Ya Bezzer!

Straight into my team of the year. No Motherwell players in it surprise, surprise! I always vote for someone so I'll give it to Marvin Johnson.

If County even get a point tomorrow you could open the gates and people wouldn't come.

OK where do you start? I said before the match that I thought this would our hardest match and when I said that I was kind of diplomatically saying I didn't think we'd win for all the reason that actually transpired tonight. A pressure match. An away match. An away match on Accies pitch. Plus our fans totally discounting and disrespecting the opposition and totally upping our team with scarcely any evidence. First of all we went out into a must win match in front of a big away support and we shat it. There was no urgency, no energy, no closing people down, no pressing, we went out and played at a canter. It's just not fucking good enough and I've said it before and I'll say it again it has absolutely fuck all to do with Kenny Black!! Motherwell supporter all season have been coming away with total delusions and latching on to ridiculous beliefs and it's about time they wised up. Baraclough's super duper training methods have had the best part of 5 months and they have changed fuck all. Please, just drop all the bullshit right now. We are a team that goes into games with no belief! It has nothing to do with training methods! Secondly, these stats are a game or two out of date but as of last week John Sutton had 30 shots at goal this season and had scored 11. Lee Erwin had also had 30 shots at goal this season and scored 4. We simply cannot go into games with our best goal scorer, not by a little bit, but by an absolute mile, sitting on the bench for most of the match. All the experts on here laid the blame for a woeful team performance was laid at Suttons door totally unfairly, well who's fault was it tonight? Lee Erwin played up top, Johnston played left and we were still shite. Still Sutton's fault? Anyone that watches us warming up before matches and watches the shooting practice will know that Sutton puts 8 or 9 out of 10 in the net. Watch the other players. No one is anywhere near as good as him at hitting the target and yet we are tying one arm behind our back. We are heading for the Championship and we have one of the leagues top scorers sitting on the bench. We had 4 or 5 good chances to score in the first half and Sutton was sitting watching like the rest of us. In fact our two best players this season Dan Twardzik and John Sutton have been dropped by Baraclough. This Lee Erwin delusion needs to be jettisoned as well. You cannot hope to survive with a striker like Erwin playing up front. He is simply not good enough at scoring goals. By all means give him a game, he does other things well, but we need to build the team around our major source of goals and that is Sutton. Thirdly, Baraclough was absolutely useless tonight. We went out and started the game with no zip or energy. Isn't that part of his job, to motivate? Second half, we go out and lose a goal within 7 minutes. Again useless. Then he prevaricates and doesn't change anything when it is absolutely obvious it's not working and we desperately, with our Premiership status hanging in the balance, need to change it and what does he do? Nothing. And then when he does do something he takes off probably our best and most dangerous player on the night Marvin Johnson! Now Marvin Johnson may have been carrying an injury but he didn't look it to me. Then at 0-2 down he takes of McDonald and puts on Sutton. Well Sutton should have on long before then but why take of McDonald? Pearson clearly isn't fit, Ainsworth had a poor night, go 4-3-3 and try and get a goal back, don't take off a striker, have a go! Maximise your fire power! It's not like it was 1-0 and we could maybe sneak back into the match. We had to go for it and Baraclough didn't have the guts or heart for it. Maybe that's why we have a team like that! Anyway, 3 points for Ross County makes them safe in my opinion and totally kills the post split fixtures. If that happens we can hardly complain but the annoying thing is we have so much more in that squad than we are actually showing. The raw materials are there and yet it looks like it's Cowdenbeath next season for our traveling support.

I'm angry about a lot of stuff tonight but what I want to say straight off the bat is this. The absolutely fucking cretin in our support who screamed at Nigel Hasselbaink "jungle bunny bastard" right in front of Zane Francis Angol and his family needs to be kicked up and down Windmillhill Street ten fucking times. Forget about performances or relegation or anything else, I've never been more embarrased or ashamed to be a Motherwell supporter. Bad enough to use that sort of racist language at any time but to do it right in front of one of our black players and his relatives is beyond disgusting. I will tackle the match in a separate post.

If we don't win and Ross County do I'd agree but I think it's still possible to lose this and have a chance but we are depending on others and with Ross County in the form they are it's going to be difficult.

I feel like a guy looking up at a suicide on a window ledge shouting "don't do it".

20-1 on Queen of the South is unbelievable given their record against Hibs and Rangers this season.

Dougie Ramsey will be upset.

Against my better judgement I have a ticket for this.

Guessing Johnson won't be risked on the Hamilton pitch, even if back to fitness.

It's not a problem for me. You always put out your strongest XI for the next match. If someone gets injured so be it. Players can get injured training, warming up before the match or microwaving an egg, no point worrying about it.

Accies at Douglas Park will be our hardest match of the run in, I'll say. A lot of people on here wanted to take a couple of games form over 10 years of results against Partick, well we'll have to go and win on that pitch for the first time ever if we want to avoid the play offs. That's a big ask given our previous attempts. Also I suspect Accies are no where near as bad as some are making out, especially on their own patch. They've not won but they have a few draws in there and they are the only team to take any points off Ross County in recent times. They outplayed Dundee Utd for long spells and should have got something at Tannadice. And just like at Partick all the pressure is on us, away from home. Two factors that have not been in our favour recently. As I said, this will be our toughest 90 minutes of the rest of the season.

All the Rangers loan players are loaned until the end of June. Good wee rouse there from Mike Ashley, another 5 monthly wages paid by The Rangers.

There's no point playing them if they aren't fit but if they are they have to be risked because we are at the last chance saloon now.

If the play offs are extended into June then we could be without George Long, Louis Laing, Tony Straker, Conor Grant and Mark O'Brien as their loan period expires at the end of May. All contracted players are signed up to the end of June.

We have 5 players that have scored more than once this season in the squad. McDonald will leave in the summer, I don't think there is much doubt about that. That leaves Sutton (11), Ainsworth (6), Erwin (4) and Vigurs (2). You want to 'bin' three of them. OK......

It will probably be a ticket match, same as last time. We'll get the stand behind the goals and that little kid on stand at the side.

There is also the chance that Morton could replace one of the smaller sides in the division, Cowdenbeath/Alloa.

Hibs have 'easier' games than Rangers - Alloa, Livingston and Falkirk, although Livingston have found a bit of form as they attempt to avoid relegation after a shocking season. Rangers have Dumbarton, Falkirk and Hearts. Dumbarton have been in holiday mode for a couple of weeks being in mid table so you'd expect Rangers to win that easily enough but Falkirk and Hearts will be sterner tests. Queen of the South could well get 9 points out of 9 from Alloa, Dumbarton and Livingston. If they did so they would still have a chance of finishing 3rd or even 2nd.

For me the two hardest matches are the first 2 matches post split so if we can get something out of them I honestly think 15 points is doable. However going to Douglas Park, I have to say, fills me with dread these days.

Although signed players are normally signed until the end of June, I'm lead to believe that some loan players are signed on deals that expire at the end of May or the end of the first week of May which is the end of the Championship league fixtures.

I would have liked County at home first but not bad overall. We need to go to Douglas Park first though and that is a must win.

If you look at Falkirk, a similar sized club to ours, they have been down in the Championship for 5 seasons now and they still attract roughly the same number of fans that we do in the Premiership 3,500 - 4,000. That proves that clubs can maintain a fan base a division down, if they are winning most weeks and challenging for promotion, although whether that's how it would go for us is open to question.

So you want to take all the experience and quality we have and throw it out the window when we go into a tough Championship league full of experienced old pros? That would be madness. The first thing Hearts did when they went down was bring in experience in Gomis, Buaben, Pallardo, Zeefuik, Eckersley, etc.