Ya Bezzer!

Maybe today will be Fisher's day. It's come to this!

He'll be on at half time to wave.

This. Ross MacLean is coming up to 21 years now and he really needs to be getting more game time. I've gone on at length about the lack of exposure our young players get so I won't bore everyone again but when the club is repeatedly tossing money at diddy squad players I really don't understand the thinking behind it. I think the whole concept of U20s football has had a bad influence on our football. Players should be playing at first team level at 18 or 19. By the time players step up from U20s football its far too late.

I would be sad to see Hamilton relegated (or us!). These games bring a bit more needle to them than most of the matches we play in a season. For me there is more at stake in a typical Motherwell v Hamilton match than there is when we play St. Johnstone or Ross County. I think it's a good thing that these next two games, which are huge in the context of our season, are against Accies. If nothing else the emotions will be stirred and that's what the game is really about.

Actually really looking forward to this game. Will be gutted if its canceled. An orange ball, trackies under shorts, players wearing trainers, mounds of snow at the side of the pitch, frozen toes, steaming bovrils....

Disagree that the best solution is for the game to not take place, we need to get this run finished ASAP, we don't want it hanging around for another month over everyones head going into the cup match. Just get out there and fucking perform. Making excuses only validates the lack of confidence and negativity. Go out there. Win. Prove everyone wrong. That's the only way the run ends. If we are waiting for some hero to turn up from Torquay United in January to turn everything round for us then we might as well just pack it in. Probably right though about the pavements.

I think if Kipre going in January secured Hartley for a couple of seasons you'd take it and say thank you very much.

Worst league runs since 2010. 13/08/2014 - 31/10/2014 - 4 points from 11 matches [0.36 per match] - McCall 11, league position 11th 01/01/2015 - 13/03/2015 - 5 points from 11 matches [0.45 per match] - Barraclough 11, league position 11th 28/10/2017 - ??/??/?? - 5 points from 10 matches [0.5 per match] - Robinson 10, league position 8th 13/11/2010 - 12/02/2011 - 6 points from 12 matches [0.5 per match] - Craig Brown 2, Gordon Young 7, Stuart McCall 3, league position 8th 04/02/2017 - 08/04/2017 - 5 points from 10 matches [0.5 per match] - McGhee 4, Robinson 6, league position 11th

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.