Ya Bezzer!

Quite a good comparison because like Cooper, Coyne didn't have any pace either. It was all about space, movement, technique with Coyne and again a lot like Cooper, at the end of the day, instinctive ability.

I like straight talking, not something footballers do very often, and big Buff gave it straight. Guessing he doesn't do Christmas cards with Davie Hay, Roy Aitken, Alex McLeish or Harri Kampman!

Funnily enough I was looking at player loans in the Championship and the standard date that loan deals expire is the 5th of May. Quite a few clubs could have important players missing going into the play offs, for instance Hibs would have sent back Martin Boyle to Dundee, Keith Watson to Dundee Utd and Dylan McGeouch to Celtic, three players that have been in the first eleven most weeks.

Would go to this game but every time I've been down at Rugby Park recently we've been woeful. Probably haven't even seen us score a goal there since the 1990's!

John Sutton's 2 goals last night equaled Stevie Kirk's 63 Premier League goal record, making him the joint top Motherwell goalscorer over our 30 year top league stretch since 1985/86 and possibly since league recontruction in 1975/76. Unfortunately Willie Pettigrew straddled the 1970's reconstruction period and I'm not sure how many he scored in the old and new league systems. He scored 80 overall, does anyone have individual season tallies for Pettigrew? Anyway, here's Sutton's 63 league goals 1. 23/08/2008 - Dundee Utd 2. 30/08/2008 - Hibernian 3. 13/09/2008 - Celtic 4. 27/09/2008 - St Mirren 5. 05/10/2008 - Falkirk 6. 28/02/2009 - Inverness C. Thistle 7. 14/03/2009 - Dundee Utd 8. 11/04/2009 - Rangers 9. 13/05/2009 - Inverness C. Thistle 10. 16/05/2009 - Hamilton Academical 11. 22/08/2009 - Kilmarnock 12. 28/11/2009 - Dundee Utd 13. 23/01/2010 - St Mirren 14. 30/01/2010 - Aberdeen 15. 30/01/2010 - Aberdeen 16. 06/03/2010 - St Johnstone 17. 13/03/2010 - Hearts 18. 18/04/2010 - Dundee Utd 19. 18/04/2010 - Dundee Utd 20. 24/04/2010 - Hearts 21. 05/05/2010 - Hibernian 22. 05/05/2010 - Hibernian 23. 15/08/2010 - Hibernian 24. 25/09/2010 - Hearts 25. 10/11/2010 - St Johnstone 26. 26/12/2010 - Rangers 27. 19/02/2011 - Hamilton Academical 28. 27/02/2011 - Celtic 29. 27/02/2011 - Celtic 30. 19/03/2011 - Kilmarnock 31. 23/04/2011 - Hearts 32. 23/04/2011 - Hearts 33. 24/08/2013 - Partick Thistle 34. 31/08/2013 - Kilmarnock 35. 14/09/2013 - St Mirren 36. 28/09/2013 - Ross County 37. 28/09/2013 - Ross County 38. 23/11/2013 - Kilmarnock 39. 14/12/2013 - Ross County 40. 14/12/2013 - Ross County 41. 29/12/2013 - Partick Thistle 42. 01/01/2014 - St Johnstone 43. 11/01/2014 - Hearts 44. 15/02/2014 - Partick Thistle 45. 21/02/2014 - Dundee Utd 46. 01/03/2014 - Hearts 47. 08/03/2014 - Hibernian 48. 08/03/2014 - Hibernian 49. 19/03/2014 - Inverness C. Thistle 50. 22/03/2014 - Ross County 51. 05/04/2014 - St Mirren 52. 19/04/2014 - Celtic 53. 19/04/2014 - Celtic 54. 07/05/2014 - Inverness C. Thistle 55. 13/09/2014 - Ross County 56. 21/09/2014 - Celtic 57. 13/12/2014 - Ross County 58. 20/12/2014 - St Mirren 59. 27/12/2014 - Partick Thistle 60. 10/01/2015 - Dundee 61. 31/01/2015 - St Johnstone 62. 20/03/2015 - Hamilton 63. 20/03/2015 - Hamilton v Clubs Hearts :7 Ross County :7 Dundee Utd :6 Hibernian :6 Celtic :6 St Mirren :5 Inverness :4 Hamilton :4 Kilmarnock :4 St Johnstone :4 Partick :4 Aberdeen :2 Rangers :2 Falkirk :1 Dundee :1 He has a further 11 cup goals, giving a total of 74. 02/02/2009 - Inverurie Locos 02/02/2009 - Inverurie Locos 09/07/2009 - Llanelli AFC 09/07/2009 - Llanelli AFC 05/08/2010 - Aalesunds FK 09/01/2011 - Dundee 09/01/2011 - Dundee 05/02/2011 - Stranraer 13/03/2011 - Dundee Utd 13/03/2011 - Dundee Utd 16/04/2011 - St Johnstone He's also a handsome big lad!

NAW. I don't want to have to go to Douglas Park ever again, never mind for a post split relegation match!

He came to our school once but he was a Rangers player then so I didn't like him then! The funny thing is he didn't have the best game in the cup final but I think everyone knows that without him we'd never have won it. To have a talisman like Cooper in your team totally lifted us to a new level. In that sense I think he's probably the most important player in Motherwell's history since the 1950's. He might have been gone for 20 years but I think our recent high league finishes are still very much part of the Davie Cooper Era.

Knew it was a great goal at the match but watching the highlights it's even better than I thought. That's a world class strike from Ainsworth, like something Gerard would have hit at his peak. He's scored a few of those types of goals for us but I think that might just have been the best one. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a big softy on goalscorers. If you can score I can almost forgive you anything and last night was a good example of that. Two for Sutton, two for Ainsworth, both players with serious flaws in their games but you know what they sure as hell know where the back of the net is and you don't win games without goals.

Ainsworth for me. 2 goals and an assist. You can't ask much more than that.

Great result but I think if you are being honest it wasn't a 4-0 game and Accies were the better team in spells, especially first half. Game turned on Ainsworth's superb first strike, Accies defence got the collywobbles and after that we were pretty ruthless. Ainsworth showed tonight what we miss when he isn't starting, a rocket for a shot, real pace and the ability to get to the byline. Good cameo from Sutton as well, I believe that he has equalled Stevie Kirk's 63 Premier League goals [EDIT - don't think Soccerbase is right, can only find 61]. One more to become our top scorer in the top league in the modern era, I hope he gets it. Also, Straker showed that he's actually a footballer tonight. Where did that come from!

My feedback would be that the default text is quite small and difficult to read. Could it be larger or darker in colour, or preferably both?

I think it has it's place for things that aren't worth starting a new thread for or for live updating/discussion during matches and that sort of thing. I never really use the internet on my phone so any problems associated with that don't affect me.

Excuse me! All my own work. My end of season Excel sheet is going to blow your mind! If it's impressed by football stats that is. ha ha.

I would agree that it is good research (ha!) but disagree that it is worrying. To be honest I'd be happy to go into the split ahead of St. Mirren and 1 point behind Ross County. Obviously it would be better if we could stretch away from them but with 5 games to go and Ross County are our place it could be a lot worse. As long as we are within 1 win of 10th it's still in our own hands.

Based purely on the last five results between the clubs at the stadium at which the fixture is played. All form/results for Motherwell/Partick/Ross County/St Mirren. When relegation rivals play each other form is for the home team. ROUND 30 Motherwell v Hamilton - 0-4, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0 (L-W-L-W-W) Prediction - 1-0 win for Motherwell. Partick v Inverness- 1-2, 3-1, 0-0, 0-1, 2-1 (L-W-D-L-W) Prediction - 1-1 draw Ross County v Kilmarnock - 1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 0-1, 0-0 (L-W-L-L-D) Prediction - 2-1 win for Kilmarnock. St. Johnstone v St. Mirren - 2-1, 0-2, 0-1, 1-2, 1-0 (W-L-L-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for St Johnstone. Motherwell 3pts, Partick 1pt, Ross County 0 pts, St Mirren 0 pts. 09 - Partick--------------30/2/31 10 - Ross County-----30/-24/25 11 - Motherwell---------30/-31/25 12 - St Mirren-----------30/-26/21 ------------------------------------------------------- ROUND 31 St Mirren v Celtic - 1-2, 0-4,1-1, 1-2, 3-2 (L-L-D-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for Celtic Aberdeen v Partick Thistle - 0-2, 0-4, 0-0, 1-2, 1-2 (L-L-D-L-L) Prediction - 3-1 win for Aberdeen Dundee Utd v Ross County - 1-2, 0-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0 (L-L-D-D-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Kilmarnock v Motherwell - 0-2, 2-0, 0-2, 2-1, 0-2 (L-W-L-W-L) Prediction - 2-1 win for Kilmarnock Ross County 1 pt, Partick 0 pts, Motherwell 0 pts, St Mirren 0 pts. 09 - Partick-------------31/0/31 10 - Ross County----31/-24/26 11 - Motherwell--------31/-32/25 12 - St Mirren----------31/-27/21 -------------------------------------------------- ROUND 32 Motherwell v St Mirren - 1-0, 3-0, 2-2, 1-1, 1-1 (W-W-D-D-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Ross County v St Johnstone - 1-2, 1-0, 1-0, 1-2, 2-2 (L-W-W-L-D) Prediction - 1-1 draw Celtic v Partick - 0-1, 0-6, 0-1, 1-3, 0-4 (L-L-L-L-L) Prediction - 3-0 win for Celtic Motherwell 1 pts, St Mirren 1 pt, Ross County 1 pts, Partick 0 pts 09 - Partick-------------32/-3/31 10 - Ross County----32/-24/27 11 - Motherwell-------32/-32/26 12 - St Mirren---------32/-27/22 --------------------------------------- ROUND 33 Partick v Motherwell - 3-1, 1-5, 1-0, 3-0, 2-0 (W-L-W-W-W) Prediction - 3-1 win for Partick St Mirren v Ross County - 2-2, 1-0, 2-1, 1-4, 5-4 (D-W-W-L-W) Prediction - 2-1 win for St Mirren Partick 3 pts, St Mirren 3 pts, Motherwell 0 pts, Ross County 0 pts 09 - Partick------------33/-1/34 10 - Ross County---33/-25/27 11 - Motherwell-------33/-34/26 12 - St Mirren---------33/-26/25 So at least going by previous results it is going to be very tight between the bottom three going into the split.

This has been one of the worst season I can remember to follow Motherwell but I'll tell you something, I am right up for this game. I actually have a job interview on Friday as well, so it's potentially a very good or very bad day!

We've maybe not had a severe winter but I bet the number of days with lying snow was a lot more than average. At the end of the day we are sitting at 55 degrees N lattitude, it's hardly been out of single digit temperatures for months, there is hardly any sunlight and on top of that we have one of the highest grounds in the country. Grass just doesn't grow in those conditions. The miracle is that there is any grass on the pitch at all and if you go back and look at your old videos you'll see how much better the pitch is now than it would have been in years gone by. There were a few ropy patches on the pitch but really it's mid March - what do you expect? I'm also of the opinion that professional footballers should be able to perform in a range of conditions and not just on perfect pitches, so I don't really have a problem with the pitch, as long as the surface is relatively level (albeit with a slant!)

We need to forget about Partick Thistle. They have the points in the bag. They have 10 points on us and probably only need another 6 to be confident of being safe. They might have the top three coming up but we very nearly took three points at Pittodrie and two of our rare wins have been against Inverness and Dundee Utd. In fact Partick only lost 1-0 to Aberdeen last time and have beaten Inverness twice this season. It means nothing. I've said it before but Partick can lose 7 out of 9 and still be safe. If they got 3 points before the split they are home and hosed. Our trip to Firhill is going to be a very tricky one but even if we win it it's hard to see Partick going into complete melt down and not picking up the points required else where. They aren't even in bad form at the moment and they have beaten St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd in the last couple of weeks and have managed to pull results out of the bag when needed, a 4-0 win against Inverness, a 5-0 win against Hamilton. What we need to do is match or better Ross County, beat them at Fir Park and at the very worst we go into the last match with everything to play for and at best, might even be safe if Ross County drop points else where.

Steven Fletcher was playing at the top level in Scotland at 17 though. Lee Erwin is no kid, it's his 21st birthday the day before the Accies match. We blood players far too late and hinder their development. If you look at the players we've brought through and who have gone on that have gone on and done something most of them were playing at 17-18 years old in the first team.

They aren't lacking in stature in the back four though - Canning, Hendrie, Garcia Tena and Devlin all over 6 feet. I'd still have Sutton back though.

We need to win this one and we will win it and we'll win it handsomely with Scott McDonald scoring more than one.

Where is he? Yesterday he was picking the ball out the net three times at Peterhead in the illustrious capacity of Brechin's No.1

They might lose ground but that will be (probably!) all. I'd be amazed if 37 points didn't keep them up. That's 2 wins from 9. They can lose 7 out of 9 as long as they get those 6 points. Realistically we need to match or better Ross County's results up until we play them post split and then win that match, and then do the same after. At the very worst that takes it up to the last day. What we can't do is let Ross County get 5 (effectively 6) points ahead. Then it becomes pretty difficult for us and the odds of survival get quite a bit longer.

Does anyone really believe all this stuff about Marshall recruiting the goalkeepers. Goalkeeper is arguably the most important position on the field. No manager worth his salt is going to put out a team where the most important player on the pitch wasn't ultimately his choice.

Thomas Cerny sitting on the bench at Hibs as well, but Oxley is only on loan so he might be 1st choice next season.