Andy_P

I was just a wean but it does stick in my mind for being probably the first time I can remember my old man swearing at the fitba - a goal-line stramash being the catalyst for his outburst. I'm guessing Craig Brown for Clyde and Jock Wallace in the dugouts. But for all that, I'm not quite seeing the relevance to Baraclough and East Fife last night though.

Cup perhaps games skew the correlation between outcome and performance that bit more than a league game. Pretty much everyone will be relieved and delighted that we managed to win, which is of course the primary objective in any Cup tie, but those looking for a performance or a sign of things moving in the right direction would probably be even more worried after the 120 minutes last night. Had we gone out nobody could have complained. It was awful stuff. Weak in defence. No creativity. Basic ineffective punts up the park whilst the team divisions below were showing us how to play football, all encompassed in East Fife's goal. I must be honest and thought we were done for. I didn't see a goal in us but when we did it, it fortunately changed the whole tie. From there we grew, East Fife tired and were stuck between trying to win it and hold out. Happily extra time was something of a canter in the end and we could have easily added another couple of goals. The outcome certainly spared Baraclough and the team from the seethe that had been growing in the support throughout the game but further displays of that nature may mean that unleashing of venom is merely postponed. But we're through, primary objective achieved and I note seeded for the next round with a couple of higher seeded teams than us having gone. I suppose that only makes the inevitable draw at Ibrox all the more likely so they and Scottish football hierarchy can teach us a lesson for our temerity last season...

Clearly East Fife's goalscorer was the best player on the park but.....

The Murphy money should first and foremost be directed towards this year's running costs. There is occasional talk of how we pay Les back and find the means to run the club. This is realistically the only way we're going to do it. We are never going to reach the required sums through Well Society subscriptions however much they will modestly boost the "overdraft facility". Pure and simple it will be transfer fees, compensation and add-ons that will help us run the club and however tempting (some will say essential) it might be to throw it back into the playing budget it has to be put towards the running of the club.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. I'm perhaps the opposite of, I think it was, Lobey Dosser who said he longer had much of an interest in such ties but I'm more the opposite. A team that I haven't see us play against in something like 15 years at a ground I've never been at before. Perfect! That's exactly what I hope for in a Cup draw. I must admit I do feel a bit of a tadger for having bolted over to Motherwell last Saturday for the ticket office opening time to make sure I got tickets only to now read that there is still about a quarter of the allocation left the day before the game, but there you go. Hoping to see our creative players do what they can and our defence get a clean sheet to boost their confidence in the build up to Kilmarnock on Saturday.

Actually now you mention January, it might have passed me by at the time of Jake's signing but I noticed in the programme last week that whilst he's signed until the end of the season there is a break option in the deal that presumably could see things terminated in January. We might well have had that in place in other loan deals but I can't ever remember that being made public before. Either way I hope over time he can have an increasing impact on proceedings.

Ok then... Although it does seem to be you are actually agreeing with me in re-opening the thread. I don't know who shut it or why either FWIW. And as for the justifying it comment, that would be as in offering an opinion as to why you feel the way do rather just saying he's shite, pants, crap or whatever. Kind of adds to the debate. Fairly obvious I would have thought.

I seem to remember seven weeks being mentioned. There was IIRC a degree of relief that not only was that shorter than first feared but that the seven weeks included a couple of international breaks limiting the number of games missed.

Well if there's a mood for discussion amongst some over the issue then it seems reasonable to offer the platform, however premature that may appear to others. As long as someone can justify their opinion for or against, aren't being abusive and the hyperbole is kept to a minimum then why not. And if it provides a central point for those indulging in that utterly cringeworthy 'Barrafraud' and 'Barraclown' patter then that surely can't be a bad thing.

And someone with a track record of scoring too.....say in the mould of...umm... John Sutton I don't think you're being greedy at all, and at least I kind of know what you are after in your number 9 now. I just felt what you said wanted during the Sutton era was largely what Moult offered last week so given that I was a little surprised that you were dismissive of his display. Either way I've my made observations and won't go on about it any further other than hoping however mobile they are and whoever gets the nod, they start finding the back of the net a bit more regularly. And soon.

Have you read any of my posts on this thread steelboy? It's related because ONeils banged on for two years about how much of lack of mobility Sutton had. Safe to draw the assumption then that he was looking for more mobility in the frontline, yes? Player is brought in who in the game against Aberdeen who provided that desired mobility and ONeils response to that is meh..... all he did was run about a bit. That to me seems a bit of a contradictory view to take when you've spent the last two seasons looking for your striker to run about a bit.

That's exactly the point. I don't know what you will be happy with in your strikers. Sutton's style attracted your criticism and you called for more mobility. Moult provided the mobility you wanted and labelled his performance as shite.

Yeah and in that Aberdeen game he did all the things you moaned were absent from the previous number nine, you got the striker with everything you regularly pointed out was missing before. And then having got that and when a lot of folk are giving him their MOTM, you then say he was shite! Surely you can see the irony in that, no? Certainly in agreement on your final point though.

From the games I've seen this season, one or two apart whose interest could be questioned in parts, there hasn't been a lack of effort. We've either just been not good enough or aided our own downfall. If the effort is there we will beat East Fife, simple as that. Your silver lining from the Albion Rovers fuckup is that anyone left from that debacle should be sufficiently scarred not to allow any repeat to happen, It will be interesting to see what team Baraclough goes with. You look at the league the opposition are from and think this is an opportunity to unleash Dom, give Taylor another game to bed himself into the club (no idea if his suspension is applicable or not), give Kennedy his debut, Clarkson a start and so on in a fixture that should be negotiated without too much difficulty. But after four successive losses he may wish his "first choice" team gets a chance to hopefully win convincingly ahead of Kilmarnock.

Your thoughts and votes please...

These attempts at finding space, making runs, winning headers, retaining possession and bringing people into play that has left you non-plussed. I'm surprised you've been as critical of Moult given that you spent the best part of the last two seasons demanding and decrying John Sutton for failing to provide the team with these very attributes.

We're not a millions miles away. I wouldn't rip it up just yet. . Sometimes it's fine lines. A chance taken here, some more resolute defending there. If we had lost by three or four to both Hearts and Aberdeen and they were cutting us to ribbons on every attack it would be worrying. But that wasn't the case. An another day with the same balance of play those games could easily have had different outcomes. Eradicate the persistent self-inflicted goals and there's a reasonable unit there that's in the early stages of a team-building process. Worth giving the team a bit more time to evolve in my mind. If further down the lines its apparent we can't evolve or are regressing then make changes, but for no I'd go with consistency of selection where we can and at least give them the opportunity to develop as a team.

I have to be honest UBH that does appear to be nit-picking in the extreme. I would guess that it's not so much that most fans wouldn't give a toss, it would be more a case that the difference is so slight most fans wouldn't even notice. Screwing up a retro kit to me would be the very first effort the club sanctioned where they stuck at huge square Motherwell badge on a 1952 Cup shirt - when badges obviously didn't appear on shirts until decades later but to me the example above is a more than fair representation of the shirt.

What is it with Aberdeen and us gifting them goals! Another two from the stupid and avoidable category yesterday that handed the points to them on a plate. They were clearly pivotal on how the game went but if you can strip them out of the equasion then it wasn't that bad a display. They got behind us a couple of times in the first half but I thought after we got ahead it was a pretty solid defence Aberdeen found themselves up against, despite all the possession they had. Until their equaliser which had us hurtling back to the days of Graeme Smith and his "Cross ball, will I? Won't I?....ohh" antics. A wee bit like midweek it was especially sore that the opposition scored again at the point of game where we were enjoying our best spell. There were some decent things to take from the game but it's a growing concern at how many goals we are conceding that are self-inflicted. From giving away stupid penalties to players running into another to own goals. We're as deadly to ourselves as any opposition striker has been. That's got to stop. A better performance than Tynecastle certainly but we need the break the run of defeats as soon as possible before confidence begins to suffer.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Is it just me that finds that impossible to read that without visualising John Barnes swaying and singing the words? Very World in Motion-esque! http://www.lyricsfreak.com/n/new+order/world+in+motion_20099830.html

I must admit I'm not overly confident about this one. My early season optimism has morphed into something a little closer to concern. It is early days, it is a rebuilding job, it is going to take time.....but that's a process that is about weeks and months. Today is about the here and now. Are we ready for a game against a team who finished second last season and who appear to have built on that and strengthened? I'm not so sure. There wasn't much between the teams in the games last season - you think break of the ball off Hammell first time, the helping hand they got with the red card and penalty at FIr Park and then the gifts we gave them when we were the better side second time up there. So we shouldn't be overawed by any means. I just think current state of play they'll have a bit too much about themselves for us.

I must admit I'd be pretty amazed if we'd managed to work in a 25% sell on clause into a deal for a player who was in the last six months of his contract. If it is indeed the case as you suggest Mitch, that's bloody excellent work by whoever negotiated that deal at Motherwell.

.... Off topic. Speaking of the bold Fraser (how's he getting on at West Brom btw ) a mate at work proudly showed me a photo on his phone of Lionel and Craig Reid with his two wee lassies taken at last weekend's game, presumably in the Cooper. "Who's your favourite player asks one of them. Quick as a flash the youngest pipes up "Fraser Kerr" cue an embarassed father, two smirking players and a rather awkward silence. The weans were chuffed as anything with their photo mind you so all was good. And back on topic......

Well that wasn't very good at all. And what makes it worse is that I don't think Hearts were particularly great either. Never really got going at all in the first half but we did have one or two things in an around their box that we could have done better with. Our distribution and inability to find our own men I felt was as much a threat to us as Hearts largely were. Didn't see the actual challenge for the penalty as someone blocked my view just as the Hearts player came into the box but from McDonald's reaction he looked disappointed with himself (as well he might for his performance across the night as it happens). Even if it were a shade on the dodgy side I doubt the ref would have needed much persuasion to give it, given how the merest brushes with someone in claret and amber were seemingly enough for him to awards Hearts. Not going to blame the ref for the defeat, but it has to be said, he was pish! Our best spell came early in the second half where for a 10-15 minute spell we looked like doing something. Nothing remarkable chance wise but balls were getting into box with the wingers getting service and doing positive things with it. But we remained vulnerable to the killer second even throughout that spell and so it came. At first glance my thoughts were the keeper might have done better. Hearts nothing startling for all the hype. Well deserving of their win no question, some decent displays by one or two but not a night they had to work particularly hard for their win. All a bit disappointing but on to the next one.,,,