Rev IM Jolly

Cheers Weeyin. Hopefully the Hyatt in Mumbai will have a decent broadband connection.

Might be bit early yet, but I begin my travels to Mumbai this morning for work this week, so welcoming any tips on how I might get to see the game tomorrow. Might be one for the ex-pats...

Just speculating, but if the number of tickets available roughly equates to the entries in the ballot, it could simply be an announcement through the various mediums to say tickets on sale Monday morning for those registered, first come, first served. Suppose it all hangs on availability after tomorrow.

Potential minefield though. Given the ST sale is still on through the day tomorrow, that would then give the club a day to cross check the existing database of people registered for the ballot against a number of communications recevied to say that tickets have now been secured. What if a manual error led to someone being removed from the ballot that shouldn't have been? I understand the sentiment behind your suggestion but in practice I don't see it panning out very well. I note the bottom of the ST holders registeration form says that remaining tickets will be made available to people who have registered for the ballot week commencing Monday 9th of May 2011, this will be on a first come, first serve basis. Interesting. Doesn't seem to tally with the "we will contact the successful applicants" line.

The unknown is the 'new season tickets' being sold. Even if it's only a few hundred than that could equate to another 1000 off our allocation. All remains to be seen of course and all might be fine, but if there are only couple of thousand in the ballot then the chances of getting tickets will be getting quite slim.

I know the feeling. Family circumstances have meant the ST has simply been an unaffordable luxury for me and my brother for the last 2 seasons, and whilst I was fairly relaxed up until today that we'd still get tickets the numbers are starting to look too close for comfort now.

I've been moved to come out of my recent retirement to express my sympathy and sadness at the news; as others have said it's particularly sad at this time of year. I'm sure Deaddogman's contributions will be missed on here. Condolences to you and your family.

If my memory serves Craigan was taking part in the spat at the dugouts. It was all kicking off in various places at the one time and as already pointed out, did it really make a difference to Murphy? The main thing for me was the delay in the penalty being taken, and in all fairness Craigan could have sat on Murphy's shoulders telling them all to beat it, and it wouldn't have mind a blind bit of difference to the delay in proceedings.

I think the reasoning behind fatcalf's post is perhaps best summed up with "win as a team, lose as a team". A concept lost on some as yet another witch hunt kicks off. It's no just on here, it permeates through the whole of society these days. There always has to be a fall guy. For me the modern day media play a big part in the development of that mentality.

Apologies, I wouldn't normally go for the 'one word'/smiley post, but... Whit!?

I assume Fizoxy was going for the irony and wasn't seriously suggesting that 'we get' to shout such stuff. There were more than a few on here proclaiming how they could say what they like at the fitba in the aftermath to the McGhee stuff, yet on the other side of the coin here we are a few weeks later with probably some of the same folk apparently appalled because a player has the gall to react. It is pathetic really - both times. Also, if I heard someone making off-the-cuff comments at the fitba which I didn't agree with, racist or otherwise, then in all likelihood I wouldn't be seeking out the nearest Police officer. It would obviously depend on the situation, but generally, the chances of other people hearing it and backing you up and/or the police actually being able to do anything about it are slim to none. However, I don't go to bed at night fretting that I haven't made my contribution to society - these morons are a dying breed, with or without my intervention, and perhaps selfishly, I don't go to the fitba looking to Police the crowd - I believe there are those who are paid to do that.

That's what I took from it! Actually thought it was quite pleasant to read something like that for a change.

Aye, the sending off occured right in front of where I was sat, and he definitely looked a bit uncomfortable when he got to his feet, the ICT lad definitely caught him quite heavily. I think it was a case of enough is enough before he picked up a knock to rule him out of the forthcoming league games.

I'm quite certain PSL won't be hiring you as Sales Director anytime soon Steve. As upset as I know you get about this topic, such an approach would be business suicide. Regardless of how over-the-top, ill-informed, inappropriate or otherwise some comments have been, you don't bite the hand that feeds you and piss the paying customers off. That is, if you want to sell any merchandise in the future, whether it be red/yellow or claret & amber! FWIW, I think the service from PSL when faced with these quality issues has been spot on.

Indeed. Click on find member's posts, then scroll a couple of pages to June, and there you are. Nae bother. Like I said, there were plenty to choose from, so it wasn't exactly searching for a needle in a haystack! Glad you've a sense of humour to take it as intended though Don't know why, but the gists of your posts from that time just stuck with me. I also mind how you felt Brian McLean was best thing slice bread when McGhee didn't fancy him as a centre half a couple of years back, but that was another story. He's nae Steven Saunders right enough! It's not so much the proving you wrong, rather just showing the melodramatic swing of your take on events; you do tend to go for the extremes. Whilst I appreciate it did look bad for a time in June, I just merely wish to show that perhaps it's best to keep your powder dry and don't get carried away at the drop of a hat. That goes for just now as well.

Indeed. Milo's often struck me as potentially the biggest panic merchant amongst our online hordes here, and he's certainly amongst the most fickle of posters! Nae offence mate. I know it's quite sad in itself, but I couldn't resist. It only took me a couple of minutes - and there were many examples to choose from - but here's a few choice quotes battered out in anger from your keyboard in June... At least you got something right! Although I wouldn't say we'll have re-invested a heck of a lot of those lamentable transfer fees either.

More like it. They must add fickle to the water supply in these parts.

I don't know him personally but from his postings over the years, and with respect to him, I think Kmcalpin would have been going to FP since you were in nappies Steve, and probably before that! On the topic, I can't say as I'm surprised by the latest figures and I think a host of factors have contributed, but for me the main issue would be price coupled with live TV coverage. We used to attract a few thousand extra 'Well fans on Old Firm matchdays during the nineties - I knew a few personally - but the price for a one off game like that now, which is only a run of the mill SPL fixture after all, is a real put off, especially when more often than not these fixtures are on the TV. It's therefore an easy decision for the casual 'Well follower to decide not to go, even more so in the current financial climate. That said, even if the Cooper stand had been open for Ranger's fans, would they have brought any extra bodies in significant numbers? I think not, and that for me is the crux here. No point disgruntling the natives over the course of a number of seasons when we don't even have any real financial gain for the handful of games in a year. I would think the overall decline in attendances would be the bigger fish to fry and I'm glad that seems to be the agenda going by Leeann's post.

Ditto. Table tennis just couldn't compete!

I was 21st Motherwell tae; from about from '88 through to circa '96 (I think!).

Apologies Melvin, I didn't intend it to come across as a retort. I only picked up on your quote as it summed up my opinion on the matter! I certainly can live with the description you give. At the end of the day, it's his heid on the block one way or the other, so I think you have to give the guy the chance to do things his way. I'm not going to decry him as arrogant, he may well be - infact probably is, as it's a fine line - but at the same time I'm not going to be one of these folk who think the sun shines out his backside either. As long as he's doing what he's doing with the interests of the club as the centrepiece - as per his job description - then I'm happy. McGhee had similar traits to Jim Gannon in a way, but I think my last sentence there could sum up where he went wrong.

I get that impression so far also and quite frankly I would say you can't manage a professional football team by committee (or at least it rarely works) so I am completely at ease that the guy in charge at FP clearly has the balls to insist it's "my way or the highway". Obviously with his experience he'll have enough about him to be clever with it and pick his battles etc, but generally speaking he's the guy charged with running the team, he's paid to make decisions, so I'm glad he's doing so. I also don't necessarily subscribe to the thoughts that he's trying to make square pegs fit round holes with his rigid system either, so to speak. I would say there's already enough evidence to the contrary that he's happy to make changes to personnel or system when required and isn't afraid to admit he's got it wrong. I give you the changes at Perth as an example. I know you can take the glass half empty view that you'd have preferred him to get it right from the beginning, but given the circumstances I find that incredibly unreasonable. I think it's more fitting to praise the fact he changed it.

Mark Reynolds is a Motherwell player with his wages indirectly paid by the punters who I would then think are entitled to discuss his contributions to Motherwell FC, positive or otherwise. I'm a big believer in supporting the young guys (and any Motherwell player for that matter), but I think you are in danger of becoming just a tad precious if we can't possibly give anything other than glowing praise for our players, young or old; and for the record there is nothing in this thread that remotely comes close to a criticism of Mark. Merely a tempering comment or two which suggests he's not progresed at the rate initially thought when he had his debut season. MB was merely posing a question as to why that might be. That's not a crime, criticism, or even particularly negative imo Spot on. Why then the need to try and strangle other people's right to a viewpoint differing to your own? EDIT: I see MB has already responded, ach well, I feel like chucking my two bobs worth in anyway. That's what a get for working and posting at the same time!

That's why I said 'squad'; you need more than a first XI if you are to challenge for honours! It's very much a 'what if' anyway, plus we seem to have developed a fair few forwards and a couple of decent defenders in recent times, but in honesty our midfield youngsters probably haven't quite reached the same levels. Hopefully Forbes will get there though.

Mark Reynolds moving on to a club at a higher level for a fair price is just as much about the continuation of Motherwell Football Club as it is the development of Mark Reynolds. As I'm sure most realise it's our footballing business model. We develop young players, some of which we manage to sell on for a fair fee which provides us income to pay wages, run the stadium, sign new players when required to remain competitive, etc etc. If guys like Mark Reynolds didn't have that ambition to move on and further their careers then we wouldn't be going far as a football club, so I for one am glad to hear he's got this level headed view point and I don't for one minute think he's been at all disrespectful to Motherwell Football club or us, the supporters. On a sidenote, it's always nice to think about what could happen if we could hold on to the young guys we develop for their whole careers, i.e. McFadden, Pearson, Clarkson, Quinn, Reynolds, McCormack etc to see where a squad like that could take us, but I'm afraid Motherwell just don't have the resources to fund it, and we're not alone. Hibs would have had a pretty strong squad by now if they'd managed to keep all the guys they've brought through in the last 8-10 years.