Lobey_Dosser

Yeah, certainly a step in the right direction.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/15146426.Richard_Tait_out_for_the_season_as_injury_crisis_threatens_Stephen_Robinson__39_s_bid_for_Motherwell_job/ I suspect we've played him a couple of times when it's been touch and go.

Tait out for the season. Big blow as we don't appear to have adequate backup.

Brian McClair the latest ex-Motherwell player to be quoted by skybet. Personally, I can't see any of the names quoted so far ending up at Fir Park. Hughes, Duffy, Simo etc just seem like non-starters to me while I think if it was a Coyle/Davies style appointment we wouldn't be going through interviews next week. I don't follow English football as closely as I used to but there's bound to be unemployed managers down there with decent experience that have submitted an application.

Real defensive worries by the sounds of it. Often with press conferences one or two players carrying a knock make it but we potentially aren't far away from a back 2 of Ferguson and Chalmers. Meanwhile our two fullbacks are struggling for fitness and the first choice replacement, McMillan, got brought down a notch or two by Craigan midweek.

If Owen Coyle was in the running, I'm not sure we'd be carrying out interviews as he would more than likely be the standout candidate. None of the other names listed are inspiring imo. I'm increasingly warming to the idea of handing Robinson the reigns until the end of the season before appointing a young up and coming manager in the summer.

This is the dilemma we face following McGhee's abrupt demise. In an ideal world there would be a Craig Brown type character lurking to get us to the end of the season, but I'm struggling to think of any names. If the Board have absolute confidence in Robinson, they may task him with ensuring our premiership status while looking towards a more dynamic appointment in the summer.

Not a chance.

Fantastic result, much needed given the recent form of other teams in bottom 6. Missed pen the wee bit of luck we've been lacking.

If Hammell is injured again, he can't be far from calling it a day. Sad to see.

Turned off mixlr when the commentator said he was surprised to see McHugh move to centre half last week, unaware of his career history. Staggering lack of knowledge. From what I could gather, the Boyd goal was inevitable and we were resorting to long ball stuff.

Players are listed in order of number. He'll be at centre half, remains to be seen if it's a back 4 or back 5 with McHugh.

I've no idea what goes on behind the scenes but you can read a lot into various team selections and press conferences. After the 3-0 debacle in Dingwall (mind when 3-0 used to feel like a doing), both Laing and Kennedy came in for heavy criticism and both rarely featured thereafter. Hall was drafted into the team and done incredibly well but on more than one occasion, McGhee's praise for Hall tended to incorporate a dig at Kennedy and Laing. Laing's mental strength was publically questioned by McGhee iirc which led to quite a heavy press conference from Laing before he scored the winner at NDP. Ainsworth's career under McGhee has effectively been over since he was publicly scapegoated at Firhill. We all know Ainsworth isn't particularly consistent but McCall and Baraclough in particular got much more out of him. Laing and Ainsworth are probably two of our most decent earners. With one eye on the budget, I think McGhee quickly decided that they two weren't his cup of tea and the wages could be used better, which he is entitled to do. Unfortunately we couldn't get them off the wage bill and we've ended up with overusing a right winger that has scored 1 league goal all season and been left with a number of defenders that are not as good as Laing or Kennedy.

I presume you didn't hear John Hughes on the radio during the week? He made McGhee sound perfectly balanced.

Laing quite right to get tore into Motherwell. While they were far from perfect, Laing, Kennedy and Ainsworth all appear to have been treated unfairly by McGhee.

So that's 6 of the bottom 7 teams now had a win against the top teams in the last 10 days. Struggling to recall a spell where so many results have went against in such a short space of time. Fail to get a result against Killie and we are in real bother.

Hyppia/Simo dream team.

I hope it is Owen Coyle but part of me thinks we'll be looking for a manager that can work with Robinson and McFadden, in the short term at least. Coyle tends to take Sandy Stewart and John Henry everywhere.

That's 5 of the bottom 7 beat 1 of the top 5 in the last week or so. Further evidence that McGhee talks shite. Hopefully as a team and a support, we can shake off the inferiority complex.

Bookies odds mean next to nothing. I lost a fair whack on Van der Gaag and then profited on McGhee at 33/1. I think the decision to put Robinson in interim charge rules out Craigan for now. I also think Oldham's upturn in form will count against Robinson, My hunch is that we know who we want and a deal could be done shortly.

If we are looking beyond Robinson/Craigan and assuming Coyle is out our reach, I expect us to be interested in the likes of Stubbs. IIRC, he was on our radar a few years ago when we were doing a fair bit of business with Moyes' brother. If we weren't in such a precarious position, I'd be looking seriously at Gary Naysmith.

Pleased to have the inevitable confirmed, the writing has been on the wall since Ibrox and I was surprised to hear so many thinking he would still be in charge this Saturday. Critical few week ahead.

Huge fan of Cadden but he hasn't looked right since picking up an injury against Celtic after a storming 1st half. Despite the assist, his performance at Ibrox was hard to watch. Added to this, he is expected to be the sole attacking outlet from midfield which is an unfair pressure on him. For all his assets he doesn't have the guile to open up organised defences. His game is all about carrying the ball and breaking into space but such space isn't going to appear when you don't have a Marvin occupying multiple defenders. McGhee's main failure this season has been the inability to find a formation that works. The overuse of Cadden on the right, while Ainsworth has been treated like an outcast, has done nobody any favours.

It was mentioned on the Podcast that Jim McMahon is in hospital. Hopefully it's nothing too serious but it may delay the inevitable. Who is vice chairman? Dickie?

Seriously? I can't envisage the Board and Burrows being so out of touch. I'd be amazed if he's at Rugby Park on Saturday.