Joeboy

I went for Murphy in the end. Good team performance, but Murphy's touch was superb today and he didn't allow himself to be bullied by the Rangers defence, as we have seen happen before.

Aye it was Ross Wallace, I can remember being on the pitch, right up next to the tunnel and an infuriated Neil Lennon was being told to calm down and go to tee dressing room. Wondered why at the time, but it became clear upon returning to the car when I heard Wallace had been kicked.

I'd love to see Clarkson come back, but I highly doubt it. McCall has said he might still need to cut the budget next season and we already have Higdon, Murphy, Daley, Ojamaa and McHugh signed for next season who can play upfront. The only way I can see Clarky returning is if Murphy departs. I do think he is a stick on for Bristol Rovers though.

It's hard to separate players as said, but Jennings edges it.

Last season Sutton got 17 in 50 games overall, scoring in 34% of his games. He got 10 in 35 in the league, scoring in 29% of his games. This year Higdon has 16 in 38 games overall, scoring in 42% of his games. He has 14 in 34 in the league, scoring in 41% of his games. To add to that I think he offers the team more when he's not scoring than Sutton did. Top signing.

Superb from the big man. Really don't know what his doubters want more from him. Held the ball up top superbly, sixteenth goal of the season. Might be worth noting since Tommy Coyne won the golden boot in 1995, I'm pretty sure only Scott McDonald has score more league goals in a season.

Watched us very regularly this season actually. Not missed a home game and I have been to more away games than I've missed. Judging by your posts on here of late, I wonder what fulfilment you get from watching Motherwell. We are 3rd place in the league, favourites to secure Champions league. This is as good as it gets. If you are really still so downbeat in one of our most successful seasons in recent times, then you'd probably be better finding another hobby that you actually enjoy.

Law has seven and Lasley has five.

How unanimous this poll is so far is testament to how good Humphrey was today.

Motherwell have one of the top three managers in the country, as voted for by their colleagues. Yet on here there is a "Time Running Out For McCall?" thread. Fair enough, though surely we have a right to demand at least one of the top two managers in the country.

This is ridiculous but I think I may have pointed out in this thread before (can't be arsed trolling through 11 pages worth), our fans wanted Tommy McLean sacked so nothing can really surprise you. I really don't know what gives people the right to be so expectant- I'd wager we have a budget smaller than all of the city teams (Celtic, Rangers, Dundee United, Aberdeen, Hibernian and Hearts) so to be where we are is fantastic. The same people who are heavily critical of our defeats to the Old Firm will be the same people who in the past- when we were more competitive against them- were critical of us raising our game to them and not picking up points from the teams around us. Would people rather go back to the times of Malpas? One win in the first eight games of the season? Most of the 'Well fans rated Terry Butcher as a good manager, Stuart McCall stands to surpass what Butcher achieved by the end of this season. Yes, yesterday was disappointing, the result and the nature of the defeat. I'm sure I saw the figure of us having 8% of Celtic's budget- on paper, such a gap should see them beating us everytime. It's actually embarassing how often this and the Michael Higdon thread get bumped. Go and find some perspective or kindly fuck off to the Old Firm with your divine right attitude.

I am not that annoyed at the scoreline- we've had worse than 3-0 against the Old Firm in recent times, I am however infuriated about how we handed victory to Celtic on a plate- we were that bad, they didn't need to be good. Thought Hateley was very poor yesterday and although Jennings done some good ball winning, his distribution was very poor at times, by his standards. The game really seemed to pass Carswell by, but he is an 18 year old lad, there shouldn't be too much pressure on him. But for me, the worst yesterday was Omar Daley by some distance. I can tolerate most things of a Motherwell player, laziness is not one of them. For him to be earning a wage for that pedestrian performance yesterday is horrible. I could probably offer what Daley offered us yesterday, far too lethargic. For a player who is supposedly lightning fast, he very very rarely puts enough effort in to reach top speed. He wouldn't be anywhere near the team for me, possibly for the rest of the season. This isn't the first game I have noticed him being pure lazy. Unfortunately it seems like the stuffing as went out our season at the moment, need to hope it revives against St. Johnstone on Saturday. Will be good to have Jennings and Lasley back beside each other and hopefully a return to two up top. Can see people's point about Murphy, but who do we play him at the expense of? Jennings and Lasley are musts in the team, I wouldn't drop Law and Humphrey seems to be the form player just now. Would we want him playing centre forward? Yesterday we yet again saw Humphrey get across the byline superbly and play a low cross with no one getting on the end of it. Chris Porter would have had a field day playing alongside Humphrey.

Aye, can't say I disagree with underboyleheating, writing this one off. Anything we could get would be a welcome surprise but I can't see it. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the refs will be shiting it to give anything against Celtic, which won't help.

I think the under 20s league could be beneficial to Page. Cummins is too old for under 19s now and it could have been between him and Page to get a first team contract, but now he can play under 20s, they could both stay.

Forbes is a goner, no doubt about it. He has only had one start and one sub appearance (which he was then substituted himself) all season. Great left foot, but can only play in one formation and has very poor pace and fitness. A luxury we neither need nor afford. If Page gets the chop then I think he can consider himself very unlucky. He hasn't looked out of place at all and unselfishly took a second booking to hold onto a point in his last game. Next season so far Saunders and Hutchinson are the only centre backs signed up. To be honest, I don't think we will offer Craigan a new deal and personally I'm still undecided on Clancy. Can spend most of a game looking assured but is very error prone.

Yeah I predict the referee will be more inclined to give Celtic debatable decisions on Sunday after Lennon's outburst yesterday.

His debut was against Dundee on Boxing Day 2000. To add to the goals already mentioned, his right footed effort against Clyde in the cup, that superb run against St. Johnstone Reserves and one of his double against Partick on his last game deserve a mention.

I think on the whole Clancy has been a good signing but he is prone to mistakes and indiscipline. The red card against Celtic was inexcusable, considering we still had injury time to chase an equaliser but we then had to bring on a centre half for a striker due to his pettiness. I must admit that I had turned away briefly on Saturday and missed the headbutt incident so I can't really cast judgement, but if he was willing for us to go down to ten men to nut someone for a mistimed tackle then you have to question his motives. Also, I think the mistakes he make differ from the ones people may have criticised Craigan for making in the past. Clancy's seem to be through ambition, whereas Craigan's were general through trying to be route one. We have seen Clancy head the ball back to the 'keeper on many occasions this season and just about every time he has done so I thought to myself, if that was Craigan it would have been put in row Z for an opposition throw. There have been times when this approach has worked and times where it hasn't. Obviously the Hibs game it cost us a goal but I'm sure there have been many times where we have benefited from retaining the ball when it has worked. When Craigan plays the safety first type of clearance continually, although short term it is a good option, it can cause us to sit deeper and deeper if it is done in quick succession. Considering we got him in as a Kilmarnock fringe player last minute when Saunders got injured, I don't think we can argue with how he has done. I would have liked to have seen Hutchinson and Saunders forge a partnership this season, but I also think missing a year of development may prevent us doing that at least straight away next season.

Can't really add too much to what's already been said. I agree with Shaka that I thought the Aluko incident was neither a penalty nor a dive. I think Iain Brines was guilty of lazy refereeing, thinking Lasley has been in the book a lot recently and Aluko has been done for diving previously, so I'll make the decisions based on that. He made bad decisions either way, but I did notice he appeared to change his mind about two corners without consulting the linesmen which I found bizarre. One criticism I'd have of us on Sunday was the shape in the first half. I don't know if this was upon McCall's instruction, but Law seemed to play most of the first half between Lasley and Jennings, whilst Humphrey played wide right with two centre forwards. I don't know what we were trying to achieve there, especially considering Whittaker scored a goal from an area where you would expect the left midfielder to shut him down.

That is actually what worries me about Saturday's game. Last season, when we played Hearts the week before the semi-final, we left out Hammell, Gunning, Jennings, Lasley, Jeffers, Murphy and Sutton with a very outside chance that we wouldn't be in the top six. Aberdeen have even less to play for on Saturday and if they prioritise the semi-final you couldn't really blame them. I do pray I am wrong and they have a full strength team.

Would be nice if the DJ obliged us with a play of it to get proceedings going, but he would no doubt find a way to mix it with Rod Stewart or something.

Yeah I'd be willing to start Daley instead of Ojamaa tomorrow. Daley and Humphrey have rarely been on the pitch together at the same time and on Saturday there were brief glimpses of them using their pace to combine well. Obviously bring Lasley back in for Carswell, the lad's done nothing wrong, but you play your best players. As pointed out when results have been needed, we have done well this season, but the likes of last weekend going as badly as it possibly could didn't help us. Dundee Utd have beaten Rangers twice this season whilst St. Johnstone have beaten Celtic and drawn with Rangers. After the split we all have them to play twice and you could say they have shown they can take points off the Old Firm, but you could also say it would be unlikely they took any more. Speaking from my head, not my heart, I think this weekend will end up with us five points clear of both St. Johnstone and Dundee United. I think Rangers will beat us, Celtic will beat St. Johnstone and Dundee United will beat Dunfermline.

Just noticed that the ESPN commentator said on twitter that the game will be shown live in America, if that's of any interest to Weeyin, Haggischomper or any other stateside fan.

Just a young pup me, only been going to games since 1997 so I will have a poor list in comparison to most. Only going by players I have seen play for Motherwell. 1. Mitchell Van Der Gaag 2. Brian Martin 3. Tommy Coyne 4. Dougie Arnott 5. Simo Valakari 6. Ged Brannan 7. Don Goodman 8. Lee McCulloch 9. Martyn Corrigan 10. Steven Hammell 11. James McFadden 12. Scott McDonald 13. Keith Lasley 14. Stephen Craigan 15. Ross McCormack 16. Lukas Jutkiewicz 17. Darren Randolph 18. John Ruddy 19. Steve Jennings 20. Chris Porter

Definitely 12. Soccerbase is wrong. 1. Bredablik (A) 2. Aalesunds (A) 3. Aalesunds (H) 4. Hibs (H) 5. Aberdeen (H) 6. St. Mirren (H) 7. Dundee (A) 8. Hibs (H) 9. Aberdeen (A) 10. Dundee Utd (H) 11. Dundee Utd (H) 12. St. Johnstone (Semi)