Ya Bezzer!

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.

Wasn't at the game but he corrected the interviewer in the post match game saying we weren't changing the system we were consolidating it. Think that spells out his position pretty clearly.

Worth mentioning going into the new season. Askou avoided going into the relegation zone in game 9 only when we scored an injury time goal against Livingston. The new manager will need time.

We've won more matches at Easter Road this decade than any other current Premiership ground. The only places we have a better record is Livingston and Ross County.

Our reversed colour strips are completely pointless as change kit especially when they have large features on the top like the hoop and shoulders. Our away kit should be a different colour. These reversed colour strips have a 'Celtic, we only wear green' type vibe about them.

Fucking hell, he'd be better off staying here!

I had a look into this. There is no particular stat I have that exactly covers this but some that give a general idea. If you look at the shots to goals ratio from selected sides (top, bottom, teams around us) in the Premiership we weren't bad at all. Hibs - 12% Motherwell - 11% Falkirk - 11% Celtic - 11% Livingston - 10% Dundee Utd - 9% If you look at touches in the box to goals ratio again we don't seem to especially stick out as being poor in this regard. Hibs - 6.6% Falkirk - 6.5% Motherwell 6.1% Celtic - 5.5% Dundee Utd - 5.3% Livingston - 5.3% So at a glance Hibs were the best team in terms of being clinical in front of goal but there really isn't any significant margin between the teams.

The joint worst ever penalty I've ever seen was Jim Hamilton against Aberdeen (I think, it was down at the South Stand end, maybe it was someone else) and a Hugo Sanchez one for Real Madrid were it would have hit the corner flag if the corner flag was 80 feet in the air.

Apparently he's already agreed terms with Samsunspor. He won't be featuring in the European ties if there is nearly £2 million quid on the line.

Yeah, I thought Ruddy was much reduced in his second loan spell. He makes more mistakes in that 6-6 draw than Randolph made in his entire Motherwell career.

Celtic will get a lot more for Arne Engels than we will for Elijah Just. That's just a fact. Same with Raskin and Rangers. But the Miller transfer has set a new bar and I think Just is worth at least £6 million and possibly has high as £8 million. Just has performed at the highest, most elite level of the game, no Motherwell player has ever done that before and I think that should be reflected in the transfer fee. I've said before that the poor standard of Scottish football keeps transfer fees down and that in some cases transfer fees are actually over valued. You don't have to be that good to perform in this league and the step up to higher quality leagues is big. Elijah Just has completely blown that doubt away. His performances at the very top level have shown he can do it on the top tier.

It's just industry standard now. Every team in the Premiership put out three new kits last season except for Livingston. Hibs and Rangers put out 4. And it's been that way for a while. Celtic put out a change kit early last summer as their first released kit then only wore it once in January. In the past they have released 3rd or 4th kits and never actually worn them in a game. Everything in life these days is about extracting as much money from people as possible while wearing a 'we care' mask. It's the culture of the 21st century and goes way beyond football.

I don't think the kids today could cope with Upside Down. 'What's that awful noise?' 'Scruffy hooligans' 'No tune'. etc.

Obviously everyone's list would be different but John Sutton is our top league goal scorer since the 1975 league reconstruction so I think he should be on there somewhere. Was it double figures across 5 seasons? Not many Motherwell players have done that. Also we've won three major honours in post war history and a bunch of guys picked up two of the winners medals and a lot of them had long Motherwell careers so I'd tend to rate them higher than you have (Paton, Redpath, Shaw, Kilmarnock). I never saw them but on achievement they have to be right up there. I mean, you have them high, but I'd have them higher.

My 'Best XI' (since '82 but probably not paying attention till '86) would be Randolph Martin, van der Gaag, Boyd McFadden, Lambert, Turnbull, O'Donnell, Cooper McDonald, Coyne. And because I've gone with the 3-5-2 I've had to leave out one of my all time favourite Motherwell players Rob McKinnon.

I'm in favour of white shorts, they are our traditional short colour. Also the best strip design we've had in my lifetime had white shorts. However the overall design looks way too busy. Sponsors and logos plastered everywhere and just way too much going on. It's kinda like they said 'How can we make a 'tradition Motherwell kit' and give it loads of design features to make it modern and unique and then just kept sticking them on long past the point that it made sense. It's still better than two seasons ago but that's about the most positive thing I can say.

I agree with most of what you say except the valuation. For me Just was the second best player in the league last season after Maeda and more consistent over the whole season. Plus he's just stood out at a World Cup and scored 3 goals. I don't think £6M is unreasonable and I'm more conservative than most people in valuations.

I'm not especially a fan of either Robinson or Goodwin but to be fair one won a major trophy and the other got Top 6 and European football after a promotion. If Johansson achieves a trophy, Top 6 or European football he'll have done a good job. We can all blether about the new appointment but ultimately the proof will be in the pudding.

New manager, Euro draw and league fixtures.....just need the new kits now.

Name one striker that gets double digits coming off the bench for anywhere from 1 to 15 minutes. Like I said the guy literally got 5 starts. The guy was a second choice striker, not a main striker. Let me remind who you should be comparing him to. Robinson, Stuparevic, Vale, Dickson, Plange, Sule, Osongo, Hendry and you can even throw in Bjorgolfsson in there. Add up all their goals and it's probably less than Ebeye scored.