Ya Bezzer!

If the alternative is relegation then it's called cutting your losses.

As others have said the repercussions of being relegated are just too severe and right now we look stick ons to finish in the bottom 2. No one can say whether McCall would turn it round eventually but as far as I'm concerned he doesn't have much time left. Remember we have also fallen at the first hurdle against Albion Rovers, Stjarnan and Hamilton Accies in the last three cup ties. I'd give him until the end of the month because the fixture list looks tough for us in the next 6 weeks or so and if we can't get results against Aberdeen or St. Johnstone then what chance do we have against Dundee Utd, Inverness and Celtic? The two home matches against Dundee Utd and Celtic look especially daunting, could it be 6 home defeats in a row? There are bigger problems at the club than McCall and I think that those desperately need to be addressed as well but right now I can't see us turning it round and that means the managers position is under severe threat, or at least should be.

McCall should get to the end of the month. We need at least three points from the next two games, cos it's hard to see us getting anything in the three after that (Dundee Utd, Inverness, Celtic) and we are into December by that stage. Two more games to turn it round, if not then I'm afraid McCall's time is up.

Does anyone know if Dom Thomas is nailed to the bench?

Pumped again. Next five matches are Aberdeen, St. Johnstone and Inverness away and Dundee Utd and Celtic at home. Where are we going to get a point? We are dire. Dead men walking. I'm afraid the end is close for either Stuart McCall or Motherwell FC as a Premier level team.

I'd cheered up a bit about our prospects having not actually seen us for a couple weeks but it looks like we are going to have another depleted line up out today. I agree with Frazzie on the injury situation, when things aren't going well and the heads are down you seem to get more injuries and longer recovery times. Anyway, I feel like I've said this 4 or 5 times already this season but this is a must win game. We can either go on to the same points as Dundee today if we win, or if we lose, go effectively 7 points behind due to the goal difference. Frightening enough but Dundee can't even climb out of the Bottom 6 day, win or no win. Think about that for a while. The league is beginning to spread out and take shape now and we are at the wrong end, I think this match has the potential to be a season shaping match. If we lose today I think our chances of Top 6 are more or less kaput. I'd take the scrappiest, least deserved 1-0 win today right now.

You at the Accies game? I've seen him twice this season and he had one decent match and one poor one.

Maybe Clarkson's best days are behind him but I still think he could have done a job with us and I disagree that Ojamaa was 'far better' than Clarkson. Clarkson scored 56 goals for the club meaning there aren't many players who have scored more goals for Motherwell in the last 40 years or so at the top level. They aren't exactly like for like but Clarkson was a better goalscorer than Ojamaa and after McGhee took over he was very consistent. I think his contribution to Motherwell is often over looked.

Dundee have conceded 9 goals in the last three league matches so if we can't score in this match we might be in trouble this season. We can't really afford to lose this one as they would go 7 points clear more or less with goal difference taken into consideration. On the other hand we could draw level with them with a win. Cliche or not it does seem set up for David Clarkson to sink us.

This. And this. Vigurs was responsible for that goal but he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. Also, it was an excellent pass from Lawless to set it up, someone I've said over and over again should have never been allowed to leave Fir Park. As for leaving Vigurs out of the midfield, he's the only guy we've got in the midfield that can create something out of nothing so if you want to score even less goals, have even fewer goal scoring chances, even less opportunities to break the opposition down then go ahead lets do that. Vigurs has at least put the ball in the net this season and gone close elsewhere so when the entire team is playing below par why is it that the creative player gets the chop? All these 'solid' players - Carswell, Lawson, Lasley have they been so much better than Vigurs? Don't think so. You can hardly point to a player in a Motherwell shirt that's done anything this season. What we should be doing is playing a modern system of 4-2-3-1 into which Vigurs would fit perfectly while giving us some security in front of the back four.

Not sure I agree with this. We've only conceded 4 goals more this season than after 9 games last season so although we are poorer defensively there isn't a huge difference. Our main problems are not scoring and the morale collapsing when we go a goal down. What we need to start doing is taking the lead in matches. As McCall pointed out yesterday the three times we've taken the lead this season we got a draw and two wins. I think our morale issues stem around the difficulty we have scoring and breaking teams down and when we lose a goal the team just gives up the ghost so we really need to work on scoring. If we are confident of scoring a goal, losing the opening goal isn't as big a problem, as we have shown numerous times over the last couple of seasons. And miracles of miracles we might even get the first goal ourselves.

What if we are in an unrecoverable position in January? And what "shite in this league" are you talking about? Every team has outplayed us this season, even the teams we've sneaked wins against. As for the rest of it it's all assumption. It might happen but it might not. Ojamaa is a good player but people need to remember he scored 4 goals in 44 matches in his only full season at the club. Ojamaa needs other players to up their game or his contribution is limited, just has happened yesterday. I've been a moderate, but I think fair, critic of McCall for various reasons over the years not just this season but I didn't expect us to be anywhere near as bad as we have been this season. Put your hand on your heart and tell me you expected us to be sitting in this position at the beginning of the season? If you didn't then why should assertions of the type you have made above be taken as anything other than hopeful imaginings? I've been going to football matches for nearly 30 years. I know a relegation threaten team when I see one, because unlike younger fans I've seen a few. This team is one of those. It's ghost of even last seasons team and its nothing to do with ability or even fitness. This team does not believe in itself and hasn't all season. When that happens its very difficult to recover. If we are going to get out of this we are going to need to face some hard truths, figure out what is actually going wrong, what we can do to fix it and a hell of a lot of arse kicking, hard work and determination. We don't get out of this by thinking "everything is going to be OK".

I don't think Stephen McManus is terrible but what concerns me is what we are paying him (which I assume is a good wage) divided by what he delivers. To me is he really any better than a Steven Anderson or a Josh Meekings? I admit it's speculation on my part but I'm pretty sure he'll be one of our biggest wage earners and to me he puts in bog standard performances. For a 'big name' player with his experience with club and country he doesn't show any out of the ordinary ability or leadership qualities. I know Stephen Craigan divided opinions but putting aside his ability as a defender (which I think was good BTW) I don't think anyone could deny he was a real leader on the pitch and playing and winning for Motherwell meant something for him. I don't see that in McManus. He is not commanding, he doesn't take a game or team mates by the scruff of the neck, he doesn't organise. He seems to me to be very passive which is not a good thing in a centre back. McManus isn't the biggest problem in the team right now but we are in a hole right now and when I look around the team and look at players that should be the spine of our team, the experienced pros, the guys that can be depended on when the chips are down I just don't see it in McManus. The phrase I think sums him up would be 'disappointing'. I expected more from him than he has shown so far and I'd like to see more from him.

Very easy choice - Ojamaa.

Those that run the club should be drawing up provisional short lists anyway as it's a cast iron certainy that McCall won't be here next season. We need a new broom to come in in May and bring a whole new approach to the club and get everything sorted out over the summer. He have 15 players who are out of contract/loan returns at the end of the season, we really need to start looking forward now to what kind of club we want in 2015/16. What we require is some kind of forward vision and ethos at the club.

We had nothing going down the sides, perhaps due to have a left footed player playing right wing and a right footed player playing left wing.

Ainsworth has been shite this season but he has a rocket for a shot. There's always a half chance he can blast one in like he did today and for that reason if fit, he should be starting. Especially since we really only have a couple of players in the team that are ever likely to get into double figures over a season (Ainsworth, Sutton). Ojamaa had his best game since coming back. Was the only player that looked interested for long spells. Easy MotM choice.

Vigurs and Carswell gifted goals this week. Lawson and Angol last week. And we gave penalties away against Celtic and Hamilton. How would Hutchinson have prevented any of those goals? Also we have no creativity and have hardly scored any ourselves, how would Hutchinson have increased our goal tally? We have been crippled with injuries all season, how would Hutchinson have prevented most of our team being out injured at some point in the last 9 weeks? Our manager consistantly plays players out of position, makes baffling substitutions and changes the formation, how would Hutchinson have prevented this?

Another shocking performance lacking energy, imagination, creativity or anything else that a football team should show. We had 11 players out there today who didn't want the ball and we are in serious trouble if that's the case. Actually I'll exempt Ojamaa and the goalkeeper, so that's 9 players that didn't want the ball. Vigurs cost of the 1st goal but he shouldn't even have been in that position in the first place. Why did we have Vigurs playing right midfield and Law playing left midfield? Can someone explain that one to me? It's as if McCall wants to make it harder than it actually should be? And if Ainsworth was fit why wasn't he on the right and Vigurs on the left? I don't really have much to say about todays performance because I've said it all before after virtually ever match I've been at this season but we are in serious relegation trouble unless things improve massively very soon. We are showing absolutely nothing right across the field. I can't even see this squad getting out of it, if we don't want to be relegated this season I'd suggest we need to do a Ross County in the next transfer window. We are dire and nothing has changed since August.

Ramsden's performance last week has to rank as one of the all time worst in a Motherwell shirt. Kerr did well at right back in the previous game against Accies. No brainer.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I'm going to this if only in the hope of seeing a Motherwell goal! I'm pretty sure that last time I was at Firhill was the season we finished bottom of the league (01/02 off the top of my head) and we got absolutely thrashed by Thistle and put in a performance that still sticks out nearly 15 years later as one of the worst I've ever seen. Surely it will be better than that this time! Em....maybe.....

I disagree with point D. That might have been the case in previous seasons but most clubs are running with first team squads of about 20-21 outfield players, same as us. The only teams in the league with a bigger playing squad are Celtic, Dundee and Ross County and only Celtic have a significantly larger squad and even then they have moved a few out recently on loan (Balde, Pukki, McGeouch, Toshney, Irvine etc.).

Dundee Utd are sitting top of the league right now and they had 5 players on Saturday brought in from the lower Scottish leagues. It's our scouting that is rotten rather than the leagues were are bringing in players from. If anything we should be bringing in more players from those kind of areas and paying them less so we have a larger squad to pick from instead of paying players like McManus a pretty penny for bog standard displays. Let's face it, the standard between the top and lower leagues has never been smaller so it's a market we should be looking at much more than have done rather than bringing in expensive loan deals from England. As for slating players, if one guy is exempt it's Stevie Hammell? Not sure how you can say he has gone into "chronic decline" when he hasn't played since July.

I fear a complete collapse if we don't bounce back quickly from that defeat. We simply cannot to lose this and I think 3 points is really required if we have any hope of turning the season round. St.Johnstone are playing St.Mirren so if we do lose St.Johnstone could pull away or St.Mirren could get to within 1 point of us.

We had Darren Randolph on a 3 year contract, he was, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper we've ever had at Fir Park in the 30 odd years I've been going and the best keeper in the league, and there wasn't a single bid for him. You can't make clubs buy our players and lets face facts here how many players have come through the club recently that you'd have to buy there and then? Most of our guys are guys you'll keep an eye on and wait until they are out of contract. We've never had a really hot talent since James McFadden that was going to attract bidders from down south and there is no money in the Scottish game any longer.