Ya Bezzer!

Here's my stat sheet for the 2006-2007 with most things you could possibly want to know (dates, matches, squad, squad numbers, line ups, goalscorers, results, league positions, bookings, red cards etc, etc) so you re-live the horror of that season in Excel form. http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0d21edf...83e1a53a15c55e2

People have selective memories about that season. We put in some great performances sure enough, but by the second half of the season the team had just about given up the ghost. I remember a Sunday afternoon match at Firhill against Partick that is probably the worst Motherwell performance I've ever seen....

....but he's the best player we've got! Clarkson is the best player in our squad right now and actually one of the better players in the league, as his international place and the goal scoring lists show. You take Clarkson and Hammell out of this present day Motherwell side and you could just put "Motherwell 0" on every result.

But actually won fewer games, gained fewer points, played poorer football and never seriously challenged Rangers for the Championship (unlike the previous season when we could and possibly SHOULD have won it). Any grudge I had against McLeish went when he left after that he was someone elses problem but his time at the club was absolutely awful, there's no debate about that. Still, if I remember correctly his last game in charge was a 6-2 victory over Hibs!

I've checked it out. 298 is the correct total. I had league totals of 37+1, 37+1, 37 instead of 37+1, 37, 37 for seasons 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-4 on my spreadsheet. Just a typing error on my part so you can put off buying the cake for another week!

I've been saying this for a long time. That's not to say we shouldn't aim for better or celebrate finishing 8th like its a major achievement. But over all it's hardly a disaster. I've said this before but a lot of 'younger' fans of Motherwell have had an easy ride lately. In the last ten years or so we've got to numerous semi finals and a League Cup final, qualified for Europe, finished 3rd, made the Top Six or just missed out most seasons and we've produced a long line of good and in some cases brilliant young players. Contrast to back when I started supporting Motherwell we were fucking rank! We hadn't made a final in about 40 years! Never qualifed for Europe EVER! You went home happy if we scored a goal never mind all this Europe stuff! I was five seasons of regular attendance before I saw us even finish in the top half (6th from 12) and that was considered amazing! We've had a relatively 'golden' period since administration with only two troublesome seasons but I'm sure a lot of fans will remember when almost every season was a battle against relegation. I guess peoples expectations match their experience as fans. Lately, all things considered, we've had it pretty good.

If we don't pull up their socks we aren't even going to finish 7th. McGhee keeps going on about our great recent form but its five without a win now and three defeats on the trot. I'm happy for McGhee to have a third season in charge but some of his recent decisions, tactics and selections have been baffling.

Great record hopefully he makes 500! Incidentally I have Stevie Hammell on 299 (265 league, 16 league cup, 16 Scottish cup, 2 Euro) appearances in all competitions, so next week should he see his 300th.

It's not really a goal scorer we need. Clarkson, Sutton and Porter all scored goals and are right there at the top of the SPL goalscoring charts. The big problem is no one else in the squad scores goals. We get nothing from the midfield or the defence in terms of goalscoring (Big Boab is the top scorer excluding the forwards with 3 goals). What we really need is midfielders chipping in with 4 or 5 goals and defenders getting 1, 2 or 3 per season. Instead we got Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell, Lasley, McGarry and McLean on 0 goals this season in 129 combined starts! Then we have Quinn, Hughes, Fitzpatrick, O'Brien, Murphy, Klimpl and Sheridan with 1 goal each in 117 combinded starts! So basically our squad, excluding the three main forwards and Bob Malcolm have contributed 7 goals from 246 starts or ONE GOAL EVERY 35 APPEARANCES. There is the problem and it's a much bigger one than just bringing in a new striker.

The Motherwell programme has certainly improved a lot but it is far too expensive at £2.50 (if I remember correctly) to actually buy! I usually do buy the fanzines, if only as an act of 'fan solidarity'. They suffer from the same problem the newspapers do, i.e, in the age of the internet how do you make something interesting that's already been discussed to death long before your print deadline. Also, a negativity has seeped into the fanzines which I don't think was there in yesteryear. It used to be these fanzines were always a pamphlet of defiance, sort of "we support a crappy team and we take all the highs and lows and still support the team and love the game, no matter what". Now they just seem to be a list of gripes. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one of the happy clappers. People are entitled to criticise the club or the players or the performances, I know I do, but I think the love of the game and club has been pushed aside somewhat. After all no one goes to Fir Park with a gun in their back, we go because for some strange reason beyond logic, we love the whole thing and I think that's been forgotten lately.

There is a big difference between these two players. Look at Barrowman's record, he'd done nothing in his career, had one good season and got his move. Dobbie, on the other hand, has scored consistantly over three or four seasons now. In fact Dobbie has almost as many goals this season as Barrowman has scored in his entire career! Even if Dobbie didn't work out he wouldn't be any worse than Grabban, Sheridan, Elliott, Grehan as a forward option. I think he would be worth the risk. Even if we got 6 or 7 goals out of a third choice striker that would make a big difference over a season.

Bob Malcolm?

But really Hughes doesn't create that much. He just looks good on the ball and then the ball, ultimately goes out wide. You don't need Hughes level of technical ability to do that. It's not as if he does what Colin Cameron or Paul Hartlety used to do at Hearts. I think this idea of the 'creative' midfielder is just about obsolete in this era of football. Most teams defend with 9 or 10 players behind the ball, there is no space for the creative midfielder and its almost impossible to pass through the middle of a defending team without world class players. What you need now at this level is someone like Dorman at St.Mirren. He's not as techincally complete a player as Hughes but he runs beyond the strikers, has an eye for goal and strikes the ball brilliantly. Hughes doesn't do any of those things. Modern football is about running and Hughes doesn't want to do that, he wants to stand in midfield and spray passes about but that style of play is becoming less and less effective.

I think Hughes has improved in the later half of the season after a poor start and I gave him my MotM in the last game. HOWEVER, I'd probably still let him go. I just don't think, if he really is on the kind of wages we hear he is, he gives us enough bang for the bucks. He's a bit of luxury player, our Barry Ferguson if you like. Nobody is doubting his talent but he just doesn't live up to his potential enough and like Ferguson doesn't seem to have the defence splitting pass or goal scoring ability you are looking for from a modern midfielder. He is good on the ball but then what? I wouldn't be gutted if he was still with us next season but I do think we could get more for our money and finances are going to be a major factor next season. If we can get in two hard working midfielders, who will battle hard, score the odd goal and perform consistantly, even if they don't have the same technical ability, in for the same wages as Hughes is currently on that that seems the best course of action.

I don't think we can afford to let anyone go as we can't now afford to bring many quality players in. What we will see is all the top earners going:- Porter (already gone of course), Malcolm, Hughes. Smith looks almost certain to go. Obviously the loan deals will also leave:- Krysiak, Sheridan, Klimpl (who may or may not return). Not certain but don't be surprised if we HAVE to make a transfer sale, probably Reynolds or Clarkson. That leaves us with about 15-16 players and possible less if we have to sell one or two. With reduced financial resources we are going to have to bring in at least 4 players (excluding Fraser who is already confirmed). GK - Fraser DF - Quinn, Craigan, McLean, Reynolds (?), Hammell MF - O'Brien, McGarry, Lasley, Fitzpatrick, D. Smith FW - Clarkson (?), Sutton, Murphy Not much of a squad! We'll definitely need a new goalkeeper and a striker. Midfield looks the weakest area mostly composed of fringe players so we'll have to bring in at least two midfielders (possibly Klimpl returning and a replacement for Hughes).

Porter played all through our terrible run over November/December (it was Clarkson and Craigan who we really missed since we immediately picked up again and went on a long unbeaten run as soon as they came back). This idea that Porter was some kind of one man solution to all our woes is a lot of nonsense. Is he a better player than Sutton - yes. Was our season 'over' as soon as we sold him - no.

Clarkson has scored in 5 matches since Porter left Motherwell, Porter scored in 6 matches all season. Clarkson has scored in 9 matches overall this season. Clarkson has 10 goals this season to Porters 9 with only a few more games played. Considering Clarkson has often been played wide or behind the strikers it's a comparable record. The only Scot to score more SPL goals than Clarkson this season is Kris Boyd.

Off the top of my head you could add in Dominic Shimmin (defender, Morton) and Nicky Phinn (Dunfermline, goalscoring midfielder).

Seriously.... 9 goals from 25 starts really shows a lack of goalscoring ability doesn't it? Forget the facts that he's one of the top scorers in the SPL this season and he's often played wide this season. i.e not in a traditional striker role. As I've said before without Hammell and Clarkson we'd be another relegation candidate struggling to get any goals whatsoever. If you want Motherwell to improve maybe we could concentrate on actually getting some good delivery from BOTH flanks. When did Motherwell last trouble a side down our right side? O'Brien put in one good cross and McLean barely crosses the half way line. By only have one 'potent' flank you make it so much easier for the defending team to keep a clean sheet.

Last season we had a settled side and settled tactics. This season we've not, hence poorer performance. Even so, McGhee has been guilty of tinkering when he didn't need to this season and he's no good once the game kicks off. He's shown himself to be completely unwilling to make early changes when it was obvious they had to be made. He's substitutions have also been quite baffling. McGhee needs to up his performance and improve and learn lessons but realisticly he's still a better manager than 90% of the candidates the club would attract.

We were pish today but get some perspective. We will finish 7th out of 12 and every team above us has a budget at least twice the size that we do.

I have two Saturday exams so I may miss a couple of games depending on the fixture list. I'll go to any match I can though. When I watch 'Well I just want them to win the match. People shouldn't be looking at whether we are the Top Six or not. Meaningless? Any match has meaning if you give it meaning and I certainly want us to win our remaining matches just as much as I did back in September or October. Basically a lot of fans are just tossing in the towel. Great attitude.

So our whole season so far led up to today and what did we get. Garbage performance, garbage attendance, garbage pitch, garbage tactics, garbage attitude, just garbage basically. McGhee in particular really needs to take a good look at himself tonight. Make a decision on McLean and Quinn for god sake! DON'T shift the whole team run to accommodate both of them. What exactly was he doing? The whole shape of the team was WRONG from kick off and everyone could see it wasn't working by about 55 - 60 minutes and that's being generous. What happens next then? Nothing of course. As usual, when we are desperate for a chance nothing happened and then when it did come, far too late, it was the wrong changes - just like the last home game! It was obvious for the start the players weren't comfortable and many of them were out of position. Why, for instance, was Clarkson the most forward player almost all the time with Sutton playing behind him and not able to make up the ground when Clarkson was looking for someone to play it to? Just not good enough. Smith - 6 - Good stop in the first half but didn't look too clever at the opening goal McLean - 6 - A centre back playing at right back, i.e proved nothing going forward Craigan - 5 - First game back - and boy did it show! Reynolds - 6 - Performance deteriorated along with the teams Quinn - 6 - Did OK in unfamiliar position O'Brien - 5 - Put in one good ball all day, lots of effort but his crossing was poor Klimpl - 7 - Bit clumsy at times but bossed midfield Hughes - 7 - Probably our best player today. MotM Hammell - 6 - Hammell and Clarkson are our only reall offensive threat. Sutton - 5 - Slow and apparently played out of position Clarkson - 6 - Tried hard but was isolated most of the time Murphy - 1 - Hasn't kicked a ball since October Sheridan - 1 - The new Elliot?

My nerves are fine, its my bowels I'm worried about.

I've heard we were at least looking at him from Clyde fans. Good record for a poor side but I've never seen him play myself.