Gannon but even I'd give credit to him for the signings he made, although I don't accept some peoples argument that he built us up from nothing. We already had a strong spine when Gannon arrived (Hammell, Lasley, Craigan, Reynolds, O'Brien, Sutton plus guys like Murphy, Fitzpatrick, McGarry and all the young players). We needed players to be brought in but we already had 6 or 7 players that would be automatic first choice players for most of the teams in the league so there was already a strong framework to build on. Gannon brought in good player but in ever other regard I think the Gannon era was a failure and we have a far superior manager in place now.

Don't agree with this at all. Rob McKinnon and Paul Lambert left Motherwell and had successful careers in Europe. Not many Scottish players have gone to Europe full stop. Even so quite a few that have done have done reasonably well - Scott Booth, Brian O'Neil, John Collins, Charlie Miller, Craig Brewster etc.

Great win. Seven out of ten with no defeats.

Come on 'Well not long to go now....

True, I didn't think to look at the cup matches still if you go by league runs then I still make it 9 out of 10. Jan 20 Hibs 0-0 Jan 23 Falkirk 1-0 [SC Jan 27 Aberdeen 0-2] Feb 10 Rangers 2-3 Feb 13 Aberdeen 1-0 Feb 24 Raith 1-0 Mar 02 Falkirk 1-0 Mar 16 Kilmarnock 1-0 Mar 23 Celtic 0-0 Mar 30 Partick 2-0 Apr 06 Hibs 3-0

To be fair when the thread was started it didn't look like we had much chance of catching Hibs or Dundee United. Thanks to the great run we've been on and some wobbles from the other teams that's changed now.

Clearly remember him scoring against Raith Rovers, with the 'Well fans sitting in the L shaped stand at Starks Park. Dougie scored that day as well. I liked going to Kirkcaldy we'd usually run up a score, except the one time it really mattered of course!

Pretty much agree with this. I'm afraid by the time McGhee arrived at Fir Park Corrigan was finished as a top league player. After leaving us he did nothing for a variety of clubs (Kilmarnock, Dundee, Partick). I'm not even sure if he is still at Partick, he certainly hasn't played for them for a long time. Is it true he decked Derek Adams in a dressing room bust up?

Not a record - yet! We kept 9 clean sheets in 10 matches in season 1995/96, including 7 clean sheets in a row. The only team to breach the defence during this period was - some things never change - Rangers, who beat us 3-2 at Ibrox. The back five that played virtually every game was: - Howie, May, Martin, McCart, van der Gaag and McKinnon.

Murphy did well but he should have had his second hat trick of the season today. So I'd have to go, like everyone else, for Jennings.

No snow in the Fir Park area. Looks cold, drizzly and a rather miserable day but I'm sure the game will be fine. In fact it will interesting to see how the pitch is with some wet in it. It may stick together better. That's a big 'may' though!

Since we bet them the only blemish for Kilmarnock was a narrow defeat away to Aberdeen. 6 matches undefeated since. So probably the form side outside ourselves and Rangers then. We will need to keep an eye out for Chris Maguire who is scoring goals and got one at Fir Park last season if I remember correctly. Can't believe McGhee let him go on loan to Kilmarnock when Aberdeen are struggling in that department. Without sounding too confident you'd hope we could win this one at our place, especially if we can maintain our recent form. I reckon 9 points from the remaining matches would probably be enough to get us a Top Six position so a win on Saturday would go a long way to achieving that. 1-0 home win again? Fingers crossed!

Hartley is doing very well "at the moment". Scored a few beauties this season. Hateley would be my 'Well Player of the Season if I was voting right now.

Neil Doncaster was just on the radio. Sounded like he'll be sympathetic and fair provided we take measures.

Heard of Joey Barton?

Also the scheduling has to be looked at. 5 matches in a month on a pitch in February is hardly going to help maintain a good standard of pitch. OK one of them was the League Cup Semi Final and one was rescheduled but that's still 4 SPL matches within a month. If the SPL is really concerned about the quality of pitches at this time of year what about scheduling matches with a bit more common sense - say no more than two home matches per month.

Pretty much. SPL need to make up their mind on whether they want pitches that are playable albeit in poor condition or games called off if the pitch isn't able to come up to a certain standard. You can't have both at this time of year, especially when the weather is particularly bad. It's a complete nonsense to think otherwise. We had 6 weeks + of lying snow in Motherwell this winter and plenty more hard frosts during what is regarded as one of the worst winters in the last 50 years and yet as someone else said not one match was postponed due to the pitch. Presumably the undersoil heating had to be kept on at considerable cost to the club throughout that whole period (even now there is a hard frost in the ground). Sure it's not in good condition but it is playable so for christ sake just grin and bear it until the pitch starts to recover in the spring/summer. Given the circumstances (new pitch laid at huge expense to the club, extreme winter conditions, major problems at many other SPL clubs like Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, St. Johnstone etc) then I'd be pretty unhappy if we get pulled up about this. As far as I can see we've made a serious attempt to repair the pitch last season and not had any pitch related call offs so is it doing to come down to a ruling on how many blades of grass an SPL pitch should have?

Sutton had a good game, Murphy came on to a game later but didn't do much in the first half, I thought Humphrey made a difference. But how many games at Fir Park do you see where you literally have no fear of conceding a goal? I can't say I was as confident of scoring a goal as I was of not conceding and for that reason I'm going for Stephen Craigan. Didn't give Stokes a sniff, organised the back four and was generally imperious.

I sit more or less right in line with where the Miller/O'Brien tackle happened and I thought Miller tried to do O'Brien, it wasn't late or clumsy it was Miller trying to get him. On the highlights it doesn't look so bad but I got a good look at it at the match and to me at the time it was a red card, although when O'Brien reacted I thought he'd probably go to and was very surprised (and relieved!) when he 'got away' with a yellow. On the penalty I didn't get a clear view at the match only later but it looked a sort of 50-50 one, the type you get sometimes and other times you don't. He got the pass back one spot on, Ruddy made a misjudgement in catching it. On the rough play of Hibs, maybe we had fouls denied to us but overall I'd rather have a referee not blowing his whistle and letting things go than stopping the game every minute or so for a 'technical' foul. In the end we deservedly won the match so you can't complain too much, unlike say a couple of weeks ago...

For an attacking midfielder he can't beat a man and has absolutely no goal threat whatsoever. I don't see Coke as an attacking midfielder at all. He's a decent touch, tackle and short pass player. He has no real flair or creativity about him. His game, it seems to me, is based on graft.

Bit of a struggle today as we didn't show much cutting edge but we dominated possession and deserved the 3 points. In a way it was almost a carbon copy of the Accies games at Fir Park a couple of weeks ago. Never looked like losing the problem was finding some creative movement around the box. Humphrey made a difference in that regard in that he has the pace and the ability to go round a player that Coke doesn't have. Back line was excellent again, never gave Stokes a sniff. Have to say I thought O'Brien was very lucky to stay on. A shocking tackle but he did retaliate.

Hughes has been mucking around with the defensive set up at Hibs recently. Expect the experiment to be called to a halt tomorrow and it will be back to the standard line up. Bamba will get the hook, Hogg will go back to centre back and Wotherspoon will come back in at right back.