Ya Bezzer!

The only thing that will save us going down in the next couple of years is a wave of talent coming out the youth set up. We can't bring in Top 6 level players any more in wages or fees, baring the occasional jewel (say Moult besides, well most of the rest). Hibs average attendances have increased by more than our entire support since their cup win. Baring calamitous management the Top six next year, and for the foreseeable future, will be Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. Even if you look at Hibs this season it's clear that money talks. They have a midfield of McGinn, Fyvie, McGeouch, Shinnie, Boyle, Humphrey and had Commons in on loan for a spell. Compare and contrast with our midfield options. A financial gap has clearly opened up between the 10,000+ clubs and the others and that leaves 6 non city clubs battling to avoid the bottom two spots, over any length of time it's almost inevitable we'll go down. I don't want to be relegated but I don't see it as cataclysmic. If we failed to get promotion in the first season, it would probably mean a new chapter in the clubs history, but as a supporter I don't think it would necessarily be a bad one. In terms of attracting fans, Dunfermline and Falkirk do much better than we do in a lower division because, I'd imagine supporters feel their club can compete and their clubs are moving forward. On the other hand we struggle and our receding support looks nervously over our shoulder at some terrifying black hole of relegation. Our last three managers have now struggled and you have to at some point accept that we just aren't equipped any more to compete at this level outside the relegation zone. I know that will be a bitter pill for some to swallow, especially for some younger fans, who have only ever known a relatively competitive and success Motherwell team. Older fans will remember a similar situation back in the Eighties when the top spots in the league were sewn up year after year and for Motherwell it was rather grim relegation battles, enlightened with promotion successes. I think we are going back to that sort of hierarchy in Scottish football. That's the sort of challenge who ever we bring in is going to be up against and as a support I think we have to recognise that as well.

I think you are right about McHugh going to centre back but for me Pearson should be playing in the centre of midfield, he's far and away the best midfielder we have. Put Campbell in there with him, he did well at Accies on a plastic pitch and provides a pair of younger legs. Lasley can come on if Campbell struggles or we need a bit of experience later in the match. Frear and Cadden play wide, with Ainsworth on stand by. Front two pick themselves.

He didn't spend a penny when in charge of Scotland. We'd take a 70% win rate, right? But like I said, he wouldn't come near the place now.

Prepare to be amazed.

There won't be any great upswing in form whatever happens because unless we have a first XI out, which we've hardly been able to do this season, we just aren't good enough, we are a bottom 4 side. And that's that. So I'm sorry but I'm afraid a team with Clay, Chalmers, McMillan, Jules, Lucas etc are going to do any better than that. Basically our fate will depend on getting injured and suspended players back and hoping second string players can find some balls when the pressure is on. Robinson won't turn anything around, the only real question is 'Has McGhee completely lost the players?'. We'll find out next week. If we don't get a result it will surely be the end for him. If we can, I'd stick with him barring any more disasters of the scale of Saturday over Robinson being in charge. Until then I'd hope we can support at least the team and refrain from dimwit activism that causes more problems than it solves. We aren't lost yet, we aren't even in a relegation position at the moment and we could still achieve a reasonable league position come May. A win at Rugby Park puts us right back where, if you are being realistic, is about where we should be. Of course if we were to lose that is a different matter.

I literally jumped for joy when he left for Hibs but it was his first job and he's clearly done a good job else where since then. The incredulity of suggesting McLeish should be that he wouldn't touch the job with a barge pole.

It would achieve things. Things like making it even harder for the team to win a home match and generating even less turn over than we currently survive on.

8 out of 26 matches we have lost 3 goals or more. 15 out of 26 matches we have lost 2 goals. Our best two players by a mile are the front two. Everyone else needs to take a long, hard look at themselves. We're probably the worst passers in the league. I'm saying there is a connection between losing possession and losing goals.

If you paid with a credit card you might still be able to get your money back.

The funny thing about looking at St. Johnstone, considering some of the recent criticism of McGhee, is that Tommy Wright is probably the most defensive minded manager in the league. St. Johnstone don't play attacking, flair football, they churn out results.

After today I'm pretty sure he's the worst player I've ever seen. Didn't think he could do worse than when Morton ran him ragged but there you go, he has.

I think McGhee should resign after today but I don't expect us to get any better. The fan ownership model means even if we survive this season we are certainties to go down sooner rather than later, probably next season (can you imagine that team without McDonald?) or the season after that. I've been saying it all year but fans need to adjust their expectations to the new reality. They deserve better than we got today but when Hibs come up and the Top 6 positions are locked up by the city clubs the best we will be looking at is Bottom 6 football in the Premiership.

If you look at Dundee's home and away record you can see they are obviously much better on their own patch. We've only lost once to a bottom 6 team at home and that was a while back. Should be looking to pick up at least 3 points here, 1 at a minimum.

Dundee have one away win since the first week of the season.

I like your optimism but our fixtures aren't getting a whole lot better. Couple of big pressure matches against Dundee and Kilmarnock, then we have Aberdeen and Rangers away again and St. Johnstone who are breathing down Hearts necks. 7 of our last 10 league matches will have been against Top 5 teams come 18th March. Lot of things seem to be going against us this season from refereeing decisions to injuries and suspensions to the fixture list. I don't agree with the 'must win' game mentality at this stage in the season but a win against Dundee would be a really important result especially since ourselves and Dundee are the only 'Pack' clubs not playing Top 5 opposition.

Story of the season.

Been ill all week although maybe that was a good thing as I missed all the inevitable breast beating and wailing in the aftermath of the Aberdeen and indeed the Aberdeen match as well. My view on these games is that we should go into the games looking to get something but if we come out with nothing we shouldn't be beating ourselves up too much. Our season is going to be against our immediate competitors. On the face of it we don't have much chance and there is a huge gap in terms of form, confidence and ability but players have to go into these matches 100% or else you aren't showing the strength of character to be selected in other matches. If players give 100% and we lose 4, 5, 6 nil then there isn't much you can do about it. If players don't then that's where the big problems are going to come.

I've not watched MotD much this season but I watched it was night and there must have been half a dozen tackles worse than the McHugh one that didn't even get a card, never mind a straight red. It's an absolutely disgraceful decision, at most it's a yellow and even then if it's pussy football you are playing. The game is being wrecked by self important, attention seeking officials. Dallas was an absolute joke yesterday and even before the McHugh incident he was spoiling the game with rotten decision making and an inability to keep his whistle silent for more than 2 minutes. Every player and every manager will tell you how referees interact with them behind the scenes. They are a bunch of pompous assholes, who get paid more than many of the players for being part time, exist in an inner circle clique and look down on everyone else in the game while wrecking football matches so they can climb up the ladder.

Went for Moult, worked hard all match in deeper areas than he'd probably like. Cadden for me was pretty anonymous for a lot of the match but then sprung into life in the latter stages but it was too late by that stage.

You shouldn't be. It's the latest buzz word form the petted lip brigade. Just off the top of my head - Moult hit the bar with a header, Ainsworth has one cleared off the line, Lasley shoots just wide, Pearson narrowly misses a header.. The thing is it's not even that long ago we were going game after game without even having a shot on target. Lot of short memories around.

Just one of those periods when things seem to be going against us a bit. Didn't look like a red card to me but whether it was or it wasn't Andrew Dallas was absolute garbage today. Where else but Scotland would the former Referee's development officers son get a gig as a top level referee? Especially one as incompetent as Dallas Jnr. Hearts 1st goal was also a huge fluke which is a bit hard to take. Hearts dominated possession but I didn't think they had really threatened us too much up to that point. We looked fairly comfortable and were very much in the game at 11 v 11 and 0-0. Didn't deserve to be ahead but I thought we were good for a point at that stage. After the goal we are obviously going to have to stretch the game and run the risk of being caught on the break which is exactly what happened. So we lose one of our better players to suspension and go into the next match weakened. Hopefully our luck changes a bit and we can turn it around and we don't get into a rut that affects us beyond this tough run of fixtures.

League Cup match.

A forum is a discourse, a conversation. People post opinions, others challenge them or agree with them. I'm sorry if you don't like having to justify a position or view or even have someone use facts to illustrate a point.

Our performances haven't been abject. In the first match we were all over them in the first half and could easily have gone in at HT 3 or 4 up. Second half the game switched and Rangers dominated but there's a hundred games of football like that every Saturday, hence the expression "game of two halves" being the biggest cliche in football. Second match I wasn't at but by all accounts we did quite well and lost to a last minute goal. Unlucky. Third match we were completely comfortable for 85 minutes of the match and lost due to a terrible individual error at the last possible moment. Fourth match we were well on top until our best player was sent off, unfairly in my opinion, and again were the better team in the first half. Like the first match at Fir Park Rangers were better in the 2nd half. We've not had a result but our performances have not been abject. In fact for the vast majority of our matches against Rangers we've matched or bettered them. Rangers have dominated 2 halves out of 8. Is that really abject? Missed chances, bad luck and a couple of errors have been the difference. But hey, that's football, just take it on the chin for god sake.

You know I wish I didn't need to state the obvious as often as I do but such is the amount of bullshit that gets posted.