El Grew

Aye but do the players (tick every box)?

No wins in 6 games and unable to beat the worst team in the SPL now in two games. I think on form we must be about second bottom of the SPL at present. However more worrying in the greater scheme of things is that people are expected to stump up £20 to sit in the freezing cold and watch something that two junior teams could serve up. How can clubs expect to attract people to football when dross like this is being delivered and judging by the radio comments on the other two games they weren't much better. Scottish football is haemorrhaging supporters and this kind of drivel at the prices being asked is not going to staunch things.

Reports of strange and unusual betting patterns emerging from bookmakers in the Motherwell area. Large sums of money placed on who the next Motherwell manager will be.

Maybe this is the players way of letting us know what they they think of the pending new managerial appointment!

A couple of questions come to mind. 1. Why are Blackman and Sutton warming their arses on the bench when they account for nearly all of our goals this season? 2. Why is Fitzpatrick playing and what is his role suposed to be?

This lot lack spine. First task for new manager = new back 4.

Game over.

One forward up front - Gow - so Celtic know they will be under no pressure in this game. Better to go and have a go against a highly suspect defence than sit back as we are and wait for them to score. As soon as they get the first it's game over.

Goal for Celtic - offside thankfully. Defence ball watching. Craigan beaten in the air by - McCourt! FFS McCall's maybe thanking his lucky stars he's not signed anything yet.

Defence a bombscare already.

The one saving grace here (if true) would be Tommy Craig as a number 2.

Totally underwhelmed.

Its beginning to look as though the market we are trying to tap into for a manager is drying up fast as identified candidates drop out of contention fast. If that's the case I hope the club has a plan B.

Yawn, yawn, yawn.

This is now turning into a farce. If true, then two preferred candidates identified have now opted out. Again I re-iterate why are they pissing about with unknown and unproven people when we already have Scottish candidates (like or loathe them) who would fit the bill and take the job if offered. The apparent pre-conditions stated by the club are IMO just utter nonsense and if true and persisted with would continue the trend of managers coming for one or two seasons and then leaving. That is no way to run any business. You must try and achieve continuity but this is something that has been sadly lacking during this chairman's tenure. Alas in the current financial climate there is absolutely no prospect of getting a new chairman.

Solution = simple = don't go!

I really don't know why Boyle is pissing around with someone like Sbragia (if true) or some of the others mentioned. We don't want and don't need another guy coming in for a short spell on his way 'to bigger and better things'. That's why we are where we are - looking for a manager every couple of years. Boyle's track record with managers stinks in this respect. Get someone sorted who wants the job for what it is and is willing to commit themselves to it without keeping one eye on the 'bigger and better football club managers gazette'. For me Jimmy Calderwood fits the bill. He's been as high as he is ever likely to be in the SPL with Aberdeen and lets face if they are extermely unlikely to ever try to get him back. The only other job that he might be interested in would be Rangers and again I doubt very much if he's on their radar. He knows what it takes - had Aberdeen never out of the top 4 when there and managed to get them to the group stages of the Europa League. What more could we want?

Collapses!!??? It collapsed a long time ago. It will take more than gimmickry to get it up again.

In a word, no. Simply another pishy attempt to jazz up a dead on its feet product. More games = fans asked to stump up more cash = clubs back to a well that's all but dry. Are they ever going to get the f*cking message.

No harm to them but if they were giving them away free I'd not be interested. It'll be Boxing Day and I'll be tucked up in my nice warm house with family and close friends eating, drinking and generally enjoying myself. I'll be interested in the result but I won't be watching not even on TV.

How about Edson Arantes Do Nascimento for size?

Some really good stuff - the powers that be should take note. But no they are away as ususal coming up with another load of pish as to how to improve Scottish football without asking the people who really matter - the paying customers. Personally, I have not been to a 'Well game since the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen back on the 18th of September. I thought I'd be missing it by now but I'm sorry to say not. It really is easy to lose the habit of going. I have been a 'Well fan for donkeys years and always will be but as to when I'll be back to see them, who knows. One thing's for sure the longer it goes the easier it gets. I'm not blaming Motherwell for this because it goes further and deeper than that. Scottish football has been haemorraging supporters from all clubs for years now and continues to do so at an alarming rate - and they won't be gotten back. And what do the geniuses in charge come up with? A league of 10!!! That's forward thinking for you. Taking us back to what we started off with a way back in 1975 because a league of 18 clubs was boring and fans were losing interest. Sound familiar? And how will it work? Well at some time in the future when they decide to move to a 10 club SPL1 it means that 3 clubs will be relegated and if you accept that neither of the OF are going to be relegated then that will mean a casualty rate of 33% and with only one club getting promoted from SPL2 thereafter it means only a 10% chance of getting back up again. Oh and it won't be long until the gate prices get increased again. Sobering thought eh! Talk about turkeys, votes and Christmas!

Maybe these stats are for pre-Sky TV coverage of the OF away games when they tended to travel to away games in greater numbers than now. Time was FP was full when the OF came to town but we struggle to see the gate getting above 8 or 9 thousand now. Personally I think the product is well over-priced for what we get and offers poor value for money when compared to other competing entertainment offerings. Last night we couldn't break 3,500. Reason? Price, quality of offering and Sky TV coverage encouraged a lot of fans (Hearts too) to either sit at home and view or nip to the pub for a couple of beers and see the match FOC.

In total agreement with this.

Same old same old. Our inability to keep a clean sheet, especially against some teams who couldn't score a slate is continuing to kill us. IMO the main reason for this is our two centre backs Craigan and Reynolds. Stephen Craigan should have been thanked for his valuable contribution to the club and then replaced at least a couple of seasons ago and Mark Reynolds has shown no real improvement in two seasons now - as witnessed by the fact that nobody has shown the least interest in signing him. Two soft goals lost at Easter Road last week and another one yesterday. Its high time Craig Brown got the defence sorted because its putting too much pressure on the other end of the team. It pisses me off big time that he's twice had a go at Nick Blackman despite the fact the guy's goals record is second only to Kenny Miller and the main reason we have been picking-up points and yet Craigan and Reynolds never get mentioned for the shite performances they are turning in.