Ya Bezzer!

Just had a look. In our last 39 league matches were we started with 3 centre halves we've only won 9 of them. That's a 23% win ratio. What ever the answer is to our current problems we need to ditch 3 at the back pronto.

When we play 3 at the back we mostly stink as tonight proved.

We are still in the race for 3rd because every one else is as bad as we are. Look at Aberdeen's form if you don't believe me. We need to arrest this run very soon though.

Aarons won the penalty and looked like the only guy trying.

The really worrying thing is 1 goal in open play in the last 6 league matches. Never looked like scoring tonight if it hadn't been for the penalty.

Dismal performance that was worse than the Cup match. We were the 'better' team and 'dominated' the first half but I've put commas round those words because while they are true it's also misleading. Our domination was more down to St Mirren being completely pish and being unable to clear their lines. We must have had about 10 corners and got nothing off any of them and if it hadn't been for the penalty this would have been another game we failed to score in. I don't remember Hladky having a serious save to make in the whole match while at the other end St Mirren looked dangerous on the odd occasion they got forward due to the huge amounts of space down our side, especially on Tait's flank. Second half started as it meant to go on, giving away a stupidly bad goal. We looked absolutely bereft in every area of the field. Defence was terrible, midfield hopeless and up front there was absolutely nothing. Aaron was far from perfect tonight but he looked like the only player that has even a hint of the ability you should need to be playing at this level. Overall, I'm watching that performance and those players and it's very hard to see when the next goal is coming, never mind the next win.

6 minutes to go and Fir Park is empty.

Just stuck £20 on us on the basis that we won't go 6 home games without a win.....

Today's stat. LEAGUE GOALS SINCE WINTER BREAK Motherwell - 2 Aaron Taylor-Sinclair - 3 St Mirren have a lot of injuries in defence and have brought in McCarthy and Famewo in at centre back and their good defensive record has disappeared. Might be a coincidence but I don't think it is. We should be going out and trying to get some goals tomorrow.

I booked a long weekend on the basis that we weren't at home that weekend. So the Ross County fans can get their merry little asses down here on Wednesday.

Cathedral City please.

FT Aberdeen 1-2 Ross County

Everyone knows you don't kick the ball away. Stupid regardless of any refereeing inconsistencies.

However bad Motherwell are I think it's worth saying that it's still better than going to a supermarket on a Saturday afternoon.

It falls on Robinson, sure, but Robinson would have probably taken a better penalty than most of our guys last night which was what it came down to. The standard of performance in the first half last night was down to individuals. The manager can't account for 11 players going into a cup replay and putting in a performance that would shame amateurs. Ultimately Robinson can take blame for formation, team selection and transfers but our defeat last night was due to stinking performances not managerial decisions. The changes made by the manager at half time worked. That should be a tick for Robinson but you can't blame him for 4 goals conceded in the first half or the penalty shoot out, they are both out with the managers control. Robinson is going to come under scrutiny after last night because it's now obvious that we need to make tactical and selection changes and the 4-3-3 has run it's course, at least as a default with the players currently available, but let's not pretend that anyone would have picked a radically different side from the available players last night or that a HT scoreline of 1-4 was entirely predictable. I think Robinson has been poor at times over his reign, mainly due too his tactical inflexibility and a loyalty to jobbers but we've only really had two real failures this season, the League Cup exit to Hearts and the Scottish Cup exit last night. The reaction after the League Cup was good. I can't tell you how we react to the latest set back but that's what Robinson should be judged on and I'll state it again. If all we do this season is finish Top 6, that will be a good effort with the players available.

Probably Stevie Woods best attribute was saving penalties.

Our penalty shoot out record is absolutely fucking abysmal. Just off the top of my head we've lost to St. Mirren, Stranraer, Ross County, Hamilton, Hibs, Alloa Athletic.... The only one I actually remember us winning was when we won the cup. So I make 1-6 unless I've forgotten some.

To be honest today's performance kind of summed up that he's a defender rather than a midfielder.

After tonight we better be getting in Jim McLean to sort out Declan Gallagher's contract.

Out the cup because of a completely unacceptable first half performance. Our first 45 minutes was a disgrace. Even in the first five minutes there must have been 10 misplaced passes and players looked like they didn't care a jot. No doubt Hartley and Mugabi will get a lot of grief and I'm certainly not going to defend them but you defend as a team and we were all over the place for that half. As I said at half time we didn't even have a shape or set up with two banks defending, the full backs and the midfield need to take a big share of the blame, they were totally unprofessional. The comeback, as welcome as it was, was on the fortuitous side (two wayward crosses and a deflection) but even then we looked dodgy when St Mirren were on the ball and I think a couple of our penalties are still in the air. Fair play to Tait and especially O'Hara who at least came on and looked interested. We crossed over into unacceptable territory tonight, big changes needed for Saturday.

It's a crazy game to be sure.

Utterly shambolic display reminiscent of McGhee's last days. You can talk about players or formation but we don't even have a shape and when that happens it's down to players chucking it. The guys selected have let us down to a man. They haven't even given us 50%. When you see a display that bad there has to be something going on behind the scenes.

There is literally nothing about the 'reserves' in the match programme any more. Didn't used to be the case, when they covered it thoroughly with match reports, stats and line ups. Poor really. As I've said over and over, youth development needs to be a completely integral part of our club strategy.

What we have now is the best its going to get in terms of most teams competing for something. The change I'd make is have two automatic relegation places so we get a greater turn over of teams in the top division. 16 or 18 team leagues sound good in theory but it leaves way too many teams with nothing to play for and creates a huge and dangerous drop off for relegated teams who go straight to down to the 'seaside leagues'. That can't not have big economic issues for top league sides that are relegated I'd scrap the winter break as I don't think you can really justify it by weather or fitness. Most players come back less fit from not playing games. You ask me, you've been blowing out our arse in the recent post break matches.

I agree and disagree with various points you've made here, mainly agreeing about what Scott brought to the team and mainly disagreeing about your judgement of other players, especially those that haven't had a lot of game time, but at the end of the day what we got for Scott was bite your hand off money. Also I think a lot of our problems were already there before Scott was sold. The striker position has been a problem since Moult left and I've said from the beginning of the season all through the 'good times' that I didn't think our midfield was good enough. It should be built around Campbell but while Polworth and Donnelly are better than we've had most of the time under Robinson I don't think they are bolted on Top 6 level players. Polworth might have got assists and Donnelly goals but their overall quality and the specific blend in midfield is, I think, still open to question. I accept it was difficult to replace Turnbull and Gorrin from the Turnbull-Campbell-Gorrin midfield of last season but the TYPES of players we have brought in aren't the same. Donnelly just doesn't have the same quality as Gorrin on the ball and Turnbull provided the goals getting forward from midfield. Donnelly's goals have mainly been headers and penalties, set pieces essentially, he's not getting into those dangers areas of the box like Turnbull did that turns open play into goals. As a result Campbell has struggled also due to a level of dysfunction in the middle of the field.