The African

Thanks for that. For some reason I thought that St Mirren might have a plastic pitch. It turns out that they are just shite. The advantage that I think they gain is twofold. Firstly, they will be better suited to playing on the surface as they train and play regularly on it, and secondly, it will be a bit of a leveller against sides with greater ability as this advantage is negated by a surface that takes skill out of the game. It is a bit like the old adage that you should never argue with an idiot as they will drag you down to their level and then beat you as they have much more experience there.

Cheers. I think I do remember them in the top league, but it certainly wasn’t their natural habitat.

Just out of interest, how many artificial pitches are there in the SPFL? Livi, Accies, Killie, any more? I do love the fact that we have gone down the route of producing an excellent playing surface, but you can see why clubs at our level will look at the man made alternative. Gives them an advantage of sorts in every home game and probably saves them a fair bit of money in the medium to long term.

Makes sense. He is too good to be sitting on the bench and two genuine first team standard ( or better) goalkeepers is probably a luxury we cannot really afford. Would we be looking to sell or initially a loan? Not sure where Swindon are currently in the leagues down south, but I would hope that Trevor might get a bigger move. His form for us certainly makes me think he deserves one. Been unlucky with injuries and stood by us and behaved like the excellent professional he is when we knocked back the possible Celtic move.

Hopefully we can get our league campaign off to a decent start. This is our first real test and our new team is still very much a work in progress, so I am going to be realist and say that, right now, a draw may not be the worst result. I’d love an away win, to continue our run from the league cup, but one point would be better than nothing.

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but I just wanted to say that the McGrillen family deserve the greatest respect for what they are doing to mark the tenth anniversary of the untimely and tragic passing of Paul. I can only wonder at the strength required to make such a video. Best wishes to them and hopefully it all helps just a little.

Awesome shirt. Looks like Tynecastle.

Danny Johnson leaving is probably a good bit of business for both parties. He was going nowhere with us. The equaliser against Celtic will live in the memory and mean that he should be remembered with a certain fondness that his limited appearances might not otherwise warrant. Good luck to him at Dundee, except against us.

A win is always good. Still getting up to speed and a work in progress? Undoubtedly, but only to be expected. This is glorified pre-season with the bonus of a league cup place ( more likely the threat of no place if you bugger it up. Another ninety minutes of match play, another clean sheet, hopefully no injuries. Yes, six or seven goals would have been nice, but would really have meant very little.

Still way too early to make any sort of prediction. If we are honest, the League Cup group matches are pre season fixtures. As it is, a good start to the league and I can see us being safe from relegation. As always, there is hope for better football on the park, maybe a cup run and, if others with more money to spend underperform, a prized top six finish. The reality is probably closer to half of our new signings being unsuccessful and us being a couple of injuries away from a dogfight. But it isn’t even August yet, so let the hope prevail.

Three years later, when it became apparent that he was going to get absolute peters when he came to Fir Park as Hibs boss. I also seem to recall that his apology was somewhat less than complete. Firgive and forget is all well and good, but there really is very little to be gained in interacting with tossers.

I sincerely hope that he was shown the door. After the way he behaved following the death of Phil O’Donnell, the w@nk*r should be banned from Fir Park.

Sports club ownership does appear to be a major ego trip for most. Normally sane and sensible business men with a track record of success in their own sphere of the business world seem to commonly lose all basic common sense when they step into the world of sporting club ownership with generally disastrous consequences. Fan ownership may be less exciting, and indeed for a club like Motherwell it may well prove unsustainable, but it is an interesting route for us to take, so let’s at least give it a go and see where it takes us.

Cool name. Good luck to him.

And there’s the rub. A known entity who didn’t do enough before and so what is the likelihood of him now being good enough? It is depressing to think that this is all that we have to look forward to.

The issue with resigning someone like Frear is that it makes our recruitment look pretty flawed. If the best that we can do is a player who we were, only a few weeks ago, happy enough to see leave the club, what does that say about our squad? If he wasn’t really considered good enough before, what does he offer now? If it is a question of numbers, perhaps we should be bold and look to give a youngster the opportunity.

Turnbull now has a decision to make regarding a new deal. He can see from what has just transpired that the club are not going to stand in his way when the next big offer comes along. A new longer deal will simply give him a deserved wage increase while we go through the process of getting him fit and healthy before showing what he can do when back in the first team. The deal means that we do not have to rush anything in that process. It basically gives us the upcoming season to get through the operation and get back up to speed. It is also worthwhile noting that he is still only 19. After the disappointment of the deal falling rough, it will do him no harm to realise that there is a club that still wants him and is prepared to put our time and money where our mouth is, and support him as his career develops.

Understandable that there is interest from other clubs. Robinson has done a decent job at Fir Park. You just have to wonder how he sees his career developing and whether a League One side is the next stop for him.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. I like the cut of his jib, that Mr Webster. Don’t really follow an English team, but might keep an eye out for Norwich next season. As. For this whole saga, I really don’t get the perceived criticism of our club over any of it. We agreed a fee with clubs that were wanting to sign the lad and now we are waiting for that to happen. It is obviously dependent on a medical and thatis nothing to do with us. If Celtic come back and say they want to pullout because he failed the medical, fair enough. If they want to renegotiate based on the medical, they should be told that we already have a deal and that any further talks would be along the lines of “take it or leave it”. We should then contact the player and his representatives to see where we go from there. The two issues then would be to help the player get over the disappointment at the proposed move falling through and, most importantly, getting the required medical procedures in place as quickly as possible to help the lad get his career back on track. He is our player and,as such, he is our responsibility until he signs for someone else.

Enough! Or I may have to rethink my prejudices.

This, though in my defence, I'd still contend that very little good can come out of St Mirren. Paul Lambert and John Sutton also notable exceptions to this rule.

Okay, so feel free to step in and tell me if I am talking rubbish because it is Friday night here in NZ and I have been drinking, but joining them, and they are a rival however you wish to spin it, is just sh*t when there are options to go elsewhere, as he will come back to show us how good he has become with monotonous regularity and there is something distasteful in hoping that a guy you loved watching turns out to be cr@p. We really just shouldn’t do it.

Polo shirt idea is inspired. A football shirt on someone my age looks a bit desperate. Of course, I suppose I could always go on a diet.

As other have said, the way kit is simply splendid. I would have said magnificent but the meaning of that word has been sullied in the last few days. My one quibble would be that, in my opinion, the band would look better if it were claret above amber rather than amber above claret. The home kit looks good too. I’d prefer to see a hoop rather than a band, but appreciate that the rules regarding numbering would ruin this on the match day shirt.

Took a little while for Gorrin to adapt to the speed of the game here, which is hardly surprising given the change from the A-League. Once he found his feet though, and stayed injury free, the only thing you could criticise him for was the regularity of mistiming in the tackle which resulted in too many bookings. Pity he couldn’t be persuaded to hang around for another season. He will be hard to replace. Cadden is a tough one. Great servant to the club, and a decent player. However, injuries at the wrong time and his versatility leading to him not having a settled position in the side conspired against him and he consequently hasn’t got the move up in the game that he deserves. Best of luck to the both of them