Kmcalpin

Sorry I don't follow your argument. Are you saying that if games kicked off at 3 pm on Saturdays in the lead up to Christmas that folk would have more spare money then? I'm against Friday evening football but for different reasons. Yes, many folk are tempted or forced to go Christmas shopping on the Saturdays before Christmas and so I can understand the timing of the trial from that angle BUT many folk will have festive nights out booked and can't attend football. It doesn't matter a whit what we think though, the proof of the pudding and all that. We'll see what the attendance on the night actually is.

Why doesn't that surprise me? Would they have found a different result if they had polled home fans who didn't go to the first Friday evening game?

I don't know that Scots supporters are suddenly converting to armchair football, David, more of a gradual drift away. Certainly youngsters have been getting brainwashed for a number of years now and they may be a lost generation. The stereotypical picture of a young man in his 20s/30s knocking back pints of beer in a pub whilst watching Chelsea V Man Utd on a large screen TV is one which frightens most Scots clubs including our own. I also think that the OF are becoming less attractive to young fans who want to see "their" team win European trophies. Who wants to support a team that isn't successful? Like you though Barca and Real Madrid or Liverpool and Arsenal hold no attraction personally. Its all a big borefest now with overexposure on the box.

Good post FC. Football is far too expensive and thats a basic fact, but far too many youngsters are weaned on the EPL. Its time our media, the so called Scottish media that is, began to carry more coverage of our own clubs rather than pages about Manchester United, Aston Villa and so on. Its interesting that in the Other Football pages on this site much of the discusion is about the EPL or European football rather than about other Scottish clubs. That tells a story.

All these 4-5-1 formations or variants of them with Stephen Hughes in the midfield are all very well but who would put the ball into the net? They would simply perpetuate our current deficiency up front. IF there is any spare cash going we need to invest in a striker. The last thing we need is another midfielder. Maybe he is just training with us.

No problem with your view mate. I too am a season ticket holder and am happy to fork out an extra £4.50 a month. If it helps the club then fine. Everyone is entitled to spend their income as they see fit.

I don't know what Kilmarnock or Motherwell pay in wages. However, it seems to me that Kilmarnock have alarger squad than we do and that will impact on the total wage bill. In very crude weekly terms it could be a case of : 14 X £1,600 = £224,000 V 19 X £1,300 = £247,000 However it does appear that Killie are picking up very good players.

Its now becoming increasingly obvious that we have problems scoring goals at home. In the 12 league games so far we've scored 5 at home and 9 away from home. At home we've fired blanks on 3 occasions out of 6 but only twice away. Some of us expressed concern at the start of the season that we were very short in the striking department and that appears to be costing us. The 4-5-1 formation is more suited to counterattacking and we have problems in breaking down doughty defences at home. Michael Higdon is ploughing a lone furrow. The problem is not so much mounting attacks but getting bodies into the opposition box and into the danger area. Time and again we throw men forward and they're queuing up to sling balls into the box for only one man - Michael Higdon. Aerial bombardment at set pieces is not an option either. All too often we can put teams under pressure but don't make opposition keepers work hard enough. Yes, we're temporarily sitting 2nd but won't finish there and yes, a 6th place finish will be tremendous for us, but surely we can do something to rectify this rather obvious weakness?

I don't know about that Tweed. Yes, he did get in the road 4/5 times in the game. He missed an awful lot of niggly fouls from Killie and that set the tone of the game unfortunately. Jamie Murphy booked for his first foul and yet the Kilmarnock guy who halved Keith Lasley got off scot free??? The crowd around us remarked that it took all of 82 minutes to yellow card a Killie player. Can't recall who it was but a Killie player took a blatant dive, Thomson acknowledged it but took no action. Fourth offcial's timekeeping also seemd a bit awry given the substitutions.

I mentioned that today as well. We also need someone powering forward through central midfield to support our lone striker but that isn't happening either. From the write up before he signed I assumed Nicky Law was being brought in to play in that role (a fast attacking central midfielder). The team is playing well enough away from home but at Fir Park we need to change our tactics. Is there scope too to bring in Shaun Hutchinson and move Tim Clancy to right back? If all else fails, as it did today, it would at least give us more threat at set pieces.

Post of the week Ally. It happens week in week out. One of the main reasons we are not scoring nearly as many goals as we should be. Jamie Murphy seems to be playing anywhere except alongide Michael Higdon. Given our current squad I'd say Bob McHugh has to play off his shoulder.

Pretty well spot on. Our 4-5-1 formation is causing us problems at home. We can get men up to the edge of the penalty box but not into it. In a nutshell we're short of firepower up front. Jamie Murphy is being wasted in his unrestricted role. For a short spell in the second half he was even playing as a holding midfield player when Michael Higdon badly needed his support up front. He's more suited to playing in open games. The team is more suited to playing counterattacking football away from home. If teams come to Fir Park to defend robustly then we'll struggle with the current set up. Had Killie come to Fir Park to take us on toe to toe, as I expected them to, then I'm confident we'd have beaten them but they were too wily and experienced for that. Credit where its due Killie were streetwise and professional and played us and the referee well.

Sounds a good enough deal to me.

Its a bit like stealing yards/metres at a free kick or the tackle from behind which has regained popularity recently, or perhaps even jersey pulling . Either they are an offence or they aren't. Laws except dissent, are laws, in my book. If refs and fans don't want to enforce them then change them (the laws not the refs that is).

Agreed. However it was just to illustrate the point that in some quarters (the SoS and Colin Calderwood) seemed to be a little miffed that the goal stood. They've nothing to gripe about in my book.

You normally see about 3/4 foul shies per game and its rare that the ref will pull a player up for one. At Tannadice the week before I counted 4 and 3 from the same United player with no action being taken. Fans, players nor officials seem to bother though. As for a hard luck story for Hibs - yes the SoS did mention it but thats not surprising. We're due a fair bit of luck against Hibs ( remember daylight robbery from the officials at Fir Park early last season or Bob McHugh's disallowed goal a few weeks ago in the CIS Cup?) No feelings of guilt at stealing the 3 points from me.

A great result for us and it kepes the momentum going. Well done to stuart mcCall and the trops.

Yes, he's free to play unless injured. The only issue thats unclear is who, if anyone, asked us not to play him and perhaps the language in which it was framed. .

Did the game attract much of a crowd?

I know this is not your direct quote Jim but its extremely interesting and something no-one has picked up on. Now, we were told months ago that the SFA requested MFC not to play Steve Jennings. This is the first time I've seen that the Betting Commission asked us not to select him. Is it an error on behalf of the Express ie it was the SFA or was the original story wrong ie it was indeed the Betting Commission? Can anyone clarify this?

Seconded. What would happen if this "ban" on us fielding him is applied, runs for many months (thus depriving us of his services long term) and then charges are not pursued or he was found not guilty? I think we and the player would have a very strong case for compensation against the SFA. We're not Celtic though. Innocent until proven guilty.

At the first Society meeting at the Alona Hotel, a young mother who moved into the area a few years ago said that her family hadn't been Well fans but had become involved with MFC through one of the community initiatives and as a result now attend Fir Park frequently. So the club must be doing something right.

Why??

Were you given this explanation at the time?

You're probably right. However this situation is ludicrous. Clubs are asking fans to hand over £21 or whatever but are not willing to entertain any feedback/complaints. Now I'm not suggesting for one minute that if a supporter turns up without warning at a club's main office they should have the right to meet the Chairman or whoever on request, but clubs should have some mechanism in place to receive complaints in person. Even if the Head Steward was not willing to give a paying customer the opportunity to lodge a complaint in person then the least they should have done was to take the complainants phone number/email address and promise them a representative of United would call them back to discuss their gripe. What United must realise is that now, the perceptions that quite a few Well fans have of their club is based solely or largely on the behaviour of one steward, albeit a supervisor. In a large organisation, its well recognised the enormous damage that one unsympathetic or rude receptionist or telephone operator can cause. Still we must be patient and wait to see what reply the lads receive from United.