Ya Bezzer!

Unless something radically changes in the Scottish game we shouldn't be looking at teams like Hearts, Dundee Utd, Aberdeen and Hibs as 'tough fixtures', especially at our place. Just off the top of my head I'm sure we've won the last 4 matches against Hearts at Fir Park. You are just as likely to get points off these teams as non city clubs. OK, maybe not Dundee Utd . Rangers and Celtic obviously a different kettle of fish but at worst it gets 3 of those fixtures out the way.

That's a very kind opening fixture list that gives us a good chance of putting some points on the board early doors. And if you can do that it sets you up nice for the rest of the season. Of course you don't just get given the points but we've done just about as well as you could hope there.

We had a good team at that time but that Mypa 47 side had some tasty players including Sami Hyypia and Joonas Kolkka. Most of the rest of them were Finnish internationals.

I like it. I think we should usually play in our 'traditional' strip with the claret hoop most of the time but having a wee change once in a while is fine by me, especially since we usually have new kits every season these days. Kinda keeps things fresh.

I didn't actually have a season ticket last season (although the only game I missed was the opening home match against Hibs) but I'm back in the season ticket club for 22-23. Looking forward to the soap opera again (will it be East Enders or Dallas?) although it has to be said this close season, right across Scottish football, has been very boring so far. I think there has been about 2 kit launches and 7 signings! I guess it's still only June. Feels longer when you are watching Scotland in the Nations League. Ooft. The annoying thing is I'm going to be up in the Highlands with no phone or internet when the Euro draw gets made.

Poor old Barraclough getting booed. Not that surprising though!

Hanley and Cooper get rinsed every week at club level. Gilmour can't even get a game at Norwich, Patterson the same at the worst Everton team in a long time. McTominay has been described as 'the worst ever Manchester United midfielder'. Andy Robertson continues to talk big and then fall completely flat in an international shirt. McGinn at least has a few goals but for every good game he has there are two or three absolutely rotten ones. Callum McGregor is one of the most overrated player in Scottish football history, a good player at Scottish Premiership level but pretty much found out every time he plays up a level. Che Adams is never an international striker. Armstrong is hopeless in a Scotland shirt. And that's the core of our team. Tierney has usually done well for us but most of the 'big' names flatter to deceive.

U21 selections have been utterly bizarre for a while. Turnbull barely played for a start. The focus seems to be on English based youth team players with no or little first team experience.

West Ham paid 4 million for him and he's play 5 matches. Different world!

I don't know if it's because it's the first Motherwell strip I remember but I always liked that kit.

Aberdeen have better defenders at the club so if they were bad last season they need to be looking at the full backs and general tactics rather than bringing in someone like Dunne.

Not many players chalk up 539 appearances to be fair.

The statistical site Who Scored? had the following..... Van Veen - 6 Watt - 6 Lamie - 4 Mugabi - 3 and a whole bunch on 2 and 1.

It was their first trophy in nearly 9 years. And only one league title in nearly 20 years. Not even finished Top 3 since 2016. Then on top of that all the financial stuff, behind the scenes stuff, rioting, general madness etc.

Takes a better free kick than Ronaldo.

We missed Maguire when he was injured. And we missed him even more when Donnelly came back from injury about the same time! Also good news on Lamie. He's our best central defender. If we could bring in a strong signing to partner him that would have potential but I still think the full back positions are the big problem.

I was looking through some of the European leagues and I noticed our old foe Nancy have been relegated to the third tier of French football. Levante were also relegated to Liga 2. When you consider Flamurtari have also been relegated, Kuban, Mypa and Katowice have all been liquidated, Panathinaikos are a shambles and Steaua have been splintered into two teams I think it's safe to say no one will want to draw us in the competition!

Pretty much agree with that. The full back issue is really big. Carroll and O'Donnell are decent going forward but struggle defensively in a back four. I've never really been convinced by us playing three at the back, the Hearts game being a good example, we were much better 2nd half when we switched back. So what do you do? It's hard to see a solution with the existing resources. I'd be happy enough with Lamie and A. N. Other. Mugabi is fine as a 'John Philliben' type fill in at the back for injuries and suspensions. Ojala and Johansen both looked decent when they first arrived but have been injury prone and dodgy since then. In an ideal world I'd ditch McGinley and bring in a better defender at left back and bring in a strong central defender to partner Lamie - if he sticks around. O'Donnell needs to do better as well. He's a current international and should be a first pick but his form last season was all over the place, he made too many individual errors and I don't blame the manager for dropping him. Big improvements needed from him. I was enthusiastic about the signing but he's been a big disappointment for me.

Just watching the highlights. Two excellent finishes.

We have a first team squad of about 18-19 players so I honestly don't see us bringing in much more than that. Maybe about a 24 - 25 man squad? Fingers crossed they are higher level players. I said earlier we needed to replace our defence but it looks like it's going to be pretty much the same players - O'donnell/Mugabi. Ojala/Lamie/Johansen. McGinley/Carroll. The number of goals conceded this season was the single biggest problem and it's hard to see leopards changing their spots unless there are substantial tactical changes.

You'd think that but only recently we've fired folk out that we'd just re-signed - Robbie Crawford for one.

I think we've done decent enough going forward. I know Woolery, Shields, Efford etc aren't the greatest but I think they are adequate and might improve having had a season of experience and a chance to adapt. We do need to replace Tony Watt though as we cannot go into a season with 1 centre forward. Defensively we have been awful, especially in the second half of the season. For me, with Lamie going, we need a whole new back four, if that's what we are going to play. For me O'Donnell and Carroll can't play in a back four. I'm not against keeping both as options but not as starters in a 4-3-3. We need two solid full backs that can defend in a line of four. In midfield we need a guy who can stroke the ball around and we need a player that can make runs into the box. I'm assuming here (and crossing my fingers) but with guys like Donnelly, Grimshaw and O'Hara leaving there is a bit of scope for bring in more technically gifted midfielders.

Hat trick for James Scott vs St Johnstone.

Recently Celtic have beat Rangers 3-0 at home, Ross County 4-0, Hearts 4-1, St Johnstone 7-0. It's not utterly embarrassing. It's business as usual. What's utterly embarrassing is folk like you taking any excuse to slate the team and the manager. Give it a rest. You all sound like you'd divorce the wife if she burned the parsnips.

Celtic are miles and miles and miles ahead of us at the best of times. They are celebrating a title win at home in front of 50,000. We are in holiday mode after achieving what we needed to. This was always going to happen and it doesn't really matter.