Ya Bezzer!

Interesting to see what the board makes of tonights performance. First of all Breidablik. They were streets ahead of Llanelli and Flamurtari Vlore. I thought they might flag in the second half being only part timers but if anything they looked to have more in the tank than we did. Almost everyone in the team could pass the ball and they weren't a bad outfit at all. I'd go as far as to say if they played in the SPL they would have a decent chance of survival. However.... We were miles off the pace in terms of fitness and game sharpness and yet our goalkeeper didn't have a real save to make in the match and we won 1-0. It wasn't the best from us but we will be better by the next game and I'd hope we would be able to score at least once in Iceland making it a difficult task for Breidablik. None of our players were really at top form but most of them tried hard and I'm reasonably confident we will go through. I don't see any reason why we should fear Breidablik on their own patch although they won't roll over but I think we are a bit better than them. Randolph (6) Not much to do, one easy save to make and that was it but looked confident and commanding. Hateley (5) Looked off the pace even taking into consideration the early start to the season. Craigan (6) Hasn't got any faster over the summer but looked reasonably assured. Reynolds (6) Started well but then had a few shaky touches but general on top of things. Hammell (7) Good performance from Hammell, never really troubled at left back, won lots of balls, looked in good condition Jennings (6) Obviously not in peak condition but did OK in the midfield role. Lasley (7) Energetic as ever, even showed some good touches. Forbes (6) I see the debate going on as regards Forbes. Can't run, doesn't look fit, even looks a little lazy sometimes but all our best stuff came off his foot whether it be crosses, corners, defence splitting passes and of course the goal. Humphrey (4) I'm afraid I seen nothing from him to suggest he is a player, tonight or most of last season. Sutton (5) A bit lumbering tonight, needs to sharpen up. Murphy (7) Very lively, showed some excellent touches but lacks the final ball. Hopefully that will come with more games. MotM: Stevie Hammell for a good, solid performance.

Really? The two bottom sections of the East Stand have more empty seats than filled ones. I'd say at least 30% of the seats in the East Stand are still available. I think we'll be lucky to break 6,000 but that's still a decent crowd for us these days.

Highly unlikely Breidablik are as good as MyPa. MyPa had top quality players like Sami Hyppia and Joonas Kolkka plus a bunch of experienced Finnish international players like Tianen, Jakonen, Mahlio, Koskinen. I might be wrong but I think Breidablik only have a couple of players with 1 or 2 caps and a bunch of U21's. They are nowhere near the level of MyPa - on paper at least. Of course you could also say our current team is nowhere near as good as the one that lost against MyPa!

Maybe its like a fancy restaurant when they say there are no tables left but when some one important appears they magically manage to find one.

Aye! Summer football! I just walked from Motherwell station to Watsonville and it's like someone threw me into a swimming pool. It was actually raining so hard it went through my leather boots. The floodlights are on so presumably someone is running about on the pitch churning it up before the season has even started!

Are you sure we are seeded for the third round? From what I see there will be 42 teams in the third qualifying round and there is no chance we would be in the top 21 sides based on our co-efficient of 6.158, in fact I make it we would be ranked 31st out of the 42 teams.

That Nancy programme was too big to fit in a pocket. I like pocket sized programmes.

I posted my team on P&B a couple of days ago and I think it was this... ...................Randolph..................... Hateley, Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell ................Jennings, Lasley.............. ......................Forbes...................... ............Sutton Murphy McHugh......... by the looks of it Breidablik are not bad up front but a bit dodgy at the back. Let's test that theory and go for it with three up front.

Last week I wasn't feeling it, maybe because the World Cup was still in full swing. Now I'm really looking forward to another season following the 'Well. Got my ticket today, have to agree I can't see us getting much over 4,000 for this one but the section I got my ticket in seemed to be pretty much sold out. For me everything has to be geared toward getting through into the next round, I don't care if we are crap, I don't care if we scrap past them by a goal on aggregate as long as we get into the next stage you won't hear any complaint from me. In fact I'd rather we were dismal and win 1-0 than play brilliantly and finish 0-0 or 1-1 or something. Next round is the target - by hook or by crook.

I know the author of the thread is either taking the piss or medically cretinous but I like to trundle out a stat now and then. John Sutton : League Appearances 57+6 (22) Cup Appearances 8+4 (4) TOTALS: 65+10 (26) or in other words, more or less a goal every second game over two full seasons.

I thought Brown meant he WANTED to bring in three players but he can only afford to bring in one. That's why he's desperate to offload Reynolds. Brown's right, from a football perspective we need at least another three players in but whether the money is there to be able to do that is another question. We are probably looking around for cheap loan deals where we will only have to pay a percentage of the wage.

We should switch to summer football.

I'd be happy if we could replicate our last three results in the next three matches - regardless of performances.

The problem with that is we probably aren't going to win 3-0 in Iceland. We need a decent home leg result or we will really be shooting ourselves in the foot.

He gives you loads of pace coming off the bench with 20 minutes to go so its not true to say he offers nothing. But if you think he's going to step into O'Brien's boots, well that idea is kinda scuppered by the fact he's not a quarter of the player O'Brien was.

Not sure this is true. Remember our absymal pre-season results under Malpas culminating with a 4-0 thrashing by Queen of the South? I think that pretty much gave us a true indication of what was to come!

Fuck sake. We have a young midfield player that scored 9 goals in his debut season and there is a debate about whether he is a 'luxury' player! Forbes would have been the top goalscorer at about half the clubs in the SPL last season but he's not good enough for Motherwell! As far as I'm concerned he's already proved he's a good player, he has to add consistency to his game like most young players but since he won't peak as a player for another decade I think he's coming along fine!

I read the name Breidablik comes from Norse mythology so it probably roughly translates as 'heaven' or something to do with the Gods 'up on high' - or 'ladder' if you use Google translator.

Don't know a lot about them but I'll bet they are all big strong boys who will be physically competitive. I'm not 100% sure but I'd guess they aren't full time so perhaps we might have better durability over 90 minutes even if they are mid way through their season and we are just starting. I see they have four or five players with a smattering of full caps but no one who has played at a level higher than the Icelandic league. To be honest I'd rather have played away first, although I'd expect us to beat them at Fir Park, I can't see us ringing up a big score against them so there is always the risk that in the second leg, if it is away from home, you try to sit in and defend and I'm never very comfortable when we do that!

Do you take everything literally? Obviously what I meant is the fact that there isn't a lot of room for expansion on our current site means if we did sell up there isn't a lot of land to sell.

No land to expand the stadium means no land to sell to a developer to pay for a new stadium. Someone said earlier the land amounts to 7 acres. If you think selling 7 acres is going cover even half the cost of a new stadium then Stevie Wonder just passed by a second time. I've read that the average price per acre in Scotland is £300,000. Do the math. Unless someone comes in who is willing to put millions into a new stadium we would end up with a cheap Lego aberration and maybe even a two or three sided one at that.

Fir Park is mostly a new stadium, the vast majority of it is less than 20 years old. Believe it or not new stadiums also have high maintenance costs. As for the pitch, we could replace it every season (at £250,000) for 40 years at less cost than building a new lego stadium on another site, never mind anything that was good.

I think Coke is a decent enough squad player but he isn't good enough to ever secure a transfer fee that was worth the cost of a long term contract.

No, the current one. And believe me he wasn't amazing.

Or what about the 5' 8 Mexican goalie! Imagine the message board melt down if we signed a keeper the same height as Dougie Arnott!