Ya Bezzer!

Yeah, I'd expect Jennings to start tonight. If Humphrey plays, I reckon it will be off the bench. Fraser Page or Saunders - Craigan, Reynolds - Hammell O'Brien - Lasley, Forbes, Jennings - Slane Sutton

£7,000 a week...

A guy I know is a Northampton supporter. He got back to me this morning on Giles Cokes. I asked him if Giles Cokes was any good. "Underperforming lazy tosser comes to my mind... He was highly regarded when we signed him but we have only seen occasional glimpses of what he can do (quick with both feet, good vision, box to box). Towards the end of last season, when we needed a player like Giles to step up and help us out of trouble, he just didn't want to know. His attitude stank to be honest... Even so, it has come as huge suprise that he has left, i mean the club announced weeks back that he would re-sign and he has played three pre-season games for us. This is slightly entertaining http://users.boardnation.com/~thehotelend/...0;start=0"

I think we need to show some restraint especially in the early stages. Flamurtari are not a great team but they looked most dangerous on the counter attack. Even one close shave from Flamurtari would give them a huge boost in confidence and we saw the difference the missed penalty made in the first league. Obviously we have to attack but I think we should be saying something like 'you've got 60 minutes to make it 1-0 so keep it tight then we can concentrate on getting the winner'. We only need 1 goal to stay in the tie but if we concede its more or less over so its more important that we don't give away a goal.

McGhee took a lot of stick on here for leaving us in the situation we are currently in with the depleted squad. So Gannon's plan is to bring in 4 loan deals and 2 of the 3 players we've brought in have signed ONE year deals? Hmmm.

First of all Hammell was successful in the Championship, Southend didn't want to lose him, and Clarkson hasn't kicked a ball yet. The point is we have sold or lost under freedom of contract the backbone of our team to top half Championship level teams and are recruiting from bottom half League 1 and in some instances League 2 sides. Generally, that is a big gap in quality, like comparing St. Johnstone with Berwick Rangers. And with all due respect to McGarry and Fitzpatrick we didn't build a side around them, they were fringe players who could come in and do a job. Are we building a side around Coke, Humphreys etc? Are those players going to be the spine? I don't doubt there are good players to be had down there and bringing up one or two would be worth the gamble to see if it worked out but it looks like 6 or 7 in the line up next season. That to me is a bit of a risk because for all the flak the SPL gets it is light years ahead of League 2 and at least half the clubs if not more would be among the better sides in League 1. Believe me, I hope I'm wrong because I don't have a job right now and I've put even more, comparatively speaking, into the club this summer than I usually do and I really don't want to see that investment go Malpasesque. I guess we'll see what happens but right now I have concerns.

Another guy we know nothing about. Another guy brought in from a lower level. Another midfielder, meaning we probably have more midfielders than goalkeepers, defenders and forwards put together. Good luck to the new players but I have reservations about our transformation into an English League 2 side. It will certainly be interesting to see how they get on but I'm a little uneasy that we are being taken down a level and we're all too thankful just to get bodies in that the support isn't saying 'wait a minute here, who are we actually signing?'

I'd never be confident of this team scoring three goals. I think we will win the match but the shadow of the away goals rule looms large over this tie.

Albanian footballers have a track record of disappearing when visiting the United Kingdom to play football matches. It's happened at least once when England played Albania in a qualifier (can't remember if it was Euros or World Cup) when quite a few of the team absconded. And if I remember correctly there were a few other instances. Obviously the Government mandarins haven't forgotten.

I'd be 'happy' with a similar season to last, bottom six but no real relegation anxiety. I honestly don't see how any of the provincial clubs are going to break into the Top Six this season as most of them have more or less been strip mined of their playing staffs (Us, Hamilton, Falkirk, Kilmarnock etc) are newly promoted (St Johnstone) or weren't very good in the first place (St. Mirren). The Top 6 will almost certainly be the 6 city clubs and it will be left to the others to scrap it out in the bottom six. I also have my doubts about the ability of lower league players from England to cut it in the SPL. Since it looks like we might have a team full of them next season that could be a problem. We'll see what happens but right now I'd rather have lower expectations and hopefully be surprised than expect too much and be disappointed but I can see the bottom six being a really tough, dog eat dog mini division with hardly anything between the teams.

We should be able to defeat Flamurtari anyway, as far as I am concerned the lack of signings won't be an excuse if we don't manage it. As for the transfer market, you need to look at the bigger picture rather than rushing people in. We don't have a lot of money so we should make every penny count by making sure we get the best possible players available and if that means waiting another week or three then fine. However we DO need to bring them in, we won't get by on what we've got over a season.

Been to a few reserve/U-19 matches but didn't make to one for two seasons I think. I think I'm right in saying they don't play them at Fir Park anymore which is one of the reasons I've not seen one lately. I remember once against Dunfermline, Sean Fagan went in pretty hard on the then unknown Nicky Phinn. Phinn's parents were sitting just behind me and his mum went mental at the tackle. "Who was that!?" she said and consulted the team sheet "I'll Sean Fagan him!". She then proceeded down to the front of the stand screaming "Don't you hit my wee boy, you listening Fagan!" style patter down on to the pitch. Must have been a beamer for the guy!

My coke was £1.50. Must have seen you coming!

Pretty much agree with this.

In my opinion if a penalty has to be retaken a different player than the one that took the original penalty should take it. How often does it happen that the retake is missed?

I don't think Fraser was to blame for the goal but he is far from 'fine'.

Maybe that's because we didn't know what kind of side we were playing and then when we saw they were lower league pish we realised, 'We should be beating this team'.

0-1 is a bad score. Better in my opinion to lose 1-3. Flamurtari weren't very good. Not SPL quality and more like a bottom half of the first division team. We should be able to win the tie but if we don't then questions have to be asked because we should be putting teams like that to bed.

Not going to say much at this point because its over two legs but if we go out to this team we went out to mince.

I'm sitting here watching a football game in which I can't see the ball about 75% of the time.

It's not an art grant we are getting from the council. It's not philanthropy. It's a TV deal from television companies that survive on advertising revenue. It's all about the number of eyes on the screen and if you add up the average attendances of the Championship more than 10 million fans go through the turnstiles every season compared with 3.5 million in the SPL. The Championship provides a different level of exposure than the SPL can provide even with Rangers and Celtic included.

I think too much focus is put on formations. What you should really be looking at are how many instinctively attacking players do you have? How many instinctive goal scorers do you have on the field? How many runners or hard workers do you have? How many instinctive ball winners? If you play with only one player in the side that can score then you are always going to be in trouble, no matter what formation you play whether its a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 and that is the situation we are in at the moment. Sutton might not be the best player in the world but he will score 10 - 15 goals a season but right now there is nothing to suggest any other player in the squad will get 5 unless they more than double their personal best tally. We need more offensive threat in the side, that could come from an attacking midfielder like Andy Dorman or a goal scoring wide player like Ross McCormack or from another centre forward but its a must that we get it from somewhere.

I'm not writing off Flamurtari by any means, only saying that you can't judge Flamurtari by the quality of the Albanian national team which is of a much higher standard.

Hardly any Albanian internationals play at home in Albania and Vlore have no current international players. Also this idea that Mediterranean people can run around playing football in 90 degrees is a myth, its hot for them too which is why 'only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'! The game will probably be played at a slow pace. One other point, I hope Motherwell have learned the lesson that in European football an away goal is invaluable. Too many Scottish teams have gone out on away goals because they have sat back and tried to get a 0-1 or a 0-0 and thought that was a good result, its not. When playing an away tie, first and foremost, you should be looking to get that away goal, then you worry about winning, drawing or losing.

Again its hard to judge because we don't know much about the opposition, however Albania football is a decent standard and the heat is likely to effect us more than them. Flamurtari finished down the league and only qualified by winning the cup so they aren't one of the strongest sides in their league you have to imagine so I'd hopeful we can get some kind of result that keeps the tie alive. I'd be disappointed if we didn't make the next round because although they won't be easy meat I'd be surprised if they were better than say a St. Mirren or a Kilmarnock and although those teams can beat us, if we play to our ability we should be winning over two legs. We need to be professional, focused and play well to progress but if we do those things I'd expect us to get through.