Ya Bezzer!

When I got a notification we'd scored I actually wondered if one of our strikers scored it. Then I clicked on it, saw, and realised what ridiculous things go through your head.

Just popping in. I'm on holiday and asked the GF if she wanted to to watch the Motherwell match in the pub and she gave me a 'no fucking chance' look. So glad she did! If we still pay appearance money we should stop paying it for matches against Rangers.

Exactly. Part of our problem is thinking we have played OK when we haven't. It's like a fundamental misunderstanding of the sport. It's a game of small margins. Most of the time winning or losing, no matter how 'good' or 'bad' you are in general play, comes down to a handful of incidents. Being good is ultimately judged on how you deal with those incidents and all season we've been found lacking in our decision making, our concentration and so forth. That's how the game is. There is no point saying 'Oh we were in the game and then this happened'. The whole point of the game is making sure 'that' didn't happen for them and that 'did' happen for us. In the end we lost 0-3 and that's a pumping. Harsh? Maybe but that's football. It's a merciless sport.

I think they were better than us tonight but they weren't unsurpassable if we'd even had a wee bit of quality about us and we'd been professional in defending. Better Motherwell teams would have beaten that Hapoel team and at this stage you'll be lucky to get drawn against a more beatable side than the one we played tonight. I agree with you about our rating in the great European scheme of things.

They say football's a funny game but we battered Aberdeen at the weekend but I bet you anything Aberdeen would have beaten Beer Sheva tonight.

Don't think you can say it's a decent performance when we've not put in a single decent ball against a fairly average team, gifted goals and ended up getting gubbed. We've been exposed as not being good enough against modest European opposition.

Should be the new club motto.

Lets face it Plzen are going to beat this mob so what would they have done to us?

Pumping delivered.

If you narrow your eyes a bit this could be an Accies defeat at Fir Park.

That'll be that then. How many penalties have we given away this season? 6?

Was just about to say the same thing. We aren't a million miles away from this team but at the end of the day they seem to be able to do something once in the match that we can't......put in a quality ball.

That ball we just put in is symptomatic of everything.

Just a lack of quality when and where it matters.

Missed the first 7 minute or so. Hapoel look technically better than us but hadn't shown a lot of cutting edge before they scored. Great delivery into the box but our defending is really terrible. Hapoel player gets a free run. Two or three times when we've been in a good advanced position we've either put in really poor crosses or set pieces. Our final ball is still a problem. Looked like we were acquitting ourselves reasonably well and were at least competitive but it's a poor goal at a poor time to give away and since this team can keep possession quite well I think it's going to be a struggle in the second half. Even at 0-0 I was always a bit worried we'd run out of gas in the, presumably, high temps.

The problem with these types of games is you always feel Scottish players can't press and play at pace when the temperature is scorching. The forecast for Thursday night is over 28C. If we are going to win in Israel it won't be the same way we did today.

Really good attitude today. At 2-0 we could have stood off but we didn't and got that third goal. Second half it was all about getting the clean sheet and we've closed Aberdeen right down and made sure there was no prospect of a come back. We've caught a wee bit of luck today cos Aberdeen have put in a shambolic first 10 minutes but we took advantage of that and did everything you'd want us to do. The question is - can we do that without getting a big helping hand? Time will tell I guess. Still got to prove we have another gear but today was encouraging.

Let's face it Aberdeen are having a disaster but I was really pleased about getting that third goal. Too many times we've had teams on toast and then backed off. There has been blood in the water today and we've looked hungry. Aberdeen will organise at HT so now it's about defending it and looking for goals on the break.

Excellent. Aberdeen have been there for the taking from almost the first minute. Was a bit worried me might go 2-0 up and sit on it but we've been ruthless. More goals please. If we are sharp there is a cricket score here.

When I heard McKenna was off I thought it would unsettle them but Aberdeen are all over the place. We should be pumping this team. Get a third before half time and it's over Johnny.

Aberdeen struggle for goals and McInnes is a defensive manager by nature. If we can get the first goal we can cause them a problem cos you don't see them scoring 2 or 3 very often. However I don't see us winning the midfield battle tomorrow. McCrorie has done well since joining and they have Lewis Ferguson and Dylan McGeouch. Meanwhile Campbell is struggling to make the game and he basically is our midfield. You'd probably be happy with a point but I would expect Aberdeen to grind out a result as they tend to have done this term.

I'd love it if Robbie Crawford proved me wrong but we need a wee bit extra quality and as I see it we've brought in a player who is around the same level as players we already have. It seems a bit random and a bit....desperate. I'd imagine he'll play wide right rather than through the middle but who knows.

I agree he did not pull him down but he defended the situation poorly and everyone knows if you are wrong side and a striker feels any contact they go down....and usually get the penalty. Having said that I think Mugabi has been the best of a bad bunch this season. Declan Gallagher's drop off has been enormous. Is he doing a Morelos?

That's such an over simplification. If you go through results of 4 man midfields v 5 man midfields you'll see that is not the case. I looked at Aberdeen last season and they played 4-4-2 four times and W1 D2 L1 with three of those teams playing 5 man midfields and one playing four. It's a bit late to delve any further but Kilmarnock were literally top of the league in December a couple of seasons ago playing 4-4-2 almost every week. There is life in 4-4-2 yet.

4-4-2 isn't dead. Especially at our level. Too many people are watching top end of the game tactics and think that they translate into success with average or poor players.