Ya Bezzer!

Good news - but only if we can get a game on this month!

Ruddy isn't as good as some on here would have you believe but he's far superior to Smith.

Would you knock your house down if you got a burst pipe? Disappointed the games off but I wasn't hopeful it would be on in the first place.

Let's hope it's a happy New Year, starting tomorrow!

If you sing that at a Motherwell match or anywhere else you are a scumbag - fact. Fuck off and give yourself a shake you cretins. It really is amazing what depths some people who claim to be supporters will drag the club's reputation to. If any journalists latch on to this our reputation will be dragged through the gutter AGAIN.

Well I live five minutes walk from Fir Park and it was snowing heavy, just stopped in the last minute. I'm sure the pitch will be fine it's the polis you have to worry about.

Right bring on Accies, although it's snowing pretty heavy right now.....

Craig Brown says he has "one or two notions" about signings including a "potential world cup player".

Encouraging half time report despite being 1-0 down (I can't listen to live action on the radio without being a nervous wreck) guy said it was "night and day" compared to Saturday and "don't count Motherwell out of this". Fingers crossed for the 2nd half.

Please, please, please, please don't lose.

I think losing fans to the Old Firm is the least of our problems. Celtic had 36,000 in a 61,000 capacity stadium last Saturday. When I was a kid there was pretty much nothing else to do but play football and its through playing that you really get to love and understand the game. There was also virtually no live televised football so if you wanted to see professional football you had to go to the matches. Going week in, week out it becomes part of the your life. These days kids live in a different culture with so many other options. I think my generation, the one that grow up in the seventies and early eighties is probably going to be the last 'football generation' who really grew up completely emerged in the game. It does worry me in the long term how we, and I don't mean Motherwell, I mean Scottish football as a whole, are going to find the new generation of fans. It used to be everyone went to the music hall or the ballroom but society moves on. Outside of the very top level of football I fear that is what happening to football, we are just being left behind by a society that's lost interest or certainly doesn't have the level of interest that it used to.

I'm repeating myself but there isn't a good side outside of the Top Four. We will have to be absolutely dire to get relegated. The big trick will be to end this bad run of not winning a game. If we can do that, by hook or crook, I think we will be OK, as has been said the core of the players at the club are good enough. Once we do that confidence will return. If Gannon really was as unpopular behind the scenes then his removal might give us the boost to break the trend but its going to be difficult, I don't expect instant improvement but I'm hopeful of better management from the sidelines.

I think this really depends on how long Craig Brown is being asked to come in for. Obviously its a interim measure but for how long? With the transfer window coming up we really want to have however is going to be manager in May at the club so he can do the business that he wants to do. If the club said Brown was going to be manager until the end of the season I wouldn't be unhappy with that, likewise if we get someone in quite quickly on a permanent basis with Brown only taking over for a few games. However it might be a mistake if we appoint someone with the transfer window by or not open for long for any new manager. I'm just looking at the BBC site now and it says Brown will come in for 3 games.

About 60% of this board has done a The Day That Stalin Died. Greatest Human In The Universe to Worst Monster In History in the space of hours. But at least they've woke up to the reality of Jim Gannon. Some folks still can't admit they were wrong. What would it have taken before they would admit this guy was trouble? Jim Gannon was some kind of deluded fantasist with grandiose ideas about his own worth and nothing but his own glorification at heart. If he was 'different' it wasn't in the name of progression, it was in the name of attention seeking. He was a fool and leaves the club a failure. 10 years from now Gannon will be a tiny and regretful footnote in the clubs history.

Win % of recent managers Mark McGhee 39.7% Terry Butcher 34.2% Billy Davies 33.3% Maurice Malpas 31.8% Alex McLeish 30.7% Jim Gannon 28% Eric Black 25.9% Harri Kampman 23.8%

Although I doubt he'd be a popular choice Jimmy Calderwood has as good a record in the SPL as we could reasonable expect from an incoming manager. He improved Aberdeen season on season and did very well with Dunfermline playing attacking football. I doubt McAllister, despite the old ties, would be interested in the job. He strikes me as someone who isn't really fussed unless its a big time appointment, which with all the will in the world we aren't. Billy Stark is at the bottom of the list but perhaps with Levein coming in and wanting more control over most aspects of the international remit he will want to move on from the U21's. Stark probably knows a fair bit about our current squad. The Hibs back room rebeled against John Collins, if what you hear about behind the scenes at Fir Park is anything to go by then perhaps John Collins isn't the choice. If Malpas is reappointed it's a one way ticket to the Erskine Bridge.

When Tommy McLean went I was gutted, when Mark McGhee went I was disappointed, when Eric Black went I didn't really care and when Alex McLeish and Maurice Malpas went I was ecstatic. So when I came home today to read the news my reaction was closer to the McLeish/Malpas one than McLean. While his career at Motherwell was open ended it was unfair to be too harsh on Gannon, although I've been a critic for some time, but now that it's over we can judge him on his record. It was mediocre tailing off to poor. Anyone can promise a 'plan for the future' it's something else to actually deliver in the here and now. The very fact that he would not commit to the club shows it was only so much hot air to fool the guilable who really ought to know better by now. In professional football 99.99% are out for themselves. The last couple of months have been dreadful and most of the blame can be attached to Jim Gannon and his ludicrous tactical changes. Most of the good that came out of his time here, the emergence of some potential good young players, wasn't even down to him since all of them were already at the club and most of them had already sampled first team football. His record, despite a long unbeaten run, was not good. 7 wins in 24 matches was nothing to write home about especially since 2 of them were against pub teams and another against an average 1st division side which was only won with virtually the last kick of the ball in extra time. 4 wins in 17 SPL matches was garbage. Even Maurice Malpas had won 6 by Boxing Day. And when all is said and done he has left us with one good player - Tom Hateley. His other English lower division signings have so far failed to shine. The loan players most likely won't be back in 2010 leaving the squad as bare of quality as when Gannon arrived. Overall he will not be greatly missed and the way he's mishandled and treated the club actually leaves a bitter aftertaste.

It's impossible to say what Gannon will do in terms of staying or going. I'm also wary of 'rumours' about his relationship with players behind the scenes. Better to stick to what we actually know about - the teams performances and the managers tactics - anything else is just speculation. However, if anyone knows the length of Gannon's contract I'd like to know. I'm almost sure at the time he signed a one year contract, as I remember it my eyebrows were raised by the length of contract announced in the media when he first came to the club but I've been unable to find any details on the web from a reputable source to confirm or deny that.

I forgot to add in yesterday's goals to Craigan's total but basically after all that my point still stands. Our three most experienced defenders have the best records in terms of conceding fewer goals and when we've played Hammell, Reynolds and Craigan in the same team we've kept two out of three clean sheets. (league) Hammell - 19 from 13 1.46 Craigan - 11 from 7 1.57 Reynolds - 28 from 17 1.64 Saunders - 26 from 15 1.73 Moutaouakil - 23 from 13 1.76 Hutchinson - 9 from 4 2.25 (league + domestic cup) Hammell - 21 from 14 1.50 Reynolds - 32 from 19 1.68 Craigan - 14 from 8 1.75 Saunders - 31 from 17 1.82 Moutaouakil - 28 from 15 1.86 Hutchinson - 12 from 5 2.40 Personally I think it's unfair to include cup matches because some players played against 1st Division opposition and some didn't. We should be concerned with SPL opposition because that's the league we play in. I'm not saying for a minute our defensive record is fantastic with Craigan in the team, it's not, but it is better overall. Now is a time for experienced heads.

I've been fairly critical this weekend but now I have to say things aren't THAT bad!

He didn't do much but we were woeful by that time, you couldn't expect much from him in those circumstances.

For the blame Lasley/Craigan brigade - Lasley hadn't started a game since the away match at Flamurtari Vlore. He's hardly going to be in top form pitching him into a team that's already off the boil. Likewise Craigan hadn't played at all since for two months. As for shipping goals with Craigan in the team he has the best record of any of our defenders this season. Goals conceded (league) Craigan - 8 from 7 - 1.14 goals conceded per game Hammell - 19 from 13 - 1.46 goals conceded per game Reynolds - 28 from 17 - 1.64 goals conceded per game Saunders - 26 from 15 - 1.73 goals conceded per game Moutaouakil - 23 from 13 - 1.76 goals conceded per game Hutchinson - 9 from 4 - 2.25 goals conceded per game Funny how the stats show the three most experienced defenders we have have the best record. We've also only played Reynolds, Hammell and Craigan three times in the same team in the league and we've kept two clean sheets in three of those games, losing none of them.

If you don't care about the results, only the club then you should be worried about relegation. We are struggling to get 4,000 crowds right now, basically we are depending on away fans to get us over the 4,000 mark. If we get relegated a lot of fans will knock it on the head and stop going and away supports will also fall. Income will be slashed. There is no guarantee we would get promotion the next season or even soon (just look at Dundee, St.Johnstone, St.Mirren, Dunfermline etc). I don't think many Motherwell fans lose sleep over any single defeat or even humpings, I've literally seen us beaten hundreds of times, if I did I wouldn't get much sleep but the problem here is that a lot of decent work has been undone by avoidable incompetence. I have no great hopes for Motherwell making Europe in any season frankly, I've always said that if we make the Top Six we've had an excellent season but what I don't expect is for us to throw matches away, time and time again, virtually on a weekly basis, especially when the whole future of the club could be at stake. I don't think anyone would lambast Gannon for not making Europe, for not making the Top Six but he has to show that he can do the basics right and throwing away lead after lead is not the way to do that. As for the problem undeserved expectations and criticism, well there is also a problem with undeserved praise, hero worship. Frankly too many supporters have been in some kind of thrawl to Jim Gannon, when he hasn't really done much. Gannon, unless we go into complete freefall, deserves at least a season to show us what he can do but at the same time fans must be allowed to show that we won't stand by and have our club used as a sort of experiment. Gannon increasingly worries me. He is very arrogant, stuck in his ways and stubborn. Has anyone heard him take the blame for anything? It's the press, it's the referees, it's the players - he is unaccountable to the media or the fans. When we lose it's not the tactics or the formation, there is always an excuse. That's what really worries me, not the defeats, its the fact cannot or will not accept that he might have to adapt his cosy little football coaching theories to fall into line with the real world. At the end of the day Gannon will walk away and it will be your 'club culture' that will have to pick up the pieces.

Most of the teams (down to 11th place in the league) are within 6 points of overtaking us and most of them have a game in hand. Basically if anyone below us wins a game in their next three and we lose or even draw our next two games we are going to be drawn into a real dog fight - and right now we don't look like we'd prosper if that happened. These three games will "shape our season" it either keeps us a comfortable distance away from the relegation dog fight or it doesn't. We need 4 points from the upcoming two games. No one wants to lose 5 on the trot and then have Accies at Fir Park, that has disaster written all over it. We need something against Hearts.

It's not the losing streak, its throwing points away that we should have won. We've not been being beaten, we've thrown the matches away. It's seven matches since we won, we've been leading in FIVE of them, when changes have been made that did not need to be made after which we consequently dropped points or lost the match. That's why people are angry. If we were losing these matches no one would be happy but they wouldn't be angry, a significant amount of what has happened in the last two months has been entirely avoidable, we needn't be in this position but we are. Incidentally, at this stage Maurice Malpas had 23 points, Gannon has 20.