capt_oats

I could be wrong but I thought I saw him walking up the stairs with Robinson. Could have been someone else with a beard mind you. Looked like Kennedy though.

Ripley. That save 1 v 1 was outrageous. Thought both Hall and McDonald showed up very well too.

Agreed. Killie were 2-1 up as well I think which would have been rubbish. We're 10 goals clear of them on goal difference as well.

Would definitely take a point from this one. They're in genuinely good form, they've only lost 1 of their last 9 and have won their last 7 away from home (including the cup games vs Morton & Sevco). They've also got midfielders like Davidson who'll go box to box and you'd expect O'Halloran to have the potential to give us problems. Also, Tommy Wright is a pretty astute manager and we probably won't benefit from the sort of naivety we saw from Hartley with Dundee. Having said that, it's another one of those where it's up to us to turn up. We've taken points off the 3 teams above them in the league and there's no reason why we can't win it. It'll be an interesting game to watch given that the way they set up with the 2 up top and 1 wide is very similar to the way McGhee's got us playing just now.

Clocked that McGhee mentioned about Ripley agreeing to stay on the other day as well. Noticed on a Reading fan Twitter account that Taylor was back down watching them last week.

At the moment the only other call off in the Premiership is Thistle (2nd postponement at Firhill in a month, our game being the other one obviously). Aberdeen game at Pittodrie seems to be fine. No mention of any inspection there.

Aye. I mean the chip was very much on and fair enough to him for going for it. As I said, I think it says a lot about a shift in confidence among the players that they're taking efforts like that on, see also Moult's attempt vs Dundee. Had Ainsworth been a yard or so further out it'd have dropped in and as you point out he could quite easily have just rattled it and hit the keeper or put it past the post.

Agree and I suppose it's easy for me to say this in hindsight with us having won but I think it says something about the confidence that McGhee seems to have instilled in the players at the moment that they're willing to take that sort of thing on. Moult tried to chip Bain from about 20 odd yards the other week against Dundee as well. I'm always reminded of the Bergkamp quote about chipping the 'keeper: "When I played in Holland, I always tried to lob the goalkeeper. People used to say, "Oh you're always only trying to make a nice goal.' But I said, "Listen, if the goalie is a little bit off his line, how much space do you have on his left or right? It's not a lot. And how much space do you have above him? There is more. It's a question of mathematics." In fairness though, neither of them are Bergkamp and Ainsworth should probably just have rattled it and made sure we went 1 up.

It's been a while since we've gone more than 3 games unbeaten in the league so in that respect a positive result would be another step forward as well as seeing us at least a point further away from United. Similarly, given what our away form was like this season before McGhee took over it's worth noting that of the 4 away fixtures we've played so far under him we're P: 4 W: 2 D: 1 L:1. A small sample sure, but we were P: 5 W: 1 D: 0 L: 4 from the away games under Baraclough/Craigan. Assuming that the same team from the past couple of weeks is available then there's no reason why we can't go up there and win however the state of United's form added with the win at Parkhead does give me the total fear about complacency on our part and us just not turning up.

In fairness they do note that the figure for 2014/15 is only there for context as the article was published mid-season, so it wasn't meant to be read like for like with the other data.

To put things into a bit of context with the rest of the league STV actually did an article on average attendances last December. http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/celtic/302136-how-has-your-clubs-average-attendance-changed-in-past-20-years/

Not sure if it's standard practice for all clubs or not. It was an issue raised last season re: Sevco's attendances and in the usual whataboutery that surrounds the ugly sisters there was the whole "aye but Celtic do it as well." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13298532.Rangers_chairman_Somers__we_included_no_shows_in_our_Cowdenbeath_clash_attendance_figures/

Do they not still include season ticket holders in their attendance figure whether they turn up or not?

Yassssss!

Just listened to his interview on Sportsound. By all accounts he seems pretty positive about the deal with Philadelphia. So it is what it is really, he's with us until the end of January then free to sign with them after that assuming they confirm.

The interview the club put up earlier he says himself something along the lines of "it's no secret I've been looking at playing in the States" but I agree there's a difference between that and actually sorting himself out with a club over there. Either way for someone who's only signed up for a month and a half I'm irrationally happy that he's back.

It was an emergency loan until January as well. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/10/30/craig-reid-joins-st-mirren-on-loan/ Moore's loan to Ayr was only until January too. 4th January it says here http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/07/30/craig-moore-joins-ayr-utd-on-loan/ So unless those deals are extended they'll be back at the club in January.

Even though he's on loan you can probably add Taylor to that list as well. I'd imagine we'd be paying at least part, if not all, of his wage.

Agree that it's unlikely Laing will be going anywhere, not least because he's only what? 5 months into a two year deal and whilst at 22 he's by no means a youngster there's still plenty time for him to develop whether it's as a centre half or as weeyin says as a holding midfielder. The folk you'd think we'd be looking to move are those coming to the end of their contracts who aren't getting any sort of minutes.

Despite the ongoing chat in the Dundee thread I thought it would probably be better to drop this in here. It looks like we're actively trying to extend Grimshaw's deal until the end of the season. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/14145378.Motherwell_out_to_extend_Manchester_United_starlet_s_stay_at_Fir_Park/

Don't disagree at all. I think Ripley's been decent enough but he's not a Ruddy or Randolph. Having said that I think my preference, given that Ripley has been an ever present to date, would be to try and move one of the other two goalkeepers on whether it's a loan with their wages covered until their contract expires or released from contract if a permanent deal can be fixed up. I'd be happy enough with Taylor moving back to Reading (I see United have already sent their loanee from Reading back early) and one of the 3 'keepers moving on to free up space for a midfielder.

For what it's worth I was having a look through some old programmes from back when I started going to Fir Park. The attendance for August fixture vs St Mirren in the 1989/90 season (as comparison to the St Mirren game you mention above) was 4703. First home game that season was vs Aberdeen which was 6491, that game this season was 5437. I think most of the points raised in this thread are more than valid. You've got cultural, financial and social factors all combining. You've also got the 'what's the point' element Ya Bezzer mentioned above which I very much agree with. You've got a media, even worse, managers and players constantly reinforcing the idea that only one team can win the league (whether it's the case or not doesn't matter) yet in the same breath wondering why people decide not to bother engaging with the game. Edit: In fairness and for balance some of the attendances later that season you could only dream about now; 1-1 draw with Dunfermline on 8th Nov was 9,138, St Mirren on 2nd January was 8,253. That said a home game against Dundee in September had 4,463 in.

There's also been chat about some of the current u20s being loaned out to aid their development as well I believe. Realistically I'd think if we're going retain two of the loanees it'd be Ripley and Grimshaw given that both have expressed a wish to stay and have been regularly involved, Taylor clearly less so. It's not going to benefit either party to have him just kicking his heels up here as I think I'm right in saying his contract at Reading is up at the end of the season. Either way he's simply not the player we need in there and the more I think about it the more I wonder whether Baraclough had ever seen him or just took him on the basis of a recommendation from Adkins or someone like that off the back of Pearson's injury. The striker thing I wouldn't try and defend but I can, to a point, understand given that Fletcher arrived with a fairly chequered injury history and indeed has been out twice already this season and there was no guarantee that Moult would make the step up like he has. We could easily have been in a position where we'd seen injuries hit or a run of poor form in front of goal and all 5 would have seen more game time. As luck would have it Moult's been a bit of a revelation and struck up a decent partnership with McDonald. The upshot being that the extra bodies just look unnecessary given the financial situation we keep hearing about. I believe Les mentioned the improvement in the injury situation at the AGM I'd be interested to know how many first team bodies we've had out at any one time this season, and the nature of injury, compares with last year and how that impacts the balance sheet in terms of the money invested in setting up vs the money saved within a year. The centre half position is quite interesting, it'd seem that the preference is to have an experienced player playing alongside one of the younger guys (which makes sense) so we've got 3 capable players vying for the right side (Kennedy, Laing and Hall) but only McManus for the other position. It'd be a curious conversation to try and recruit an experienced centre half as cover for or rotate with McManus, you'd think if a club in our position are looking for someone with experience then they'd be looking to be more than cover.

Agreed. I didn't mean to sound like I was just rhyming off players who'd signed new deals. Will be interesting to see what can be done in January seeing as there's a number of those whose contracts are up in the summer who either haven't really made much of an impact or aren't looking like getting much game time soon and we've seen that our midfield goes to pieces without either Pearson or Lasley available

Watt signed a new deal until 2018 earlier this year as well and Ainsworth 'til 2017.