MelvinBragg

Good to see that Vale has followed in the footsteps of Bair in being a signing widely dismissed as being shite before they had kicked a ball for us only to go on and make a valuable contribution to the team. Am I being naive in thinking that maybe people will, while being allowed to be sceptical of signings ("his statistics aren't great"), hold fire on the "he's garbage, why have we signed him" chat this summer? Just a thought...

Unfashionable as it might be, I'm going for O'Donnell. Set up a goal, prevented one with his defensive header in the six yard box late in the second half, set up Spittal's chance in the first half. I've been a huge critic of his in the past, and this is not me saying give him a new contract. But give him credit where it's due, he was good tonight...

Other than Dhanda, none of them looked up to much at Fir Park a few weeks ago...

That thought struck me as well but you wonder if we could outbid St Johnstone? Or the likes of Kilmarnock or a promoted Dundee United? On that basis, unlikely...

You have gone all guns blazing here without knowing the circumstances. Does it occur to you that the club using the phrase "personal reasons" might suggest it might not be for football reasons? It might be but equally there may be a family issue that has developed which is none of our business. This might have been a mistake by the club but to go all out and criticise the club automatically without any knowledge of the situation (knowledge that we're not entitled to), seems like looking for an excuse to have a go...

That's a separate question but a valid one. The point I'm making here though is that getting points off the Old Firm isn't always a barometer for a successful league season. Would I like to get results against them more often? Of course. But I refuse to get hung up about it. Just think of it as having a couple of bogey teams...

Just as an aside on our recent terrible record vs the Old Firm (particularly Rangers).. A few of these teams who are of a similar size to ourselves but have a better record against the Old Firm have also suffered relegations in this period where we've been awful against the two headed monster. I'm not saying we shouldn't be aiming for both, but if it's staying up or a better record against them... I know which I prefer...

Paton seems untouchable...

Were we to get another six points this season (say one win and three draws), Ross County would need thirteen points to be level with us (and that's before goal difference comes into play). So you're looking for a team that's won 4 in 24 league games to win three and draw four of their last 14 games. Not impossible but form suggests otherwise. And for what it's worth, I reckon the way we're getting draws regularly, I suspect we'll pick up more than six points from our last thirteen games. So I reckon it might be pretty obvious soon that we'll stay up. Should that be enough to settle Kettlewell's future? Don't know. But I do think that if we only have six players contracted for next season, we really can't afford to wait til the season's over to make a decision on the manager....

Because Casey is no better than them?

What I'm hearing is, if I want to see Motherwell win on live TV then I need to move abroad...?

Aberdeen that lost at Darvel last season? Not suggesting that our result against Morton is acceptable but let's not pretend that we're the only top flight club to lose games against lower league sides, particularly away. Is it sore when it happens to us? Aye, but other clubs do it too...

My memory is terrible these days and I'm not trying to turn this into a 'We never win on TV' thread, but what was the last game we won on live TV? And, yes I know most of our games on TV are against the Old Firm...

We sign him, I'll burn Fir Park to the ground...

Power is 36. The only thing he did was make sure the game didn't flow. If that's the kind of midfielder we sign, I'm done.. To say Morton had a better midfield would be to suggest they used it. They bypassed it every time. The fact that simply launching it to the big man caused us so many problems, now that's the concern...

We couldn't get the ball to Bair in space for him to have a shot. Other than that, you weren't far off..

It was the worst kind of setup for us. They were happy to sit deep. Clearly they've watched us and plan A, B and C has been to play the ball behind the opposition defence for Bair to use his pace. Leave no space behind and we don't have anyone to unlock a defence. Maybe a winger who could go past a man would have been useful in this situation? Even at that, the greater concern would be how simple long balls in the air were causing so many problems.. A bad night at the office...

True but you have to factor Butcher being injured and the loss of the pace of Furlong and Johnston. Butcher was very much the talker and organiser of the back three. Unfortunately he's had to focus a bit on his own form as he had been out for so long. Furlong and, in particular, Johnston allowed us to defend a wee bit higher up the park due to both their recovery pace when we lost possession and the fact that teams were more wary of their pace going forward. Souare and O'Donnell don't bring the same pace. Things have improved since Butcher found his feet a bit and since Gent became a starter and I don't think it's a coincidence...

Given how he played I always felt Noel Hunt was more appropriate...

Team played reasonably well on Saturday (also reckon O'Donnell didn't have a bad game). I'd argue that tonight's game is huge so not one to gamble with untested players..

Maguire has already played for two clubs this season. So for him to play in the second half of the season, it'd have to be us or Kidderminster. And they don't want him back so...

I thought the consensus was that we played well last week and simply didn't take our chances? So why should an unchanged lineup be a surprise?

For those suggesting we "pushed the boat out" for Van Veen, how far should we have pushed? Are you 100% convinced he'd have got the goals to keep us up? So you're guaranteeing he's fit and in form? And guaranteeing he won't get injured? Any player can get injured, can we afford to have stretched our budget for a guy only for him to be injured? Pushing the boat out for Van Veen would have been lunacy...

Oh, I haven't forgotten. Neither will Stevie Hammell as Van Veen basically downed tools for Hammell's last month in charge...

Van Veen had an outstanding six months where everything he hit went in, in a team that Kettlewell had set up with the tactic 'Play to suit Van Veen'. Looking at the rest of his career, I wouldn't (as it appears Killie have and St Mirren were willing to do) have been pushing the boat out for him...