MJC_MKI

Doesn't help when they put the away fans up the top tier of the South Stand, that takes something off the atmosphere right away as there is no 'banter' or whatever you like to call it between the two sets of fans. I don't know why they had the Hibs fans up there today, normally they do that when it's raining heavily but it was a perfect day today weatherwise.

Well so much for that then. Another fantastic result and a thoroughly deserved three points in a match that we dominated. It wasn't pretty, far from it and we lacked a bit of guile and creativity but we were the only ones who looked like winning today against a very poor Hibs side who didn't show anything to justify the hype that they get. I thought Murphy took his goal very well and put in a good shift with Sutton up front, and with a bit more luck we could have won that far more comfortably and overall we looked solid as a unit and didn't look like conceding at any point during the game. Well done Craig, Archie and the lads, they've done a fantastic job since the turn of the year and we now look a much more assured, settled and formidable team. Keep up the good work!

That's a pretty hard frost out there, I wonder if the game is likely to be in any doubt given our previous record with freezing temps.

No, for two reasons. 1) We haven't done or looked like doing that to anyone so far this season. Apart from the recent games against Aberdeen & Killie, most of our wins have been by one or two goals at most and have been very tight affairs. Our team does not have five goals in it and before anyone mentions it, 8-1 against an Albanian side that amounted to little more than a pub team doesn't count as far as the SPL goes. 2) That result tonight was a freak and I do not believe for one minute that Hibs could play as poorly or lose as heavily as that again, especially immediately after a result like that.

Like I said, I expect Hibs to bounce back on Saturday so the fact that St.Johnstone's defence wasn't 'ripped a new one' doesn't really count for anything I'm afraid. I think that Hibs have what it takes to give us a serious hiding on Saturday because unlike any of the sides that we've played since the turn of the year, they are a team that likes to play at a much faster pace and have the ability to play their way through teams as they have done to us to their great advantage on the two previous occasions that we've played them this season. Maybe the state of the pitch will hamper that approach somewhat, but I just don't see us getting much other than a sound beating from a Hibs side who will be absolutely desperate to get back on track after such a poor display and heavy defeat tonight.

No, but I do expect them to be ripped a new one by the pace of Riordan, Stokes, Zemmamma & Benjelloun as per usual. But whatever the outcome, I'll be there supporting the team and hoping to be proved wrong.

We'll get humped on Saturday as Hibs will not play anywhere near as poorly as they did tonight and they will be absolutely desperate to bounce back and they will. My prediction? Motherwell 0 Hibernian 4

The fact that they are currently losing to St.Johnstone and look unlikely to take anything from that game actually means the opposite to me. I fear that if they lose again tonight they will bounce back and hit us with the backlash on Saturday so I'd much rather have played them on the back of them winning rather than losing.

Yes but two of them were at Easter Road, I was referring to Fir Park matches only earlier.

I always thought that a great deal of Man Utd fan's resentment of the England national side was down to the treatment that Beckham got after he was sent off against Argentina in France 98 when he was made a national 'hate' figure.

We've only won twice out of the last eleven meetings of the sides at Fir Park, both of those came during McGhee's first season when we finished third.

It was May 2005 and the top six fixtures had just been released and had Celtic potentially coming to Fir Park to win the SPL title and be presented with the trophy on the final day. John Boyle asked season ticket holders in the Cooper Stand by letter if they would agree to move to the East and Main Stands in order to accomodate the larger Celtic away support that day. The resounding repsone from the Motherwell support was 'No'.

The Hibs support in that 'No' protest game was one the best away supports I've seen at Fir Park outwith Celtic & Rangers. That was the game that we were 2-0 up with nine minutes to go and then we contrived to throw it away as only Motherwell could.

It's a bit early to say he's the best goalkeeper we've ever had but there is no doubt that he is an excellent goalkeeper and has won us more than his fair share of points this season, especially up at Tannadice in September, against Aberdeen at FP, at Accies at the weekend and even against Rangers last midweek. He's not without fault either, as the Hibs game at Fir Park showed and also looked shaky dealing with crosses on a few occasions but the good definately outweighs the bad with Ruddy and I really, really hope that we can hold on to him but it will be difficult. Is he the best I've seen? Well Sieb Dijsktra is still the best Motherwell 'keeper that I've seen and given that he was the goalkeeper during my 'early' days as a Well fan and was a bit of a 'maverick' then he still holds that accolade in my opinion. Of the other goalkeepers we've had since, I'd say that Scott Howie was the best. He was a good shot stopper and commanded his box well and you always had confidence in him, like you do with Ruddy nowadays. I also liked Gordon Marshall when he was here and found him a solid, reliable goalkeeper who organised and commanded the defence very well indeed but age got the better of him in the end. As for the others, Buzz was a very good shot stopper but was terrible with crosses and Andy Goram, great goalkeeper as he was in his day was well over the hill by the time he came here and was overweight, unfit and injured far too often. And Woods, Dubourdeau and Kaven? Don't even go there.

If this is true then first and foremost I reckon that the person who 'complained' about it seriously needs to get him/herself a life and secondly if they are going to be offended by opposition supporters abusing their players then they shouldn't bother going to the football. It's just typical of the 'go out of our way to be offended' attitude that so many people in this country like to wallow in. It's just aswell these people don't live in Spain or Italy where opposition players have pigs heads or flares thrown at them. Imagine the reaction of the media and the many sensitive souls, something like that might just tip them over the edge!

"Contrasting moods in Lanarkshire as Motherwell clinch the SPL title whilst Airdrie United are finally shut down as they fail to find a buyer and Jim Traynor's head explodes as a direct result of both".

Full time 0-0. By the sounds of our performance, I'll take that. Fuck the Accies.

Dundee Utd just scored a late winner against St.Mudden. 2-1 to the Taysiders.

Not even a contest for me. I'd take Motherwell winning a pre season friendly before Scotland winning the World Cup any day of the week. Club first, country second. Always.

Aye, it virtually hit his shoulder and we got a penalty for it. Another one I can remember was at Parkhead in about 95 or 96 when John Philliben punched the ball off the line saving a certain goal and we got away with it.

As usual I've got a bad feeling about this one. 3-1 to Accies with Imrie getting on the scoresheet at least once.

While I think that the arguement that match officials cheat in order to assist a particular team(s) is frankly nonsensical and doesn't even deserve to be given credit by discussing it, I'm not even sure I buy into that one about 'big teams' getting the decisions either. Look at the Celtic game back in December. They had TWO stonewall penalties denied during that game besides the one that they got and once scored a perfectly legitimate goal at Fir Park which was about two feet over the line and it wasn't given. Those were both big decisions that didn't go for 'the big team'. And there have been others aswell as I have already highlighted earlier in this thread. It is probably fair to say that officials may occasionally be swayed by the larger crowds at Ibrox or Parkhead shouting for a decision, that is as you say not any different to any other country in the world. Go to Anfield, Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge and you'll see exactly the same thing, but even then it doesn't happen every single week. The problem in this country is that the standard of refereeing is absolutely deploreable and you constantly see offiside decisions called wrongly, stonewall penalties being denied or penalties given for absolutely nothing and so on.... Decisions will go for you and against you and in some games, you will get more for than against or the other way around. When it goes for you, you really don't care and when it goes against you, like it did the other night then it is absolutely infuriating, especially when it deprived us of potentially beating Rangers for the first time in over seven years.

For anyone who listens to the phone ins, Ewan Cameron has started his show tonight with the predictable pitch bashing and his sensationalist nonsense "Should Motherwell be chucked out the SPL/Docked points/forced to play their home games elsewhere" and has 'Gazza' the Rangers fan from Shotts on to back him up with it. Now, I'm very much of the opinion that Ewan Cameron is an idiot who merely spouts things just to get attention(and it's working here I'm afraid cos I'm giving him it), but for anyone who does phone that show, why not ask him why he seems to have completely overlooked the major talking point from last night's game in order to start this nonsense up again. Not that I'm trying to defend our pitch, it's a disgrace no two ways about it but it was the same for both sides last night and Motherwell managed to play some decent stuff on it.

Well that's your opinion, but I disagree. I just don't believe for a minute that a referee or a linesman looks at a decision like that and thinks to himself 'I'll just flag for offside here in order to help the big team'. They don't have the time to think like that anyway, it happens and then it's over in a split second and they don't have the benefit of a TV replay or anything like that.

I'm not trying to defend the decision but I will not accept for one minute that the linesman disallowed that goal on purpose "because he's a Rangers fan" or anything like that. He has a split second to make the call and he got it badly wrong with that one.