Kmcalpin

A central defender added to our shopping list? Presumably we've been preparing for this scenario.

The racing colours story was first relayed to me when I was wee by my late father, who began attending games in the late 1920s. He recounted that Lord Hamilton gifted us the land for Fir Park, as long as we adopted his racing colours.

Agreed. We all know how SK will set his team up. They'll sit in deep and try to frustrate us. If we don't score early it could be a long afternoon. An early first goal will be crucial. The time to bring on unforced subs is if/when we're 2 or 3 goals up. By all means rest & rotate players but not until we have a decent cushion.

Living away from Lanarkshire, as I do, I don't get the opportunity to watch any of the youth games. I only get the odd glimpse of a youngster on the bench or making a token 5 minute appearance as a sub. Now that generational talent, Lennon Miller, has moved on for a club record fee, who is next on the conveyor belt? Any views? From the little I've seen or read: Luca Ross: he's now 19 and been on the fringe of the first team for a few years but never quite made the breakthrough. Will he make it? Zander MacAllister: at 17, seems to be highly rated and made 2 token subs appearances. Olly Whyte, now 19, he was a standout on loan at Cowdenbeath and now doing the business at a higher level with Stenhousemuir, on loan. The pick of the bunch? Dylan Wells: was highly rated and went on loan to Edinburgh City but then disappeared. Picked up a serious long term injury? Mikey Booth: highly rated but then picked up a serious injury and we've heard no more. .

Fair comment. JT fashioned and took his goal very well. Tom Sparrow's misjudgement was so reminiscent of the kind of goal that Stevie Hammell used to concede. Still an away point at your rival's place is not a bad result.

All told, its a decent result at a difficult venue. Good to see Jordan McGhee make an appearance, as we'll need him to be fit. I suspect both teams will be disappointed at dropping points, but it seems that a draw was the right result. it also keeps us well in the hunt for a top 6 slot. Again, failings in the final third cost us, although TJ does the business again. Currently 9 players out injured.

Olly White scores again for Stenhousemuir.

The thing is, Welsh still has 18 months to run on his Celtic contract and wage level. Why would he want to sign for Aberdeen now on half his current salary? If he wants to leave, he will have a better choice of clubs in the summer or later. If Aberdeen offer to take him on loan and pay a larger % of his wages he doesn't have to agree and it wouldn't benefit him financially as he wouldn't see any of that increased contribution.

The Bob Shankly Stand holds about 3,000 fans although numbers of our fans have been a point of contention in the past, especially at cup games.

Yes, you're right of course. I stand corrected.

Rancid reporting Kofi Balmer to Bristol City on loan and Aberdeen sniffing about Stephen Welsh.

Good post OTF. This is a load of bollocks from the SPFL. Who dreamt this nonsense up? Maybe they had a few sherries too many when they wrote this punishment. We'll leave aside the issue of the rights and wrongs of pyros for the time being. I don't doubt that the Scottish Government is behind this action as OTF suggests and it needs to get its own house in order first with regards to the use of pyros in society full stop, before singling out football. Also it needs to grow a set and tackle bigger issues in Scottish football, but thats too controversial. For the record, successive Scottish Governments have swerved the huge issue of sectariansism. Anyway onto the SPFL. So, in terms of pyros we have strict liability. What about decades of tolerated sectarianism? I get that higher powers might not be happy if the SPFL addressed this head on. It can't pick and choose when to apply strict liability. Going back to 2024's league cup semi, who was in 100% charge of stewarding and security? Thats right, the SPFL itself. Now onto these particular punishments. Hibs have been handed down a suspended sentence. If that is implemented, they will be both the victim and beneficiary of financial penalties, as Sevco will be required to pay them for unused tickets. How inconsistent is that? As for us, our penalty will apply against Dundee. Will that game be a sellout? Of course it won't, so the loss of 50 tickets is purely academic. If it were to be a sellout, what guarantee would there be that the "culprits", if I may call them that, didn't get tickets? We could end up with a situation whereby the culprits get in and 50 innocent parties lose out. Not only that, in terms of the detailed compensation, it could be that the culprits are concessions but we have to pay Dundee FC full whack. How will the cost of tickets be calculated? Finally, whilst I have no grouse with Dundee, why should they benefit from an additional 50 ticket sales when they are in no way involved? A far fairer solution, although far from perfect, would be to hand down a straightforward fine, if we go down the controversial route of strict liability, and to initiate a review of the SPFL's own security arrangements.

Sad news. John Chapman has passed away at the age of 93. He oversaw our club during difficult times and had the honour of being charge when we won the cup in 19991. I met him on many occasions and in various settings and always found him to be amiable, pleasant and willing to talk about MFC, the club he loved. I knew he hadn't been in the best of health for some years. Thoughts are with his family at this difficult time. RIP John.

We'd best clear that with Aberdeen fans first out of courtesy. One of my lasting memories of our legendary win at Pittodrie in May 14 was Dons fans playing this number for 89 minutes solid on brass intruments. No drums for them.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of his presser. Some positive comments and he's happy with us but no clear denial of interest. Maybe just me.

St Mirren are media favourites. Had SR still been in charge of us, the media wouldn't have been so amenable.

I'm all for it Joe. What about the Upper Crust Stadium? Easy income.

Good posts from Stu and Joe. At the time of the Barmack proposal, there was a lot of very insightful and forensic analysis from various posters. It proved to be a very complex issue and not being an accountant I struggled to understand all the intricacies of the debate. I was generally in favour of external investment but eventually opposed it when I saw the details of Barmack's plan. Quite a few were comfortable with the detailed discussions but many, probably most, did not understand the complexities. As always, we had extreme views from those who who supported the proposal come what may to those who would die in a ditch to oppose it out of principle. Most lay somewhere in between. Many did not vote for whatever reason. At the time the emerging division in our fanbase concerned me. Fortunately, that emerging rift has largely healed. It concerned me though that some opponents of the proposal looked own in disdain at supporters of it. Although I opposed it, I did think that some/many/most of its backers had good reasons for endorsing it. I took the trouble to ask a few why they did so, without trying to convert them. Most of their answers made perfect sense; others had a grain of truth in them. I never like to dismiss others' opinions out of hand, as it is very rare that I disagree with them 100%. The Society has achieved a range of measures such as fan engagement, managerial recruitment governance and so on. Our current financial health is largely down to the Society and sound governance of our club. As Stu says though a large element of that is the Miller Money. I too would like to see more flesh on the bones of the Society's investment plan & promises. We really do need to maximise income from all sources as we don't know what the future holds and we do face a range of challenges.

A good fit for St Mirren, but not us. Puzzled as to why he's had no club since last May.

I have no problems with "Colins", whatever they might be. I don't agree with their views but, don't agree with calling them out over their views. Apart from calling out the odd roaster, I've never been concerned about the views of other fans. Live and let live. There are more important issues for us to be thinking about. It just divides our fanbase and thats never a good thing.

Thats caracas.

Yes, thats correct.

I was thinking the same. Are the clubs arguing about prices? Its also tight for staff and fans to organise hospitality.

Absolutely sir. Sure many folk would leave Motherwell for a job somewhere else that paid twice as much... going back to Ya Bezzer!'s post though, although people have kids and mortgages and a professional striving, I wouldn't put the figure as high as 95%. There are other important considerations and not everyone is driven solely by hard cash.

Our average crowds compared to last season, are up by about 2,000. I reckon that translates into about an extra £600,000 after VAT is deducted. We then have additional income from catering, programme sales and the like. On the debit side, increased bonuses. Back of a fag packet calculation we'll be about £500,000 up on gate income.