Ya Bezzer!

Seriously.... 9 goals from 25 starts really shows a lack of goalscoring ability doesn't it? Forget the facts that he's one of the top scorers in the SPL this season and he's often played wide this season. i.e not in a traditional striker role. As I've said before without Hammell and Clarkson we'd be another relegation candidate struggling to get any goals whatsoever. If you want Motherwell to improve maybe we could concentrate on actually getting some good delivery from BOTH flanks. When did Motherwell last trouble a side down our right side? O'Brien put in one good cross and McLean barely crosses the half way line. By only have one 'potent' flank you make it so much easier for the defending team to keep a clean sheet.

Last season we had a settled side and settled tactics. This season we've not, hence poorer performance. Even so, McGhee has been guilty of tinkering when he didn't need to this season and he's no good once the game kicks off. He's shown himself to be completely unwilling to make early changes when it was obvious they had to be made. He's substitutions have also been quite baffling. McGhee needs to up his performance and improve and learn lessons but realisticly he's still a better manager than 90% of the candidates the club would attract.

We were pish today but get some perspective. We will finish 7th out of 12 and every team above us has a budget at least twice the size that we do.

I have two Saturday exams so I may miss a couple of games depending on the fixture list. I'll go to any match I can though. When I watch 'Well I just want them to win the match. People shouldn't be looking at whether we are the Top Six or not. Meaningless? Any match has meaning if you give it meaning and I certainly want us to win our remaining matches just as much as I did back in September or October. Basically a lot of fans are just tossing in the towel. Great attitude.

So our whole season so far led up to today and what did we get. Garbage performance, garbage attendance, garbage pitch, garbage tactics, garbage attitude, just garbage basically. McGhee in particular really needs to take a good look at himself tonight. Make a decision on McLean and Quinn for god sake! DON'T shift the whole team run to accommodate both of them. What exactly was he doing? The whole shape of the team was WRONG from kick off and everyone could see it wasn't working by about 55 - 60 minutes and that's being generous. What happens next then? Nothing of course. As usual, when we are desperate for a chance nothing happened and then when it did come, far too late, it was the wrong changes - just like the last home game! It was obvious for the start the players weren't comfortable and many of them were out of position. Why, for instance, was Clarkson the most forward player almost all the time with Sutton playing behind him and not able to make up the ground when Clarkson was looking for someone to play it to? Just not good enough. Smith - 6 - Good stop in the first half but didn't look too clever at the opening goal McLean - 6 - A centre back playing at right back, i.e proved nothing going forward Craigan - 5 - First game back - and boy did it show! Reynolds - 6 - Performance deteriorated along with the teams Quinn - 6 - Did OK in unfamiliar position O'Brien - 5 - Put in one good ball all day, lots of effort but his crossing was poor Klimpl - 7 - Bit clumsy at times but bossed midfield Hughes - 7 - Probably our best player today. MotM Hammell - 6 - Hammell and Clarkson are our only reall offensive threat. Sutton - 5 - Slow and apparently played out of position Clarkson - 6 - Tried hard but was isolated most of the time Murphy - 1 - Hasn't kicked a ball since October Sheridan - 1 - The new Elliot?

My nerves are fine, its my bowels I'm worried about.

I've heard we were at least looking at him from Clyde fans. Good record for a poor side but I've never seen him play myself.

OK, reading threads like this almost makes you want to hope for three quick relegation's in a row so we can get rid of all these sadsacks! Moan, moan, fucking moan! Jesus Christ! And I can't wait for Saturday.

Football is more like owning a race horse than going to the movies. 4,000 of us own the race horse called Motherwell FC and its up to us put our hands in our pockets to find the stable costs or it doesn't run and gets sold off for glue.

Basically if I can afford to and I'm still here, I will. But there is the possibility I might not be able to afford one or that I might be going south for a while for employment reasons. I'd like to think Top Six and Europe won't be factors for many 'Well fans cos otherwise they are as bad as Rangers and Celtic supporters!

Good result, a draw was fine with me because I didn't think we had a realistic chance of overturning the goal difference after the defeat at Ibrox. 17/09/06 Hibs 2 Rangers 1 04/03/06 Hibs 0 Rangers 2 29/12/07 Hibs 1 Rangers 2 04/05/08 Hibs 0 Rangers 0 28/09/08 Hibs 0 Rangers 3 Form looks good in terms of Rangers record at Easter Road. It's up to us to bury St. Mirren. Basically if we can't defeat a relegation battler at home in a game as important as this then we don't deserve to finish Top Six. Should be exciting on Saturday!

I just do not get this obsession some people have with moving Reynolds from centre half. He has no track record at SPL level playing anywhere else and as someone else said this is no time to experiment. He's also been getting his confidence back and has looked pretty solid the last couple of times I've seen him, not the time to move him. As for Hammell, again I just don't get the criticism he gets from an element of the support. Hammell left for Southport and we went from a Top 6 side to relegation candidates, with absolutely nothing coming from back to front. Everyone knows he has his defensive frailties but they are vastly over exaggerated by some and if anyone wants to name me a better left back in the SPL go ahead and name one. You'd think people would already have learned that if you take Hammell out of that team we lose something really important. Rob McKinnon was a great left back, probably the best in my 20 odd years as a supporter but he was with us for five seasons. Hammell has performed well for nine campaigns, season after season after season and I think he deserves not just a little, but a lot more credit than he gets.

I think describing the matches as "dross" is a bit strong. Sometimes we play well, sometimes not, and sometimes we are mediocre. That's football and I'll bet our games aren't any worse in terms of skill and technical ability than any other club surviving on 4,500 attendances. If pretty easy to spent two or three times as much to watch dross at a much higher level of football. As for the pricing, I think the club have their hands tied behind their backs but the general apathy towards the club by the local community. For various reason many, perhaps most, people in Motherwell don't really care about the club. Motherwell FC are not stockpiling a vast fortune in season ticket sales and gate admissions, they charge what they have to to compete in the league and keep us out of debt. The much maligned Boyle has tried many times by reducing admission to attract new fans and I think its been proved that, really, it makes very little difference except reducing our overall income through reduced admission income (even if the attendance is higher that week). Basically we have to raise a certain amount of money to remain competative. If we don't we would be relegated. Therefore if you are a Motherwell supporter you have to put your hand in your pocket. It's not taking advantage of the fans, its just raising the money we need in order to survive. No point moaning about it. There are 4,000 or so of us and its up to us to put 75% of the yearly budget into the club. Motherwell I think, down the years, have offered good value for money in terms of season ticket and admission costs compared to other clubs. I'd rather pay less just like anyone else but we are The Few unfortunately and we have to take the burden of financing an SPL level club.

Why are people so keen to write us off? OK, Hibs are the favourites at this point but I think we still have a 40 - 45% chance of making it. For instance Hibs haven't beaten St.Mirren away from home since they came back up to the SPL. 30/09/06 St.Mirren 1 Hibs 0 04/04/07 St.Mirren 1 Hibs 1 05/10/08 St.Mirren 2 Hibs 1 01/11/08 St.Mirren 0 Hibs 0 If Hibs drop points against St.Mirren and we even only lose narrowly against Rangers (1-0, 2-1) I think we can go into the match with real hope of making the Top Six.

Very true. If we fail to make the Top 6 (and I still think we have a reasonable chance) it wasn't yesterday that was the problem it was the November/December period. One win in that poor run would probably have put us in the Top 6. Losing to three of the relegation fighters just wasn't good enough. In comparison a draw against Aberdeen was a pretty good result!

Do you sit in the Davie Cooper? Cos the South Stand end is still pretty bad. The other half looks much better.

Clarkson caused all sorts of problems for Aberdeen. MOTM. O'Brien was great in the first half but faded in the second like a few other players.

Twitter is for people that think every aspect of their life is worthy of pan-global recognition when in fact no one gives a shit. For the record, I'm sitting in my pants and socks eating Haribo Starmix for breakfast.

I said this before but I think Murphy has been exposed to first team football far too early. We are in danger of wasting a talent just because we have a very small first team squad. The Smith/Murphy thing, well horses for courses but one thing I do like about Smith is he is a big lad and has a physical presence that Murphy just doesn't have and I think that is important in the SPL.

To be honest I don't think there is much point in Motherwell dropping this player if he can just go somewhere else, cos be sure, other clubs will probably be happy to have him if he's any good. There should be a club wide disciplinary system so that if Motherwell get rid of him he can't sign up for another professional club. I don't see any reason why if someone was convicted of a criminal offense that couldn't happen. Maybe that way they would behave themselves a bit better. It's not good enough just to raise players, we need to raise players that aren't an embarrassment to the club with their anti social and criminal behavior. Perhaps discipline needs to be ramped right up down there.

They are pish but are above us in the league, four points clear, haven't lost (over 90 minutes) in 7 matches and have already beaten us twice this season! Aberdeen have drawn their last three away games - a draw looks the most likely result tomorrow.

Don't think this is true actually. Aberdeen are at least twice as big as us in terms of income, budget etc and McGhee has already got us into third. Surely any good manager would believe, with twice what he had he could take it one step further? It's a while since Aberdeen actually won the league but its that THAT long ago that they were finishing as runners up. Also everyone knows Rangers are in a hell of a state and next season could be a real struggle for them. If a team is going to split the OF next season will be the time to do it. There is a real opportunity to take on the Old Firm now, particularly Rangers, and I think a club the size of Hibs, Hearts or Aberdeen, if well run and with astute management could potentially do so, next season and possibly beyond that depending on the Old Firms finances.

Neither my dad or either of my grandfathers had any interest in football. I did a have three uncles though that all supported different teams, Rangers, Motherwell and Accies. I got taken along to all three stadiums but I was more interested in playing football at that stage. I also went through a kids phase of getting a football strip for my birthday I really liked and then supporting that team for the season (Aberdeen, Dundee, Watford etc)! I only really got into going to games when I was old enough to go myself (about 12 or so) and as the local team, it had to be Motherwell - less bus fare from my pocket money! Started coming a long on a semi regular basis about '86 (when beating Dundee Utd or Aberdeen was like beating Barcelona or something, don't laugh younger fans) and I've not missed many home games since '88.

It's not over yet. Especially if we beat Aberdeen next week. If Hibs do a number on Aberdeen today we could go above the Dons next week if we beat them. If Aberdeen win, we'll in 6th place with Hibs behind us. Still all to play for.

It's more exciting if you can't see it.