MJC_MKI

You would think so, but only the linesman will know how good a view that he himself has got. At that situation he would have to have been watching the entire penalty box, not just Craigan, Forbes and the last Rangers defender. As I said earlier, this is when you see a good official, when they can get a call like this correct in the split second that they have. That linesman last night got it wrong, badly, badly wrong and his mistake robbed us of a second goal that would have put us well on the way to three points and for that he SHOULD be punished for it. It was a mistake, a terrible mistake no two ways about it, but a mistake none the less.

Slightly harsh IMO, but it was a poor mistake from him last night. Apart from that, I thought he's played reasonably well of late and has looked a lot calmer and more assured on the ball than he has done in the past.

Different situation entirely though wasn't it? The linesman would have had a different or better view of it seeing as there wouldn't have been the same players standing in his line of view or by the timing of the striker's movement. As I said earlier, the linesmen have a split second to make these decisions. All it would take is for them to be one step off the pace or for them to lose concentration for a second and they have got it wrong. Don't get me wrong, I am not in any way whatsoever trying to defend the decision to disallow our second goal last night. It was a shocking decision which ultimately had a direct influence on the end result, but I will not accept that it was down to cheating. It was bad officiating, nothing more, nothing less.

I've seen us suffer from and benefit from dubious game changing or potential game changing decisions in games against Rangers, Celtic and most other clubs down through the years. I haven't counted how many have gone for or against. The last time we beat Rangers, the winning goal that we scored had two fouls in the build up to it, first one on the defender and then the goal itself when Faddy's boot was as high as the keeper's neck, but the goal was allowed to stand. Cheating? No, just poor refereeing. In the CIS game at Fir Park a couple of years ago, Kris Boyd scored a legitimate goal and it was wrongly disallowed for offside. Cheating? No, just poor refereeing. In April 2005, Barry Ferguson was red carded for basically nothing after a clash with Richie Foran. Cheating? No, just poor refereeing In 2001, we were awarded a penalty when the ball bounced and hit Fernando Ricksen's upper arm and Kelly scored to make it 2-2 and take a point for us. Cheating? No, just poor refereeing. And earlier this season, we got a soft penalty in the 85th minute which could well have changed the game had we scored from it. Cheating, No just poor refereeing. I will not accept for one minute that match officials cheat in order to aid or harm a particular team. Decisions go for and against you and in some games, you will got more against than for, and in others you'll get more for than against, that's just the way it works unfortunately.

With all due respect, that's utter nonsense. You have no way of knowing that it would have stood had it been at the other end. If the match officials were as you say 'cheating' in order to assist Rangers then surely they wouldn't have given us anything atall, including the free kick that we got and scored from. Referees do not cheat, they are just not good enough.

I don't know how they can use the Boyd one last season, seeing as the whistle went right away and everyone bar Boyd stopped before he kicked the ball into the net in what basically looked like frustration. Hardly a comparison.

Oh don't start going down this road. It was a terrible decision but it wasn't cheating as if it was then we simply wouldn't have got any decisions atall. Referees and linesmen have a split second to make a decision like that and that is when you see a good official, when they can get those calls correct. Unfortunately most match officials in this country are largely useless and incompetent and don't recieve the punishment that they should get for the repeated errors that they make. But cheating? I seriously doubt that they are even competent enough to do that.

That just sums up just how jammy Rangers are against us. They ALWAYS seem to be able to profit from ONE lapse from us during a game. How one team can carry so much fucking luck is unbelieveable.

Again, just like in September we've played well and deservedly drawn with Rangers yet I've walked out of Fir Park gutted about it. We deserved to win tonight against an awful Rangers side who created little throughout. We worked hard, closed them down and didn't give them a sniff especially in the first half. I felt we sat too deep as the game wore on though and were crying out for a sub as Forbes and Jut in particular looked absolutey shattered. Absolutely gutted that we didn't win that. Great goal from Hateley and of course we had the ball in the net early in the second half and as we all know, it was wrongly given offside. It's just yet another example of just how incompetent the officials in this country are and that decision was the worst from a very bad lot of them during the 90 minutes tonight. I thought that McCulloch in particular got away with murder and Boyd's backing into the defender, falling on his arse and being awarded a free kick for it just summed up the ref tonight. It just seems that no matter what happens, us beating Rangers just isn't meant to be.

What's wrong with that article? It is 100% correct as far as I can see.

The Rangers support is never noisy and passionate, not since they were banned from singing about being 'up to their knees' and the likes. It depends how the game goes, but if it's a tight game like it has been the last few times they've been at FP then you'll hear them less and less as the game goes on. The atmosphere at a Motherwell v Rangers game is normally pretty dire these days to be honest. Are their fans in the Phil O'Donnell Stand being kept back for ten minutes after the game like they were supposed to have been in September?

They may be shite by their standards but they are still better than us and that's why folk think we'll get beat. Add to that the fact that we haven't beaten them for over seven years and it's understandable that we're not expected to take much from this game.

Exactly my thinking aswell. I think it will be a very tight game, especially given the way Brown normally sets up his teams. We've shown earlier in the season that we have the ability to contain Rangers and stop them creating much and given that this Rangers side prefer a more direct approach rather than playing 'fast flowing' football the way that the likes of Celtic and Hibs do, I reckon they'll struggle to break us down. On the other hand though I don't see us doing much damage at the other end either as we lack flair and creativity so I reckon this one is a stick on nil-nil. Also interesting to note that Rangers under Walter Smith have not won at Fir Park in the league since January 1997 when Owen Coyle scored his first goal for us.

I reckon it will be a pretty dire spectacle and I've a feeling that we'll line up 4-5-1 and try and stifle Rangers. Like a few others, I reckon we'll get a point in a drab 0-0 draw.

Another great result if not performance from the lads today. It was never going to be a brilliant spectacle though and Accies are a hard side to beat so it's a good win for us. What is the deal with the Imrie bashing though? Was it just because of the manner of his goal against us for Caley in the cup or have I missed something else there?

So does that mean I'm right then? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaas

"None of the above managed to keep him out so at least give im credit for continually winning his place back" Yes they did. Scott Howie was first choice for the 1995/96 & 1996/97 seasons whilst Woods was at the club and the only time Woods played during that time, with the exception of a cameo sub appearance at right back against Clydebank, was when Howie was out with a broken cheekbone that he sustained against Celtic. As soon as he was fit again, he was back in the side. Then in the summer of 1997, Howie decided that he was too good to play for us and so held out for more money and eventually lef the club so Woods regained his place for the 97/98 season when he basically had no other competition for the jersey. When Harri Kampman came in, he brought his own goalkeeper , Mikko Kaven, who was his preferred choice to Woods until he left until he left the club and then Billy Davies took over. Davies gave both Woods and Kaven games in the side up until January of that season before punting Kaven and bringing in Andy Goram, who was then our first choice goalkeeper for the next two years and Woods' appearances during that time were limited to when Goram was out injured. Then when Goram moved to Man Utd in March 2001, Davies brought in Mark Brown who was his first choice at the start of the 01/02 season and remained so until December of that year when Eric Black dropped him for Woods because he didn't fancy him. He then brought in Francois Dubourdeau who eventually dislodged Woods as No.1 the following season under Terry Butcher until both goalkeepers left the club in the summer of 2003. "If you can't then I take it you just hate the guy and can't see past it" That's not very fair, of course I don't hate the guy, I never knew him. He was obviously an honest player who gave it his best whenever he got the chance and for that he does deserve credit. However, I just didn't rate him as a goalkeeper and I'm sure there are plenty of Motherwell fans who feel exactly the same about him.

And I'm not disputing that for one minute. I am fully aware that we are never going to attract or hold on to top quality players. However this thread asked for people's opinions on who the worst player/signing that they had seen in a Motherwell jersey and I simply gave mine and my reasons for giving it. I supported Woods when he played for us, but I just thought he was a terrible goalkeeper over the many years he was here.

I can't remember that one, but I remember him taking a bye kick in a game against Kilmarnock and hitting it off the back of Scott Leitch's heels for it to rebound to Paul Wright to score. I think he also did something similar against Aberdeen a few years earlier. Despite how bad he was, Woods could actually be mentioned in the 'Over-rated players' thread as there were some fans who just wouldn't criticise him no matter how bad he was. "Ah but he's an honest trier, a nice guy and a good shot stopper" was the war cry of the 'Woodsieites'. Not that I ever doubted that he was an honest pro who was probably a sound guy into the bargain mind, but where the 'he was a good shot stopper' came from always baffled me. He was only a good shot stopper if it was hit directly at him and even then it was known to either go through, go over or go under him from time to time! And how many times was he beaten at his near post? How many times did he drop a seemingly simple shot? How many times did he miss a cross into the box?....and so on and so on.... Woods was a bombscare and had many a Well fan covering their eyes whenever the ball went anywhere near him.

No I know that, but Spencer & Goram were seen as cult heroes at the time by many Motherwell fans and whilst other players got dogs abuse for less, these two got off very lightly from the supporters for their many poor displays in a Claret & Amber jersey. I remember a game against Dundee Utd at Fir Park back in the late nineties when Lee McCulloch had scored two first half goals to give us a 2-0 lead, yet he he also missed a few good chances aswell to put the game well and truly beyond United and was subjected to all sorts from some of our fans for it. Then later in the game, Spencer - who'd done nothing all day - missed an open goal by trying to go for the spectacular from about sixteen yards out and the same fans who had slated McCulloch actually laughed at Spencer and gave him mock 'hee haws'. And Dundee United ended up coming back to draw the game 2-2.

The way I saw it was that it was because of how minging he was that he was here for as long. Stevie Woods was at Motherwell for something like nine years and in that time played second fiddle to FIVE different goalkeepers; Howie, Kaven, Goram, Brown & Dubourdeau and only regained his place in the side when one of them either moved on or the manager didn't fancy them. He just kept turning up like a bad penny and each time displayed the same diabolical attributes that saw him axed in the first place. Other clubs realised that he was no use and that's why there was no queue for his signature at any time so that's why he was here as long. Stevie Woods was an absolutely AWFUL goalkeeper and although messers Kaven & Dubourdeau also fit into the same category as him, Woods' persistent awful-ness shades it for me as the worst Motherwell goalkeeper in the last twenty years.

Richie Foran - It never ceases to amaze me just how highly so many of our fans actually rated, and still do rate this guy, going by the heroes reception he gets when playing against us for Inverness. He was an extremely lazy player with very little ability yet did have a good goalscoring ratio even though he contributed very little else to the team. His 'cult' status seemed to stem from the fact that he was 'a bit of a lad'...and not much else. John Spencer - A money grabbing wee chancer who did nothing atall to even remotely justify his vastly inflated salary, yet another player who could do absolutely no wrong with the vast majority of the support. Andy Goram - see John Spencer Of course there have been plenty others, but those three stand out as they were almost untouchable with the Motherwell support when they were here.

Yes I do.

I can see it being a very tight, scrappy affair but with a bit of excitement and maybe a sending off or two. And I fancy Accies to take a 2-1 win back across the Clyde.

Fanfuckingtastic result. Put that in yer pipe and smoke it McGhee, that's you had your backside served to you on a silver platter.