The African

Best that we win it then! Great result today. Keeps the season going nicely.

The track at Central Park was for stock car racing. my memories of the game are of the queues to get in and missing the first twenty minutes because of them. It was a two nil victory and a turgid game on a grey day. Don’t think it was particularly wet though, as I don’t remember getting soaked and it wasn’t as if the ground offered much in the way of cover.

Would we be liable to get an extra home game if we finished in the bottom six?

As an aside, used to love the weekends back in the seventies and eighties when most of the games were off and you wou,d see some odd games on tv because they were the only games on. Can recall a friendly between us and Hibs at Easter Road because they were the only side with undersoil heating. We were tearing up the first division under Davey Hay, but lost two nil, I think. Also remember Scotsport showing a game from Gayfield as, being so close to the sea, their pitch never freezes. In England, Leicester City would always be on as Filbert Street had some sort hot air cover for the pitch.

Would be nice to win the cup, but relegation would cost us substantially more than any cup win.

While top six would be brilliant, seventh would have to be seen as progress. Throw in a cup final, and, fingers crossed for Sunday, a good run in the Scottish Cup, and we could seriously claim to be heading in the right direction, Given the fixtures left before the split, that would look like the best we can hope for.

Three minutes of highlights would seem to sum up the game. Still, churlish to complain too much about three important points won. We will have to play a good deal better against Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers in the coming league games if we are to pick up anything, but we are capable of doing so,and we will beat home. Big week coming up with the chance of two good results turning an acceptable season into an exceptional season.

Thats quite enough of that sensible bollocks. It doesnt go done well in these parts. Just because were paranoid, it doesnt mean that the bastards are not out to get us!

Obviously just not our day. It can happen. We move on, to Dundee, I think, where we can hopefully get back on track. We have a fairly tough run of games up to the split so it remains important that we continue to pick up points. If, as I think is likely, we fail to make the top six, the one thing we do not want is to see us falling back into relegation or play off territory.

Hopefully get back on track today. A successful February and we can almost be clear if any relegation struggle. Would be nice to be in a position to look upwards rather then over our shoulders in March and April.

Yes, a definite improvement.

A 40% sell on cause plus a proportion of our take to pay off the debt to Les and John is not going to leave us with much to get a replacement with. Any word on the Greek guy being a revelation and getting an extension beyond January? Probably best if we just keep Carson for now.

Just out of interest, would we accept £200k if it was a fee for us to loan Carson to them for the rest of the season?

Probably says as much about Hamiltons financial predicament as it does about Rangers.

With three points for a win, a draw is not often a good result, but this is one of those rare occasions. Hopefully we can keep the beginnings of our run going with another positive result against Hibs.

Carson?

Should be happy enough that Lustig did not get sent off.

Makes sense for Aberdeen to put in an unsuccessful bid for a young talent after selling McLean to Norwich. Makes them look proactive and keen to improve their squad to their fans while they can paint us as the unreasonable bad guys when we turn down their six figure offer (three thousand eight hundred and sixteen pounds thirty five pence is six figures,I believe).

A good result and hopefully a sign that we are back on track after our slump. We will know a little more in that regard after Ross County in midweek. Injuries still seem to be a concern and it will be interesting to see who we have available. With that in mind, I hope our business this transfer window is not complete. I would hope to move some of the dead wood on and free up some wages for one more experienced arrival.

I remember him saying he admired the Australian cricket captain Bob Woodfull who reportedly turned down a knighthood for services to cricket but later accepted an OBE for services to education ( like Bob, he was a teacher by profession). Cricket was just a game he played for fun. As such,I dont think Bob Crampsey was too perturbed by this oversight.

I used to enjoy listening to radio commentary on matches. In the days before blanket television coverage and a live tv match on pay television every night, it was all we had.some great memories of matches in the seventies and eighties when I was growing up. Good commentary was an art in itself and we were lucky to have one of the best in the unfairly maligned David Francey. I would add that (cue the Hovis music) I really miss the late great Bob Crampsey Why he was never knighted is the greatest anomaly of the honours system.

It is pretty brutal. The guys that do the commentary are no doubt doing their best, but their patter is God awful. Still,better than nothing.

And the only thing of note he did in a Scotland shirt was score an own goal when we played against Wales in 1978.

Over the years Steve Hammell has been the consummate professional for us. The fact that some are comparing him to Joe Wark is a tremendous compliment to them both. We have been extremely fortunate to have had him playing for us. As for the future, if he were joining another club Id wish him nothing but the best. The fact that he is staying on in a role where he can hopefully influence the young players coming through our academy will hopefully turn out to be a stroke of genius. A tea made up of eleven players with the attitude and professionalism of Steve Hammell should do us okay.

Can we change the thread title now that it is no longer 2017? A happy, safe and prosperous new year to all Motherwell fans, wherever they may find themselves.