Jay

If you didn't laugh you'd cry.

(Very) slowly but surely...

I went for Higdon as well. But you can't seriously believe that comment? Someone says it every week, and yet there's still folk claiming he's shite. I think it's about time we all just accepted that there are Motherwell fans out there who know the square root of fuck all when it comes to football, and have never been on a football pitch in their life.

Evidently you do.

He won't lose the critics like you because you have absolutely no clue about football whatsoever.

The final price wasn't the result of a bidding war though, it was a result of Blackpool setting the price and sticking to it. It's not eBay. If Adam is worth £9m and 4 clubs bid that, the bids are accepted and it's down to personal terms. As stated, actual 'bidding wars' are largely nonsense.

Motherwell 2 - 0 Celtic (Higdon, Mulgrew OG).

Having the same problem. although the email address is correct and is the one I receive the email from Stuart McCall and other emails from the club (including the email on Friday about Motherwell FC TV!)

On the train down, we'd managed to sneak down to the next carriage away from where the police had everyone rounded up like criminals, and had a good time of it for about an hour or so. Then the police clocked on that we were 'Well fans who'd somehow managed to get away from the 'herd' and came windmilling into the carriage, man handling anyone who happened to be in reach (including Craig, I think it was, who was sleeping!), then isolated a few folk chosen at complete random down the front of the carriage, and anyone who dared speak up was threatened with arrest. An absolute joke, especially as we hadn't been doing anything, and the Aberdeen supporting officer (who I'm pretty sure was quite new to the force) was genuinely embarrassed and remorseful. I would never tar the entire police force with the same brush - there's some decent coppers, and I have mates in the police - but these c***s don't half make it easy to hate them. As you said, the trains up were full of 'Well fans having a drink and passed largely without incident as far as I know. Chuck a few police officers on and suddenly all hell breaks loose, purely because of their antics. I've seen far, far more incidents occur on Inverness away days because of the police, than anything to do with having a drink on a train.

I very nearly decided not to bother with Inverness away again after last year. The police on the train back down were an absolute joke. One of them, an Aberdeen fan, was talking to us at the back of the carriage and seemed genuinely embarrassed by the way his colleagues were going about things. But then, we're all football fans so we're all just automatically criminals anyway.

There's been alcohol bans on the trains to/from Inverness for a couple of seasons now, you just have to be "discreet". That said, it's usually just all the trains - I think this is the first time specific trains have been identified as being dry. We're on the 7.06am train - I'd just assumed it would be a dry train but I wonder if we'll be alright now!

Corrected that for you.

Aye, this. Load of nonsense.

Who is this 'another player much the same as Jennings and Lasley' you speak of?

Oh aye, I agree - but who knows exactly how much Hughes will be wanting in wages? McCall doesn't appear to rate Forbes and if he decides we need another midfielder then that's his call. My point is more about the complete irrelevance of whether or not he'll go straight into the line-up and in place of who, as though football teams are only allowed to play the same 11 every week. However, admittedly I do like the look of Al B's proposed line-up.

Says it all for me. Our squad is too small and our great season so far could all come tumbling down with a few suspensions and injuries. Suddenly there's talk of us adding a very decent midfielder to the squad, and folk start greeting about who he'll replace. Football is a squad game and ours is tiny - Stephen Hughes would be a great addition whether he'd go straight into the starting line-up or not.

2-1 to the title challengers - Higdon & Law on the scoresheet.

Just wondering if anyone has any spare Friends Fare tickets for the Aberdeen game on the 19th for the 9.41am train? Or if anyone has tickets for that train and wouldn't mind swapping it for the 10.41am train? Of our group, half got Friends Fare tickets for the 9.41am train, but when the other half went to get their tickets they could only get on the 10.41am train. Ideally we'd want to get everyone on the same train, and we'll still give it a bash on the day - but it would save the hassle if there were any spares or folk willing to swap.

It's simple. There are Motherwell fans who get a kick out of abusing their own players. Of course, in some circumstances there is a genuine difference of two knowledgable opinions - I'm not labelling everyone, but more often than not it's either fat, red-faced arseholes who've clearly never kicked a ball in their life, or folk who genuinely seem to get a kick out of targetting certain players they take a dislike to for whatever reason. I have no idea why - maybe these people have high stress levels and need to berate football players playing for the team they support in order to avoid slapping the wife about that night. But they quite clearly get a kick out of it. As for the other group of folk who don't seem to know anything about the game - it must be said, the amount of football fans at games who must spend a fortune watching football and yet know absolutely fuck all about football is quite alarming. Just for the record, I'm talking purely in terms of at the game. If someone wants to slate players online or in the pub, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'll participate in debates and regularly find myself laughing at some of the dross that gets posted on here, but when the atmosphere and support of the players is rapidly improving at Fir Park, it's still absolutely laughable some of the shouts and foaming of the mouth that goes on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib6YqIKc_mY

Could you imagine Higdon had missed his penalty? The rockets would have been too busy foaming at the mouth to pay attention for the rest of the shootout.

Higdon. Special mentions to Law, Randolph and Lasley, but Higdon edges it for me.

Michael Higdon was my Man of the Match tonight. Won a number of headers not just in attack but, importantly, in our own box as well. Also put himself about a bit, the rest of the team seem to be working to actually play to his strengths rather than just lumping the ball to him and staying static. His header set up the first goal, his finish for the second was top class, and he scored a very good penalty to get us underway, despite the fact there were probably 'Well fans willing him to miss. Very good performance from the big man tonight.

I've only really glanced at a few pages in this thread so I must have missed that - it was the first example that jumped to mind though. Spot on.

Whenever this subject seems to crop up, I can never quite get my head around the "proud to be British" argument. If you are, then of course that's perfectly fine. But everything is about context. In the context of Scottish football, flying a Union flag at Celtic Park has absolutely nothing to do with being proud to be British. I'd be shocked if, even some people on Steelmen Online, actually argued against that. Context is important in every walk of life. If you are just going to reply to the subject of a Union flag in the 'Well end on Saturday with the reply "there's nothing wrong with being proud of being British" then you are correct, but it is irrelevant to the context of what we're talking about. In Scottish football, the Union flag is first and foremast a symbol of Rangers. You can argue it shouldn't be, but that doesn't change the fact that this is the case in the context of Scottish football. The Swastika was a Buddhist symbol long before the Nazis were around. If you are a proud Buddhist you may wish to display the Swastika in your own home or wear imagery showing the Swastika when you're at a temple or surrounded with other Buddhists. But you probably wouldn't go to Asda and expect to stoat about shwoing off the Swastika without reply. That is because, in the context of general society, the Swastika is a symbol of Nazism, Facism and evil. You could log onto a forum and argue that there should be nothing wrong with showin that you are proud to be a Buddhist, but you also would have to accept that people would criticise and raise questions depending on the context of the situation. This is no different. In Scottish football grounds, Union flag = h**s. You argue all day that it shouldn't do, but it does. Your political viewpoints, your pride or lack of, or whether you're just a fan of flags - all that is irrelevant in the context that we are talking about. Now, whether or not you care is another thing. But regardless, when criticism starts, questions are asked, and the "mini-h**s" or "h**s without the bus fare" lines get trotted out, I fail to see how there can be much of an argument when folk are still talking a flag to Celtic Park knowing fine well it is completely and entirely to do with the fact that it is a symbol of Glasgow Rangers. If you want to show your pride at being British, hang the Union flag out your window or buy a flag pole for the garden. Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to take a national flag to a domestic club game anyway. European or International football, fair enough. IMO though the main point is Al B's. Our group that go to games always looks to be close to the lads that create all the atmosphere at games, but if we had been at Celtic Park on Saturday we'd have given them a wide berth. As for the point brought up about how if it's entirely a wind-up, there should be a Tricolour in the Motherwell end at Ibrox... unfortunately, I get the impression that if a Motherwell supporter unvieled the Irish flag at Ibrox in the sole attempt to wind-up the Rangers support, he'd also get abused by a few 'Well fans.