Andy_P

Your thoughts and votes please....

There is no guarantee of a performance far less of a result tomorrow but I am fairly certain that for sometime to come in any fixture where we are heavy favourites to win the words "Albion" and "Rovers" will be mentioned by the management to ensure there is no hint of complacency. The Inverness postponement can go two ways we may lose a little of the fluency and edge we had developed in the proceeding fixtures or as is more likely the case, the rest will have done us the world of good. In terms of form though we have the rather delicious problem of deciding which of our attacking threats, all of whom are in sparkling form, should get the nod. With Ainsworth on four in four, McFadden two in two, Sutton two in two, Vigurs and Anier chipping in and getting assists at the same time and even ZFA on the left scoring in his last start, we have an array of options that can cause Hearts problems. As has been said by a couple of posters we need to go for a Mark McGhee style points in the bag by half three, brandy and cigars at half-time style first forty five minutes, to damp down any foothold in the game the Jambos will seek to gain. Get that first goal and I think we should be ok.

I think with Cummins its just another of the balancing acts that we require to do with our squad each season. In this case it's weighing up whether it's best to keep him in case we are unexpectedly afflicted with some injury/suspension crisis set against the five months experience Adam will hopefully get with Dundee, with the added benefit that there may be some financial recouping of his wages that can be utilised elsewhere. Assuming that injury or suspension crisis doesn't happen - which it has in the past - I'm thinking Aberdeen where Cummins would have made one of his first, if not thee first appearance of his 'Well career and the Utd pasting a few weeks back, this would appear to be a win-win, The same principle would apply for McHugh should the heavy undertones that he is also Tayside bound be proved to be correct, although this may well be as much shop window territory as much as player development if the Anier deal comes off.

Coincidence or someone taking note? McCall live on Sportsound on Wednesday night at 1810 with questions being sought from Motherwell fans.

Just been taking a wee shifty at our forthcoming fixtures to try to get a feel for where we might see the Inverness game re-scheduled and the St Johnstone game that will be postponed because of the League Cup Semi. One or two wee oddities struck me. Aberdeen up on 25th January less than a month after we went up there. Seems a shade quick no? The St Johnstone match has been pulled from the fixture list on the 'fishel because of their involvement in the League Cup Semis but that would have been another case of being scheduled to play them twice within 4 or 5 weeks. Again quite a quick turnaround. And again, if you were including that postponed St Johnstone game, we would have been due to play Thistle twice within seven games fixtures. Yet in contrast we last faced Hibs on 3rd November and it will be just shy of 5 months before we meet them again towards the end of March. Folk will draw their own conclusions whether these apparent quirks in the schedule will be to our benefit, detriment or don't make a blind bit of difference. Just seemed a little odd to me though.

Original Poster Frazzle. Nothing more sinister than that.

^^^^^ Everybody, everbody! Look at me!!!! Look at me!!!!!!

The pitch may have looked fine on Wednesday but it most certainly did not in the days leading up to it, where it was commented upon by club employees either via official or personal social media accounts (I can't remember which exactly) that the pitch at that stage was unplayable. It has also been remarked upon that floodlights have been spotted on at "odd" times this week so clearly there has been considerable efforts made to get to both the St Johnstone and Inverness games on, a fact that the referee who conducted the pitch inspection made a point of stating when interviewed on SSN this morning. Sometimes circumstances just go against you, no matter what preventions you take or efforts you make. Blame doesn't have to be apportioned every time.

Like at Firhill and Paisley who have both had games abandoned this season because of waterlogging? And take a look at the fixture list for Scotland and see just how many games are actually scheduled to be played today. We might well be the only game off, but there are only something like half a dozen scheduled in the first place,

Ever looking on the bright side eh Jim!

Great reading that your boy has taken to it wideboyal. The club can and do a lot to make it easier to introduce young fans with the season ticket deals, the face painting, mascots and family sections etc. but at the end of the day for those initiatives to succeed it really helps that guys like yourself and Brazilian, who has introduced several of his family in recent times, make the effort to bring the next generation along. The ones who forgo a pre or post match beer and are prepared to sacrifice missing goals and spend time running to pie stalls until the young uns are captivated enough to watch for the full ninety. I hope your nipper will look back and remember his younger days following the 'Well as a special time. I still have great memories of going to places like Berwick on the old Bellshill supporters bus -when it seemed like we were on that bus forever - my tammy getting used for the sweep on the bus, sitting in the Main Stand with my Dad's friends like the late Bobby Allan doing commentaries for the blind and Joe McGuire, who I'm delighted to see every now and again making his down from Fir Park after a game. Even simple things like getting my old man's old leather gloves passed to me when it got cold. Great memories and I hope you wee man will build up a catalogue of his own going to the games with his old fella!

Now you've had a chance to digest your steak pie, your thoughts and votes please...

Your thoughts and votes please folks...

You don't have any emotional attachment to players like Murphy for example were at the club from something like his early teens if not earlier, who have come through the ranks, given hundreds of games of services, provided countless memories and left literally with tears in their eyes? These guys are our own! All part of the, and the fact that Celtic have tried to steal as their own doesn't make it any less so, very fabric of the Motherwell family that has enabled the likes of Craigan, Burns, McFadden, Leitch, Hammell and rather pertinently today O'Donnell to come back to a place they recognise as home. So yeah to see Reynolds at Aberdeen or potentially Murphy at Hibernian is indeed a painful sight because there is a such a strong bond between player and club that it just doesn't seem right to see them in another Scottish teams colours.

Your thoughts and votes please....

I remember the bad old days at Easter Road and Tynecastle in the pouring rain. I also remember the apparent good days in a seat under cover watching a Scottish Cup tie last December when it was something like minus six. Both just as unpleasant as each other. Evidently there's a demand for terracing. It surely suits all interests if that demand can be met so that a choice can be offered. I think it's that simple.

Not that I'm in any way mooting a move for him, but STV Sport did a feature on out of contract players earlier in the month and going by that article they'd have you believe that Kello was out of contract in January rather than in the summer.

Your thoughts and votes please. ..

Under Gus McPherson I'd certainly agree with you, not so under Danny Lennon however to the point that they are sometimes overhyped for supposed free-flowing, easy on the eye style of play, Chic Young would have you believe they produce. Still a tricky one to call all the same. Oh and I hope, if any of their stewards happen to be St Mirren fans and are coming to Fir Park, a pigeon shits on their tammy.

Your thoughts and votes please, especially if you were one of the 103!

Let's be honest though, we are getting to the point that if McCall said he'd combed his hair this morning, some people would be fucking raging he didn't use a hairbrush.

As I read it Brazilian is looking further ahead than an immediate, if totally understandable, blood lust for retribution. It's a 'How to best play the system' strategy if you like - a system that is far from ideal admittedly. The immediate focus will be on sorting the damage. That'll be done and it'll be at Celtic's expense. You never know if we screw Celtic for completely new seating we may even be able to salvage some seats or seat-backs that save us money when replacements are needed further down the line. I also thought it was sensible to keep schtum rather than MFC make any statement. The pictures speak for themselves. Motherwell making any statement is only liable to deflect attention on to us when any misdemeanors of our own are cast up, however minor in comparison they may be. As it is the inability or unwillingness of Celtic FC to properly deal with their own supporters on the back of those photos are the lasting impression that people have. But there is no question that where it gets a bit sickening is where the system has to be played otherwise WE suffer again. If we did slate Celtic and their fans as many of us would want, then we risk the potential that they don't come next time. Unpalatable as that is, we need their money, otherwise we suffer. By keeping quiet we can adopt a different tack, say when next season comes around we can quietly add a couple of quid to their admission money, by way of insurance, and we don't take any financial hit. I believe that no club will want to speak on instances like this unless they really have to. We know they all want as few police at games as possible. Presumably the more police, the higher the cost - regardless of how often or what they choose to intervene on. If clubs are seen as unable to handle games through stewarding and a token amount of police, then we are on a slippery slope in that they get saddled with paying for more police, whose required increased presence allows authorities to justify the kind of legislation that was passed in the last year, and the provision of a budget for that group, whose name escapes me, whose over the top reactions made life so difficult for 'Well fans at Paisley. And that in itself is a further potential consequence and I think what Brazilian was getting at. There is a risk that rather than just the Green Brigade being given the attention they so clearly merit, as is often is the case, we end up suffering for it when the authorities take action. We know how these things work. They talk of action across the board but its the 60 'Well fans that'll get targeted, not the 600 from Celtic when push comes to shove. Play it down as much as possible, take the repeated line that its a minority, we will self police blah blah hope things quickly settle down and then the authorities attention will move on elsewhere. Not pleasant but make too much noise and their attention won't be diverted elsewhere and they'll be looking to step in. I do think behind the scenes though MFC will be asking questions of the stewarding and albeit bit more delicately about the policing but in terms of our club I don't think our strategy in handling this has been off the mark at all.

In Englandshire so was watching online. A sickener to concede so close to half time when it looked like we might be getting away with it. It may well have only been delaying the inevitable but the longer a game goes at 0-0 you never know. Last week illustrated that much. But couldn't complain at going in behind. All Celtic and when we did get a corner we did some stupid short corner routine that didn't even get the ball into the box. Very poor. Hutchinson looked to be bullied for their second and Carswell was equally weak on the box before Nielsen, how many times is that now? got an assist with an opposition goal for their third. After that a case of how many really. Perhaps it's because I'm in the East Stand and don't really get a true picture of how many are in there usually but that was really eye raising the turnout across the East and Cooper stands. And not in a good way. The club must be concerned at existing ticket holders and PATG punters turning their backs far less attracting half season buyers. These are testing times both within the dugout and the directors box.

Clearly off the park it's the Bois who deserve the credit for singing til the last, but in terms of those on it....

In terms of twitter since there were some supporters tweeting six and seven of them at a time calling an embarassment and the likes I'm not really that surprised they aren't up for the if RT if I shave my pubes style Hammy "banter".