MelvinBragg

I hear Faddy is off to Ibrox. How many transfer windows have I heard that now..?

I could live with it. Dunno if Hateley is overly happy at RB though. There will be those who say it's a pretty inexperienced centre back pairing, but both guys have played a lot of games for their age (including some big games) so their age shouldn't come into it. Was this not the back four when we got a 0-0 at Parkhead under Gannon..?

For me, Hammell has had a solid season so don't know why we'd need a left back. A natural right back would be a priority. Craigan, we need to look to be replacing. He may have another season in him but if not it'd be better to have another experienced centre back rather than find out in September that Craigan's legs have gone. I'd let Jennings go as Lasley can do the same job without as many bookings. Maybe a more attacking midfielder alongside him to save Lasley having to try and support the strikers. Stephen Hughes wouldn't be my first choice but could live with him and Lasley in the middle..

A lot of these stories bring a lump to the throat.. My mother passed away a few weeks after the CIS final in 05. She wasn't a regular attender in those days (back in the 60s/70s, she was, Goldthorpe being her favourite), but the CIS cup final seemed to give her a new taste for it as she attended the 3-2 defeat to Celtic a few weeks later. Although she was ill, she was determined to make the Celtic game on the last day. Sadly was not to be. This will be my third cup final, but the first she won't be attending. My only regret about tomorrow...

I'd be relucatnt to do this, for slightly different reasons to Mitch. The 2005 CIS Final was, I feel, named the Cooper Final to give the media an angle to talk about. Rangers and Celtic are in finals all the time so they tend to look for an angle to distinguish the game from an Old Firm team against a provincial club. The only good thing about the whole Neil Lennon carry-on is that there has been no need for the media to look for sub-plots to write about for the final. I was dreading this becoming the "O'Donnell Final". As much respect as I have for Davie Cooper and Phil O'Donnell and their memories, Motherwell cup finals are so rare that they have enoguh significance all of their own. I personally think this Cup Final is about Motherwell and the fans. We have honoured, and continue to honour, the memories of players taken too soon. Saturday should be nothing but one long riotous celebration. No matter the result... Just my opinion, mind...

Had managed to rein it in for most of this week.with work and other stuff getting in the way thankfully. Starting to feel the tension build a bit now. But as star sail pointed out, these occasions don't come along very often so I'm determined to savour Saturday so any tension and nerves are being put to the back of my mind. Whether that will work at 3pm on Saturday, that's another story...

One I haven't seen mentioned yet but myown personal favourite would be the opening day of the 90/91 season. Had everything. Luc Nijholt's first league game, Colin O'Neill's elbow, Kirk getting Dariusz Wdowczyk sent off, Billy McNeil and Tommy McLean fighting in the tunnel at half time and Bobby Russell's quality mazy goal are just some memories of that game...

Result? Don't care really.. Performance? It was poor, but we as fans have our minds elsewhere, do we really expect the players to be different? Only concern would be the possibility that Randolph is injured. As someone at the game said, the one player we cannot afford to lose...

I heard In January that he was supposed to be coming on loan from again a reliable (HP) source, but that just couldn't get the deal done so it wouldn't surprise me to see him back. Whether I'd be happy about it or not...

With more wangling and some calculations that would give a NASA scientist a sore head, I've managed to get cup final day off. All without groveling to a Rangers supporter. To quote a big blonde fifer, "Ya beezer"...

It's with a heavy heart that I type the fact that it lkooks like I will be missing the cup final. I had rediscovered my enthusiasm for it over the last couple of months following a few months where I couldn't be arsed. Didn't swap my shift for 21st May becuase I didn;t want to put a jinx on the whole thing. I had two people who I could ask at work to change shift with me. One is going away for their birthday that weekend (fair enough). The other, a Rangers fan who doesn't go to the games, informed me that he couldn't change shifts with me because he "quite fancies watching it on the telly...". Feel free to add your own expletives here There are another couple of long shots I could try but I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll be watching the cup final on a tiny telly in Wishaw General. To say it's been a massive downer after a real high would possibly be understatement of the year...

Have already heard talk that the orange hall in Motherwell is talking of running two buses to the game, with guys talking of wearing their Rangers tops and bringing Union Jacks. I suspect it may just be hot air and the thought of spending hard-earned just to wind up Celtic supporters might put them off but it's a slight concern that this final might already be in danger of being ruined by a braindead minority.. It's looking increasingly likely that I won't be there, and if there are Union Jacks and Rangers tops, maybe I'll be glad about that...

Forgot about Page, or perhaps more accurately don't think of him as a first team player yet. Hateley will be here. I'd gladly hunt him unless he agreed he's a right back (I can live with Saunders and Hutchinson at centre back). Oh, aye, and agreed to stay away from set pieces...

"Nothing silly......THAT'S FUCKING SILLY!!!!" is a particular favourite of mine...

Of the current squad, the only ones I'd really like to see here next season are Randolph Hammell Hutchinson Saunders Lasley Jennings Sutton Murphy Humphrey Forbes Some odd names in there for some, but Forbes has ability, we just need to find the best way use him. Humphrey's pace is a weapon that not many have in the SPL so he's worth keeping in my book. Saunders and Hutchinson both have huge potential (I actually think Saunders might have a better career than Hutchinson). Murphy, likewise. It seemed that Craig Brown had found the optimum way to use Murphy, hopefully McCall can find a shape that suits him. Sadly, I reckon we'll lose Randolph, Sutton and Jennings. Really big players as well so replacing them will not be easy. Which only leaves Hammell and Lasley on my list. Both of whom probably only have a couple of seasons left in them. Over to you, Mr McCall. And we wondered why a few folk turned the job down...

Really poor performance disguised by an early set piece goal. No ball retention whatsoever. Give any team enough of the ball and they'll find a way through. Really obvious how much we miss Jennings when he's not there. United deserve to be in the lead frankly and unless we change something they'll get the win here. Still when you're playing two full backs in midfield, you're giving yourself problems there right away...

Any chance we had just went out of the window with our team line-up I reckon. Some folk are going to get shunted out of position to make way for Jeffers and Craigan... Prove me wrong, boys, but it looks like a train wreck of a line-up...

It was me that mentioned Quinn. I agree that Kenneth has the same mentality as Quinn. I would argue that Quinn, like Reynolds, is a far superior technical footballer...

My understanding is that Reynolds did start a recent game at centre back and got shunted out to left back to see if he could do any better there. Mark Reynolds has a few decent attributes. He's quick and has a decent left foot. His disciplinary record was always decent for us so you could say he times tackles well. But he's physically bullied too often by centre forwards. And turned quite easily, the number of times, I've seen a forward back in to him and spin away and he didn't read it... I always said that Paul Quinn would have a better career in England than Mark Reynolds. And Quinn is now doing very well for Cardiff. The reason? Mentality. Quinn would kick his own granny if he thought it would get his team a result. Ruthless in the nicest possible sense... Mark Reynolds always struck me as too nice on the field to be a footballer...

While Goram had a few spectacular moments in a Motherwell jersey, he was a shadow of his former self when we saw him. For guys my age (mid 30s), it comes down to Randolph or Dykstra. For me Randolph just shades it. Although as Yabbas points out, like a lot of people I still have a lot of man love for big Sieb...

Housewives' Favourite For real leadership in a captain and playing the whole second half on a tight rope after that big baldy Celtic clown tried to get the ref to send him off before half time...

Looking around the SPL, I can't see any other chairman I'd rather have had than Boyle. He's made mistakes like all of them, but over a long period he's done a decent job...

The thing that most irritated me last night was that, like the Kilmarnock game, we had a lot of possession but I suspect that the opposition keeper had clean gloves as he went off the park. An easier win bonus Paul Gallagher will not get. We need to stop trying to walk the ball into the net. St Mirren had a lot of bodies behind the ball. Lasley and Jennings are going to have to start blootering the ball from distance and tell our forwards to stand next to their centre backs and hope that if/when the shot comes off one of them, be ready to react to the second ball. Poor tactics? Possibly but without any other way of breaking down teams who come and put 9 bodies behind the ball, it's worth a go. Perversely we'll get more chances on Sunday as Celtic won't come to sit in. Not saying we'll take them...

Motherwell Rochdale Liverpool Scotland don't even feature for me. Discussing a Scotland game in JDs one day, I got funny looks for referring to Scotland as "they" as in "They might get a point". As disillusioned as I sometimes get with the Well, it's always "we"...

If as Tweed's mate suggests, we were carrying Lasley and Craigan yesterday then mcCall made a rod for his own back. Particularly as he knew yesterday morning that the St Johnstone-Aberdeen game was off. He could have chosen to declare Lasley and Craigan unfit and gone with Randolph Hateley Page Hutchinson Gunning Humphrey Jennings Meechan Forbes Jones Sutton Another 6-0 defeat might have been the result but might not have been if the players were all fully fit and playing in a familiar shape. And if the 6-0 defeat did happen, there may not have been the same (over?) reaction from the fans as it would been seen as a learning curve for the likes of Meechan and Page. But at least Page would have been playing in a shape he was familiar with (as would have the rest of the team) so we might not have had the disjointed performance many are reporting.. It would have also increased the chance of a fully fit Craigan and Lasley for the more winnable/drawable game at Pittodrie... Just a thought, Stuart...