Ya Bezzer!

I'm Cadden's biggest fan but you are getting a bit carried away there. He needs to add quite a bit to his game to worth that much, goals for a start. I don't know if he is especially technically gifted either. Would be looking for something between 500k - 1m depending on a whole host of factors. We have to produce really exceptional players to get into seven figure territory.

Maybe some of their fans, whose that aren't deep thinkers, or indeed, even shallow thinkers, thought they could win the league but I don't think anyone with any vestige of intelligence thought they could. The uncomfortable truth is they have done a lot better than many, including myself, thought they would. Their back to back wins over Aberdeen and Hearts puts them firmly now as Scotland's next best club, especially with Aberdeen hitting a fairly dodgy patch right now and Hearts mediocre away form (and potentially risky managerial appointment). I believe the transfer fee for Garner was publicly quoted at 1.43 million. With 45,000 home fans they should be generating at least 1 million every home match but I realise Rangers is an emotive subject and people believe what they want to believe.

Since then they have paid out big wages to Barton and Kranjcar and paid fees for various other players including 1.5 million for James Garner. I'm sure they will want to cement 2nd place this term and show to the supporters that they mean business so I can see them spending in January. Personally though I see a defender or a striker being more of a priority than a midfielder. They have plenty of midfielders currently.

Sadly you are kidding yourself if you think Rangers can't afford Cadden. St. Johnstone supporters said the same over O'Halloran. They are sitting second in the league, will probably be back in European competition next year, have just saved a huge sum cutting Barton out the pay roll and will likely sell Waghorn for a decent fee in the window. Probably one of those is enough to raise the sort of money they'd be looking to make a realistic bid for Cadden. The impediments to the transfer will be 1 - Do Rangers want him, 2 - Does Cadden want to go there and 3 - Do we need to sell?

For me it would have to be either Heneghan or McManus and I'm plumping for McManus today. MacLean was the best player in the first half but obviously went off early in the second.

Dalziel the Demented Dodecahedron.

Lasley had a horror show start to the match but I felt he came more into the game later. Clay is a ghost player. I'd drop Clay before Lasley but central midfield is obviously a weak area at the moment and I don't think either player especially compliments the other. It will be interesting to see what McHugh does on his return but although it was early in the season I wasn't especially impressed with him either. I found his performances fairly underwhelming so I won't be casting him as some kind of messiah but hopefully he gets back soon and he can show us what he can do.

What about fining the players that take the easy option and pass back to the goalkeeper, who is then pressed by a forward and doesn't have much option but to punt it. We play far too many balls back to the goalkeeper. Sometimes its necessary but we had players today with 20 - 30 yard circles round them of space and that's the option they take.

Obviously the suits are too stinking to tolerate anymore!

2 points dropped I'd suggest. There were two main influences on the match today, excluding the inept Steven MacLean. Firstly there was the missing Cadden. Not only has Cadden been our best player this season I also think he is our most important player. We do not have anyone else in the squad that even comes close to replicating what he brings to the team. Secondly, I wouldn't exactly say Kilmarnock were a dirty team but they are definitely schooled in the black arts and was a tactic to break the game down. Jersey pulling, elbows, tugging, holding, obstructing, poking, pushing etc. The game - I thought we started very, very sluggish, the exact opposite of last week. Kilmarnock were the better team in the opening half hour and we never really go any fluency going, our ball control over the whole match was very, very poor. The latter stages of the 1st half we improved by a small margin and had probably the two best chances to score. Ross MacLean brought a good save out of MacDonald and perhaps his inexperienced showed there but I thought he was our best player in the first half. Second chance Ainsworth really had to hit the back of the net. Second half I thought we were the better of the two teams although in such a poor match that's really a back handed compliment. Again we had two good chances. Moult was through on goal but his lack of pace allowed the defenders to get a foot in, then McDonald was unlucky not to score in one of our better moves in the match. Overall a poor match with little to commend it but if you are looking for positive we had a lot of young boys getting a run out today - MacLean, Hastie, Thomas, Ferguson, we kept a clean sheet and all the teams in 'The Pack' drew again so we are no worse off. 4 away games in the run up to the break makes it a tough period but we have to take points regardless of who we are playing or where. A target of 7 points would be what I would be looking for.

Poor first half performance but we have had the two best chances. Everyone has been shocking, them, us and the ref!

Kilmarnock have a settled team now and have ditched most of the bizarre summer loan signings they made so I think they will better than when we played them at Rugby Park. Coulibaly will be a big danger and with a couple of anomalies against Aberdeen and Rangers, Kilmarnock's defensive record is pretty good, certainly they seem to be tighter at the back than we are. On the other hand, their away record isn't great, 1 win in 8, none in the last 4 (although they have been tough ones Celtic, Aberdeen, Rangers etc) and only 2 goals scored. Hopefully we use last weeks first half as a benchmark performance and if we can match that we will beat better teams than Kilmarnock.

Our record against 'The Pack' is not bad at all. Kilmarnock W 2-1 Dundee D 0-0 Ross County D 1-1 Hamilton W 4-2 Partick D 1-1 Inverness L 0-3 Ross County W 4-1 Dundee L 0-2 Partick Thistle W 2-0 Overall we are P9 W4 D3 L2. At home we are P5 W3 D1 L1. Suggests to me that when we play 'The Pack', we are generally better. Of course, we can't take anything for granted I think we should be going in confident.

Don't forget he's on a 1 good game run of form!

Absolutely. I think it's telling that reading the forums after matches is more depressing than losing a last minute goal to Celtic. Now I am far from a happy clapper and I've been quite strident on various managers and players down the years but I've always tried to be objective. However the overall glum negativity, bizarre vendettas against players and staff, the wild, you can only describe it as bi-polar, expectations on the team, the immediate reaction to scapegoat and apportion blame, I'm afraid its all getting too much for me. It's relentless. Now I'm certainly not storming off, but I definitely feel like scaling back because reading these forums has actually become, overall, a fairly unpleasant experience. That's a real shame in my opinion and who knows it may well be why, apparently, traffic is down on the site. We are a small club, bumping along with 3,000 paying fans. Really, what do you expect from us? I really hope our fan base can reel in their expectations a bit and start actually enjoying being a Motherwell supporter. After all, don't you go because you love it? EDIT. "Alan Hansen on benzos" LOL.

Got to be Louie.

OK we should have defended better at crucial times when Celtic scored but the players gave us just about everything today. Regardless of the result, we showed Celtic up today. And I'll tell you something. I'd rather watch my team lose like we did today to a team with 20 times more resources, than scrap a win against a team with 20 times fewer resources than us. Proud to be a Well fan.

There's one good reason. We aren't Hearts. Rangers lost 2-0, we lost 3-0 on the same ground to the same team. I don't think Rangers are very good. When I saw Hearts play us I knew they would beat Rangers because they were really pretty good against us. However we are lacking in perhaps the most crucial area on the field, central midfield, and Rangers, while not hugely better than us, have better players and more options. We'll see how Aberdeen do at Ibrox at the weekend. There is definitely a bit of pressure on Warbuton and team at the moment, if they lose that pressure will only increase, but if they win they will take a lot of confidence. The game after that is Hearts again and they also have matches away to St. Johnstone and Accies. The lead up to the winter break could see Rangers pull away in 2nd or fall right back.

Words.

07 August 2016 Heart of Midlothian A W 2-1 20 August 2016 St. Johnstone A W 4-2 18 September 2016 Inverness C. Thistle A D 2-2 01 October 2016 Dundee A W 1-0 26 October 2016 Ross County A W 4-0 29 October 2016 Aberdeen A W 1-0 18 November 2016 Kilmarnock A W 1-0 Celtic's away league record this season. As you can see although they have won all but one of their matches they haven't quite been the all conquering goals juggernaut that they have been at Celtic Park. From the last five there are three 1-0 wins and a 2-2 draw. If we keep it tight there is a chance we can sneak something but we will have to put in probably our best performance of the season. Taking the game to them is in my opinion suicide as they have the pace and ability to pick us off if there are any spaces. We need to defend from the half way line rather than the 18 yard line and make quick attacks down the sides to keep their full backs in check.

Besides Aberdeen, and St. Johnstone in what was a meaningless match, we are the only team to beat Celtic in the league for a couple of seasons. We are still the last Scottish club to win at Celtic Park. You can be as forward looking as you like but Celtic are miles ahead of anyone else in the league. McGhee is one of a very select bunch to actually get a win off them. As for young guys showing no fear, I was at Tynecastle last week and Ross McMillan probably had his nerviest match in a Motherwell shirt that I've seen. Was it a coincidence it was against a big team in front of a big crowd?

I don't know if you'll think this is negative or not but due to the Hamilton v Partick match it's impossible for us to be bottom of the league on Saturday night!

Rangers aren't very good but they are a bit better than most of the rest of the teams in this league, which is why they are 2nd in the league and have only lost to Celtic and Aberdeen. Their cup record is also pretty good they have made two League Cup semi finals and a Scottish Cup final in the last three seasons. They have only conceded 3 goals in 7 league matches at Ibrox. If we can score we'll have a chance as Rangers haven't been free scoring (only 10 goals at Ibrox, for comparison Motherwell have scored 12 goals in the same number of games at Fir Park) however given our record away to city clubs this season and Rangers home record I think Rangers will be small odds at the bookies to win this.

St. Johnstone beat Rangers 3-1 in the League Cup in September 2015 and that is Rangers only home defeat since we beat them in the play offs back in season 2014/15, 1 defeat in 36 home matches. Not the best draw.

He was rubbish.