Kmcalpin

Eh? Whilst I've a lot of time for Jamie and we want to give him a good send off he is not captain material. The 3 points are still up for grabs this afternoon and we need to do all we can to secure them or more likely limit the damage. Its Celtic V Motherwell not the Jamie Murphy show. Perhaps its an indication that the result is secondary to Jamie's farewell. Good luck to Jamie but no player is bigger than the club.

The Society was not in a position legally to hand over any cash at that point in time. In any event any transfer proceeds may only amount to a contribution to cashflow - Society cash may also be required.

You've hit the nail on the head. The period from January to March/April is a cash flow nightmare for many clubs. In our case there's little or no Scottish Cup cash due either. We now have no cash at all coming in until 20 January and St Johnstone won't bring many fans. Very few clubs outwith the top clubs in the game like doing business in the January window - its usually to generate cash flow and its hard to replace players. In England the Premier League is hoovering up what cash there is not just from Scottish clubs and fans but from most English clubs and their fans too. The vast majority of Championship clubs for example will be heavily in debt. You only need to look at TV matches and the swathes of empty seats down south. That said reputation is unfortunately important. Young players from Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts, and Dundee United are seen as being automatically great. Had Jamie Murphy played for any of those clubs or indeed a club like Bournemouth or Swindon then he'd be leaving for 500K. However you can only sell players for what other clubs are willing to pay. The bottom has fallen out of the transfer market and that is why players like Nick Law or Darren Randolph have not moved on before now. Some people though do need to get real.

Its not bad management. The financial world has changed considerably in the past few years and the football world is no exception. Potential purchasers in the English Championship and lower leagues no longer have much cash - many of them are in debt. We can't sell players for big fees if there are no parties wishing to buy.

Probably best for all concerned that Jon Page is moving on. It frees up a wage for us, from a player who probably isn't going to make it in the SPL. For the lad himself it will give him the opportunity of regular first team football, albeit at a lower standard. Still we are getting lighter and lighter in defence with Fraser Kerr moving back down south (presumably) and Nick Devlin's future uncertain.

Yesterday game was a very powerful argument for giving ZFA a run at left back. Stevie Hammell was all over the place and his blunder cost us the second goal. He's now had a hand in a worrying amount of the goals we've lost this term.

I sincerely hope the out of contract players show honesty and a little openness with our fans. If they are looking to move on or have a deal arranged then please don't tell us they would like to stay/the club won't speak to them etc etc. In the past quite a few or their agents have deceived sections of the support into turning on MFC but in fairness a few others have behaved impeccably.

Well said Iain. This has been needing saying for quite some time now. We have to ask why so few of our 3,000 members now post. I've lost count of the number of members, who no longer post, who have said exactly this.

Fair comment. I though we were outstanding today especially in the second half and our attacking football was a joy to behold. Best entertainment I've had in along while at Fir Park. If we are going to debate red cards why wasn't Clark Robertson not sent off for his challenge on Henrik? Henrik had beaten him all ends up and was about to turn in on goal with only Langfield to beat - clearly denied a goalscoring opportunity.

Yes, ZFA is due a chance. Ever since his debut Stevie has been very good on the ball but has never defended particularly well. Unfortunately at the moment our right back gets drawn out of position up the field and our left back gets drawn out of position into the middle. Certainly at Pittodrie and Fir Park in the cup Faither Broon targetted our left hand side as have several opposing managers.

I might not agree with your precise choice of words but you are 100% right. Saints had the freedom of the park with both goals which once again came from the left hand side (not Tom Hately's fault btw). Why oh why do we allow opposing players to rain crosses into our box? Yes, our centre midfield is poor - we've gone over this time and again. Nicky Law is not and never will be a defensive player. At 32/33 Keith Lasley's best days are behind him and we can't expect him to run back and forth across the park shielding our central defenders. In fairness to Ramsden and Hutchinson I wouldn't want to be playing behind our central midfield right now. Now the defence - both full backs are having right poor seasons and have had a hand in many of our opponents' goals. Shaun Hutchinson can be rash but has promise and needs an experienced central defensive mentor beside him. There you have it. No need to go into panic mode over a defeat to a lowly SPL side but questions do need to be asked. I for one am relaxed about losing a wheen of players (with a few exceptions like Darren Randolph) at the season's end. We have some quite highly paid players for a club of our size and not all of them consistently earn their corn. If they move on it will allow us to trim the budget and strengthen the squad.

2-1 full time and it sounds as though it could have been worse. Questions have to be asked of the central midfield and full backs if we allowed to Saints to come at us and rain cross after cross into the box. We certainly seem to shipping goals at the moment against every level of opposition.

I'd go along with that, although ZFA is still a bit raw. Stevie has suffered from lack of competition for some years now and has looked weak defensively all season. To be fair though Jamie Murphy in front of him is not the best defender in the world and has not provided the cover Stevie badly needs. Maybe time to show faith in youth!

I'll be very surprised if the Dons bring 5,000 fans to Fir Park, very surprised indeed.

Most clubs suffer cashflow problems during the January - March period. Season ticket monies have been used up and prize monies won't be paid out for some months yet. Probably the Society is not quite in a position yet to plug the gap.

Or someone at the buying club/agent.

You have to balance his monetary value against what the clubs thinks he could contribute to a high place league placing. One place equates to about £75,000. Our projected shortfall this season is about £300k. On that basis I wouldn't accept anything less than about £250k. However the club will know best. Its all very well both clubs agreeing a fee but would Jamie want to move to Yorkshire or Hampshire?

Great result and comeback! Up to 2nd place now with other results going our way.

He's due his chance, nothing more nothing less. He's very quick, good on the attack and in my view can potentially defend better than Steve Hammell. Probably Stevie is the better set piece taker. Stevie has never been particularly strong defensively and a bit of competition would be no bad thing. In left midfield he's a better bet defensively than Jamie Murphy. What has ZFA done? Well so far he hasn't had much game time but he did set up one goal against Ross County when he came on as a sub. By no means the finished article. Perhaps his major disadvantage, like Stevie, is lack of height.

My thoughts exactly. My only concern is the loss of Darren Randolph who we'll find very hard to replace. Of the others there are some I'd rather not not lose but none are irreplaceable. If we lose 3/4 high earners that'll allow us to strengthen the squad overall. Although the squad is small there's a bit of deadwood there too.

All of this was discussed last week and the Trust Board know full well the task that lies ahead of them. This is why they are devoting time and effort to fund raising and membership drives.

I'm perfectly serious and stand by what I wrote earlier. When he was signed Stuart McCall called him a left side attacking midfielder, which is what he is. Last season Nicky Law was played wide left in an offensive role and he revelled in that. He's quick and has guile as you rightly point out. This season he has been playing far deeper in central midfield and has, not unsurprisingly, been unable to get forward as much. He has been asked to fill Steve Jennings' vacancy, which he has been unable to do as he is physically and character wise unsuited to such a position. Now that is not his fault - you wouldn't expect Steve Hammell to play centre defence would you? He hasn't been putting in crunching tackles, breaking up attacks or shielding two inexperienced centre backs. In his current role, he has not performed, and I wouldn't expect him to. That said, he has produced flashes of his attacking form such as he did last Saturday. Move him to wide left midfield and you'll see the player he was last season. In my view you either play him in his favoured position or you don't play him at all. However as some other posters have said Stuart McCall has a tendency to pick his 11 best players irrespective of what position they play.

Under the circumstances, a reasonable if not great crowd and pretty much what I expected. How do we generate funds if not through the Well Society? Probably two options: 1 Wait for a sugar daddy to come along 2 Do nothing/cut back even further Neither option particularly appeals to me and I would be disappointed if the club Board was to promote either one as being the way forward.

We played some neat football in the first half without causing Aberdeen much of a threat. Second half was very poor and all our long standing weaknesses were exposed. I didn't think we missed Nicky Law - he's been playing out of position all season and has largely been ineffective, with a few notable exceptions. Both full backs again let us down. To be honest we lost the game before 7.45 with the wrong team selection and tactics. Jamie Murphy should not have started, it just wasn't his type of game. By all means bring him on if we go a goal up but he's simply not suited to attacking packed defences. To be honest I can't get worked up about the result - it was never going to be our year with the squad we've got. Better to go out to Aberdeen than a poorer team I suppose. I'm quite relaxed about some players leaving at the end of the season as we badly need some fresh blood and character. Time now to concentrate on a top 6 league finish and blooding some youngsters like ZFA. Surely he's due a start at left midfield or left back? Onwards and upwards!!

Couldn't agree more with you Iain and other posters. Its been a fault of ours for a few years now and cost us more than few goals. I've no problem with opponents scoring with great shots if they're put under pressure and hassled by our midfield but more often than not they aren't - they are allowed free shots on goal from the 20/25 m range. It might be a freak shot, it might be a deflection, it might be a goalie's error but why give them a chance in the first place? Crosses - we are notoriously bad at defending crosses. We don't have a big defence and when Lee Hollis is in goal we have a small keeper who doesn't like to venture off his line, for obvious reasons. So why do we allow opponents to pepper our goal with crosses? Earlier in the season it was an education watching Levante at Fir Park. They did not allow us to reach nearer than about 25m from goal ie within shooting distance and did not permit us to whip in crosses. If we had beee able to they a big enough defence to gobble them up anyway.