MJC_MKI

Yip today will be a struggle and it wouldn't surprise me if we were heading to Hampden on Tuesday night for the replay. If we win today it will be by two goals at the very most. There just isn't goals in this Motherwell team.

Yes that's possible aswell. I just thought they'd maybe want to see if they could 'make up' for losing a Friday night fixture by using a Cup weekend to play it on. edit: albeit the replay date is next Tuesday night so that would be short notice.

It's now over a month since the abandoned match with Hibs and yet we've heard nothing as regards to a re-arranged fixture, which is quite strange I think especially considering they re-arranged the Dunfermline game almost immediately. So this got me wondering if the SPL were possibly waiting to see if both sides make a relatively early Cup exit so that they could re-arrange the fixture for another Friday night with both sides having a 'free weekend' when the later rounds of the Scottish Cup were being played? They obviously want this 'Friday night football' experiment to work and having lost one of their games due to an abandonment, maybe they are holding off setting a date for this match for now to see how far both sides go in the Cup. Purely guesswork from me but I certainly think it's a plausible explanation as to the delay in announcing the date for this match.

Whit? He should be playing for Scotland don't you know?!

Yes but inspite the fact that McCall must take his fair share of the blame for yet another gutless display at Ibrox, I'm 100% sure that he didn't send the players out under instruction to let 'David Healy score'. Motherwell have always been very generous to teams or strikers out of form, so Healy scoring against us, for the first time in eleven months since the last time he scored, also against us, is nothing new. I remember Harald Brattbakk, that Norweigan dud who played with Celtic who was ridiculed for his inability to score ending his drought against us at Fir Park in the late 90s, and whenever Robbie Winters went through a barron run at Aberdeen he'd always make up for it against us. Christ, even Derek Townsley scored against us for Hibs one season. It's just one of those bizarre yet totally frustrating things that always seem to happen with Motherwell. Players who normally couldn't kick their own arse suddenly seem to find another gear when they come up against us.

With all due respect, fuck your Celtic supporting mate. What those fannies think about us and how we play is the least of our concerns. I'm sick fed up hearing this 'oh dear what will the Celtic fans think of us now' from some of our fans every time we lose against Rangers. For Christ's sake, some of our support need to fucking grow a set and tell Celtic fans where to go and how to get there because that seems to be the first thing that comes into some Motherwell fans' heads after a result like this against Rangers, and why? We don't 'owe' Celtic and their fans to perform against Rangers or get a result against them, we owe it to ourselves and nobody else and guess what? Even if we did give Rangers a game of it or by some miracle actually beat them, yer 'Celtic supporting mates' will still tell you that you're a Rangers fan without the busfare because that's the way their deluded, bitter wee minds tend to work as in their cretinous little world, 'if yer no wan ae us yer wan ae them'. Like I said, no disrespect to you whatsoever, this rant is actually not aimed at you personally, but it really pisses me off hearing Motherwell fans openly fretting about what Celtic fans think or say about us after a game that has got fuck all to do with them.

0-0 and a trip to Hampden for the replay beckons.

Probably better than where I was sitting.

Just back from Ibrox and all I can say today is thank fuck for Darren Randolph today as without him that was easily another 6-0 thumping. Another pathetic display from us against what was a poor Rangers side. We never looked as though we would even give them a game of it never mind take something today as we stood off them and made it easy for them - as we always do. Up front we just have nothing, no threat, nothing to suggest we might actually create anything and it is a minor miracle that that team is sitting 3rd in the table, but I expect we won't be there much longer. Pish Motherwell, just pish.

Hard to believe that that was a 'Malpas team' that got that result. One of only two draws we've had there since 1997. Oh for a player like McDonald in the current team.

That's exactly my thinking aswell milo. We go into these games knowing full well that we've got little to no chance of taking anything yet that doesn't make you feel any less disappointed when we end up losing. It's especially frustrating to watch the likes of St.Mirren, St.Johnstone, Kilmarnock etc taking points off them whilst we are so easily swept aside by what is a very average Rangers side. But that's been the way it's been for the past nine years now, Motherwell just don't get results against Rangers, especially not at Ibrox.

Those are all good points star sail. The level of performances, particularly at home have been dreadful with very little entertainment value. We look very directionless going forward and carry little in the way of goal threat so that's an obvious concern. What's more, I don't think McCall's got much tactical know how about him and he struggles to change things if it's not going right. On the up side, I do believe that the players respect him and play for him as manager. But like I said, this is a result's driven business and on that front, Stuart McCall has delivered more often than not in his year in charge. We are sitting third and deserve to be there because we have managed to pick up the points, especially on the road and despite our poor home displays, we tend to at the very least get a point from these games. Will we be able to continue to be able to do this? Only time will tell.

Don't know where you're getting that from as I was up today to collect my tickets and was told that we had a 350 allocation and would be selling tickets right up until the day of the game itself.

What's that got to do with us? We haven't beaten Rangers for NINE years in all competition and it's fourteen and a half years since we last won at Ibrox. What makes you think Monday is going to be any different? (albeit the last time we did win at Ibrox that was also a Monday) We've seen it all before, the likes of Inverness, Falkirk, Dundee Utd, Hibs, Hearts etc have been able to take points off Rangers and as a result folk on here convince themselves that we can do likewise...yet we never do. And as things stand Rangers have lost their last two matches, do folk really believe that they will fail to win a third match in a row? Not a chance. We all know how this is going to pan out, they will score early doors and kill off any belief or hope we may have had and then will bury us in the 2nd half. If we can escape with less than a three goal defeat then we'll be doing well.

I can't afford an iPhone.

Regardless of who plays for Rangers, it won't matter one little jot as far as we're concerned. We might aswell write this game off, as we should do with every meeting with Rangers these days as we all know we're going to get gubbed, no matter how the game goes over 90 minutes. 5-0 to Rangers, with either Jelavic or Lafferty suddenly finding form again and scoring a hat trick. Frankly, anyone who thinks we're going to get anything other than the usual drubbing from this game is deluded beyond belief. The sooner this fixture is out of the way the better...

Fir Park should be condemned.

You can't whip anyone when you've not got a whip.

This will be yet another drab, dismal home display from us resulting in a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. Merry Christmas.

You're probably right, but all managers live and die by their results and if we're six points adrift at the bottom of the table and haven't won a game in three months come this time next year then folk will naturally call for him to be sacked, and rightly so in my opinion. But that's a hypothetical situation at the moment. I'll freely admit that I wanted him out after the 1-0 debacle against St.Mirren in February, because that on top of the 6-0 drubbing at Ibrox and the dire nature of our performances in all but the League Cup Semi and the Dundee Cup tie up until that point. And what's more I know I wasn't the only one either. But since then of course Stuart McCall has more than proved me and all of his doubters wrong as he has done an absolutley fantastic job to date. He's taken us to a Scottish Cup Final, finished in the top six, which even the most optimistic Motherwell fan wouldn't have believed possible when he took over and at this moment in time we are comfortably and deservedly sitting third in the SPL table. In his year in charge, Stuart McCall's watch has brought us significantly more highs than lows and we just keep defying the odds and for that then our manager deserves all the credit and applause in the world from us. As long as he keeps us on the right track, grinding out results against the sides around us in the SPL then Stuart McCall will get a big thumbs up.

Back on the floodlight issue, I heard tonight that work is still on going on repairing the problem which caused the fire in the floodlight last week and a decision will be taken on Wednesday after an inspection by the SPL and police as to whether Saturday's game can go ahead. Make of that what you will.

Well if that's going to be the case then we'll need to know in plenty of time as we can't risk leaving the kick off time at 3pm only to discover on Saturday afternoon that 'Constable Eris' is making a comeback so if that's what it takes then so be it, I just hope the club have already considered this seriously. As for the game(if it's on), I'm sorry but I just can't see it being any different to previous home games in that we'll struggle to break the opposition down and create chances, given that the onus is on us as the home team to attack. And of course we all know that home games against St.Mirren are usually a struggle for us so it will be no stroll in the park.

Thanks.

Motherwell P-P St.Mirren Floodlight problem still won't have been properly sorted by then. But if it does go ahead, then 0-0.

Did any of that actually happen last Friday?