Ya Bezzer!

Very poor 2nd half performance. First goal is so important so when we score it it would be nice if the ref or linesman were paying attention. We actually played some decent stuff in the first half but Dundee scored against the run of play in about 44 minutes. Poor mistake from McDonald giving the ball away. 2nd half Dundee were transformed and we looked sorry for ourselves. Substitutions were poor, expecting two kids to turn the game was hopeful, afterwards we seemed to have no shape or game plan. Clay was anonymous yet again, only looks good when the team is firing on all cylinders. Forward players didn't click today - Cadden, McDonald, Moult, don't think Ainsworth should have been taken off though.

Beaton strikes again absolute joke of a referee. Could clearly see the keeper holding the ball against the net behind the post. Been much the better team, Dundee didn't deserve the goal. Haven't created too many clear cut chances though need to be a bit sharper in the final third.

Obviously I wasn't at the Hamilton - Dundee match but it looks like our performance was a lot more impressive than Dundee's, who won, but maybe not in any style. Even there goal came about from the striker missing the ball, the keeper diving the wrong way and the ball trickling into the net. Our record up there isn't bad, W3 D1 L2 this decade although those wins were a few years ago when we had a much better team but it was only a controversial late penalty that denied us last time. As always making sure we get the first goal will be huge as the crowd is bound to turn.

What is this forum like? Now Lucas is some kind of super player that will rescue the season! We need him to do it more than once but he did well today. Hopefully he will but he still has a lot to prove. The main thing though was we worked hard and look like we were playing to a game plan. Early in the match Ross County were actually better than us, we kept giving the ball away and we really need to work on our ball retention. However the first goal gave us confidence and took it away from County. I was actually talking to a Hearts supporter earlier in the week and he was saying how so often the first goal decides a match. Teams just seem to fold at 1-0 these days and that certainly happened today. We did much better today but you also have to temper that a bit with the fact that Ross County were probably the worst side we've played this season. We have Dundee and Partick coming up and it's important that we keep improving and get at least another 4 points before the tougher matches come round because the league is very, very tight in the bottom half and teams are pulling off results that are unexpected.

Team changes made a big difference. Lucas did well and McDonald and Ainsworth gave us a lot more attacking options, pace and movement. Heneghan improved immensely from Wednesday and McMillan has settled right in at left back and deserves credit. A word of caution though, I thought Ross County were very poor. Can we perform like that against a better team? Still a big boost for our confidence and hopefully we can go to Dundee next week and get at least a point.

That's a valid question. I'm absolutely convinced there is something going on, perhaps a deal with an agent, that means we basically we get Lucas for nothing or next to nothing. Otherwise I don't understand why we have signed him twice and not used him. Bowman had a good record at the same level as Moult and that's obviously why we brought him in. Any transfer is a risk and its not worked out so far but may do in the future, bit early to judge but he's not had a great start, then again we haven't created a lot and nothing has really fallen for him either. Blyth and Belic. We've signed far too many crocks over the last two or three seasons.

Serious question - when did Brill last play in a top level match? I'm not hugely enamored with Samson myself but McGhee will know what condition Brill is in better than us. BTW the answer was once since the 24th of January 2015 over which time he's had two serious knee injuries. So basically our goalkeeping saviour has been out for 21 months with a crocked knee.

McGhee has a pretty good track record as a Motherwell manager. Do you want to list all the other Motherwell's who's lowest league position in a season was 7th? It'll be a short list. Comparing McGhee to Baraclough based on a spell of bad form is, well let's just say misguided. It's obvious our costs are being slashed as the club has to survive on its own generated revenue at the same time as player wages are constantly rising, meaning the quality of player we are attracting is plummeting. And this is speculation on my part, based though on various comments that have come out of the club, but I believe that McGhee has not even been given a proper player budget, rather drip feed small amounts of cash to build the squad throughout the transfer window. Financially we are down to the bone. That means that managing Motherwell is going to be a tough, tough task for anyone in the foreseeable future. Clubs like Dunfermline and Falkirk (by nearly 1,500 so far) get higher average home attendances than us in the Championship than we do in the Premiership. As long as huffy fans stay away the clubs hands are tied. With 3,000 supporters coming to matches we are operating at what is close to the bare minimum for a professional club at this level. Look at St. Mirren, it could easily be us in a couple of seasons so let's try and do everythng we can as fans, to make sure that doesn't happen. Be as positive as possible and help the club, instead of throwing toys out the pram, staying away, slating the players and manager etc.

Ross County have scored 2 goals in 8 matches. We have conceded 2 goals in 4 of our last 5 matches. Fucked if I know what is going to happen. We need to change the system and personnel though. Need something new, would bring in Brill for Samson, even though Samson didn't do much wrong tonight. It would give fans and perhaps the team a wee boost. McDonald has to start. Bowman drops out. Clay and Lasley can't play together. Clay to drop out. And we need to find a left sided midfielder from somewhere. Oh and McManus needs a kick up the arse. He's supposed to help the young guy next to him, not scare the shit out of him and destroy his confidence by being a complete train wreck.

We were abysmal. But it wasn't as someone put it "a new low". I could make a pretty long list of matches even worse than tonight.

Our squad management has been poor. We have signed far too many players that have offered nothing within a very small squad. This season - the Louis Laing situation, signing Craig Moore and then immediately loaning him out again, Jacob Blyth, Dom Thomas not being used, the insoluable mystery of Lee Lucas, Luka Belic, remember him? Kieran Kennedy's not kicked a ball all season, and of course Carl McHugh injuring himself with a ridiculous challenge that he might well have been sent off for in different circumstances. That's 8 players from a very small and limited squad that we have or are paying this season have have contributed nothing. We just can't afford to not have a fully functional squad.

Just over 3,000 there tonight. Maybe if more fans turned up instead of throwing in the towel....

Abject from beginning to last. I said before the match it wouldn't be easy tonight and we'd have to work to get anything out of it, well we went out on to the park tonight and didn't lift a finger from minute 1. Firstly McGhee deserves a bit of stick tonight, I cannot understand our team line up, formation or tactics tonight but calls for the sack are ridiculous. We don't have the players to be aiming for Top 6, it's as simple as that, although McGhee could help out by putting the eleven best ones on the pitch. Overall though the squad just isn't good enough. Players tonight couldn't control simple balls, never mind pass. We constantly gave the ball away, players didn't want responsibility and hid and the hoof ball out from the back was a clear sign of our creative problems in midfield. Anyway, on tonights performance it's going to be a struggle against relegation. The goals we gave away were so simple it was almost unbelievable and we had absolutely no threat going forward whatsoever. Not a happy combination. McDonald should be a stick on ever match, why was he left out today? Moult has been streaky in the past and tonight he as poor as he was last season when he was deservedly dropped. Bowman, after a promising start against Accies has shown very little. Clay, I just don't know what he brings to the team. Lasley breaks up the play but we need something better than Clay to play beside him. Cadden has been head and shoulders our best player this season but even he looked tired swimming against the tide of the match. McManus and Hennigan were absolutely dreadful tonight. The only positive was that McMillan had a decent enough game until things started to run away from us. McLean didn't make as much impact but he should be given further chances. Overall 1 win in 9 is not good enough and tonights performance suggested that run might go on for a while. Fortunately Ross County are really struggling as well. Needs to be much, much better on Saturday.

Hopefully the fact that Inverness played at the weekend means we will have more about us in the latter stages. Aberdeen seemed to struggle against Accies after their cup match.

Yeah, Inverness have struggled for strikers in recent times but they get a lot of goals from midfield - Draper, Tansey, Vigurs, Polworth can all chip in. Meekings and Warren get their fair share too.

I read somewhere that Derek Townsley was a manager now at a English non league side.

We've not had a great start to the season but all our defeats have been against expected top 6 finishers and 3 of the 4 have been against city clubs (Rangers, Celtic, Hearts). We also have a win, a draw and a defeat from our last three home matches - it's not like we've had an especially bad run. 3 points would be more than welcome though as a few of our rivals have tough looking games midweek - Hamilton are away to Aberdeen, Ross County away to Celtic, Kilmarnock have Hearts, while Dundee are away to Partick and one or both of them will be dropping points. A wee chance to create a gap in the table.

Inverness have only lost 1 match in 7 in the league and that was an unlucky 1-0 defeat to Rangers where they missed various glaring chances. Don't think this will be an easy 3 points in the bag. We are going to have to put in a shift and work hard to get anything out of this. We are also going to have to stay switched on if we are drawing or winning. Inverness have got quite a few late goals this season....91st minute winner v St. Johnstone, 89th minute goal to get a draw off Celtic, 93rd minute equalizer against Hamilton and another late goal at the weekend.

Some interesting attendances from 1982-3. For a start there was a bigger crowd at Fir Park against Rangers (19,159) than there was at Ibrox (17,000). It was the same for the matches against Celtic. At Fir Park (17,022 but lost 7-0!), at Celtic Park (14,983). Otherwise the attendances weren't any better and sometimes were worse than today. St. Mirren (4,292) Dundee United (4,555) Kilmarnock (3,016) Dundee (3,295) Morton (3,124) Aberdeen (4,929) Hibernian (3,815) Also worth looking at the away attendances. At Pittodrie (8,000) Second top of the league and challenging for the title. At Easter Road (4,000) At Love Street (3,563) At Rugby Park (3,300)

During the SPL period clubs did ratchet the price of attending football to way over what it had been but these days I don't think you can blame the clubs too much on pricing. The banks have more or less abandoned Scottish football and many have no overdraft facilities and have to generate their own cash flow. Clubs ran on significant overdrafts for decades (look at the fees Motherwell paid for the likes of Rob McKinnon or Tommy Coyne, unimaginable now) but that just isn't possible now in the current financial climate. You have to pay to stay alive basically. The drop in quality is also something really outside our control and is directly linked to the English game. The exponential rise of wages in the English Premier and Championship is probably the greatest single blow to Scottish football in its entire history....and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

He has been our best player this season by a considerable margin.

Don't know if it's been posted elsewhere on the site. From BBC. Motherwell manager Mark McGhee says the club are "very concerned" about midfielder Carl McHugh's head injury. McHugh, 23, has not played since sustaining a wound after coming into collision with Kilmarnock's Dean Hawkshaw on 6 August. "It is really grim," said McGhee, with the player having suffered delayed concussion. "It has not made much progress. It is just not getting better. We are doing everything we can." Republic of Ireland Under-21 cap McHugh, who has over 160 senior club appearances, joined Well in the summer from Plymouth Argyle and the win over Killie at Rugby Park was his third appearance for the Steelmen. The wound required stitches and McGhee added: "He is having a really difficult time and we are very concerned about that. "There is no time given to this injury. They don't say it will take six weeks or eight weeks, they actually say it could take six weeks, eight weeks, it could take six months, that is the nature of it and we just hope it doesn't take six months obviously. "It is a complicated and nasty condition that he has ended up with. "He is seeing a guy in Dublin actually this week to put his mind at rest." Meanwhile, McGhee confirmed defender Joe Chalmers is to have a groin operation next week and will be out for six weeks. However, midfielder Chris Cadden has recovered from a hamstring injury and could return against Celtic in Glasgow on Saturday.

Missed out that Alloa Athletic went there and lost 0-2 to two late goals with Celtic playing what was more or less a first team XI, it was only Sinclair that was rested, with Griffiths injured. No reason we shouldn't be going there to at least compete but then maybe too many of our players have similar attitudes to some of our fans who's attitude is to fully collapse after the slightest adversity.

Our crowds are down by between 500 - 1000 over the traditional numbers of the last 30 years ago. There are lots of reasons and it is no one thing. Big clubs have performed poorly in recent years and bring fewer fans, prices are high and one thing I especially worry about how many juvenile fans we retain when they have to pay full prices, there's the general economic conditions and outlook and probably far, far more people work weekends than did in 1986 or 1998. Then there is the impact of television from England and abroad and the ever falling standard of our league and the lack of competition.

Let's be honest about this, if we can't give young players a chance now when the overall standard is much lower than it was when the likes of McFadden, Lasley and Hammell broke through when will we ever do it. You can watch U20's football till the cows come home but there is only one way to find out if a player is going to make it at senior level and thats to play him at senior level. Quite frankly I have no time for all this "there not ready for senior football" balonie. They are not Under 16's, they aren't even Under 18's they are Under 20's and they are all taking a wage home from this club. A lot of those guys are 20 years old or coming up to 20 - David Ferguson, Ross McLean, Dylan Mackin, so what are we doing - spending a lot of money we don't have on some glorified youth club? There have been lots of players that have gone on to have great careers, not because managers thought they were ready, but because managers had no choice but to thrust a young player into a team due to injuries, suspensions and a whole lot of other reasons. Managers will very rarely because, understandably, they are covering there own arse. It's also worth noting that plenty youth team wonder players went on to do nothing in the senior game, while bang average youth players thrived at senior level. That's why I think you have to give EVERY player at that level a chance at the top level, not just picking out two or three chosen ones. Now I completely understand why its not always appropriate to bring on a young player, or start one, and I know we can't have more than two or three at any one time. Matches this season, right across the league, have been very tight in the bottom 8 teams say, and every manager wants to get points on the board at this stage of the season and stay away from the bottom. But I'll give you an example of when young players should be getting a chance. Hamilton Accies. After 50 minutes of the game we are 4-1 up at home and what happens? We make one substitution and its Lionel Ainsworth. For me there is really no excuse for not getting one or two young lads into that game.