star sail

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.

Well really need to start utilising some religious conflicts in the world to boost our fan base. Israel/Pallestine or something like that. Does not matter which side we take so long as it generates a generation of fans fuelled by religious hatred. Swell those numbers We could have tapped into the Protestant/ Catholic market but I think that has been cornered already. Alternatively we can be really thankful for our small support and be grateful that we go to the football for footballs sake and put a big smile on our faces because it is not fuelled by hatred and intolerance. I'll take a 2-1 defeat any day to fall on the Well side of the supporting spectrum.

Got that very same feeling in the 91 semi final with Colin O Neils now infamous goal. Everybody seemed to freeze for what seemed like 2 or 3 seconds before going completely balistic!! Those kind of goals are always the best.

Again that is not painting the full picture. I don't have the stats but from memory many of those 12 games were draws, Motherwell were aiming to play football from the back, some of the young players were playing their best spells in Well jerseys to date and one of those draws was against Rangers when but for a late penatly miss, the team would have won. The Gannon argument has been flogged to death but when commenting on any of our previous managers it would be nice if people did not cherry pick statistics. Actually, now I think about it, what were the three, I remember Llannelli, Flamurtari, Kilmarnock, Dundee Utd and ICT. Is that 3 games stat even right?

That is odd because towards the end of the first half (I think, maybe beginning of the second) it read 51%-49% in favour of Motherwell. If anything after that Motherwell came into the game more.

Thought the ref was as fair and even as I have seen for a long time against Rangers. The penalty decision would have been a soft one and he could have made much more of the Hutchison lunge particularly at a time when Well were putting Rangers under a lot of pressure. Good performance by the ref but then again, with the exception of McCulloch the players made it fairly straight forward for him today.

Between Jennings and Lasley for me but because of the goal gave it to Lasley, just. That Jennings got MOTM on the losing team shows the nature of the game.

Really pleased this evening. For once I think that the performance today was almost more important than the result in terms of moral for the rest of the season. Commitment, effort and also more than a fleeting display of ability. Lasley and Jennings were superb today. F**k the result. That mob should beat us off the park every time they play us. Only negative for me it's to say that for a former Well player and Motherwell man Lee McCulloch is one dislikeable character. Replaces a long line of Rangers cluggers that you can really hate.

Not going to quote your post from the last page Stu because it is kinda lengthy but even though it was me you were arguing against, well said! I think the point about leaving the Semi Final thread positive is a good one. I am one of the negative vibe merchants at the moment but like others it does not stop me from having butterflies in my stomach this morning. I can't get to the point of thinking we could sneak it (not yet anyway) but I just want the team to give a good account of themselves and at least let this mob know they are in a game. The thing is as well, you just never know. C'mon the Well!!

Cluching at straws with this. The omission of Gannon's statistics from the list above suggests you are spinning the figures a bit ( I know that is not what you were trying to do). I think it is good to see someone trying to rally the troops in this way but even if the figures were good (which they are not) the standard of performance at these times would have to be concidered. Under McGhee, Gannon and Brown you could see their influence on the park. But for the Dundee game, the standard under McCall has been terrible and there is no real sign of this changing. We can only hope that a performance tomorrow might spark the team back into life.

That suggests to me that you think only the positive and enthusiastic should post on a Motherwell fans forum, however there is a bigger picture here that needs comment. I can't speak for Melvin Bragg but I would guess like me he is a guy who has invested alot of time, money and emotion over the years in supporting Motherwell and is actually hurting a little just now at the way in which the club appears to be spiralling down the pan. Should we not be asking why supporters who have Motherwell at heart are being turned away just now or is that not worthy of comment on a Motherwell Fans Forum? For me personally the appointment of the manager was the final straw but I could write a long list of other reasons why I just could not gather the enthusiasm to go to Hampden tomorrow. I hope things change and I get the groove back. I would love to see us win tomorrow and yes I would be one of the so called 'glory hunters' who may well decide to go to the Final if we did but I am not going to let some prozac popping pup tell me that I am not a real fan for my choices or that I have no right to comment on these boards.

Just watched the highlights. Stone wall penalty. Had that been Hutchison or Saunders we would be bemoaning a lack of experience (Saunders has admittedly been guilty of that this season). Craigan has been a good defender for the club but we really must be getting towards time for a change. When Craigan won his contract extension under Brown he deserved it for a run of games when he showed what he could do. Either side of that little window of form he has been poor. A Hutchison- Saunders pairing does have risk attached to it but in a season that looks like slipping gently away we have to take a chance on the future. Apart from anything else these boys are capable of scoring goals.

Not for in here particularly but another depressing result for Scottish Football at Parkhead. Just as there is a small chance of a team getting close to the OF they are put back in their place with a result like that. 4-0 is a thumping!!

You are not allowed to say that on here. He plays for Northern Ireland you know.

I would want to ask what leverage Motherwell and the other 9 SPL clubs have to really put pressure on the OF. What our league needs more than anything else is even just the illusion that it is a level playing field and that there is a chance no matter how small that a non OF club can win the SPL. The money being swallowed up by the OF must be distributed more evenly. It is Scottish Footballs only chance. Going one step further I would also like to ask if it could be possible to break away completly and start a new top league minus the OF. If nothing else it would make the OF realise that they need the rest of the Scottish clubs to survive. Call there bluff at the very least.

Under normal circumstances yes, but I don't blame the club for this one simply because I think that the Old Boy was feeding them one big pack of lies the whole way through. 'We are just happy to be here' 'We are delighted Motherwell gave us this chance' 'With this bunch of players why would we want to be anywhere else' ' we don't need to sign a contract, we are going nowhere, infact I am offended that you ask' etc etc. The club were suckered by the pensioner and lets be honest so were we. Not that I am questioning the old gentleman's integrity you understand.

The standard of questioning from the Journo's blows my mind at times. I love how often rather than ask questions they just make a statement and then expect players to ellaborate upon it. i.e 'That was end to end stuff today and in terrible conditions' Journo stops talking to signal that he has apparantly asked a question. Reassuring to hear him say that one of the attractions in the move was the Manager. Can forgive him the better move in Scotland gaff. He was kind of set up for it.

Looks like McCall has worked with Jones before so he is going to have a good understanding of his capabilities. I actually find this a reassuring signing (unless it end up like the Andy Roddy- Alex McLeish bombscare, Mcleish made some real howlers did'nt he). I agree 100% with OntheFringes comments having said this. There does seen to be a lack of a long term stratagy. 6 month loan deals are very much a quick fix. I am disappointed as well that the likes of Hutchison and Page still seem to be seen as squad players rather than first choice options. If they can't get a run in the team now when will they ever? Does this mean that the left midfield player that played in the bounce game has gone home?