Andy_P

I took it that Baraclough there simply to present a united front alongside Derek Weir, the two two newly appointed directors (Les' daughter and the other boy whose name escapes me), Brian McCafferty, Alan Burrows and LH himself. Some of mentioned didn't speak at all, some only very briefly. I don't know so much about Barclough getting a hard-time but had he been open to questions then I think undoubtedly the content of the discussion would have veered away somewhat from what generated the best part of two hours discussion on the Well Society and future of the club A Q&A with the manager is one for another day.

We're working on the assumption here it's Rangers but I think Hibs would have the same capacity to shift about 5 or 6 thousands tickets at Fir Park if given the opportunity. On the proviso that we get a sensible allocation at Easter Road or Ibrox the sensible thing in my mind to do in return is to allocate our opponents the South Stand initially, with the wing of the Main Stand closest to the South Stand held back to we see if it looks like we are likely to sell out our 3 stands. If as we would hope we sell out then there's no issue but if that's not going to be case - which would be pretty poor given the games importance - then I couldn't criticise the club if they took the extra money and give that wing to the opposition rather than the section lying empty. Billionaire owner or otherwise there's still a business to be run.

It perhaps depends upon how on the ball the club are and how accommodating Rangers and Hibs are. In principle if we were able to sort out provisional allocations and pricing with each of those clubs in advance of the conclusion of their games then they could put tickets on sale for Motherwell fans without the ticket specifying an opponent, or saying Rangers of Hibs. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened. The limited window of opportunity for these play-offs does illustrate how beneficial it would be if we were able to offer a print your own ticket facility. I've used such a facility when buying Glasgow Warriors tickets and it makes a fair old difference not having to visit Scotstoun beforehand, or having to get there early to queue. Perhaps it might even be something that would help with the sale of the Flexi Ticket package going forward if the club were to consider its introduction.

Anyone watching the post-match stuff from Alloa v Forfar game? I think it would be one of the most cringe worthy things I've ever seen to see our team celebrating behind a stupid sponsors board that says SPFL Premiership Play Off Winners! Winners? Winners!!??!! Yet I so desperately want to be cringing watching our team celebrating behind a stupid sponsors board on 31st May!!

A dead rubber in terms of competitive meaning and an awkward one in many respects. Perhaps better if it was a fixture we didn't have. Albeit it's only one game you're almost back into that pre-Cup Final territory that McCall didn't handle particularly well a few seasons ago where there's an argument for playing your strongest team in the hope they go into the play-offs with a win and confidence behind them. Yet there are equally strong arguments for playing a "weakened" (ha ha ha weakened side I know I know comic genius isn't it) side to try to avoid injury or suspension. And then there's the consideration that given the game won't matter a hoot I think many of us would all just rather just see the likes of Luke Watt, Chris Cadden, Dom Thomas and the likes show us what they can do for 90 minutes rather than 9 minutes. I have no idea how it'll go all the same.

I suppose it was all a bit immaterial in the end given that both Killie and County won but I don't think that should disguise the fact that again, on the road in front of a healthy travelling support and in a supposed must win we were far far from our best. It's pretty criminal really that you can't see out a lead with fifteen minutes to go against the team at the bottom of the table regardless of all the all the other variables. It wasn't a great start and in fact had St Mirren's finishing resembled anything like half decent they could easily have been out of sight by half-time. We had, what from distance, looked like a couple of reasonable opportunities ourselves but the performance was nothing like the standard required. Not a great deal better in the second before the introduction of Ainsworth and Sutton. A well won penalty from Erwin, well taken pressure kick from Sutty and what for must only have been a few seconds at least we seemed to have done enough to take it to the final day. But it all caved in with County coming back, an absolute shocker of a goal to hand the initiative back to St Mirren and then the farce of going down to 10 men and losing it when it must be close to hitting 5 o'clock. Was it a red for McDonald? Didn't seem like it at the time, a split second glance at a replay doesn't seem to suggest there was anything in it. Either way given it was a straight red it appears to offer the opportunity to appeal it to have it rescinded. All in all though a really shitty afternoon. Interesting to note the stewarding and policing of the 'Well support all the same though. There was almost an Old Firm visit attitude from them, one or two excepted they gave the perception they knew the away support was just too big to antagonise as they normally might so they stood back and bit their tongues for the most part. I did laugh at the boy from the St Mirren end when they equalised who broke through a taped off section to run about forty yards down the touchline to gesticulate to the Motherwell support. His "punishment" a cuddle from the steward and helped back, arm in arm to his seat. Got to love the consistency of the Paisley stewarding!

I think my issue with the BBC is that they are supposed to have some duty to broadcast programmes that reflect the national interest to some degree. You might argue that given the national sport is fitba they almost have a kind of obligation to meet the nation's appetite for coverage of that sport. Could you say that their current coverage of Scottish football does that? As an aside irks me no end the funds that BBC Scotland gets for sports coverage as a whole pales into insignificance when compared to the cash that gets flung at the likes of Match of the Day. It's probably the main reason why most weeks I generally cut my nose off to spite my face and don't watch it. Unless you're of those folk who have read the small small print about how you can get away without paying for a TV licence you don't have much choice in paying. Sky or BTSport might well spank Doncaster over the arse with a paddle every weekend, and sometimes on Friday nights in Aberdeen, but you can stop subscribing to them if you really want to make a point. You don't have much option but to swallow BBC's ignoring of protests outside the front door of their Scottish HQ, James Cook's informed tweets of scenes of "chaos" in Glasgow City Centre or their ridiculously shite coverage of Scottish football. So aye, I've got no qualms whatsoever if someone wants to pose some awkward questions for the BBC. And even more so if it delays me from the utter depression of reading what I suspect will be a rather horrible St Mirren match thread.

Your thoughts and votes please....

If it all goes tits up, a date for your diary.... ...sure Milo would have had this date bookmarked weeks ago mind

The trains that go from Motherwell via Whifflet are only using buses on the Motherwell - Whifflet leg of the journey. From there on in to Central it's the train.

If I mind rightly it's one of those automated turnstiles that require you to scan a ticket, so you'll need to either get one at Fir Park or from the wee window in the away stand. Once you're in I think it's a case of pick your seat, or at least I don't ever remember being told sit in allocated seat.

The blonde Josh Magennis for me.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I know! Seriously puts me off reading articles the Wishaw Press and over here in Bargeddieshire the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, knowing that the fuckers probably include the click-through in their circulation statistics.

No I don't, but how we got to the stage where he had a decision to make on signing them is kind of missing the point I'm making. The statement that has been made on several occasions now is that Baraclough had no input in the signings of Pearson and McDonald. All I'm contesting is that unless that statement can substantiated as fact then I'll consider it to be no more than supposition. How the players became available to sign, how much of a no-brainer it was to sign them, how good they've been or otherwise since they've signed - batter in. But to infer that two players have been signed without any of his of input whatsoever, sorry don't buy it for a second.

So if he had a final say then it surely can't have been the case they were "nothing to do with him then"? Look I get what you are saying about them both being perhaps not first being specifically identified and targeted as signings. But then how many signings managers make are their first choice? How many players are signed that are genuinely identified and targeted by managers? How many players arrive at clubs that a manager has known absolutely nothing about before a scout has brought a player to his attention or an agent's DVD full of his clients has hit his desk? It's about what the manager does when he's presented with a player's ability, suitability and availability regardless of how they happened to be brought to his attention. Let's take David Clarkson for example. During his purple patch after signing for Dundee great swathes of the Motherwell support were lambasting McCall because he chose not to sign Clarkson. This was Clarkson who ofcourse was training with the club, wasn't specifically identified by the manager and I dare say probably had dealings with Alan Burrows along the way too. Not a great deal of difference to Pearson and McDonald is there? So if McCall was deemed to be deserving of criticism for making what at a the time was perceived to be wrong decision in not signing Clarkson, is it not then fair then that Baraclough is surely due at least some praise for making what at the time appeared to be the right decision in choosing to sign Pearson and McDonald? The bigger point here is that is this is simply a stick that someone has come up with to beat Baraclough with. God knows there plenty to choose from without resorting to fanciful supposition that players are being brought to Motherwell that the manager has zero input in.

Baraclough's abilities obviously remain up for debate on many fronts - signings among them. But where is the proof that Pearson and McDonald were nothing to do with him and were somehow foisted upon him?

Frustrating stuff and a great opportunity passed up. All the more exasperating still given the defeats of Kilmarnock and St Mirren. I don't think there's any doubt we were the better team from start to finish but again our failure to capitalise when on top in a game combined with our most generous of defences has cost us. Not that we were carving out tonnes of clear cut chances but there was only one team looking to win it, and in it for the most part. First half up until we gave them them the goal I thought it was pretty decent stuff. Good tempo, some good performances and looking lively. The second half was much more disappointing as we didn't threaten nearly as much. Penalty for the challenge on Pearson? Would like to see that again. Whether Allan got it right or wrong it was a refereeing performance entirely typical of him. I've never been a fan of his and he appeared to have an ever changing criteria for what merited a card, My particular favourite was allowing Boyd, already on a yellow ball not only to put the ball out the park, but of the damn stadium after the whistle had gone, unchecked! When all's said and done it's disappointing not to have won. The performance was up I felt on Thistle and Accies and if we are to be in the play-offs it's important to at the very least try to get into them on the backing some reasonable displays and ideally a wee undefeated run. Yet still, after just a meagre point out of nine, there remains a glimmer of hope and something to fight for. I can't see it now to be honest but the likes of Jimmy Glass at Carlisle, Reid at Pittodrie and the goings on at Vicarage Road illustrate what can happen when the battle is taken to the very last seconds of the season. However forlorn it looks - we fight on! Oh and Billy Dodds, you always were a bit of a cock!

Your thoughts and votes please...

The worst thing that happened to Law was scoring those two goals on his debut. He was already perceived by many supporters as only being at the club because of his family connection so when he failed to build on that completely unexpected start to his 'Well career left him in an uncomfortable position. McCall didn't help matters by at first percevering longer than his performances merited intitally playing off a lone striker and then basically pitching him on whatever wing he were lacking bodies in. It would certainly have helped him if he could have played his way into the side on the quiet. In fairness though he's never shirked, never hid, continued to give his all and I was pleased for him when he was able to make the right-back position his own of late, just for the way he hung in there and turned things around a bit. Ultimately I would have to say he hasn't shown a level of quality that we would hope to have in the team to return to recent glories though so perhaps it's time to look elsewhere next season and beyond.

I think Erwin has had a pretty decent first season in the first team all in all. He's clearly got some way to go until he's anywhere near the finished article but there are plenty of encouraging signs. I think ideally the next stage after his successful loan spell with Arbroath would have been an extended period with a club in the First Division to bring his game on further. We're seeing a lot of that work in progress this season that could have happened previously but for his two long term injuries. Quite whether he'll continue that development at Fir Park remains to be seen but a striker of his stature with a degree of pace, decent workrate, ability to operate out wide is going to be very highly sought after when that points comes - as it will - where he starts hitting the net on a more regular basis.

Well we've done the Hamilton game to death and the debate that followed so aye, probably a good time to call it quits on this one and focus on other matters.

I think we need another game of fitba to discuss. Soon.

I'm fairly predictable when I get involved in the thread pre-match about how important it is to get the first goal, but it's even more imperative this week that we get it. I would expect that Jim McIntyre will be emphasising the point about Thistle's win being just a blip but if there are any seeds of doubt in any of their players minds then a going behind would be the perfect way to unsettle them further. County and perhaps to a lesser extent Killie have it to throw away but it's a bit mental to think for all the Staggies wonderful run, our shocking last two games and the fact they could easily have been coming down to the Shire nine points ahead, that come 5 o'clock on Saturday we could be just three behind them again. Having made a big play about encouraging positivity recently I have to confess coming away from Hamilton I had accepted my lot that we would be in the play-offs. Still a very strong likelihood ofcourse but there is still something to bite and scratch for. However he manages to do it, Baraclough has to get a reaction to the last two insipid displays from his players and get them up for it; but most importantly of all however it happens we simply have to win.

Couple that were kicking about on Twitter last night.