Ya Bezzer!

Yep first appearance of the season. 3-0. I've seen it all as a 'Well fan but I think we can safely it's points in the bag now! Winning feels good doesn't it?! All hail Craigie Broon!

Great stuff! Glad to see its 2-0, cos it was reported on the radio as 2-1! I thought Killie had sneaked a goal when I hadn't been paying attention. According to the half time report we'd been playing well.

I'm not too bothered about Boyle's absence because he's obviously been keeping tabs on things while he's been away and as you've pointed out the manager has been given permission to sign players. However I think he should announce that Brown/Knox will be in charge until the end of the season and that would ease a lot of the uncertainties.

I think a draw from this match would be OK, I think I'd put out a team designed more to not lose than go on the attack, of course if we won all the better, but I think we have to be careful not to take too many risks as another defeat would be disastrous. Some kind of balance is required because we don't want to sit back and invite them on to us either. Hateley would be wasted at right back, put Saunders over to full back. I think we have a bit of a problem on the left side of midfield in that we don't have a 'solid' midfielder who is comfortable in that position and that with Saunders at right back you aren't going to get many good runs/crosses from fullback position, so I think I'd play a sort of 4-1-2-2-1 formation. Let Hateley play just behind the two central midfielders Jennings and Forbes in a covering role, let Murphy play in his best position just behind the main striker and give O'Brien a 'switching' role to give us width on either side. From that basic formation it can easily switch to a 4-5-1, a 4-4-2 or a 4-4-1-1 without too many problems. Ruddy Saunders - Craigan, Reynolds - Hammell Hateley Jennings, Forbes Murphy, O'Brien Jutkiewicz

I'm not sure if this is economically viable but I agree in principle. I no longer go to away games simply because of the expense but if I could afford to I would follow the team every week. I remember the days when we would regularly take 3,000 fans to Celtic Park and its a while now since a relatively small team like Falkirk would bring 1,500 to our place for an ordinary league match. It's obvious that the atmosphere at matches has suffered terribly from reduced numbers of away fans which makes for an overall poorer match experience. I would even accept lower gate prices for away fans than for home fans if it was carried out across the whole SPL but likely that wouldn't be popular with most home fans and it would probably never go into operation due to the risk of home fans going into the away end. However I think something should be done to encourage fans to travel.

How wrong can you be? Any success we had this season was down to the players rather than the coach. Gannon sabotaged about 10 points from us in 6 weeks with absolutely ridiculous decisions when the players 'who can't even do the basics' were dominating matches, taking leads and actually doing reasonably well. If Gannon was a "poor bastard that carried the can" then he only had himself to blame, not that he ever had the guts to admit it, since EVERYTHING was someone else's fault.. And I'd like to see you tolerating the way Gannon treated some of those players. The guy was a clown comparing him to Shankly, Busby, Stein, Ferguson is ridiculous, those guys commanded respect through their achievements, Gannon was like one of those lizards that puffs itself up to make it look bigger than it is - at the end of the day he got found out. The fact that it was one of the English players he brought in that sprayed him with water tells you he had very little respect from the squad in general, not just the players he victimized.

I wouldn't answer yes or no to this. He wouldn't be a first pick or even a second pick but at the same time I wouldn't be dead against him if he did end up as a manager, we could do a lot worse. His record is actually pretty good in the SPL. Some said "all his teams play boring football" but that simply isn't the case. Falkirk and Hearts played some excellent football with Jefferies in charge and so did Kilmarnock before they started going backwards a couple of seasons ago with the sale of Naismith and all the behind the scenes upheavel. Of course most of the people on here would rather gamble the clubs future on an unknown from down south with a 'fresh approach' who if successful would bugger off in next to no time rather than have someone like Jeffries who knows the league inside out, knows our opponents inside out, knows the whole Scottish football inside out and on top of that has a pretty good track record. And I mentioned it before but Tam McLean was as close to a match in terms of personality to Jim Jeffries as you are likely to get.

Interesting to note in the wake of the Kyle Controversy down at Rugby Park that all SPL players have to sign a standard clause in their contract instructing them not to discuss internal club affairs. Basically any player coming out and discussing internal club affairs is breaking their contractual agreement with their employer so I wouldn't expect many players to bother taking the risk of discussing it openly, certainly to the media.

Could have been better could have been worse. If you want to win the cup, and who doesn't, you are probably going to have to go to grounds like Inverness, Kilmarnock or Falkirk and win. It will be difficult to get through two away ties but it is possible and if we can do that surely the law of averages will give us a home tie for the quarter finals.

In the old days I used to always stand on the North Terrace but one day about 1991 (we beat Dunfermline 3-1 that day with Bobby Russell scoring a beauty) it was absolutely pelting it down monsoon style so instead of going on to the uncovered terrace I went into the East Stand and I've been there ever since. I used to sit down near the corner flag at the Davie Cooper end but when I started getting season tickets I moved up to the half way line.

He wouldn't be a first pick but even his critics would have to admit he has a decent record in the SPL. Funny that so many Motherwell fans don't like him when if you were to compare him to any other manager in Scottish football it would probably be wee Tam McLean.

I agree with this but we have to have a wage structure and stick to it. If O'Brien wants more than the club can pay then we have to let him go. We have to look at the long term viability of the club rather then the short term benefits of a season or two and the most important thing is we keep wage costs down.

There are problems with the East Stand, the amount of water that comes down out of the roof is ridiculous. The toilet facilities are also poor but I very rarely use them living close to the stadium. Better exits would also be welcomed. However, generally the East Stand is fine for watching football from. When I go to a game I just want to sit down and watch the game. Maybe I'm old fashioned in that regard but I don't really care about 'facilities'. The couple of times I've been in hospitality I've not really enjoyed the match as much as I would have if I'd been in the East. Frankly I think a lot of people are just soft these days. Oh no it's cold! Oh no they don't have canapes! Oh no the seat isn't cushioned in deep velvet!

I think they are there until a permanent manager is brought in. Personally I'd sign them up until the end of the season right now, that gives Boyle more time to look around and bring the right man in and it also stabilises our team and enables us to bring in players and do business during the transfer window. It seems like a win/win situation to me.

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.