steelboy

i don't think anyone's planning to cheer him when he's playing, just give him a warm welcome back. 35 goals in 105 appearances mainly from midfield is good going and a dozen of them were probably penalties (although we've missed enough since he left that it seems more impressive now) and eleven were in the league cup. on the otherhand a fair few of the penalties were late winners and two of the league cup goals were in semifinals. he might have tired late in games because he had a questionable lifestyle but is that any worse than jim paterson and mcgarry who were visibly unfit for long spells of their period at the club (maurice malpas once admitted to me that mcgarry and paterson were overweight but claimed he couldn't do anyhting about it)? foran was a very good player for us on the park and most of the reasons he was disliked were (i) because he was a bevvy merchant and there were a lot of rumours about him taking drugs (ii) he frequented a lot of celtic pubs (iii) some fans who viewed themself as being more intelligent than some others felt aggrieved that foran was well liked by sections of the support they resented for booing other players, can anyone who ever said "thumbs up for shaun fagan" really claim to have been judging players soley by what they produce on the park.

after the effort he put in on saturday i think sheridan deserves another game again tonight. he was very good on saturday winning a lot of ball in the air and running the channels well and he deservedly got a standing ovation when he went off. he might have no long term benefit to the club but if we can win the last few games it'll leave us on a high and looking forward to next season. another four performances like falkirk and there would have been a lot of questions bbeing asked. i agree about seeing the young players but i think half hour sub appearances will do them as all the guys that we have that might break through are 17 and 18 and even if they do make it to the first team squad they're not going to be regulars for a while. the youth production has been a bit disapointing recently - reynolds, 22 and jamie murphy, 19 is all we've really brought through. apart from them darren smith is 21 but it seems unlikely he's in mcghee's plans and the other young guys we have who weren't eligible for the u19s - murray, forbes, wilson and archdeacon - haven't had a sniff of the first team and will likely be punted. prediction 3 - 1 (clarky 2, murphy)

naebody dae this!

i don't agree. i'll be pissed off if we get anyone booked for dissent, time wasting, dangerous challenges or shirt pulling but i still expect the players to be giving 100%. clarky got booked on saturday because he was putting in 100% tracking all the way back and attempting to win the ball. as long we keep the heid we won't lose the euro place but the number one focus for the players has to be winning the match.

it was the result of trying to write a post while talking on the phone. at least i was right about the ref. should have said they'll get pelters. i'm even tempted to pay into the main so i can get within earshot of malpas. if the baby crew want respect get some anti malpas banners made up for wednesday. disapointing about reynolds being missing for the bigger game on saturday. i definitely wouldn't play maros then, mensing and mccarthy will be going all out to wind up any motherwell player they can to try and get them sent off.

just thought i'd start the ICT match thread not long to go now. It could well be a very pleasant evening if we play like we did on saturday and the weather keeps up. reynolds is suspended so the team will have to change from saturday. anyone know if craigan is going to be fit? saunders wasn't the bench on saturday so i doubt we'll see him, hutchison was the on the bench on saturday so he might get a debut although with mcghee it seems unlikely. the most sensible option would be to play maros at centrehalf and tell him to screw the nut, if he can't manage that then should we even be trying to sign him? anyway as long as lasley isn't at rightback and fat boab is the piggy in the middle at halftime i'll be happy. as far the returnees go big tel will get a good reception, malpas and kerr will get a good reception (vemonous abuse) and richie will, as always, divide opinion. i'll be giving him a cheer and hope most other people do to. he was a decent player for us and brought in some cash, i also think he's proven he's still a decent player as he's scored more in three and a half months than any of our midfielders have done all season. also - this is one for the stattos - has any other 'well player scored in two national semi finals? dougie mcdonald's the ref. disaster for us as he loves sending off well players

exactly. any time i've seen him he disapears out the game for long spells and while he has popped up with a lot of goals this season i doubt that will continue. he'd definitely be a good guy to have in your side but he's nowhere near as good as he's made out to be. i hope the people who were saying they'd swap hughes for him were at the game because hughes was on a different level to him yesterday.

everyone played well today, the only negative was o'brien having a brainstorm and attempting to gift st mirren goals for ten minutes. went for hammell. i thought hughes started quietly then got a boost from his role in the 2nd and controlled the game after that. him and hammell were about neck and neck for me but hammell played well throughout the game so i'll go for him especially since he made the first with a great ball and started the move for the thrid with a belter of a tackle. special mentions for buzz who was solid and made a great save at dorman's feet at 0 - 0 and especailly sheridan who put in a power of effort and was probably the difference between our poor recent pperformances and our success today. he's gave 100% every time i've seen him and is very honest, when he goes back to celtic it'll be with my best wishes.

no chance. we need to sign up buzz and hughes, splash out on a good striker and sign someone who will do a good job in either right or left mid. there's no point on spending good money on the likes of mckay. quinn and mclean can both play right back and saunders looked good when he came in. imo our defence is fine and funds should be directed further up the park where we are lacking.

quite right. he was superb today, between him and hughes for motm.

i think 'flow's comparison with 2007/08 is a bit over the top but it was a very good performance. last week was disapointing, this week was much better. i agree mcghee got the team spot on and while i'm grateful it's a bit too little too late. good performance from everyone although jim o'brien seemed to have a bit of a mental spell in the last 20 minutes. hughes started quietly but after the second seemed to perk up and was excellent after that. this week we've had threads about hughes, clarkson and hammell and today all three were excellent with each having a large hand in two goals. anyway a few thoughts about some players after today. graeme smith - another excellent performance in a great season, i don't think we can assume he'll be easily replaced. out of the 3 we're trying to keep he should be the 2nd priority behind hughes. jamie murphy - has enough of a goalthreat and is good enough on the ball to be an every game player for us. even if he isn't ready to play up front he can do a job in one of the wide midfield roles by offering a strong attacking threat rather than having fullbacks or mcgarry doing nothing as we've seen over the last few months. he was a bit dodgy tracking back today but i'd wager we'd gain more than we lose by playing him there. cillian sheridan - there have been a quite a few critical words about him on here but he was excellent today. he competed in the air, ran the channels and generally put in a lot of effort. he won't be here next season but he deserves his place in the next game. having a centreforward who is mobile and looks for the ball rather than one who just waits for a chance in the middle (sometimes for three or four games at a time) made a huge difference, clarky definitely benefited. on the fair play front we got one booking. it probably was a booking but clarky can't get any critisicm after tracking back so far. also compared to a few st mirren challenges - especially the one on hammell - he was harshly dealt with. i've read through the thread and seen a few comments that people would rather have lost a goal than got booked, fuck that. there are still fans travelling and paying in to games, we have to finish above accies and there is pride to play for. we don't want any daft bookings but we still need to play at 100%.

we're not the first team to get in like this and we won't be the last. our discpline has been good for the last few seasons and we shouldn't be above taking a wee pat on the head for it when there are teams full of dirty bastards like killie and hearts kicking teams all over the place every week. it is so much better to get in through beating qots, hearts, ict and dunfermline? after watching ballack, drogba and terry the other night there is still a long way to go in promoting fair play. as far it being "fucking immense" being in european competition two seasons in a row will be great, whether or not any other scottish team has or hasn't played in the same competition or what it's called has no effect good or bad on what it means for us. would anyone be less happy about qualifying for europe if it was still called the uefa cup? naw. would it matter a jot if falkirk played a game before us? naw. just typical hot air from 1984? aye.

this is unreal. hammel's a good player, commited to motherwell and a top bloke as well. i think 'flow mentioned the next home game (vs ICT) should be his 300th appearance and this is the pish that gets posted about a great servant to the club. so far we had posts bashing clarkson, hughes and hammell in the past few weeks, three of our best players. we've had a load of "sign a centrehalf to play with craigan" comments from people who were probably saying sign a centrehalf to play with reynolds a year ago. am i the only person who takes pleasure out the fact we've got guys like craigan, lasley, hammell, reynolds, clarkson and quinn who have been at the club for such a long time. we've also got guys like hughes, buzz, mclean and mcgarry who really seem to enjoy being here. would anyone rather go back to the bad days of the late 90's and pre admin when fir park had a revolving door and we had hunners of naebodys coming and going all the time. hearts are going to finish third this year but they must have used over 100 players in the past 5 years. of course we should build the squad but it's important to keep the core with a connection to mfc. most of the players people are moaning about have proven their worth many times over and just because we've hit a slight hiccup is no reason to jettison them.

flow mentioned earlier that it's down to more factors than disciplinary points. one of the things he metioned was the conduct of the crowd. the only thing that jumps to mind this season has been our picking on mccarthy so hopefully we haven't been wrote up up for that. if we miss out on europe because of that we'd have to up the ante with him even more next season

as bad as the malpas season? i think not. our most miserable performances this season this season don't come anywhere near the lows under malpas. things haven't always went well this season but in the main we've been watchable, under malpas we were a joke.

what's annoying is that they've decided to sit around the seats that i've sat in for a good ten years. it wouldn't be too bad but the noises they make are more like whale songs than fitba songs and they draw the attention of the stewards to the area. a decision will have to be made on where to move to if things don't improve. we've got season ticket seats near the half way line but i prefer sitting close to a goal and the other end of the east is full of moaning auld c***s that i'd probably end up altercating with so that's probably ruled out. sitting behind the goals is a no and i hate being able to see the poles so my options are limited

that was daft, fuck driving all that way. my return flight cost £23. two nights in (m)ister bed cost about £30. hiring a motor cost £20 quid each. which left plenty of money for pots of hoegarden, cheap as fuck stubbies and quality french scran. if we do somehow fluke a uefa cup place hopefully we'll end up somewhere hoaching with strip joints as that was about the only thing missing from the trip.

it wouldn't matter to me how much we gained i still think it's wrong (i don't actually think we would gain much espcially if the league expanded). motherwell is our team and it's up to us to pay for it, not to expect fans of other clubs to subsidise us. can you imagine a team like gretna getting up with no fans and basically being able to survive by milking other teams fans. football is expensive but right now fans can see that their clubs need the money, if gate receipts were split i think a lot of people would think "fuck that i'm not paying it."

why should hearts, hibs or aberdeen fans subsidise motherwell? ` i'm quite happy paying my money knowing that it is going towards us putting a team on the park. i wouldn't be very happy knowing that half my season ticket money was going out to other clubs.

in my opinion hughes has been palying with one hand tied behind his back recently. he's got maros beside him who does a great job but is one dimensional, o'brien to his right who is an enigma and someone who gets picked out a hat on his left. we also have the thed third world kris boyd up front who doesn't get involved much. stick hughes in either old firm team and just like mcdonald things would become a lot easier for him with less to do in the side.

jim paterson hasn't played for months. any money he is fat as fuck. the fact that a guy who only bothered to get fit for one of his four seasons at the club is held in such high regard is a joke.

hughes ran the game for the first hour on saturday and was head and shoulders above every midfielder on the park. dorman scored a good goal but wasn't that impressive. dorman has something of the brian kerr/ged brannan about while hughes is a class act.

john boyle's been smoking crack! if we were going to join a another league make it the spanish one. fuck going to barnet when we could just as easy jump on a flight over to spain. he should also investigate some sort of super league with us, ajax, barcelona, mallorca, 1860 munich, hamburg and every club in prague.

if we start the season with micheal fraser in goals and john sutton up front i'll greet.

we're not going to get anyone better so he shouldn't go. he is a good manager but has made far too many errors in team selection this season searching for something that isn't there. but. there has been no consistency in selection all season. starsail talks about hughes and mcghee being much better than the rest of the people at the club and after wayching the game yesterday i'd probably agree about hughes but mcghee has failed this season. yesterday's experiment of hammell in midfield was madness, first of all for doing it in such an important game and secondly for doing it with coach behind him who couldn't attack down the left and was missed attacking from right fullback. why not just play fitzy at left mid? or even mcgarry, we played quite well against aberdeen. mcghee's use of a lot of players has been baffling this season. quinn - he has started in five different posistions this season. he is a very good right back, definitely not a midfielder. mclean - once he got back to fitness the team seemed to be shunted round every week to squeeze him. a year or so ago mcghee was telling anyone who would listen he wasn't good enough but now he's playing guys out of posistion to squeeze him in? mclean sold goals against hearts, aberdeen and rangers but this continued. wtf! o'brien - shunted between right and left mid over the last two months when he is clearly far more comfortable on the right. mcgarry - in cold storage for months then brought out for two games and then not even considered good enough to come on as a sub yesterday. lasley - mcghee say he's our best player at the start of the season but now paul quinn gets a game ahead of him in midfield. fitzy - plays very well in our best run of the season then gets dumped never to been seen again. malcolm - played in the first game of the season and embarassed by the hearts midfield. brought out of cold storage and given a free role in nancy. turns out to be useful plugging a gap at CB for a month then never seen again. what a waste of money. murphy - talked up by mcghee, fucked about at the nancy game then benched for the rest of the season. porter - dropped for nancy away!!!!!!! mcghee's single worst decision. sheridan - comes straight into the team and starts 6 or 7 games. now he can only get five minutes when we need a goal. sutton - frozen out for a while then back in. played every minute of every game recently even although he's been poor. clarkson - shunted out wide right for two away games then mcghee announces he's knackered and benches him for two must win games. don't play him at wide right at tynecastle then ya clown! we started an away game at killie with a midfield of murphy-mcgarry-hughes-clarkson even with all this pish we almost made the top six. with the quality we've got in the squad we could have done this easily by playing our best players in their best posistion.