Andy_P

Heard the reference to Moult being potentially missing on Saturday and in the same interview Robinson saying he owed it to the league to put out a strong team, but with safety secured and the strong feeling he'll be away in the summer I think we should probably be looking at starting Bowman ahead of Louis anyway. Would do no harm at all if Bowman were able to get another ninety minutes under his belt and dare I say it even grab a goal. Okay, maybe taken that one too far.... But seriously there's an opportunity to give one or two a full ninety that may be more involved more next term than they were this. Campbell ahead of Lasley is another that springs to mind. I'm a little torn as to who I would prefer to stay up. The old man has moved to within an hour and a half of Inverness so the potential to combine an away day at Inverness and visits to his place (as we're doing this weekend) is obviously handy. And for a number of our support the Inverness trip is a highlight of the season. But then I do quite enjoy the derby games and it's never a bad thing have another opponent that's close by and easy to get to. I think some are kidding themselves on a little if they are insisting there is no rivalry or no excitement in beating Hamilton. I would accept it was entirely one sided when they came up. So one sided that it was actually detrimental to us because they were always so up for it whilst we were treating as any other game. But in having our noses rubbed in it I think eventually stirred us into life and we've engaged much more than we previously did. They will always be the wee team. We'll always look down on them. But surely no one would argue that Moult's injury time equaliser or winner on Saturday wasn't that little bit sweeter because it was against them?

Dave, tradition dictates that I am duty bound to respond to your annual "times up Lasley" post by stating....you've been saying that since about 2003! But even I have to accept as this season reaches its conclusion it has a "the time has come" feel about it, sad as that is to type. I don't know how involved Lasley has been with the U20's behind the scenes and outwith his visible involvement in the dugout so I don't know if there's any call for a permanent assistant to Craigan for the 20's. But if he were to get a designated coaching role I don't think it would be the daftest idea in the world for him to continue to be registered as I think he could an asset on the park to some of the youngsters coming through. That would also mean he would be around in the event of a similar situation that has left us with no right-back for the last six weeks. From his own perspective though whilst I'm sure he would want to play at as high a level as he possibly can, for as long as he can, he hasn't undertaken all these coaching courses for no good reason and I suspect he won't be short of offers from teams further down the leagues that would want to utilise his talents in a playing-coaching capacity.

Your thoughts and votes please..

Your thoughts and votes please...

On this I'm pleased to see for the most part there's been an acknowledgement that things sometimes just don't out work for whatever reason rather than berating the club. There are also plenty examples of players who have enjoyed a purple patch or are stand outs at a particular club or a particular level in the game and have struggled to replicate that whenever they've got that big move and they eventually return to their "comfort zone". It remains to be seen whether Thomas will cut it a couple of divisions up from where he's been turning it on with Hartlepool. To use a couple of examples of our own you could argue Lasley didn't do as well as he could have in the Championship in England or Derek Adams who looked lost as a striker with us having banged them in at Ross County two or three divisions below. We've also benefited in this regard ourselves with Scott McDonald being a perfect example. £750k or whatever for a guy who came to us on trial with the mindset that if it didn't work this time he was going to bugger off back home to Australia.

Personally I would have preferred that out of respect to former colleagues, the importance of the game they are facing and the position in which they find themselves in; and given that he played no small part in those colleagues arriving at this point, he just declined to answer. Naive as that may sound.

I had faith in McGhee pretty much up until the Dundee game, and of course whilst we don't know how this interview has been spun, whether he's right or wrong it doesn't sit well with me at all. On the eve of the biggest game of the season he will surely be aware that his intervention will be of no benefit to his former coaching colleagues or the players who were under his charge. Given the timing I'm inclined to think it's no accident this has appeared now and doesn't reflect well on him at all.

Whilst acknowledging Cardiff and Reading are mentioned in the report my immediate reaction was that Rangers must have season tickets to sell. I expect he'll be one of about a hundred linked with them over the next couple of months.

Oh wow. What a happy diversion you've sparked with that one! Fond fond memories of those few years in the Claret and Amber Club. I remember seeing the advert in the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser..."Motherwell FC invite the youth of Lanarkshire to join their Claret and Amber Club" in an Airdrie paper. I loved that! I remember my sister and I being one of the first to sign up and Bobby Jenks giving us our membership pack from the portacabin that served as our club shop in those days. Into the enclosure in front of the Main Stand for a quid every home game. I was absolutely devastated when I was too old for it! Happy happy days though.

I think there is no question whatsoever that the transfer policy is steered towards the English lower leagues/non-leagues for it is the English market that the club seek to sell them back to. I'd suggest though that the relationship we have is more likely to be with the Head of Recruitment who is, or at least was, Martin Foyle who significantly is based in England as was his predecessor. Who he's has relationships with is of course another matter entirely. Personally I have no real objection to looking to that seam as we seek to improve the team - in tandem with the introduction of our youths to the first team of course. Where it does become difficult to justify is if other avenues for player recruitment are being neglected as a consequence and not least when the hit rate from England is very much hit and miss.

It's going to be a long week building up to Saturday but my pettit lip from yesterday has eased a bit and I'm beginning to get up for the fight again. Okay what's done is done, we can't change any of the shite that's gone before. But despite it all the situation is still rectifiable - however improbable that might currently appear. Three wins would do it (so easy when you type it fast). Even two would quite probably do it. I don't think Robinson will be focusing any further than Saturday and in a sense he perhaps shouldn't be focusing a great deal beyond getting the first goal. Get that and (obviously) it's a game-changer. But a game changer not only in the context of the result against Accies but the mindset of the team. We know they are fragile as fuck if they go behind so it is absolutely essential we score first. And if we do then the pressure is all on them and if you've spoken to any of their fans or read their forums they'll speak of the same bottle merchants with no character that you read about on here. Accies can fight? Accies players can rise to the occasion? Accies are as fucking shit as we are! They aren't 10-15 points ahead of us, they're about 4 goals ahead of us. Accies haven't beaten us in five! And Accies will lose again on Saturday Fucked in about them Motherwell!!!

Your thoughts and votes please...

Another game. Another self-inflicted defeat. I've sometimes found it a little frustrating the way some of our support can cut the team absolutely no slack at all. Like the chat last week where some seemed unwilling to show any sympathy for, what to my mind at least, was the undisputable fact that officiating errors had cost us both points and places; instead preferring to focus on highlighting the deficiencies of the team. If I've learned anything from today, it's that we all having our breaking point where the sympathy runs thin! Like Dundee last week we've shafted ourselves and despite that once again our opponents were hardly in it and it was a game we should never have lost, I find myself thinking that indeed we have nobody to blame but ourselves. It was a shockingly bad few minutes. From the seemingly unnecessary decision by Robinson to replace Hammell with Jules, the unfathomable decision by Jules to keep that ball in play on the by-line when it was going out and McHugh hesitating rather than getting the ball to fuck, it was shambolic stuff. We're fucking it up big style and we're doing it all by ourselves. To have the opportunity to go into that Accies game next weekend three points clear of them and in the knowledge could just about make us safe and come up with such an insipid uninspiring display is so disappointing. And whilst not playing particularly well to still have all those set piece opportunities and do nothing with them is equally frustrating. I must confess my faith has been dented somewhat in the last week, or perhaps more accurately my trust in the team to be able to do what is necessary without a fuck up along the way has been dented. Very nervous indeed about next Saturday.

Remains to be seen whether they go down the all-ticket only route. I could actually see the police push for it given the importance of the fixture for both teams and the queuing shambles last time, not that tickets will make much odds if the stewards slow access to a trickle again. But games there have tended to follow a pattern where they put tickets on sale with the rider that there may be a cash gate, which 48 hours before kick-off is duly confirmed. Let's be honest though it isn't in Accies interest. Motherwell are one of their big earners in terms of away supports, they surely aren't going to cost themselves money and make it more difficult than it needs to be. Particularly when it could be the last for a bit!

You'll be giving a fuck if we end up avoiding the play offs on goal difference.

Aye that's sad news about Cammy Duncan. Curiously enough after all the recent chat about John Gardiner he was his successor and McLean's hoped for solution to the goalkeeping problem. Kind of a sort of was. Well, for a wee bit. I think his first season was decent enough, certainly an improvement on Gardiner but he had an awful couple of games, a couple of months into his second season and was replaced by Ally Maxwell. He never got back in and moved on to Thistle. Sorry to hear of passing and at such as young age too.

Appreciate that when you've dropped to 11th place and there's only four games left there isn't a huge defence you can put up in support of the management but I don't think Robinson is anywhere near as bad as some are making out. In the games we've lost under him, it hasn't been by more than a goal. Whether the formation he's adopted is popular or otherwise he's stopped the bleeding that was evident under McGhee towards the end. He's managed to get them at least to stay in games when we're behind and not chuck it when we've gone behind. He's been fairly bold in placing faith in youngsters like Campbell and Gordon which many called for. He's tried to fit three forwards into the side on the back of two attacking wide players which again contrasts with the more cautious style that McGhee often set us up to play and many grumbled about. He's been fairly quick to change things if it hasn't worked. And if you want to take yesterday in isolation whatever formation and tactics a manager employs it doesn't matter a jot if the keeper does what Samson did yesterday. Neither is it Robinson's fault when the referee completely shits it and the opposition should have been down to 10 men, or if he and his linesman miss a ball that's two feet over the line. Week after week across the league you'll have Premiership managers go on about the importance of the first goal. We had an incredibly shite last couple of minutes of the first half and first couple of minutes of the second half that were down to individual mistakes by players. That's what cost us yesterday. Oh don't get me wrong he's far from perfect and I thought his changes yesterday for example did smack a bit of chucking shite at the wall and see if anything sticks, particularly the wasteful use of Ainsworth through the middle. But again I will give him some credit for at least offering a little variation. But I can't really accept the argument that he was tactically out-thought by a rookie or the game was lost at 2pm when they haven't been in the game at all. When it's been all Motherwell, when we've had more possession, more chances, earned more corners and it's only a total fuck up of our own doing that's cost us rather than any great tactical acumen from the opposition manager. As for Robinson longer term? The jury for me on him is still very much out - arguably his full merits will only really be known once he's got something like his own squad in. I see improvements since he took over. Slight improvements, but improvements nonetheless. Sufficient though to see us stay up and afford him the opportunity to build his own squad? Now that's a question....

I'm actually starting to get quite irritated by that. Caught a bit of Sportsound on the way home and I can't remember who said it, might have been Derek Ferguson, but that was pretty much the inference - don't whinge too much because it went your way against Inverness. And it hasn't been the only occasion since that game either. In fairness to whoever it was they went on to qualify the remark by mentioning the Accies game but no mention of the other wrongly disallowed goals against Accies (first game), Firhill or Dens Park. And that's before we get on to the inconsistent red cards and appeals. Spare us the finger wagging please.

Your thoughts and votes please...

A pretty soul sapping afternoon on several counts. We should never have lost that. Never at any time were Dundee on top or the better team, yet we still managed to hand them it on a plate thanks to some awful goalkeeping and defending. Sometimes it's less painful when you get a tonking from a better side than when pretty much beaten yourself. We weren't exactly peppering their goal but we were miles ahead of them in the first half and to me it seemed a matter of time. We hadn't ran out of ideas, albeit our set pieces were a bit too samey, and were showing patience in passing it around and probing for an opening. And it seemed only a matter of time too before their haddy of a centre-half Gomis walked too after McLean completely shat it by pretending the foul in the corner didn't happen so he didn't need to send him off. But that goal. Dear God! Can you come up with a more inopportune moment to give a team on the back of seven straight losses who you've hemmed in for almost the whole of the half a lift? It just altered their mindset completely and gave them so much confidence Credit is due for hanging in there at 2-0 and 3-1 down and without having read any other posts it remains to be seen whether Heneghan's header was over the line or not which would make it even more sore than it feels. Just pretty sickening to have blown a great opportunity, even more so with the result at Hamilton due to our own deficiencies (and perhaps further officiating). We're getting extremely close to the point where Milo really can begin to use his "must win" line with total justification.

It has to be an all guns blazing start again. Don't let them get the opportunity to put into practice whatever they've been working on with McCann since he took charge. We've all been there when something different has been tried formation wise or tactically and we go and fuck it up in the first 5 minutes by conceding and they all lose all confidence in the shape and tactics they've tentatively learned for the last week. Blitz them from the word go and hopefully we can do something similar to Dundee.

If you were to make a modern day comparison I'd say Davie Shanks was the Jake Taylor of his day, perhaps even a little Craig Clay-esque. Not great in the tackle, no great determination, nothing much going forward. Nothing much at all really. He was a Tommy McLean signing around the back end of 87'88 if I remember rightly. Something in the back of my mind has it that he was unveiled as part of a double signing with Paul Kinnaird though I could be mistaken. I think he saw out his contact, most of the last season of it in the reserves and on the bench and left at the end of it.

Who is saying we aren't plugging the Well Society?

Not that I'm disagreeing with your previously stated views that the most should be made of the Hutchison offer but not for the first time you appear to be mistaking this forum as some kind of official fund-raising arm of the Well Society. Should any Well Society Board member, or indeed any forum user wish to use this site as a platform to generate funds or further the aims of the Well Society then they, as they always have been, are more than welcome to do so. And we'll be happy to help where we can. If someone wants to start a thread and have us pin it, we'll do that. If they want us to do something else we'll consider all requests. But personally I'm not convinced it's Steelmen Online's responsibility to drive Well Society fundraising as your posts tend to suggest. For one thing the users of the site already contribute a fair bit annually to the club through the Player Sponsorship fundraiser and we also require to occasionally call upon the goodwill of forum members to keep the site running safely and secure - something that I gather we may require to revisit again soon. But further to that I believe it is for the Well Society to set the fundraising agenda. It's not our job to tell what to do. For them, with their existing knowledge of what works and what doesn't, what generates revenue most quickly and importantly their knowledge of what the club have in the pipeline marketing and sales wise they are the people who are best placed to orchestrate fundraising.

In my head I've got him arriving in the summer of 1993 by which point Ivan Golac was either in charge or just about to take charge of them. Pretty sure McLean was on their board for a few years after he chucked management so technically I suppose the two McLean's were still at each side. But yeah, the goal and celebrations from Mio's header were fantastic.