Tweed

You can never tell what is going to happen in a cup, you could end up losing to a flukey deflection or something whilst in a league these things could cancel themselves out. I think Aberdeen and Dundee Utd are better than us, Inverness, St Johnstone and us are much of a muchness. The other six, I'd be disappointed to finish below any of them but you never know what might happen. Ross County ended up fifth because once they got ahead of the team in bottom they went for it and had nothing to lose and ended up doing very well. Think Accies and Dundee could be the best of the bottom half. One thing I would say though is that momentum is key in this league. A bad start normally means a bad season, after five games we need to be looking at being on at least 8 points.

Definitely. Timetables are very similar but there are no Lanark express trains, I know it is only five minutes but I can just and no more catch the 18 minutes past at Central but I have no chance of getting to Argyle Street. There are extra trains from Rutherglen to Garscadden to cover the games venues but not out to Motherwell. However this is the wrong thread for this until we have at least won against Stjarnan!

That's not actually true. It is a Saturday service but longer trains and I need to get to Argyle Street, it is far from ideal.

Wondered about that, not great for travelling Poles not knowing what week the away game would be until we play on Thursday for getting time off etc. Taking this with a pinch of salt until I see it confirmed by the club/UEFA but it would make sense. I was also wondering how the hell I'd get from Glasgow to Motherwell for a few pints with the Commonwealth stuff going on.

Yes.

We still lack a burst of pace and the surprise element but what we have is a fairly stubborn robust starting 11 that will give us a decent but unspectacular season. Good backbone so far, no more or no less.

Excellent bit of business, getting him in gave us so many options that we wouldn't have had due to injuries in the second half of the season. Well impressed with what I have seen of him.

Or Union (pronounced Onion). Seriously is going to be hard to get a good test because we will want these games earlier than most due to our European commitments being so early. The Saturday we played Morecambe is two days after the first leg. The Saturday before is a possible but I don't see us wanting to pencil anything in just in case we get sent to the arse end of nowhere. I quite fancy Annan away.

Always have preferred a well worked goal to a hit and on that basis I would give it to Sutton's 2nd against Celtic in the 3-3. The defence splitter by Reid, the cross by Ainsworth and the finish wasn't as easy as it looked. I also liked Faddy's goal at Firhill as there was decent build up and a nice chip and it would be 2nd for me.

What I gathered at the Well Society AGM was that the business community didn't fancy the Well Society and if they were to invest wanted to do so directly to the club. I'm no businessman but I'm sure there is a prudent financial reason for this on their behalf. This has certainly trimmed the potential of investment. The club were very clear at the AGM they were going to approach these businesses and others again directly. Not overly concerned.

My original post was really talking about a child friendly highlights package and I think too much talk, no matter the quality, would be a switch off for those with poor concentration. MOTD style analysis is ideal for a later programme aimed exclusively at adults. Absolutely agree about the quality of analysis, it is dreadful. Pat Bonnar one of the few with any actual meaningful insight. Prime example was in our 3-3 with Celtic, our last goal. The whole thing happened because of a stunning defence splitter by Reid, was it mentioned? nope, they just said McCall through on a good sub in Ainsworth.

I think the current rich v poor is partly down to that but it is also down to the reach that some of these English teams have. Remember the Game 39 proposal? Got to say I get a lot of enjoyment out of sport on the telly but I've had just as much enjoyment out of watching Dunfermline v Cowdenbeath as I get out of watching Liverpool v Man City or something. And nothing beats actually going out and going to the football. I think we should be trying to get a much more sensible TV package that works well and provides the finances that our teams need but doesn't mean we sell out to them. But whilst Setanta was a problem the teams have re-budgeted now and I don't think no TV package would be the same problem it was then but I do strongly believe the lack of a sponsor is strangling us. My suggestions would be: 1) Limit live TV games to one per weekend, perhaps two post split, one from each end. 2) Pick a time that works for fans rather than as the poor relation with England - both BT and Sky are multi channel so no reason we can't be on at the same time. I'd suggest Sat 1245pm, Sat 530pm and Sun 3pm are the least unacceptable. 3) Sell a TV highlights package at a child friendly time (i.e. 6pm Sunday) to get kids interested. 4) On said highlights programme, more football and less talk. 5) Fight tooth and nail for a sponsor. 6) Clubs work together to make football more affordable for away fans. Waiting for the English bubble to burst is naïve and won't work. BT Sport have tonnes of money to chuck at football since they basically give it away with their profits from elsewhere so it is not likely that is coming any time soon. In Scotland we have not reacted well enough to the changes in the market. And this is the SFA, SPFL and the clubs both individually and collectively. We will never compete with England but we can definitely do better than we are doing.

Something we have done this season which must be rare is that we have not drawn a game either 0-0 or 1-1.

I know the attached Q&A is English but shows that 30 seconds per sub is the general rule. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20159223

There only were two subs in the 2nd half and I don't remember other stoppages so one minute was probably fair enough.

Hutchinson had his best game of this (and maybe any) season today. Absolutely outstanding from start to finish and a couple of storming recovery tackles.

We have had two defensive masterclasses at Pittodrie this season. We were a bit nervy to start with but we settled into a real good display at the back today. If we could just learn to defend like that against the other ten teams we'd be lethal.

In my book that isn't a foul but I think most top flight referees would have given it given the over protection goalkeepers get. Of course there is an issue that the referee signalled advantage, I assume for the Reynolds' handball on the goal line when the ball hit the pokey. Can I say I don't think I could have taken watching a penalty in that situation. I'm also now very pleased he only added on one minute - meant we only had one header to win. Wasn't so pleased when the board went up.

Why? Rules are he only has to stop it if it is a head knock which it clearly wasn't and Moore was in no danger lying where he was so there was no reason to stop the game until it naturally went out of play. What I thought was a bit off was how reticent he was to allow Porteous on. I can even understand he thought he was at it to begin with because we had been timewasting a fair bit for the previous few minutes but when he was still down he must have realised he was actually hurt. Even if he was suspicious he just adds the time on. Anyway, Friday morning and I have just stopped shaking my head at that bit at the end where they hit the post. People wonder why I have hypertension and why I drink.

On another statistic, Motherwell have scored no goals in the last game of the season under McCall.

This is exactly how I feel about it too. We lost so many players who created that bit of magic we were always going to have to work hard to ourscore teams. Throw in we replaced one of the best goalies we have ever had with two guys who are no better than average it was always going to be hard to get the free points we had last year. However, we were incredibly consistent in that we have only lost three games to teams outside the top six all season (Albion R, St Mirren and Kilmarnock) and in the two league games we had substantially weakened teams from our strongest. That consistency with the squad we have is outstanding and one that teams around us have failed to manage. Don't think anyone would disagree that both Aberdeen and Dundee Utd at their best are better than us at our best but they have both thrown away a lot more cheap points than us. This doesn't come around by chance though it is hard work and determination and every one who has contributed this season should be proud of their part. Hopefully the squad can see the last two games as pressure off and they can pull of the results we need to get 2nd but whatever happens our squad have overachieved both in terms of the money we have spent on it and the ability of those in it.

We did win the first eight games he refereed involving us and the first one we lost, we missed a penalty at Parkhead at 0-0 ten minutes from time. To suggest there is any conspiracy against us is just utter guff. Just looking at his profile on Soccerbase he does seem to get involved in an astonishing number of high scoring games. Even with us he has been in two 5-1s, a 5-0, a 4-0, a 3-3 and a 2-2 this season. he also refereed St Mirren 5 Ross County 4, Inverness 3 Aberdeen 4 and his special one was on Saturday at Hamilton. Anyway why we're worrying about who the referee is on Sunday when we have still to negotiate Inverness to stop it becoming a friendly is baffling.

So will we.

You have to remember that these schools and organisations have leaders who have their own lives to run as well. I am an officer in a BB company in Hamilton and our Junior Section went to the Motherwell v Ross County game and had a great time. I made the Officer in Charge of that section aware of the game on Saturday but she said it was too close to the last time and too big a commitment on the staff in that section having been there a few weeks ago and having an end of season trip in a couple of weeks taking up another Saturday. Bearing in mind two of the four members of staff in that section don't like football, one is a Hibby (much the same thing) and the other is away every other weekend at a caravan, they did well to take them once. They certainly wouldn't be doing it every other week. Yes, it is an aspirational thing and I have no problem letting kids in for nothing but it isn't as simple as just opening up the gates.

Absolutely, very impressed by him. Possibly one of the best bits of business McCall did considering the number of injuries we had when he came in.