capt_oats

Not even cover, McHugh was an actual centre back at Bradford. It was Adams who converted him to the holding midfield role at Plymouth so it's that position that's a relatively new thing. Much like yourself I can't really see much need for a centre half. Even Jack McMillan's played centre half for the 20s.

Thought it was a pretty good press conference. Looking back to the summer everything seemed to have a "budget"-caveat (understandably) so it was actually quite refreshing to hear McGhee address the matter in the way he did today. I had kind of expected him to deflect away from the question about Pearson. His point about a couple who might be surplus moving being helpful but not necessary did get me wondering who is actually considered surplus and who'd be willing to take them. Lucas seems to have played his way into the side, to the extent that McGhee referenced him in a positive way post-ICT. After his (non-)showing against Aberdeen Thomas on loan somewhere would probably be best for everyone? Brill? Blyth, Kennedy and Chalmers seem to have been perma-knacked. Belic will obviously go back to West Ham but by all accounts he wasn't costing anything anyway so that doesn't help budget-wise it's only a body moved out. I noticed Alan Burrows on Twitter mentioning there are a few targets they're looking at to strengthen so I'm quite curious to see what sort of areas they're looking at. FWIW: I'd take Pearson back at the club in a shot and would very much like a new goalkeeper in (assuming we could get one of the 2 we have out).

He is. Aye.

Official twitter posted a short while ago. https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/812312805886099456 https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/812312864270807041

Given Tait scored a wonder-goal and during the 90 mins played right wing back, right back and left back I've gone with him.

I was about to have a look at that as it's something I'd been wondering about too. Cheers!

I checked a while back and the number of goals we had conceded within 10 mins of making a sub was quite remarkable. We don't seem to adapt well in games.

Im sure Thistle would have played 3 at the back when they beat them up there, less sure about County but it may well have been that St Johnstone have found playing against 352 a bit more awkward than when teams match up against them. If fit our front 2 is always going to be Moult & McDonald.

At the risk of tempting fate I'd be surprised if he went to either Rangers or Celtic on the basis that we rarely seem to do business with either. When was the last time we actually sold a key player (or any player for that matter) who was under contract to either side? McDonald? Slane moving to their youth side? Law was out of contract when he moved to the new club. Compare that with the number of our "best" players who have been "linked" with a move to either cheek. Most recently Johnson was apparently "attracting interest" from both and ended up at Oxford FFS. Rather than trading with rivals the majority of our transfer business seems to be done with sides south of the border these days, it's almost as if it's a preference or policy of the club not to sell their best players to a team in the same league. That said, if this thread is just general speculation on "would Chris Cadden sign sign for Sevco or Celtic?" then please crack on though it seems a bit of a weird way to spend your time tbqh.

St Johnstone's home form isn't all that great. Thistle, County and Killie have all beat them at McDairmid this season. That said our away form is pretty poor so it's difficult to be too confident. Having said that the past couple of visits up there we've taken the lead and Moult seems to like a goal against them at their place. At the very least I'd hope that the abandonment of the Aberdeen game might give those who've been touch and go fitness-wise a chance to recover, especially Cadden. Was interesting to see Bowman get a start, I'll admit that I didn't see that one coming.

MacLean out with a broken toe apparently.

Wouldn't be surprised if there were a few changes for this one. Assuming he got through his 20 mins on Saturday Lucas in for Lasley, Cadden in (depending on whether he was ever legitimately in contention for Saturday or not) and Ainsworth in on the left for MacLean. Not really holding out much hope for this one given our away record isn't all that but as ever I suppose it really depends on whether we can get the first goal.

For avoidance of doubt I'm not being 100% serious here but I think the following sequence of tweets from a couple of recent u20s games is quite illustrative; vs St Mirren u20s '67 | 1-1 Hastie links up with Thomas down the left, the latter charges at the defence, shimmies on to his left, strikes it, but it's saved. '70 | 1-1 It's nearly brilliant from Thomas. He picks up the ball on edge of Saints box, beats his man with a cruyff turn but shoots over '72 | 1-1 Thomas is at it again, beating his marker with ease & charging towards the box. His effort is better this time but Willison saves. vs Falkirk u20s '51 | 0-0 Nearly a wonder goal from Thomas. He beats his man, cuts in from the right and goes for power with his left, but it's inches over! '63 | 1-0 'Well sub: McFadden is off and he's replaced by Hastie. '66 | 2-1 'Well pull one back instantly! Campbell crosses towards Hastie who makes no mistake and fires it past Mehmet. Lively few minutes! Invariably with Dom it's a case of "so close", "nearly brilliant", "nearly a wonder goal" etc. Whereas in the Falkirk game Hastie's on the park 3 mins and he's made an impact. Off the top of my head in recent games Hastie has had goals against Thistle u20s, Cumbernauld Colts u20s, and Falkirk u20s. He also won the 2 penalties against Morton u20s. Tellingly that record is from the same wide attacking role as Thomas has had in the past. Now, part of that is unfair. You can almost certainly go through the Twitter feed and find plenty of "almost" and "nearly" re: Hastie and MacLean but you'll also find consistent goals and assists on their part. In Hastie's case even at 17 he looks more of an athlete than Thomas ever has but either way there's an end product to his and MacLean's game that you don't seem to get with Thomas, as fleet of foot as he may be. It'd actually be really interesting to know their scoring records for the 20s tbh.

Helped that it was Shrigley that did it too.

Was between McManus and Tait for me. Went with McManus, after a fairly ropy start to the game as a team he seemed to get a grip of the back 4 and sort us out. Won every header going tbh.

Largely agree with the 2 points dropped shouts. Given the number of decent chances we created without even playing *that* well to not take any of them is fairly disappointing. Having said that, given the shambolic defending we've seen this season a clean sheet is a positive. Samson was rarely troubled and I thought Tait, Heneghan and McManus all dealt with Killie reasonably well. Ferguson understandably looked quite awkward but I don't recall too many mistakes from him. Very much agree with Ya Bezzer! re: Killie and the dark arts. When it looked as if we were getting a foothold they completely shut us down by shitfesting the life out the game. They dealt with Moult well by absolutely battering him, he's not really a physical presence up front and by and large snuffed him out. All in all I don't think we ever really got going. Played well in spells though and some of the chances we created came about after some very decent football. Am inclined to agree that had we taken one it'd have settled us down. That said, thinking back to the 2-0 game at FP last season we were absolutely brutal and shipped cheap goals against Killie so this time round a mis-firing performance, a clean sheet and not shipping a late goal after largely dominating the game (57% possession apparently) is something I suppose.

This is true. Though from the looks of things he also has 42 caps for Wales through the various age groups. The injuries he had seemed to be serious ones that kept him out (fractured back, ruptured ACL x2) rather than recurring niggles.

Unlikely given his surname's different and they're different nationalities. There's been no mention of him being a relation that I've read.

That's the quarter final draw of the Youth Cup announced. Partick Thistle v Motherwell (22/01/17) Ayr United vs Kilmarnock Hibs vs Celtic Rangers* vs Falkirk Ties to be played on or before Sunday January 22nd 2017 http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2986&newsID=16680&newsCategoryID=1

Moult for the goals really. He dropped out the game a bit in the 2nd half and there was a daft moment where, when he was on a booking, he swung out with his boot on the touchline but for the most part he was linking up well and took his chances.

Happy to help. In fairness it's a fairly recent rule change. I think it was added at the same time they amended the rule re: kick off.

You don't need to leave the pitch if the opposing player involved in the incident has been booked. So the Celtic player was entitled to stay on the park.

Yep. 9 appearances, 2 goals, 1 red card (I think). Here's one of the goals, finishing a lovely pass from Helder Postiga (c/o thisGRAEME): Edit: Here's another. Their second (approx 2mins in). https://youtu.be/KJKT3mWANd8