Andy_P

I have absolutely no problem with them doing so. They've put a bit of money the club's way and I hope they enjoyed the club's hospitality so much they'll do it again and again. I do however continue to question the savvy of the person/people at the club who thought it appropriate to go ahead with that Man of the Match announcements given the scoreline as it was. Those two players were hung out to dry. But where do we go from here? To Kilmarnock, hopefully with a defence that will have about 800 games in claret and amber worth of experience restored to it.

They do indeed.... But in doing so those supporters should realise their booing and jeering is probably going to be counter productive, that is more likely to make the player retreat into a shell, to take an easy option and hide rather than the opposite. That they won't actually start running faster, pass more accurately, become deadly in front of goal etc. They should acknowledge that booing and jeering is more likely to result in barriers being built up rather strengthening the relationship between players and fans. Boo if you wish but don't then expect those players them to give you a wee wave or a clap at the end of the game, to be your best pal on twitter, to expect them to turn up at and hang around at functions signing autographs and having their pictures taken for hours with you when you've been slaughtering them and their team-mates. But aye, the supporters have every right to boo and jeer as they see fit!

Just at your posts.

In a sense I wasn't that surprised we took a drubbing. When the team lines came through I immediately feared a tough afternoon lay ahead and if we could take anything we'd be doing well. We've generally been quite fortunate with the calculated gamble of running with a tight squad but I think there will be few teams who could lose their keeper, and three of their recognised back four at the one time and not suffer consequences. I thought we were OK initially, had won a few corners and Sutton wasn't too far away from Vigurs cross but the game was lost in the space of about three minutes. For their killer second I thought we might have had a case for high feet but you simply can't ignore the poor decision making of Francis-Angol that lead to their chance in the first place. This past couple of weeks has been a tough learning curve for young ZFA. I hope he has the character to get through it and be better for the tough experiences. The third, what can you say? At first glance perhaps not our most professional hour that we were still scrambling about with 10 men trying to make a change. Why the delay before Murray replaced Carswell? The fourth was the rubbing of salt into the wounds. In truth by that stage if it had been five, six, seven even I doubt I really could have complained. Good side United, look lively, creative. All the things we weren't today. I do find it irritating losing to them though. There is just something incredibly smug and arrogant about their fans - like their "New Firm" partners further up the coast. Half a dozen decent games and they think its 1983 again. "You're only here to see United" Fuck Off!! Felt a bit for Vigurs with the booing at the Man of the Match announcement and ZFA to a lesser extent. Unless we are somehow contractually obliged to do this lets at least use a bit of discretion. Announcing a Man of the Match when you are 3-0 down is just embarrassing and leaves you open to the type of reaction the announcement got. A stupid and unnecessary position to put either player in. And on a slightly similar vein we've made plenty of strides with stats, tweets and the like around the matchday experience. Announcing match sponsors when the game is certainly not one of them. Irritating as it as it to hear all the sponsors read out for each player at half-time, it is at least at half time. During the game, it's not on. Positives few and far between. Moore liked interested when he came on. Certainly should be starting against Albion Rovers in a few weeks, you could even argue he might be worth a shot against Killie. Pleased also that Euan Murray got some first team game time too, even if not in the best of circumstances. I always think it's best if you can go into these international breaks on a high after a win, but I'm actually just grateful we have it, so we can let those who need it gain fitness, those who need it rest and generally have a couple of weeks to regroup and put today behind us.

Do your worst...

Two strands to it. The first is if the police deem Cliftonhill suitable or not to stage a game that will see the ground at capacity. The second is whether they want to take the gamble of moving it elsewhere in the hope that they can maximise revenue from the tie. They've played two derbies against Airdrie two seasons ago in Coatbridge and having looked at some newspaper articles reporting their game against Rangers would be switched they tend to state it was down to financial rather than security reasons. Perhaps not as cut and dried a decision as I first thought. Just need to wait and see I suppose.

Had a quick look at their forum for immediate reaction....there aren't many posts to be fair. One says another

As has been said a decent draw for us, both in terms of the tie and how the other fixtures have come out of the hat too with a very pleasant smattering of all top flight ties. We'll see what materialises but if Cliftonhill is deemed insufficient to house 1100 plus visiting Rangers fans, then I would fully expect it to be deemed insufficient to house 1100 plus Motherwell fans also. The precedent of earlier in the season kind of points towards Almondvale to host it. Rovers ofcourse moved a game there this season already, Livingston are away from home in the Cup and have ongoing financial worries so will surely be open to the unexpected fee for use of their facilities. Plus we've already taken more than a thousand midweek for a Cup game this season already so there will be no worries about moving it and then the crowd being just over Cliftonhill's capacity. A shame in a sense if it does get moved. A Scottish Cup tie at Cliftonhill would be something special and something really worth experiencing for the many 'Well fans who won't have seen us play there.

He may or not have posted as much already but Big Stall noted the slight irony of the countless balls that went into the box the other night to no good effect and yet here were today, the first decent cross brought a corner from which the second decent cross brought our winning goal. It was a stuffy but very very welcome win in the end and that's really what today was all about. Get a result, however it comes about, put the last couple of days behind us and move on. The fact that we had to show a good bit of character to get those three points should only help the team that bit better about themselves. I thought Hibs were the better of the two sides until we scored but thereafter we could have easily been about three nil up by half-time. Had we got the second before the break I got impression we could have went on and enjoyed a very comfortable win but the single goal meant we were always vulnerable. Looked like it was going to be much the same at the beginning of the second half with a couple of quick fire efforts but from there-on-in we rarely offered anything of an attacking threat and it was all Hibs, albeit Nielsen wasn't getting his hands dirty too often. Increasingly nervy stuff towards the end but we got there, makeshift rearguard and all.

Your thoughts and votes please...

It could in theory still be done if the ICT v Hearts game was on the Sunday and the other game was elsewhere on the Saturday. Or even I suppose if our Hibs game was on the Sunday at 3pm.

I'm slowly but surely putting Wednesday to bed and beginning to look forward to Sunday. Not without some trepidation I must confess, but that wee childlike buzz of excitement that you get when you know you are going to fitba soon is returning. I'm not so feart of Hibs as I am of the potential hangover from midweek. I think back to the aftermath of Ibrox last season where we lost three on the bounce after it. Admittedly games against Celtic, Hearts and Hibs but it did take a bit for us to get that game out of our system. With the stupid kick-off time as it is, the game being live on TV which will surely have an impact on the attendance and with both of us having endured gut-wrenching defeats I would not be surprised if it proved to be flat as the proverbial pancake with both teams just happy to take a point and begin the recovery process from Wednesday. I hope, however, that our this is where our much vaunted team spirit will come into its own to ensure there aren't individuals out there feeling sorry for themselves and they are all in the right frame of mind. I also hope that we can do our bit off the park to be as positive as we can for the team. Noisy backing from The Bois will be given ofcourse but we can all do our bit. I don't want to go into one of those long-winded and sometimes cringeworthy battle cries but in short it is a two-way thing I think. We feed off their play on the park but there are times when our backing can help them too. Be it a shout of encouragement, clapping along or whatever, if its as tentative and cagey game as I expect then any positivity has got to help. Anways repeat of the opener. 1-0 Motherwell, Anier to score.

Seems a good shout at first glance. Already five games scheduled in March and that's without taking into account the possibility of a game, or games, in the Scottish Cup or any weather related problems. I think the Hearts v Inverness Semi Final was at Easter Road last season so I wouldn't be too surprised at a repeat. Certainly in terms of us though, a Saturday 3pm would I suspect be preferable to most than a midweeker. The further downside ofcourse to Wednesday's disappointment is that there's every chance we'll have to head to Perth in midweek. In the middle of winter. Joy.

Seemed like one of those midweek games where it might be best to sleep on it a bit before posting. Hasn't worked. Still fuckin' scunnered! I'm sure we're not alone but at times it does feel our team go to extraordinary lengths of finding new ways of losing games and booting you in the baws. I haven't yet read earlier posts in the thread, I'm fairly sure that'll contain plenty of Told You So's from MJC or Steelboy's First Division players war cries. I'll leave that for later when I've more of a stomach. For now I'll just get my own whining out of my system.... I thought we started well. Exactly the intensity you would have hoped for. Fucked right in about them and swarming all over them. Great. The disallowed goal was odd. Seemed obvious that there was an infringement but it was a quite seconds after our players were celebrating before it was called back. No obvious gesture from the linesman that there was anything wrong, but then he didn't return upfield to re-start play either. It hen it gave the impression of a reaction only after the Aberdeen players starting greetin'. The red card seemed a fair call given the lunge, although I will say it seemed to me ZFA hadn't properly controlled the ball leaving it open to be contested and I don't think it did any harm that the incident took place right in front of the East Stand. For whatever reason after that we just never regained any of that early intensity and the not unreasonable plan of playing possession football to play around them and tire them, very quickly became a plan of playing possession because quite frankly we don't know how the fuck to break them down. That in turn morphed into the deep punt into the box. I thought Lawson was at times a few unneccesary touches too many in the first half and the move to bring on Ainsworth a sound call, but actually he was one of the few actually prepared to shoot. Albeit high wide and handsome pretty much every effort. Ironically this was Vigurs game for me. When you needed someone who was happy to shoot from wherever. A greedy bastard not afraid to take people on and who could benefit from the extra man advantage, when others are happy to lump it or pass it and wave responsibility. It also made the non-appearance of McFadden for the last 10 minutes all the more bizarre too. If he wasn't fit enough to contribute then surely Craig Moore should have been on the bench instead? The warning signs were there all night for their goal. Whilst we were camped in their half we rarely threatened yet on the rare occasions they broke they were a threat because they had pace and drive about them. Just so very very disappointing.

Bladda bladda....

In relation to the earlier chat about Motherwell choking in Cup competitions Are we forgetting who we exactly are playing on Wednesday night? Dunfermline...East Fife...Queen of the South....Raith Rovers....Hibs..... Ring any bells? Whether they happen to have beaten us in the Cup in recent seasons or not Aberdeen are just as, if not more, prone to shitting in the nest when there's a golden opportunity at hand than we've ever been. The tie is there to be won.

Like the last time we played them in a League Cup Quarter Final? Go away again trolly troll.

Well that wasn't very good at all was it!! Interesting team selection to begin with. Was it with a view to Aberdeen on Wednesday? Players not quite 100% and an acknowledgement that some of aren't up to three games in a week? Was SM hoping it would be enough to eek out a point? Certainly it left us very one paced and lacking in the ability to make any great headway when attacking and a bit like at Parkhead the other week once we had conceded the strategy looked to be redundant. We'd rode our luck a little to that point yet had Sutton put away his header it might have been different. A reasonable enough response to going behind before the pantomime that was their second goal. Judging by Nielsen's display today it surely puts to bed the myth that he is somehow a wholly more commanding keeper than Hollis. The more we see the more the two appear to be much of a muchness. Unfortunate that we didn't get an avenue back into the game with the penalty claim from Lawson's shot. Certainly the replay on Alba showed it to be a more than fair shout. I thought his reaction was poor though after it. He ran about with a petted lip, should have been booked for a late tackle and then stupidly got booked about 30 seconds later. All in all pretty shite really. But as ever some perspective required before the toys get thrown out the pram. A look at their home record confirms its a difficult place to go albeit I felt we could have given it a much better fist of it than we did. A win on Wednesday and this will be all be forgotten.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Welcome to the boards and nice to see you make your first post! But.... Aberdeen supporters do get a good press for their support, not least because they almost have a whole unit of propagandists masquerading under the guise of Radio Scotland presenters and analysts. But let's remember the size of the city of Aberdeen, population of something like 210,000. Throw in the catchment area of Aberdeenshire, which is something like 230,000. Don't forget either the support they garnered during their golden years when they had no senior side to compete with north of Montrose and the not insignificant volume of support that latched on to them from other parts of Scotland Consider also the wealth there is in that part of the country and I don't think their support is just as jaw-dropping as we are often lead to believe. That said they are generally a noisy, colourful lot. Away from home at least.

I think Tune In tends only to do Radio Scotland FM and Sportsound is on Medium Wave so not sure if that one will come up trumps on Sunday. Maybe MFC's Twitter feed would be the next best bet?

Whilst it's only last season they picked up the live SPL stuff, it's maybe worth pointing out that Alba have actually been showing a smattering of "non-bigot games" as David puts it, for a good few seasons now in the shape of the Challenge Cup and the SFL play-offs. Certainly they've pounced upon Rangers with them being in the lower leagues to boost viewing figures but if you consider their live games would otherwise not involve either of the Old Firm and they rarely feature in the delayed transmissions; you have woman's fitba if that's your bag and there's Junior Cup then its a reasonable amount of coverage they devote away from the mainstream. I've got a lot of time for Alba's sports coverage. Aside from the live games, and any delayed stuff involving MFC I regularly watch their live rugby showing Glasgow or Edinburgh. They've also been known to chuck out the odd documentary too like that Aberdeen one about them winning the Cup Winners Cup. I would imagine that the amount of time I spend watching sport on Alba, and its relevance to me, far surpasses that on BBC Scotland.

I agree that 13 pages on the opposition from sixty-six in total isn't that unreasonable. And when you discount the "Fitba Stickers" style photos there is less reading involved than that. I would also say that more often than not within those thirteen pages the publishers generally try to include stuff that will be of interest to both Motherwell fans as well as those visiting Fir Park. For example within the pages devoted to Ross County there was a couple of pages of an interview with Derek Adams. There were a couple of pages with Marc Fitzpatrick discussing both 'Well and County. There have also been features where opposition fans have been involved in a "As others see us" style of interview too, so I think in all fairness the publishers do seek to make the visiting team pages as relevant as possible for 'Well fans. But if you don't have a former player or coach on the opposition team or one who isn't willing to get involved, if you can't find an opposition fan who'll answer your questions then it stands to reason that unfortunately your section on them will be that bit less relevant.

No, you criticised Higdon when ***YOU*** perceived he wasn't playing well. Quite a difference there. And in acknowledging yourself that your were premature in writing off Higdon, might that not tempt you to be shade more cautious in writing off half a dozen players before we're out of the month of the October?

The three points were no less than we deserved in the end I felt. For a good while they didn't look like they'd be coming our way so in a sense that makes it all the sweeter. The first half was pretty non-descript save for Nielsen's double save right before half-time and a referee who looked pretty clueless. I think it was 35 minutes before their keeper had anything resembling a save to make. Much, much better in the second half however. Took the game to them from the off and we looked particularly threatening from the increasing number of corners we were earning. There was a very brief and curious change of momentum when Hutchy was loose with a pass and they wasted what was a decent chance and having done the square root of fuck all for the previous 15 minutes, within about a minute of that Hearts had stolen the lead with a quite fortunate deflected goal. In recent years I've commented frequently about the character of the team and again you can't help but praise the mentality that's instilled in them these days. Dominating the game, chances being cleared off the line, denied a penalty and then conceding a deflected goal. Lesser minds could easily put it down to luck being against us today but like they've done on plenty of occasions we managed to dig in and turn it around. Wonderful goal from Craig Moore to equalise and after that with the bit between our teeth it was a case of wearing them down and getting that deserved winner. Some good displays in that second half. Anier upped his game and his movement caused Hearts problems. Vigurs too came on to a good game. I had commented to my mate in the first half that at times he looks the perfect player to have in your team when you are 3-0 up and looking to showboat but he seemed to intensify his workrate, concentrate on the basics and he looked much the better, and contributed much more for it. A hard earned but fully deserved three points.