Ya Bezzer!

We are turning over profit modest profit, doing reasonable well on the park and finishing in the Top Six WILL punching above our weight since the OF, NF and Edinburgh clubs have much bigger budgets than us. There will always be problems and niggles but overall, I think you have to congratulate the players, staff and, yes, even the chairman for running our club in a responsible and, by our standards, successful manner. Now let's beat Killie!

Also Mark Reynolds favourite book is Harry Potter.

Did we play Nancy at the start of the season? The Nancy game was the turning point for him. However before that we dropped 5 points out of 6 entirely down to howlers against Dundee United and Aberdeen and he was far from convincing in other games. Since the penalty save against Nancy he's been better but he's never entirely convinced. Do other Motherwell fans really feel comfortable when any high ball goes into our box? About a third of the time he misses them completely. He's not ironed out the problems in his game which re-occur, perhaps not as frequently as last season but still on a regular basis. Poor command of the box, poor distribution, dealing with crosses and high balls. In the end, he's probably a middle ranking Motherwell goalkeeper, not the worst but certainly not one of the better ones either. I'm not really having a go at the guy other than to say I don't think he's good enough to step up to a higher level than decent SPL side. Look at Craig Gordon, he can't get a game at Sunderland and he's miles ahead of Smith as a goalkeeper.

Motherwell is the highest level a goalkeeper that can't deal with crosses at all, is going to get. He started the season in terrible form but has improved over the course of the season but Graeme Smith is never going to be an international level goalkeeper unless he starts to show ability that he hasn't across his entire career so far. He had a good first season and a terrible second season, this season being middling, so its not like he's shown amazing consistency either. Basically he thinks he's better than he is but you can't blame him for trying to climb the ladder of success but I'd be surprised if it benefits his playing career. In a sense he's had it easy here with no real competition, that won't be the case at a bigger club. However, I will be sorry to see him go if Fraser is the first choice next season. For all his faults he's better than Fraser.

Despite all the stuff in the media about 'unrest' at Hibs and Paatelainen being useless Hibs recent form isn't bad at all. They have only lost two league games in 2009, one away to Celtic. Dundee United are actually the team that are falling away a bit. Four defeats in 2009.

Kilmarnock haven't won since 27th December, 11 league matches ago. They haven't won at home since 15th November, 9 home league matches. However, they have beaten us home and away this season! Last Five League Matches at Rugby Park 18/10/08 (L) Kilmarnock 1 Motherwell 0 24/11/07 (W) Kilmarnock 0 Motherwell 1 (O'Donnell) 23/12/06 (W) Kilmarnock 0 Motherwell 2 (Foran, Paterson) 08/02/06 (L) Kilmarnock 2 Motherwell 0 13/08/05 (L) Kilmarnock 4 Motherwell 1 (Clarkson)

Next couple of games are going to make or break us in terms off finishing fourth. We need to win against Kilmarnock since Aberdeen play Hibs and one or both of them will drop points. Dundee Utd have a tough home match against Celtic the same weekend and Hearts have Rangers so we could gain points on them as well. Then the next game is at home to Aberdeen, if we could beat them, Dundee Utd and Hibernian are playing each other so again one or both will drop points. 6 points in the next two games would probably put us in a really strong position, the question is can we actually get them!

The pitch really is shocking I wanted to see Quinn's comedy miss but I guess I never will now! Looked a stonewall penalty to me for Dundee United and the ref was right next to it! But they stole points off us the last time at Fir Park so maybe that was us getting them back this time.

Clarky isn't just our top scorer this season, outside the OF he's the top scorer in the SPL! I've said it before but Clarkson is now the best player at the club and he should definitely start if he's fit. Sheridan has done OK from what I've seen and I think he is a better player than Sutton in all but one area, putting the ball in the net. For that reason I'd probably play Sutton in front of him. As for playing 'our' youngsters ahead of a loan signing like Sheridan, well its obvious we don't have a big striker coming through the ranks right now.

We've won both games I've missed. Maybe I should stay away all the time!

Oh yes, just what you wanted to hear!

Dundee United aren't exactly re-known for bringing a huge support. Even if they brought a thousand that would leave nearly 4,000 'Well fans which is pretty decent for us these days and.....AND WHO CARES WE'VE SCORED!

More believable than Alan O'Brien providing the assist!

Can't make it today but hopefully I'll miss something worth missing! A draw looks odds on. Dundee United's recent form isn't great but they still don't lose very often and have only lost one out of the last six away matches (at Ibrox). Winning this one would be a massive result, fingers crossed!

Went for Clarkson. I thought Hughes had his best game for a long while, although it was by no means anything like his best from last season. Quinn looked really up for the match but as usual his delivery in attacking areas was poor. O'Brien is probably worth his starting spot at the moment but I'm not entirely convinced yet. He certainly had some good runs and dribbles yesterday but what happens then? Usually not much.

I guessed 5,500 and I was (nearly) right! 'Well fans over estimate the numbers of fans in the East Stand. It doesn't really have a high capacity so even when its resonably full it doesn't contribute massive numbers to the overall attendance.

Surely the 'fact' is that if Hughes hadn't scored we wouldn't have got a replay rather than if he hadn't played. I've been a big critic of Hughes this season but I thought he did well in a strange position yesterday. OK, not everything came off for him and his touch wasn't brilliant but he put in a lot of effort and that's something that's been lacking from him this season. If players show the level of commitment Hughes did yesterday then I'm happy. As for Fitzy, he had a nightmare and I think generally the crowd was responding to that. I know some people don't rate him at all but I think they are in the minority. If Fitzy plays better he's not going to get that level of abuse and sure, the crowd has its favourites (like as has been pointed out Klimpl and Lasley was just as bad if not worse than Fitzy yesterday) but I've never heard even our supporters yell down a player that puts in good displays week in, week out. Blame lies on both sides on this issue I'd say.

He's scored 4 goals in 6 starts in the SPL this season but he's from Celtic and has an Irish name so, you know the usual nonsense from certain sections of the 'Well support.

Yeah, I'm sure O'Brien is in a different class from a guy that played Premiership and International football.

I don't really rate Teale either at international level but we are playing a good deal below that most weeks! And his record at Fir Park is pretty good as I remember!

I bet Clyde would be fairly easy to deal with for Pat Clarke. Worth a gamble?

Obviously height restrictions are no longer applied!

Well I'm sure the OF money will have been budgeted for and I also believe we HAVE to sell a player in order to break even most years. As for the Paterson, McDonald money that will be long gone, used to extend contracts, pay the likes of Hughes, Malcolm, Hammell and give McGhee his pay rise. We've also had the pitch to pay for. Our crowds are also down this year which means less in from gate money, programme, merchandise and food sales. Fans don't realize who much money it takes just to keep a club like Motherwell afloat and reasonably competitive. I'm sure there isn't a hoard of gold being sat on.

Apparently it will be Aberdeen that gets the place.

You are comparing a player with years and years of good service to the club with a player that has played about 8 games who you can guarantee won't be here in 2 or 3 years time. Klimpl and Lasley don't even play in the same position in case you haven't noticed. When did Lasley every sit in front of the back four as a screen? £275,000 is a lot of money for a player like Lasley but we'd probably have to spend most of it again to get in a replacement.