El Grew

Butcher back = backward step + lack of board vision + me no going back.

We are typical of a team in the relegation zone of a league - can't score more than one goal per game and always concede at least two! IMO, if we had got a second goal today before they equalised the game would have been won. Fact is we lost two goals today from headers in around our six yard box and yet we have two gargantuan centre backs? IMO these two need to be shown the door - two of the softest centre backs I've seen at FP since Willie McCallum. Couldn't keep hens out a midden. Dear knows what we'll be like when Ojaama leaves!

Foreign consortium, fan ownership are both bollocking pipe dreams. It's time the amateurs running the club, albeit with the best of intentions, looked for some serious investors and stopped f@cking around. Oh and if we've had as many applications for the manager post as was being spouted, then it's time they sorted out the series contenders from the tyre kickers and got down to interviewing and making an appointment. Oh and judging by Kenny Black's comments after Saturday's game at Inverness - which kind of echo Stuart McCall's - I think we need somebody who will come in and put their f@cking boot up the arses of a number of our so-called experienced pros who are failing to get the shoulder to the wheel.

I would respectfully submit that this debate is academic bollocks. Because of where we are in the league at present it is no time to be considering playing young players. The time to introduce young players is when you are safe at the opposite end of the table. It would be totally unfair not to say downright irresponsible to start playing youngsters at present.

It was Flamengo from Rio de Janeiro. Ah they were the days. I used to hear my dad enthusing about the Ancell Babes and games like those. Would love to gave been around to have watched them.

Sad news today to hear that a member of the famous Ancell Babes side of the late 1950s Sammy Reid has passed away at his home in Wishaw aged 75. A tterrific player for us who went south to sign for Bill Shankly's Liverpool In 1960. It never quite worked out for him as it did for his team mate Ian St. John. Came back to Scotland and played for Berwick Rangers and in 1967 scored the goal to knock Rangers out the Scottish Cup. Arguably still the biggest Cup shock in Scottish football. .Thoughts are with Sammy's family at this sad time. RIP Sammy.

Henrik Larrson just resigned as manager of Falkenburg in Sweden. Kept them in Swedish top flight despite working with minuscule budget. Wonder if he's considering coming back to Scotland?

Terrific result never mind how achieved. For us at present results are fare more important than playing stylish football. Good to see us at lat getting a wee rub of luck that teams in our position normally don't get. Not out of the woods yet but something to build on now.

As I have posted in another topic although I wasn't Stuart McCall's biggest fan I do believe that in terms of league performances, this season excepted, he is the best manager we have had at FP since the halcyon days of the 1930s under old Sailor Hunter. And I still think he got a poor deal from the club in that every season he improved us and took us into the Champions League and yet he was rewarded every season with cuts to his playing budget. And he was one of the most loyal and honourable managers we have ever had and in the modern football era these are rare and valuable traits. I'm really sorry that it went pete tong for him this season and I really hope he gets back into football management sooner rather than later. Thanks for some truly unforgettable memories Stuart. I fear we will not experience these again.

Terry Butcher?? FFS!! He had his turn with us and look at the rip roaring James Hunt he made of things at Hibs last season when they were in exactly the same fix as we are in now. Crazy idea. No thank-you. As for Derek Adams!? Considered not good enough for Ross County who are bottom of then league before this season even started so again no thank-you. IMO Scott Leitch should never been allowed back into FP so again no thank-you. We need to get some new blood in again. Somebody that's keen to get on in club management and not somebody that's been over the course again and again. For me I'd try to get Ian Murray. As a player he was wholehearted and bled for Hibs and often carried them at times. He's already shown in his short spell as manager at Dumbarton that he's got what it takes to succeed by getting them promoted on a veritable shostring and playing decent football by all accounts. And what about Scott Booth at Stenhousemuir as his assistant? Again doing a decent job and has had a great football upbringing. Two up and coming young Scottish managers who would probably value a great opportunity to take the next step on their football management careers. And if we were to benefit along the way then it would be a win-win situation.

If you look at what happened at Hibs last season, they made the managerial change early enough to allow the new manager sufficient time to turn things around. However, their board forgot a couple of critical points - the squad of players inherited by the new manager was sh*te and they failed to provide funds for changes to that squad. Outcome was still relegation. So changing the manager is not always the answer. Personally, I think Stuart McCall has been given a raw deal by the club - terrific league finishes for a number of seasons now and his reward? One playing budget cut after another. Anyone would struggle under such handicap. A number of serious misjudgements have been made behind the scenes, leading to a serious lack of investment, not least of which the much vaunted, well meaning but IMO doomed from the outset Well Society. So don't lay everything at the manager's door as there a bunch of amateurs behind the scenes - well-intentioned amateurs but amateurs just the same.

For me a major issue this season so far is that McCall keeps chopping and changing his playing 11. I know there have been issues with injuries but he now needs to decide what his best/preferred starting 11 is and stick with them - injuries excepted. It hardly encourages players confidence that if they have a poor game they are dropped. First thing he needs to do is to get the back four sorted out and stop leaking goals. Fuck the attacking football philosophy for a while and concentrate on making us harder to score against. A few draws would do us no harm.

Ring, ring, ring. .

Get rid of McCall. Appoint Ian Murray from Dumbarton. Simples!

I'm not one for slating the club on the back of 1 win out of 3 in the league however clubs who don't get off to a good start in this league traditionally end up struggling against the collar for the rest of the season. Personally I think our problems lie more off the park than on it and they have been well enough documented on this site on numerous occasions. We've had one of the most successful periods in the league in our history however two things that have failed to follow this, are no increases in attendances and no increases in the budget available to the manager. Indeed in both cases the perhaps the opposite has been true. Ultimately both of these have lead to a lack of investment in the playing side of the club which is now beginning to show through as the manager is finding it harder and harder to maintain the standards previously set.

Absolutely spot on mate. Like Higdon before him, he is at his best when he is in the penalty box. And as you say he was our top scorer last season which played a large part in our second place finish last season. Jeez only two league games gone and some folk are getting the hammer and nails out already.

For me not a surprise / shock result. Who do we think we are. We have no divine right to expect to beat anybody. IMO we are not progressing under Stuart McCall and it may well be time to seriously consider a change of direction because he simply lacks any tactical know how. Sure we've had a couple of good runners-up finishes - not to be sniffed at for sure - but the players no matter whether long-standing ones or new ones brought in by McCall are making the same errors over an over again. He has continually failed miserably to address our defensive frailties which seem now to have worsened as nobody has been sought to replace Huthinson. Stevie Hammell has been a great club servant as has Keith Lasley but it is beginning to look as though this season is a season too far for both. Added to this that McManus who was expected to anchor the defence and prevent us losing 'daft' goals, seems past it now. We should be concentrating and investing more in getting young players in. Where were we (and others come to that) when Dundee Utd were raiding the excellent youth set-up at Queens Park and signing players. The latest example is the young lad that Hull City have just offered £2M plus for and he's only been with Dundee Utd for aabout a year!!! So sorry not a knee-jerk reaction to last night in suggesting getting rid of McCall - simply harsh realism that he has taken us as far as he can. We are strapped so we really need a manager and a scouting sytem that does what Dundee Utd's does as opposed to picking up poor loan signings from the lower reaches of the English league.

Ainsworth one year contract? Any thoughts on why only one year?

I posted about this quite some time back. I can't mind which season it was but at the back of the season ticket book there were "vouchers" for Rugby Park, Love Street and Tynecastle which if presented at the turnstiles at these grounds let you in for £10. There may have others, I can't remember but I recall getting in at these 3 away grounds for £10 which I thought was a brilliant idea. I don't know whether or not we had a reciprocal arrangement with these clubs but I would imagine we must have had. It was a great way to encourage supporters to go go to away matches where the clubs concerned were getting £10 they otherwise wouldn't get plus maybe some additional income from programmes, catering etc. It was obviously considered and tried by some clubs, ours included, previously but for some reason it was not continued. Surely it can't be beyond the wit of the SPFL clubs to arrange something along these lines. After all it's for mutual benefit.

Hard hat on here. Now that Falkirk and Dunfermline have failed in the play-offs it may be worthwhile seeing if they have anybody that could make the step-up to SPFL level. Same goes for the Accies should they fail to best Hibs. The lower divisions were traditionally a decent source for players in the past and there might just be a couple of rough gems lurking there.

I hope we avoid anybody from the other side of the old Iron Curtain because it would only end up like last year's visit to to the back of beyond in Krasnodar with the club losing money. Preferably somebody within relatively straightforward travelling distance.

Has to be Marc Fitzpatrick's winner in the League Cup semi-final against the Jambos. 1. Last minute winner in extra time.2. Cup semi-final.3. Against the team I hate most. Doesn't get much better.

Aye very proud and I don't mind admitting to shedding a tear or two. Only the Cup win comes close to how I felt at the end of the game when I saw the players and what it meant to them. Lets not kid ourselves on this is like winning the bloody league for us. It's certainly as close to winning the league for us as it's ever likely to be. Thanks Motherwell today will live long in my memory.

I think over the years, with a few exceptions, I've seen better players at FP than the ones we had during the past few seasons but not better teams! And that's a big difference! The players we have had during these past few seasons have shown something not many 'Well teams that I've seen have had and that's sheer guts, a never say die attitude and a fear of nobody. I would say that only the Cup winning team could equal them in that regard. Jeez when I was younger and we went to Aberdeen it usually meant a right humping! So to answer the question, yes there is always the potential for things to get better but whether they will or not who can say? But guys please don't think ahead, just take the time to soak all this in and enjoy these times because they won't last forever. Football is cyclical. C'mon the 'Well.

I can only really echo what others have said and add my sincere heart felt congratulations to Stuart McCall and the players. I never thought I'd see the day when we'd amass 70 points in a season. It's quite an astounding feat. These past few seasons for our club have been heady ones indeed and IMHO having been going to FP for nigh on 50 years they have been the best ever. Surely only the truly great 'Well team of the 1930's era surpass them. As another poster already said, some day in the future the (younger) fans will look back on this as a truly golden era.