El Grew

There is no doubt that the club did everything necessary to get the pitch sorted out and at cconsiderable cost. There was one glaring mistake though and that was the decision to seed the pitch instead of laying turf. Seeding grass is notoriously difficult to do even under ideal growing conditions and to believe that it would be ready to play football on by August and stand-up to the winter was optimism of the crazy variety. What you are seeing now is the result of that decision severely excarcerbated by one of the worst winters for decades and poor groundsmanship and grounds maintenance. Players are actually playing on the planting medium that was laid for seeding (a mixture of sand, loam and soil) which without grass roots to bind it just cuts up exactly the way it is doing. The sensible option was to have laid turf, which had already had its grass root system already established -evidenced by how well the two areas that were recently turfed are doing. And any talk of grass growing when the weather improves is fantasy as anyone who has seen the pitch should no as there is precious little grass to grow. The only thing the club can be faulted for was for taking advice to seed instead of laying turf and we are now paying for that.

The third generation astro-turf pitches are light years ahead of the disaster that Dunfermline had a few years ago. The one Hamilton had when they were in the 1st Division got plenty of plaudits as it was so good. Players are doing much more training on astro-turf pitches nowadays so the 'fear of the unknown' is much less than when Dunfermline had theirs. Lets be honest, we are not playing on grass pitches after November as they are all usually bereft of grass coverage by then. Astro-turf would be cheaper to maintain too as there would be no need for undersoil heating, pitch covers or diddy groundstaff. Playing in the northern hemisphere it's got to come - a number of Russian teams are now using it and are allowed to play European Champions League and Europa League games on it so clearly EUFA don't have any issues with it.

For the second week on the trot Steve Jennings. Looks a different player now he's gettiing regular games.

Echo what many others have already said. Pitch is disgraceful. Reputedly spent about £400K during close season on it too. Work was done - we all so 'Flow's pictures. However it looked as though there had been a game of horse polo played on it. It was downright dangerous with all the holes - made by foxes!!!! Its just not good enough and comparing it to other teams pitches is a completely pointless exercise. Just because other teams pitches are poor is no justification for ours being poor. IMO the problem is the ground staff who on this evidence and previous seasons just don't seem to know what they are doing. There is no grass growth during the winter months so there is no need to be applying fertiliser, feed or water ergo no need to have a heavy tractor on a sodden pitch. Not the first time this has been seen. Downright incompetence.

Interesting debate. Just as a wee aside, I'm presently reading "Motherwell Champions of Scotland 1931/32" and found it interesting to note that even when we were flying very high winning the league and generally being sh*t hot during that era, we strugged to attract fans to go along and watch the team at FP. Seemingly all our best attendances were away from FP as away fans were desperate to see us and/or see their team put one over on us. Some things never change eh?

Nail, head, hammer for me. Too many of our so-called footballers seem to believe the manager should be some sort of jolly fellow that just lets them do what they like when they like when in actual fact he's the poor b*stard that carries the can when they f*ck up by being unable to perform even the basics of their chosen so-called profession. It's just as well they never had to play for the likes of Shankly, Busby, Stein, Ferguson etc. etc. Poor wee lambs!

Strange but true. Cue music ............ Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

I've maintained from the start of the season that because of our circumstances (new manager, young players being pitched-in, lack of experience etc.) we were in a false position in the league and that others such as Aberdeen and Hearts would probablly pick-up and pass us, and they have. That is not a concern. However what is a concern, is that we are on a long losing run and we are due to play Hamilton, St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Falkirk - all in our area of the league now - and none of these will be easy to pick up wins from. And lets be clear, it is really a few wins we need to get some breathing space. As the poster who set the topic says, it is not fantastical that we could be lying 10th or worse after this. Another worrying aspect is that we are hearing nothing from the club about the managerial situation (other than short term) and we are right in the middle of the last transfer window before the end of the season and no sign of any moves related to that.

Jim Gannon stated what many on the terraces, sorry seats, in football grounds around Scotland have said for years. Refereeing standards in our top league are probably as bad as they've ever been. However, it cannot all be laid at Hugh Dallas's door. There are a number who have gone before him who allowed the refereeing situation to degenerate to its current level. He just happens to be the poor guy that's inherited the mess. He was one of the very best whistlers I've seen and I've have no doubt that behind closed doors he is fuming at what he sees. However, he can hardly come out and start sacking refereees right, left and centre - he will need to work away quietly in order to try and get standards back up again. The man has a thankless task. For, younger posters, if you think the refs you are seeing now are bad then you should have seen the chancers we used to have before the advent of cameras covering every game!! J P R Gordon anyone? Aye it still hurts!

I don't know if they are the 'dream team' but with Brown's tactical expertise and Knox's 'I take no shit' approach they will certainly ensure that the players know what's expected of them on the park and shake any lethargy out of them that may have begun to set-in.

A very decent performance by all accounts tonight that should have yielded at least a draw. Saturday's game against Hamilton is now massive for us as we must get some points on the board again and stop the rot. Our record against Hamilton in the league at FP, is dare I say it, execellent (only 8 losses in 54 games) P-54, W31, D-15, L8. Their last win at FP in the league was 1981 and before that 1938! Surely we can do the business on Saturday and bring the New Year in with a win.

Hearts have only scored 7 goals in 8 home games BUT have only conceded 6. Only teams to have won there this season (so far) Rangers and St Johnstone. Hard defensive nut to crack.

And is it not? I'd love us to get a draw out of this or better a win but the head rules the heart.

Same old story. Best of the play, but can't score. Hamilton game now assumes mammoth proportions.

Shankly on whether one of his players had been 'interfering with play' when called offside - "If he's no interfering wi' play, he shouldnae be oan the park"

You can talk about it until the coos come home, but the main things that might get young people into FP is a decent football playing team that is regularly in the top 6 of the SPL and much reduced gate prices for under-21s - say £10 and a free programme.

McGarry back to keep Auld Broon and Knox company!!?? Otherwise why??

I don't want to play the age card but I've been watching the 'Well for more years than I care to remember and the one thing that our club has been consistently excellent at, is making a right roaring c*nt of things. I believe Jim Gannon thought in coming to manage a club in the SPL he would be stepping up to a much higher level of football than he had been at. However, he was genuinely shocked at what he had taken on at FP in terms of the poor quality of the playing staff. He did try really hard to improve things in that respect but obviously stood on the egos of a few players whose opinion of their own football ability is vastly greater than it actually is. In my view Gannon was right - the standard of player at FP when he arrived was about as low as I can ever recall, and I've seen some pretty awful ones. Players lacking in physical stature, physical conditioning, lack of ability and unable to take on board simple instructions. He rightly decided a clear out was needed and some of the players would not do and brought in a number of younger players plus some loan signings to try and jump start things. Yes he was ruthless but sometimes that's called for and I think it was the right call. However, during the last 3 games in particular when we shipped 12 goals the cold light of reality finally dawned on him and he knew that with a large number of the playing staff he was wasting his time. We do have far too many players o our books who just will not do for SPL level for many different reasons and maybe he felt that the rebuilding job was going to be too much without having the freedom to get rid of all the dead wood and a bit of cash to strengthen the team. So I think that whoever comes in will be faced with exactly the same problems as Jim Gannon.

WellWell this is the best post I've read on these boards. IMO it hits right to the heart of things. I too am sorry to see JG leave because I thought he was just what we and the SPL needed badly - new blood with a different perspective. JG, thanks for what you tried to do and good luck for the future.

Jimmy Calderwood would be a good shout but I believe the reason he parted company with Aberdeen was down to him wanting them to put up some cash to improve the level of player at the club. He was quoted as saying he was fed-up having to make do with short-term loan deals and not being able to prevent some of his established better players leaving for the Championship. So, I can't imagine he'd be remotely interested in us given that's exactly what he'd be getting into, if not worse. Jim Jefferies gets a lot of stick but he has been loyal to every club he's ever managed. Perhaps if he feels he needs a change of scenery and a new challenge, we might be able to get him and he and his assistant have a very good track record of working with young players. I'd take him in a flash. As for Chris McCart? Certainly not. Seems more into coaching than management and would be far too inexperienced for the job in hand. What's needed now is an experienced and respected older head to steer the team away from the rocks and prevent us going into freefall.

Sorry to have been proved right - perhaps for wrong reason - but as I posted on Saturday evening, I did think that he'd gone too far in his post-match interview when he publicly stated that it didn't matter what he did the players were basically no good. IMO JB is not entirely blameless in this affair.

The problem of shipping goals did not just begin this season. Lets remember that our so-called experienced defenders have consistently shipped goals since Terry Butcher was here. If he's going to arrest the present slump, then IMO Gannon will need to for the time being, abandon his 'play football' philosophy and begin to make us hard to break down. Now that might mean either playing 5 at the back or 5 in the midfield to strangle games but he must get a few more points on the board and quickly. The next batch of games (Hamilton (H), Kilmarnock (A), St Mirren (H) Falkirk (A) are all against clubs that are in the bottom half of the SPL and if the slump is not arrested by the time we have to go to Falkirk then we could be right in the shit.

As I 've said on a few previous posts, I'm for Jim Gannon staying at FP to continue building a squad and a team because he's a breath of fresh air to us in particular and Scottish football in general. However, I've always felt that there were two things a manager should never do or he would be living on borrowed time - have a go at the supporters or have a go at the players in public. Well, I'm wondering if JG perhaps crossed the rubicon yesterday with hs post match comments about the players. I must admit he did sound really downhearted when he was interviewed (and this is not always a good thing to do straight after a game when emotions are still high) and lamented that it doesn't seem to matter how much coaching and training he does with the players they are basically poor players. Now, what he says might be true but surely saying it live on radio is hardly going to get the dressing room behind him? Do you think perhaps he's had enough and is he looking for the exit door?

This is the standard reaction from far too many fans when a team hits a bad patch. Sack the manager. As somebody else posted, we and just about every other club in the SPL would be going through 3 or 4 managers a season if this became policy. Anybody with any sense and who has watched Motherwell for any amount of time would know that this type of thing was inevitable. We were always in a false position in the league from the start. Jim Gannon came in at the start of the season and took over a club with just about the poorest squad of players in the league. Any decent players we had were gone south, literally, leaving a rump of players that most knew were not good enough and a load of unproven kids. He brought in a couple of guys that he knew from his time in England and managed to eke out some early season results that took everybody by surprise and had them playing some good football into the bargain. One defeat in 12 games must be the best start to season any Motherwell manager has ever had. So now we've hit a poor patch but look at the run of fixtures he was handed - Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Hibs, Celtic and Rangers one after the other. And, if we are realistic, the only game we looked outclassed in was at Ibrox and look at their recent run of results - beat Dundee Utd 3-0 and beat Hibs 4-1 both away from home. To me that puts things right into perspective.

Special aka. Your story parallels mine. I'm a third generation 'Well fan as my granddad and my dad both followed the dossers. My gran lived in Grange Street just behind FP and we used to visit her every Saturday. My dad used to disappear at the same time every Saturday and I used to wonder where he went. To see a man about a dog he'd tell me. Yes, you guessed it he was going to FP. When we played in the street at my gran's I could hear what I later learned were the roars of the crowd inside FP. Eventually when my dad thought I was old enough to be initiated he started taking me along. I was instantly hooked. This was early to mid-sixties and I can remember seeing Andy Weir, Willie Hunter and Charlie Aitken who were all just coming to the end of their time at Motherwell. Alan Wylie was the goalkeeper and a young guy called Alan McKay played right back. Other than that I can't remember much more about my first game. Going to Knowetop PS meant I saw FP every day of my life and I think this cemented my future as 'Well fan and I've been going ever since. Wouldn't change a thing.