Ya Bezzer!

Just 6 matches since Dan was between the sticks keeping clean sheets galore! That's kinda why I said we can't say it will be a push over even though Hibs have only won once in 7. They only picked up 2 points against Kilmarnock, Dundee Utd and St. Mirren for instance but they scored 5 goals across those matches (1-2-2). In their four wins since December they also scored at least twice. Need to be careful, I'd suggest.

Hibs have conceded at least 1 goal in their last 8 matches. At the very least we should score but Hibs have also scored a few goals since Butcher took over so I don't think we can say it's going to be a push over based on form. Might be one of those ones where you stick it down as a 3 goals or more at the bookies.

McFadden and Vigurs were the stand out players. The little reverse pass Vigurs hit to Angol in the corner was sheer class and with an excellent display, an assist and a goal he can consider himself unlucky not to get a vote from me. However McFadden edges it, his best display of the season and hopefully he can kick on from here.

Aye, I had it as 3-0 on my Hearts stats and 4-0 on my Kilmarnock stats. Glad you pointed it out! Here's one I'm pretty sure is right. John Sutton is 4 goals away from his 50th league goal for Motherwell. Would be nice if he could hit that landmark before the end of the season. Only three other players have done it in our top league run since the mid eighties - Kirk, Arnott and Coyne.

Maybe but it was still their biggest league defeat of the season.

Forget about their ages or the length of time they have had at the club, both Hammell and Lasley both deserve contracts on merit. If Hutchinson leaves which seems likely re-signing McManus should be a priority. The decision on McFadden will surely come down to money. If he's realistic about his remuneration I'd be happy to see him re-sign but his performances this season haven't been good enough to justify a big bucks contract. I think he still has worth as a player though as he showed today. I'd like to see Kello in goals next season if possible but Hollis hasn't done much wrong and again if he wants to battle for first place I'd be happy to re-sign him. Agree with those that Nielsen, Lawson and McHugh need to move on.

Pretty easy victory today after a ropey opening 10 minutes or so where we hardly had any ball. Some good performances from McFadden and Vigurs who showed great touch and skill. Thought Craig Reid on his first showing looked a decent addition and he worked well with Ainsworth up the right. You can say what you like about Ainsworth's flaws but he doesn't half strike the ball well and it was a cracking goal from him. It was also good to see some of the young chaps getting a chance hopefully it wasn't a one off.

If you look at probably two of the last players to really make the grade from our youth team - Jamie Murphy and Stuart Carswell - I don't think either really burst on to the scene and set the heather on fire. Jamie Murphy took a couple of seasons to bed in and had a lot of substitute appearances at the start of his career and I myself didn't really rate Carswell until the latter half of last season. Now, although he's technically limited, I think he's deservedly held his place in the team at the expense of a more experienced pro. You can't expect young players making the step up to immediately to make the grade, some times it takes time and patience and most importantly the opportunity to get first team experience on a semi regular basis.

Vigurs was at the centre of everything during the spell when we were playing the best football of the campaign. As far as I'm concerned he has a future at Fir Park and we need to get more of the same out of him if we want to have a good end to the season. Two or three weeks ago when I last looked Vigurs had the most assists of any player in the league so if people can't see what he provides to the team they need to look a bit closer. The Lawson signing hasn't worked out and Ainsworth is better going forward, has better delivery and is much more of a goal threat than Humphrey ever was while being much, much worse than Humphrey, and probably every other player in the league, on the defensive side of things. With Ainsworth you takes your chances as they say...

Agree with the first part but disagree with the second part.

I don't really agree with this. A winning team is exactly the environment for young players to be introduced. You don't throw them in when you are in a mire. Aberdeen had four youth products in the side at the weekend, most of whom are regulars - Andrew Considine, Joe Shaughnessy, Peter Pawlett and Nicky Low. Ryan Jack would have almost certainly played if he hadn't been injured to make it five. They have also given game time to Clark Robertson 4+3, Cammy Smith 5+3, Craig Storie 0+1 and Craig Murray 0+2 this season to add four more players to the five who have been regulars and they have a couple of other young players than haven't played this season but have first team experience (Jamie Masson, Declan McManus). We have lost superb opportunities to blood young players over the past couple of seasons and I fear we will count the cost in the future.

I omitted Cummins but deliberately so as he had already played first team football before McCall was appointed. I also removed Meechan and Pollock from the list as they also fell into that category.

Here are the players from our youth system that Stuart McCall has introduced and given league game time to since he arrived at the club. start+sub (goal) {total time on pitch} Stuart Carswell 45+29 Zane Francis-Angol 22+21 (2) Fraser Kerr 14+11 Craig Moore 2+7 (1) Steve Hetherington 1+2 Gary Smith 0+2 {45 minutes total} Ross Stewart 0+1 {injury time} Euan Murray 0+1 {26 minutes total} Jack Leitch 0+1 {injury time} Dale Shirkie 0+1 {10 minutes total} In my view giving significant game time to three youth players in three seasons is not good enough and only one of those players would now consider themselves as a first team choice. The club is posting significant loses and has failed to sell on any players for significant transfer fees for some time. Surely a major reason for this is down to our failure to develop quality youth players? Also, at a time when the club is struggling for money we have to look at the significant amount of money being put into youth development from which we see very little return. Sadly, I feel like our youth system, which has always been very good over the 25 years or so I've been coming to Fir Park, has fallen into a state of stagnation at best and perhaps even complete regression. Stuart McCall as a manager doesn't seem to be willing to give youth a chance and the game time given over to youth products during his tenure has been pitiful. Of course, there is the argument that the players aren't good enough to play for the first team but that simply raises the questions 'Why not?' and 'What's the point of having a youth team then?' This neglect of the youth team under McCall, I believe, will have far reaching consequences unless something is done to address it soon. Years ago a young Celtic supporting Hearts player called James McFadden joined our youth system. Partly because it was less traveling for him, but also because we had a good record of giving young players first team experience and it was attractive for a young talent to come to the club. By attracting McFadden to the club we got one of the best players of the last 30 years, made a million pounds and produced a Scotland international. Today, if there was another young talent like James, would you hand on your heart recommend to him to join Motherwell for the betterment of his career? I think any sensible advice would steer him to Dundee Utd or even Kilmarnock who have taken over our mantle as youth developers. The fewer chances we give to youth, the less likely we are to attract better players, as they will simply join big clubs like Celtic or clubs that provide an opening for youth to get game time. In an age where the only future for a club like ours is to develop our own talent I really feel as if the clubs strategy has become a danger to itself and needs to be addressed.

And if that happens we are depending on young players with hardly any experience and game time. A few weeks ago we were 3-0 up against St. Johnstone at home and who did McCall bring on? Lawson and McFadden. That's when you introduce young players! The same situation happened against Partick Thistle when we were 5-1 with up 25 minutes to go. Bring them into a team high on confidence, that's winning, that has the crowd on it's side and get the young players bedded in that way. You don't wait until you have 9 first team regulars fit and then throw kids in that have no game time or experience into a really tough situation. It really frustrates me.

Said it before the Dundee Utd game but we are running the team into the ground because McCall won't utilise our youth players properly. The team is completely flat, run down and carrying injuries because they get pounded game after game instead of giving a Jack Leitch or a Euan Murray a game here or there when required. Also McCall saying we were aiming to finish Top Six when we had two big games coming up that could put us in 2nd was yet another deflating moment.

Hutchinson has been very poor recently and the full back situation is well known. Also our wide players are dire at getting back to help out the defence, Ainsworth in particular.

Clean sheet? Conceding a single goal wouldn't be that bad given our recent record. In the last four matches we have conceded 3 - 2 - 3 - 3 which has to be a concern if we want to pick up points. Perhaps this is a little unfair on Neilsen because I think some of those goals were not his fault but Twardzik conceded 2 goals in 5 league matches. It's now 5 league matches since Neilsen replaced Twardzik and in that time we have conceded 11 goals. That doesn't make good reading. St. Johnstone have been mediocre recently and the excellent home form they had the last time we were up there has faded a bit. Stevie May has scored 10 of St. Johnstone's last 12 goals and they have failed to score in 8 of the last 12 matches so it seems clear that if you want to get something out of St. Johnstone neutralizing Stevie May will probably do it as they are struggling to get goals from other sources. Defending better will probably be the crucial aspect of this match.

He may come in but I don't think he will come in for either of those two. His strength is he is a utility player than can fill in at various positions. I don't see him as a first choice pick at centre half. Ramsden could move across again when Hutchinson leaves but surely that would only happen if we failed to bring in a more recognized centre half.

Terrible short termism that could really kick us up the arse if guys like Lasley break down from being played when not fit. Sutton just scored.

The bonuses was just unfortunate and we'll just have to put that down to a bit of bad luck. In the long run though we will benefit from the redistribution and we have to take the long view on it over 5, 10 , 15 years. The most worrying thing is the television and sponsorship issue. It may improve in the future as the economy seems to be recovering slightly but I think we are in a bit of a catch 22 position at the moment. We need additional revenue to hold on to players and bring in quality but investors aren't likely to put in cash at the current attendance levels. On the other hand attendance levels aren't going to improve without the investment.

I hope we don't rush him back if he's not ready. I'd be happy to maybe drop points in this game if we had Lasley back fit for the rest of the season rather than rushing him back in and have him break down and do more damage. If he's actually fit though that would be great news.

In their bad run they had 5 out of 7 matches away from home.

One bad punch but that was the only heart in mouth moment. Looked a bit more confident and made a few saves although I'd expect any decent keeper to make them. No chance with any of the goals.

History books also say we have only won 1 of the last 7 league matches Keith Lasley has missed with 5 losses in there (1-1-5). He will be a big, big loss if he doesn't make it as was suggested in the post match comments. Also if we struggled with Kallum Higginbotham and Chris Erskine we are going to have to do a lot better against Gary Mackay-Stevens, Ryan Gauld and Stuart Armstrong. Dundee Utd have only lost 2 games at home this season - to Celtic (1-0, 87th minute goal) and Aberdeen (2-1, 90th minute goal). Obviously no push overs on their own ground.

Andy McLaren used to get pelters which I thought was a bit unfair given his personal problems. No love of Rangers but the 'Richard Gough' chant was a bit OTT as well. Remember Ian Ferguson turning round and firing a cannon ball shot into the East Stand after taking some stick.