Kmcalpin

The share sale is an interesting idea but in my view, members need more information to make an informed decision and a meeting of them should be called to discuss this. The poll, on a complex issue, is also a simple yes/no vote. The deadline of 28 September is also far too close and needs a significant extension. I support in principle the idea of more fans owning shares; I myself have a few. The existing shareholder base is contracting and needs expansion as older ones pass on and those inheriting shares have less and less connection with the club. The price of £10 per unit is consistent with what has happened in recent years and I have no problem with that detail. Now for the ramifications. The club has 2 or 3 classes of share and I assume that its only the ordinary ones, which attract voting rights, that are on sale. Unfortunatley I couldn't lay my hands on the most recent set of accounts but going back 2 or 3 years, there were something like 287,000 issued shares (there are far more unissued shares). Now if we take the Society's intended sale of up to 50,000 shares, that represents about 17.4% of the issued shares. Thats a significant figure, which may of course not be realised. I don't know the Society's current shareholding but would be concerned if it was to be diluted below say 60-70%. I also know there are rights attached to the percentage shareholding which a shareholder has as Hearts fans know well. Above a certain percentage, maybe 70-80%, the owner does not have to release detailed financial account information. Now I'm no company law expert but there are those on here who are, and know far more about these things than I do. Could the club not have sold more unissued shares? I appreciate that that way the proceeds would have gone to the club and not the owners, but whats the difference? That way, the Society would still retain the same number of shares that it has. I had been thinking of gifting my very small shareholding to the Society at some future date, but what would be the point if it simply going to sell them on? In short, I think the poll should be suspended and a meeting of members held to pass on more information to allow them to make informed choices. I hope I'm not being disresepctful to members but I suspect most don't know the details behind this, I certainly don't.

Just what I was about to post. Whilst hard, young Campbell doesn't seem to have a nasty edge to his play.

I think Bert is due a thread of his own. He was an old fashioned gentleman who I had the pleasure of meeting twice. In real life he was a schoolteacher. One of the Ancell babes he was a cultured player, probably a midfielder in today's parlance. RIP Bert.

Well I got my prediction completely wrong happy to say. I thought we'd play well, but like Derek McInnes, understimated our own lads. It was a real team performance, probably the best for a number of years, with no failures. Hartley really impressed me at the back and Campbell ran, chased and harried all night in the engine room. I was sorry his great shot did not go in but it was Aberdeen after all. Up front, Moult and Bowman tormented Abderdeen all night with Louis capping a great night with a smashing goal from a tight angle. I liked Robbo's comment that you have to fight and battle for the ball before you can do anything with it. Maybe Aberdeen were more streetwise but that wasn't enough to see us off. We looked comfortable throughout but if we had a failing it was defending a bit too deep at times but Carson in goal didn't have a huge amount to deal with despite a lot of Aberdeen pressure. We were well organised and looked like a team, maybe even a cup team, with charcater in bucketloads. So credit is due to Robbo and Keef for that. I thought Kevin Clancy had poor game although he didn't make any game changing blunders. He was very inconsistent, and pernickety at times. I had no problem with any of our yellow cards except for Hammy's. However Clancy should have awarded 2 yellow cards for fouls on Moult and surely it it was a straight red for Christie for a nasty assault on Tait borne out of a frustration no doubt. Given the niggles and inconsistent officiating, needle may well spill over into Sunday's clash.

Thanks are due to the volunteers who helped with the bucket collection last. Good to see 2 in the south end of the POD Stand. Well done.

My thoughts exactly.

A great all round team performance with perhaps Campbell, Bowman, Moult front runners and deservedly so. However I'm going to plump for Peter Hartley. He never put a foot wrong against potentially difficult opponents; he marshalled his defence superbly to such an extent that Aberdeen despite their second half pressure never really Carson very much; and he also found time to score. Not a flashy player but a solid reliable sort - just the kind of player we've been lacking for years.

Given the weak refereeing tonight and the numerous niggles that built up over the evening we'll need a strong referee on Sunday. Some chance.......

100% agree. He was my MOTM despite quite some competition.

I agree that we should make as few changes as possible from Saturday's team but would replace Tait with Frear, if fit. Frear would add some much needed pace and take the heat off Cadden. Unless Robbo knows something we don't I'd be tempted to put in Plummer ahead of Hammell. If Hammell doesn't have to rely on his pace what does he have to rely on? He doesn't have pace now; doesn't have height or positional sense; and isn't great defensively. Yes, he can cross a ball but I'd say in years gone by his pace was one of his biggest assets. He does have experience though. We have a reasonable chance tomorrow evening as we now have a decent team with character. However our cup record against Aberdeen is nothing short of abysmal and they will be very streetwise, which we are not. Taking everything into account I'll predict a narrow win for the Dons over 90 minutes. We may have a better chance on Sunday. I really hope though that the fans are patient with the team and don't lose heart if we fail to progress in the League Cup. COYW.

Tackles from behind now seem to be perfectly legitimate.

Just to complicate matters we can all recall incidents where a player has fallen in the box accidentally, not claimed a penalty, then walked off innocently only to be yellow carded by the referee. In the interests of consistency and fairness, the SFA has to haul up divers, like Boyle, retrospectively and hand them bans. If clubs were also serious about stamping out this cheating, for thats what it is, then they'd punish the culprits themselves. However I'm convinced that clubs tolerate this abuse and indeed in some cases encourage and coach it. Neil Lennon should have blasted Boyle publicly and banned him from Hibs' next game but instead all we've had is complete silence from him. He'll be the first though to blast an opposition player who dives to win a penalty aginst Hibs. In that respect he's no different to most other managers.

Whilst I think Tait is weak defensively, and Dunne is still finding his feet in a new team after months out of the game, you're right. The 3-5-2 formation does leave gaps on the wings when we're defending and you can see teams trying to exploit this ie Kilmarnock and Hibs. However if we're getting results......

Did he not leave the fray on Saturday due to concussion? Hope I"m wrong.

Presumably Carl McHugh will need to sit this one out?

It doesn't matter he'll make them anyway.

100% agree. One of my pet hates at away grounds. Why do some clubs insist on taping off a very restricted or tight and inflexible area for visitors in stands with plenty of capacity? Often I've seen our fans struggle to pick out the odd empty seat while common sense dictates that stewards simply move the tape a few metres. I'm not talking about seats being left empty for security cordons. I'm not suggesting they open up thousands of seats in an otherwise empty stand but come on opening up a few more rows wouldn't take monumental planning or organisation. Thats one thing at Fir Park we are usually fairly generous to away supports in this regard.

No he didn't. I think it was euphemistically "accepted" by the powers that be that he did all he could to stay upright but simply caught his studs in the turf. That doesn't explain though why he did not plead Dunne's case with Craig Thomson and failed to hold his hands up to say it wasn't a penalty. The last player cited for simulation I think was Alex Schalk of Ross County against Celtic late last season. I would expect us to contest Tait's yellow card and will be disappointed if we don't.

Absolutley Andy. I don't care if we win through daylight robbery we're more than due it. I am concerned though by our first half performances and by our defence. It may just be taking time to settle down though. Looking forward to a Kipre/May clash - not for the faint hearted. Both very physical players.

How do you justify that after 25 minutes of the game, or so? Defensively we were weaker down our right side yesterday and of the 2 sides thats where mosre of the danger originated. A high tempo game which we would have lost last season. A much improved and stronger midfield meant that we could match Hibs toe to toe. Overall we deserved our share of the spoils although we still need to tighten up our defence. Moult again proved his worth with 2 well taken goals. A good all round energetic team performance though. The lads showed grerat character and attitude to fight back from 2-0 down. Well done to Robbo and Keef. The referee was very poor and inconsistent. He got all 3 penalty calls wrong. Anyway a good day at the office and we keep our momentum going.

He must have his reasons. The line up looks a tad cautious and defensive but we'll see. Again, the pressure will be on Cadden to provide the outball. Maybe the gameplan is to hold out until half time and if we're still in contention open up a bit?

A difficult game to call. Hibs look good but are still finding their feet in the top league. We've done well so far but haven't been fully convincing against the better sides. We certainly won't be any pushovers today but need to play for 90+ minutes. We're a lot stronger than last term, but still have a bit to prove at away venues as our implosion at Perth proved. I think we're still vulnerable down the flanks. If pushed I'd go for a narrow defeat. Hope I'm proved wrong, in the best possible way.

Seems we are right about Robbo liking players with good character. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/motherwell/motherwell-are-twitter-snoopers-admits-stephen-robinson-1-4560692

You can put your mortgage on it, if you have one. He yellow carded Cedric for that, even although it wasnrt even a foul, but failed to punish a Killie player for cynically hauling back Bowman by the shoulder when he was breaking into the box.

Good post, first one or not. To pick up on one or two points, Tait is a good squad player but for me Frear has to return on the left flank to give us some much needed pace and take the heat off Cadden. I liked Grimshaw's energy when he came on too. One thing I'm not sure about in the current set up though is that Bowman seems to be playing off Moult. I'd rather that Moult was told to stay up front and in the centre. Too often on Saturday he was the one who was playing balls into the box for others to use. Thats not his game and not the best use of his talents. We have a much better squad this year and it may well be that Robbo uses more players in a squad rotation system. I've no problems with that. Yes, Madden was poor on Saturday. At one point he got in the way of McHugh who was trying to getm off a shot on goal. His booking of Kipre was downright wrong, and he missed a lot of fouls on Moult. He also failed to stamp out a bit of play acting and diving from Killie especially, young Taylor (genuinely out of character for Killie I have to say), Fortunately he got no major decisions wrong but had a poor game overall.