Ya Bezzer!

Nicky Law had a good game but he missed too many chances and of course the penalty at the end. Lasley did well, as did Daley when he came on. But I'd give it to Darren Randolph. Maybe three or four crucial saves in the second half.

Mark Brown's revenge! A mixed report card tonight. The energy and effort was much, much better tonight and I think that was the thing that was most disappointing on Saturday. You certainly can't blame the players for a lack of effort. However we still look pretty shaky at the back, still look a bit rattled and lacking some confidence and we are making far too many basic errors. It was an entertaining match with lots of chances, Randolph saved us on numerous occasions, at the other end we squandered so many chances it was untrue. Law in particular let two excellent chances go that would probably have won it for us. And of course the goal that was chopped off in the final few minutes was debatable. I don't know if it was offside but it certainly wasn't obvious to me. I think we have real problems in the centre of the park by which I mean central defence and midfield. We are far too open and teams are cutting through the middle of the formation far too often. Clancy is very much an amateur in central defence, Craigan had a bit of a nightmare and has no pace whatsoever, Jennings looks absolutely lost these days which only left Lasley who had a good game tonight. But when you are playing a 2-2 (2 central defenders, 2 central midfielders) in the middle and 3 of them are not at the races you've got a big problem. I think we really need to reorganize in that area of the park. Strictly speaking we played a 4-5-1 and Law was playing in the middle but he was going forward most of the time and was nowhere when the opposition attacked so really, defensively, the five in midfield wasn't giving us an extra man. If we are going to play with 5 in midfield we need a sitter behind the two in central midfielders rather than one in front. There was also some bizarre goings on in the first half when Stevie Hammell was coming inside almost into the middle of the park and that lead to Hibs first goal, when Wotherspoon had all the room in the world down our left (due to Law not covering the gap), Craigan was pulled out of position into the gap and we were left with one defender in the box to defend the cross. I don't know if he was under instructions to go there but he seemed to do it quite a bit and it seemed out of the ordinary for Hammell to take up position there. Finally Omar Daley looks a better option down the right than Humphrey. Not only was he going to the byline he was also tracking back really well and on a couple of occasions made really good defensive runs. Disappointed to lose, but it was an improvement on Saturday and it was certainly exciting and worth the £15 but we need to get out of this rut of losing games and conceding goals.

One that sticks out was a James McFadden effort against Dundee. Pretty sure it was a midweek match. It was at the time when Dundee had a bunch of rather grizzled Argentinian and Italian defenders. Faddy got the ball down by the right hand corner flag, brought it out the corner, skinned the left back, ran across the 18 yard line weaving between two centre halves and then curled one into the top corner! There was just something great about seeing a young kid do that to experienced Serie A defenders.

Even though we were atrocious on Saturday I expect us to win this one. McCall is taking a bit of a gamble naming the same team as on Saturday but I hope it works out for him, and all of us, and we get a reaction for the guys that let us down so badly a couple of days ago. I'm not sure we'll keep a clean sheet with our under strength defence (O'Connor is going to be a big danger tonight) but even though we've not been scoring lately I still think we can get two or three tonight. If you breach the Hibs defence once they tend to give away more than one goal - although you can say the same thing about us! I still believe though that we are a better team than Hibs and losing tonight would be a bit of a moral blow.

I know its been a bad weekend but if you can't see us scoring against that Hibs defence...

I think its very unfair to single out strikers after yesterdays display. Our Strikers didn't play well but they need supply and they didn't get any yesterday. You just have to say it was a very poor team performance with no one even looking average. Funnily enough I think the only serious save of the match that Enckelman had was from Higdon.

Gannon and McCall are at opposite ends of the scale. Gannon changed things unnecessarily when it was going well and there was no need to. McCall doesn't change things when things are going shite and its obvious there is a need to.

Agree Forbes should get his chance. Has done really well when given the nod this season and as has been said Jennings has been really a shadow of what he can be so far. Humphrey needs a spell on the bench as well. Either Daley or Lawless should come in. Lawless is another player I think should be playing a bigger part. Like Forbes he's done really well when given a chance but McCall has been loyal to others and not even brought him off the bench in league games. I think that loyalty needs to end after todays performance, if only to make it clear to players that coasting isn't an option. I don't think Clancy was any worse than anyone else today but it has to be remembered he isn't a centre back. Give Page a chance there, Clancy can go to his natural position and Hateley becomes an option in midfield, either wide right or in the middle.

I think we do have players who's heart is with the club but today was one of those days when nothing went right from start to finish. There was just something wrong with the whole build up to and the atmosphere around the game. I think fans as well as players were guilty of thinking this was going to be an easy 3 points despite the fact that as I and others pointed out St. Johnstone's away form is pretty good over an extended period. At this stage you just have to write it off as a one off and hope we take on board some lessons from it. However if we play like we did in the next two games then obviously it's more of a problem.

No one really deserves it but Nicky Law was the least worst.

One of the problems, and I've mentioned this before is our wide players, especially down the right hand side don't get to the by line. Instead we either hit crosses from the 18 yard line or play triangles and either try to cut inside by dribbling into the box or move it back into midfield again. A wide player has to hit the by line and then cross to be effective, especially when like St. Johnstone today, the opposition is playing with two fours really compact in front of the goal, there is no space to cut inside, you aren't going to through the middle of them and crossing from 18 yards or so makes it much easier to defend. You have to give your own players a chance of winning it by having the ball crossed out towards the players moving forward instead of straight on to the defending players.

Where do you start after a performance like that? You could spend all weekend typing. From the management team to the goalkeeper to the rest of the team from back to front it was absolutely woeful. Not a single player out there with perhaps the exception of Nicky Law gave it more than 65% at any point in that match. Stuart McCall. It's not good enough to have a Plan A and then cross your fingers. If it's not working you have to make changes, you have to switch things. It was obvious changes had to be made today AT HALF TIME and nothing happened until the 72nd minute! Darren Randolph. Brilliant last season. This season he is rapidly going backwards. Came out and missed a cross under no pressure whatsoever. Did it again the second half and then the third goal was poor from him as well. I'm not saying he is at the liability stage but it is worrying to see him doing things you would never have dreamed of him doing last season. It started with Leeds Utd and it's been creeping into his game ever since. The rest. Sloppy in defence, the midfield was BLOWN AWAY by St. Johnstone's second string midfield. Did Steve Jennings sign a new contract or what? Shocking display. I'd drop him for next week. He looks like he'd rather have moved on during the close season. Kevin Moon and Jamie Adams ran all over the top of us in midfield. Up front nothing but to be fair its hard for strikers to do it on their own if the rest of the team is rank rotten. That said we had one shot on target today as far as I can remember that required a save. We were just timid, lethargic, under performed in every criteria you could imagine. The midfield needs to be revamped for next week. Humphrey, Jennings, even Lasley - not good enough. Let's be honest about this - our points tally this season has flattered us a bit. We were lucky to get a point at Kilmarnock, we were lucky to get three points at St. Mirren. We probably deserved the win against Hearts but Hearts were terrible and we didn't exactly set the heather on fire in that game. I think too many people, including some of the players, think we are better than we are because we've had some breaks this season. Time for a kick up the arse, I'm afraid.

I think if Rangers are forced into administration, and that is not something I'd bet on, they would time it so they would be able to get out of administration before the Euro deadline. The potential cash bonanza from Champions League is so large that missing out on it could negate the benefit of going into administration in the first place so I reckon Rangers would pull out every stop to make sure that Champions League qualification wasn't effected. As for us, we shouldn't go into debt ever again and as far as I know we have nowhere to borrow the money anyway since the banks won't lend to football clubs anymore.

St. Johnstone Away form 09.04.11 Dundee Utd L 1-2 30.04.11 Hibs W 2-1 07.05.11 Aberdeen W 2-0 14.05.11 St.Mirren D 0-0 23.07.11 Aberdeen D 0-0 21.06.11 Celtic W 1-0 10.07.11 St.Mirren D 0-0 So undefeated in 6 away matches, not conceded an away goal in 5 matches (or 517 minutes to be precise). Will be a tough nut to crack but I fancy a debut goal for Omar Daley and a 1-0 win. If we can do better great but I just want the 3 points.

Seems amazing that we've only played St. Johnstone once at Fir Park since Jim Gannon got his jotters! Since I missed the last match (the 4-0 win) this will be the first time I've seen them at Fir Park since that fateful day back in 2009.

We'll need to keep an eye on Sandaza especially with an under strength defense. Good player and if we'd got him I'd have thought it was a bit of a coup. Then there is Ciaran Sheridan who hasn't scored in 6 games and who I didn't rate at all and therefore is probably a stick on to score on his return!

Bad news and hopefully it's not as serious as they think and he won't be out for long. However, without wanting to tempt fate, if ever there was a series of games where you thought we could maybe get by without him, then it's probably the ones coming up.

I realise that but the reason the post was so long was to show that we weren't losing these matches as heavily under any other recent manager. Your second point is valid and I'd probably agree with you on it but I still don't like to see us capitulating in these matches, especially when its happening over and over again under the same guys watch.

First of all I want to say that I think Stuart McCall has done an excellent job overall and the following post is not a criticism of his tenure in general but I do think there is a specific problem as regarding his results against the Old Firm. These results have just not been good enough and I think it is worthwhile raising the topic. McCall seems to be a manager that is keeps an eye on what the supporters are saying and I certainly hope that he pays attention to this problem. Let's take a look at his record. Stuart McCall Rangers 0-6 Celtic 2-0 Rangers 0-5 Celtic 0-4 Rangers 1-2 Celtic 0-3 Rangers 0-3 Celtic 0-4 P8 W1 D0 L7 F3 A27 GD -23 PTS 3 (24) 12.5% of AVAILABLE POINTS GOALS 9 OF for 1 MOT In eight matches against the old firm we have won one and lost seven. This for me is not really an acceptable overall record on it's own, you'd expect a draw or two in there, but what really stands out is the level of defeat. Of course I fully accept that once in a while the Old Firm will run riot against us and run up a score, that's football and it happens. But look at these results. 0-6, 0-5, 0-3, 0-4, 0-4 etc. In fact in McCall's charge the Old Firm have score NINE goals to every goal we have scored. That is really an alarming statistic when you consider that the Old Firm don't often win by huge margins any more and in fact both Ranger's and Celtic's biggest wins (in Celtic's case jointly with Dundee Utd) this season have come against us. As the currently third placed team in the league that seems to be an anomaly and not something that you'd expect. Let's take a look at previous recent managers records. Craig Brown Rangers 1-4 Celtic 0-1 Rangers 3-3 Celtic 0-4 Rangers 1-1 Celtic 1-2 P6 W0 D2 L4 F6 A15 GD -9 PTS 2 (18) 11.1% of AVAILABLE POINTS GOALS 2.5 OF for MOT Craig Brown didn't get a win, unlike McCall, but in 6 matches he got 2 positive results including a draw away at Ibrox. There were a couple of heavy defeats (as I've said this is something we have to expect) but also a couple of quite closely run games against Celtic. Compare the goal ratio with McCall's. Under Brown the Old Firm scored two and a half goals to every goal we scored, against nine goals to every goal we scored under McCall. A massive difference. All though McCall actually has a slightly percentage of points per game tally due to the win against Celtic, I'd suggest Brown actually had a better record against the Old Firm in term of performances. Jim Gannon Rangers 0-0 Celtic 0-0 Rangers 1-6 Celtic 2-3 P4 W0 D2 L2 F3 A9 GD -6 PTS 2 (12) 16.6% of AVAILABLE POINTS GOALS 3 OF for MOT Only played four matches against the Old Firm and managed 2 draws in those matches, both 0-0 draws. If not for a missed penalty it would have been even better. Gannon had the best record against the Old Firm with 16.6% of the available points from those games and the goal ratio was slightly higher than average 3 goals to the Old Firm to every one we score. Gannon's record is likely skewed due to the limited number of matches he played against the Old Firm but overall he had the best record and we only had one drubbing out of four. Mark McGhee Rangers 1-2 Celtic 2-4 Rangers 0-0 Celtic 0-2 Rangers 1-3 Celtic 1-1 Rangers 1-1 Celtic 0-3 Rangers 1-3 Celtic 1-0 Rangers 1-1 Celtic 1-4 Rangers 0-1 Celtic 1-2 Rangers 1-2 P15 W1 D4 L10 F12 A29 GD -17 PTS 7 (45) 15.5% of AVAILABLE POINTS GOALS 2.416 OF for MOT He was in charge of more Old Firm matches than any previous manager but in his time he managed to get five positive results, about one result in three, and had the second best percentage of points after Gannon, considering he had so many more matches than Gannon it's actually more impressive. Again the goal ratio was within the accepted range of between 2 - 3, at 2.416 and there were several close run matches 1-2, 0-1 etc. So we can see that every manager of Motherwell in the same number of matches, or in some cases less, than Stuart McCall had at least two positive results against the Old Firm, against his one. Not great, but not a huge difference and only one potential match away from drawing level with. What really concerns me is the scale of the defeats. NINE OF goals to every Motherwell goal! That is simple not precedented in recent history. The next worst, Gannon's record, is THREE goals to every Motherwell goal. The scale of defeats we have been suffering under McCall simply do not stand up against our recent historical record and I don't think its good enough simply to shrug these results off and move on the next game. First of all these are potential points on the board and they should not be given up as easily as they have done under McCall. Secondly, Motherwell fans are paying to watch these matches and when fans are putting up the cash they deserve better than a virtual guarantee of a drubbing. I really think McCall needs to start looking at these games a bit harder and he has to come up with a corrective philosophy so that this dismal run of results can be stemmed. I like to think of myself as being a realistic supporter and I certainly don't expect Motherwell to start roasting the OF regularly but these games, most of the time should have been harder fought. Something has to change, whether its tactics, mentality going into the game, organisation, whatever it is, but results need to get better. Over to you McCall.

Yeah, Brown didn't seem to rate Sutton very highly, played Gow ahead of him when he could. Even when he played Sutton it was often as a midfielder!

The way they were talking Devlin needed a season or two to develop into a first team player. This will set that development back. Could be worse though, at least he should be back before the end of the season.

He'll be frozen out as long as Hearts are winning, scoring goals and don't have any injuries, i.e, he'll get his chance soon. Hearts haven't won any of their last 12 away matches so we'll see how they get on on Saturday.

So Chick Young says he's going to Wolves. It is Chick, mind!

The most consistent players over the month have been Nicky Law and Stevie Hammell. Went for Nicky Law in the end since he played, and scored v Clyde.

The window is a good thing for the smaller clubs like us. We know Murphy, Randolph etc are going no where until at least January.