Ya Bezzer!

No real stand out today. Give it to Reynolds.

Defences well on top today. Aberdeen came for a point and got it, playing 9 men behind the ball most of the time. Can't remember either goalkeeper having a serious save to make and we just couldn't create chances despite having most of the possession. Final ball and crossing was poor and I felt a few players were played out of position (Murphy, Sutton) and had little impact. Didn't get a good view of the Aberdeen goal so I can't comment much on that. Randolph (6) Virtually nothing to do except pick the ball out of the net. Saunders (6) Decent display at right back Craigan (7) No problems during open play, didn't see the Aberdeen goal though. Reynolds (7) Comfortable afternoon, brought ball forward on a number of occassions. Hateley (7) Return to a bit of form for Hateley....at full back. Humphrey (5) Kids, once there was a Motherwell player called Andy Roddie.... Jennings (6) Looked a bit sluggish today. Sutton (5) Not convinced by Sutton playing in midfield Lasley (7) Poor final ball but looked like one of the few players today that had some fire in his belly Murphy (5) Got the goal but his worst display for a while, should be played down the middle. Blackman (5) Faded out of the game with very little supply. Gow (2) Not much time McHugh (2) As above Forbes (2) As above

My football memory only extends back to the early eighties but certainly for most of the 1980's Scotland's European places were monopolized by Rangers, Celtic, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen. Hardly anyone else got a shot. It's funny how fans sometimes say the league is boring now because the Top Two are always the Top Two but back then the Top Four was always nearly the Top Four with Hearts occasionally making a challenge. The league was actually much more static then than now and clubs like ours had next to no chance of competing for cups and European qualification. It was only in the very late eighties when Aberdeen and Dundee Utd started fall back that we started to emerge. Never mind the cup win, I remember being ecstatic when we finished 6th in the league in 1990/91 - such dizzy heights had never been experienced before!

Missed the Celtic match seems like ages since I last saw a game! I'm actually a wee bit worried about this one. Aberdeen doing not bad so far this season (well, until recently). Our patchy home record of late. McGhee coming back to Fir Park. And a nagging feeling that Paul Hartley while have some kind of red letter day. Now since I'm usually wrong about most things I'm going to look at all my worries and predict a comfortable 2-0 win.

Yeah, I thought the Earth was a globe! Maybe they are Flat Earthers over at UEFA, wouldn't surprise me.

Good start! 85 minutes to hold on.....

Not to bothered about Northern Ireland but a 'Well legend! Remember he made his debut for us back in the McLeish era and a couple of seasons aside he's been at Fir Park the whole time, probably longer than a lot of the supporters! Claret and amber the whole way through.

Or Colin O'Neill! Sadly I qualify on all three criteria but I walk 5 miles to work every day so when I get home I'm having a sit down!

Could Hammell, Reynolds, Lasley etc play against Liechtenstein - yes. Could Hammell, Reynolds, Lasley etc play against Spain - no. The problem is we don't really have any players at that level but especially at centre back I think there are 4 or 5 players ahead of Reynolds.

Yep, I'd rather have a player gives us 6 good months than a year or two of mediocrity or worse.

Gow is a different league of player from Humphrey when he's on his game, the problem is he's often been inconsistent or just gone missing completely. A six month deal might work out for us, he might be motivated to either win a longer contract or to win a move elsewhere.

Remember you can sign freed players out side the window.

We have young defenders coming through but you can't have inexperience in the middle of defence and not expect to concede goals. I'd go as far as saying if we lost Reynolds we almost certainly wouldn't finish in the Top Six. If you disagree think of the times when we've played with inexperienced players at centre half - Reynolds first season when we were almost relegated and Gannon's spell last season when we conceded heavily against the better teams. This idea that Hutchinson or Saunders can just step in at the back to replace Reynolds as if nothing happened is just so far off the mark....

Really? They've got AndyWebster sitting on the bench and he's better than Reynolds.

The ratio of free kicks scored to free kicks taken is tiny even at the very highest level. David Beckham had a 50 to 1 ratio at free kicks and he was considered to be one of the masters.

Forget about protecting Murphy, the team Captain should be TAKING the penalties. Sure, might be a bit of a nail biter seeing seeing big Crags stepping up to take a penatly but he couldn't do much worse than most of his predecessors lately (O'Brien, Forbes, Sutton, Murphy) and if Steven Pressley can do it surely Craigan can! I seem to remember Craigan scoring a penalty in a penalty shoot out or am I imagining that?

I strongly fancy us for a glorious and memorable victory - cos I can't make it! Only the third home game I've missed since 2003. It will probably hinge on the first goal, if we score it I think we'll have a great chance of winning but will our legs hold out? Celtic can bring in fresh players, we can't.

We've been through this before. The money Premiership clubs get from their foreign and domestic TV contracts means the ticket revenue isn't that significant. They could afford to let everyone in free all season if they wanted never mind charging £37. At Motherwell its basically the season ticket and gate revenue that keeps the club alive. Motherwell FC is basically our club, we have to pay for it or it doesn't exist. It's that simple. Believe me I'd rather be paying £12 rather than £20 but I'd also rather pay £20 to keep the club going than see us fade away down the league system or just go bust.

When I was coming out of the South Stand there was a group of guys in front of me and one of them said "Ah, back to watching Rangers in the Champions League." There's your problem right there.

Voted for Murphy. As for Humphrey well we've been over that ground and nothing has changed. You can't fault him for effort but he's not a footballer.

Come home with a really heavy heart tonight. But at the end of the day the game is about converting chances into goals and over the two legs we must have had twice as many good chances as OB and they out scored us 3 to 1 and that's what its all about. For all our effort they have that 5 or 10% extra quality that we don't. Its that so close but so far feeling that weighs so heavy, reaching, stretching but never quite making it. Ah, well.

Broon just said Blackman up front, Sutton off the front, Murphy left, Humphrey right.

Apart from beating Real Madrid at the Bernabeu!

Trying hard not to get excited about it. OK, I'm a wee bit excited but I've been a Motherwell fan for too long now. It would be amazing if we did it but we've got a long way to go before we get there!

My new burd doesn't let me out on a Sunday so I'm not sure what way I want this to go!