star sail

Thanks. Gave me a chance to practice.

So it was. Tried to quote Rickoza there too. How do you double quote?

Delighted for Franny but did Casagolda not score in his debut against Killie?

Me too. It feels great!!

Did someone say it would be a ghost town on here today because there would be nothing to moan about. 21 pages is not a ghost town Give the fans something to be positive about and the will be positive!!

Brown sounding like Mark McGhee. Wonder if he will lament the loss of Lee Miller. McGhee loved that old chestnut!!

Have not felt so good about a result in a long time!!! My love affair with the Well is re-ignited!!!!

YYYYYYeeeeeeeessssssssssss!!! Superb!!!!!!!

Sounds like we are going to have to play it cool. Aberdeen players obviously trying to draw us into another couple of bookings. C'mon Motherwell!!!

This might be a subtle difference but the misunderstanding seems to be that people think this is an overreaction to a heavy defeat against Rangers, it's not. It's a reaction to a mediocre (at best) management appointment, a lack of investment in the team, a stadium that is falling to bits, a mediocre Assistant Manager appointment etc culminating in a heavy defeat against Rangers. I think that 1 out of 6 points in the next two games is the form horse. I am very confident of an Aberdeen win tonight and think that St Mirren are a bit more up for the fight than our squad of players at this point in time. My view is the same now as it will be after the weekend, 0 pts or all 6. The mistake was made in late December with the managers appointment but it has been made and the Directors need to back the man. If they don't it would quite frankly be a disgrace. On this occasion I don't think the fans would be jumping on a band wagon with the benifit of hindsight. The warning sign were there from the very beginning. Hopefully somebody will be shoving this back in my face on Saturday night when we are six points better off but I just can't see it

I think it is a cultural thing. Unfortunately we are a nation of drinkers and pie eaters. Can't see it ever changing unfortunately.

Don't know about the current routines regarding training etc but I remember some years back when Billy Davies was the boss watching the team train at Dalziel Park. Mio was assistant at the time and he was taking the warm up. He was getting the team to do press ups and it was like something out of Police Academy. Some had their arses up in the air, others were just bending their arms and no more, some collapsed in a heap after about 10. The only one that could do them right was Mio himself and he was older than the lot of them. Nearly pissed myself laughing it was so funny. The picture would have been complete had John Collins been there showing off his six pack.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Nobody was really that surprised by the result on Saturday and infact I think some were expecting a similar scoreline in the Semi Final. The surprise that day was that Motherwell played well. I commend the fans who stay positive, 'enjoy the rollercoaster', support the team not matter what but I think they are burying their head in the sand a bit at the moment because that 6-0 result on Saturday is reflective of our current form, in fact if anything we are lucky it was not worse. Ironically we have swapped positions with Aberdeen. They were in freefall in November as we seem to be now. The difference is that then they had a manager coming to the end of his time, we have a manager who is just at the start of his. To make matters worse we are hitting the Aberdeen game at the worst possible time. I have been concerned for a while now that they could leap frog us in this game. Thankfully that cannot happen thanks to the postponement of their game at the weekend. A win tomorrow night would provide a huge mental boost but I just can't see it happening.

Aye right then Hugh Keevins. The vast majority of negative comments I read when McCall was appointed was about his piss poor management record, but don't let that stand in the way of a good story. If there is negativity towards ex OF managers is because it is yet another chance for the Scottish Press to have a love in about all things OF (as witnessed before the Semi Final and to a lesser extent before yesterdays game). You have pointed this out yourself in your post. Having said that if bigotry is an abhorence of what both sides of the OF represent with their hatred and intolerance then I am as big a bigot as the next man. That however has nothing to do with SM. Better get yourself ready for your next big story on Tuesday night Hugh, when the Well fans will be spewing their religious intolerance and bigotry at Old Broony. Sure you can wedge a sectarian angle in there somewhere!

The difference between the teams from 3 to 12 is the manager. We have benifitted from this in the last few seasons. This is my thoughts on the managers outwith the OF in order of effectiveness (very subjective I know). Craig Brown- grim to watch at times but a wise old owl that can get his teams grinding out results. Jim Jeffries- experienced, old school but authoritative character Derek McIness-has done a great job at St Johnstone and will go on to bigger things. Terry Butcher- can create a strong team spirit and thrives in adversity Billy Reid- Did really well getting Accies ino the SPL. Working with little resources so can be forgiven for some negative tactics at times. Peter Houston- personally not impressed with this guy and think Dundee Utd are on the brink of going backwards but has so far been able to keep Utd at a reasonable level. Mixu Pattalinean- have been surprised by the impact at Killie but he has them playing good football and getting results. Colin Calderwood- yet to prove himself but has a track record of success and appears to have a plan at Hibs. Danny Lennon- workmanlike manager who I think has done well in really difficult circumstances this season. Has a track record of success albeit in the lower leagues. Stuart McCall- ?. No proven track record, no real sense of plan or vision coming from him (at the moment), has the team playing nicely for small periods but without an end result. Has had the least time to prove himself but would honestly put him 10th out of 10 at the moment. Interestingly with the exception of McInnes the old dogs come out on top. Maybe Jimmy Calderwood would not have been so bad after all. edit: have put Houston too high up but hey ho.

This is a good point and indeed Tommy McLean needed time to get things right, but on that basis, should Malpas have been given more time? FWIW I believe that now McCall is here we should give him ever chance, but I think that there is a difference between that and thinking that today or the weeks leading up to today have been fine. I look at the Hibs situation and think that the time they are giving their man is the right thing to do but Calderwood for my money, displays an assurance and belief that McCall has not shown so far.

I agree with all of this except for the bit about McCall being able to put a long term plan into place. The transfer window showed that he was picking names out of thin air, names of players that he had never seen play. There was no plan. If there is to be a long term view taken surely Craigans days are up and yet I would bet money that if fit, he will play every game from now to the end of the season. I like the long term approach, that is why I was a fan of Jim Gannon but on this occasion there isn't even the smallest whiff of a plan.

I find it funny that the ones putting themselves forward as the rational thinkers are the ones who think this is all ok. At what point does pride in your team kick in when you say a 6-0 defeat at Ibrox is totally unacceptable!! Motherwell are an SPL side. Had Stranraer lost 6-0 today at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup they would be embarrassed. The thing is though they probably would not have lost by 6 because they would have been playing with some pride. I'm all for supporting your team but at what point do you begin to question what is happening. 7-0, 8-0, 9-0?

I have not been to a game since McCall was appointed because I thought it was a poor choice and we would go on a slide. I did not expect it to be as bad as this though. Ibrox is a tough place to go, yes. We have lost some key players, yes. Brown, McGhee, Gannon would not have got us a victory today, yes. All this is true but it in the disorganisation, inability to make anything of the pressure we have and apparant lack of a plan that is the biggest concern. I really hope that I am wrong about McCall and that he has the ability to turn this round. Maybe he genuinely has inherited a situation that would be difficult (impossible) for any manager to handle. A result at Aberdeen on Tuesday would be a start but I fear the worst up there too. Somebody disagree with me and tell me all will be ok, please!! Thank goodness for Hamilton Accies and St Mirren.

I had a really interesting chat with a friend of mine this eve who travels all round Europe taking in football matches. He uses it as a reason to travel round Europe. He is Scottish but does not have an affiliation to a Scottish side, has no axe to grind and no agenda. He was commenting on the fact that in other European countries it is abundantly clear that the matchday experience is moulded round the needs of the football fan and that as a fan you then feel part of an occasion. He used Germany as the perfect example. In contrast he said that in Scotland it is clear that the experience of the fan has been given little or no consideration and that the difference is so pronounced that he his shocked every time he goes to a game in Scotland. Policing, Stewarding, Pricing, Facilities, transportation the whole shooting match. When you see a Scottish Cup game scheduled for on 1.15pm in Dundee on a Sunday afternoon you can see where he is coming from. The fan is at the bottom of the food chain in this country. Not having a go at Motherwell or Dundee Utd because in this instance the pricing is spot on, it is the scheduling which I guess would have been outwith the clubs control.

Sums up the keyboard football philosophers perfectly. The ones I love the most though are the cool dudes that post smart arsed comments aimed at winding up all those geeky keyboard thumpers who they want to bite, then in their cool dude circles congratulate themselves when somebody does bite with abstract little slap on the back comments to each other, not realising that they themselves are part of the very same sad b$*t$*d culture they aim to mock. Love those guys!

Really? Is this an unspoken truth of Scottish Football or was a survey carried out with the conclusion that Motherwell fans are the least supportive? Could it maybe be the case that you have made this up to make a point? Let's take just one example of the worst support in Scottish Football- last week at Hampden. The supporters of the winning team were bailing out with 15 mins to go. The supporters of the losing team were still singing at the end giving their team a great send off. Which set of fans were the Motherwell support? I don't know how Jeffers is going to work out but his scoring record (and we are signing a striker) is rotten. If the Motherwell support did not query such a signing some on here would be moaning about how Motherwell fans will support any old donkey (Casagolda anyone). Fans of any club will react in similar ways, what pisses me off is the fans that preach about how fellow fans should/should not react.

I have been concerned for a while now about Aberdeen passing us in the league by beating us at Pittodrie. A win tomorrow ensures that does not happen.

But the point is, that to take the team forward, Gannon had to drop Craigan. What Brown did was allow the status quo to stabilise the team. For all the plaudits Brown got, he did not progress the team or the club in any way. Gannon wanted to take the team forward and to do that he needed a defender who could pass a ball.

I was (am) very much a fan of Jim Gannon but my views are not entrenched which is why I am really interested in what happens at Port Vale. I think that the stories of unrest were almost inevitable because of the strength of his views on how the game should be played and his determination not to waver from that path. That is bound to upset a team that is not playing his way or indeed a player that does not play his way (Craigan being an example), particularly when he appears to be ruthless in his methods. There is bound to be a meeting of minds, the question is, as the board of the club, do you try and ride out the rocky transition or panic and bale out? If Port Vale panic and sack Gannon then debates like these are going to rumble on, however if they stick by him and back him, even at the expense of disgruntled players, I think we are going to get an answer as to whether Gannon is the next big thing or if he is indeed a hopeless mavarick. If Port Vale do stick by him and they continue to fall then I would change my current view, however if they sack him I will tend to maintain the view that like Motherwell, Port Vale did not have the balls for the revolution. I am surprised by the comments of 'I'm bored with this, lets move on' because if nothing else as fans of football Gannon (love or hate him) is a very interesting story to follow.