star sail

I hope he was not trying to intentionally embarass them Steelboy but I do agree it looked a bit odd. I do agree with you on Forbes. He looked tired before the third substitution was made and I thought he might come off. For just now however I am going to continue to enjoy the Gannon honeymoon period.

Gannon must go!!!!

So for all the people that are thinking that this is all fine, boys will be boys a bit of a laugh, the next time Celtic or Rangers come to Fir Park and start all their Sectarain chanting you will be ok with it? Or is that different?

How many do you think will travel? We are taking the trip up to Pittodrie for the first time given all this early season optimism.

Forgot to say, delighted to see Crags have a good game. Had a chuckle to myself when he went on that run in the first half. Great to see.

Just back. Thoroughly enjoyed today. As has beeen said, lots of positives. Coke particularly impresses me as being an excellent signing. Was excited enough to decide to make the trip up to Aberdeen next week for the first time in many years. Do feel that as a support we could be doing a bit more to improve the atmosphere. On the subject of Slane, I don't think it is wrong to mention the mistake towards the end as it seemed to me that he was trying to be a bit too smart. I hope he is not believing the hype too much already. I think we can be fairly certain that Gannon will let him know about playing as part of a team, so no reason to be concerned. One other point, I thought Taoule for Kilmarnock was fantastic. Kilmarnock had done well to keep in.

I am impressed by those on hear who have managed to get a handle on Gannon's formations. It has been very interesting and like others I have been pleased to see that he is not scared to change if all is not going well. I have found it difficult to keep track of the players and the positions they are playing. What I find most interesting has been his use of Reynolds. Like McGhee, Gannon seems to see Reynolds as one of the few automatic starts and yet he has not looked totally comfortable in any of the positions he has played so far this season. There is no doubt he is a talanted player but his proper position is still a bit of a mystery. For me he is too lightweight to be a Central Defender. I would like to think that the holding midfield role is the place for him but he has not been totally convincing in that position yet. That leaves Left Back. I think that may be where he plays this Saturday. The question then is what happens to Hammell? I think he will be on the bench as Slane, O Brien and Humphries are the prefered wide players at the moment. The rest is full of questions. Will Craigan start? Will Sutton start? Where does Jennings fit into the plan? Is Hatley our new Right Back? It's all very exciting and what's more Jim Jefferies will be scratching his head wondering what team he will be up against. I think there are only three positions that are fairly settled Ruddy, Coke and Forbes. I am not going to begin to guess a scoreline as it could be anything. We could score 5, they could score 5. Fun times to be a Well fan.

I did not mean that he is displaying arrogance in any way. All I'm saying is that if anyone is critised in their profession it can be hard to take and to change you have to swallow your pride and accept another opinion. Edit: Sorry, just realised what I said. Ooopps!

I don't think it is the end for Crag's and I hope it's not but I would say that all is not well with the relationship between Captain and Manager at the moment. As someone said about, Gannon appears to want snappy passes played on the deck. As we know Craigan likes to play long balls and his accuracy at times is woeful. Watching Gannon at some of the Euro games, you could see his frustrations when Craigan was playing these balls and what's more he was no shy about letting him know. For me the alarm bells from yesterday was not the change at Half Time but Gannons comments on why he made the change. He mentioned wanting players on the park who were showing energy and enthusiasm. That suggests that he felt Craigan was showing neither. I think that if Craigan wants a future at the club he will have to swallow his bride a bit and change to play the way the manager wants. The question is can he do this after playing a certain way for so long? Finally it's a high risk stratagy if Gannon does make an enemy of Craigan. If things go well then no problem but if we are struggling supporters and the media (as Craigan is a bit of a media darling) will turn and use Craigans absence as the cause of the problems (as per Christmas last year). I hope Craigan does adapt and goes on to have the best season he has had in years.

I don't see a problem with having 'revisionist behaviour'. I think you can only make an opinion based on what you see at a particular time and after Season 1 we were looking at a Manager who had taken us to 3rd in the league, handled the Phil O Donnell situation with great dignity and was being touted for jobs with Scotland and Hearts. To make a decision that we have a good manager at that time is not unreasonable. Season 2 was not so good and particularly towards the end McGhee began to show some weakness. That people should re-evaluate their thoughts is perfectly reasonable and actually fairly open minded. If you saw these weaknesses in Season 1 and had the man pegged from the beginning then well done, you have more insight than most fans and certainly me, however I don't think there is a need to criticise supporters for changing their mind as more information became available as time went on. For what it's worth McGhee may yet show us that he is indeed a very good manager. I will apply my revisionist thinking at the end of the season before calling it.

Anyone have a link to The Herald/Evening Times Predictions. I don't understand where they get these predictions from. The only thing I can think is that Jim Gannon is the only manager they know nothing about, so they have come to the conclusion that he is rubbish. What exactly are Falkirk, St Mirren, Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Hamilton doing to suggest that they will be stronger than us this season? I suppose I should read their thoughts before jumping in but it seems like a strange choice to me. Do they actually give it any thought at all?

Glenmorangie you are the new John Hughes (Film Director) not John Hughes (my players all have six packs so they deserve to avoid relegation). Life affirming, who needs Miracle on 34th Street or Home Alone. You start with the trials and tribulations of life and build up to happy ending. Only thing is you need to work on the ending. It should read. Motherwell to finish 1st, going on to beat Barcalona in next seasons Champions League Final! Good post and sums up the life of the Well fan.

I think it's 7 after last night but that is just a hunch. I am sure that it was 6 towards the end of last season. While every og may be unlucky it is not totally independant of ability. It is not simply fate that causes og's. I think last nights og was unlucky but better defenders would have dealt better with the ball that came into the box. Some of Craigans og's have been avoidable but I agree that that does not condemn him to being a bad player. I would rather see him in the team than not. If Marc Fitzpatrick had scored 7 og's in his time at Motherwell I wonder if he would be getting off so lightly?

Hugh Sproat (can't find pic).

Absolutely. I like the wording of some of his phrases that while they may be subtle say a lot. The one that got me last week was (when talking about Slane) 'I'm looking forward to working for him' or words to that effect. There is an element of selflessness about his comments and even if it is slightly manufactured it is a big improvement. Certainly at least in the aftermath of a rather bruising defeat he was not focused on his reputation as a Stockport Legend.

With talk of Fitzpatrick, McGarry etc and the different opinions thereof I think it is Craigan that is the biggest enigma at Fir Park. My first post on Steelmen online was to criticise Craigan for what I thought was a really poor run of games that concluded in (I think) 6 own goals. The reaction I got was so extreme I thought I was going to have to hide out with Salman Rushdi for a while. I still think he is a bomb scare and yet when he was out the team last season we went through our poorest run of form at that time. The conclusion I have come to is that he does more for the team than is immediatly apparent. I would like to see him play along side another really strong CD before I cast a final judgement as I feel that he has been coaching Reynolds through the last few seasons. The first two posts of this thread highlight to me the two camps in the Craigan debate. Those who question his worth and those who show him a loyalty and backing that almost puts him beyond reproach. Having said all of this he has been a fantastic servant to our club and a great spokesman. To me a total enigma.

I have been disappointed by the reaction of the press to last nights results. The Aberdeen result is embarrasing and to some degree Falkirk's result was also poor but to lump Motherwell and Celtic in with what some papers are calling a dismal week for Scottish Football is harsh. Celtic lost to a team who are well into their season in a league that is fairly strong. From Well's point of view 3-0 away from home against a decent European side is not a disgrace as some in the press have labelled it. The truth is that the Scottish game is a country mile behind most other European nations but it is not this weeks results that show us that. For years now European teams have been fitter, more organised and more technically gifted and it is going to take some radical change in the Scottish game (and the Scottish culture) to get close to this (and the problem is not simply money). I think it is a shame that Motherwell get held up for example when in actual fact they have done as well as could be expected of them. I am pleased with the way JG is talking about trying to progress the game in Scotland but he needs like minded people within the game to help and unfortunately it seems that footballing philosophy in Scotland is stuck in the past. What our teams don't need is our press ridiculing individual teams for what is a national problem.

What a save. Ruddy looks good. I think that this has been a better performance than the Nancy away game despite the scoreline. They are a good side.

I can get the screen up but when I press play I just get a rotating circle in the centre of the screen. Is that ok at this stage?

I have been guilty of that myself in the past. Remember the St Mirren cup game last season (home game) when Porter had just left and I thought Sutton was going to get his chance but McGhee did not play him (Sheridan played second half instead). I thought Sutton would never kick a ball for us again but turned out he just did not fit into that legendary 4-3-3 (aye right then) system that day. Would fully expect Hammill to be one of our main players this season but do think he needed a kick up the arse after the first Llanelli game where he just did not look interested.

Thanks. I thought so but he has changed a bit. He too looks really well in that photo. Adds to the disbelief. As somebody said above lets hope we do not hear news like this again for a long time.

Apologies I don't recognise him in this pic. Could somebody point him out. On a positive note it is good to see Stevie Kirk and Dougie looking so well in that picture.

Very sad and shocking. Paul was the same age as me. What makes it all the more frightening is that all these guys Uncle Phil, Jamie Dolan, Davie Cooper and now Paul were fit and healthy athletes through their teen's and twenties. RIP Paul and thanks for the memories.

Ruddy has a bit of the Dolph Lundgrens about him. Lets hope he's as imposing as he looks.

Some people have very short memories. We finished 3rd in season 2007-2008 having played some of the best football of a Motherwell side in some time (better at times than last night). More importantly than that McGhee handled the Uncle Phil situation very well and I think that is something no Well fan should forget. Yes the second season was not as good and yes he was out for number one but there is a lot of people in Football like that (only time will tell if JG is any different). It could be argued that last night would not have happened if McGhee had not managed the players well enough to obtain the Fair Play Euro Place. McGhee's last few months were far from perfect and he obviously thought he was off to Celtic but that is not the full picture. Think we need to wait untill the end of season 09-10 before we start singing 'Are you watching Mark McGhee'