texanwellfan

Doesn't bother me that he went there. Don't care where good players go when they leave Motherwell as long as it's not to rival teams in our division.

Yes, he wants to talk about how much he would be on playing for Sheffield Utd.

Difficult task for the club. You want some stability but in doing that you may end up having to keep players who turn out to be non performers. Hopefully the Manager/board can keep that to a minimum. AT the moment i would mabe only classify Daly as having fallen into that category. However, even by giving the likes of Law etc 2 year contracts it gives us some continuity but no chance to sell them and make money. So perhaps ( easier said than done ) we need to develop a signing strategy that 1. Provides continuity: Manage contract lengths such that you limit the number that are up at the same time. 2. Enables us to get some decent time out of good players but still enough time left on contract that other teams would have to buy them if they wanted them. Of course, we are completely at the mercy of who has enough cash to buy players but at least if we don't sell them we get to keep them for longer. But, stating the obvious, any contract strategy relies heavily on the ability of the manager and board to "predict" what players will be good for motherwell and able to maintain or improve their performance level. Not the easiest of tasks. The task being made even more difficult by the fact that they have to also align these contracts with projected budgets. I don't envy them the task

I think you play our strongest team. Go out in style....hopefully !

What age was Keith McRae when he played in goal for us? Not making any point just that he sprang to mind and I could not recall what age he was but pretty young I think. I have no clue how good ( or bad ) Stewart is.

What's the position with Higginbottam? Haven't seen too much chat about him. I quite liked the look of him but no idea how the situation is with him at Huddersfield. Is his contract up there? or is there a chance of getting him on loan again next season? wouldn't mind having him on the squad.

It's a long term strategy as well. No easy quick fix but the more kids you get coming to fir park for free the more likely they might continue to come as they get older but as mentioned benefits would be in the long term.

So you like the Kit Kat?

I'm hoping we crush them and score about 5 or 6

What is a jot anyway??

Yep! either way you're forking out a lot of dosh!! edit: although it seems strange they would make teams pay for each other. Not sure I see the logic in that one.

Cheers Kmcalpin I was purely speculating. Obviously a contributing factor to the fact that gate receipts are only 33% is the size of the crowds. Not sure what we, as a club, can do to increase the TV money. The remaining 24% perhaps we can do something there but I would think probably not, unless we got a huge sponsorship deal. So I think it brings you back to the question of how do you get people through the turnstyles to get bigger crowds helping to increase that 33%. Part of that seems to be the dwindling away support coming to Fir park. Although, like us, many of the teams in the league don't even have a great home support. So I am not sure what the club can do to get the crowds up.

Chance for us to boost our best ever goals total and positive goal difference. Big Higgy has this game and 2 more to get to 30 league goals. 3 points will take us to our highest points total. Not getting beat will take us to 9 games on the trot. Lot's to play for with no real pressure so hopefully the lads can turn on the style and really enjoy the game. I'm hoping we score a barrow load and Im not worried if they score he same as us or just 1 less, as long as it's not one more.

to be honest I am not sure how we actually make it through each season. Although Money comes from other sources I would have to think that the main stay is punters paying to come watch. Sadly even although Motherwell have been playing well and relatively successful there are just not enough people interested to shell out the cost of going to a football match. Although we gt moeny for european games i wonder how much they have to actually spend on flights and hotels etc for the away games. Not cheap I am sure. I am sure no one is pocketing any money and I am sure they are doing all that can be done not to squander money so all in all I am not sur that much blame if any can be laid at the feet of the board. Perhaps they deserve credit for keeping us going??

Not sure if it was true but it was stated on here that Faddy's wages were being met put of the pocket of a couple of the directors and in this day and age players from all countries are all over the place so I don't think we are paying any extra than if we would have got a scottish player.

Indeed! They seem obsessed with this reconstruction crap and ignoring the things that could easily be improved upon as listed in Wee yins email.

I wouldn't want to have someone come in and just go stupid with money but it would be good to have a benefactor who could help augment the coffers so that we could keep the likes of Higdon faddy etc not go out and buy a team. Or perhaps a benefactor to provide a specific amount of cash per home game to allow the club to reduce entrance price and help encourage folks back to the terracings. ( is it still called that? ) A combination of keeping a good core together and playing attractive soccer coupled with reduced prices might help halt the downward spiral and start to help us get bigger crowds again. Mission impossible I know. So do we know any rich actors, musicians, reputable business men ( or women ) with some cash to write off? I'll keep buying the lotto tickets!

I think a play off type scenario is the only way that the other teams can really challenge Celtic for the title. Over the long haul, injuries, suspensions and fatigue just take their toll on the clubs and celtics greater resources win out in the end. Perhaps they should split the league after 2 rounds then zero the points and have 2 mini leagues of home and away but that would only total 32 games. But if there was someway to help close the gap between Celtic and the others the league would be much more exciting. What's that I hear you say? "fairer distribution of prize money" Over to parkhead for an answer on that one.

Now that the euphoria has died down I will list how I thought the performances were. This is not meant as negative but on the contrary is meant as a compliment to the team. I believe that all the players individually get pass marks but by no means did everyone perform at their individual best but yet as a team performance it ranks up there. My point is that we beat celtic well and with plenty to spare and room to improve. Would be happy to see the team stay together just to see how good they could get. These past few games they have been a delight to watch. during the celtic game we had patches where we were just knocking the ball about you could feel the confidence radiating from the team. there was never a thought of holding on for dear life to see if we can actually hold our 3 - 1 lead. They maintaned their composure and nerve and played liek a team who were expecting to win that game. Anyway lets see who agrees and disagrees should pass a wee bit of time wheil we wait for the inverness game Randolph - played well but I would say only one save that you migh expect a goalie not to make. Not sure about his choice to comeout for the celtic goal Ramsden Hutchie and Hammil : steady performance the whole game through without any real standout heroics. special pat on the back to hutchie for lasting the whole game with the early yellow. Hately: Played very well. contender for man of the match Lasley: hard working shift. excellent pass for the goal. didn't control the game but also didn't let Celtic control the game. Didn;t give the ball away very much at all. Law: Good in patches but I thought he was struggling with an injury for a good while in the game. I thought he might have got pulled much earlier than he was. Humphrey: Took him a while to get into the game but great second half I thought although seemd to pass when he should shoot and shoot when he should pass. McFaddden: Can't deny his skill and great run in the first half work rate ws first class but got caught with the bal lor gave it away too much for his standards. Higdon: Somewhat like Lasley in that he didn't win the battle with his opponent but neither did he get beat. What a terrific PK though. didn't bother to disguise it just hit it solid and accurate and even though the keeper knew where it as going he still didn't get near it. Ojaama: gave him MoM but I think he won that based on his goal and the second half performance. He was struggling with his touch the first half but after that goal it seemed to just lift his performance. 2 excellent defence splitting passes in the second half for humphrey and McFadden. Workrate from this boy is just tremendous.

I like the sky one. I think it's right on the money.

Thought it was just a great workmanlike all round team performance today. Even at 3 - 1 up as the game was moving along we continued to press on the Celtic players high up the park and not sit back to try and protect our lead. Thats a samina sapping style to play but this group of players ( and staff ) deserve a lot of credit because not only did they show how fit they are but when they got the ball back, they showed how football can be played. It was well worth getting up at 6.30am to watch but you know what, I thought that we deservedly beat Celtic today and that we were not even at our best. Still, there was much to enjoy watching. Some excellent fast transitions from defence to attack. Some excellent posession stuff knocking the ball around in the latter stages. Tough choice to select one individual but i'll give it to Ojamma, whith his goal just edging it for him.

I see I;ll have to watch my grammar here LOL Anyway I eat like a pig after the game what a great way to start the day and really enjoyed that comedic own goal from Celtic

Nope!! you wer right enough Gazzy. In the bag it is!!

6.45 am kick off here but will be up to watch it on the telly. Then celebration breakfast with the wife, son, his girl friend and grandson. square slice suasage ( home made ) Irish bacon Black pudding fried egg Fried tattie scone ( home made ) Mushrooms Tomato Rolls ( home made ) Hienz baked beans HP suace Irn Bru if we get beat I'm still scoffing the breakfast down!!!

Maybe beside the bag, ready to go in it but I don't think it's quite in it yet!