Andy_P

Your thoughts and votes please....

Perhaps slightly ironic that at a game where some will be paying in, despite having season tickets, there are folk giving out freebies! Part of the Well Remembered day was a pledge to give out tickets for contributing memorabilia on the day. I got an offer yesterday from the club's community department of tickets for the Dundee game.

So where was all this "no harm to get a reminder" or "look at other options" when your pin up boy was going through his "off the boil" spells? Regardless of whatever level of performance he turned in he was still the first name in your preferred starting eleven. Why isn't Higdon afforded the same support from you as he works through his "off the boil" spell?

Didn't realise Humphrey had cramp. At the time it seemed odd because after a good hour to 70 minutes where he had delivered next to nothing, he suddenly started looking dangerous and was promptly hooked within about 5 minutes of it!

A hard one to take tonight. Not quite in the daylight robbery class but at the very least we should have come out of that with a point. Thought it was an excellent first half performance that was only lacking a goal. We looked bright, lively and inventive throughout and only some less than clinical finishing and bad luck prevented us going in ahead. Not to forget Randy's two excellent saves but that really was all United had offered to that point. Unfortunately we just didn't quite reach those heights in the second half, although there must have been three or four balls that went across the goal just begging to be put in. In such situations you always fear the sucker punch. I thought they had a fifteen minute spell or so where they looked quite threatening and we rode our luck once or twice but even with Mackay-Steven and Skacel coming on, I actually thought we had weathered their storm, so it was even more frustrating that we concede when we've actually wrestled back control of the match. I've seen us play worse and win, I'll say that. On another night with a shade more fortune and with some better finishing and United's goal would have been a mere consolation in a 3-1 or 4-1 win. But two pretty decent performances on the back of a few that weren't so good and if we can hit the same standard as we did in the opening half tonight then we must be looking good to bounce back on Saturday.

Your thoughts and votes please....

Sky Sports News' ticker has been showing Hearts v Hibs or whichever one of them is at home, as being shown by them on the Sunday. Haven't seen any mention of Rangers v Elgin though. I find it something of a double edged sword when it comes to the TV companies showing games like Rangers v Elgin or Peterhead or Stranraer against Celtic as they've done in the past. It used to piss me off no end when that they used any opportunity to show one of the Old Firm when they would either cake walk it, or do the very minimum required to get through with a shadow strength side generally making it shite viewing. That more often than not there would be other more attractive ties that could genuinely portray Scottish football in a better light only made it more annoying. Obviously though from their perspective having paid to cover the Cup they are looking to maximise viewing figures and so as ever they look to the Old Firm. The flip side to that though is that the aforementioned more attractive ties don't lose out as much on the gate - you wonder how many might give Aberdeen a miss say if it were to be covered - and the £70k plus whatever gate receipts can go a very long way for an Elgin, East Stirling or the likes. If I think about it in that respect I can just about stomach Rangers v Elgin being shown live.

Must be those of a certain age Haggis. As this thread was developing and comparisons made between officiating of different players he was the one that instantly sprung to mind as being given a near free reign at times to bully his way through Premier League defences. As regards Higdon I'm not sure where I fall in the argument as to whether he gets a raw deal or brings it on himself but to pick up on steelboy's comment about McCall working with him, I have wondered before about McCall's general approach to the disciplinary side of things. We're certainly not a dirty team as far I'm concerned, and some of our sending-offs have been very questionable but we do seem to be more prone to attracting red cards and suspensions then we were under Brown. It almost caught up with us last season, you do worry that with an even smaller squad this season suspensions might bite us in the arse come the latter part of the campaign.

I was actually quite happy that they took the game right to the final whistle. Result wise.....hmmm.....but happy enough that with us already spending today resting up, that they had a tough shift for the full ninety Small margins and all that stuff.

Sure they said a thank you to the 436 travelling Motherwell fans when announcing the overall crowd.

It's been gone over plenty in the past about the timing of draws for Scottish Cup competitions but can only reiterate that by having it at stupid o'clock on a weekday they've managed to destroy an element of excitement for supporters already. Mind plenty of buses home after games when the draw was at a sensible time and fans were on their way home from games, where the bus would descend into silence then errupt when Motherwell's name and opponent was decided. Though it would last all but 5 minutes the draw for the old 3rd Round of the Cup was one of the moments of the season to look forward to. If they really have to make it a working day could they not even do it at lunchtime when folk might actually have a chance of seeing it instead of half-two when most will have done and dusted lunch and are at the mercy of their work's mobile phone/internet polis? It remains to be seen how successful the moving of the 4th Round to the first week in December proves too. Personally I'm not so sure that the hoped for lift in crowds for that round because the weather "may" be slightly better in early December is going to offset the overall drop in crowds that teams can get after they go out the Cup because the competitive part of the season is then effectively over. May be I'm just particularly negative about it as I'll be in London over the Cup weekend and am pretty miffed at missing out on what is one of my favourite parts of the season. So for me personally I'm looking for a winnable tie that will get us through, preferably away from home so the Cup voucher is still valid in the season book for hopefully the next round, but not to a ground that we've never played at before. Selfish shite that I am!

Good effort by your mate Finlay! On the car parking front. You think a fiver is bad! I noticed this on an email I got from the SRU earlier in the week....

I thought with having a very decent record against Saints that this might be day that things turned back our way a little but I certainly didn't see it being just as convincing a result. It was fantastic to get the goal so early and really give us something to hold on to and give the team a jolt of confidence. They probably had more of the ball over the piece but our attacking play was really causing them problems when Ojamaa, Humphrey and particularly Murphy ran at them. If Ojamaa had employed a wee bit more composure and the ball had fallen a bit more kindly it could easily have been 3-0 at half-time. In the second half it appeared more a case of being happy to hold what we had and being a bit more selective about when to push forward rather than chasing the third. A slightly risky strategy with a two goal lead if the opposition pull one back but it worked to good effect today. Lovely finish for the third and nice to note the desire of both Law and I think Murphy almost wrestling with one another to get to the ball to put away the third. A bit of a disappointment for the defence and Randy not to get a clean sheet but over the piece a minor quibble given the result and performance. Couldn't really have asked for better given recent events. Now to build on it again!

Your thoughts and votes please folks...

Cheers Finlay. Happy to stand corrected. Was there a 2-0 midweek loss at Tannadice shortly before or after? May be mixing it up with that.

I recall a 2-0 defeat up there not long after McCall took over but I'm not recollecting another defeat yup there since they came back up so certainly it's a venue we've had reasonable success at it the recent past. We really need something to go our way to help things turn and allow the players to play with a bit of confidence and belief again. Whether that's as a result of something special from one of our lot, a break from the officials, some defensive fuck up on the part of Saints or some complete miss-hit that deflects in off somebody's arse I don't really care. There have been some glaringly obvious failings in the team but if we can reach a level of performance these players had been able to hit prior to last the month or so, and something goes our way then we might see things turn on Saturday.

I find it really difficult to predict what is going to happen in the medium term. Certainly at the recent Well Society meeting Derek Weir made mention about extending McCall's contract and not so long ago the manager himself was saying along the lines of if he was happy in a job then the offer of a "better" job wouldn't neccesarily hold the same appeal as it may do for others. You could ofcourse argue both are saying exactly what might be expected of them in the run run down to contract expiry. What I would say is that clarification on that as early as possible would be beneficial for all. There is a fair bit of evidence that wholesale changes to a squad can be achieved at quite short notice so the prospect of only 7 contracted players isn't perhaps the worry it might have been in the past. But I wouldn't say its the most desirable way of rebuilding a squad. In terms of the players you will never quite know what's going on - what their thinking is, what the offer from the club is, what offers from other clubs there are and what external pressures are being placed upon them, being just some of the factors involved in considering deals. There have been some I have been surprised at re-signing. I didn't imagine we would get 3 years out of Jennings for example when he took so long to re-sign after that first season. Hateley signing a 3 year deal when he was out of contract was another. So again because we might have a dozen or whatever out of contract it doesn't mean a dozen will go. But again you would want to give them so clarity as early as possible so they know what they are likely to be signing up for. From the club's perspective too they don't want to be signing up players on deals and then a new manager comes in and deems these guys handed contracts surplus to requirements. Or worse still a Simon Mensing scenario. So for me first things first as early as possible get McCall sorted and take things from there. In the short-term all I look for is a win as soon as possible to give the players some much needed confidence and lift the gloom that rolled in from the North Sea in late September and hasn't as yet buggered off.

Just getting around to posting about the game, but I'm still a bit unsure what to make of it. When you've lost 4-0 it sounds like you are pushing your luck coming away with hard luck stories but I would say never in a million years were there four goals between the teams going by the balance of play. Up until it went 3-0 if anything we were the dominant team, more so in the second half admittedly. But after that third goal things quickly degenerated. The first goal from Hibs was a good strike but how much room and time was he given to produce it! I've only seen pictures on folks mobiles at the game but it seems like we were hard done by with the header. Wasn't clear from my vantage point but the evidence suggests the officials got it wrong. That's your first game changing moment. Hibs first penalty - again not a great view so I don't know how much was Randolph's challenge, if he has in fact made a challenge at all but he's not one that's prone to rashness. Very edge of the box, away from the goal, I just don't see him lunging in. Game changing moment number two. A wee bit surprised we got the penalty. Certainly McPake clearly had both arms around Higdon but the challenge was little different from plenty that O'Reilly had allowed previously. It was no wonder McPake was nipping away at him although if I mind rightly he wasn't booked whilst Daley was later booked for dissent. Higgy's spot-kick unfortunately was in keeping with his efforts on goal in recent games. That was your game changer number three. And lastly we had Hibs second penalty which seemed soft and contestable whether it was even inside the box or not. If we had got level at 1-1 or even back into it at 2-1 there's plenty recent evidence of us making a fist of it against Hibs trying to come from behind so who knows what might have transpired then. Certainly not a defeat by a four goal margin I'd wager. I'd personally have preferred Carswell in at the start and Law out wide in place of Murph, but thinking on it, we were only one player (Kerr in for Hutch) different to the side that played pretty well against Panathinaikos at the start of the season so I can see why McCall may well have had faith in that line up. With only six points between second and eleventh the league table offers as much hope as it does despair, although it doesn't seem particularly nice viewing given where we are now. I only hope we can get a shot of confidence from somewhere or a break - although you might argue we had that with the penalty we got last night soon and lift the gloom a bit.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Really interesting stat that one. You can view that a couple of ways. Considering that just under a third of our goals have come from his corners you could contest he's more than doing his bit. You could also argue such a ratio illustrates just how important it is to not to waste set-pieces such as corners and given that importance he should be striving to better that ratio still, as the perception amongst many fans is that he tends to "waste" quite a fair number of corners. Personally its one of my pet-hates, given the high percentage of goals that tend to come from set-pieces to see corners and free-kicks wasted so perhaps wasted opportunities to profit from them tends to stick in my mind more. Never really crossed my mind that someone else should take over those duties mind you.

Certainly at this stage there are a lot of uncertainties as to how things are going to go, but one of the points that did seem cut and dried was that two Well Society members, presumably two from the newly formed Well Society board would be going on to the club board. Ofcourse there wasn't a specific timescale mentioned as to when but I got the impression the club were looking for that to happen sooner or later. As for a full transfer of control I agree that was much more uncertain as to when it might happen. I didn't so much view it though as being a strings-attached deal though, more a case of a number of targets having to be realised before it becomes feasible or realistic. Points two and three you list we don't have much influence over but now that the WS board is in place in conjuction with the club perhaps there might be a fresh push to influence your first point, in boosting the fund already in place. It was quoted that there around 4000 season ticket holders and 1000 WS members. That seems an avenue that can be targeted to boost membership and therefore funds. Who knows what business contacts and influence the new WS board members may have in terms of helping uptake of the larger WS memberships outwith the rank and file support. For me the next step to give both the club and WS boards the space and time to get together and develop their strategy and see where they see us going in the immediate future before we can do much else at this stage.

I can see a bit of myself in there. I think I probably managed about a decade where going to home and away games was just the norm, regardless of location, kick-off, ticket price or how good or bad we were. It was "growing up" getting a house and eventually getting married that did in the away days for me. At first it was pretty soul destroying. I remember missing the opening day of the season at Livingston and being absolutely gutted. There was also a level of guilt too, that somehow you were letting the club down by not being there to support them. Absolute pish ofcourse to feel remotely like that but when you've done it regularly for so long that was how it felt. Don't get me wrong I still have that pang of regret around kick-off if I'm not at a game but all too soon the goals start going in and you are away checking coupons and fantasy football teams and enjoying the Soccer Saturday banter. A look at the users online during some away games can be very interesting and it is startling just how many guys who were at one point were home-and-awayers for years are sitting online rather than at the game. Over time I've managed to increase the number of away games but some of those factors mentioned earlier do now play a part. Locations, transport, and costs do weigh heavily on the equasion. Where a game falls in the calender is also important. I've a growing interest in rugby and when you compare the whole package there as to what the life of a fitba fan is like and its difficult not to come to the conclusion that we get utterly shafted. I went to see Glasgow Warriors on Friday night for example. £15 to get in, compared to £25 say at Tynecastle yesterday. The same yellow jaiket who wants to frisk me before I go into the fitba is telling me to "enjoy the match". What's this? Standing to watch the game instead of announcements that fans should remain seated at all times. There's beer on the go instead of Bovril and what's more you can take it with you to your spot in terrace/stand. They even chucked in discounted travel through Scotrail. But where do we go to resolve it? We're back to problem that individual clubs change do things all their on their own and so many of our peers operate at the behest of their banks that they wouldn't countenance any cut in prices to try to offer better value.

I've seen plenty worse there before I'll say that. For me it boiled down to them scoring when they were in the ascendancy whilst we didn't score when we were on top. Other than that not a great deal between the sides. If there was a lesson to learned from today though its that Carswell in the middle with Hateley back at right-back immediately brought a better balance to the team. I hope McCall sticks with that on Friday and we can look Law to get on the left-hand side where he has linked up with Hammy to good effect in the past and allow Lasley to do what he does with a bit more assurance that cover is there. Two defeats in succession in the league, and three if you include the League Cup game are a worry obviously and we clearly need to address that soon. We've generally been fairly good over recent seasons at stopping the rot before things have descended into a genuine slump and hopefully that will continue. For the moment for me it reiterates that there isn't a huge amount between much of this league save for Dundee. It's disappointing to have dropped a few places having been top for a couple of weeks, but the likes of Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Inverness illustrate that we can get back on track and put a couple of results together movement back up there can be swift. A morale boosting win on Friday would be just the thing.

Deleted your vote......... .....just cos I can.

Your thoughts and votes please...