Tweed

I gave it to Yassin as I have a beer induced squint and missed the Ruddy button. However he was our best outfield player in my view and him being on no votes till I missed it annoyed me so am now glad I had beer, well I was glad I had beer anyway but moreso glad now. Moan the Yass and the boy Ruddy.

I thought the game was pretty even for the most part until we scored. After that there seemed to be two spells of play. For the first fifteen minutes United had a lot of the ball and made a lot of mistakes with it and it was pretty easy for us to hold on (Ruddy triple save excepted) and to be fair on them it was not like the rest of the United performance on the day. The last ten minutes they threw everything at it which was fair game and exactly what they should have been doing. I thought in that spell Reynolds, Saunders, Maoutakil and Hately were immense. The referee as many have commented on was picky with his whistle and in my view lenient with his cards though the two bookings we picked up came from not a fat lot. What I would say in his defence was that he was absolutely consistent in what he was doing throughout and while he maybe could have let it flow a bit more he didnt make many shockingly bad calls. Craig Levein said in his interview that he didn't feel they did enough to win the game and therefore couldn't complain about losing it. I thought that assessment of it was absolutely bang on and had the wee bit of luck/skill that led to the goal fallen the other way I think we would be saying the same. However its an excellent three points against a very good team. We got the wee break in Robertson and Gomis missing the game as well as they are massively important players for them and when they were crossing the balls in at the end they would have wanted Dixon to be doing it and he had been injured and was off. A good day's work, I would say a better result than last week but not as good a performance.

Really looking forward to it. After a good result v the OF keeping your feet on the ground is the test next game out. Its a test we both face so will be interesting. I think their right back will be their weakness as Kovacevic who is not 100% or Dillon will be there and O'Brien and Hammell are good enough to have them on toast. Other side with Dixon against Yass that should be a great battle. Bauben v Coke also excites me and the fact that Scott Robertson is missing is great news for us. Where I worry is Dods and Webster v Sutton and or Jutkiewitz - I only see one winner and its not us. With Cadamarteri there is goals in their team and the more I think of it I think they may edge it. Should be a great game though and the odd wee twist can turn it so hopefully there will be some.

To be fair there was one minute in the first half when Sutton was playing left back to cover for Hammell who was almost at centre forward. So what Kmcalpin says has some validity however I think part of the beauty of what we are doing is that Gannon wants the full backs to bomb forward and that therefore means that others (whoever is nearest) needs to slot into full back should we lose the ball. Hutchinson and Saunders from the limited amount I have seen them are both quite raw to be honest and I think playing both of them at centre half would be folly. Agree with Frazzle that I would play Craigan on Saturday for the reasons he said. United are a team that we have handled pretty well the last few times we have played them and I would hope that Gannon has looked at some of the tapes. Also for people saying that McGhee should have been playing these two at centre half instead of Malcolm - I would say maybe but bringing them into a struggling team a year ago and a year back in their development from now I don't think they would have been good enough or had the cover of those round about them.

However three of these four were the last three. Maybe a slow momentum change. Actually McGhee never lost a home league game to Rangers. Not a bad stat for any manager of a provincial team.

I would have thought that would have been an argument for starting the other two and then bringing these two on with 25 to go when he will be really toiling? This of course makes the assumption we are still in it.

There is no guarantee you will get a cup game on the season ticket due to them being drawn so therefore you buy the season ticket and hope we get a home draw otherwise that is worthless - therefore I see the cup voucher as a bonus given with it as the league games are what a ST is all about. Therefore as far as I am concerned they can charge non season ticket holders what they like. On a side note I assume we have to split the gate with ICT on this therefore only paying them half of £10 per ST stub as opposed to £15 could well be ingenious on our part.

Correct.

As I read this thread I find it quite a damning indictment on football fans in general that we cannot be trusted to sit with people supporting the other team and we don't want to be near the opposition.

Go over to FPC (Can't be arsed linking) and read the article about the upsetting of the odds on Saturday and look at the Motherwell team listed who beat the Rangers team listed and tell me should we have been close? We were playing David Partridge, David Cowan against Ronald de Boer and Claudio Canniggia. THe gulf in ability that day to this has narrowed. They still have better players than us but there is no reason we cannot get something and another thing, Kenny Miller, Steven Whittaker and Steven Naismith have just spent the best part of 90 minutes chasing a ball around that for all Scotland did well I dread to think the possession stats, there is a reasonable chance they will be Jimmy Rucked on Saturday and the early lunchtime k/o can only help us. We need to believe, we need to make noises like we believe much like at Hampden tonight and get right behind them. It may not be enough but I always see this as a free game as our equals and us tend not to get much off them so if we do we can steel a march on them. Having not seen us since Perth I cannot wait for Saturday now.

Because I don't actually give a shit

Interestingly the OF will have played two away games each after this weekend and will both have had Dougie McDonald and Craig Thomson for them. Also interesting is that Celtic play Dundee Utd on Saturday and Steve Conroy is refereeing, the same ref as Dundee Utd had in the first game like McDonald is with us. What I have noticed is that Charlie Richmond, Iain Brines, Eddie Smith and Calum Murray who were all frequently in about the high profile games last season have not refereed an SPL game yet this season, including this weekend to come. Add that to the fact that McCurry and Dougal have gone it means the new order are getting a good run at the SPL at the moment. How they are picked I have no idea but the OF always get the better refs when they are away. I assume they look at who is available, of them who has the best experience for a particular game and how long it is since they have had them last - I imagine its not an exact science.

Might explain a lot if we spend our time in the water! I thought Man Utd might have given some first teamers who were not on international duty a wee run, however having not gone it would be churlish of me to complain - would the promise of Giggs, Scholes, Neville have encouraged me to go along? probably not - it would still have been pissing with rain and I would still have been hungover. However to say its a disgrace to the memory of Sir Matt I think is unfair. They sent a team of kids - what did Busby develop? Would be interesting for those who were there today to track how many make their first team.

COnfidence will be high in our camp and I feel that the best time to get the OF is just after an international break when we're at home. The fact its on Saturday and not Sunday is an added bonus. I think Rangers will edge it however just because of our inexperience and the fact they seem tobe on it at the moment - I would play exactly the same team as Yir Elder. My main worry is we may be too attacking on the wings and Whittaker will be able to really exploit that and that would allow Davis and co roaming room which I am sure they would then exploit to play Boyd in.

Think you meant Frazzle and Speedie - I have never even been a member of the MST let alone the board.

Being fair I'd forgot about him when I typed that

Heres hoping. Though over the last two seasons we have played Accies, Rangers and Raith on Wednesdays though it is possible we or our opponents had played on the Sunday before - I can't remember.

I think Gannon has a different philosophy than McGhee which may be partly dictated by Boyle. I think Gannon likes to give youth more of a chance but we all know that they cannot play every week and to do that you need more depth. McGhee liked to load the first team with quality with the drawback being that he did not have the resource for reserves of a similar quality. Therefore I think we have gone backwards in quality and forwards in depth and overall we are much of a muchness. Goalkeepers - if you can keep them fit and free of suspension you only need one. Smith is a better 'keeper than Ruddy I think. Defenders - we have more options with Hutchinson, Hateley, Saunders and the French boy as they allow Reynolds to drift sideways however Quinn was a better player than what we have brought in. Midfielders - Coke is an inspired signing whether he will be as good as Hughes was two seasons ago remains to be seen. O'Brien as come on immensely since he has been with us. McGhee needs to takes some of the credit and it has continued under Gannon - got to say at the moment he is the one in our team who I enjoy watching the most. Jennings, Humphrey, Forbes and Slane are all new in this area. Jennings had the most promising CV but has probably delivered least so far but its early days for all. We certainly have depth here. Strikers - we have a few that can play here now and if it is our intention to play one up we should only need three or four tops however the quality has gone back lots as Clarkson and Porter were miles better than what we have now (granted the Polish boy I have not seen yet but from what I have read I still think it will be a backwards step).

They beat us 2-0 up there later that season after the split but McGhee registered six wins and a draw against them. The way the draw is done everyone would have been hoping for us or Killie and perhaps Aberdeen. If I was them I'd be delighted to draw us. As us a home tie and avoiding SPL teams is as good as we could hope for.

Boyle is a bit of an eccentric guy - he has got loads of things wrong in his time as Motherwell chairman (and would be the first to admit it) however my praise for him is that he learn from them and we are a better team because of it. Gannon has started well but it is no more than that - though I think we are going to have a fun season.

I think the main difference is the game was crap and there was not a fat lot else to talk about. Also Scott Davie being a sensationalist managed to wiggle a quote out of McGhee about it. To be fair to McGhee Davie asked him twice before he answered. I wasn't at the game and the fact we annoyed McGhee doesn't really bother me one way or another and deep down I suspect he doesn't give a shit either but what does annoy me is the way that this incident tarnishes the club, it makes us look less attractive as somewhere kids can go and be safe and will reduce the number of folk following Motherwell in years to come. From the outside looking in we look like a right shabby lot. After the incident in Wales its been a sad few weeks for our fans - whether what was chanted on Saturday was on the right side of the law or not is not the point, it was on the wrong side of decency and perhaps its time as a fanbase we have a think to ourself whose reputation we are damaging.

To be fair a number of years have passed since then and the technology could have improved.

Kind of - they cannot charge differently in comparable areas. So they will have to change the Aberdeen fans in our stand the same as us I would imagine. Depends how they define their stands.

Wasn't working for me earlier but worked that time. Three lovely goals from open play in that game. The technique for Hutchinson was stunning. First time I missed a game that meant anything at FP for a few years and we looked slick there. Good work.

Could be wrong but I think it was Hibs. Also the Craigan throw in that got us top 6 v Killie was quite late in the game? Maybe no in the last five though. Sketchy memory of that one.