Well 4 Europe

Can we afford one though? Right now if we assume that Hammell will be the left back and McManus will be the left sided centre back then we currently have.. Ramsden Kerr Reid Cummins All under contract next season fighting it out for only two positions, and we might also have the aforementioned Murray as well but no one seems sure of his contract situation. Surely we'd have to move some of them on before we can bring someone else in?

Yeah but on a positive note he starts the move in his own half, picks up the ball and moves it on quickly twice before continuing his run into the box to finish the move off. At times I felt we really missed someone like Nicky Law last season to pick up the ball and drive forward with it from midfield. To pop the ball off quickly and get a return and to try speed up the pace of the attack. Not saying he's going to be as good as his brother mind but I think we need someone in that mould and if he's half as good he should still do a job. McCall's had him on trial a few times so he obviously sees something in him. Even if he's gash he's on a one year deal from the Conference so it seems low risk, he'll be fairly cheap and he can at least cover numerous positions. McCall must think he's worth a punt so good luck to the lad.

Completely agree with the above. From what I've seen, Lee Erwin is one of the brightest prospects in the U20's. So sidelining him at the expense of persisting with McHugh and a right winger through the middle doesn't seem like a great idea to me. As I say from what I've seen from the U20's Erwin along with Thomas seem to be the two best prospects and one of the positives I can see in Faddy leaving is that we get to see the next set of Fir Park youngsters take up the mantle. One of my biggest hopes for next season(outside of a decent cup run!) is that we get to see the likes of Leitch, Erwin, Thomas etc. progressing and getting some game time. And long term who knows, maybe these boys could be worth money to the club just like Faddy was all those years ago.

Pretty much confirmed by Kenny Black.. My link

Faddy departs. Sad but not surprising. Will always be a legend in my eyes, thanks for the memories.

Is that what you have to be to play in goals for Motherwell aye?

He makes a good point though, how would you strengthen our defence other than bringing in a new keeper? Which one of Ramsden, Hutchinson, McManus or Hammell is the weak link? There's more to defending than just the back four and the keeper, you have to do it as a team and as a unit. As has been pointed out by Steelboy, when we defend as unit as we did on Sunday we looked solid at the back and don't give much away. However when we play as open as we did at Tannadice it's no surprise the defence looked shit with the woeful lack of protection they got. It's also no surprise that a fair chunk of the goals we conceded this season were against the two best attacking teams in the league in Celtic and Dundee United. The two teams who had the pace and creativity to take advantage of our open approach and expose our unprotected defence. Although we conceded a lot of goals it's worth remembering that of the 60 goals we conceded in the league this season, a staggering 27 of them were scored by Dundee United and Celtic. So just under half the goals we conceded in the league came in the 8 games against Celtic and Dundee United. In the other 30 games we only conceded 33 goals and kept 11 clean sheets. Which is actually fairly decent considering we've used 3 different goalkeepers, about 5 different right backs and at least 3 different left backs over the course of the season. If Hammell and Reid were to sign on for next season I'd be fairly happy with our defensive options even if Hutchinson leaves and would make finding a new keeper my priority. I think the problem with the number of goals we lost this season lies more with the shape of the team, particularly against certain teams, than with the individuals playing at the back. That's what I'd be working on for next season.

McManus signs a new two year deal. Happy with that.

It's good but it's not quite..

Sure I saw earlier that McCafferty, Johnstone and Dale Shirkie have all been released from the U20's.

Not much else to add to what's been said, quite simply one of the highlights of my Motherwell supporting life. To snatch 2nd spot from the world famous, sleeping giant that is Aberdeen FC, in their own ground in front of a full house with the last kick of the season was fucking tremendous and the scenes during and after will probably only be beaten by a cup win. Absolute bedlam in the away end and the fact that it was a blatant foul as well made it all the fucking sweeter. McCall got his tactics spot on. If we'd opened up and attacked we'd have been cut open on the break with their pace just like United did to us at Tannadice a few ago. We only needed one and the longer we were in the game and prevented them from scoring the more nervy they became and you sensed there might just be something in for us. When only a minute went up I was raging but what a fucking minute and nobody could have seen that coming. Outside of his goal Reid done a cracking job on Pawlett who barely had a sniff and Reid had him in his back pocket. Hutch made two top class last ditch tackles to keep us in it and I thought Hammell had a good game as well. The whole team though defended well as a unit and limited Aberdeen to very few chances. They weren't dazzling going forward but they dug in and fought till the end and got their just rewards, like they have done on so many occasions this season. Seventy points is a fucking tremendous achievement, especially considering who we lost in the summer. What a fantastic season this has turned into and huge credit to McCall and the team. Proud.

Helping us win the game! Credit to him cause everybody else apart from him and Reynolds seemed to stop and had it not been for Reynolds stopping the ball with his hand, which the ref was about to give a pen for before playing advantage, Kerr himself would have notched the winner. Fair enough he did have a 2nd attempt at it and somehow managed to miss an open goal from two yards out but still, he also blocked Reynolds off allowing Reid to smash it home. Had he not done that then Reynolds clears and the ref awards the pen. All I can say is thank fuck it never came to that as I don't think I could have watched.

So stifle two of our brightest prospects in Carswell and Leitch by bringing back 30 year old Steve Jennings? And pair him with 34 year old Keith Lalsey. Not great long term planning really is it? No thanks, would rather let Leitch and Carswell grow and develop.

Faddy. Even without either of them though we still have Sutton, Anier, Moore, Erwin & McHugh all contracted for next season. I would say up front is one of the areas we're doing alright in.

Forgive me for repeating myself but.. 10 goals and 10 assists in just 21 starts, how much hotter do you want him to blow? How many Motherwell players can you remember that have gotten into double figures for goals and assists in single season? In fact according to the boy who does the stats for STV, Ainsworth is the ONLY player in top flight to have double figures for goals and assists this season. Even more remarkable that he's done it in such few games. Admittedly he has his flaws but the boy has got talent and unlike a lot of wingers at our level an end product to go with it. Also.. Scored an equalizer at Tannadice in the only game we've taken a point off of Dundee United this season. Scored the winner at Pittodrie in our only win against Aberdeen this season. Came off the bench to set up our equalizer against Celtic in the only game we've taken a point off of them this season. Also no Motherwell player by my reckoning has scored more goals against top 6 opposition this season than Ainsworth. So I would disagree with that entirely. Forgive me if I'm coming across as a Lionel Ainsworth fanboy as I know he's by no means perfect but I can't believe how criminally underrated his contribution to our season is on here. I for one would love to have him signed up for next season.

3 of out of 10 actually, Hollis also has 3 and Gunnar has 4.

Which is why many of us though he brought in Lawson, to sit in front of the back 4. That clearly hasn't worked out though! I was shocked to see we've actually kept 10(TEN) clean-sheets in the league this season in 35 games, which is actually pretty good going. Actually the 5th best in the league & 4 more than we achieved in the league in all of last season. Which makes the fact we've conceded 58 goals in the other 25 league games and being only 3 goals off of having the worst goals against record in the league all the more remarkable. I also had a quick look and to the best of my knowledge of the 65 goals we've conceded this season we've lost goals from.. 9 corners 5 free kicks & also 5 penalties for good measure..

I said last week that when I left the ground that I was nothing but proud after our display against Celtic, this week I was a mixture of anger and embarrassment. A very odd lineup and shape from McCall today. Our midfield lacked any shape and balance and were far too static and time and time again were bypassed by the quicker, sharper more dynamic United midfield in the exact same manner as the 0-4 game in November. They was also no tempo or zip to our passing when we had possesion, it was slow and pedestrian and due to the lack of any natural width we often resorted to hoofing hopeful balls forward towards Sutton. It's not even that they were better than us that annoyed me today though, they won almost every 2nd ball too and looked far more up for it than our players and that was unlike us. We usually at least fight and scrap for things but even that seemed missing from our game today. Last week against Celtic we fought for everything, this week we were well beaten and 2nd best in every department. The midfield was posted missing and chasing shadows all afternoon. Vigurs was slack in possession and had his worse game in months, Leitch was a shadow of the player he showed he can be last week and even the usually reliable Lasley couldn't get to grips with the midfield at all. Not helped by having Fraser Kerr, a centre back by trade, playing right wing. People were giving Kerr pelters but McCall hung him out to dry by playing him out there and he never looked comfortable. Nielsen was also getting abuse but he was pretty blameless for all the goals I thought, he was given almost no protection today and produced at least two cracking saves to keep it to 5. Hutchinson and McManus set the tone for their afternoon with their shambolic efforts at the 1st goal and it only got worse for the pair of them from then. Moore and Anier both had 45 mins each and neither done much to stake a claim for next week, in fairness they were feeding off scraps. Sutton spent most of the game on his arse, tried hard as ever but the ref gave him nothing and we didn't put one decent ball into the box for him to attack all day. Just a complete clusterfuck of a performance all round from the players and the manager today, in stark contrast to last week. A decent away support and they were badly let down. United were faster, stronger, sharper, hungrier and had skill and flair in abundance. At times you couldn't help but simply admire some of their football. Still, for all that they played us off the park today we're still 4 points clear of them in the race for Europe with 3 games left. Something that would have seemed laughable when United dished out their first pumping back at Fir Park in November. Today was fucking awful but the seasons not over yet, now a massive game against an in form Saints team next week. We really need to bounce back with much better performance and hopefully we can get the 3 points.

Is Jack Leitch out of contract in the summer?

Eh no, Mulgrew clipped his heels and the penalty was correctly awarded. Far more likely McCall was talking about the one Lasley won in the 2-0 game a few years ago when he went down under minimal contact.

Have to say, I thought we were fantastic today and McCall got his tactics spot on. Every player played their role well, as said previous the only downside was I felt having put a lot into the game fresh legs could have been on sooner. Then again I was shouting on Sutton to come off cause he looked done so what the fuck to I know! Firstly, great credit to two guys that have their fair share of critics in Nielsen and ZFA. I think both had their best performances in a Motherwell strip today. Nielsen made several good saves and the penalty save is as good as you'll see, a fucking tremendous save at a crucial point in the game. Still has a fair bit to do to win over the support but today was a good start and hopefully he can take confidence and build from this. I was critical of ZFA a few weeks ago but the boy showed today what he can offer. Pace, power, energy and was delighted to see him nick a goal. Everyone was terrific to be fair though. Anier put in a fucking tremendous shift and gave the Celtic centre backs a torrid time. Big John does what he does with another two goals, I could kiss the big handsome bastard after that goal. Man of the match was Jack Leitch. What a wonderful midfield display from such a young man, some of his passes and bits of skills were tremendous to watch and he put in a few cracking tackles as well. Still only 18 isn't he? Big future for this boy. Typical Motherwell, you think they have no chance and they pull out a performance that makes you proud to be a 'Well fan. Credit to McCall and the boys, was a very entertaining game and what an important point that could turn out to be.

Nothing but pride after that performance, every Motherwell player put in a fucker of a shift and done the club proud. Well fucking done Motherwell.

Since March he's started 6 games and he's contributed 3 goals and 3 assists in those games, contributed little indeed. Admittedly he's not been at his best recently but wingers are often temperamental, however even when he's not having had a good game he's still liable to pop up with a goal or create one. Overall I make it 9 goals and 9 assists in just 20 starts for Motherwell this season from the wing, phenomenal return from Ainsworth and his contribution to our season seems to be undervalued by a fair number of our support. Of course he has his flaws but if he didn't he wouldn't be playing for Motherwell. I for one would be delighted if we could get him signed up for next season. For all his flaws he's clearly never struggled to find a club and I don't think he will be short of a few offers in the summer. Hopefully he want's to settle down and stays put.

The biggest game changer IMHO was us allowing them to pull one back just before half time and letting them back in the game just like we did at Easter Road. We had numerous let offs in the first half where St.Mirren failed to score from at least two free headers from corners we'd failed to defend. One was a terrifc save by Nielsen and the other Goodwin inexplicably managed to miss the target from about six yards. They had several other half chances from set plays in the 1st half as well. Five minutes to half time despite not playing brilliantly we were comfortable at this point having scored two well worked goals and Sutton was inches from making it three. We then give away a soft as fuck goal from a set piece having failed to heed our several previous warnings and that changes the game completely. They looked devoid of ideas and hadn't threatened our goal in the first half outside of set pieces, this goal however gave the players and the fans a huge lift going into the 2nd half. How many soft goals have we lost from set pieces recently? Don't think we were as awful as some are making out, weren't great either mind. 1st half Saints had plenty of the ball but were hardly threatining outside of set plays. We went down the other end and scored from two decent, well worked moves. They looked down and out of ideas but inevitably they scored from a set piece when we had a decent hold of the game to give them a huge lift and let them right back into it. 2nd half we had ridden the initial storm with Nielsen making a few decent saves. Moore missed a big chance when he was through 1 on 1, he has to be working the keeper at the very least and if scores he seals the points. Then the penalty call, we lose our heads and within a minute we've gone from 3 points to fuck all. Shite day all round really with the way the fans were treated and with us blowing a huge chance to open up a 9 point gap on United. If we do get European football it looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way. Two big games coming up against Celtic and in particular Dundee United.