Ya Bezzer!

I don't think many people are looking for that. Personally, I'd like us to go out on to the pitch and look like we have some kind of game plan that we are at least working towards. There is a total absence of game plan, tactics, instruction. What happens is the goalkeeper boots the ball 80 yards down the pitch, opposition defenders or their goalkeeper take possession and then it's repeat, repeat, repeat. You don't have to be some managerial genius to say to the players - "OK the goalkeeper rolls it out every time, make yourself available. If you don't make yourself available, you don't fit into the style of football I want to play and you won't be in the side." Likewise you don't have to be managerial genius to instruct players to take certain positions or make certain movements at a throw in. These absolutely basics elements of football are happening week after week after week and nothing happens to improve the situation. In both these situations we give away possession about 80% of the time.

0-0 last game of the season v Partick, I think.

What the hell do we do all week? Zero coaching in evidence. Even basic things aren't being remedied week after week. It's one thing to try and fail but I don't see any game plan whatsoever. There is nothing there.

Moult, even without the goal.

Don't think I've ever been so apathetic to a last gasp equalizer. I thought we were absolutely atrocious. The standard of play today was no where near acceptable and resembled pub level football at times. Ross County thought they could coast to a victory and must be absolutely kicking themselves not to have won because I have no doubts they had a goal or two more in them if they hadn't gone into a 2nd half torpor. We have no system, no style of play, no attacking instinct, no energy, no confidence. We look like a team where no one knows what they are doing. There is no cohesiveness, no team spirit, no unifying strategy, we look like 11 players who don't know each other or what their manager wants them to do. There's no skill on display, no excitement, no chances created, no pace, no runs, no killer passes, not even basic passes. We can't defend, we can't attack, our midfield is posted missing.... And I've said it after every match I've seen this season - too many long balls, no one looking for touches from throw ins. But then nothing ever chances, there is no development, no improvement, not even a glimpse of anything better on the horizon. Today was just utterly, utterly rotten stuff. Pure guff. Garbage. Sub 4,000 attendance today and it might well be sub 3,000 soon if that's what we have to watch.

We keep a clean sheet and Kennedy is the stand out player and he gets dropped? Likewise Taylor plays in three successive loses, Leitch comes in, we win, and then Taylor comes back in. Taylor needs to justify his selection today.

With the standard of ref you'd probably get away with it. Back 3 is a bad idea. Every pro defender says its harder to defend with 3 at the back than 2. Since we can't defend with 2, then I don't fancy our chances if we complicate it. 3 at the back is like zonal marking, if you don't do it properly everyone gets in a muddle and the opposition scores. And I don't think we have a sweeper type player.

When I watched players warming up and going through their pre match I always got the impression that Adam Cummins didn't have a professional attitude to it. Regardless of his ability, I don't think he had a pro footballers mentality.

On the face of it Ross County have been a better team than us for a year or so, have decent form going into this match and have built up a decent record against us in recent matches. We should be looking to win our home games but I think a point from this one wouldn't be too bad a result. Honestly I'd say that I'd expect us to toil in this one if it wasn't for the wildcard element of Liam Grimshaw. It remains unknown how he'll influence the play so it will be interesting to see how he does. Looked tidy enough in the Lasley testimonial but you'd hope he'd push on and show more in a competitive match. I hope Kieran Kennedy and Dom Thomas keep their place from the last league match as I thought they were our two best players and we'll need to keep an eye on Liam Boyce. I like the look of this guy, little bit of Michael Higdon about him.

Given that we are only turning out just over 3,000 fans for league home games I thought the turn out was decent and reflected well on Lasley's standing with supporters. Say what you like about Clarkson but he put in our only decent cross of the match.....

I even said "probably" so I didn't state it as fact. Just my opinion based on a few general criteria. If you disagree fine but I'd like to see this team of players and while we are at it Davie Cooper's heading stats!

In terms of performance, consistency and length of service?

Great club servant. Probably our best post Admin player. Will be there tomorrow.

Ha ha. I did. It was more a reference to his accent.

If you concentrate fans in a smaller area rather than disperse them around a stadium you are likely to get more noise. Also I think there tends to be less families go to away matches and its more, let's say, the traditional football fan.

I have a feeling he'll be playing at right back. Lasley is a stick on, Pearson is on the mend and Bara has brought in Jake Taylor.

Is that what he said?

Left back required? Don't think so. MInd you that goes for nothing these days!

I'm EE and it is very spotty in the East Stand, at half time it's very hard to get a signal but I can usually get one before and after the game.

Couldn't break into the team last season and free kick against Ross County apart didn't show much that would turn things around for us. Better off going with some of our youngsters than a Conor Grant in my opinion.

Well Ali Crawford and Michael McGovern would go straight into any team outside of Celtic in this league. Don't think you could say that about any of our players. I think they have more strength and depth than us in midfield and reckon someone like Darian McKinnon would be ahead of Jack Leitch if they were in our squad. The big Brazilian lad Lucas has looked more solid than any of our defenders over a period.

Kinda missing the point there aren't you. All I'm saying is the small club/big club argument is pointless in terms of actual achievement out on the park. Accies, I'd imagine pay smaller wages than we do, but there are more than a few players at NDP that are, quite frankly, better than players we have. It's all about getting the right players in and then utilising them correctly, not how many sides your stadium has or what your budget is, or how great a tradition you have Hibs supporters might well claim the big club/greater tradition against us but a fine lot of use it's doing them losing to Dumbarton.

Most of what you say is reasonable but I have to take issue with a couple of things. First of all, you say there was no "new manager bounce" but actually we got significantly better after McCall resigned. Under Kenny Black we beat Dundee Utd that was at the time top of the league and were one kick of the ball away from beating Ross County. We then went on and won the first two matches under Baraclough with basically the same team and set up. So I think that the team was performing better in the aftermath of the McCall resignation. The decline under Baraclough starting at Hamilton came after he was in the door and started making his own changes and I wouldn't put it down to a 'continuation' of the form under McCall. Secondly while you are correct to say McCall inherited a much better team than Baraclough did I think it is also worth pointing out that he also lost much better players and had to replace good players with players not in the same bracket. Also it's fair to say that Baraclough has received more backing than any Motherwell manager since probably the post admin Billy Davies days. I was never McCall's biggest fan but I think we was quite severely restricted in his transfer dealings and general budget in the latter half of this spell at the club when we posted several large losses and the clubs finances were in a precarious Pre-Hutchison malaise. In terms of support Baraclough has had everything he's basically wanted and had very few restrictions placed in front of him and yet improvements expected have not yet materialised. You also say you have "zero interest in going to watch a team defined by a short-termist outlook" but I'm afraid while it would be great if football was all about grand designs extending far off into the future, Motherwell FC has no future unless it focuses on the ultimate short term outlook of actually winning on a Saturday. You can have all the plans in the world but if we are relegated or the club goes into a sort of Kilmarnock style results recession/fan alienation then they are all in the vain. I think there could have been improvements and a longer term strategy in some areas such as player contracts but ultimately we have to divide our ambitions between first team results and longer term youth development and club modernisation perhaps skewed 60/40 in favour of the former, and more so when we are in real danger of relegation.

Felt the TV pictures were inconclusive on the penalty and that Moult was probably offside for the disallowed goal.

We aren't "rank rotten" in midfield. Against Dundee Utd it was pretty even with both teams playing the same system, matching up and the general play showed that. Against Aberdeen they dominated, but they had an extra man in midfield and when they went to a four man midfield taking off Flood and putting on a striker we came more into the game. Against Kilmarnock we were fairly comfortable for most of the match but our final ball was poor and the longer the game went on we started to get nervous about defending a 1 goal lead and started getting deeper and deeper, as most teams do in that circustance. Rather than being "rank rotten" I think we are very small margins away from being half decent but so far our final ball, whether its shooting, passing or crossing hasn't been good enough. We need a mobile midfielder that can get up and down the pitch and has an attacking instinct because playing Leitch and Lasley together isn't going to unlock many defences and a more offensive midfielder will help us score more goals but I've not seen teams completely dominate us in the middle of the park.