Ya Bezzer!

How are they going to do that? Today was one of our biggest home games of the season and there was just over 7,000 at the match. The corresponding fixture 5 years ago had 11,000. Both OF games have failed to clear the 10,000 mark and other than that we've only had ONE 5,000+ attendance against Hibs (5,221) all season. That's 12 home matches this season and THREE 5,000+ crowds. Our crowds have been dire this season. Here's the 8 home league match attendance aggregates and a comparison with the corresponding 8 fixtures from the last two seasons... 09/10 - 45,903 08/09 - 47,038 07/08 - 52,711 We could probably bring two players on that lost revenue of about £150,000. If the trend continues we might be £300,000 down on turnstile money over the season.

Jutkiewicz did well, I really like Hateley a lot he's an excellent player but you have to go for Ruddy, although it was a close run thing between him and Hateley.

A top 6 finish would a good achievement (maybe not great) but we are as close to team above us as we are 11th right now - 7 points in each direction. 7th placed Hamilton Accies are only 4 points behind us and we are at Ibrox next week - not a happy hunting ground. Meanwhile we have 1 win in the last 8 league matches. We need 4 points out the next 9 at least or we will likely fall out of the Top 6.

We had a good spell after we were gifted a goal but really apart from that we didn't do much but hold out. I reckon we played well for about 20 minutes and once again we came out in the 2nd half and did virtually nothing.

I enjoyed the match as entertainment, even though we lost and I applaud the pluckiness of what basically amounts to a school team holding out against a team of internationals for 80 minutes or so but seriously Gannon's line ups, tactics and substitutions are rapidly becoming a liability. By all accounts Pollock is a good young player but to leave Sutton on the bench when the Celtic back line was so ropey today just seems like sending out a statement about him rather than doing the best thing for the team. And poor Steven Meechan, you felt sorry for the lad being thrust into that as a debut. Basically the two goal keepers keep us in the match Ruddy for keeping them out and Boruc for letting them in! Ruddy :8: More performances like that and he'll be away in January. Moutaouakil :5: Did OK other wise but his crossing is woeful and that's an important part of being a full back Reynolds :6: Never looked secure today but there wasn't much help in front of him Saunders :5: Inexperienced showed today. Hammell :5: Didn't get forward. Hateley :8: Reading will regret letting this guy go, looks like a player who can go on to the top level. Jennings :6: Carrying a lot of weight but did his best by putting in tackles Meechan :5: Tough match to make his debut Murphy :6: Looked our most dangerous player in the first half but didn't feature much as we went deeper and deeper and deeper... McHugh :6: Tried hard and did reasonably well considering we didn't do much attacking. Jutkiewicz :7: Really developing into a good player, you can see why he's at a Premiership club now. Forbes :4: Almost equalised. Pollock :2: Not much impact Coke :2: Just not doing it right now

Seriously is Gannon having some kind of mental breakdown or something?

TEAM NEWS IN Jennings, Meechan, McHugh OUT Coke, Forbes, Sutton Huh!!??

Yep, live close to Fir Park and its pretty foggy but you can see the length of a football pitch. I've only got an hour and a half to find my woolly hat though! It's freezing!

I think we'll either win or get gubbed but I can't see a draw or a close defeat.

Surprised he's still only 31. He might still have some life left in him but I doubt if he's as good a player now as he was back then.

If he wants to talk about the team and not referees how come he's done nothing but talk about referees for weeks and all the while we have to wait 5 days to hear about the last weeks game? I've said it before but Gannon simply didn't understand the level of media focus that goes with being an SPL team. There might be side in League 1 with three times our support and three times our income but we have three times their media coverage. Gannon's been used to dealing with local news and now he's in with the big fish and he's not handled it well. Hopefully he's big enough to get on with things and try and normalize the situation again. Anyway he said 'he'd have to consider his position' if the referee situation didn't improve and then said it "was a tough question to ask" when asked if he was disillusioned and didn't in anyway deny it. Good luck re-signing the loan players after that interview!

Aye but that doesn't count on his record! I think he missed another penalty at the Davie Cooper end if I remember correctly, might be wrong though. The point is he's not been a regular penalty taker like Forbes, Clarkson, Foran, McBride etc and none of his goals have come from the spot (far as I can remember).

Sutton has scored 16 times in 44 starts. Decent for a club like us especially when you consider he's not a penalty taker. In fact I don't think a single one of them was a penalty.

As ol' Johnny Lydon once said "anger is an energy".

"Premiership standard"? Did you see Liverpool paid several MILLION pounds for Sotiris Krygiakos?

He can easily say he doesn't want to talk about the referee like most managers do but he can less easily say he doesn't want to talk about his continually baffling tactical decisions. Instead he'll put out a statement where he decides what he answers and what he doesn't answer and put it out on the Pravda website. Most fans seem to support him at the moment, but just wait until we suffer a dip, or we go through a bad month or 6 weeks of results with back to back defeats and the man in the ivory tower still isn't talking. Things will change believe me. Gannon is only damaging himself right now.

Adam Rooney is a decent shout as a squad player but I've always wondered why he's never really established himself at Inverness even though he's probably been there most potent striker.

Rubbish. Gannon has had the opportunity to give live radio interviews and has turned them down. How can that be twisted? Apparently he's contractually obliged to talk to Radio Scotland as part of broadcast deal, as are all SPL managers, if he continues to boycott the media, the media might start asking for their money back.

So by all accounts we put in our worst performance of the season today after a tactical blunder, yet again by the manager, and he shouldn't answer any questions? Jim Gannon should be answerable just like anyone in public life should be.

According to the radio Gannon isn't speaking to the press again and isn't allowing players to speak either.

Radio guy just said 'Motherwell changed things at half time but it never really worked out'. Gannon needs to stop tampering with things. Sure if its not working with half an hour or 20 minutes to go change it but these HT changes are having a negative effect. Are you telling me player morale isn't effected when you are pulling players off in the first half and at half time two at a time, match after match?

Mikael Antoine-Curier's loan deal at Accies ends on January 1st and I'm sure Dundee would be easy to deal with since there was been a big fall out between the player and the club. Accies are trying to extend the deal, might I suggest we nip in and steal him. Good goals to game ratio, would be a good third striker and maybe more.

Hibs have won 5, drawn 1 and lost 1 (to Celtic) at home and have only conceded one goal in the last five of those so they seem to be pretty strong at home. Hopefully we go out with revenge on our mind and pay them back but really depends on what Motherwell team shows up on the day.

Exactly. He's alienating the media, referees, other managers and if what you hear is true some of our own players. Why exactly? As for 'congratulating' Gannon for communicating through the club instead of the press - what short sightedness. That's fine now when things are going reasonably well but if things later go less well who do you think is going to ask the hard questions? No disrespect to the people who are employed by the club, they do a good job, but they are restricted in what they can ask and write because at the end of the day the piper calls the tune. Part of a managers job is to speak to the press - if he doesn't then he's not doing his job properly. Some of the stuff he's been coming away with might be crowd pleasing to the unthinking but actually its nonsense and he's starting to come across as some one who needs to learn a little humility. He's also been completely hypocritical. He started off really well with his dealings with the press but more and more it looks like doesn't have the experience or simply can't handle the increased press cover he gets here. Elsewhere he was local news and not much else. In Scotland he's national news with a dozen newspapers or more. Frankly someone needs to tell him to shut up. His refusal to actual learn from the situation HE got himself into suggests a stubborn and arrogant personality - already suggested by needless tactical mistakes against in particular St.Mirren and Aberdeen. He needs to take a few steps back, learn some lessons and concentrate on actually winning some games.

Remember when football managers say this they are also saying that fans don't have the right to question them. It's a complete bullshit argument. Fans will applaud any pop at the media but its time we started actually looking at what Gannon is saying - and a lot of it is slightly worrying.