weeyin

I'm sure he knows he is scaring off visiting fans. I guess that is more than made up for by the home fans willing to keep putting money in the clubs coffers. I imagine if he reduced the price by a fiver, because he'd have to equal that for (at least some of) the home fans, the overall effect would be less money through the gate every week.

More details on Anier's club playing hardball

You are 100% entitled to your opinions but, as for all customers of any business, you have no legal right to be giving dogs abuse to anyone or upset fellow customers. The club may choose to accept it for most fans most of the time, but it is not an entitlement. As a business, Motherwell Football Club is perfectly entitled to refuse any fan entry if they don't like their behaviour.

He predicted a loss to Aberdeen, and thanks to some results 10 years ago, a loss to Thistle.

Exactly. It's a free market and he decided to take his chances elsewhere. And he was of sufficient quality (regardless of what any of us think) to hold down a regular first team slot for a number of managers - all of whom had options in that position, but chose not to use them. Maybe they were all wrong, but one of our most successful teams ever accommodated him at right back. If he wasn't Mark's son, I doubt this thread would exist. For me, Quinn was much more of an embarrassment to the club with his neddish off-field antics.

What are the figures for call offs in the last 2 seasons compared to the rest of the league? I don't remember many since our last round of pitch updates. I'd be interested to the pitch at 3pm today because playing ICT at lunchtime meant no chances would be taken by the officials. Regardless, we won't be the only game off today.

After the recent run of good form I'm just glad the club found something for the regulars to moan about.

From what McCall was saying in his press conference, it sounds like Anier's club are trying to get us to take him off their hands, rather than extend his loan to end of season.

From an age perspective too, it would seem like the right time for him to leave. 24 years old, 150 games, learned his trade somewhat. I just think he had some terrible advice from his advisors. And to his credit, he took the whole #WheresTomHateley thing in good fun, and never bad mouthed us like a certain Mr. Kerr. Wasn't the best full back I have ever seen, but fitted in to McCall's system just fine.

It's right next door to a Wine & Liquor shop too, that sells everything from Glenlivet to Belhaven Best

Aye, I'm lucky enough to have a "UK Gourmet" shop about a 30 minute drive from here. Black Pudding (Scottish and Irish), Square Sausage, Irn Bru and the like all available. It's made by a local butcher, but to the Scottish recipe, so it's pretty good. This time of year they even sell real haggis. It's not as good as the original, though, as some ingredients like sheep's lung are banned in the US.

Hope it's on. Have my square sausage and rolls lined up for breakfast. Big mug of fresh coffee, roll and sausage, Motherwell win - great start to the weekend. And I just finished clearing the driveway from our snow, so that won't get in the way tomorrow either.

In general, I imagine it's a tough choice for any player on our books. In recent times we have had great teams to play for, but even at our peak we have had to reduce budgets and salaries. So successful players who would no doubt be enjoying their football, have to think about securing their own financial futures. A guy like Reynolds, even moving back to Aberdeen, is probably on twice his Motherwell salary - plus he would have a nice chunk of change from his trip down south. Ultimately, it's down to how much ambition you have and how much job satisfaction you are willing to gamble. I can't imagine it's ever an easy decision - especially for the younger players.

Even more fun if you had pulled out the quotes from the "I don't care if I have to watch a team of 16 yr olds on the park and get hammered every week, as long as we don't let Sevco into the top flight" brigade. That sentiment didn't last long. I have no idea what some people were expecting at the start of this season given the massive turnover in players, but "deluded" doesn't do them justice.

I agree with some of what has been posted in here, and disagree with some. However, I have never seen any evidence of this often repeated point. All our offers to the players that left were turned down - from Randolph to Higdon. But people's hatred of Hateley means that only he "thought he was too good for us". As far as I remember, we offered him a new deal that was less than his old one. If my employer did that, I'd be offski too.

That's great, except if he proves to be worth signing we could lose out to another team that can pay him more (which would be many), at the end of the season.

It would also come down to whether the club wants him. Just because some fans are making noise about him doesn't mean our management team are.

So Killie had 3% of their combined Killie/Paisley population at their game and we had 5% of our combined population with Perth at our game. Of course, I'm not stupid enough to believe it's as clear cut as that, but available population does play a part that many tend to overlook.

Very true. And that is just a small piece in the evolution of the scheduling of games which has negatively impacted the crowds.

So did we before the Ross County game, which is what makes me a little wary. If we perform to the same level as yesterday though, we should win.

Given our small squad and our from in the run up to the Festive Fixtures, another victory would be quite an achievement. Too tight to call, but ICT have struggled in the past when we hit them with pace, so hopeful that Ainsworth can drive us to a narrow victory. EDIT: actually, reading the ICT forum, seems like they are struggling for midfielders in this game and are worried they will be resorting to long ball tactics. If that's the case, it could be to our advantage.

Based on his posts, he doesn't actually watch them when he's there though, right?

That was a joke. He repeated it in his MFC TV interview and made it clear it was a joke to put off potential suitors.

Normally, when we sign a player it's based on scouting reports and watching them in a game or two. Given that McCall has known about Ainsworth for some time and we have had him training and playing for half a season now, if our coaching staff can't tell by now if he's worth signing, we need a new coaching staff.

Because the people that awarded it watched the entire game, not just the highlights? Plenty of folk on here thought it was a close call between those 2 for MoTM.