Jay

One for the Exiles... At the beginning of the season we launched our Exiles Club, an initiative with the aim of connecting ‘Well fans all over the world who can’t make it to Fir Park on a regular basis. The Club has already been a success, with around 50 Steelmen signing up from the likes of Denmark, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia to name a few. With a considerable number of ‘Well fans deciding to make the trip home for the Scottish Cup Final, we have decided to make the trip even more memorable by inviting Exiles Club members along to a special “Welcome Home” at Fir Park on the day before the match, including a tour of the stadium. We are delighted to announce our special guest for the day will be ‘91 Cup Final hero and Exiles Club Ambassador Ally Maxwell who will be making the long trip home from Arizona for the game! If you are a Well Society Exiles Club member and want to join us on May 18th (1pm-3pm) at Fir Park please drop us an email at: well.society@motherwellfc.co.uk

Potential once in a lifetime opportunity for one Well Society member on the 20th of May... To celebrate becoming the first fan-owned club to reach the Scottish Cup Final, we are entering all Well Society members in an exclusive, money can’t buy, Owners’ Competition. Should the Steelmen bring home the trophy, the winning Society member will be invited to join the team on the open top bus the following day! The winning member will also be presented with an exclusive, signed Scottish Cup Final shirt regardless of the result. If you are not already a Well Society member you can still sign up and be entered in this fantastic draw. All you have to do is visit www.thewellsociety.co.uk/pledge and select your pledge amount by Friday 18th May at 12pm. The draw will take place at 3pm on Friday 18th May! Good luck and thank you for all your support

Turnbull for me, edging it from Campbell. So much composure and confidence, and his spreading of the play and technical ability was integral in the second half. Delivery for Bowman's goal was fantastic too, especially when we've spent the entire season witnessing dreadful set pieces. Special mentions to Carson, McHugh & Bowman too.

Enjoyed last night's second half. The first forty-five was a bit of a non-event for us - we struggled to cope early on with Thistle's front three and took a good 20-25 minutes to grow into the game. Bar a flurry of crosses and corners into the box, we didn't do much, and had to rely on Carson looking back to himself (after Saturday) with some smart saves. Second half was a different story though, credit to Robinson for changing the shape from our usual line-up to the diamond as it worked a treat. Just watched the BBC highlights and, although Thistle undoubtedly created more chances and we had to ride our luck a little late on as they threw everyone forward, they make it look like we were under the cosh for 90 minutes. That certainly wasn't the case in the second half, I'd say we edged it as the better team, looked dangerous on the break, killed the game when required, and overall put in a very decent - not fantastic - but very decent second-half performance. Stand outs for me were Carson looking confident and commanding again after Saturday, Cadden who looked far better when he went centrally later on in the game, McHugh who - despite continuing his season of misplaced passes - put in some superb challenges in the middle of the park, and Bowman who ran himself into the ground, gave the Thistle defence a torrid time, and well deserved his goal. However, the really big mentions have to be for Allan Campbell and David Turnbull. The former put in the kind of performance that we've come to expect now, and the latter was tremendous - his composure and technical ability is obvious and he looked like he'd been in the starting line-up for months. There's something really enjoyable and entertaining about witnessing the Youth Academy lads not just progressing into the first XI, but being the best players on the park - if we're going to be watching those two pairing each other in the middle of the park regularly next season, take my season ticket money now.

Can't really comment on the publicising of the event as it isn't something I've been involved in (it's predominantly the Former Players Club who have been organising & promoting as far as I know). It's been featured on the Well Society website and in the e-mail newsletter last week, but other than that I'm not too sure how it's been publicised. In terms of the AGM, it was discussed at the last meeting and the date will be confirmed with members in the near future. I *think* we're possibly looking at June time but don't quote me on it.

Well Society members may already be aware of this but I've been asked by the organisers to give this a late push online: The Former Players Club & Well Society are hosting a fantastic Nostalgia Night in the Cooper Suite tomorrow evening & there are still tickets available! The event is a 7pm for 7.30pm start & will include footage from 'Well matches from 1950 to 2000. There will also be a short quiz & a number of former 'Well stars will be attending, including some members of the 1991 Scottish Cup winning side. This is an evening that no 'Well fan should miss, particularly with another final on the horizon! Tickets are priced at £10 (including a programme & half-time pie) and can be purchased at the Chapman Office at Fir Park or by calling 01698 338006. All funds raised will go to the Well Society under the "Double Your Money" offer from Les Hutchison. Hope to see you there!

From my understanding of it, we've essentially bought the Ticketmaster software rather than actually letting them sell tickets to our games.

Terrible attire for the day - nipped over from work at lunchtime last week fully expecting to be filming indoors. There's a reason Craig is looking toasty in a padded, blue parka and I have a bright red nose and ears...

Club Development Scotland, an arm of Supporters Direct Scotland, have put together a video on the Well Society & fan-ownership at Fir Park:

NEW PODCAST: http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2017-18-episode-28/ Sparra & Jay are joined by Derek Watson to discuss the Lanarkshire Derby defeat, preview the upcoming fixture with Celtic, chat about this weekend’s Motherwell Makes Music festival (which Derek is organising), and devote a fair chunk of time to the inevitable repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act this week. No daleks were strangled in the making of this podcast.

As numpty says, the Society has raised just under £200,000 over 2017 which now means that total being written off of Les's debt. It's a good sum for a club of our size to have raised and managing to wipe almost £200,000 off of the debt is a great step forward, but the challenge now is to raise even more in 2018 after Les agreed to extend the deal for another year.

Another four new members... New Recruits Join the Well Society During the January transfer window, the club added four new recruits to the squad. Not only have they settled in well, making a positive impact on the field in the process, but they have also now decided to support fan-ownership by joining the Well Society. Earlier in the season, all of the first-team squad joined the Society in a well-received show of support. Now Curtis Main, Nadir Ciftci, Stephen Hendrie and Tom Aldred have all signed up to monthly pledges to show their commitment to the club. The ‘Well’s new number nine Curtis Main said: “We are delighted to join the Well Society. Since our arrival, everyone at the club and in the community has really welcomed us in and we want to show our appreciation and play our part on and off the field.” We invited members Heather McDonald and Brian Closs to meet the new players and welcome them into the Well Society. Afterwards, Brian said: “It was a great honour to meet the new guys as they joined the Well Society. There is a real feeling of togetherness around the club at the moment under fan-ownership and hopefully that can push us on to finish the season strongly.” With now close to 2,400 members the Well Society is continuing to grow – the more members we can recruit the more we can support and invest in Motherwell Football Club both on and off the field. If you haven’t already, you can join now and become one of the club’s owners from as little as £5 per month.

Disappointed not to have nicked another late point but overall I'm pretty satisfied with last night. I thought we competed with Hibs up until the goal reasonably well, it seemed to be a part of our game plan to try and hit them on quick breaks, and there were a couple of occasions where the right pass or better finish would have resulted in a goal. I dare say that might also be why Ciftci was dropped, assuming it's not fitness or injury related, as he tends to be the kind of player who slows things down rather than contributes to a quickfire counter attack. But aye, up until Hibs scored, I was perfectly happy with the way we were playing. The goal itself was poor from Dunne. I'm a big fan of his in terms of his defending attributes and I may be being harsh if he's actually just slipped, but it looked like he decided against launching the ball the way he was facing (ie. out for a throw in) and instead attempting to twist his body in order to swipe the ball upfield. It was far too daft a risk to take and we suffered for it, as it got no further than the Hibs lad who then finished it. The goal maybe rocked us a little but by half-time your wanting to regroup and go back out with the same sort of purpose we showed early in the first-half, so to lose a second so quickly after the break was always going to be a kick in the baws. Tait in particular was very poor for the goal, being caught ahead of Boyle and under the ball - Boyle then had a relatively easy job of getting in behind and squaring. I think it's understandable that it would knock the stuffing out of us a little and it did take us a little bit of time to start pressing again - when we did, we created a handful of opportunities, Main notched up another fine finish and, on another day (ie. last Saturday) we'd maybe have gotten that bit of luck to nick a point. It's also encouraging to see that the determination and "never say die" attitude we showed early in the season seems to have returned at some level, given we would probably have gone on and lost a 3rd or 4th in December. Never happy with a defeat but for a very difficult game against a stronger Hibs side at Easter Road, I'm content enough with the 90 minutes and will be going into the three home games with confidence. Also, Kipre was Man of the Match for me all day long - assured and solid at the back, and potentially our best distributor of a ball on the night. Can we also just take a moment to appreciate Tanner's absolutely howling attempt at a pass from the free-kick that led to Kipre having to block the ball almost on the line...

I do get that and, in fairness, I'm not really suggesting Carson leaving would be a good thing in any way, it was more just the example at hand. Personally, I'd like to think the club will reject pretty much any offer that comes in this late on in the window. It was more just reference to the kind of stuff I've seen a few times now, that suggests paying Les and Boyle off is an inconvenience and not really considered a worthwhile part of any transfer deal - when in fact, it's really important. From a personal point of view, I'm actually really excited about getting to the point where the debts are all paid - if we continue to do what we are doing, particularly in terms of the successful business model, then the club could be in a hugely positive position once we are no longer having to pass on percentages of transfer fees. I think that's my only real issue - that these percentages paying off the debts are sometimes deemed an annoyance and a negative, like when folk start automatically paying their student loans off their wages.

Well, what I would say is that paying off John Boyle or Les would be really positive news and I imagine Well Society members (and subsequently then everyone else) would be made fully aware of it in some form.

As much as I understand the frustration of potentially selling a player & losing certain amounts to X, Y & Z, I'm not sure I follow the line of thinking that we need to have a particular amount by the end for it to be worthwhile. Aye, it's not great to be left with just a small percentage of an original fee after you've paid, in this case, Hartlepool, Les & Boyle - but the latter of the two being paid is actually, and pretty obviously, hugely in our interests. If selling a player for good money and "only" having something like £100,000 at the end of it to reinvest in the squad means we are completely debt-free, and subsequently enjoying the benefits of that, sooner then that's still a good thing surely? I just don't quite subscribe to the idea that Robbo needs to be able to have a money shower at the end of all the payments for a deal to have been a success for the club.

Absolutely. It's easy just to think that agreeing on the sell on fee is based on how much we plan to then make off a future sale, but it can be just as much - and probably often more - about negotiating a deal at the time that the selling club is prepared to accept. If a 40% sell on clause was an integral part of what Hartlepool wanted for him and the club felt that it was still a worthwhile deal, then fine.

Just to point out that Society Co-Chair Douglas Dickie is now in contact with coldonmac directly on this, just in case anyone thinks I've replied and then patched it!

Appreciate the feedback on this and apologies for any inconvenience on behalf of the Well Society. At the risk of sounding like a complete cop out, I've had very little to do with the Share Sale beyond the original discussions & planning stages (I can assure you that the Share Sale was treated as a project) and I'm often the only Society Board member who makes use of the forums on a regular basis, so I don't have an immediate response for you. However, I will circulate your post in full with the rest of the Society Board this afternoon.

Wobbly lip at times mate but made it through...

Recorded on Monday & uploaded a little later than planned, Sparra is joined by Jay & Joe McKelvie to look back on two defeats at the hands of Partick Thistle & Kilmarnock, look ahead to Dundee’s visit to Fir Park, discuss the departure of Louis Moult, and more… http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2017-18-episode-20/

In terms of the Bois moving chat, here's what Flow has tweeted in response to the Firparkcorner report on the AGM (and it's suggestion that "consideration is being given to a relocation of the Well Bois section to the other end of the John Hunter Stand"):

The Shed's 'Well fans pre-match party for us although we may pop into the Church on the way past on the walk to the ground.

http://www.thewellsociety.co.uk/2017/11/24/double-your-money-extends-through-2018/ The Well Society is today delighted to announce that Les Hutchison has extended his extremely generous “Double Your Money” offer for another year. Mr Hutchison had offered to match the total amount of funds raised by the Society in this calendar year with a reduction of his loan to the Club by the same amount, to a maximum of £500,000. In effect meaning that every £1 counts as £2. After a fairly modest start to the year with several changes taking place on and off the field, we have seen a significant increase in pledges, donations and funds raised in the last few months of the year as we have stepped up our attempts to take advantage of the initiative. In order to continue this momentum, Mr Hutchison has kindly agreed to extend this offer through the 2018 calendar year. On behalf of everyone at the Club and the Well Society we would like to thank Mr Hutchison for his incredible support.