Joeboy

Have to echo what's been said above. McCall got his tactics spot on against Celtic before and I think we should set our stall out similarly to both that game and the CIS semi-final. I'd leave Jeffers on the bench to start with, I'm sure he could make an impact from the bench. For me, the big position up for grabs is right back. One bad game doesn't make a bad player, but Saunders was stinkin' at Tynecastle last week and Ross had a similar level of performance on Saturday, so both will need to up their performance. To add to that, if we are playing 4-5-1, Hateley may be needed in midfield. I'd happily play Forbes in a centre midfield three, but I doubt that will be case. I thought he was our best player in the goalless game at Tynecastle and he hasn't seen a minute of football since, despite us having "nothing to play for".

If you had asked me last week after his performance at Tynecastle, I'd have said that I would consider a new deal for Jones, but on Saturday not only did he perform poorly, he didn't seem all that bothered by it. He left Maurice Ross with two men in the lead up to one of their goals, seeing it back on the telly was one of the laziest pieces of play I've seen from a 'Well player.

I obviously won't have a Student Card until the season is underway, does anyone if the club will take my acceptance letter as proof of being a student?

'Flow did say at the time the club were absorbing the VAT increase. I'll be a student by the start of the season so my ticket price will have gone down!

------------------------------------Randolph-------------------------------------- Ross-------------Hutchinson---------------Gunning-----------------Hammell ------------------Hateley----------Jennings------------Lasley-------------------- Jones-----------------------------------------------------------------------Murphy ------------------------------------Sutton----------------------------------------------- Subs: Hollis, Craigan, Forbes, Jeffers, McHugh, Humphrey, Saunders. Would definitely bring Ross in, thought we were far better when he came on on Saturday and he seems to be a shrewd bit of business. Would try three in the middle, the same way we did against Celtic at Fir Park. Another week on the bench I don't think will do Humphrey any harm and Jones deserves another game given how well he played last week. Would also rest Jeffers and Craigan just to keep them fresh!

I'd assume Saunders is definitely out. A scan to find out whether your out for the rest of the season would very rarely tell you that you could play twenty four hours later. Dundee Utd have a lot of pace going forward in Goodwillie, Swanson and Conway and I think that could be a bit much for Crags after ninety minutes last night. I wish Northern Ireland had played him on Friday and not last night instead of the opposite way about. I'd go for: Randolph Hateley Hutchinson Gunning Hammell Humphrey Lasley Jennings Jones Jeffers Sutton Subs: Craigan, Murphy, Hollis, Forbes, Casagolda.

I think the blue kit being an away kit is a far better option, that's if it does materialise. If we were playing in a home kit that wasn't Claret and Amber, even if it was as a one off there would be plenty of opposition to it. As for the debate of what shade of blue we played in originally- I think it's would be enough that we are paying homage to our originial colours being blue without getting bogged down on the shade of it. I think "Petrol" blue is the best shade to incorporate it with Claret and Amber edgings- see underboyleheating's design in the fantasy kit thread. That's an away kit I'd buy long before it became £10 at the end of the season!

To be honest, there aren't many players at Accies I'd even go near. Cerny is by far their best asset, I'd sign him but I'd imagine a team with a slight bigger wage budget i.e Hibs or Aberdeen would get first dibs. Imrie, I'd possibly take. Out of the rest of their squad the only two I even rate at all are Simon Mensing, who I think we've burned our bridges with, not a great loss anyway and Alex Neil, who is a big fish in a small pond and not a player I'd like to see us signing. The rest of their squad are utter dross and painful to watch, even by SPL standards!

Aye, don't fancy him much at centre half! I think it very much depends what formation we go for in games who we will play in Saunders' absence. Jennings has a three match man coming up, so Hateley may be needed in midfield then, especially if we go with a 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation at any point, that would give Page an opportunity at right back. I don't think you can write Page off yet as a fullback, he has only had three starts there (Brechin, Kilmarnock x2) although now he is 21 he will be losing the promising youngster tag soon. Wouldn't play Hammell or Gunning at right back in a month of Sundays! I take it Angelis Charalambous isn't making a slant on the first team any time soon?

If Motherwell had a bigger squad size, then the standard of player would be even worse than what we've got currently. Melvin's list of players he would like to see next season I can agree with mostly, although I can see an extension for Craigan, Hateley will definitely be here next season and I'd quite like to see us keep Page too.

Terrible performance all round yesterday, I think if anything us scoring was the point the game went against us. Poor marking from Craigan for the first goal, Pascali was totally on the wrong side of him, a very soft penalty and madness from Randolph for the third. The entire second half they were taking the piss and that horrid three on one was the only time we came close to threatening. Everything that could have gone wrong did, both on and off the pitch. I thought Forbes being subbed was very harsh, he was by far not our worst player yesterday. Could have made more sense to sub Jennings, given he looked the more likely of the two to get a second yellow, but it would probably have made no difference, given he's got a three match ban now and we would have got humped anyway. One thing I will say is that I think a lot of people on here are being very harsh on Jamie Murphy. The boy is a centre forward, not a left midfielder, not a right midfielder, not anything else. His whole Motherwell career he's been played out of position to accomodate others. Mark McGhee very rarely played him centre forward, Gannon played him centre forward once (in the second half at McDiarmid Park), Craig Brown did the second half of last season and until Blackman signed this season, which has been by far his most productive spell at the club. I think if we played him centre forward for a good run of games, we would definitely see the benefits of it. I just wish at the start of the season Brown would have signed one of Blackman, Casagolda and Gow. I'm sure if we combined the wages Casagolda and Gow were on we could definitely have got a natural left sided midfielder, which you'd think would have seen Murphy continue up front. Murphy's situation has Clarkson written all over it. Unfortunately we aren't in the position to ease young players into the team, if they show any sort of ability they are straight into the team. Any so often we see they burn out and aren't able to produce the same level of performance. See Murphy, Clarkson, Fitzpatrick, Forbes etc.

I'm not so sure. I think there would have been many who would have been toying with going and the club's decision to hold this event would have swayed their decision not to go. Not sure I totally approve of the club discouraging fans from going to the game, especially when it's a split gate, but I suppose that's the TV age for you.

No brainer for me. I'll watch this on the telly and save my money for an away game I wouldn't be able to see 90 minutes of if I didn't go.

Although I don't think he is a world beater by any stretch of the imagination, I am surprised he has been so poor. I never once lauded him as international class, but I did say he was deserving of a call up after the likes of Garry Kenneth were. I think most Motherwell fans regret not accepting the bid from Rangers, granted I'm lead to believe it was £1million with add ons, being around 750k initially. I think that will be the last time for a while we reject a bid of that size. In terms of application, commitment and desire you couldn't fault him at all, but he certainly didn't progress in the manner we wished he had after McGhee's first season. I said before hand that I had no reservations about him going in January as we have more than ample cover at centre back. Hutchinson might not be as quick or experienced as Reynolds, but he certainly looks more of an all round centre half. I think some posters are being slightly harsh on him though, whilst he maybe wasn't the player we all thought he would be, he definitely did us a turn. If he doesn't succeed at Wednesday, it definitely won't be through lack of trying.

I'll have one of them also.

As much as you have to credit the defence aswell, a good keeper breads confidence in the defence. The main difference for me between Randolph and Graeme Smith for example is communication. There seems to be little doubt as to which ball is the centre halves and which is the keepers. I also think the fact we seem to play with two ball winners in front of the defence helps too.

I see, so because Gunning's hopeful punt up the park resulted in a dreadful mistake from the opposition, that puts it in a league above a Craigan hopeful punt up the park? Gees piece.

What a load of guff. Just because we get a clean sheet in one game he missed you think he is surplus to requirements? Take 2008/09 for example, Craigan missed ten games through injury, of which we only won two and drew one. When he returned to the side we went twelve games undefeated in all competitions. Also, last season when he was outed by Gannon, the team began to leak goals, what happened in his return, 9 clean sheets out of 11, only conceding two goals? Throughout Craigan's time at Motherwell, any time he is out of the team for a prolongued period isn't successful and upon his return to the team our form seems to drastically improve. To the uneducated eye he may not seem that important a player but statistics don't lie.

Aye I noticed that. Suprisingly no mention of the recent postponements in Perth or Dundee. Funny that.

Haha she is a minor bobfoc- the way you described her earlier I was expecting a meltit welly face!

I've only been going to games since 96/97 but I still have the following. I remember the amazing feeling you got when you had Ceefax at page "310" between 3pm and 4.50pm and you noticed Motherwell had scored if you weren't at the game. Also, if you weren't at the game you had to listen to the radio religiously between 2 and 3, otherwise you wouldn't know the team until the next day. I remember when you wouldn't get a forward wearing number 2 or a defender wearing number 10 and there was no such thing as number 88, 91, 76 etc etc. I remember when the only centre half that didn't wear black boots was that fud Annoni from the Sellick.

Although he was signed for the future, he's 21 already so if we aren't loaning him I can't imagine he's getting many games.

I understand all the points raised- but the thought of Motherwell in a quarter final and me not being attendance is a bit much for me still. Had the game been a league game, it would have been a no brainer, I would have kept the twenty something quid for an away game I wouldn't be able to see every kick live. This has the potential to be the most important game of our season, Europe looks out the window, relegation seems highly unlikely, mid table mediocrity seems to be where the league campaign is destined for. So if there is one game we should all be eager to attend between now and the end of the season it should be this one.

The big thing I think they could do to improve the club would be to reduce ticket prices to trying and get long lost fans to attend on a regular basis. I'd also look at a number of incentives to encourage people to buy season tickets, albeit this is already underway with the pay monthly option and the bring two children for free incentive in the Cooper.

Had to be one of the back four for me. Craigan had a good game apart from that bad touch that let Zemmama in, Saunders was very impressive apart from his punch as was Hutchinson, but went for Hammell who was productive at either end and as I said in the match thread I'm 99% sure he scored!