Ya Bezzer!

The first I knew about Tommy Coyne was when he ran out the tunnel. I seem to remember it being a midweek game under the lights. "Wait is that....holy shit that's Tommy Coyne!" Imagine we all went along on Saturday and Leigh Griffiths ran out the tunnel in a Motherwell shirt without any warning. That's what it was like. Ha ha, a funny memory.

Luminous yellow strips and a phone call to Willie Falconer and we are sorted.

I've generally not had a go at Robinson because I think any Motherwell manager has a very tough job but it's getting to the stage in the season now where patterns and trends are developed enough to have something approaching a clear picture. Currently two of the worst ever passers of a football I've ever seen at Fir Park go straight into our first XI every single week, Dunne and McHugh. As you say, that's on Robinson. It's also on Robinson that one of our better players this season, Allan Campbell, is dropped in favour of guys who, as an aggregate over the season, have done absolutely fuck all. That's on Robinson as well. The whole recent goalkeeper situation was frankly a complete embarrassment and a true example of incompetence. And the rushing back of injured players has backfired enormously and smacks of desperation and a complete lack of ideas. At the beginning of the season many people were far too hasty to heap praise on Robinson and likewise now that things have turned we need to avoid overly severe knee jerk reactions. My main gripe is still that we have a squad of players who are paid by the supporter base but don't actually do a whole lot, ride the coat tails of better players and don't have the character to step up in a crisis. However, ultimately Robinson brought a lot of these players here, especially fringe players who have proved next to useless, and he is picking guys that just don't perform for him each and every week. Blind spots and loyalty have been the downfall of many a manager. For example Robinson's recent assessment of Carl McHugh in a post match interview was quite frankly staggeringly misconceived. I'm afraid the edges are beginning to fray with our manager. He needs to have a real hard look at himself and perhaps consider dragging himself into a top league, 21st century football mentality. The Watford in Division 2 in the 1980's stuff doesn't work any more. Even if it did you're no Graeme Taylor. Right now I'm still prepared to persevere with Robinson and put the slump on the backs of under performing players. However over the course runs like the one we are on now come down to tactical literacy and managerial ability. The fulcrum is moving in the wrong direction for him and he needs to halt it now.

He had an absolutely incredible season but I doubt very much if Higdon at his best would have outscored Moult over the past couple of seasons in this team. That's not to take away from Higdon's achievements but he played in one of our better teams of the last 30 years or so and.....eh.....Moult hasn't to put it lightly.

That must be including league cup matches against diddy teams because we have 8 league scorers. To be honest that's not hugely abnormal against the league average but it does contrast with teams like, say, Aberdeen, who have 16 different league goal scorers, or Hamilton, who have 15 different league goal scorers. However there is a form of insurance there. Maybe Hamilton have 13 points out the last 10 matches to our 5 because they aren't dependent on one guy to score for them....

If we can beat Accies and go on to 27 points we probably only need a season total of 41 points to stay up meaning we only require 14 points from the rest of the season. So we'd probably stay up although in current form 14 points is no easy matter, and its probably going to be a tough and nervy watch. If we lose against Accies there is a real danger the arse could completely fall out the season. We must beat Accies or I'm afraid someone has to set off a siren.

Rangers are coming off of two defeats. The Govanite tribes will not be happy. If we can start the game well the crowd are bound to get on Rangers back and this Rangers team cannot cope with pressure. It's been proven time and time again. In fact Rangers have only won 3 out of 9 home league matches, two were against the bottom two teams in the league and one of them was flukey. Despite our poor run I think we can get something out of this match.

Robinson has 3 months, not 3 years. Another round like the last one and we will be battling relegation and the club cannot be relegated. That's not even my personal opinion but a copper bottomed fact. 2 wins in 18 and he'd be out of a job. The two matches against Accies will be huge. Not getting 3 points in the league would be bad enough but if we were to lose the cup match I think you are going to see a major shift in supporter attitude. He has to improve starting tomorrow night or it is only going to get more and more difficult to get out of this rut. In fact 'improve' only hints at what he has to do, we could technically improve and still be in big trouble. We need a defender, a creative midfielder and a goalscorer so I hope Robinson has a good contact book and some of the cash brought in recently.

Tanner with mentions for Tait and Carson.

In the age of sports science is the best way to assess a players fitness to ask them if they are fit?

I said it during the game but there is no over lap in the wide positions because of the formation we play. When Tait or Cadden got the ball they were basically on their own with 30/40/50 yards to get into a crossing position. If only we had an option there for the guy on the ball it would make all the difference - harder to defend, better to attack with.

Just about deserved a point but I think Dundee will be more disappointed with the result that we were - there was a few heart attack moments in the last 10 - 15 minutes.. The first half was pretty poor fair, Dundee started better, we came into it more towards HT but you felt at that stage you could be sitting a while to see a goal from either team. The second half was more enjoyable in that scrappy, gale blowing kind of way that is unique to Scottish football. Poor goal to give away, 46 minutes, straight through the middle of the defence but it was a great finish from McGowan to be fair. Again we came more into the game but I always felt we were blunt up front and Dundee had more cutting edge that us, if we hadn't got a penalty I'm not sure we would have scored today. With Carson, Frear and Cadden all struggling with injury you have to ask a few question whether players were rushed back too quickly today. Dundee dominated in the later stages and our goal mouth enjoyed a bit of a charmed life, Carson saved the points in the final minutes. Tanner and Tait were the best players, Carson did his bit at the end but overall we were lacking creative spark and a goal scoring edge up front.

Me too but at least NDP has a roof. Remember a 1990's hounding at Tynecastle on the open terrace in similar weather to the Accies match.

Took a quick look back the only worst 8 game league run we've had recently was when Barraclough picked up a whopping 1 point from 24 between 1st January and 21st February 2015. A lose against Dundee would equal our worst 9 game run since then, the above mentioned Barraclough run (he beat Inverness in the next match) and the run that lead to McCall's resignation which took 4 points from 27 between 22 August 2014 and 31 October 2014.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Even when we were winning our actual performances were mediocre/poor with a couple of notable exceptions. But then there were a couple of notable exceptions last season too. We've lost 9 out of 18 league matches this season, the same number as this time last season. I think Robinson, like any Motherwell manager, has a hard job to do and I wouldn't even blame him because I think a lot of players, players who have played most weeks, have not been good enough most weeks. However a lot of our support has got a little bit over enthusiastic about the start of the season. Maybe that was understandable since we've endured some poor times recently but the signs were there almost from the beginning. For instance, while you can perhaps get a couple of slightly lucky wins over Ross County and Kilmarnock but you can't perform over a season with a non functioning midfield. Take Hartley out the back line, and he might not be there much longer, and we look as dodgy at the back as we were last season. The midfield is a complete wash out. And up front it looks bleak without Moult there. Have we improved? I think we have, just a little, but it remains to see if those gains hold or fall by the wayside. When you go into a rut, as we undoubtedly are now, it can sometimes be very hard to get out of it. The Dundee match is huge. If we lose this one the whole arse could fall out of the season yet I still believe we have three winnable games taking us up to the break. Those games will probably define the rest of the season. We need players to stand up and be counted now in this run up to the break. If we lose those perhaps you can start looking at the manager but right now a lot of guys are drawing a wage for not much return.

Not saying we should or will but it's possible to win all of these games. I don't think Accies season is inexplicable. They have some decent players at this level - Skondras, Docherty, Templeton, Crawford etc. Those guys would play in most teams in this league.

9 points before the break is more than achievable but we need to get this monkey off our back against Dundee, get a wee confidence boast and find a winning set up. Rangers home form this season is absolutely abysmal so I think it would be a poor result to go there and lose. At home to Hamilton you are always looking to win although if you take Moult out of our team I think the quality gulf between the teams is fairly narrow.

Dundee are in much better overall form but they have still only won once away this season so I'd still put us as favourites to take the three points. A defeat though would be a real hammer blow to the first half of the season. At least I will actually be there having missed our last 7 league matches for a variety of reasons.

Unfortunately the only team he can score against is Motherwell.

Are we going Kipre - Dunne as a central partnership in a 4-4-2? Fucking hell. Got to be a diamond in midfield as well as there is no width there.

I don't really think that is what most people are saying. Bowman can have a role to play but he's not going to step into Moult's shoes. Bowman is not an instinctive finisher, he's just not that kind of player.

We should have a half time substitute sweepstake.

There's no chance we have players on 3 grand a week plus bonuses. Absolutely no chance. I understood a couple of seasons ago the club put a cap in that no one was getting 2 grand and that players that were in the 100,000 bracket had to take a cut or skedaddle. Our very top paid players will be in the £70 - 80,000 region, max. I do think we should factor in a transfer fund into our seasonal budget. It doesn't have to be a huge amount but sometimes paying £50,000 or £75,000 to buy out a contract is the difference between bringing in some real quality that isn't available on the free contract circuit.

I don't mind Willie Miller either. In a world of Keith Jacksons, Derek Johnstones, Hugh Keevins, Murdo Macleods, Pat Bonners.....

Been going to Fir Park since 1982 and I'd consider him as a very strong contender for a place in my Motherwell All Time XI. Tommy Coyne is a lock but Moult would have a real good chance as the second striker. I'd have Darren Randolph in goals, would also consider Scott McDonald for the second striker but it's pretty tough for modern players to get into that side so for Moult to do that shows how highly I rate him. Hope he does really well for himself.