weeyin

"Everton test will prepare us for Rangers Hampden clash, says Motherwell boss" Correct.

Drawing with County at home, beating Rangers at Hampden and then turning in an abject performance to lose the cup game against Killie sounds like the most likely Motherwellish set of results.

When you're turning over 7 or 8 first team players, there's no point in trying to do a like-for-like replacement, unless it's a keeper. You need to play to the strengths of the new recruits.

Or that if we hate someone, we need to post that on here to be sure they know?

Not me. Something I'd be interested in, but time (and timezone) means it's not viable for the foreseeable future.

Does the club run the pie stall?

That's the kind of game-1-and-a-month-until-the-window-closes assessment we know and love on here.

I hope so. I was all in favour of a complete change of personnel in defence, and the Casey/Blaney combo hasn't filled me with any more confidence so far this season.

I like Wilson, but he's very much a work in progress. Which of course, is to be expected. His control is miles off sometimes when he tries to rush things. Good energy though, and he's getting into the right positions at the right times. Looking forward to seeing how he develops with more game time.

You know it's going to be a long day when Miller starts the game by passing to County players and papping it straight out the park. Take your pick...

We've often got the best out of players by playing to their strengths. Then when they move on, their new teams try to squeeze them into an existing system with less success. I'm not saying that will happen with Spittal, but it certainly happened when Sutton left us for Hearts and even - to a lesser extent - Faddy at Everton.

And Ross MacIver almost matched it, except for a quite incredible save from the keeper.

Was he not one of the players you used to slag off on a regular basis? Also, we didn't get rid of him - St Mirren signed him on a pre-contract. I liked O'Hara, but he never played as well for us as he does for St Mirren. Better fit with Robinson's style (a style you also used to slag off on a regular basis - with good reason, because it was pretty brutal at times).

Good luck editing SK!

It's not 100% clear, but I thought " I wish the new Club Chair and Board every success in what will be an exciting next chapter for the Club." suggested he was stepping away from the Board too.

Pretty sure professional sports coaches understand that. The facts still show, however, that rarely (if ever) have we released a 17 year old that went on to play at a higher level than us when they were in their 20s. Of course, there may be an exception from time to time, but I'd struggle to think of any youngster we released in the last 20 years that proved us wrong.

Can't beat untested software being released into the wild.

Maybe they were watching the youth players that were playing in the first team? I don't think it's that unusual to see all the coaches watching a first team game on a Saturday afternoon.

I'd also add that the Covid seasons put a huge dent in the progression of some of our youngsters. Many clubs scrapped their academies at that time, there were even less training and competitive match options for them, and little chance for being loaned out. I don't recall who it was, but I remember one of the coaches saying it basically put them about 2 years behind and their would be an inevitable drop in the number of players able to step up for a few seasons.

There are definitely a few we have lost through poaching, but none that we let go that have gone on to better things. Getting meaningful game time is the challenge and the league doesn't have the spine to make clubs participate in a reserve or youth league. They'd rather let Hearts and the OF have B teams in the lower league at the cost of developing academy players from other clubs,

They did - and their complaint was valid. Just never going to get anything other than an apology from the authorities.

Agree. People say this every season when we release some youngsters and without fail, none of them have ever ended up playing at a higher level. It's only the ones like Johnston who choose not to stay that sometimes succeed.

Not surprised. They have a legitimate complaint, but the authorities never have games replayed.

Does he let flats?

The Crawford Baptism, as it's known in the trade.