Kmcalpin

Jay - I've 2 suggestions /comments to make, that may be of interest to others. Firstly, the double your money offer by Les. Only 5 months to go now and the clock is running down. The Society has a window of opportunity between now and say late November for fund raising. Many folk have returned from holidays or are about to. From mid/late November onwards many families' attentions will be turning to Christmas and all the expense that brings. We need to pull out all the stops now to raise more cash from members. I know there has been a fair bit of publicity already but lets see more reps in stands or outside the club shop; yet more publicity; even bucket collections. We'll only get one chance and we need to maximise that. Secondly, I know this is about the club but maybe the Society could exert some gentle pressure on the club to update the official website. Its our door to the world and badly needs refurbishment and updating.

I've a lot of time for Michael Higdon, a thinking man's player, but he'd be nowhere near my top post WW2 strikers. Guys like Wilson Humphries, Ian St John, Joe McBride, Dixie Deans and Willie Pettigrew (my personal choice) would rate above him in my opinion. I never saw Wilson Humphries but think we do have to include players we've not watched or the results could be very unfairly skewed depending on the age of the participants. Agree with Fizoxy's comment about handing out hard copies.

I don't think we'll see much of Hammy this season. Given his age and injury record now I suspect he'll make the odd appearance but no more. Hindsight is a great thing but he should never have been awarded a 2 year deal. Like you the only area of the team I'm concerned about is our strikers. We struggled a bit last term at times to link Moult and MacDonald and the same will happen with Moult, if he stays, and Tanner. Neither Fisher nor Bowman have set the heather on fire so far this season.

We'll certainly learn something from the Sunday's game but maybe not as much as many folk think. Our defence may not be at full strength and we'll be short up front. I think what is clear is that we'll go with one out and out striker. A lot of unanswered questions remain from last season and it'll be interesting to get a few answers at least.

Avoid information overload Al, give limited weight to other people's views and come your own conclusions.

Good to read that you're optimistic Luke. However Heneghan may not be fit and Moult is nowhere near 100%. I hope that Plummer is reasonably fit, if he has to slot in.

Yes, Dave I've made the same point. We have, I believe several promising young defenders, but none currently ready for the step up. No young home grown strikers ready either. So, thats 2 critical areas of the team for which we've had to bring in players. Midfield is a bit different.

I don't know Andy. Folk were less than happy with Jim Gannon for hanging a youngster out to dry. It was embarrassing. As for David Ferguson last season that was also very embarrassing and I really felt for him. Robbo did the right thing by taking him off post haste. Some youngsters would just shrug it off but others would really let it get to them and it could damage their careers.

Pretty much agree with that. In principle I too would like to see more home grown Scottish talent coming through our ranks but the reality is a bit more complex. We mustn't forget that Robbo has also been charged with keeping us in the Premiership. If he overplayed his hand by playing too many youngsters and we went down most fans would not be too forgiving. Be in no doubt that if our competitors thought they could steal a march on us by signing up a squad of non Scottish players they'd do so in a minute. Some of our young lads might well go out on loan to toughen them up and give them competitive gametime. However when looking at our Under 20s we have to look, not just how good they are but also what kind of players they are. A simple question to start - should Peter Morrison have been clear second choice for goals? In terms of centre backs and left back, what youngsters could step into the team right now as cover and do a job? Midfield? I would see Alan Campbell as back up to Carl McHugh in terms of position. He's not an attacking midfielder. Should we prefer Ross MacLean and Jake Hastie to Elliot Frear and Craig Tanner (back up maybe)? What young strikers are pushing through just now? These questions may throw up potential shortcomings in our past youth development set up. Its unlikely that our Under 20s will produce 11 great prospects for all positions at once. Historically we've maybe produced a maximum of 3 at any one time eg Hammell, Faddy and Pearson. Recruitment from Scottish lower leagues is difficult and any decent prospects won't come cheap. There are also far fewer clubs and therefore less choice in Scotland's lower leagues as opposed to England's lower leagues.

Sorry, I don't understand. I don't see the connection.

Basically agree. However over the course of 12 draws, the only equally unlikely combination is 12 aways. 11 homes and 1 away is slightly more likely.

It could just be that a larger proportion of our core support has bought season tickets. I hope not and that there has been a real increase.

Other things being equal ie Heneghan is passed fit then McHugh has to play in midfield. He'll do more good there shielding the defence. Thats asuming there's no more injuries and we don't sign another defender who is match fit.

An interesting game. It'll provide a different kind of stress test (an in phrase just now) for us. The striker, whoever he is, may get more room but less service; the midfield's defensive capabilities will be tested more; the defence will be tested more rigorously; and Carson will be tested. Hopefully the team will benefit from playing the group stages of the League Cup as we did, strange though it was at the time.

Maybe splitting hairs Weeyin but aren't you comparing permutations as opposed to combinations? The odds of being drawn at home 12 times out of 12 will be somewhat less than the odds of being drawn at home 6 times out of 12? For example the permutation you cite has the same combination ie 6 home draws as H,H,H,H,H,H,A,A,A,A,A,A. There will be a number of permutations which result in 6 home draws out of 12 but only which results in 12 out of 12.

Am I right in saying that the probability of 12 home ties on the trot is 1 in 4,096? Maybe the statisticians on this board could verify this?

Not unhappy with that. We're only playing with one out and out striker anyway. If thats our system how many do we need? On admittedly very limited evidence, Newell does seem a wee bit above Under 20 level.

Yes, the system doesn't seem right does it?

Yes, thats by no means unlikely Greg. As you say its the Motherwell way.

I've been slagged off in the past for wanting us to be more physical and I've had a hard job convincing some posters that I didn't mean hammer throwers, thugs and hatchet men. Your description of Kipre above is exactly what I meant. He was strong enough to hold off 3 opponents in the corner and as far as I've seen hasn't resorted to any nasty stuff. He can also play a bit of football.

Potentially some very hard ties in prospect. Hibs away, Partick away, Ross County away or either of the Dundee clubs away don't excite me.

Our midfield is definitely better than it was last season although the mix wasn't quite right when McHugh stepped back into defence. Had he been available I think Campbell would have been the perfect deputy. A few have been bemoaning recently the lack of first team exposure for young up and coming players like Campbell. Thats all very well but they have to slot in to a position for which they are suited. As we've seen last season its no good having 3/4/5 central midfield players if they are all slow and defensive. Its too early to judge Carson in goal as he's had little to do and in 3 games I've only seen him flap at a cross once. If the defence and midfield do their job its purely academic anyway as he'll only be required to deal with crosses once in a blue moon as Andy Goram pointed out several times. I think Carson is entitled to expect more aerial protection than Samson was ever afforded. As the midfield is not only better but better balanced, that will give the defence more protection and the strikers more support. It will also ensure that Moult, or his successor, is not the only source of goals, as we've seen. However, we are over reliant on Moult and that has to be addressed.

Today's game was very similar to the one in Edinburgh earlier this week. In both we enjoyed plenty of possession, played cross after after cross into the opposition box and frustratingly lacked a cutting edge. All 3 goals came from low crosses, Davie Cooper style. Still we won and remain undefeated. Thats the bottom line. A strange starting line up which didn't last long due to Hammell's injury but even in that short time we looked very disjointed down the left. Like Ropy I was and still am very concerned at the lack of central defensive cover and to play McHugh back in defence was a throw back to last season and weakened the midfield. Was McManus punished for a poor defensive display in midweek? I just couldn't figure out playing with one striker against a side who came to park their bus. I assume, for no other reason than I can't think of a feasible alternative explanation, that Robbo set us up this way simply to practice this formation for the coming league campaign. He would have played this way irrespective of the opposition. To field one solitary striker against an ultra defensive outfit doesn't make sense unless all your strikers are injured. It rendered Tanner's role largely meaningless and unnecessary. It also affected Rose's game too. Frear was my MOTM although Kipre continues to impress. Dunne too looked good and although his passing wasn't 100% he was very quick and looks to be an excellent defender with good positional sense. Tait didn't have a bad game although he was done for pace quite a few times. McHugh was badly missed in central midfield and on 2/3 occasions Berwick found a direct opening on goal in the middle which better sides would have taken advantage of. Despite us having a bigger team than last term Berwick proved no physical pushovers and more than held their own unless Kipre or perhaps Dunne was involved. We continue to have problems up front but to be fair Moult looked far from being match fit. He is also no target man - never was and never will be. Fisher again failed to impress when he appeared. Newell? Looked very sharp and energetic although a little frail. We still need another striker, be it Newell or someone completely new, and most certainly another central defender - like now please.

Frear for me although Kipre wasn't far behind.

Spot on. Dylan Mackin scored a few goals for the Under 20s but was never a prolific scorer. he never really played for the first 11 bar a single appearance as a sub I think. If I'm wrong correct me. I assume therefore that management did not think he was good enough to promote to the first team squad. He may fit in fine at Livingston and that might be his level. Very few youngsters fail to make the grade at Fir Park and then move on to bigger and better things. I'm just using Mackin as an example to back up Superward's point.