Kmcalpin

Craig Thomson deserves a thread on his own for a totally inept display. His weak handling of the game played right into a streetwise Accies hands. Why was Canning not red carded at the penalty? Why were Canning, Hasselbaink and the Accies no 18 not yellow carded for cheating and diving? Ross Forbes' booking was a total disgrace - the "tackle" took place just in front of us and despite not being touched the No 18 fell to the ground as if poleaxed. Martin Canning gets hit with the ball in the stomach and then falls to the deck holding his head????? These are but 3 examples of a very long list of injustices.

Spot on, Al. After Accies scored this game was made for John Sutton - physical challenges in the box against uncompromising defenders. Alan Gow is great is great on the left wing or behind the strikers. He is not a target man. Not sure that lasley or Murphy would've made much difference today - this wasn't their kind of game. We got it wrong off the park.

Seconded. Keep our feet on the ground folks.

Whatever the eventual outcome it'll be a tough hard game. We should put all thoughts of a walkover out of our heads. Accies usually always play out of ther skins when they meet us.

Does anyone know how much we stand to make from reaching the semis? I believe that Steven Pressley said that Falkirk's failure to make it cost them around £250K? There would be pooled gate money, programme/food sales, TV/Radio money and sponsors' money. Anyway it'll have our Chief Executive rubbing her hands and rightly so. A badly needed cash windfall for us.

Pitch will take this rain no bother. We've even had to water it recently. The surface certainly looked better than McDiarmid Park's last night.

Now that we've beaten Dundee United twice its time to look forward to Saturday's derby. I reckon the outcome will be heavily influenced by our injury situation. Assuming that all our casualties fail to make it (unlikely I suppose) how would you all rate this line up? Randolph Page Saunders Craigan Fitzpatrick Humphrey Hately Forbes Sutton Blackman Gow

Do you sit in Row E just to the right of the aisle? If so, you sit only a few seats away and will know us. Your comments did indeed bring a reaction from Mr Houston.

I would have thought about 600 - 800? More than Saturday anyhow. Very disappointed in United - again they were over physical and didn't allow us to play any football. Any time we looked like doing so, our lads were hacked down or impeded. In David Robertson, they have an able successor to Mark Kerr - he lashed out any anything that moved. Still enough on United. We deserved to progress and although we never hit the heights we did last Saturday we were ok. Probably our best players were Reynolds, Craigan, Jennings and Hately. Couldn't fathom out why Gow was played in the middle and Sutton on the wing though. The goal was a bit of scramble but they all count. We also survived an almighty scramble in our 6 yard box. Due to much of the action being in midfield neither keeper had alot to do. Upwards and onwards.

An absolute shocker. Had he made contact Chris Humphrey would have been out of the game for months. A yellow card and if he'd made contact a straight red. Kenneth committed his first foul of many in the 4th minute. It was only justice that he gave away a needless corner that led to our goal.

I would doubt if Keith Lasley will be fit, although I hope so. In my view he was having his best game of the season to date. Up until now he has been lasting for the first halves and then seems to drop out of games in the second halves. Maybe he's not 100% fit or is carrying an injury? Tom Hately in my view is better in midfield and I thought he was one of our best performers yesterday.

He missed a lot more than a couple Tweed - well into double figures in my book. Refs are entitled to make mistakes but this ref made a lot more than most. Rookie refs have to learn but he is clearly not ready for SPL football yet. We should expect the same quality of refereeing as every other side - he would not be considered for tomorrow's OF game. Decision not to red card Bauben was totally unfathomable. According to the Official site he was going to book the Prince until he realised he'd already been booked. Surely a yellow card offence is a yellow card offence?

Thats because he was being used for spells as an out and out centre forward which he never will be. A good win today but some poor defending could have cost us. We played well in spells but didn't have the killer touch in front of goals - we just can't seem to get the striking pairing right can we? Blackman played well but at times was a bit greedy. I felt United let us all down. As expected they were very physical and cynical but at time seemed to be happy to adopt spoiling tactics to stop us from playing. I think that was United's first away defeat to a non OF team for about 18 months? 3rd place and still going strong - happy days.

It'll be hard physical game today and will be close. Added spice with next week's encounter looming too. I can see John Porteous being a busy man.

You're entitled to your view but I just don't get it Juan. Generations of Well fans no longer with us would have cut off their right arm for a chance to compete in Europe. I suppose though, familiarity does breed contempt. Even followers of the big boys get bored - there's only so much excitement that can be gotten from winning the SPL, EPL or the Champions League frequently. Much of the decline in EPL attendances is due not just to money but to boredom - the novelty is wearing a bit thin. I can sympathise a bit though I suppose. I was never a great fan of the EPL but for some time now I've groaned when Man Utd V Chelsea or Arsenal blights our screens. Same old same old.

I'm with you on this Steelboy. An expansion to 14 teams with 2 up and 2 down is acceptable in theory book but thats where it ends. I don't like play offs though. Would they introduce play offs for the SPL Championship? I'm not in favour of a split at all. You're right, effectively a team's season could grind to a premature halt after only 26 games - that can't be right surely. In February, you could easily with a mid table cluster of say 4/5 teams only a point or two apart when the cut off came into force and then Euro hopes are dashed prematurely. Credit to the club for issuing a statement on the McLeish report and I agree about season breaks and summer football and certainly KO times. Like Brazilian I think its a bit vague though for us to comment in detail, but I suspect coded language is being used.

Seconded. Its not just our defence though - our central midfield sits far too deep at times and retreats into the penalty box. Even the full backs withdraw inside. I noticed against St Mirren that at one point we had all 11 players well inside our own box. i like to see us putting in tackles well outside of our own box.

That has happened in the second half of almost all our games this season. In the second 45 the midfield simply go missing - Aberdeen, Brechin, St Johnstone, St Mirren.......and now Rangers.

Come on folks, there's plenty of folks willing and able to express opinions on our club through these Boards. This is a chance to put something back in for the benefit of the club and supporters. Lets be having you!

Most likely its on instructions from Rangers or the Police.

I personally wouldn't object if our concession threshold was raised to 65. Pension schemes are increasingly adopting 65 as the default retirement, folk are living longer and you can't draw the state pension until 65 shortly to be 66 for men. The trick is to phase it in, giving everyone plenty of warning. Existing beneficiaries shouldn't have the concession taken from them. I think the problem before was that the club introduced it at short notice, with little warning.

Thanks Flow. The issue of concessionary ages still seems to vary from club to club with Rangers opting for 65 years of age. We still use 60 years.

Absolutely no intention of insulting genuine fans Matt, and apologise if anyone thought that. I quite accept that there are a few fans who simply could not travel a few hundred metres further away. As I said, I can't see any way of avoiding that unless the club was to put on transport for such fans - that may be a goer and worth investigating. What I can't accept is current fans, who could perfectly easily travel, being unwilling to move an additional 1km or 1.5km because its a bit further away from Jack Daniels or their front door. When, not if, we move to Ravenscraig, it would involve a move of perhaps 1km or 1.25 kms, possibly outwith the Motherwell boundary (I don't have a clue as to the precise location incidentally). On the other hand if we could secure a brownfield site somewhere in North Motherwell say 3kms away, would that be ok because it was within the town boundary? By doing that the club would still stay within the historic boundary but be over double the distance away from FP, thereby inconveniencing even more fans, who could not travel. I don't have a problem with the club moving 1 or 2 kms but I would serious misgivings about us moving to a location like Newhouse. We mustn't forget either that FP is not our first ground. Some folk would have been put out and disadvantaged when we moved there in the early 20th century. I don't doubt that if the club remains at FP long term it will lead to our demise. We can't have that. Comparisons with Hamilton is invalid as that was an entirely different situation, geographically and chronologically.

Thanks Jim. A good result.

Although I left Motherwell many years ago, its my home town and always will be. I think redevelopment of the Craig will be a great boost for the area but thats another argument for another place. Redevelopment of Fir Park simply isn't an option for a variety of reasons. Moving to a new stadium, most likely at Ravenscraig is the answer. That said, it has to be the right design. I've always viewed Motherwell as being one element of a larger urban area encompassing Overtown, Wishaw, Coltness, Cambusnethan, Netherton, Newmains, Holytown, Carfin, Newarthill and so on. Ravenscraig is simply an extension of that. All towns have to grow and develop over time if they don't they wither away and die. You can't fossilize towns. My own family came from Bellshill Road originally, but over the years they spread out to other parts of Motherwell, Netherton, Wishaw, Coltness, Carluke and Lanark and further afield and continued to support MFC. I just wonder what proportion of our support actually come from Motherwell these days. I quite accept that a move a mile or so away will inconvenience some, and for a few (a very few) that will mean that they could no longer go to Fir Park because of age /disability or whatever. For that I'll be genuinely sorry. By the same token though for some fans it might be nearer their home and for many others it will be the same distance. A new stadium would also attract new fans living close by. I also accept that for some Jack Daniels will forever be linked to MFC but years ago the same could be said for the Flemington Bar, which is now long gone. New pubs will appear and attract our support thats simply life. Like all things you either change and adapt or die. The critical thing for me is that any change benefits the Motherwell AREA, and our club.