MJC_MKI

He'll still get a bigger salary at Aberdeen than he will here.

Wake up mate, he's not a 'Motherwell man' he's a football man who still has plenty of ambition about him. This job will interest Craig Brown I think, apart from the fact that he will gain financially, he will be taking on a massive challenge at his stage in his career, something that he has always thrived on. It's sad I know, but football isn't about loyalty, or gentlemen's agreements and anything players or managers say about how they feel about a club they are employed by should be taken with a pinch of salt because when money starts to talk, they sit up, listen and nine times out of ten, run.

For money. Simple as that I'm afraid. Aberdeen are a bigger club than we are who could offer him not only more money but also a bigger challenge and like it or lump it, that is what footballers and managers are attracted by. Forget this "aw wee Broon's a pure gentleman, he's too loyal and too old to go away up to Aberdeen"...he is a man doing a job, plain and simple and like in any other walks of life will go where the money is.

This rumour appears to be growing arms and legs. Don't kid yourself that Brown wouldn't be interested should an offer be made, Aberdeen are a bigger club than we are and I reckon he'd jump at the challenge and I don't think for one moment that travel or his age would be an issue. Craig Brown may be old, but he's an ambitious man and he may well look at this as too good an opportunity to turn down.

Fitba was great back in those days, just look at how full the Cooper Stand looks and the celebrations after Coyle's equaliser. You just don't see that for games against either Rangers or Celtic nowadays, mainly due to the fact that they're never on at 3pm on a Saturday like this one was and also because we never beat them at Fir Park anymore. But that strip...

...and also the fact that our record against St.Mirren is largely awful, despite them always struggling near the foot of the table. I've seen us gubbed in Paisley too many times, even once when they were in the first division, to be optimistic over our chances there. We even struggled to beat them at Fir Park earlier in the season when the final scoreline of 3-1 completely flattered us. A cold, dark winter's afternoon at Love Street/New St.Mirren Park? The first things that spring to mind are 1) a shite Motherwell performance and 2) a defeat. That's why I'm giving tomorrow a miss.

3-0 the Buddies.

Yip I too fancy us to get a result tomorrow, as Hibs are woefully inconsistent at the best of times so that win at Ibrox could go right to their heads and we can take advantage. The Accies game apart, we're on a good run ourselves and are starting to look a bit more solid and confident than we did at the beginning of the season. 2-1 to us.

Our home record against St.Johnstone is as poor as our away record against them is good. For that reason, I fancy St.Johnstone to beat us on Wednesday night. 2-0 Saints in an awful game with zero atmosphere and very little entertainment value.

The 'Jester' top itself was okay, but combined with the shorts it just looked as though it was missing the big hat with bells on it to complete the look. The flourescent yellow away kit was easily the worst we've produced in all the time I've been buying Motherwell kits. Cheap, nasty and horrible looking. The Untouchables 'Administration' kit from 02-04 looked pretty cheap but I actually quite liked that one for some reason. I don't know if it was because it came out at a time when the club was going through a bad time and it felt like club and fans were closer than ever or because we got some great memories when the team played in that kit, ie. beating Celtic & Rangers in the one season, the Cup run of 2003, Faddy's brilliance, and the top six finish the following season against all the odds, but whatever it was, that was a top I liked and still have to this day.

Aye but that never seems to work for us though. We've seen it many a time through the last eight years teams managing to get the better of Rangers or Celtic, yet we're never able to do it. I'm sorry, but the very prospect of playing Rangers these days just fills me with apathy and dread. Even now, three months away from the game I can see it being an absolute heartbreaker for us in that we'll probably run them close, have chances to bury them, have a perfectly good goal disallowed or a penalty denied and they'll sneak it late on or in extra time or penalties etc. Then we'll walk away with the usual patronising comments about how we 'played magnificently' and 'more than matched them' yet all the time feeling utterly dejected. But I'll still be there hoping for a different outcome because if by some miracle - and it would be a miracle IMO - we do manage to get the better of this lot at Hampden then it will be up there with the greatest results in our history and I won't want to miss it.

That's the sensible view and the best way to look at it of course. If we want to win anything, we need to beat the 'best' and the 'best' in this case are obviously going to be Rangers firstly and then in all probablity Celtic. It's just our record against Rangers in particular, especially in Glasgow, is so dreadful that the very thought of going there to play them just sends a feeling of resignation running through me and I'd guess many other 'Well fans. If we don't beat them at Fir Park on Boxing Day, then we'll be going into this one having not got the better of them for over eight years and there is this feeling that we could play this game at Dalziel Park, with Rangers being forced to play with only five players, all from their under-18 squad and us starting with a two goal lead and we still wouldn't be able to win. But, dare I say it, records are there to be broken and one day we will once again beat them. Who knows with Motherwell though?

Well guess who's no going to be playing in the Co-Op Cup final then. Absolutely not a cat's chance in hell we'll beat Rangers at Hampden.

Our only hope of getting to the final is if we get Aberdeen as we will not beat either Celtic or Rangers in Glasgow. I say this because a) Celtic & Rangers very rarely lose Semi Finals or Finals to 'diddy' teams in Glasgow b) Our record in Glasgow is poor, espcially against Rangers, c) either of them are technically beatable, but just not by us I'm afraid and d) I'm always negative about Motherwell games, especially 'big games' where we will take a big support which are usually let down.

We will win neither and it will be a mirror image of last season's double header against St.Mirren at exactly the same stage. We'll probably play pish and get a draw tomorrow before playing even worse on Tuesday night resulting in yet another dismal Fir Park cup showing.

Apart from ourselves...

We'll get a draw as we usually do against Rangers these days. 1-1

Got a bad feeling about this one I'm afraid and I think the best we'll get is a draw. 2-0 Aberdeen

In a nutshell.

Cos he isny good enough. I like Reynolds and give him my full support as a Motherwell player but the fact is he just isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, an international class defender, certainly not at this moment in time anyway. He needs to significantly improve his positional sense and concentration for starters if he is to have any hope of getting near the National team.

That may be so but that was a clear penalty. More schoolboy defending from Motherwell to let him in in the first place. Game over.

As has been said, Celtic will aiming to bounce right back from their Euro hiding and will almost certainly do so with a win against us on Sunday. We don't have the technical ability, the defence or the strike force to get a result from this game and if Celtic are in the mood they will beat us by five or six goals. If not, then it will be the usual tight scoreline where we'll fail to take any of the few chances we get whilst gifting them goals at the other end.

It's going to be some day tomorrow, the tension will be buidling from sunrise until the game finishes. Sadly I just can't see us doing it as we don't have a clean sheet in us for this game. I reckon it will be a pretty sickening exit for us as we will probably go 1-0 up, try to see it out and get caught out and end up 1-1 or losing 2-1.

If bottom six and comfortably avoiding relegation then yes, I probably would but in this league where so many teams are fairly evenly matched and anyone can get results against anyone, teams that go on a bad run or make poor starts to seasons tend to get sucked into the relegation scrap somewhat and that's my concern at the moment. My main hope for every season is that we avoid relegation and I'm sure that is what the club budget for.

I'm not saying that it would, but it could see us struggle to pick up points in the league should we get a build of injuries and tiredness as the games build up. Celtic and Rangers have both struggled to compete on two fronts when they've been involved in the UEFA Cup and been playing on Thursday nights and then again on the Sunday. It affected their league form and they had much bigger squads than we currently have. My point was in response to an earlier post that said that they would happily trade league points against Kilmarnock for qualification for the Europa League Group Stage. Each to their own of course, but I'm sorry for me that is nonsensical talk. We are not in a position to be able to 'trade league points', especially when we don't have any on the board as yet and our next three SPL games are at home to Celtic, away to St.Johnstone and at home to a seemingly rejuvinated Aberdeen side. Qualification for the Europa League Group Stages would be fantastic for Motherwell Football Club, an absolutely tremendous achievement, of that there is no doubt....However....it would be a bonus. Our main priority is what happens in the SPL and I for one don't want to see us cut adrift with no points after three or four matches and struggling to get into our stride. That is how relegation scraps start.