Ya Bezzer!

Davie Cooper is a Motherwell legend because he was one of the most technically gifted players in WORLD FOOTBALL and he played some of his best years at Motherwell. He also featured in the only Motherwell team to win a major trophy in 60 years. What's more, does anyone believe we would have won the trophy without Coops? He gave confidence and inspired Motherwell to play beyond the level they had been playing before he arrived. Not only that he had a great rapport with the support and when you put all those things you get Motherwell Legend. I think it would be pretty pathetic if the We-Hate-The-OF brigade tried to take that status away just because he was a Rangers fan. Davie Cooper was in the Top 1% of Motherwell Greats and that is why a stand is named after him.

I don't want to sound like someone's grandfather but a lot of younger people have never been through economic hard times and don't really understand what its all about. Already the signs are the one were are entering is going to be much, much worse than the recession in the early 1990's and possibly on the same scale as the one back in the late '70's to early '80's. I was brought up in that period and it was whole different world from the last 25 years or so, I can tell you. Lots of people are going to lose their jobs, people in jobs will have to take pay cuts or freezes and no one is going to be throwing cash around on 'luxury' items and that means football games. Next season I think you can expect to see a vast reduction in season ticket holders all across Scotland. Our priority now should be making sure the club gets through this. Our attendances have already dropped significantly in the last few months despite 'record' season ticket sales, they will continue to dwindle in 2009 and possibly for longer. This is going to effect every football club but I think its pretty obvious that if we get into debt again like we did before then Motherwell FC won't make it this time. Remember the last time we were in this economic climate we went from being a pretty strong side to a team that a few seasons in Division 1 with 2,000 or so fans turning up. It's going to be tough times ahead, so be ready for it and support your team because we are entering uncertain times where anything could happen, including the worst thing of all.

I think £200,000 is a reasonable offer considering anyone can pick him up for nothing in a few months.

Inverness have won 3 times at home in a full calendar year, and two of them were last season so I don't think that is a big surprise. I think most of the supporters want Brewster out now and feel the same way about him as we did about Malpas. Falkirk have struggled this year to. A couple of weeks ago there was nearly 5,000 people at the Raith Rovers/East Fife game in the second division. The modern fan just isn't prepared to follow a club through thick and thin now, they will turn out for derby matches, big games or to watch a successful side but if they are struggling, forget it.

Yeah, I love this fan logic where if a player actually comes out and tells the truth that he's leaving he's public enemy number one, whereas if a player talks a lot of bullshit about maybe signing a new contract and not making his mind up yet (all the while getting their agent to bag a lucrative move behind the scenes) everyone loves them and they 'leave with the fans best wishes'.

From what I saw midweek we've adapted our tactics to make us a bit more solid, sort of a 4-1-3-1-1 with Klimpl and Clarkson on either side of the midfield and Porter upfront. Sutton is the type of forward that needs a partner in my opinion, he's not suited to either the role Porter is currently playing or the one Clarkson fulfils. He's a 4-4-2 player, kind of like a Kris Boyd in that he's not adept at doing all the graft but will play off a partner and find spaces and chances and score goals. He was doing that earlier but then came our bad form and now a tactical change. I think its pretty obvious McGhee has made the decision that we are not going to play in a cavalier fashion anymore and that it's probably going to be one up front from now on. At least until things stabilize and we move away from the bottom.

I think Mehmet is more 'Porter' like than Sutton is in terms of his style of play.

Billy Mehmet would be a decent signing if Porter goes. He's come on strongly in the last couple of seasons, has put in some impressive displays at Fir Park when ever St.Mirren have come visiting and has scored goals for a team that don't score many goals. The thing that would surprise me is that St.Mirren would be willing to let go a player than scores about 50% of their goals.

I think the point is we didn't have any chances! There was one before we scored, the goal and a big punt up the park that the keeper cleared and that was it.

I think most of the trouble in the 80's and 90's was down to Motherwell fans! Easter Road was always a much more intimidating place to go as a visiting fan than Tynecastle. More likely the reason is the long unbeaten run Hearts had against us in the 80's and 90's. If I remember correctly it ran to about 16 games or something like that. Combine that with one of the dirtiest teams you are ever likely to see (Black, Whittaker, MacKay, Kidd etc) and you got a pretty good reason. Perhaps another reason but I think I've seen Motherwell play Hearts under floodlights more than any other team. We always seem to have midweek matches against them or Scottish Cup ties and those types of matches usually are a bit more exciting than afternoon matches on a Saturday.

Didn't think it was a foul. Porter just outmuscled him. Didn't really see it at the game but I think the Zaliuskas hand ball should have been a penalty. Most ball to hand claims are just hot air but to me he puts his palm up to block the ball, there is intent.

I agree. O'Brien worked his socks off last night but we aren't running a sprint team. There was no deliver from him, no incisive passing, no shots on goal, no actual football basically. Klimpl did OK but who was he playing against? Hearts were shocking last night, one of the worst teams I've seen this season or last. They were absolutely toothless and let's be honest about it he wasn't exactly stretched was he? Klimpl was comfortable because he was under no pressure whatsoever. He looked better in the midfield role than as a defender but I'll withhold judgement until he's actually given a test. Klimpl at least did his job because Hearts were restricted to one headed chance and a long range shot but O'Brien? We did nothing offensively last night apart from the goal. I've said it before but its all extremes on this board, everything is either superb or dismal, there is no middle or degrees of that. O'Brien showed effort (which is good) but other than that there wasn't much to write home about in what was overall a poor match.

I think you have to give it to a defender tonight. O'Brien worked his socks off but to what end? There was no product from all his running about. The midfield wasn't great and the forwards didn't get much support. Klimpl did OK but for me he wasn't really in the game much due to Hearts not posing much threat down the middle. I'd give it to Paul Quinn who keep Hearts best player quiet and made a couple of excellent defensive tackles in the second half.

Not the greatest game, I don't think either keeper had a serious save to make in the entire 90 minutes (+4!). We were the better team though and Hearts were pretty woeful to be honest. At least we looked solid and organised which we haven't the last couple of times I'd seen us (didn't managed to get to the Inverness match so I can't talk about that one). Referee was abysmal and didn't do much to help the flow of the match as well as spending a lot of the time with his back to play! Good one ref! Once again Stephen Hughes was a shadow of himself but most of the other players at least gave effort even if the quality wasn't there (especially O'Brien, sweated buckets but no end product whatsoever). 7 points out of 9 is a decent return over the Holiday period though.

A central midfielder that scores 7 or 8 goals a season? At Motherwell? Come on don't be silly! Unless I'm forgetting someone that last midfielder we had like that was Ged Brannan.

He's still there and playing a blinder apparently.

Don't want to seem like a wet blanket but I won't be going up to Fir Park tonight with too many expectations. We can't score and Hearts are pretty good at the back. Where is the goal going to come from? Also too many memories of dismal home performances against Hearts in recent times. That said it's Motherwell and anything can happen. Fingers crossed the form guide goes out the window.

John Fleck is 17 years old. I doubt he'd be starting for many SPL sides even if he is as good as he's hyped up to be and that's still to be proven. I don't think there is really a problem like there was in the 1990's for Scottish young players breaking through. There is very little money about and clubs are not splashing it about willy nilly on the continent but clubs need a first team squad that is fairly experienced and if they can bring in players of a certain level at a certain price then that's what they will do. No manager is going to risk a squad full of inexperienced players no matter how talented they are. Remember what happened to us when we were forced in to doing that? That said most teams will have 3 or 4 U21 Scottish players in their first team squad and that seems a decent balance. The best players break through, other young players just won't be good enough. Take Adam Coakley for example. Scored loads of goals at the lower levels but couldn't make the step up and is now hardly setting the heather on fire in the 2nd Division. Are you really saying if he'd had the opportunity denied to him by someone like Scott McDonald he would have done just as well? It would be better if more young players were exposed to the national top level (i.e 16 team league) but in the current league set up I think managers are doing the best they can and almost all the clubs bring through their own players now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, no stadium relocation in Scottish football history has worked successfully. What's happened to Airdrie? Livingston? St. Johnstone? Would you like a new ground like Falkirk's or Hamilton's? Motherwell supporters need to get real. The land Fir Park is on isn't big enough or worth enough to enable us to move to a good new stadium. The Ricoh Arena mentioned in the article cost £130,000,000 pounds. Even a quarter of that budget would far beyond our wildest dreams. More likely we will be in the same region as St.Mirren who spent £15,000,000 on their new stadium. Sure the Ricoh Arena is much bigger than anything we would need but it still equates to £4,000 spent per seat compared to St.Mirren's £1,875 spent per seat. Going by that formula we would need in the region of £40-50 million to build a comparable stadium to the one in Coventry and that just isn't going to happen. Anything we moved to would be of inferior quality because its all we could afford, unless someone pumped tens of millions of pounds into it. Within a generation, due to modern construction methods we'd probably be back where we started with a shoddy, out of date stadium on our hands. As for all this pie in the sky about having hotel complexes, conference facilities, offices etc, all these things do not guarantee additional revenue streams, they could easily make loses! The facts are there probably isn't a market for a new hotel in this area and there is already huge amounts of office floor space lying empty and unused all across central Scotland. All these shiny new ideas look great on paper but actually no one has ever made it work in this country before. Beware.

Inverness and Falkirk will probably have new managers before long so it could be down to who the respective boards bring in to replace them.

Cos they are trying to get Porter and/or Smith out the door asap?

With one season as an exception the Davies years were mostly dire. He probably had more money to spend than any other Motherwell manager in history and the net result was no success and escape from relegation by the skin of our teeth. It was his first job and I don't doubt he has improved over time, his record in England isn't bad at all, but his time at Motherwell was a waste of time and money. Also worth remembering that Davies was probably the least liked manager in my time as a supporter. Even McLeish and Malpas didn't get the abuse from the East Stand that Davies got in his last couple of seasons.

Hasn't it already been stated by McGhee that unless someone is sold there is no money to bring anyone in?

Typical! Was called away at the last minute and didn't get to the match, first missed home game of the season. Obviously I wasn't at the match but looks like it was no coincidence that Clarkson and Craigan were back today. Hopefully our confidence will have taken a boost from this because as I've said before the biggest difference between 8 or 9 of the teams in this league is squad morale rather than tactics, formations, line ups etc. It really is that tight between being in the Top 6 and struggling at the bottom.

Do you watch the other teams? Take St.Mirren, Billy Mehmet has 8 goals this season, more than any of ours. Andy Dorman and Gary Mason are both good players and they have good solid pros in Hugh Murray, Garry Brady, Jack Ross and Steven Robb. Inverness have Ian Black and Don Cowie who would both walk into our midfield as would Craig Bryson and Taouil at Kilmarnock. Falkirk have Stevie Lovell (again more goals this season than any of our strikers) and midfielders like Burton O'Brien, Scott Arfield, Patrick Cregg etc, as well as Darren Barr in defence. Even Accies have McArthur, McCarthy and Neil in midfield when we are playing guys like McGarry and Fitzpatrick. As for Hughes he's been gash this season and he only played in patches last season. Rapidly becoming on of the most over rated players to ever pull on a Motherwell shirt and you can see why Leicester fans thought he was a waste of space.