Ya Bezzer!

HB are ranked 215th in Europe. HJK are ranked 153rd in Europe. Hearts are ranked 138th in Europe. I think that gives you an idea of what we are up against. HJK will be favourites over two legs but the tie is winnable for us. What, maybe a 40-60 chance of getting through?

Every HB European home result in the 21st Century 24.07.25 Brondby (D) 1-1 01.08.24 Hajduk Split (D) 0-0 13.07.23 Derry City (D) 0-0 07.07.22 Newtown (W) 1-0 12.08.21 M. Haifa (W) 1-0 22.07.21 Buducnost (W) 4-0 22.06.21 Inter Escaldes (L) 0-1 23.07.19 Linfield (D) 2-2 16.07.19 HJK (D) 2-2 07.07.16 Levadia (L) 0-2 09.07.15 Riteriai (L) 1-4 22.07.14 Partizan (L) 1-3 08.07.14 Lincoln (W) 5-2 11.07.13 Vestmannaeyjar (L) 0-1 19.07.11 Malmo FF (D) 1-1 20.07.10 Salzburg (W) 1-0 23.07.09 Omonia (L) 1-4 25.07.07 Hafnarfjordur (D) 0-0 15.07.05 FBK Kaunas (L) 2-4 21.07.04 WIT Georgia (W) 3-0 16.07.03 FBK Kaunas (L) 0-1 09.08.01 Grazer AK (D) 2-2 P22 - W 6 - D 8 - L 8 Record is decent and has improved in recent times. It must be said though that some of their most impressive results, for instance beating RB Salzburg, came after away pumpings and it's unclear how motivated the away side was or if they played second string sides.

It's almost as if they actually update the page multiple times a day and that algorithms will determine what you see.....

Having seen Antman play I think their interest in Maswanhise might increase again in a couple of weeks!

There are two articles and a podcast concerning Motherwell on the first two rows of the BBC Scottish Football web page. BBC radio live broadcasts just about every match day involving a Scottish club, league, cup or Europe. It also puts out daily podcasts and broadcasts a TV highlights show for every set of league fixtures and is set to broadcast live all Scotland matches on TV. They also live broadcast plenty of lower league matches. Scottish football has lots of problems but media coverage isn't one of them. Scottish Premiership clubs get vastly more coverage than similar sized clubs in the English lower leagues. It's fashionable to knock the BBC but if it didn't exist we'd be in a much worse situation. You'd be lucky if you even got a highlights package on terrestrial TV as its doubtful anyone else would pay for the rights.

Fancy us to score at least once and that means HB would need to get 3 just to get it to extra time. Based on what I saw at Fir Park that doesn't seem very likely. I think our team is significantly stronger with just Longelo and Maswanhise back. I know Maswanhise won't start but coming on the last 20 minutes might suit him with his pace.

I've probably mentioned this before but when I was a teenager Stevie Kirk used to come into our local chippie at lunch time and get a big bag of fritters! Obviously on his way home from training. Dunno if Tommy knew! 🤣

What colossus of the contemporary music scene do you propose to replace it? Doechii? Chappell Roan? Psychedelic Porn Crumpets?

We sang it before then. The first time I heard it, and I used to go to all the away games back then, was at St. Mirren. I'm not sure how it started, possibly just played on the tannoy?

Considering there were quite a few sub optimal factors going into this match I thought we performed well. Priestmann and Fadinger were excellent. Sharpness and fitness will increase and so will understanding between the players. We lacked a physical presence in general and a cutting edge up front but I'm sure we will address that and we were missing our four first team centre forwards tonight. Overall a decent win with improvements to come.

Would be nice if we could score Scotland's first European competition goal tonight.....

We paid a fee for Just and he's actually a good player. We didn't pay a fee for Theo Bair, he wasn't a good player and we still sold him for a couple of million inside 12 months. So if flipping players makes the best ever signing Theo Bair is king. In all seriousness, of course, Davie Cooper is our greatest signing in the modern era. He revolutionised the club and its history.

We beat them 7-1 in the 1990's but I doubt it will be that easy this time around. The standard of Scottish football has dropped immeasurably since then. In recent times Scottish clubs have lost ties to teams from Andorra, Luxembourg, Gibraltar, Wales, Malta, Liechtenstein etc so you really can't take anything for granted. This is a tie we should be winning but I think it's just about getting through to the next round rather than chalking up a cricket score given the whole context around the match. I agree we will probably be in a better place for the away leg but it's important we don't travel at a disadvantage.

It looks nice but when are we going to wear to when it's more of a clash with most of the teams we would normally wear our away kit against?

There is a big difference between playing Scandinavian teams at this stage in the season and other teams who are just starting their seasons too. Summer season clubs have a pretty big advantage in being at full competitive fitness. Even if you look at the League Cup group stages there are way more 'shock' results than happen in the Scottish Cup and that's pro teams playing semi professional or part time teams with no fitness advantage, they are just starting on a sort of level fitness field. Steaua, Panathinaikos, Levante and Kuban are/were all different level clubs. Big ask to get anything from them.