Lobey_Dosser

When did we last win at Dens? John Brown days when we were flying with Higdon, Law and co?

Imagine that's a half decent wage that we're saving now. Good luck to the boy, will always have a soft spot for him due to his influence during his loan spell.

Indeed.

Is our record without Pearson in the team not ridiculously poor? I've campaigned for Cadden to get in the team for a long time but I suspect he'll need a good number of games under his belt on the right before you could consider him stepping in for Pearson in the middle of the park. Ideally our new midfielder will have a bit of dig as well as composure on the ball.

Hopefully Kennedy turns things around. He might not be operating to McGhee's standards in training but he certainly doesn't lack effort when he's playing. Sounds like we've got a few not applying themselves properly. No sign of Thomas or Watt on bench today.

Skippy yet again, by some distance. Deserves to be playing with better players.

Weird day. A trait of McGhee's Motherwell teams is that we come flying out the blocks. Today was the opposite, the players seemed to be suffering from a Tynecastle hangover in front of an eerily flat support. From 25-30 minutes on however, we dominated for large spells and the game was in the balance at 1-0. Had we equalised, I think we'd have scored 1 or 2 more. At the same time, Ross County always looked capable of scoring on the break and so it proved. No coincidence that the goal came after Chalmers arrived on the scene. Pleased Cadden got his 1st start, I thought he done reasonably well but there is much more to come from him and he'll benefit from playing against grown men every week. What we desperately need just now is a midfielder who can dictate the play with the ball at his feet and compliment the running power of Pearson, Johnson, Cadden and Ainsworth. Two difficult away games coming up before the visit of Inverness in the cup. Vital we pick up some point here or we are in bother. In order to do so, we need to improve defensively. The other week McGhee commented that our training is very much geared to attacking play and scoring goals. That's all good and well but we need to be far more professional in how we do the basics in defence.

Scotsman rumour page. Mail remains the primary source.

I found it a little strange. While it was welcoming to hear him take the blame for his subs versus Accies, he opted to elaborate on a game 3 weeks ago rather than hold his hands up for the Hearts debacle. As folk say though, press conferences should be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly with a character like McGhee.

I was thinking Motherwell sources leaked the 'story' given its the Daily Mail. i think the message has been clear since McGhee came in that we have an asset in Marvin who was in danger of going wayward. We must therefore look to maximise his value in the relative short term. In the meantime Ainsworth is shunned to the side despite sharing similar weaknesses to Johnson.

Jack played and scored as a trialist for us against Morecambe. I think he was with us at a younger age, he's certainly friends with a good few of our players. Fraser Johnstone who came off the bench for EK is ex Motherwell. IIRC, he played against Cowdenbeath on the day of the Morecambe friendly.

Couldn't agree more with the views of John Hughes: http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35368472

On Tuesday, Craigan mentioned that the youth cup quarter final would probably be cancelled this weekend. I don't know if that has happened or what the reasoning is. It may be that McGhee plans to utilise one or two of the young ones... Think it's important we go back to 3 midfielders and a winger against a robust Ross County. Time for Cadden to start on the right with Kennedy or Laing maybe coming back into contention. 2-1 Motherwell, Skippy and Moult.

The good Christians of Bothwell will be praying for Les the philanthropist and his billionaire wife.

IIRC, the Daily Mail tend to be on the money with Motherwell stories, certainly since Les arrived. Given the billions of pounds that is about to flood the English Premier League, I'd except nothing less than a £1mil. Marvin was quick to sign a new contract though so wouldn't be surprised if there is a release clause.

Angol wasn't much of a footballer but he was a far better option than Chalmers.

I think this thread shows that we have intact produced a decent amount of talent over the last 20 years and few have slipped through the net. All while having a relatively successful first team. As the club have stated, we have to improve with regards to transfers fees and having 18 year olds ready to integrate with 1st team. As touched upon, there is a much wider issue at national level. When does the Wotte project start to bear fruit? Do we have a blurprint from Brian McClair yet? Are the SFA and clubs working together?

Inverness aren't going to win the cup back to back so their run might as well end with us. Think it will go to a replay though.

He's went on to be a solid premier league player. Not a world beater but good enough to be in a Motherwell squad. Thistle also rejected an £80k bid 6 months after we released him.

Can't remember the exact details but I think it related to the failure of the Murphy/Blackpool deal at the time of negotiation.

There's nothing better than seeing a youth product making his mark but we've also been guilty of hanging onto some for too long, McHugh being the prime example in recent times. In my mind, Lawless is the only one that's went on to prove Motherwell were wrong to let him go and from what we were told, this was purely due to finance.

I was convinced by Lasley from his debut at Ibrox. It quickly became evident that he wasn't scared to get tore in and was decent enough carrying the ball forward. He made big impressions in numerous games, playing his part in running the midfield against good Rangers and Celtic teams during his first spell. Think he'd have progressed even quicker at Motherwell if it wasn't for Butcher playing him out in the right. There's nothing wrong in developing youngsters that provide little more than adequate backup. Personally I don't think Leitch reaches that level from what I've seen, whether that's been due to injuries I don't know. Maybe he's someone that needs to go down the Craigan route and work his way back up.

He's just never looked up to it in my opinion. Forbes had quality on the ball, Carswell could get about the park but ultimately neither were capable of making it at this level. Not sure what Leitch offers, admittedly he's never had a long enough run to prove otherwise.

Based on a few visits to the u20s and watching the highlights each week, Cadden seems the obvious candidate to take on the Grimshaw role on the right of midfield. He's a good athlete with decent technique and vision. I can only assume the management team don't think he is ready for the intensity of first team football... Think it's safe to say Leitch has no future at the club, not surprising really.

And if we had a half decent keeper, we could possibly cut out another 33%...