Ya Bezzer!

I think most of the trouble in the 80's and 90's was down to Motherwell fans! Easter Road was always a much more intimidating place to go as a visiting fan than Tynecastle. More likely the reason is the long unbeaten run Hearts had against us in the 80's and 90's. If I remember correctly it ran to about 16 games or something like that. Combine that with one of the dirtiest teams you are ever likely to see (Black, Whittaker, MacKay, Kidd etc) and you got a pretty good reason. Perhaps another reason but I think I've seen Motherwell play Hearts under floodlights more than any other team. We always seem to have midweek matches against them or Scottish Cup ties and those types of matches usually are a bit more exciting than afternoon matches on a Saturday.

Didn't think it was a foul. Porter just outmuscled him. Didn't really see it at the game but I think the Zaliuskas hand ball should have been a penalty. Most ball to hand claims are just hot air but to me he puts his palm up to block the ball, there is intent.

I agree. O'Brien worked his socks off last night but we aren't running a sprint team. There was no deliver from him, no incisive passing, no shots on goal, no actual football basically. Klimpl did OK but who was he playing against? Hearts were shocking last night, one of the worst teams I've seen this season or last. They were absolutely toothless and let's be honest about it he wasn't exactly stretched was he? Klimpl was comfortable because he was under no pressure whatsoever. He looked better in the midfield role than as a defender but I'll withhold judgement until he's actually given a test. Klimpl at least did his job because Hearts were restricted to one headed chance and a long range shot but O'Brien? We did nothing offensively last night apart from the goal. I've said it before but its all extremes on this board, everything is either superb or dismal, there is no middle or degrees of that. O'Brien showed effort (which is good) but other than that there wasn't much to write home about in what was overall a poor match.

I think you have to give it to a defender tonight. O'Brien worked his socks off but to what end? There was no product from all his running about. The midfield wasn't great and the forwards didn't get much support. Klimpl did OK but for me he wasn't really in the game much due to Hearts not posing much threat down the middle. I'd give it to Paul Quinn who keep Hearts best player quiet and made a couple of excellent defensive tackles in the second half.

Not the greatest game, I don't think either keeper had a serious save to make in the entire 90 minutes (+4!). We were the better team though and Hearts were pretty woeful to be honest. At least we looked solid and organised which we haven't the last couple of times I'd seen us (didn't managed to get to the Inverness match so I can't talk about that one). Referee was abysmal and didn't do much to help the flow of the match as well as spending a lot of the time with his back to play! Good one ref! Once again Stephen Hughes was a shadow of himself but most of the other players at least gave effort even if the quality wasn't there (especially O'Brien, sweated buckets but no end product whatsoever). 7 points out of 9 is a decent return over the Holiday period though.

A central midfielder that scores 7 or 8 goals a season? At Motherwell? Come on don't be silly! Unless I'm forgetting someone that last midfielder we had like that was Ged Brannan.

He's still there and playing a blinder apparently.

Don't want to seem like a wet blanket but I won't be going up to Fir Park tonight with too many expectations. We can't score and Hearts are pretty good at the back. Where is the goal going to come from? Also too many memories of dismal home performances against Hearts in recent times. That said it's Motherwell and anything can happen. Fingers crossed the form guide goes out the window.

John Fleck is 17 years old. I doubt he'd be starting for many SPL sides even if he is as good as he's hyped up to be and that's still to be proven. I don't think there is really a problem like there was in the 1990's for Scottish young players breaking through. There is very little money about and clubs are not splashing it about willy nilly on the continent but clubs need a first team squad that is fairly experienced and if they can bring in players of a certain level at a certain price then that's what they will do. No manager is going to risk a squad full of inexperienced players no matter how talented they are. Remember what happened to us when we were forced in to doing that? That said most teams will have 3 or 4 U21 Scottish players in their first team squad and that seems a decent balance. The best players break through, other young players just won't be good enough. Take Adam Coakley for example. Scored loads of goals at the lower levels but couldn't make the step up and is now hardly setting the heather on fire in the 2nd Division. Are you really saying if he'd had the opportunity denied to him by someone like Scott McDonald he would have done just as well? It would be better if more young players were exposed to the national top level (i.e 16 team league) but in the current league set up I think managers are doing the best they can and almost all the clubs bring through their own players now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, no stadium relocation in Scottish football history has worked successfully. What's happened to Airdrie? Livingston? St. Johnstone? Would you like a new ground like Falkirk's or Hamilton's? Motherwell supporters need to get real. The land Fir Park is on isn't big enough or worth enough to enable us to move to a good new stadium. The Ricoh Arena mentioned in the article cost £130,000,000 pounds. Even a quarter of that budget would far beyond our wildest dreams. More likely we will be in the same region as St.Mirren who spent £15,000,000 on their new stadium. Sure the Ricoh Arena is much bigger than anything we would need but it still equates to £4,000 spent per seat compared to St.Mirren's £1,875 spent per seat. Going by that formula we would need in the region of £40-50 million to build a comparable stadium to the one in Coventry and that just isn't going to happen. Anything we moved to would be of inferior quality because its all we could afford, unless someone pumped tens of millions of pounds into it. Within a generation, due to modern construction methods we'd probably be back where we started with a shoddy, out of date stadium on our hands. As for all this pie in the sky about having hotel complexes, conference facilities, offices etc, all these things do not guarantee additional revenue streams, they could easily make loses! The facts are there probably isn't a market for a new hotel in this area and there is already huge amounts of office floor space lying empty and unused all across central Scotland. All these shiny new ideas look great on paper but actually no one has ever made it work in this country before. Beware.

Inverness and Falkirk will probably have new managers before long so it could be down to who the respective boards bring in to replace them.

Cos they are trying to get Porter and/or Smith out the door asap?

With one season as an exception the Davies years were mostly dire. He probably had more money to spend than any other Motherwell manager in history and the net result was no success and escape from relegation by the skin of our teeth. It was his first job and I don't doubt he has improved over time, his record in England isn't bad at all, but his time at Motherwell was a waste of time and money. Also worth remembering that Davies was probably the least liked manager in my time as a supporter. Even McLeish and Malpas didn't get the abuse from the East Stand that Davies got in his last couple of seasons.

Hasn't it already been stated by McGhee that unless someone is sold there is no money to bring anyone in?

Typical! Was called away at the last minute and didn't get to the match, first missed home game of the season. Obviously I wasn't at the match but looks like it was no coincidence that Clarkson and Craigan were back today. Hopefully our confidence will have taken a boost from this because as I've said before the biggest difference between 8 or 9 of the teams in this league is squad morale rather than tactics, formations, line ups etc. It really is that tight between being in the Top 6 and struggling at the bottom.

Do you watch the other teams? Take St.Mirren, Billy Mehmet has 8 goals this season, more than any of ours. Andy Dorman and Gary Mason are both good players and they have good solid pros in Hugh Murray, Garry Brady, Jack Ross and Steven Robb. Inverness have Ian Black and Don Cowie who would both walk into our midfield as would Craig Bryson and Taouil at Kilmarnock. Falkirk have Stevie Lovell (again more goals this season than any of our strikers) and midfielders like Burton O'Brien, Scott Arfield, Patrick Cregg etc, as well as Darren Barr in defence. Even Accies have McArthur, McCarthy and Neil in midfield when we are playing guys like McGarry and Fitzpatrick. As for Hughes he's been gash this season and he only played in patches last season. Rapidly becoming on of the most over rated players to ever pull on a Motherwell shirt and you can see why Leicester fans thought he was a waste of space.

You can moan until you are blue in the face but this is our team and if anyone else is would like to suggest a manager they think would do a better job, is available, is willing to come to Motherwell and suggest how we stub up the money to pay off the rest of McGhee's contract and strengthen the team in January, then lets hear it. Nothing is going to change personnel wise so you might as well support the team or just go away and come back again when things are looking good again. Looks like its going to be a long hard season but all the 'pitchfork and flaming torches' stuff doesn't actually help anyone so sup it up.

This might well be the lowest Premier League attendance at Fir Park. 14th Dec 1985. v Clydebank Att: 1,995

Last Season our worst attendance was: 2nd Rnd League Cup - 3,571 v Raith Rovers worst league attendance was v Inverness 4,259 2006/07 the worst attendance was v Falkirk in the League - 3,640 2005/06 we only managed 3,989 for a League Cup Quarter Final v Aberdeen. In the league 3,621 v Dunfermline. Back in the mid 80's we regularly got crowds down in the 2,000's in the Premier League so tonight wasn't as bad as that!

One of the few players to show any enthusiasm tonight but didn't look any better than the defenders we already have. Frequently raced out of position, not strong in the air. Of course you can't judge a player on one performance but I didn't see anything tonight to suggest he'd make a significant difference for us. A right back? Maybe. A squad player? Maybe. A new rock in central defence? Can't see it so far.

Yeah, there was 3,000 people there tonight and it had all the atmosphere of the moon. Don't see the problem, at least they get a song going. Maybe if the fare on the field was better they wouldn't have to entertain themselves in other ways.

You must have a short memory because although we've been poor recently we are still a lot better than the Malpas period. We played pretty well against Rangers a couple of weeks ago for instance. We went 12 matches with 1 win in the later days of Malpas, lets not get carried away with the criticism. It's not good right now but supporters need to avoid blowing things out of perspective. We are going through a bad spell right now but let's not compare half a season of mediocre fare with a full season of absolute drivel.

Miserable performance. You could accept the Hibs defeat as they played well and have some special players but that Kilmarnock team tonight was work-a-day. Too many people at Fir Park have no stake in the future of the club. From the Manager right down through the playing staff there is an atmosphere of running down time until contracts run out. Take Hughes for example, he'd be more use dancing round at half time with the pom-pom girls than in our midfield this season. Jim O'Brien? Are we even sure this guy is a professional footballer? You couldn't even give a man of the match tonight because there wasn't a single player that went beyond mediocre. Jamie Murphy isn't ready for first team football and we have to be really careful we don't spoil the career of a player with a lot of potential. Saunders didn't look out of place and did relatively well but he doesn't look ready for 1st team football either. There is clearly no plans, no tactics, no confidence, no effort, no appetite in that team right now and at the end of the day the buck stops at the manager. The season is still salvageable and the doom mongers who love the bad times more than the good times are being a bit premature at this stage but we are entering the crucial period of the season and we need to improve dramatically over the Christmas period or it is going to be a grim looking 2009.

More likely who would want to buy him. He's not exactly set the heather on fire this season and anyone interested can pick him up for free in the summer. Can you honestly see English clubs, in the midst of a credit crunch throwing money at us for a guy sitting on 4 SPL goals this season? I can't see anyone paying us any significant amount of money for Porter. We got him for nothing and he'll most likely leave for nothing.

If you excuse the Hibs 'blip' our home record is pretty good this season. We've only lost twice at Fir Park since August and the other time was against league leaders Celtic. On the other hand Kilmarnock have a poor away record, losing 5 out of the last 6 trips away from Rugby Park. Hopefully there are no major changes in form then! I think Clarkson coming back will be a big benefit to the side.