steelboy

It'll be interesting to see what the PATG is. This miserable season started with being stung £26 quid to watch Icelandic part timers, i'd be shocked if this is less.

Lawson's 31 when his contract ends. He has started in winning teams 12 times in the top league in Scotland. He has missed multiple months of each of the past three seasons through injury. Even Stuart McCall could tell you he is done (if he ever got started) at SPFL level.

It's just annoying that we have went from a such strong position at the end of the 2012/13 to where we are now. Given the dearth of quality in the league it should have been near impossible to manage but we have due to a shockingly bad series of decisions.

Reading some of these posts and seeing people sticking up for Lawson, Law, Vigurs and ZFA we probably deserve to get relegated for sheer stupidity.

Lawson's murder and one of the worst signings we've ever made.

Stick a functioning midfield behind him and Sutton will score goals. He wasn't the problem at Firhill, the managers Sunday League tactics were.

With the SPFL taking half the money it'll be interesting to see what kind of ticket prices we see for a playoff.

Erwin up against a centre half is a mismatch because of his mobility, put him up against a full back and a lot of that is negated.

All we had to offer to was long punts up the park that Thistle were ready for and knew how to deal with. Even after half time we kept to the same tactics. I said after the last two games I was that those tactics wouldn't do for a season or against a good team, turns out they don't even work against the 4th bottom team. Thistle knew our full backs could be ignored and to sit their midfielders deep to compete when we pumped it up the park. That's all we've got and we only looked good because St Mirren and Accies both chucked it when they went behind. Centring the ball three times and fucking up the same set play three times summed us up.

Partick are wise to our long ball game. Sutton for Johnson has reduced our movement but it's not a shock to see a competent team deal with such simple tactics. Still hopeful for a moment of quality to win us it.

Our record isn't relevant when we have so many new players half of whom would struggle to find Firhill and even at that you are going back to the 90s for that last 10 surely. We've got more quality than Partick now and even though it's a tough game we're not a long shot.

We're 14/5 at the bookies. Well overpriced and worth a treble with a couple of bankers.

McNamara getting money for the two guys going to Celtic is a strange one. The manager basically gets a bung for the team being weakened while the players are less likely to get bonus money for wins. That surely unsettles the dressing room. From a fans perspective you would be unhappy, especially considering the cup ties and the questionable contribution McNamara made to the players development.

I don't agree with that. Lasley came back in the summer looking overweight and it took him until near enough November to get up to speed. We've seen the difference slimming down made to guys like McGarry and a Paterson. When you are losing every physical match up across the field you are going to lose most games. McDonald looks the thinnest he's ever been, Laing is a beast and Marvin Johnson, Pearo and Erwin look like athletes in a way that Vigurs never has.

Pearson and McDonald signed because their mates are here. Signing internationalists with Champions League experience is an easy decision for any Motherwell manager.

Accies aren't clear of the playoffs yet. That would be pleasing.

It's strange to think we'll have only 3 from the 11 who started at Firhill the last time playing on Saturday. McManus and Lasley were abysmal that day so hopefully they have a point to prove.

It's a bit early to start patting each other on the back about the wisdom of appointments. There's still a long way to go and a lot of hard work needed before we are safe from relegation.

It would be great if we could keep McDonald. The attitude him and Pearson have brought to the team has been first class.

The way we are playing now is perfect for playing bottom six dross. For all the talk about possession football a few months we are using the width of the park to create space and hit the front four early and Lasley and Pearson are winning second balls in the middle of the park. Whether that style works against better teams remains to be seen and there is still a rebuilding job to do in the summer if regardless of what league we are playing in. Long, Laing and Grant will all need replaced, we'll need two new fullbacks and another centre half and Ainsworth and McDonald will probably need replaced as well. Maybe even Sutton. We've done a Ross County and thrown money at our problems, for long term improvement it's going to take a bit more nous.

If McCall had the money to sign the players Barraclough has we wouldn't be near relegation. We've added guys far better than the rest of the bottom six and to be fair to Barraclough he's got us playing to our strengths ie. ball into the final third and win the game there. No one outside the club knows what the budget is going to be like next season or what McManus, Lasley and Hammell will be able to contribute next season. If he keeps us up he should start as the manager next season but the most important thing is the budget. If we're really aiming to be self sufficient he's fucked, if Les Hutchinson wants a plaything he'll look good. We're back at being at the mercy of a rich individual.

Teams can already play 5 over 20s players. Most of them don't. We chose not to last night even though we could have. Creating another league for a problem that doesn't exist is daft.

Clubs can play 5 over 20s players if they want to so your complaint doesn't really stand up.

The Cooper doesn't have the capacity to serve enough people and the bar at JDs has been a farce since the Fir Park Club closed so this is good news imo.

I really hope we extend his contract in the summer. If McDonald doesn't hang around I think we could make a decent partnership out of Erwin and Sutton with Johnson out wide. When he joined he was just a poacher but he's turned himself into a leader and one of the hardest working players i've seen in claret and amber.