Ya Bezzer!

Sure the Kenny Black situation hasn't gone down well.

Maybe Lasley wasn't trying because the ball was flying 10 feet over his head the whole match. What's he supposed to do other than invest in a pair of stilts? Fucking woeful hoofball from start to finish. It's 2015. Baraclough seems to be harking back to lower league 1990s football. If you can't pass and move you have no chance. He's brought in Straker who's OPTA stats probably say for pass completions "Fuck All".

Thing I noticed is we don't have a striker on the bench. We really are putting all our eggs in the Sutton basket.

At least this week the line up looks fairly balanced. No innovations there. Flat back four, two wingers, two strikers up front. Assuming we play a 4-4-2 of course...

I am feeling unusually hopeful. Might just be a sub conscious psychological deception to justify going to the match though!

Will be interesting to see who he goes for. I'm going to say Laing - McManus.

From a strictly punter point of view I think Dundee at 2.15 are pretty good value.

4 centre backs available today. Day of Reckoning for Kerr and McManus perhaps?

I'd agree that both those players were probably better than Hammell but neither of them played for Motherwell at 32. Hammell has developed into a very consistent, experienced player but people forget he was a much more exciting and dynamic player in his earlier years. Perhaps if Hammell had left Motherwell in his mid 20's and never come back people would be more likely to argue a case for him.

I accept that the Slane situation wasn't entirely the clubs fault but the point is a wider one. If the three most talented players we have produced in recent years all leave the club, for whatever reason, then there is something badly wrong with the youth set up because not only are we not producing enough talent, the talent we do produce leaves having hardly kicked a ball for us. No one, no on sensible at least, expects a conveyor belt of great talent to come out of a youth system on a regular and consistent basis, that's not how it works, but we must do everything we can to hold on to the boys we bring through that have that little bit extra. You might be right about Paul Slane, maybe he did do it all himself, but you know what I doubt very much if U20 teams are full of mature, intelligent young men with a clear and sensible idea of their career development, none of whom dream of playing for Rangers, Celtic or other bigger clubs than us. That's part of dealing with young players, and it's up to us to put in place a system where our best young players don't want to leave. Perhaps it was unavoidable with Paul Slane but again, the wider point is we can't afford 100% wastage from the three most talented players we have produced in recent years and because of that Dom Thomas should loom large in the managements thinking.

I think when you are older than the players you then become an 'older fan'. I think there are pretty much a generation of post admin Motherwell fans who have had it pretty good and never really known much struggle. Some were better than others but the Malpas season was pretty much our only poor season over that period. The eighties and nineties were a bit different. I'm sure I've mentioned this many times before but when I first started coming I went home happy if we scored a goal rather than anything else. Maybe I should re-adopt that standard!

It's been long enough between games that I'm actually looking forward to this even though I think we'll be lucky to get a point out of it.

Ainsworth was never interested in staying here in the first place. He prevaricated over signing a contract till the last minute. You can be certain he was looking round all summer for a better deal. Then when he did sign a contract it was a 1 year contract. But over and above any other consideration is form. The facts are Dom Thomas has been doing it on and pitch when Ainsworth looks like a ghost player. For me the three best prospects to come through our youth system since McGhee were Paul Slane, Steven Lawless and now Dom Thomas. We can't afford to fuck up the development of a quality player three times in a row.

A fair few goals in his 500+ appearances? You might also say Stevie Hammell has played in more winning Motherwell teams than just about anyone in our post war history.

We can't afford to go into the final straight in poor form. You don't just turn a season of losing round with 5 or 6 matches to go. Doesn't happen like that. 4 points out of the next 9 has to be a bare minimium.

We only have 8 players contracted after the summer. We'd probably run with about a 20 man squad so we'd need to bring in 10 - 12 players. Getting the right guys is going to be crucial in the Premiership, but down a level it would be even more important.

Easy, it will tip some people over the edge and lead to trouble and violence. You can deny this but show me the study that says when you introduce more alcohol into an environment it produces less violence and a calming effect. There are none, because it doesn't. Secondly, aren't people always complaining about the price of going to a football match? Yet these same people suddenly have all this extra cash so that as soon as you can get pints in a ground they will be throwing fivers over the bar. I'd actually question the economics of it, especially at a smaller club like ours. If 1,000 people each bought a pint at £4, the club would then have £4,000 minus all sorts of costs. It wouldn't even bring in a lot of money. Clubs are trying to bring down policing costs that are huge but I'd bet you anything the police would not allow alcohol on sale at football grounds with reduced policing. Thirdly, if the legislation mirrored that in England and you weren't allowed to watch football while drinking, why would you want alcohol in the stadium anyway? Go to the pub before or after the match, or just sit in the pub and watch Soccer Saturday. So there we have it. It will lead to more trouble at matches, the economics of it I think are being exaggerated and I doubt it would bring in much extra income and in the context of watching a football match, it's completely pointless. Throw in the fact that the quality of the experience and product would probably be poor and over expensive and that I'm already fed up getting up and down out my seat 15 times a match without guys with a couple of extra pints of fizzy lager in their bladders, and I'll leave it at that. If it was introduced I wouldn't quite football over it, I just think it is a backwards step.

I never said anything about buying it.

Pretty much, it would be a period of adaptation rather than the end. I don't want to get relegated but if we do I still be going to the matches and the consolation, and it will be a consolation, is that it will be something different that I've ever experienced before. I started coming regularly the season after our last promotion. Another consolation is that the new play off system means that there is a promotion interest for quite a few clubs right up till the end of the season.

Pretty much this. I'm against the re-introduction of alcohol for a variety of reasons but even if it was re-introduced you can guarantee you'd get a shite plastic beaker of Carling and pay over the odds for it. If you want a drink go to a decent boozer before or after the match.

He's young he might not be ready to start all, or even some, of the games, but he should certainly be coming off the bench. I can understand Baraclough holding him back so we can have an impact player coming off the bench that can change the game with 20 - 25 minutes to go but I don't understand not playing him because he's been just about the only thing to enthuse over lately.

If you go to the greyhounds everyone uses the bookies, they don't go online to make their bets. It's all part of the occasion, the fun of it. And nothing beats the punter triumph of handing in a winning slip and getting real money off a real bookie.

We played some really good football under McCall for the last 6 months of season 2012/13 but overall the standard of play under him wasn't great and was often pretty poor.

Me too. I'm cutting back my betting but if there was a bookies at Fir Park I'd probably put my Saturday line on there. I guess the problem for bookies in a football ground is that most people will be betting on the home team, or at least that match, and there isn't the wide spread of different bets so potentially the bookies could take a big hit if the home team wins. Not that that's a problem at the moment!

Motivator? Motivated to do what? Lose every week by a barrel load of goals? It's was 2008 the last time we failed to get a win in a 7 match run. I wasn't Stuart McCall's biggest fan but to call him 'very very lucky' under our current circumstances takes some nerve. Let me guess? Baraclough has been very very unlucky to lose 4-0 to Celtic, 5-0 to Hamilton, 4-1 to Dundee etc, etc.