Joeboy

McHugh is clearly one which divides opinion. He had a stinker on Saturday, no doubt about it, which he has done a few times this season. I also think he's had several games where he has done his job very effectively, only to come on here and read contrasting opinions. I think it may still be the case that he is a better player in defence (he did play all but one season there before coming to us) and that his technical abilities in the middle of the park are very limited. He is not particularly a great passer of the ball and not very good at carrying the ball in possession, but in terms of winning headers, tackles and moving the ball on simply, he's our best player at doing so whilst on song. Last season, we saw a small glimpse of him in midfield either side of the head injury, but mainly he was used in defence. I think between the fact he played well in defence and the fact that our midfield was largely rotten during this period of time, people built up an opinion in their heads that he was more of a complete central midfielder than he is, with little evidence. I don't think he's a centre mid who oozes class or who will ever make us money in a transfer fee, but I think he is a midfielder who effectively operates at this level, fitting in with our style, most of the time.

I agree it's too early and daft to "rest" players for the final at the moment, but if there are players carrying knocks, that for me is slightly different. In ways I find it actually quite good we're in the bottom six and relatively safe ahead of the final. In 2011, we conceded three to Hearts, four to Celtic and Dundee United and five to Rangers after the split, meaning we entered the final with the back door well and truly open. Hopefully this year, we can manage a few positive results which see us go into the final on a bit better form.

Miller couldn't play for us, even if he was cup-tied. Were we to sign anyone, they would have had to have been a free agent by the end of the January transfer window and lets be honest, anyone who fits that bill isn't going to get sharp enough to make a difference in four weeks.

Great news about the contracts we have managed to tie up. Dunne has a few shaky moments in early parts of the season but he has been a revelation since. I think he is very suited to playing left of a back three, so would be happy to see him continue there. Rose once again had a quietly effective game on Saturday, as he does so often and Grimshaw more than proved anyone who said he shouldn't have started (myself included) wrong. I have said often that Grimshaw was a bit of a pointless signing, as I believe he's an older, yet poorer version of Campbell, but if Rose does want to return to the US, having him as backup for another year may be quite a sensible idea. The only downside of Saturday for me was Ciftci. He came on and looked more tired than the rest of team who had played the previous 75/80 mins or whatever it was. His attempted Zidane turn when he lost the ball and allowed Aberdeen to then get up the park was embarassing, as was his dive and roll about. I'd imagine he'll easily "come to an agreement" with Celtic in the summer and be free to sign for whoever he likes, but I hope we don't make any effort to try and make that us. Main has been a revelation and naturally, there was discussion of "Moult or Main" at Saturday's game. For me, they are different players and in one of those hypothetical situations, I'd have loved to have seen how they combine. I think Main is a better version of Bowman, rather than the same type of player as Moult. Bowman has definitely merited his extra year with his work rate and attitude this season, but I'd like to think next season we'll see him as backup and one of our main aims of the summer will be to sign a striker to play alongside Main.

Aye, cause getting assists from set pieces is of absolutely no value to a team whatsoever. As someone has already mentioned he rounded the keeper to create that empty net, do you think McFadden's goal against Macedonia was rotten as well then? It must take a lot of effort to search for negatives the way you do. Aside from this, Elliott Frear was signed by Mark McGhee to play as a left winger, with a left back behind him. With McGhee lasting little over a month after he signed, since then we've only really seen him play as a left wing-back, but for a couple of exceptions. People are on here judging him as a left winger for the way he plays as a left wing-back. Football doesn't work like that.

I think you are very harsh on your assessment of Elliott Frear. People have very short memories that last season he came in to a side absolutely devoid of creativity and upon coming to the starting eleven against St. Johnstone in March, he started the final ten games, in which we scored 12 goals - he scored or assisted 7 of them. That includes setting up Moult's winner against Accies, and playing a part in all three goals in the game which ultimately kept us up against Killie. Say what you want about Moult, I'm also fairly certain we'd have struggled to stay up without Elliott Frear last season. After starting this season, an injury at an awkward time saw Campbell emerge, Cadden put back out to the wing and Tait switched flanks and its been difficult for him to make his way back in. He was the best player on the park against Partick in December, but then picked up another injury which deprived him of a run in the side when others ahead of him were missing. It's taken until the last three games for him to start three in a row in the league all season. His final ball isn't always amazing, but it does seem to me that he manages to get us in a lot more crossing positions than we do when he's not on the pitch. Has he had a frustrating season where we'd have perhaps liked more output from him? Yes. Is he "of no use whatsoever"? Most definitely not.

He has scored against 7/9 Championship opponents as well as against Aberdeen in the cup. I think you are bending the statistics for your usual negative stance.

Would have taken a point before the game, but the red card incident didn't half make my blood boil, both in Brown's part and Thomson's. Admittedly, I saw Kipre flick his leg at the game and that led me to believe it was a red card, however, it's not till you see how Brown reacted that is totally laughable. If you think back to incident involving him and Neymar, it makes him an absolutely massive hypocrite. I doubt we'll get an appeal if I'm honest, but I'm glad we are putting one in specifically to keep the incident highlighted in the media - especially with Brown being the instigator and going unpunished. As for the game itself, very impressed. I thought McHugh was too lackadaisical in possession and his passing was poor, but it was the first poor game I've seen him have in a while (missed the Accies game) and I'm not a subscriber to the intense stick he gets on here at times. I think there is still a bit of an argument for him being better at centre back than he is at centre midfield and if we want to keep our 3 at the back shape, I guess we might see him play there when Kipre is suspended (assuming he doesn't win his appeal). On one hand, this would allow us a seamless transition to bring Kipre in for McHugh whilst he is banned for the semi. On the flip side to that though, with Rose and Grimshaw currently injured (and no clear idea of how long for) that may mean we rely on Bigirimana to come in, having not played much football. As much as I rate him highly, it would represent a change in style. Campbell, Tait, Main and Carson were the standouts for me, but the main thing to takeaway was with how well drilled and organised we were when we were down to 10 men. Other than Carson, I believe the emphasis on the team is enough that we could get by without just about any of our players, that is encouraging to see. I said on another thread that I didn't think Tait was quite international class, as much as I thought he has been brilliant for us, but performances like yesterday make me think I'm perhaps being a bit harsh. On a side note, I heard one of the most ironic shouts at the football ever as someone behind me roared "You've nae confidence Frear". I actually thought Frear had a good game and as much as there was obvious room for improvement on his final ball, I feel when he plays he always gets us into a lot dangerous positions down the left.

As I said when this thread was posted a year ago, I think rationally Corrigan is the only player in my time supporting Motherwell who hasn't been capped who has deserved to be capped. Had Lasley had his form of 2011/12 at a time when we were giving the likes of Barry Nicholson, Scott Severin and Gareth Williams caps, maybe he'd have deserved a cap but I don't think at that time he deserved to play in front of Fletcher, Brown, Morrison, McArthur etc. As for the current lot, I like Tait and this season he has really impressed me, but I think our system helps cover his defensive deficiencies. A very good player for Motherwell, but international football is perhaps a bridge too far. Was he to get picked for Scotland, I think it would highlight how much of a problem area it is. Given Kilmarnock's good form, I wouldn't be too surprised to see Stephen O'Donnell be in front of Tait, if we were to go down the SPFL Premiership route. On the flipside, I think Cadden's talents are being wasted in our system and a 21 year old who no one is quite sure exactly where to use him doesn't represent the next step to international football just yet. Campbell is a player who I think could go on to be an international, but I think this is too soon. As for Aldred, he has impressed me since he came up, but I think he's at that awkward age where there's no advantage to playing him over Mulgrew, Berra or Martin and potentially more longevity in blooding someone like McKenna, Souttar or Hendry if we're looking at the centre backs of the future.

There used to be a lot of good footage on the NSFW section, but it looks like it has disappeared post-upgrade? Either that or I've lost my privelege I can't remember if that exact game was on right enough.

I'd always rather win ugly, than drop points looking good, but winning ugly is certainly something Robinson is an advocate of. If I had to use any adjective for that performance, it would be "effective". At half time I was lamenting the fact that I had just watched that dross when we had arguably three of our most technically adept players in Bigirimana, Tanner and Frear on the bench. Yet on the face of things, other than the odd bit of poor decision making from Cadden and Ciftci, everyone done what was asked of them in a victory which we looked quite comfortable in by the end. It seemed almost that we deliberately played honkin stuff for the first hour, before the same set of players capably then started to get the ball on the deck and alas, the goals came. Campbell was fantastic all night and it looks like we have found a mutually good fit in Curtis Main. One negative for me was the level of abuse from the shalla end of the East Stand to Cadden when he decided to go alone instead of slipping Campbell in at 2-0 up. You could visibly see his hesitancy and if he is off the boil a bit, giving him the Fagan/Fitzpatrick/Townsley etc treatment won't help him get back on it. I guess we have to accept that for this season, we aren't going to come away from games raving about the football we played, the points we pick up will be from outbattling teams, as is the style of the manager and his preferred players, but I suppose as Bobby Williamson once said, "if you want entertained, go to the cinema".

Carl McHugh was absolutely rotten tonight. Just thought I'd join the trend of deciding how he's played before he's set foot on the pitch.

Missed the game on Saturday, so can't comment on how he played there, but I think saying him playing well is too rare is a bit harsh. He has either scored or assisted a goal on average every 120 minutes so far this season.

One journo on twitter was suggesting their opening bid was £250k (I know it was reported as £200k elsewhere) and we were after three times that. I was even disappointed by that figure. If their opening suggestion was 200-250k, ours should have at least seven figures.

No, that's not what I'm saying, hence why I didn't "say it as it is". Carson, Hartley, Tanner and Kipre have been obvious successes, with the likes of Dunne and Rose also showing they are more than capable of doing a job for us in the team. Early indications on the January 3 are good too. However, the fact that five of his summer signings, I consider deadwood already at halfway point is a slight (but not major) cause for concern. I liked Grimshaw in his first spell and wanted us to sign him permanently then and he is a decent player, but I think come May when he gets released, we may think of him as one of the most pointless signings we've ever made.

I'm not so sure, it's obviously hard to attract a backup keeper based on the fact that a fit Carson definitely plays, but Griffiths has been directly at fault for 3 goals in his 3.5 games so far. Two of them (Partick and Killie) quite costly. I don't think the one against St. Johnstone would have had any effect on the result given the 8 men thing.

Regarding Fisher, I must say I'm torn on whether I'm critical that Robinson punted a guy he gave a two year deal to without ever starting him twice in a row, or pleased he quickly noticed a mistake, held his hands up and rectified it. I can't decide if getting rid of him reflects well on Robinson or not, as much as I don't think keeping him would've made any significant difference to our season. I guess when you sign such a volume of players you can't expect a 100% hit rate, but I don't think I would categorise Griffiths, Plummer, Grimshaw or Petravicius particularly as "hits" either.

Fisher's absence from the bench, when we had no recognised striker on it, last night made me think we've maybe found a taker for him and didn't want to risk an injury. Robinson probably foresaw the need to take Main and Ciftci off at some point and I doubt he'd have been enthusiastic at the prospect of playing Petravicius as our only centre forward at the end of the game.

We have five first team players who are central midfielders by trade - it's the most depth we have in any position - I really don't see why we would want to play someone out of position there. For what it's worth, I think McHugh had his best game for a long time last night.

Robinson's three at the back system can often lend to round pegs in square holes. We aren't on here discussing the necessity of Tait having to add more goals and assists to his game, yet he and Cadden effectively play the same position. One would probably describe themselves a winger and the other a full back, but neither a wing back. I'd say Cadden plays best on the right with a full back behind him, yet he's rarely had the chance to do that under Robinson. It seems we're often suppressing his individual potential in order for him to do the job the team as a whole requires.

I agree that they looked solid enough defensively that day, but there is so much more to being a defender than winning tackles and headers in the modern game. Both of their distribution was rank rotten that day and you'd be lucky if either completed a five yard pass competently. I think them playing as LCB and RCB in a three is more forgiving of this. For what it's worth regarding Heneghan, I wasn't a massive fan the first time around and I thought we were laughing straight to the bank when someone paid £400,000 for him and we got Hartley. Fair enough, he seems a nice guy and an honest player but I always thought he lacked quality and was a bit deficient in most areas. Robinson said he wants cover at right back too and I don't fancy him playing there. On that note, one of his justifications for signing Grimshaw when we were already centre-mid inflated was that he could cover for Tait. He hasn't covered there once and now we're looking for more cover.

Fantastic player and servant, both on and off the park. His appearances record speaks for itself and in my time supporting Motherwell, I can't think of many with a better first touch who were more composed on the ball. One of few players who I would genuinely say deserved more international recognition than he got. On a sidenote, given he was the last of the "old guard" as such, that means that Chris Cadden is both our longest serving player and player with most appearances (94). You must be going back some years for us to have no one in the squad with triple figures worth of appearances for the club.

I've always been sceptical of signing players in positions where they may potentially stifle players coming through. At the start of the season, you'd probably have said the three players most likely to come through were MacLean, Campbell and Livingstone, but yet our three most unnecessary summer signings in my opinion have been Petravicius, Plummer and Grimshaw. Personally, I don't think any of those signings have made any contribution thus far that couldn't have been done by our own youth products. I suppose there is the flip that once upon a time, many thought that Dom Thomas would be an ample replacement for Johnson when he left, yet the more we seen of him, the less likely that looked, making the signing of Frear in January a necessary one. I did think Grimshaw was a decent player the first time around and I would have welcomed him back for a second spell, but only had we not already signed Bigirimana, Rose and Campbell. It shows not only the bloat, but the imbalance of the side, that we are in January with no real idea who Robinson's first choice central midfielders are, but when Hartley or Cadden are missing we're not quite sure what to do. At a point in the season, I looked at our squad and thought the depth/personnel was impressive, but the more we've had to use it, the more my opinion on that has changed. Don't get me wrong, I still think man for man, we are in a far better place than last season, but when you hear that Fisher may be departing six months after he's signed, Griffiths has fallen below an emergency loan keeper in the pecking order and Plummer's sole appearance so far was as the fourth sub in extra time, I'm beginning to credit him less and less for his dealings in the transfer market. Fisher is a strange one. I've not seen anything of him in a Motherwell shirt to make me think he's the replacement for Moult, or even worth of a starting place in a tweaked system after Moult's departure, but questions have to be asked if we are indeed looking to punt a guy six months into a two year deal. Last season he looked like he struggled to make an impact with 10 mins here, 15 mins there but when he was given a run in the side towards the end of the season, he scored six goals in seven games (aye, I know four of them were against our shitey defence). Robinson must have known this, yet hasn't started him two games in a row at any point - even in the league cup games at the start of the season. Whilst talking about games and goals etc, it would be easy to judge Curtis Main on an inflated number from wikipedia which doesn't tell the full story. We all know that a striker is often the guy who is brought on with a few minutes to go to run the clock down and that counts officially towards his appearance count. Looking a bit closer, he has 32 goals in 107 starts over his career, which is just under 1 in 3. Considering that's over several clubs and some of his starts will have been in dribs and drabs, that's reasonable enough. Let's just hope if he is lucky enough to get a consistent run in the team, unlike Fisher, he is able to prove himself.

I'd welcome either of those players to Fir Park on loan in a second. Unfortunately, I think there is absolutely no chance of either happening. Particularly given relations between the clubs of late.

Accies, Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, St. Johnstone (who we got the point against), Ross County and Dundee again. That 0-5 against Accies on New Years Day is one of my most horrid memories supporting Motherwell.