Andy_P

I think if it had a claret collar it would look better. The amber collar does make it look a little odd.

I don't know, whilst obviously Celtic's attack will likely be as tough as we've faced recently it may be no bad thing if we allow them possession of the ball - to a point - and have the likes of Ariybi and Hastie ready to counter, if we can regain possession ourselves. We've done pretty well of late through swift counter attacks and I wonder if a stretched Celtic rearguard, potentially lighter in numbers, might offer us our best opportunity rather than piling everyone forward and getting done on the break ourselves.

By this time of the year I'm pretty sure the kits for next season will be done and dusted but catching a bit of the Roma v Bologna game from last night the Bologna away kit (produced by Macron) looks like it could have some potential for a decent Motherwell away shirt. Swap the navy for amber and it might look the part. UBH you want to work your magic?

Your thoughts and votes please...

Six of the best please.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Your thoughts and votes please...

Ask and it shall be delivered unto you.

I see this turn of phrase used fairly often on here about the club and almost always in a negative fashion. Whilst suggesting that it couldn't be further from the truth is maybe pushing it, I think over the piece we have done well and continue to do well in benefiting from relationships, links and connections that those associated with the club have established over time. So it continues to grate with some that Robinson got the gig a couple of years ago because a perceived old boys mentality at the club - the irony being that the man some of those making the old pals act claim wanted instead was an old boy himself; and of course not everybody who comes to the club is going to work out as hoped. But then would you have got the likes of Craigan, O'Donnell, Lasley, McFadden, Pearson, McDonald and Hammell etc. back for second and sometimes third stints without the connections and the affinity built up and relationships established first time around? Would you have a guy in the squad just now that was being punted about for £12m only a couple of years ago? You don't know what calibre of players we might otherwise have signed instead of those guys and how they might have got on but for me it is undoubtedly a positive that these guys do come back and in many cases knock back better offers to do because of the way the club is run and the value that is placed on establishing long standing relationships with the people the club employ. I think over the piece we've had a good more hits than misses. The way it often gets banded about you would also think we are the only club that ever uses connections when looking at managers and signing players but that obviously isn't the case. I listened the Owen Coyle interview on the Open Goal podcast the other week and there talking about his early managerial days and with the space of a couple of minutes he's went from how Alex McLeish phoned a chairman to recommend him for a job, how he'd done the same to get Derek McInnes in at Bristol City and how the relationships he'd established with Ferguson and Wenger got him players like Chris Eagles and Jack Wilshire ahead of other teams.

Apologies now added back in. Screwed it up when creating the poll initially but thought I'd sorted it. Obviously not. Cheers for pointing out.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I don't know if Main will ever reproduce the kind of return he delivered in his opening two or three months with us but I'm hopeful if he is presented with the same number of chances every game that he got last night, sooner or later he'll score, his confidence will return and he'll go on to improve on what has been a poor return from this season. There have been spells where he's been presented with three chances in a month far less three chances in an hour.

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You can go back as far as you want and you'll find poor signings. The last manager that Motherwell won a trophy under and had a reputation for being something of a master in the transfer market signed the likes of John Gardiner, Alan Sneddon, Alex Jones, Dave McCabe, Paul Baker, Dave Shanks, Mark Caughey and Ally Graham to name but a few that spring to mind. The model they have I think is pretty transparent. They've been pretty clear for a number of years that alongside home grown Motherwell products they want to buy cheap from England and sell back at a profit because English players, rightly or wrongly, have more of a reputation and English clubs have more money. Its no coincidence that's where the Head of Recruitment is based. I share your sense of intrigue to an extent though as to how it fits together with some targets arriving even after changes of manager. There are times when Martin Foyle's role seems more Director of Football than the Head Scout as he's sometimes referred to. As an aside I find it quite interesting that we seem to have "hot spots" of recruitment like NE England (Gateshead connection?) SW England (Plymouth?) and across the Midlands. You've been a long term sceptic of that but I would imagine the club have achieved more in terms of a return than they probably dared hope for and will see the Fletchers, Blyths and Thomas's of the world as worth the gamble. Again I do share a slight concern of the longer term viability of that model given that as soon as you hit a seem of successes the number of eyes on that league and those players will magnify and picking players up from that league becomes more difficult. The positives I suppose are that if the right player is spotted we have the track record of sending them back south a division or two higher up from whence they came. Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

It doesn't have any impact on when we might see them on the pitch again but in terms of the contracts of long term injured it was put across in such a way at the AGM that Motherwell are not a not the type of club who will allow the contract of an injured recovering player to expire.

With all the information, statistics, footage and whatever else is at a manager's disposal these days if any prospective manager pitches up at Fir Park looking for work and genuinely requires months to assess what he has to work with, then he clearly hasn't done his due diligence and won't be getting anywhere near the manager's office.

Aye, one of the few nights of the year where a Scottish football highlights show has the billing it deserves and Motherwell get knocked out and turn in such an abject display that leaves you absolutely no enthusiasm for watching it.

The home support was little different yesterday than its been all season and that's with everyone paying in. We will be one of the few teams who actually maintained their regular support over this weekend. And it was the fact that folk were paying in which meant so many were in after kick off. There is a wealth of things you can justifiably throw at Robinson but yesterday's crowd isn't one of them.

I don't know that Robinson was under pressure to play his new signings. He had already suggested it would be February before McCormack may be fit enough to play. Ariyibi's involvement admittedly made more sense given we've been lacking an attacking right sided midfielder since Cadden got injured but he could easily have selected much the same team that beat Hamilton, gradually introduced the newbies and most would have considered it fair and maybe even sensible.The only pressure put on Robinson to play him was from Robinson himself. As for the negativity whilst it is undoubtedly the case a negative atmosphere does little to inspire players to give more believe me this group of players have got off extremely lightly with some moaning and booing at the end of the game in comparison to many a Motherwell side over the years.

We place so much emphasis on the Cups as a support and from the business side of things with the finances that can be generated that I do wonder if that defeat will resonate throughout the board of directors much much more than us "plodding along" league position, however much a chore it is to watch. I'm not fond of the saying "we were beaten before we set foot on the park". You are never beaten before you step on to the park but a team selection can make a whole lot harder for you than it needs to be, and that was how it seemed to me. Like some I too got the impression that Robinson thought we would have enough about us to use this game to help people find fitness and tinker with his formation whilst still making the next round. You look through that team and half of them trying to bed themselves back into the side to get match fit far less messing about with formations and deploying players in roles they've rarely played. We were told Tait didn't train with the rest of the squad in Tenerife but goes straight in. Hartley has had one game back after how long out and even then he's hardly kicked a ball in a year. It took Dunne a few months to get up to speed last season and there's no evidence to suggest it's going to be any different this time. McCormack was supposed to be a doubt until February but somehow is deemed fit start but can only last a half watching the ball fly over him. Turnbull withdrawn from the area in which he's been most effective and having played with two strikers we suddenly decide to go with one. It all just felt like too much at the one time and we paid the price for it. Whether Robinson goes on to pay the ultimate price for it I don't know, but much of his credit in the bank will have gone after that. An awful afternoon.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I would be disappointed if we didn't get through. We have home advantage against a lower league side, albeit a division immediately below us, and have had the benefit of the experience of playing against a similar standard of side earlier in the season in Queen of the South and indeed having had the opportunity to view many of their squad at close quarters only a few weeks ago in the Irn Bru Cup. I don't expect it to be easy but I do expect us to get through to the next round.

Noticed one of the U20's, or former U20's to be more accurate Jason Krones sign for Albion Rovers. He played against Peterhead today. I'm ignorant of the appraisal and renewal dates for the 20's, or reserves if you prefer, but found it interesting to see the blurb refer to his signing noting it came at the expiry of his contract. I'm sure expiry of contract was also referred to when Agyeman left too. Is it the done thing for a review at this time of the year across the board? Ordinarily it seem odd to allow contracts to expire midway through the season. Is it just a Motherwell thing? Or entirely coincidental that two have had contracts up? In a sense it doesn't seem that daft an idea if you are allowing youths to move on who you believe won't make it, and will have a head start on others being released in the summer; and can then focus on the next age group. I'd imagine if you don't have something lined up though getting released in January might be a pretty anxious time for some youngsters.

Your good source there would be Stephen Robinson who has said pretty much all that publically over the last few weeks.

Ahh, that's the part I'm been skimming the posts and press release for!! (Can't view the videos at work in case it's mentioned on there). As alluded to previously it would have seemed a bit odd (albeit entirely Motherwell-esque) to add a left-winner just when Frear re-emerges and Hastie returns on loan. Know nothing about him but good at least that positions we all know strengthened do appear to be getting ticked off one by one.