Andy_P

Celtic reserves, Rangers reserves, wherever, I don't really mind where they come from, if they can improve our team then bring them in regardless of where they're playing or have played.

Disappointed that we didn't manage to a claim a deserved three points but thought it was a pretty good performance all things considered. Similar performances would likely see us beat most teams I think. Thought we started slowly and it took us a wee while to get to grips with their extra man in midfield. But we worked our way into a well deserved lead and were playing some really good stuff by the end of the half. They clearly had been given a rocket up their arses in the interval as they attempted to bully us but I still thought we were the better side and looked more likely to score. We seemed to be getting kicked up and down the park for a spell with the referee apparently oblivious to it. Their equaliser was a peach but questions marks throughout it. How did they end up with a free-kick that commenced the move? My attention must have gone as Craggs got treatment but it seemed to be a throw-in? Shouts for offside too before Holden finished it brilliantly you have to say. It was a total sucker punch but we still had opportunities and I don't think if we had won it, Falkirk could argue. All in all though not unhappy with the performance, but with a wee bit more sharpness and luck in front of goal we could easily have won it by a couple.

I don't see anything wrong in the club asking for an early inspection - that seems entirely reasonable - after that its down to the referee and if he's found himself influenced by a representative from MFC not present and about 3.5hrs down the road - then frankly he shouldn't be a referee. I'm sure if the referee had any notion that the pitch was playable he would have called for a further early inspection this morning. But what's done is done and we now look to Monday. Again at the mercy of the ever changing BBC forecast but its showing predicted temperatures of 3C for day, 6C for Thursday, 3C for Friday, 6C for Saturday and a positively tropical 7C for Sunday. From Friday onwards its showing 2C for during the night. Hopefuly if we get similar temperatures for Monday then fingers crossed!

Stating the obvious but all we can do is cross our fingers and wait and see. Different media seem to have different forecasts. Scotland Today had snow drifting south east rather than north east and the BBC don't have any snow forecast for Inverurie at all! I've been keeping an eye on the BBC forecast for Inverurie for example over the last few days and it seems to change every few hours. I think I've seen everything from snow, rain, sleet and sunshine predicted for every day between Saturday and Wednesday. Now sitting at sunshine for both Tuesday and Wednesday for what its worth. As I say, fingers crossed and wait and see.

Have a mate who supports Ayr and his view that if Connolly could do as well for them as Gormley has he'd be a happy man.

When the question was asked of them before they had committed to naming the 4th team they had said the popularity of the competition had increased and several teams were expressing an interest in playing. They said something about wanting to give everyone an opportunity.

Sure its just pay at the gate at Tannadice, no? No need for a visit to the ticket office if that's the case.

I've a friend who's involved with Motherwell Miners and I've been to a few dinners where they've had some good speakers. A couple that they've had that haven't been mentioned are Willie Henderson who has quite an interesting story to tell with good times and bad - though not quite sure how it would go down if he tried to flog his DVD at the end of his gig and a big Irish guy Stewart Coull who has also been really funny any time I've seen him.

We shouldn't perhaps forget that the police probably have a big say in this as well. Ok the football authorities should have been savvy enough to make sure they weren't at home together but in days gone by if the two Dundee club's fixtures clashed they would play on the same day with different kick-off times i.e 1pm and 3pm. I'm sure that these days Mr Tayside Heid Polis would choke on his his Frosties if anyone had the temerity to approach him with such an outlandish suggestion. But why not? Is 7000 odd at Tannadice and 3500 odd at Dens really going to prove such a mammoth taks with Tayside police to deal with over the space of a few hours?

Andy J - is there any word if Aberdeen will again send over their covers and their groundstaff in the the run up to the rescheduled game? I would assume they are back at Pittodrie with Aberdeen playing Celtic on Sunday but if they were to do the decent thing and allow Inverurie to use the covers again and get them down before the ground freezes then perhaps that might make a difference? If that fails I'm wondering if they'll go with the Monday night, the 26th. I seem to remember either the Lochee v Ayr or perhaps its was even Inverurie themselves that had to attempt a Monday night. It might just be another of those urban myths but I also seem to remember seeing something about there being a rule of having to make 2 attempts per midweek to get a game played after a couple of postponements. Clearly we all hope it goes ahead next Wednesday but if not any word the club could give us would be a big help in terms of organising further changes in leave.

Fraser was my childhood favourite too. I remember getting my photo taken with him in the late 1980' and my old dear sending it in to Fir Park to get him to sign it. It duly came back all signed with this really nice letter thanking us for our support and saying how we were better teams than the likes of Hibs and St Mirren in our league. Within a year he was gone. To St Mirren..... Overall though it has to be Softy for me closely followed by quite a number. For me though Softy just epitomises everything that I want to see in a player. Perhaps not the greatest talent but he used every last inch of what he had every time he played. He was totally committed and recovered from at least 2 major snubs from Tommy McLean (dropped to the reserves for 6 months and overlooked for the Final) to go on earn himself a 'Well deserved testimonial. Take a bow Softy!!

Looking forward to seeing the first issue too. Think its a good idea to have some sort of exclusive to vary it from what's already on the website. I know we're hardly comparing like for like with a couple of hundred 'Well fans and a couple of hundred thousand subscribers. but does anyone else get e-zine through from Setanta every month? The content is generally shit but the presentation (page turning, zooming in on articles etc) is fantastic. If we got something even near that, it would seriously look the part. I also hope is that it proves to last the test of time. I remember similar stuff going back a decade to the days of Pat Nevin but the emails eventually dried up.

Look forward to seeing the site myself. I was an occasional visitor to the old site (if I remember rightly the one with the Motherwell Tartan Wallpaper?) and got some useful information from it in the past. Good luck with it when you launch!

Return and re-sale info. from the official >>>> clicky

I think Quinn91's last post above illustrates the difficulties that the Trust will likely always face. Motherwell fans we all are, and small in number we may well be but I think only in a certain set of circumstances are all our clubs/groups/bodies likely to unite and put our own agendas aside. The WellBoys quite rightly are out to look out for their own and The Supporters Association quite rightly are out to do the best they can for their members. And then you have folk who fall into both groups and folk who fall into neither. I just think its going to be a tall order for the Trust to ever to be able to convince enough people to put their (no pun intended) trust in the Trust to represent them rather than attend to it themselves. Without that weight of numbers, I think the Trust will lack authority in the eyes of the support to be seen as their representatives and such will hold less weight when it comes to dealing with the club.

It's not the worst draw for us. Could have been a lot worse that's for sure and that is ofcourse making the assumption we'll take care of Inverurie. I'd obviously prefer Brechin but St Mirren would give us a chance to avenge that shocker of a Scottish Cup tie from a couple of years ago. Personally I don't think its as bad a draw as some are making out. There's a bit of needle developed between Accies and Dundee Utd this season so that'll be good and I think the Hearts v Falkirk game is pretty attractive too. There are also potentially quite a few SPL teams that are going go out as well assuming again that we do progress - aside from those mentioned above you've also potentially got Inverness or Killie that'll go too. I'm quite happy with it, all things considered.

Perceptive as ever Mr Calf Topics merged!

I think you're right Neil. It's getting quite boring hearing the same stuff over and over from Oldham fans to the point that it does smack of bitterness. If Oldham took the decision not to accept a £750k then the fault lies squarely at the feet of those on the Oldham board at the time. We were also told by Oldham fans that his knees or some such were fucked and he would constantly be on the treatment table. Never happened has it? Whether Oldham like it or not Porter and Motherwell have been mutually beneficial for one another and each have fulfilled exactly what was agreed at the time of his signing. He has provided us with goals aplenty, helped to us a 3rd place finish and European football. Motherwell have provided him with a bigger platform to exhibit his talents, a bigger wage packet and a commitment to help him reach the levels he ultimately aspires to play at. Its been a fantastic deal for both. End of.

I think we should cool the jets a wee bit and just look at things one game at a time at the moment. It's only five or six weeks ago since we were looking at the fixture list and totting up the points that would see us sitting nicely in third of fourth after we faced all the "bottom six" teams. Look where that got us - joint bottom within a fortnight! Negatives from the Inverurie postponement are that a wee bit of momentum has been stalled and we've got a wee bit of a fixture jam as a result. But there are positives too in that the knocks that Porter and apparently Klimpl have will have had an extra few days to ease, and time for Fizzy's virus to clear up before we go into the Dundee Utd game. One game at a time is the strategy for me at the moment.

I don't know why they chose a date so far ahead but I know it was agreed when the tie was confirmed. I can't remember if I read it on the 'Well or Locos website but it was certainly listed somewhere that if there was a postponement or a replay it would be on the 21st. I stuck in for 2 days flexi to be on the safe side after reading it.

Did the Jambos not have to buy tickets ahead of the originally scheduled game? I seem to remember some chat about the bizzareness of not allowing sales on the day given that they were flying at the time? Assuming that's the case then hopefuly there will be quite a number of them through to help compensate for the low turnout at the Killie midweeker. As for the game itself, I wouldn't say I'm back to thinking that we are back to being on the verge of humping someone - but last couple of games has been a bit more like the thing and if we could just find that wee spark in front of goal....well who knows.

£1m sounded good in the papers and it might have reached £1m had he satisfied a multitude of clauses they wanted to insert. In reality the offer was less than a quarter of that for McCulloch and the rest would have been in bits and bobs over a number of years. Same goes for Porter as it was for McCulloch - wrong move at the wrong time.

Would it be mabye be the day we drew with Celtic at Fir Park in the fog and Cooper took the absolute pish out of Anton Rogan? In my minds eye he rips him to shreds to the point that Rogan halfs Coop who promptly shows him the ball as if to say this what you are trying to kick?

I'm echoing some of the points made already here but thought we were the better of the two teams overall and the longer the game went the more we looked like the ones who were going to win it. Buzz had that save early on but that was about it from them, where as we looked more and more dangerous, particularly at the end when they began taking risks by throwing more men upfield. The Lasley for Fizzy change seemed to take us back a notch from last week. Thought we were slightly less balanced. The ref is involved in the key talking points namely the two claims. Thought our first was more clear cut with a clear handball denying us what looked like a goal. He was poor throughout and got numerous decisions wrong from denying St Mirren a corner when Hammell headed out, to allowing himself to be dictated to by Hamilton and ignoring about a half dozen fouls from him and Ross and then booking Lasley for the same. He also allowed a couple of cynical desperate challenges when we were breaking up the park to go unpunished also. All things considered though not the worst result given their recent form and the occasion.

There's similar in The Sun this morning too. It would seem to me that if moves are afoot, that now's the time to start galvanising ourselves to press the club for what WE want in any new ground in terms of design and facilities, rather than them unveiling Barr's Football Stadium Construction Kit Mark IV.