Andy_P

£££££££££ I suspect. I remember some years back when Alan Dick was the GM/Chief Exec of the day stating that it benefited the club financially if the kits were sufficiently different each time they were renewed that it tempted more people to buy them again. He said it was a delicate balance of trying not to rip off supporters but going through a mini-cycle of full-hoop, front band,no band/hoop would generate more revenue. And that was in age when you generally got two years out of each home kit.

Not competitively of course but I've seen us play Elgin in a friendly at Borough Briggs in a pre-season. Would have been 1992 I think, back in the days the first team still toured the HIghlands. We played Huntly on the same weekend. Alan Sneddon played in both as a trialist and subsequently won a deal (!). I've stopped off at Annan twice on the way to friendlies at Carlisle, the first being an absolutely sensational day out with the folk at Annan being truly magnificent hosts - free pies, t-shirts given away to the weans, you want to have a kickabout on the park guys, there's a baw.... The 20's or whatever the guise was then did play them in a pre-season a few years ago. I can't remember when exactly, I'd estimate around 2005 or 2006.

How feasible it would be to replicate now I don't know (remember we need to fit in those glamour Old Firm friendlies somewhere kids) these days but my fondest memories of the League Cup were when we changed back to a knock-out format in 1984 I think it was. Ties pretty much every couple of midweeks throughout August and September, Quarters beginning of October, Semi's toward the end of the month and the whole thing done and dusted and a European place for the winner in the bag by the end of November. With international weeks, the ever more annoying attempts by UEFA to have all eyes focused on the Champions League and the stuff like the Challenge Cup on the go I doubt there will ever be return to quite such a snappy tournament but in its day it seemed to work well. No recollection of how crowds stacked up mind you. No recollection of whether seeding was included either but I don't think so.

Local rag over here in Bargeddieshire suggesting a pre-season game against the Rovers at Cliftonhill may be in the offing. No suggestion as to whether it's the first-team or 20's. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/albion-rovers-boss-darren-young-7994980#h8JE2UeJ2LzUA1v8.97

Accies. Classy as ever....

I'm guessing a defeat by seven clear goals would be Celtic in season 82`83 at Fir Park.

I've seen worse Motherwell teams put up far better showings in there but by the same taken I've went in there to see better Motherwell teams than this come out with heavy defeats that but for the grace of God could easily have been as bad an outcome as today. It's horrible, it's embarrassing and we'll get it tight for a bit......but ultimately it will fade and will be filed away with the 6-0 at Tynecastle from this season, the 7-0 against Celtic in '82, the 6-1 in '84, the 6-1's against Hibs under Malpas and under McLean at Easter Road, the 6-1 at Tannadice in the Cup and league and the numerous 5-0 thrashings we've taken over the years. Point is there have been plenty like this, maybe not quite so severe as the 7-0 scoreline, but there have been plenty similar and we've come through the other side. Personally though I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it and as for it hanging around our necks until July or August? I don't think that'll be the case at all. It'll be almost immediately forgotten by the players as they head off to wherever they are going and it'll soon fade into the background for us supporters by whatever catches our attention over the next few weeks be that the Falkirk/Killie play-off or Hibs hopefully beating Rangers in the Cup. You'll need to be something of a sadist if you're going to be agonising about it every week until July! I thought the pattern of the game went largely as the other three games between the sides had gone with us just basically trying to get by for as long as could. Whereas in previous encounters we had managed to remain within a goal to always give ourselves a chance unfortunately today just quickly got away from us in that 5-10 minute spell. And we've done it ourselves or suffered before when a team smells blood. I note pre-match that McGhee was saying he'd be continuing to work on building his budget and offers weren't set and would suggest that McGhee, being the clever fellow he is (or at least believes himself to be) in much the same way as Billy Davies used the 5-0 thrashing to St Johnstone some years ago, may well seek to use it as an opportunity to persuade the board to expand his budget further to attempt to avoid any future repeat. A horrible horrible result, but ultimately it's not one that I'm going to allow to detract too much from a season that looked like it was going to end a lot worse than the eventual fifth place that was achieved.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I rarely listen to the radio these days but had the Spiders - Bully game on my headphones for a bit yesterday and the folk on Radio Scotland were saying very much the same thing both in terms of Queen's Park's style of play and the guy Brown, whom they believed was on the radar of some Premiership sides. When they interviewed him after the game he gave one of those could be saying nothing but could be saying everything kind of answers "we'll see what happens". in terms of his future.

Youtube vids are blocked at work, where I'm currently posting, so apologies if that makes my reply look a bit daft (you may think that either way ) But whilst I take your point that the senior professionals referred to can't go on forever and there will of course be a natural dropping off, we've been reading the same every summer for about half a dozen years. And only in one of them have we failed to finish in the top half. I believed myself that in the early part of McCall's final season it appeared a perfect storm was brewing exactly as you paint it above. That the core of experience that served us so well all seemed to decline markedly and lose a yard all at the same time. And from being a generally savvy, experienced and street wise group they looked cumbersome, slow and one-paced. But I think it has been proven since that if an appropriate fitness regime is being employed the fears over their fitness and ability to cope can sometimes be overstated. I'm certainly not advocating that each of the experienced guys should be first picks for every game next season but I do believe that if their levels of fitness are maintained and their game time is properly managed then each of them can all make a significant contribution next season.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I'll repeat once again. NOT about the ability to run on to the pitch at the end of the season ALL about the disproportionate threat of sanctions made against our club in comparison to others. Okay so we've had issues with some fans running on the park in previous seasons, some issues too with pyro. Entirely reasonable to say a bit of "bother" all thing considered. I've read people go back more than a decade to tot up examples to use to justify the severity of the the threats that have been hanging over the club and to justify what the club were forced to put in place yesterday. Yet let's take a quick skim around at some other examples of "bother". I'll use Celtic as an example seeing as many of us witnessed at close quarters them succeeding in tearing out a number of seats at our very own stadium and distributing them on the track live on TV not so very long ago. Celtic fans arrested at Pittodrie earlier this season for sectarian abuse and breach of the peace. Celtic fans arrested during a Scottish Cup tie at Tynecastle for sectarian abuse, coin throwing and more breaking of seats in 2014. Nine arrests at Stair Park during a Scottish Cup tie with Stranraer, also in February 2016. Five arrested for violence against police in Amsterdam in 2013. Nine arrests at Celtic's Scottish Cup Semi Final with Rangers recently. Thirty-five arrests in the League Cup Semi Final between the two sides a year or two previously. Two arrests for assault during a minutes silence in Aberdeen in November 2014. December 2012 Celtic fans fighting amongst themselves at Dens Park, pissing in the stands, abusing stewards and police. I don't need to go back a decade for that, all that's in the last three or four years! And we're getting this level of grief primarily for some folk running on the park? No, I couldn't give a damn about being able to run on the park on the last home game of the season but where my club are being treated unfairly when there are other clubs whose offences are of a far greater number and severity then as you put it I most certainly won't stop fighting the fight against 'them' and 'the authority' and all the other bad folk out to get us.

For me it's not at all about the running on the pitch, it's the fact that the sheer scale of what we say today has been driven to a large degree because some of our fans had the temerity to goad and taunt Rangers fans after their team had been denied their "rightful" promotion. It's a consequence of a scatter gun approach of rage, seethe, condemnation, blame that was unleashed by Rangers and their sympathisers and apologists in the immediate aftermath of the game/ I simply refuse to believe that we would have seen anything like the charade the authorities went through a month or two back or the level of security put in place if it was Falkirk or Hamilton or whoever our supporters had stood in front of in the South Stand. Or indeed had the result gone the other way and it was Motherwell fans who were being taunted by the opposition. And what makes it all the more galling is that the poor little innocents who were crying foul were the support who have caused mayhem in stadiums, towns and cities across Scotland and Europe for decades.

Your thoughts and votes please...

A pretty disappointing final home game of the season all in all with Saints worth their win. We got lucky with our goal but still have to give Cadden credit for the harrying and chasing he did that helped bring about the error. A composed finished too from McDonald which was pleasing to see after his miss against Hearts. It was quite strange after that I felt. Saints gradually took command of the game without looking particularly yet it was who carved out a few chances with Johnson having a superb first 15-20 minutes. If Ainsworth, McDonald or Cadden had taken any of those opportunities it could have been enough to knock the stuffing out of St Johnstone. But they hung in there and gradually took control. Pushing it a bit to say they deserved to go in ahead but they were certainly worth an equaliser. The second half was just dire though. Never ever really looked like we'd get level and it was actually a relief when the ref blew for full-time. Obviously there wasn't the same intensity to the finish of the season as in previous "lap of honour" or two but even that felt quite flat. Not perhaps the most memorable of afternoons.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I certainly get what you are saying about squad depth. When the debate has surfaced in the past about the success of our youth policy in generating finance I've made the point that whilst the likes of Carswell, Fiztpatrick and McHugh haven't made us money they have contributed to the cause through a couple of hundred odd appearances between them. However what you have to keep in mind with players like that, and Moore if not there already is edging towards it, is that they have a limited shelf life before their presence starts becoming a negative when they block the route to the first team for others. And if, as is suggested, there is going to be a greater emphasis on getting players through the system as early as possible (witness the 16 and 17 year olds in the 20's for example) then even at "just" twenty-one players like Moore are going to find that shelf-life as a backup even more limited.

On that one I'm reminded of McGhee's answer when posed the question about players breaking through at that Q&A at the end of last year. His reply was along the lines of he's not a 20 goal a season striker yet....but he's not as far away from it as you might think. So based on that he appears to be rated by McGhee at least.

Part of me wonders if that's perhaps down to the respective clubs both of those players play/played for. I'd wager for example that if Kieran Tierney broke through at Fir Park rather than Celtic he'd be at least eighteen months and another 50 first team games plus away from the Scotland debut Tierney was handed recently. But that's by the by though, as regards Hall all I'd say is keep the pitchforks pointed downwards until we actually know what his decision is. With the discussion continuing as it has I sense all it has achieved is that one or two are becoming increasingly agitated that he hasn't re-signed. Sure we would want any potential talent to commit at the earliest opportunity but let's just keep in mind that probably few of us know what's on the table and what offers he and his agent are deliberating over. Let's just take advantage of him when he's here and see what transpires.

I don't agree. This season has been far from vintage from Lionel but he's a great player to have in the squad. He's just not the player who is going to track back and defend but get him on the park in the right set of circumstances and he has proven he can deliver. Even of late he's been on the fringes but has still had a hand in the Aberdeen equaliser, scored and set up the winner against Inverness and got the winner today.

I found that a very satisfying victory with a measure of revenge gained for the toe-ing back in January. I was pleasantly surprised at just how eager we were from the word go. Whilst we weren't exactly creating chance after chance, actually early on probably Hearts had the best despite offering the square root of nothing, we enjoyed a good amount of possession, were pressing them high and generally had them pinned in their own half for long spells. Nice goal from Lionel but a good contribution from McDonald in the build up. Speaking of which, ok he missed that sitter, but what a tremendous display from him again today. There's the argument that he should have been doing the same for Baraclough at the start of the season but you compare that level of performance to some of the games early on. However McGhee man-manages him he's doing it to perfection and McDonald is responding week-in, week-out. I thought he was terrific and the sight of him chasing back to put his body in the way of shots on the edge of our own box. The likes of which you thought you'd never see! It looked for a wee bit we might wobble in the second half after Lasley went off but whilst they enjoyed more possession than they'd had previously I felt, the one very good save from Samson apart, we handled them well. Defended stoutly when needed and continued to look threatening when we went forward. It perhaps says much of the kind of season that Louis Moult has had that there was genuine disbelief that he didn't finish off that chance. McDonald only a little less so. Some better decision making and finishing and it could have been much more emphatic but in terms of getting three points and a level of commitment, not to mention level of performance from most, I don't think I could have hoped for any more.

Your thoughts and votes please folks...

I see merit in retaining all four. They all still have pivotal roles to play in my mind. Of course there has to be a transitional period where over time these guys will be replaced. Lasley is arguably the most pressing given his age but he is a growing member of the coaching staff as well as influential player so I see his continued presence as being doubly beneficial. I did think it significant however that we saw out the Utd game and beat Aberdeen recently minus Keith. That's not in any way shape or form a passing of the guard, but offers hope for the 'Life after Lasley' period.

I'm surprised Rickoza, with his QPR leanings, hasn't been along yet to correct on you on the date! It was 1983 as it happens with Graeme Forbes getting our goal. I know this only because it gets briefly referenced in this week's programme, under 'Q' in the A-Z feature. I certainly do recollect the Claret and Amber club with great fondness though. The brainchild I believe of Bobby Jenks, I remember the excitement of seeing this large advert in the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser "inviting the youth of Lanarkshire to join Motherwell FC's Claret and Amber Club". To see this big, bold advert in the middle of the Airdrie match reports and photos was just brilliant for someone who went to school in Airdrie. Recruiting fans in their turf. Magic! My sister and I must have been one of the first to join and remember getting our goodie bags from Bobby in the wee portacabin outside the Main Stand that served as our club shop in those days. Happy days!

I never quite get this train of thought. It doesn't matter how you do it, if you qualify for Europe then you've earned it. End of story. Whatever the chain of events of were, regardless of whether the final link in the chain happened to been a result involving other teams that got you over the line, it doesn't matter a hoot. If you've qualified then of course you will have earned it. You haven't just been given a place out of goodwill or on the back one result (although that place Fair Play thing that year was stretching it to the limit.......) you've accrued enough points over the course of the campaign to be in the position required to qualify. I struggle to see why folk think a qualification is perceived to be somehow devalued or unmerited just because it might involve an event or result going your way involving other teams. Either way it doesn't matter a fuck now of course!!