weeyin

Was McManus having a go at anyone in particular in his press conference? Enjoyed his "if you know anything about football" and "anyone who's been around the game will know" comments.

Maybe if you walk towards it at the right angle it pops out as a 3D image.

Given the SPFL is a new entity, shouldn't we be starting with a clean sheet?

I liked Humphrey, but prefer Marvin.

The club said they provided 3 times more police and stewarding than they did for Celtic games, so that would seem to be a reasonable effort. It was still stupid behaviour from that section of the fans, though, because we all know how the authorities would react.

If the club took all necessary precautions, then it won't be an issue. I think the SFA are right to investigate it, though - even if it's just to exonerate us.

Given our opening fixtures, 7 points or so from the first 4 games would be a decent start.

Of course - that's why I dug out the exact response and posted it here. Specifically so you could point out my lack of attention to the details And now I'm a liar for talking about it after I said I was shutting up.

Yes, it was a very impressive interview and good to hear that Baraclough travelled up to watch the game too. That must be encouraging for the youngsters. Also good to hear the positive attitude shown from the senior members - from the highlights Thomas and Ainsworth looked like they were buzzing.

Response was that they were using a meeting room with no internet or phone connection. That is still a major failing on their part given that they used long distance and overseas members in their original publicity drives and marketing and then conduct meetings in a way that knowingly excludes them. I brought that to their attention for the very first meeting and they acknowledged the issue (with that excuse), which means for every meeting since then they have knowingly excluded us. At the very least they could have recorded the meetings so we could watch (or listen to) them after the fact. The exact feedback I received (on January 30th, 2013) was: "Unfortunately, we don’t have the facilities available to us at this time to enable a conference call and the Wi-Fi signal isn't guaranteed in the Centenary Suite, however we will be happy to look at any other options or ideas you may have." Anyway, I'm sure most people are as bored of reading my complaint as I am of repeating it, so I'll shut up now.

Worse than that, it's the club they are trying to buy that doesn't have them. Maybe Les will lend them his iPhone.

While there has been some clearing out of the old, and some potentially excellent new signings brought in, it's also good to see that 9 of the starting line-up from the 2nd leg of the play-off are still here. So there is a nice balance of continuity and fresh legs.

Would certainly be interesting to see Thomas play more centrally (maybe just off the strikers). He certainly has the skills to spray the passes around.

Could be that or could be our McManus/Skippy Middlesborough connection.

Pity Lionel isn't available as he often does us a turn. Having said that, our front men were pretty impressive on Saturday so think we can get a couple of goals here for a win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9tl6OIcbYk

Watched that last night - was a pretty impressive tackle.

League Cup ties have been causing us problems for as long as I have been watching Motherwell.

Ross County v Ayr United Forfar Athletic v Heart of Midlothian Kilmarnock v Berwick Rangers Raith Rovers v Hamilton Academical Queen of the South v Morton Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee Partick Thistle v Falkirk East Fife v Motherwell Hibernian v Stranraer Airdrieonians v Rangers St Mirren v Livingston

Aye, given our inability to create chances (or even shoot) in the first half of last season it's nice to see such a larg number yesterday.

Time for Leitch to step up and claim his starting place. Or maybe Chalmers can move over once Ainsworth comes back. Disappointing if true, but not exactly the end of the world. Baraclough's signing philosophy was to have 2 players competing for each position and to give youngsters a chance. So let's see it in action. It's not exactly an unusual footballing problem to solve, but feel free to get depressed and miserable.

Yes - you don't ask good players to stop doing what makes them good players. I think the Beeb is just reporting what Baraclough said immediately after the match, so hopefully we'll know more on Monday.

Given his press statement, I doubt he'll be signing a new contract. Regardless, I'm sure he wasn't our only option and whether we get him in October or someone else sooner, it's not too big a deal if it's the right player. We need to be playing the long game here. I don't have a problem with Leitch stepping in for a few weeks if necessary and it sends a good signal to our youngsters.

Aye, let's look on the bright side of today's performance, eh?

Full time. Nice start to the league. Beeb has us with 13 shots, 8 on target, which is a decent stat away from home.