Ya Bezzer!

So how come you've seen him once, tonight, and have judged him to be "quality"?

Well I didn't need to think very hard about this.

They are reminiscent of the Ancell Babes in the sense they are vaguely humanoid in shape.

That was poor. I think you are papering over cracks with the 'we were playing a good team' excuse. Sure, Steaua are better than anything we'll play next season but that won't matter when we can't defend with a spare man at the back, pass the ball to team mates, put in a cross that beats the first man or hit the net from 7 yards out. A lot of work to be done, especially in midfield. Bit of a worry that we had three of our new signings in there and they weren't at the races. The English season starts a week on Saturday so I'm not having the 'they aren't fit yet' line. At least Ruddy looks a good prospect.

Shocking goal to lose. Two defenders. One attacker. Free header. Fuck sake.

My stream is jerky but I've not even seen Coke and Jennings. I wish I HADN'T seen Humphries but sadly that isn't the case. Funnily enough I said earlier in the day over the Hammell debate how poor our midfield were in 'defensive' mode. Steaua are making that pretty clear. Unless we can clamp down the midfield straight from the start they are going to put four past us and finish the tie stone dead.

He's fucking honkin'. He makes O'Brien look like Franck Ribery.

I'm afraid we look out of our depth here.

If we can keep it down to a one goal margin I think that gives us a real chance. If we could get an away goal - great. I just hope we don't curl up in a ball and try not to get hurt. Have a go and you never know what might happen.

We've gone over this before. Hammell is often out of position because our midfield can't hold a line and have the positional sense of a group of headless chicken. That often leaves Stevie in a no win situation. Cover for the midfield and leave a gap at the back? Or fall back and let the opposition run at you? Or have two players on your side and have to pick one and leave the other? And I'm not saying he is Paolo Maldini but a lot of the stick he gets is unfair especially in terms of positioning and defending. We saw how useless Jim O'Brien was as a full back last week. We'll he's equally useless in midfield when we should be in 'defence' mode. Not that the rest of them are much better but he's the worst offender for being out of position, not tracking back, not picking up a player etc etc. If Gannon wants us to lose fewer goals, he needs to start by drilling the midfield in how to play in defensive mode with the opposition attacking because that's where a lot of our problems stem from.

1. Next season is a journey into the unknown. I don't think anyone can say with any certainty what's going to happen. It could be great, it could be terrible, we'll just have to wait and see but I'd be happy with 7th and no relegation worries. If we can do better than that then great. 2/3. I'd say we should be aiming to be a Top Eight team in Scotland at least and that means we should be getting to Quarter Finals. Again anything better than that is great but it all depends on the draw in the cup competitions. 4. I'm not even thinking beyond the Steaua Bucharest game but for some reason, I'm strangely confident about it. Just getting to the group stages would be massive.

Flawed logic - have you heard of Yves Makalamby?

Just read this on P&B. Terrible news. Always liked McGrillen. Should never have been sold in That Deal. Let's hope this is the last one for a very long time.

I don't want to over stress our relationship but I kinda knew John. I was a long time listener to his show and when e-mail came in I e-mailed a question about record shops in London. He sent an e-mail back asking for my phone number, put a 12 inch techno record on and phoned me up during the show and proceeded to chat away and tell me everything I wanted to know! After that I spoke to him a few times on the phone, exchanged plenty e-mails and met him down at Fabric when he was DJing. He was a great guy, I was pretty upset when he died. Can't really add anymore than has been said except that he did watch Motherwell whenever he was up here and there was a game on although perhaps saying he was a fan is taking it a bit far. And of course The Delgados were one of his favourite bands and they have a good Motherwell supporting pedigree!

McGhee let us down by letting so many players leave? Let's take a look at them. Stephen Hughes - Had no intention of staying at 'Well, now on 7k a week at Norwich. Graeme Smith - Had no intention of staying at 'Well. Has said as much in the press. Bob Malcolm - Didn't you want rid of him anyway? Steven Coutts - Wasn't good enough. David Clarkson - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him. Paul Quinn - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him. Maros Klimpl - Loan signing brought in by McGhee in the first place. Brian McLean - The only player McGhee can really be criticised for leaving the club by not offering him a contract. McGhee neglected the youngsters? Shaun Hutchinson, Paul Slane, Robert McHugh and Steven Saunders all made their debuts under McGhee. Jamie Murphy was a regular and Ross Forbes was on loan at Dumbarton so wasn't illegible for selection. Give us peace. McGhee took the worst Motherwell side in 25 years and gave us a third place and a seventh place, two Euro qualifications, some of the best football we've ever seen at first park in his first season, a long unbeaten spell in his second. Yeah, we have a lot to 'hate' McGhee about. All this resentment about players and managers moving on is pathetic and childish. And newsflash, Humphrey, Ruddy, Coke, Jennings, Gannon, Slane, Forbes, and however else you like will all be off just as soon as they get a better offer. And I wish Jim Gannon all the best, I've put my money in after all, but when we've beat a team that wouldn't embarrass the Ayrshire Junior leagues let me know.

He only played twice for us. Made his debut against Celtic and its fair to say he looked a bit nervous. His other match was a meaningless away match to Hibernian on the last day of the season so I doubt many 'Well fans actually saw it!

I was reading the Steaua forums and a lot of them were saying the game was rigged and that "someone" put a lot of money on the scoreline.

Unfair to comment on players after one match but I'll give you my initial impressions. Humphreys. Sort of like O'Brien, fast, runs with the ball but no delivery. Was also poor in front of goal, had two excellent chances to score and should have put away at least one of them. Reasonable in the air and won a few headers. Was involved early on but faded out of the game possibly due to lower fitness level than the other players. To be honest I don't think he made much impact and the game sort of went on around him. You can see some potential there but could be the sort of player that causes a lot of frustration. Jennings. Had a bit of a nightmare early on, hardly looked a player at all, slow, gave away possession, hardly any awareness of what was going on around him. Later he settled down a bit and looked like a slightly more restrained Maros Klimpl, not the greatest technician in the world but someone that will put in a shift and act as a ball winner. Fair to say I don't think he'll shirk many tackles. Again, his fitness was lagging behind most of the other players. Overall the better of the two but neither player had a huge influence on the proceedings, it was all about our young players last night.

Jemima is trying her hardest but she knows a lot more about hockey and yachting.

Last night was a great performance and result and was very encouraging BUT we have lost two out of four matches against very poor sub Division 1 opposition. Hardly 'astounding'. It's easy to get carried away after a result like that but I'd still urge caution at this point because we've not played a team of the caliber that we'll be facing week in, week out in the SPL.

I actually think the heat could be a pro for us. Do we want to be playing Steaua away from home in cooler temperatures when they can operate at 100% capacity? Obviously the heat will effect us but I think it actually acts as a sort of an equalizer because Steaua won't be able to play all out in 37C just the same as we can't. Also if I've picked this up right from the Steaua forums, they will be missing up to five 1st team players for the ties against Motherwell through suspension and injury.

First he probably needs to lose some weight. If you look at the team photo in the programme tonight he's almost as big as Andrew Mumford! I've always rated Hammell, I think he's a good player and just because he's been dropped for one match doesn't mean its the end for him. It's also pretty annoying when people praise Reynolds for having one decent game at left back when Hammell has literally had a hundred good games for Motherwell in the same position. Hammell also played really well in the away tie against Llanelli and put in a beauty of a cross for one of the goals. Gannon is just being canny and giving him a wee kick up the arse to get more out of him. He's already crossed swords with Craigan and dropped Lasley tonight as well. Looks like he's working his way through the experienced players in the side and letting them now they won't get an easy ride. I'd expect Hammell to play a big part in the upcoming season.

Apparently it's "mut".

I think I'm right in saying Jamie Murphy now ties with Stevie Kirk as our all time top European goal scorer!

I was in the Main Stand and there was actually quite a few scouts there tonight. At least four, all taking notes. I tried to sneak a peak over the shoulder of one of them, I didn't see any names but he wrote "favours the inside every time".