gary_411

The walk from Livingston North is much more straight forward than from South, and there's definitely a taxi rank there too. As for the game, I think we should be confident of a win, but not thinking it's a case of just turning up. Went to watch Livingston in pre-season and they were utter pish. Admittedly it was pre-season so you can't take much from that but they really had absolutely nothing. Simon Mensing played centre-back and played more of the ball than anyone else; any team having him as their creative outlet is going to struggle. Their top player Scougall was meant to be away in the summer but they seem to have done well to hang on to him. As promising as he might be I don't think he's anything Carswell, Lawson or Lasley can't handle! Hopefully McFadden, Vigurs and McHugh can get a bit of playing time and prove themselves. Should a good away cup tie, especially if we get the win we're capable of. Been a long time since I was at Almondvale for a well game- still got fond memories of Kevin McBride's winner on Hogmanay, what a day that was as a 14 year old.

Dundee United have announced a partnership with a new stewarding company, replacing the clowns responsible for ruining many an away day for well fans in the past. Great to see the initiative of the guys behind the HHES group has made some sort of positive impact. Will hopefully improve the situation at Tannadice as it's a decent away day when you're not being treated like shite.

It's probably not going to get any fairer than the proposed set up though. Anyway, it's all fucked now. We've still got 11-1 along with all the other crap we really need rid of.

I don't think 12-12-18 is as bad as once feared. The fact of the matter is we don't have enough decent teams for a larger league right now; we might have to put up with having to play a handful of teams 4 times a season until we can expand thanks to the fairer distribution of wealth. Who knows, it might even be a great new format in the meantime. Regardless, clubs can't currently afford to play 6-8 less matches per season. We're also at last going to have a single governing body, something the Scottish game has been in dire need of for years; we shouldn't be sniffing at an opportunity to change this. The main concern is the voting structure, but does it really matter? Not everything is 11-1, and what are people worried about happening under this system? There's enough change under these proposals to keep us going for a while. Even if Rangers are back in the top flight in a few years time, what are they (along with Celtic) going to be able to do under this voting structure that we're supposed to be worried about? I'm not hugely positive about the reconstruction but there are so many positives with few real negatives in the package being proposed; the clubs seem to genuinely be putting Scottish football first. We're all so keen to talk down the game and bemoan everything that's wrong with the current setup, maybe it's time for a change.

I think murder is a bit harsh but he definitely wasn't as solid as some people would have you believe today. I think he's a very good footballer, and is a great attacking threat (more than Hammell at least) but left us a bit exposed at times yesterday. Having him and Faddy (who was at times very slow in tracking back with Van Zanten) on the same wing was very risky and we were lucky not to be punished. The opening goal came from that right wing; as the rest of the defence came out to cover, Newton was suddenly free in case too much space and could fire in the shot that pulled them level. I think ZFA is a brilliant player for us to have in the near future, and I think he is a better defender than most let on but at the moment he needs a bit of time to become the fullback we're after.

We were poor going forward, Ojamaa wasn't at the races, and McFadden gave the ball away very cheaply meaning our attacks kept breaking down. Aberdeen had their chances but were so poor, they never looked like taking them. A draw was probably fair enough but we could perhaps have had a penalty, plus a good chance for Law on the counter, to win it; still a decent point. Hibs game is pretty big now, hope we can get the ball down and perform back at Fir Park on Friday!

That is utter nonsense I'd say the 3-2 win against St Johnstone, 3-2 win against Hibs and the 4-1 win against Aberdeen, just off the top of my head. Do people think Hateley is worse than Stevie Hammell? If you're going to criticise Hateley for apparently not being able to tackle, not being able to beat a man and not being able to whip in a perfect cross every time then surely Hammell has to come in for the exact same criticisms, not that either deserve it, in my opinion.

20 quid for a student ticket is comfortably the dearest in the league. And living in Edinburgh means I can't buy from Fir Park to bring it down to the bargain price of £18!

The 2 games against Hearts this season have been pretty pish so hoping for a bit more excitement on Saturday. The boys deserve a big following after last night's heroics, and back to back wins would really make up for some poor results in February. Apparently we've not won back to back since September? Zaliukas and a host of others are out injured for Hearts so I'd expect us to take them apart on Saturday but you can never expect an easy 3 points in this league. With McGlynn off we can really kick the Hearts when they're down; hope we don't fail to take another great opportunity.

Henrik's said himself he doesn't see himself as a striker, he plays in the hole; if we were open to the idea of us playing 1 up front we'd perhaps see him there more often.

Nicky Law is one of the best players I've seen at FP and is a real match winner, but he can't tackle at all. He can barely even shut down a cross never mind stop it coming in, and you can't really get away with that in centre mid. Higginbotham doesn't look any less lightweight so its just as well Carswell gets himself stuck in. We are great going forward but its coasting us a bit defensively; no wonder we've shipped so many goals this season. That aside, I don't think there's any chronic reason why we under perform, its just a tight league and when players have an off day (as a few did last night) you can get caught out. We have more than enough in our locker to beat Ross County at the weekend, a win would be huge.

Christ can you imagine the buzz there'll be if/when Faddy gets brought on as a sub.

He was never going to win the header, or even get near enough to force a miss so looks like he was trying to cover the header back across the face?

How are Carswell and Hetherington deadwood?

FWIW I thought Tom Hateley had one of his best games today, and it was in midfield. One of the only ones that got stuck in and tried to get us playing football in the first half. Little surprise that when the rest of the team did similar in the second half we made a game of it and nearly won it. When the penalty was given I didn't care who was hitting it, I didn't think we'd score. Fair play to Hateley for stepping up; it didn't look like a shite penalty (as Murphy against Aberdeen was) but a good save. It's a missed opportunity at parkhead but I'm pleased with the performance against the Old Firm for once. Henrik and Murphy looked good when they got on the ball and much as I think we'll miss Jamie when he goes I think we can cope with the rest of the attacking options we have.

In the same boat myself, what's the script?

Any way to get tickets for this game now?

No bad considering we don't have a plan B. Once the back 3 got settled in each half they looked pretty solid and it allowed Hateley and ZFA to perform without getting caught out defensively too much. Don't think it'll work every week, especially against teams playing with just one up front but it's pleasing to see McCall has something more in his locker and to an extent, we have the players to fit more than one system. The attacking play today was glorious.

Look how happy the wee Spanish kids are to get a Motherwell scarf for Christmas.

If you think Ojamaa offers nothing, then you're not watching the games. I could even argue that Ramsden and Kerr offer something, but I'd be wasting my breath. Also, anyone who wants the likes of Jimmy Calderwood in to manage Motherwell needs their head checked.

Some of the abuse Hateley gets is embarrassing, quickly overtaking Higdon. People are very quick to forget how consistent he has been in a Well shirt until recent months, and shouldn't be calling for him to get to fuck, IMO. He gets a lot of stick from the folk around my seat in the Davie Cooper, and I know a lot of this stems from who his Dad is. People are on his back from the first whistle and much like Higdon they only notice the poor passes. His link up with Himphrey is, in general, very good. Most other teams in the league would like to have a full-back of his quality and I know of plenty people who praise his set-piece delivery, although it has admittedly been pish lately.

Strange how different people see the game, thought he played well. Ran himself into the ground as usual and set up the second goal. A very good outball to have and hassles defenders constantly; you could see how much we missed him once he went off, even just for 10 minutes.

It seems it only takes one fud on the radio to say the game was dull and everyone starts believing it. Yesterday was decent for a 0-0 draw I'd say. People are obsessed with talking down our game, often unnecessarily, that's what's suffocating football in Scotland.

I wouldn't have myself down as a happy clapper, but I don't think we were that bad today, and probably deserved at least a goal for our efforts. Higdon held the ball up brilliantly and created space for Murphy, Humphrey and Ojamaa on several occasions. McDonald had to make a few very good saves to keep us out, and as for poor delivery, I remember Higdon having two balls right on his head in the first half from Humphrey, Murphy miss-heading from about 8 yards (unmarked) from a corner, Hutch heading down to gift Higdon a chance and then Humphrey only just over-hit a cross to Higdon in front of the cooper in the second half. We were absolutely all over Hearts for periods in that game. Unfortunately, Ojamaa had a bit of an off day. He ran himself into the ground and did try to create time and time again, but just had no luck as we had last week. That's the difference really; the performances were not that different between this week and last, just the finishing. We kept a clean sheet for once and are still in a very nice position in the league, just 4 points adrift of the top.

Yesterday was a lot worse than Wednesday but we've got a point (and a goal) out of it at least. Ojamaa was everywhere again yesterday and at the centre of almost everything we created, deserves to stay in the team. I thought Higdon again won a lot and almost always found a Motherwell player with his lay off. I thought Lasley and Law were poor yesterday, offered very little to the defence or the wingers in terms of passing options and seemed more than happy to leave all the movement to Henrik coming deep. I think Humphrey or Murphy need to make way for a third midfielder (ideally Carswell) so that we can actually create from the middle and be sound defensively too. I don't know if a 4-3-1-2 is the answer, but given Law, Murphy and Ojamaa all like to move wide its not going to strip us of width as much as you'd think. It would also allow for Murphy to play alongside Higdon with Henrik buzzing about behind them, getting the best out of our three forwards, hopefully. No-one can have a go at McCall if he changes it next week but if he opts for the same system things start to look a bit hopeless.