Andy_P

He's had his injury problems ofcourse but at the moment Ports looks like another of those who've moved on from Fir Park and never quite made the step up they liked to think they were going to make. Guys like Graeme Smith, Jim Paterson and Stephen Hughes are another couple of recent examples. Ofcourse they'll all be likely be more than well compensated financially but it should be a wee cautionary tale for the next batch contemplating the same path that sometimes that grass away from Fir Park isn't as green as it might first appear.

For the Dundee based guys what's the chat about the attendance yesterday? I've seen MFC beaten with the Dundee have had xxxx thousand more at their games than you stick by a few people over recent weeks. Accepting ofcourse they will have been affected by the game being shown live and there was the weather related problems but I thought there would have been more home fans than that.

I thought Craig had been discounted. I remember reading somewhere, might have been one of those journos on twitter, that he was never actually an option as a number two and McCall always intended on appointing his own man. Craig's name had appeared because he was apparently mooted to become our caretaker manager if the board weren't able to make the appointment they wanted.

Could well be proved wrong but I'm sure Fitzpatrick is an attractive option to many managers because he has some versatility about him whilst not costing the earth in comparison to some. Many I'm sure would argue he's hardly master of one of position never mind three but given he can fill in at left midfield and left-back (I would like to think there wouldn't be a repeat of the rabbit caught in headlights displays of his youth there) as well as his preferred central midfield role if we're as strapped as we believe I can't see him not getting a deal until the summer at least.

Thoughts and votes please!

May be too late for thos who've been swithering but just passed the Broxden roundabout at Perth and so far it's been okay roadwise. Nearside lane has been fine all the way up. Outside is a bit hit and miss but have passed gritters and ploughs heading south so presume they'll be heading back northwards at some point and will catch that. Passed one car load of Dossers on the way up so far. Roads haven't been overly busy. Mon the 'Well!

I'm sure if that's the case there will surely be some clarification/correction to follow from MFC that additional sections within Section G have been released at the £15 price. Or when the first punters make there purchases on Monday and report back. Is it not the case that the revenue generated from the semi-finals are pooled between the four clubs? That being the case there can't be an imbalance between what one set of supporters are paying or least choice of what to pay against the other three. Can you imagine Rangers being offered just £20 seats for example? As for the allocation itself its perfectly sufficient in my mind. Allocating us Section's G in the East Stand and Section's I in the Main Stand makes sense. That's in keeping with what we've got for previous recent Semi-Finals (same allocation up the other side for Celtic albeit) at Hampden and that has proved ample before. Equally if we do find around 5000 folk hiding in the cave that come out to attend, I'm sure all parties will only be too glad to open Section's F. in the East Stand. Everybody that wants to go Hampden to support Motherwell will be able to get a ticket.

I'm still really uncomfortable with the idea of Colt teams playing in the Third Division. The positive spin is that it will allow youngsters to play in a competitive environment against more senior players and in front of healthier crowds than they might get at U19 level. The cynic in me however simply see's it as the anchor the Old Firm need when they eventually jump ship from the SPL. Let them have reserve sides in Division Three and before you know they'll be allowed to get up to Division One (or SPL2 if you like). If they bugger off south then you'll inevitably have calls to let them in what's left of the SPL so what's left can still graciously be allowed to continue to be subsidised by their travelling fans who can longer afford to watch them and what crumbs will be on offer from whatever TV deal is offered. I certainly don't ever want a situation where Motherwell end up playing Rangers or Celtic reserves in a competive fixture. What a slap in the face that would feel like. Who's to say the fans of Arbroath, Albion Rovers or Berwick fans would want it either. What a dream fixture having Inverness reserves travelling a couple of hundred miles south to play Stranraer in a mid-table battle in the middle of January would be eh? Nah, this Colt idea is certainly not for me.

On this element alone I see that Blatter seems to be confident the World Cup in Qatar will take place in January rather than the usual June/July set up. The hope ofcourse is that Scotland will be there and as such the SPL will have enough players away that a shutdown would be required anyway (there could already be a winter break in place by then ofcourse). But if itsn't already up for discussion surely this gives an ideal opportunity to at least trial the March - November set up for even 1 or 2 seasons around this particular tournament?

Dunno. Maybe by mistake? No obvious reason why. Re-opened now though.

Indeed. We are in a relatively fortunate position whereby we do have a bit of breathing space in the league - allied to the fact there's a large run of games coming, where will have to freshen things up at some point, to allow some of the youngsters some decent game time. Squad still needs a bit more depth in places certainly and we still have irons in the fire with the cup competions but there are loads of managers who I'm sure would love to be in McCall's position of taking over a relatively stable team, mid-table with half a season to play with without team selections, formations etc. Don't blow the opportunity Stuart!!

I would much prefer a 16 or 18 team league set up myself so don't misconstrue the following as an attempt at backing the ten team SPL but rather than it not working as has been stated on a few occasions, was it not the case that the league was originally expanded to twelve teams in the mid-1980's under the guise of protecting the full-time teams in Scotland (ourselves included)? I was only ten or eleven at the time so perhaps the guys who can recall that era better than me will be better placed to comment but given that you had Dundee Utd reaching the UEFA Cup Final having only a couple years earlier been in a European Cup Semi Final and you were less than a handful of years after Aberdeen had won the Cup Winners Cup. Scotland were still qualifying for World Cups etc. Scottish football certainly wasn't in as poor a state as it is now. Is this what the clubs are trying to grasp at or is it as we all suspect simply about money?

Very tenuously related to topic but I've been noseying about his tweets last week or so too to see if he'd be daft enough to let anything slip about coming back to MFC. Nothing on that score but his latest one's interesting "hardest day of training for a long time" shortly after posting about a fellow Blackburn player with an unpronounceable name making him laugh once again. So it would seem he's back at Blackburn again. I'm not quite sure what that says about our training of recent times though. Is it a case of them putting in more hours down south, is it more intense? Certainly the perception was that Knox had them training in such a fashion that they were less susceptible to injury? Having said that both Hateley and Murph both tweet about going for a kip after training today. Not together I hasten to add....

We were due to play St Mirren that weekend yeah Keith. With the decision to shift the League Cup Semi's to weekend dates though the Saints game has been shunted into February. Suspect it might be some kind of flaw caused by problems encountered on the official site (as being discussed on another thread) where it appears they had to roll-back a few days worth of content. Currently we are sitting with no game on 5th February though if that's any help. Not sure if that's the next round of the Scottish Cup or an international weekend.

Cheers for the quick response guys and for the further information. Was just a thought that it might be something that the Trust could assist with. Good to know that even if in this instance its not feasible, that you have given the facilities at Fir Park plenty of consideration already. Ta.

If you accept the official line that the Hearts game was under Gordon Young's command (despite both Brown and Knox being in the dugout) then Inverness would have been their 2nd game in charge. We had Killie away on the Saturday then the several times postponed Inverness game on the Monday night if I remember rightly. As for Dundee, the warnings are there for all to see. St Johnstone, Dundee, Inverness and so on the list is as long as your arm if you want to go down that line. What's maybe less likely to stick in people's heads are the comfortable wins over Morton on the way to the CIS, against St Johnstone and Clyde under Butcher. Even beating Airdrie away from home under Malpas so they haven't all gone against us against First Division teams. I see it as being very close and one that could go either way.

What would the costs be for sorting out the repairs of the plumbing works in the East Stand? Would it be within the means of the MST to make a contribution towards it? I accept that its not perhaps where the Trust would ideally want to be spending their money but sorting this out so you don't have to wade through puddles or have a situation where there are bins catching drips would have a direct benefit to a fair percentage of our home support and that would surely fit the remit of the Trust of looking out for our own, no? In the early-mid days of the Trust there was a non-specific fund where fans could donate to if they so wished - again if that fund still has monies in it, would that be available to spend on a project such as this? Going forward I recall there was talk of re-starting the fund at one point. If as we suspect we'll be doing patch-up jobs around the old place for a while to come yet then perhaps a fund with something set aside for similar might be an idea.

Reading the Accies forum prior to the game on Saturday they actually had a thread about him being an Accies fan as a kid and how we had continued the theme of employing manager's with a soft-spot for them. Seemingly McCall's grandparents stayed in Hamilton and he used to head north frequently during school holidays and took in Hamilton games when he was up. Could be he also went to Fir Park on occasion also?

I wouldn't disagree with that and the Blackman and Gow contract situations might dictate that's how we have to go whether we want to or not. That then brings the return of the left-midfield conundrum which has never really been resolved for goodness how long. Fizzy who's looked considerable more comfortable in the centre out left again? Ross Forbes? Alan Gow if he's still about? Lots of talk about the central defence of late but this position has been crying out to be filled for ages.

The whole day out that day was just brilliant and I wax lyrical about it any opportunity but one of my favourite ever memories of following Motherwell was coming back from Stranraer. Stopped in Girvan to get chips the chippies and boozers were already queued out the door with Dossers with the road just a convoy of claret and amber coming back up the road. Then in the distance the team bus appears. Word spreads fast and the town just empties into the street, the place is at a near standstill as the bus crawls through about 5mph 'Well fans are celebrating and acclaiming the team as if they've just won the Cup never mind just routinely beaten a Second or Third Divison team. A memory I'll always cherish.

I think Accies have been bottom of the table on each of the two occasions we've played them this season and bad as it is not having beaten them to not even have managed to find the net against them is really really poor. The reaction that I had hoped for just didn't seem to be in evidence at all. The display was as laboured and timid as its been for the last few weeks. We simply do not look a threat going forward at all. Throw in a defence that's been creaking a bit recently then there's some sorting out for McCall to attend to. Clearly Gow hasn't worked as well as hoped. I thought he hinted at offering something a bit different when he first arrived and appeared as if he would contribute a goal or two as well. But he has offered nothing of a goal threat for weeks and those glimpses of ability have been lost in attempts to dribble his way through six defenders at a time when a simple pass is more often than not on. But he's not alone. We have several players who are turning performances that are pale imitations of what they have delivered earlier in the season yet at the same time we have John Sutton, who provides a large chunk of what little aggression our attack has starting from the bench. But we'll see where we go from here. Not a particularly inspiring start at all but McCall ofcourse has barely had a chance to implement his ideas and style on the team so hopefuly we'll see things pick up in due course.

See above "or least pish if you prefer" or there's always the null vote option.

Thoughts and votes please....

From the BBC website. Not quite sure I'd call it a classic but worth watching for Murph's belter and to see Reid make a tit of himself.. SPL Classic Hamilton 2 Motherwell 2

First things first I'm looking to see a reaction. I want to see the team respond to the fact they've a new manager and the need to impress him. I also want to see them go out to atone for the lacklustre display against Accies at Fir Park last time out. I believe that on our day we are better than Hamilton and if we get that necessary level of fight, determination and attitude from the team then the two allied together should be enough for us to get a result on Saturday. Accies also rode their luck that afternoon somewhat with Hateley's poor penalty, the fact we should have had another, they could easily have had a man sent off etc. The one good bit of play they did that day was score, everything else was negative and disruptive and I can't see that trick holding for another 90 minutes. Up to us to play our part in this as well. I would hope with it being on New Years Day we'll take a few more than normal and tongues will be loosened somewhat. Hopefully it won't be a case of waiting for the team to do something before we respond in the stands as we can be prone to do and it'll be more a case of us driving the team on. It's been a right shitty few weeks. Fresh start and all I'd just love it for us all to be fired up together, consign the last month to the past and see the team burst out the traps and get fucked right in about Accies.