pretzel

I'm sure I had read that the way the cash rewards worked for player call ups for major tournaments worked dependant on the sides the players had served within the last 12 months or so. If he had left at the end of August almost a year before the tournament we would get a nominal fee or come January then it would be half, well that was my understanding at least. That would have been a kick in the stones to see Gallagher make his mark with Scotland for us and play his part in getting to a major tourney for the first time in over 20 years and not even kick a ball for Aberdeen but they get a few hundred grand.

I remember it well, it was a freezing cold day and they only had five shots each and everyone ended up in the net with Khaled Kemas getting one for us. We did get revenge late in the season when we beat 6-2. Looking forward to the game, no doubt Livi will be a tough but to crack but hopefully were will see more of this attacking approach we saw on Saturday. We tried to sign two players on Friday so it'll be interesting to see if we will have any new faces in soon.

It's one I've always enjoyed reading also when we triumph which is more often than not these days. Last night it was 27 pages of pure gold, it started with ridiculous scoreline predictions, how much they owe us one, then they hoped the team would take it in turns to snap KVV and so forth. It was nice to see all the optimism crash when Spittal scored. It is well worth getting the blue riband looked out and reading it while slurping tea. Delighted with our performance yesterday, to think we missed plenty sitters and still scored three. Looking forward to Saturday same again please.

Then you have Jonny Hayes, a guy with a face like a welders bench.

There is a random sign in the last stretch of country road before you get to Dundee that said Pittodrie - Place of manure and it has been there since I was wee, always thought it was a joke. Apart from enjoying some consistency in the league under McInnes they have always been relatively keech in my lifetime, you would think fans of a certain vintage within their support would have made peace with that fact by now.

Clearly he wouldn't but you have to ask what he was doing as this is night and day.

Fair amount of corners already. Jonny 'Face for the Radio' Hayes diving as per. Positive so far apart from slip.

According to the Daily Ranger we have officially signed that goalkeeper Aston Oxborough today.

I remember that he took really ill around the time when Stuart McCall was manager and he stated in an interview that he was disappointed that the club never took care of him. A quick Google search and he enjoyed calling Lesley a waste of space and lays into Robinson as well.

That Australian keeper they bought was stinking. While AZ did score some nice goals he was a bombscare and couldn't deal with crosses. Tony Watt mentioned last week that he joined United for nights like that I wonder what his take is tonight. I was actually worried that AZ were going to beat our record score of 12-1 over united.

I think it's always a difficult one when your club is looking to recruit a new manager, I started going to games when Tommy McLean was manager and when he left I remember the excitement of who it could be and I remember Guus Hiddink amongst many other names being touted for the job only for Alex McLeish to get announced. Since then for the best part it always seems to be guys with limited to no experience or a few who's stock has fallen drastically that get the gig. I remember being scunnered by the Stephen Robinson appointment, but I think that was mainly based on his Oldham experience. Personally I'm glad it's not the likes of Malky Mackay or Neil Lennon, I woke up in a cold sweat this morning thinking about that this morning. For me Hammell ticks all the right boxes, yes it would have been great to have more experience but he'll know the current crop of youngsters well, he has made all the right noises in regards to the necessary changes that we could all see that were needed under Alexander, so lets see what he does in that regard in the next few weeks. No matter who was hired it would clearly be met with a mixed opinion.

Delighted with that.

Each to there own but I said it earlier in thread that I would actually be delighted if Hammell was given the gig. Throughout our history we have hired much younger managers all of which have had varied degrees of success. A massive emphasis will be put on youth as per and who will know the current group better than the Academy Director himself. Looking forward to seeing the announcement and however gets the job will have me full support, hopefully it'll be an exciting few weeks and we can all shift to a more positive outlook as its been a tough few weeks.

Not that it matters now, but I was reading an interview earlier by Callum Hendry and he was saying he knocked us back a month or so ago to head to Salford. Least we attempted to get a striker in.

I was reading a newspaper article prior to the St Mirren game last week and it had a brief section chatting to Declan Gallagher who was explaining to the reporter that he didn't understand why the 'Well fans don't like him. A quote he made was interesting 'Motherwell received something like £200.000 for me'. I know there was chatter that he had a year extension if he played a certain amount of games etc..it would be interesting to know the story but we likely never will.

When Tierney came on at the weekend we changed to a 4231 formation and we seemed to get more joy going forward, it was refreshing to see a different tactical approach. If we stick to the 433 I would suspect the same players lining up. Kelly McGinn Mugabi Solholm O'Donnell Slattery Goss Shields Spittal Morris Van Veen I still don't know what to make of Aberdeen as of yet, like Joe Lewis the new keeper Kelle Roos loves a clanger but quite a few unfamiliar faces.

Ref for the game is Chris Graham, he has only done one match in the top tier so far.

His son had mentioned on Twitter yesterday that he was still missing but there was apparent sightings in Edinburgh and Inverkeithing.

I think the stars are going to align for this one as Van Veen is due his one terrific performance in five and it's against his favourite opposition as well. In all seriousness they have spent a fair amount on players this season, I'm not really familiar with many of them. They seem to have brought in quite a few loans as well, I think a guy from Liverpool, one from Middlesbrough and of course the Celtic one they had a protest about. In the last three season we have had a great record against them only losing 2 of 9 games. Obviously I want to win but if we come away with a point I wouldn't be disheartened at that either. Hopefully we know what's happening on the manager front by the time this fixture rolls around.

It seems like once a season we gift wrap a win for them deep into injury time. I'm getting nightmares of Tam Scobbie of all folk now. Still plenty of work to be done but I felt the second half was much more positive, we seemed to change formation to a 4231 when Tierney came on so again that added with the half time subs it's actually great to see Hammell identify that things needed changed and quickly, Alexander was alway reluctant to use many subs. A draw would probably have been a fair result but we all know what footballs like, you don't always get what you deserve as St Mirren would probably argue about a week earlier. I actually thought St Johnstone were quite jammy at times, one of the main instances being a clearance that ricocheted off Shields I think it was right in front of the goal and the ball went over the bar, then you have the defender that miscontrolled the ball and it goes through Efford's legs, if he intercepted the ball he would have been bearing down on goal. He had actually done something similar a short time earlier and McGowan got in front of him, with the defenders options either to kick it out for a throw or play a risky ball to the keeper, Efford decides to volley him. I know Mr Ponytailman is a horrific finisher for the best part but it was criminal defending for their winner even he wasn't going to miss for that close in, plus it was even more galling as they never had much of a sniff in the second half.

It might have changed now but were County not well funded by that Roy MacGregor, obviously they have been in the top tier scene for like a decade now suffering the one relegation but bounced back immediately. Every time they seemed to be in trouble he would bail them out in January with plenty of signings, I think it was Stuart McCall who said we tried to sign Jackson Irvine and he was keen to come but they offered almost triple in wages. I would also bet Malky is on a fair wedge as well.

I would actually be delighted if Stevie Hammell got the gig tbf, I'm probably not adding anything thats previously been discussed in this thread but players that he has helped nurture are coming through the academy that he has worked beside so I think that will be a massive plus for his application as we have always had that emphasis on youth players breaking through, it was nice to see he had the confidence to throw a young lad in for his debut, Hammell made his 'Well debut as a 17 year old and was always in the squads after that so it was nice to see him also go down that road and show belief in someone. I seen a few posters saying a few pages back it'll be too soon for him but the likes of Alex McLeish and Billy Davies took the role around the age of 34. I know times are different as the decades have moved on but the likes of St John and Hay had no previous managerial experience either and were both highly thought of but admittedly the likes of Malpas and Black were on that boat as well. I like the idea of having someone that truly has the club at heart but whoever gets the role has their work cut out for sure. The club have made appointments out of left field before, most of the names mentioned via the bookies are quite underwhelming but I will admit I felt like that when McCall got the job but in all fairness I was proved wrong as in the league he done really well for the best part and enjoyed a Scottish Cup Final like five months after taking the reigns. Looking at some past managers Harri Kampman was intriguing but massively underestimated the quality required, Gannon had a great eye for a player but like Alexander it was his way or the highway and with Baraclough, it was refreshing to see his approach to the Rangers playoff games, he brought us Moult and despite seeing the return of the likes of Pearson and McDonald his side struggled in his first full campaign and was promptly binned. Even going further back than any of them mentioned, the likes of the experienced Jock Wallace and Ally MacLeod proved to be a mixed bag. It's a massive week ahead, it'll be interesting to see what road we go down.

Obviously I don't know what the deal is on the keeper front as we seem well covered in that area but that Oxborough guy we had on trial was out on the pitch helping out with the warm up on Saturday.

TBF it took just one player leaving to totally derail us last season. If we can get some quality in then I'm sure it'll make a big difference, but that's a big if of course.

TBF though the guy's comment was targeting a posters comment on how "we have one of the worst supports in football", which is an absolutely wild opinion IMO, yes we have arseholes in our support but considering the regular behaviour of the Old Firm and some of the behaviour of Aberdeen, Hibs and St Mirren fans on their respective visits to Fir Park last season we are no where near being the worst in our own country.