Tweed

I'm staying with my mate in Culloden and he texted me tonight and said off peak the Kessock is not causing too much of an issue but warned me that they are strictly enforcing both the speed limit and the bus.taxi lane rules.

I think there is no way the starting 11 will change but we have a number 11 who clearly isn't match fit yet so I suspect having played for over an hour on Saturday at 55 minutes tomorrow may need a break and would be the ideal time to introduce him, preferably with us already 4-1 up.

Kind of, but the three points yesterday are three points that Inverness who are a direct opponent can now not get. The reason we came where we did last year was we kept beating our direct opponets when they were getting close to us. Games with Celtic are, in reality, a bonus. Games with Dundee, in reality, should be a token three points. That is no disrespect to them just factual on the points collected so far. Thing about the season we have now is any five of ten teams could effectively join Celtic in the top six so if you are asking me what game is more important, United or County, I'm not sure but I'd wager United.

He did it before with Craigan after the red card v Dunfermline last season. No reason he won't again. It will be purely down to performance on Tuesday I suspect. I don't think it is a coincidence we kept a clean sheet yesterday when Lasley wasn't there and I don't think it is a coincidence that it was Law's best game of the season.

Carswell did the dirty work and the running that let Law play, but boy did he play. Thought they were our best two by quite a distance though Higdon gives himself a chance with ytwo goals. Went for Law but only by a nose from Carswell.

I thought it was a cross at the time, and I still did on Alba until I saw the grin on his face which clearly said he'd got lucky. Carswell was outstanding and his mobility gave Law the room to play in, Higdon got the room up top from Ojamaa doing the same and some of our wing play was breathtaking at times. Agree with whoever said we played well in patches, certainly we weren't the dominant force that 3-0 suggests though we were by far the better team. What a goal Higdon's second was and what a tackle by Hateley in the box in the 2nd half. Not a single failure from us today.

I don't think that is true about the game in Inverness. We should have been more up than we were at the break and after they pulled one back we were the dominant force again.

Home record isn't that special v them, very unusual we beat them twice at home in the same season. They've had quite a disheartening run recently and I said on 29th December I thought they'd end in the bottom six, if we can win on Saturday I think that is where there one way ticket will be to. Can see it going either way but with the games running out I think any winner on Saturday will be in the top six.

Think that is right. I always think fatcalf's vision, for me, is aspirational but realistically from the starting point we have would see several clubs heading the way of Third Lanark. We need to make a move to make these clubs more sustainable in the long term and the rhetoric I am hearing is promising - is it wide ranging enough? probably not, would we like more change sooner? of course but I think the steps being made are in the right direction but I still don't like this league splitting three ways in January. But a lot of the other stuff I like.

Agree with Paisley Steelman entirely, was going to be a tough call between Lasley and Ojamaa until that tackle.

Thought they were both fine in the first half, they found it harder to get involved in the 2nd half because Kilmarnock surrounded them like flies round a crap and we didn't have the guile to switch the play elsewhere. Sure the two of them were just as frustrated as the rest it wasn't happening. A lot of credit to our quiet second half display needs to go to Kilmarnock who defended much more cleverly and denying us space, rather than a huge criticism to the Motherwell players. That tactic along with the slowing the game down to walking pace when it was 2-0 was what made for the mental tackles borne out of sheer frustration at the end.

If they've been unlucky/diddled by a poor ref or just done by a bit of skill to get a second yellow or whatever then aye, fair enough - if they've lost the heid and done something mental they'll be getting the silent treatment from me.

Would this question have been asked had we won yesterday? Probably not. We created five or six excellent chances in the first half and we just had a day where the strikers couldn't hit a barn door. If we had played abject rubbish for 90 minutes I'd question it but to be fair we played well on the most part, drifted out towards the end and got frustrated but these things happen at any time and I'm confident McCall and Scotland was not the reason.

We took five to ten minutes to get into the game and shake off the rustiness, our ball retention in these early minutes was absolutely appalling. But we grew into the game and were already showing signs of being the dominant force when Killie scored. Maybe just me but I thought the ball was in front of Hammell took a funny bobble and in trying to get out the way of it turned it in. One of these shit goals that happen and make you wonder that it is not going to be your day. By half time we should have been home and hosed, to still be 1-0 down was a remarkable feat in bad finishing, good goalkeeping and rotten luck. In the second half Kilmarnock had realised that another half like the first would mean only one thing and it would be three points coming back to Lanarkshire with us. But they defended a bit more in numbers and forced us wide more and Humprhey was on the ball but he just couldn't get into the game. He had a very disappointing second half. McCall, as he has done more and more, made some positive changes bringing on McHugh for Ramsden and just as we were going to try and turn the screw we conceded the second. That must be the longest goal celebration ever by the way. Then came the idiocy. Two moronic red cards and why some of our fans were applauding such poor behaviour from our players baffles me. THese guys had just let themselves, the club and us down and go off to a hero's reception. Whilst he got the two red cards right, Steven McLean was absolutely awful today. Decisions both ways that were just baffling and the length of time he took to give the hand ball against Higginbotham was staggering.

He should have been booked but wasn't for a tackle a few minutes before. Both tackles were completely ridiculous. I can just about forgive Kerr as he was only just on the pitch and probably wasn't up to the pace of the game however Lasley thoroughly deserves every bit of punishment coming his way and deserves a fine from the club.

If we must have the TV, which given the starting point we have I suspect we must. We should try and get Sky to use the 1720 spot they have for the Championship on a Saturday for the SPL - bearing in mind the 1245 Saturday slot frequently clashes with an EPL game I don't see the harm in having two then. And we should push ESPN to use the 1415 Sunday slot we had with St Johnstone. Neither are ideal but are much more fan friendly than 12noon or 1245 are.

Spot on, there are some grass roots facilities that are excellent but your normal family are priced out of it. Its all well and good showing off the best facilities but if only 10% of the kids can use them then it really isn't much use. Don't know what the answer is, as converting these pitches to astro will just be levied on the paying punters and the same will happen and they could lie unused. Lots of work to be done and to be honest the answers are out of my league.

Not overly concerned when we know the legal costs were a one off concern, we know we didn't sell a player as part of the plan and we have the money from Panathinaikos and Levante. You''ve got to remember in a report like the one that has been delivered to shareholders is that they are always written as a comparison to last year and not a comparison to target.

Been thinking a bit more about the debate and I've got to say the more I think about it the more it makes sense why they have done it: - criticism of split presently is that there is an inequality of fixtures - this eradicates it. - the TV companies will gobble it as there will be loads of crunch games - it maintains the number of home games the clubs want for match day profit This doesn't change the fact there are a couple of major flaws namely: - the barking resetting of points in the middle of the season - splitting a league at this time of year is mental - we have seen Ross County and Motherwell lose games due to the weather and Dundee Utd almost lose one. Only two years ago there were three rounds of fixtures decimated in December - how would we ever catch up in time for a split? The second reason above is the big one as that is what gives fans huge uncertainty and should be the big decision breaker in my opinion. The actual size of the league, is in my opinion, the least significant change that is required. The number of promotion and relegation spots, the distribution of wealth, if TV is a necessary evil push for earlier rearranging of games, try and get a consistent pricing structure.

Has anyone said that? Could just be that the rain hadn't gone off long enough for it to drain, bearing in mind it has rained almost relentlessly and heavily since about 3pm on Saturday. Our bowling green has a fantastic draining system but it will only kick in once the rain actuially stops falling; would then be playable within a couple of hours and have a dry top coat within about four. Now that it has been dry for five hours if it is still waterlogged I'd be more concerned but at 5-530pm when the rain had just gone off I doubt you could say with a dgeree of certainty the drains were gubbed.

Personally I find it hard to criticise the fans consulatation's timing when we don't know the content of the meeting; we don't know when Dempster and Weir actually decided that in principal this was a good idea, it may only have been today for all we know. And they may not have had the information to have a meaningful meeting until today. However I do object that we are expected to drop everything for a fans meeting this week. As much as I wish my life was simple enough that Motherwell FC could summon me to a Well Society meeting at the drop of the hat, the fact is it isn't and if they come out tomorrow and say Thursday night be at Fir Park it is a bit of stretch.

If my choice is Friday night v Sunday lunchtime, I'd take Friday anytime There is six weeks notice, aye some folk will have stuff planned but them are the breaks - I missed the abandoned game and the Inverness home game in September because fixtures changed and whilst its a pisser its a known gamble. I'll tell you I wish I had the social life of some of you chaps on here because it seems to be every time a game gets swtiched half our home support can't go.

Higdon is one of my favourite players but he is as slow as a week in the jail, he gives away a lot of cheap free kicks and is exceptionally predictable. But it is all worth putting up with because he is a super finish, a useful additional defender at set plays, can spray the ball wide, is an excellent target man. At our level we'll struggle to do better but he has flaws.

When we played Odense I remember saying we were as good if not better than them but they had a bit more quality in both boxes and I think this was more or less the case today. St Johnstone had more territory, they had more ball and they had more shots on goal but at 3-0 they had barely threatened, header off the bar and a lucky deflection off the bar apart we were entirely comfortable. The biggest area of concern to me was the middle of midfield - Law and Lasley were completely overrun in there and that is partly why we struggled to get a stranglehold on the game. Ojamaa had one of those days when not much came off for him and McHugh was good in flashes but generally quiet. The two goals we lost were absolute belters. I didn't think the actual defending for the goals was that bad. Ramsden did everything right to try and close Hasselbaink down and he curled it round him unsighting Hollis and the second one Hateley read the game well to get on the cross ball but it ended up a really irritating mid height and he couldn't quite get the purchase on the clearance but Craig's finish was superb. If we're being really picky we should maybe have stopped the cross at source. But over the game I thought St Johnstone's attacking play was really poor and we defended better than we have for a while. I know its easy to say we shipped 2 again and our defence needs to improve but I thought we were unlucky to concede today.

In good news, that generally means we win.