TheLip69

For my money they build an atmosphere and that's, surely, what we want at the football. The singing, the banners, that big feckin drum, should all be a focal point of the match. They should be front and centre encouraging others to get their hands out their pockets and give their tonsils an airing. I dont think they can influence or affect the game or the crowd from that wee corner as much as they could with a more prominent position. Just my opinion of course.

Get them away from that wee corner in the East Stand, and either stick them in the middle of the East or behind the goals in the Cooper. Make them a focal point of the matchday. It might encourage others to come along and join in the festivities.

Lets face a few facts here, this was our fifth outing in Europe in the past 6 seasons. In the last three outings we have lost our final home game by two goals to nil. This was Kubans first match in Europe, ever. The looked as if they had played in Europe all their lives, we looked like amateurs. They played the perfect European away game. Suckered us in and hit us on the break. We do all the hard work getting there and then treat it like an exotic friendly. In the last six years we have learnt fuck all, and that's disgraceful.

The guy had been knocked back by Accies, the only way from there was down. We took him on gave him his chance and he even played and scored in Europe. Then walks away because he's a free agent and hopes his dad can wangle him a wee job at Ibrox. Fuck off, Motherwell did him a good turn, not the other way around.

No, if McCall is going to be ashamed of anything it will be allowing so many contracts to run out at one time. To lose a couple of first team players at the end of the season is more or less expected, to lose six, more than half the team, is nothing short of ridiculous. Something that seems to have been forgotten in the rush to congratulate him on his signings.

I am fairly happy with the Puma gear, I've always liked their stuff. Not too enamoured of this seasons strips though, the neck of the home strip is just a mess, and I detest black football strips. White has always been my preference for an away strip, black is just awful. I have never bought a black strip, training tops, yes, strips no.

I have always thought that International caps can improve a certain type of player and I believe that if Hammell had been in more squads it would have boosted his confidence and lifted his game. If you get into a few squads you'd work harder at your game to try to get into the team. Hammell's a far better player than Danny Fox and for him to be overlooked while Fox gets plucked from obscurity just because he signs for Celtic is disgraceful. When Joe Wark was the best left back in Scotland he was kept out of the Scotland team by one of the best right backs in the World, Danny McGrain, who was capped at left back to accommodate Sandy Jardine at right bank. I voted Wark, because I am old enough to have seen both of them at their peak. I like Hammell, I think he's a better player than he gets credit for and well worth a cap or two, but he ain't Joe.

I thought the atmosphere was terrific I was behind the goals and it's the first time I've been in amongst that kind of crowd since they built the East Stand. Certainly brought back a few memories, fair play to the lads involved but they certainly worked hard at building the atmosphere. What with the drum, the flares, the big fucking popper, the bloke with the blow up guitar, and the guy with the horses head, it was carnival stuff right enough.

Got a Transpennine train on Saturday from Manchester to Lancaster, it's destination was Edinburgh. It was absolutely mobbed, crowded all through the train and not helped by two people with bikes, neither of which folded down, taking up half the bloody carriage. As we left Piccadilly the train manager advised is that there was a problem further south and trains were delayed through Crewe so everyone had taken this train which was already fully booked. I had booked a seat but couldn't even get on the carriage where my seat was and ended up standing all the way to Lancaster. After the game on the train back from Lancaster to Preston we were informed that the air con wasn't working so I sweated all the way to Preston. At Preston the train for Manchester arrived and I jumped on and sat down, 5 minutes later a staff member hopped on board and said we had to get off and go to the front of the train as these three carriages were not going any further. Needless to say all those carriages were full and the one carriage I managed to squeeze onto was First Class and again I stood all the way to Manchester. I was bloody shattered by the time I got home. What with the walk to and from the ground and standing on trains all day I was fecked by the time I reached home.

Definitely a cracking day down at Morecambe, the police outside the Kings Arms were okay. According to what I heard in the pub they came in response to a driver who called about the flare set off outside the Kings Arms. The lads were boisterous and kept the singing going but there was no real trouble. Hell of a bloody trek to the ground from there though, thankfully there was a smashing wee pub just at the stadium. A good pint of Cumberland Ale soon recharged the batteries. I've seen worse pre-season matches but as I never expected a classic I wasn't going to be disappointed anyway. It was about the experience and the 'Well fans certainly made it a good one. For me ZFA, and the No.11 stuck out for Motherwell. Didn't rate the No. 7 in the first half and felt the No. 14 while putting in a lot of work seemed like a headless chicken most fo the time. Still I bet that head security man was glad to see the back of us.

It ios the route and always has been as far as I am aware. I've been down here 17 years and always managed to get a direct train from Manchester to either Motherwell or Glasgow. I'm getting an earlier train arriving at 13.35 for a 14.00 kick off is cutting it too fine in my book as the ground is a wee bit away from the station and I fancy a beer or two before kick-off.

Anyone heading for Morecambe next saturday, managed to book train tickets from Manchester.

For this season I'm still haunted by the defeat from Hibs after Hamme;lls 'goal' was disallowed. For my money, this season was all about 2nd to 8th, the battes going on in that area are what really made this league season come alive for me. To be honest I never really paid much attention to celtic and when I did see them they didn't impress me. In my opinion, Celtic treated the SPL with contempt, they expected to win it without any great effort so they didnt put any effort into it. How can they hold their heads up when they have won the title with the lowes points tally since the SPL's inception and dropped more points than any previous winner of the SPL, and all this in a season without their biggest rivals. Contemptible scum.

I dont like black strips, never have. Refs should be in black and no-one else. We have a whole spectrum of colours to chose from for our strips why go with black? This years alternate the jade/electric blue thingy with the claret and amber hoops was different and, although I wasnt impressed at first, it did grow on me and I finally decided i liked it enough to buy one. I think that's the kind of line we should take, pick a colour you hardly ever see on a football jersey and splash a bit of claret and amber here and there and away ye go. Lets steer away from the dullsville blacks and greys. I've never bought a black football top in my life and never will. Training tops? Aye. Fitba tops? No.

Too much claret in the top for me, collar, cuffs, and band is fine everything else in the top should be amber, and the wee inshot in the neck is just a mess. I like us in white shorts but will look forward to us playing Hibs or celtic where we have to change shorts would quite like to see that top with claret shorts. Socks are epic, the neck thing puts me right off the top though.