Andy_P

Your thoughts and votes please...

Vigurs back to Caley confirmed by the BBC. Smiling at their view that Vigurs was "used sparingly" by Motherwell last season. I guess the thorough BBC reporter never questioned why when he looked as his total appearances on Soccerbase why he didn't play beyond December...

"Wee Dan"?

Tricky to answer at this stage I'd say Haggis given we were lead to believe he was primarily a left-back, capable on the left hand side in central-defence but has played the majority of his time thus far on the left of midfield. If you read through the United game thread you'll pick up on a few characteristics that other posters have picked upon some of which I'd agree with. He does seem to have a decent level of ability about him and wasn't anything like the square peg in a round hole that Josh Law appeared to be at left-mid at times last season. A decent early impression but will reserve greater judgement until I've seen him play in defence.

It was a pretty cruel way to lose a game, especially so late in it, but I have to be honest my disappointment passed pretty quickly and I find myself quite encouraged. You compare that 2-0 defeat today for example to some of the early home defeats in the first two or three months of last season and you could probably take more positives out of today than you could against Inverness, St Johnstone, Accies and Dundee combined last year. I thought we started really well. We played some good stuff at a good tempo but lost our way a bit when we didn't the early goal our domination at the time deserved. United became more confident as the half wore on came into things a lot more. I thought they started the second pretty well and seemed to be getting on top culminating in the one-on-one save from Ripley. I would stop short of saying we got a wake up call but obviously almost immediately after that Mavin blew a golden opportunity of our own but we had a really good spell again after that. I suppose the last fifteen is down to your own feelings on fitba. Perhaps the sensible option would have been just to stick with what we had, see if we could sneak it, take the point if it didn't come but I find it hard to be too critical of the manager for going for it at that juncture of the match with what was a very bold and attacking formation. And much the same goes for the keeper going up for the corner. You can view it as being absolutely stupid or a bold attempt to rescue a point. Overall though a pretty decent display from which we didn't get the point which would have been the very least we deserved. Very disappointing at the time but encouraged for what the future holds for this team. I tend to agree with the guys who were speaking in front of me heading out the ground when they said play like that and we'll win more than we'll lose over the course.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Excuse the sadsackness for even picking up on it but from my vantage point in the East I can see Motorpoint signs dominating the South Stand. The new mob Castle Water have prominent positions at the tunnel. Both are well featured in the programme too. But Cash Converters? Aside from on the kit their presence seems to have been wiped from Fir Park. Just an observation really, probably not worth a thread but interesting if like me you're sad enough to pick upon these kind of things.

I think United as a club are teetering over the edge of cliff face at the moment. They've been pretty sensational on their day over the last couple of seasons (as we know to our cost) but there's no question in my mind they didn't fulfill their potential over the piece. And now that that team has been broken up it's interesting to see where they go as a club. There must be concerns. They fell away badly after selling Mackay-Steven and Armstrong before the League Cup Final last season, have lost most of their pre-season games (albeit against good opposition) and having lost last weekend again I don't think it'll take much for their fans to turn. United have always been a support who have a pretty clear view of where they believe their club should be - often some way from reality mind you - but I get the feeling that McNamara might only be a couple of bad results away from being in a bit of bother. As for tomorrow. Usual drill. Fast start, get the goal, draw them out and tear the fuckers to shreds on the break. Job done. If only it was simple....

Not that he would have been directly competing with Pearo for the same role but I'm sure I read/heard that Ross MacLean is also out (for a month or so I think), which is another midfield option currently out of the equation. That said I still don't think it'll affect the pace of the chase for another centre-mid all the same.

It's a tricky one. Anything that can help boost the presence of the Bois at games has got to be good. But then anything that can help the boost the presence of all Motherwell fans at games has got to be good. The club have subsidised travel on occasions in the past. Going back almost 30 years I remember going in double-deckers down to Kilmarnock for a Scottish Cup replay on buses that were arranged by the club. That has generally tended to be on occasions though where there has been something quite important at stake. I'm sure they did try an official travel club bus as well when Alan Dick was the secretary at the club - perhaps around the time of the 1991 win - but I don't think there was sufficient demand for it to continue long. I think it's a good arrangement in principle that the club have with First Bus where season ticket holders can get to games at - depending upon where you are travelling from - at a potentially subsidised rate. Now I've ever used it and have my doubts that If I boarded a number 2 at Bargeddie and showed the driver my season he wouldn't know what the fuck I was on about and thought I was loopy or just a chancing bam, but the principle of reduced travel to games is sound. I suspect it would really need to be a SPFL wide arrangement for anything to be negotiated with the train companies but that's the kind of arrangement that would benefit supporters travelling to away games on public transport that the clubs and league bodies should be aspiring to build. Getting back to Motherwell. Do we have any links to bus companies through sponsorship? Does the Well Society business club have? That's perhaps your best bet I would think of getting some kind of subsidy that enables the club/society to shout loud about a "preferred coach travel provider" or some such so the company concerned gets some advertising back for what would hopefully be the preferable rate they would be offering all Motherwell fans for hiring one of their coaches.

Interesting to read you guys take on this particular incident. That was most certainly not how it was put across on Radio Scotland. I suppose the fact it was Barry Wilson who was the reporter tells you everything you need to know but the whole thing was put across as Motherwell being unsportsmanlike.

Your thoughts and votes please on what'll hopefully the be the first of many wins this season....

Had those ties occurred a fortnight, perhaps even a week later in the season then we would have gone through. The difference between the readiness of the team in the first leg and second leg a couple of weeks later was massive. Even though on paper we had a better pre-season programme lined up than compared to last year I recollect similar murmurings that we weren't as ready as we could have been and it could have been a better preparation e.g. scraping wins (one was against Darlington I think) and hushed-up red cards in friendlies. The parallels with last season kind of continued in that we went on to have a much poorer season than the one we had enjoyed the year before. I also recall that silence on the bus after the game and the deflation on the plane coming home. I had to present Brian Martin with the Exiles Club Player of the Year award for the season before at some point on the trip and it ended up being in the middle of a gutted group of players on the way back. Pretty awkward.

Yes and No. I went to Pittodrie for that day on the Bellshill Bus and in trying to sort out a seat joined their Facebook group. There was a message actually came through this morning saying that there wouldn't be a bus for Inverness and any being organised in the future would be organised by Brian Worton again rather than Marc Welsh.

The things you stumble across..... http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/sport/football/nw-football/foyle-cup-craigan-happy-with-motherwell-win-1-6862461

Not really restricted to Inverness but if you know you are going to do a lot of train days with a family member or a mate over the course of the season then that Two Together railcard that's being advertised just now might be worth looking into. It's £30 (or £15 each) up front but after that you get a third off any rail fares for any journey you do together. For example the good lady and I have booked to go up and see the folks in Aberdeen at the end of August. With that card we've got a return from Queen Street for £29. If you're going to be going Tynecastle, Inverness, Dingwall, Aberdeen, Parkhead, Killie and the two Dundee teams by train then you'll make up your £15/£30 in no time and should make a decent saving over the piece. http://www.twotogether-railcard.co.uk/

For some reason I took the notion to have a shifty at the PNE Twitter site and they've the crowd down as 483. Not sure how many travelled but they were running buses up for £25 a pop.

There was some drainage works on the pitch being undertaken. The extra week added to the season because of the play-off meant there would have been some doubt in whether it would be ready for pre-season friendlies. So they just looked elsewhere and the gave the pitch the extra time to be worked on,

Or blue if it's Celtic you're playing against!

I think this was the game the camera pans in on him seconds after either the first or second flies past him. Looking utterly incredulous he quickly mouths an amusing (amusing because we eventually hung on and won) "Fuck Me" before returning to the calm and steadying influence between the sticks we all remember.....

Perhaps, Moult's finishing was off but I'd say even on the half an hour or so he got today he looks the best fit - or most Erwin like if you want to put it that way - of our four strikers, into the formation we used last season under Baraclough. Moore I wasn't really impressed with at all in all honesty, Clarky to me still looks like there's a bit to go fitness witness, Fletcher is of a slightly similar style but I liked what I saw of Moult even if his finishing might have been a little better. There was a willingness to come very deep, an ability to link up play and he's obviously scored goals in the past. I think there's a pretty good player in there.

Nice to see the team in action again, get a win and score a couple of goals. Still quite clear that players are at different levels of readiness for the new season. Some will definitely benefit from the additional friendly that's been arranged on today's evidence. We arrived a few minutes late but fortunately didn't miss anything. I wasn't overly impressed with what I saw in the opening forty five minutes though Pearson bossed the middle of the park and Kennedy looked pretty good, an iffy passback aside. A good bit better in the second half. We seemed to be a lot more direct which brought Ainsworth into play a lot more. There was a definite improvement in the forward line with Clarkson and Moult replacing Moore and Fletcher which also helped. Two well taken goals and there could have been others which was a bit more encouraging. A wee worry when Kennedy went down but he recovered and played another 5-10 minutes before sensibly being replaced.

I don't see the link. You are allowed to go to games even if you think the team aren't as good as they might be or aren't as prepared as they could be. Going to games even though you think we may be poor is not being unprincipled. It's just being a supporter.

Says on the official go there on the Monday, play Tuesday and home Wednesday.

Not sure how up to date it is but there is some info. on the official.... http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/fanzone/supporters-clubs/ Welcome to the forum BTW.