The African

Ah, God bless the free spirited exuberance of our fun loving support. I take it they will be happy to pay the fine?

Using the Old Firm to set the standard is probably not the way to go. Unless you want the bar to be so low that anything goes. As for doing more, the club could have employed more stewards, paid for a larger police presence, put in temporary or permanent fencing etc. there is always more you can do.

Indeed. Supporters of our club who should have known better. As such, despite the best efforts of the club, you can scarcely blame the authorities for charging the club over the matter. We have a fair amount of "previous" on this.

If we are honest, can we really complain or look for excuses? The pitch invasion may have been predictable but that does not stop it from being stupidity of the highest order. If they throw the book at us, who will be to blame?

Right now I'd take two wins and two draws from these first four fixtures, but you really cannot decide if these would be good results until the season begins to pan out. A win away at Inverness is a good start though. Dundee United at home might seem the easiest of these fixtures, but no point tempting fate. We stopped Inverness having any shots on target on Saturday. The same again and the worst case scenario is a point and another clean sheet. We also created enough chances in Inverness to win two or three games, so here is hoping we can continue in that vain and convert a few. United were supposedly pretty poor against Aberdeen but we cannot take that for granted. They have some decent players and will be itching to get their season back on track. Has the makings of a very interesting fixture, and hopefully a win to keep us heading in the right direction.

Let's walk before we run. There can be little doubt that this season is about rebuilding for us, and as such, we can expect a few ups and downs. The key really is to get a few points on the board and hopefully see out the year without the fear of relegation and play offs. We are fortunate that we are in a league with few good sides and a fair number of our competition are in the same boat as ourselves. It is still very early in the season and we have had one very good result. We have a few tricky fixtures coming up so no point getting too far ahead of ourselves with regard to expectations. I'd love it if we were towin our next three matches, but realistically I'd be happy with taking some points from each game and a continued sign of improvement in our overall performances from last season.

A win to follow up our good start at Inverness. I'd take anything but two one looks about right. Will be tough and a point might not be the worst result, even though I always reckon draws are not great when you get three points for a win. After last season, I have learned to take any points and move on. Hopefully another decent performance as well.

At last! Proof, if it were needed,that Una Stubbs is undoubtedly a Motherwell fan.

I'd really like to see the club try and support our supporters. Subsidised travel might be an option, but how about offering to pay a fiver of the cost of admission for the odd away game? Ross County or Inverness might be the best examples seeing as getting there will be costly enough, but if they could arrange a deal with the home team to take a few quid off the price for the away end, then the home team would not suffer financially but the good will created would be substantial. Also might be nice to see something done for away fans at Fir Park. A few quid off for guys who have travelled down from Dundee for a midweek fixture in February might be a nice gesture. Hell, even do it for our own fans on a situation like that. Yes, season ticket holders may have a gripe or two, and I appreciate that they are our core support, but perhaps they could receive an equivalent voucher for food within the stadium or to use in the club shop? Would like to see the club recognising the efforts of the die hard fans in these difficult times.

Good start, though tempered with the memory that we did beat St Mirren on the opening day of last season. This does seem different though. Sounds like a deserved win and a decent performance against a supposedly better side, and away from home. Early days, but lots of positives. Hope Pearson is not out for any length of time as our squad is still small, and time to find someone to replace Sutton as our penalty taker. We cannot afford to pass up goals from the spot.

Goalkeepers with names beginning with R, generally a good sign. Ronnie, Ruddy, Randolph, I like it! Rough, mmmmm, may have to rethink that. Good luck to the lad, hope it goes well for both him and us when he gets his chance.

Having a slight worry that we are not being active enough in strengthening our squad. I think that one of the major problems last season was the length of time it took us to get anything done. We were complacent that our squad from the start of the season, good enough to finish second, would come good and get us back on track. We then waited for McCall to jump ship rather than give him a shove, wasting more time. We then took what seemed an age to appoint a new manager who then waited for the end of the transfer window to try and rebuild the team. While I am not suggesting we panic, I would prefer to see action rather than reaction. The whole squad needed a serious shake up and I am not confident that this has happened. We were guilty of losing so many avoidable goals last season, it wasn't funny, yet no signs of any experienced defenders being looked at. Our midfield also lacked defensive shape and dynamism leaving an already leaky defence seriously exposed, but no signs of a defensive midfielder in the offing. Relying on the benefits of a more rigorous pre season seems foolhardy, especially when you consider the age of some of our squad. I am not advocating signing just anyone willy nilly but there seems to have been very little real action beyond our forwards in the transfer market. The phoney war of friendliest is now over and the real stuff starts on Saturday. Are we anywhere near ready? How much of the season's start can we afford to write off before we are competitive?

Only half? I can remember Kirkie giving the 'well fans the fingers at Dens Park after a particularly rotten team performance in a Scottish Cup game in 1988 and I think he had only been a sub that day. The whole team was rotten but he was a favourite target for the boo boys at the time. As I recall, it was also at Dens Park that he started to turn things around with a late winner in a mid week relegation dog fight. Amazing how things can turn out.

Gotham made up for his lack of height with extra width, at least by the time he was playing for us.

A very tricky first game and one we should be happy to take anything from. Inverness have had a couple of genuinely competitive games in Europe so may be a little more battle ready than us. I seriously hope that we can show some improvement both in terms of fitness and organisation. If we can defend properly for the full ninety minutes then there is no reason why we cannot get something from the game, but that may be a big ask. Hopefully we hit the ground running with a positive attitude and that can continue through the season and give us a much more enjoyable time than the last effort. As an aside, we managed to win the first game of last season and look how that turned out. So no point in placing too much emphasis on one match. A point and some positives from the performance will do for me right now. COYW!

Good stuff, hope he goes well.

Cheers, maybe not for us then.

Is there much point in shelling out wages for a goalkeeper who is no better than what we already have at the club? There will, undoubtedly, be better out there so let's have a good look before wasting money on the first cab off the rank? Where is Mark Brown these days? Always thought he was poorly treated by the club and a decent keeper by SPL standards.

With regard to a keeper, not holding out for anyone spectacular, but competent would be great. We have been spoiled recently with the likes of Randolph and Ruddy but have also suffered in recent memory with some absolute gash custodians. I personally would prefer a proper signing but if no one is available could cope with a loaned. The jury was still out on Long but having him for another year could be an option. The question is though, is he any better than Dan? I would also accept that we may start the season with Dan as first choice. He is not the worst and I could live with that, certainly better than the possibility of Craig Samson joining up. I have seen it quoted that a good keeper is worth at least a dozen points a season. That may be the case but I doubt it applied to us last year. We could have had Sepp Meyer at his peak in goal for us and it would have made little difference. Our defending was fourth rate for so long that the confidence of any goalie was going to suffer. I know it is a two way street and that defenders can lose confidence in their goalkeeper, leading to all sorts of calamities, but it will take more than a new keeper to sort out our problems. Let's hope that there is lots of work going on behind thescenesto tackle these issues and failings.

Only been in NZ since last September. I was at the cup final against Celtic as still living in Edinburgh at the time. Given the way it went, Auckland might have been the better option.

If there was no place for sentiment in football we would all support Barcelona. I love Faddy and true love is unconditional. Sign him and you will hear my cheers all the way from Taranaki.

Was not sure about the collar but you cannot have everything. Generally very happy with the designs though and hope they play well in them. Oh for a Pettigrew, Graham, Wark or Rennie to add to the squad to really make my day.

Would it be sacrelege to suggest that we did not play all that well, especially in the second leg? The fact is that we really didn't have to. If we had played well you really have to wonder how many we would have put on them. Double figures over the tie must have been possible. We did get an awful lot right, especially in the first tie. We probably played better in the recent home games against Hamilton and St Mirren. Fair play to the team for doing the business when it mattered but it is probably time to move on and rebuild our squad and rectify the obvious issues within it which resulted in us being in the play offs in the first place.

Very happy to see David Clarkson back at Fir Park. There might be little room for sentimentality in the modern game, but I think , as a club, it shows us in a good light that we are happy to take former players back, and that they are keen to come back here. Also, get Clarkie fit and healthy and he will do a decent job for us. Good luck to the lad.

Just out of interest, what size of squad do we need to be competitive and hopefully avoid a season like the last one. I know that this discounts factors such as injuries and the quality of said squad, but could we normally get along with a squad of twenty two or twenty three, including three goalies? I also appreciate that there can be some possible input from the under 20s, but what size of first team squad should a club of our stature be looking to operate with?