Tweed

If we're four up I won't mind.....

First 20 minutes are crucial in this game if we can score one in that spell Killie have a tendency to fold. End of the day I think we are better than them but they maybe have a bit more belief after their draw yesterday.

Just watching the highlights on Sportscene. I think it is a day Josh Law will want to forget, I think he has shirked out of a tackle at both goals which is disappointing because I think he has been one of our better players this season. Also on McGhee's claim of a foul on Gomis - not for me. Strong shoulder challenge to win the ball is perfectly legal and it is either a masterclass in deflection or claret and amber specs. He had a genuine grievance last week but not this. Big big game next week and the trick now is to get the heads up for it.

Another example of those not in the team having their ability magnified. Thomas has had one good game and that was against East Fife when he came on when he probably looked better than he was as the other ten were awful. I agree with the rest of your post though. I thought the shape worked reasonably well and when they got in it was due to errors rather than the shape failing us. But as well as nullifying them it also nullified us. I think the formation may have worked if we could have got Cadden and Johnson as far up as McDonald but they always seemed to be deep of him unless he fell back in which case he hit a cul-de-sac. My opinion is that the shape maybe wasn't far wrong but it needed Ainsworth on the right, and Cadden in the middle in lieu of Lasley (or Gomis but on today, Gomis is a better player).

That is the team I'd pick in an ideal world. However I think it may need to stay on the back burner until Tuesday as with the rain today and maybe snow tomorrow on their pitch I suspect we'll not be having much Motherwell action this weekend.

Dan had his limitations but he did us a turn when he first turned up under Stuart McCall. Some crazy keepie uppie nonsense in the 5-1 game at Firhill will never be forgotten. Hope he gets the move he aspires too. As for us, it is clear McGhee is freeing up wages to try and get a couple more in.

In the first half a lot of our attacks broke down because either Moult ran into a dead end or McDonald was offside. I thought Johnson and Cadden did a lot to manage where the game was played in their defensive third. Sleepy defending a few times too including Cadden losing his man and throw in Johnson's shocking corners it is hard to pick someone. Lasley and Pearson did OK too. On balance on the basis of slightly lower expectations will give it to Cadden.

I thought that was one frustrating football match. I thought we were better than them between the boxes but we were rotten at the back, especially defending corners. Our final ball was (with some exceptions) poor, granted it did improve when Ainsworth came on and when we did fashion chances our shooting was also found wanting. Throw in that we seemed to down tools between their second and our goal and spent what seemed like 10-15 minutes accepting our fate. Not many teams come here and give up when they are 2-0 down, you can bet your bottom dollar we'd all have brown trousers. All that said some of our play was very good. Cadden and Johnson I thought were on the whole good. Johnson had a frustrating afternoon with his final ball but he was pivotal to a lot of the game being played in their final third. Other than his bullet shot I can't remember much than Lasley did but considering the difference with him against without him it shows how important he is to us. Sadly losing Hammell to injury cost us the game as the first thing Chalmers did was misread a ball and let them waltz through us. That said I imagine it isn't that easy to come on and play full back and will take a minute or two to get up to the pace of the game whereas if your Ainsworth you go on and run like hell at someone. I think we did bring on a lot of our problems ourselves but I also don't think we caught a break of the ball very much. Everything that bounced about seemed to land at their feet or out for a goal kick. Finally a big well played to Willie Collum for dealing with the timewasting at the end effectively. Added on time, booked one and although the guy was hurt he got the physio on as soon as their player went down to act as a deterrent for anyone else doing it so they knew if they arsed about they were going off for a few seconds. The less said about his cushioned pass the better though.

Until the last two games our overall defensive records has been perfectly acceptable, in fact for most of the season it has been our failure to score goals that has cost us points. The things is we didn't defend that badly against Hamilton, we lost goals to a once in a lifetime whack by MacKinnon, a freak penalty and a soft free kick (which granted we defended badly). Yesterday was different as the way we played, Hearts just ran over the top of us. We might have got away with Lasley and Grimshaw missing against a different opponent but the team we played against probably include central midfield as their strongest area of the pitch, played well and were given loads of encouragement. I don't know how he does it but he needs to find a couple of players who can play in there who by moving doesn't change our whole team.

Think we all know McGhee got it wrong today. We haven't changed our team for six weeks then today the absence of two saw us shuffle four around shows you little he trusts any of the other candidates to play in midfield. We got absolutely steamrollered through the middle and our defence is nowhere near good enough to stand up to continuous pressure and it showed. McGhee has a job on now to get these guys believing again because next Saturday is now a right big game.

Jacked it after an hour but voted McDonald because he kept tracking back and tried to make things happen.

This is spot on.

So would I!

Feel a bit sorry for the club here as they were damned whatever they did. They have tried to implement a solution so as to prevent the issue highlighted and not to upset the people who have stood there for years without causing offence, harm or injury to anyone.

Josh Law. Loads of intelligent runs in the first half. Not always given the ball but to me he did the best job of stretching the defence wide.

Think I'd play Samson to give him a bit of game time just in case Ripley gets injured and or suspended rather than throwing him in for the first time in a crucial league game. As for the outfield ten, I'd play our strongest.

Just one for two yellows unless the two yellows also took him over the threshold. And it'll be the Hearts game, not the Cove one.

Because the winners are in the Cooper and you can't sell to those who can't win.

Watching Sportscene has been a harrowing experience tonight. I've agreed with Pat Nevin on several occasions.

As there is no camera in the East Stand I doubt anyone who wasn't in it will ever see the handball as it was when he was on the deck and his body will conceal it.

Most referees make mistakes but have some idea what a foul is, this guy just didn't have a clue. He punctuated the whole first half with fouls that weren't fouls. He commanded no respect. The minute he let Skippy argue with him three times without booking him he lost all control of the players. The yellow Grimshaw got was outrageous and to be fair the one Crawford did get was just a mistimed tackle rather than anything I really want to see players booked for but then there were two cast iron yellows he should have had after that. I always think if a referee has a line for a yellow card and plays it through ninety minutes whereever that line is is fair enough, but this guy just didn't have a clue. We got our share as well from him - as I said Skippy should have been booked for dissent in the first half, his second goal should have been disallowed for handball (I guess anyone in the POD, bottom end of the East or POD side of the Cooper would never have seen that) and probably booked again. But boy he was out of his depth. Again though we created lots of chances. On Kmcalpin's point about the midfield dropping out the game - two of them had been booked and had no idea what constituted a card so all of a sudden they couldn't tackle as they would like. However the improvement from November to December/January is light years and keep playing like that and we'll be more than fine.

Yeah, I think having seen it I can understand it being given because his arm was slightly out from the body and it all came about because Lasley was trying to charge down the shot and the trajectory of his arm just caught it. However, I don't think the shot was close to being on target so I think the yellow card was completely wrong but to be honest he handed out cards like confetti all afternoon for not very much whilst missing some he should have given so that really is no shocker.

McDonald and Johnson in a two horse race, McDonald by a nod.

Hamilton scored from three set plays on Wednesday and scored from one and caused enough carnage to get a penalty from another one today. For all people criticise them for timewasting etc and I would not want us playing like they did but they did manage the game. At minute 90+3 we had several opportunities to foul the guy before we did give the one they launched into the box that caused the penalty. We must have realised by then that Greg Aitken was going to give a foul if we breathed on them so why we stood off and gave them one where we did I have no idea. One of the worst referees we have ever had but we got as much as we conceded from him. I won't be too upset never to see his name beside our fixture again. At least when you get Willie Collum he has a rough idea what a foul is albeit he can be a bit strict.

Disagree, we can't look at games in isolation. Something bizarre can happen in any game to any team on any given day. We look like a team again and are playing a bit and McGhee's point that if we keep playing like that even if things are going a bit wrong and we'll be fine is bang on the money. If the worst happens and United beat us next week from Dec 12th until Dec 26th we'll have stretched our lead over them by two. If I asked you last Saturday morning if you'd have taken that you'd have 1) thought I was on crack but then 2) bitten my hand off for it.