daver

I was by no means suggesting that people shouldn't express an opinion, indeed it is my opinion that some people are going a bit over the top with their opinions regarding Gannon. I wasn't necessarily meaning seibsbarmyarmy as we all know there have been plenty of posts lavishing extravagant praise on Gannon on other threads. I have been impressed with his short time in charge so far but no more than I was after a similar amount of time with McGhee who I don't think anyone is likely to be proclaiming as a legend anytime soon. Hopefully I'll be even more impressed tomorrow if he's giving a post-match interview after an opening-day victory.

When McGhee arrived he did sign the sort of players he was talking about i.e. Porter and Hughes so at that point he appeared to be following through on his words. I would dearly love Gannon's team to play as well as McGhee's team did for his first 6 months. As we all know McGhee was not as well thought of when he left and some weak points to his management were all too visible. I just think it's a bit too early to be going over the top with Gannon just because he talks a good game.

Steaua Bucharest probably didn't do too much research on us for the 2nd leg so didn't know to single out Jim O'Brien. Every team in the SPL will know he isn't a right back and will go all out for him.

He's been quoted previously as saying he was struck by how lacking we were in physical presence we were in the first Llanelli game. Other than Jennings, the players he has brought in have a bit of stature about them which he seems to feel is needed.

When McGhee came in everybody was impressed by how well he talked about the game and his comments about the team were absolutely lapped up. Then again, he was hot on the heels of a manager with a completely different approach to the media. Like McGhee, Gannon will be judged by the successes of his team, not over one season but over his total managerial reign. I've got nothing against him and hope he does extremely well but I think some people need to calm down slightly.

Nobody going for Michael Fraser in goal then? No, didn't think so.

I admit I'm not generally too optimistic when it comes to predicting our results but St. Johnstone have played quite a few friendlies with reasonable results. I'm hoping our Europa games will give us an edge on fitness and we'll get a narrow win but the score draw wouldn't surprise me.

Ah well, the papers would just have called him Philliben anyway.

Much as it's difficult to hear anything else, the bing-bong police message before the game is the only thing you can make out. Unless you're in the main stand there's nothing to go on fire anyway and their PA system works reasonably well from what I can remember when moved from the Cooper.

Yeah, never thought of that. So you wouldn't have had folk looking to sleep on your living room floor!

O'Brien is good at getting forward from right back but we would have to hope he would never need to defend. I think if Steaua had done their research on him they would really have had a go - you can be assured SPL teams would. I see others weren't impressed but I thought Reynolds did very well as a holding midfielder last night. It was good to see a bit of height and pace in midfield and he cut out a lot of balls before they got to the defence. He maybe isn't commanding enough in the air to cut it as a centre-half against some of the bigger teams but he has enough for that position. McGhee was crying out for something like that and he tried Malcolm before getting Klimpl but he would never have tried Reynolds because he wouldn't have taken a chance on one of the young lads at centre half (or didn't rate them). On the few occassions McLean was fit and able to play he was either used in event of one of the others being unavailable or was somehow shoe-horned in to get a bit of height in the side.

Doesn't sound good for the first few games of the season then! Seriously, I think he has still to bring in a few players who will add a bit of experience before the beginning of the season but they won't be match-fit straght away. I don't think any of the new players are up to speed and that is why none of them played 90 mins. last night. It's great to see the youngsters coming through and showing they can add to the squad and the team but I think he'll rotate them as you can get a bit of inconsistency with too many youngsters. Also, they might be young and fast, but they often don't have the stamina yet and a few of them were on their last legs towards the end last night.

Well, they will certainly fancy their chances of reaching the league stages and their fans have won a watch also with a trip to Dublin to play St. Pats. Certainly leaves you wondering "what if" and "if only".

Their penalty was right in front of me and unfortunately the ref was correct although I've not watched the highlights yet. It doesn't matter if O'Brien's challenge was intentional or not - if he fouls him it's a penalty. That's what you get playing a winger at that position - I'd be more tempted to look at Renold's half-hearted attempt at the corner flag where he didn't get close enough to him.

No idea on amounts but I think it was used to buy gym equipment, training gear etc rather than provide funds which the club could have used to pay debts etc. The only thing I can say in Pat Nevin's favour was he scored that late winner against Hearts.

Very admirable donating £1 a head to this worthwhile charity - would collection buckets at the turnstile not also seem a good idea to let individuals donate?

I'm no expert but is that not the proper term and it generally gets shortened to being in adminstration? Basically the administrator never has any intention of running the club forever (although quite a few were keen for Brian Jackson to stay) and only does so in the interim until a solution is found ie. new buyer, agreement with creditors or liquidation of assetts. Hence the term interim administration. As I say, I'm no expert.

In the first days and weeks we really didn't know and it was pretty scary stuff. The first game after the announcement (and a few days before the job cuts) was down at Kilmarnock and it was really emotional for the fans and the players - you could tell by the way they lifted their performance AND celebrated the resounding victory. There were quite a few lumps in the throat in the, much larger than usual, travelling support when singing "We'll support you evermore" and "So please don't take my Motherwell away". The main differences between our situation and Livingston's has been the stance of the chairman and the actions of the fans. Yes, John Boyle got us into the mess but he also took the majority of the hit to get us out of it. Livingston's backers the first time around certainly had the resources and must have taken a hit but they appear to have sold it on (still with a debt burden) to people who may have resources but aren't willing to take the hit. Motherwell supporters came in out in numbers and got behind the Well Worth Saving campaign with collections and fundraising to try and help the club. Mr. Massone recently commented that the Livingston fans raised in £149 in a fundraising bid. Maybe I'm being harsh on them and they've given only up the ghost with their situation dragging on so long but they're not turning out in numbers and I think, with them being a relatively new club, they've been a fad for many people as long as their success lasted. While Motherwell don't have a huge support, there is a much wider support within the local community due to their long tradition. Much of our administration plight seems very fresh in the memory and I can only hope whoever is in charge in the future is never going to be as foolish again.

I have a friend who is a Thistle supporter who tells me that game is one of the real highlights of many Thisle fans' time watching football. I seem to remember when they equalised, you just knew they would go on and win it. They had a good support through that day as well.

Accies seem to be chancing their luck. Falkirk laughed off their bid for Arfield who said he wasn't interested in going there. By the sounds of things we've done similar. Accies held out to get as much as possible for their best youngster and then expect other clubs to sell their prized assets on the cheap.

With Craigan playing in Poland the day before, does it not all seem rather unlikely?

But do you think people telling them that makes them play any better?

Yes, they've got a big car park which isn't cheap and takes ages to get out of but then you're straight on the motorway and there is not much else nearby. Best to get a few of you in the car to make it worthwhile.

I know football is to expensive and students are retting a raw deal here but I think, at £20 standard entry, St. Johnstone will probably be the cheapest away ground this season (apart from an occassional one-off price reduction). Still don't think we'll fill our stand for a league game though. Let's face it, there's a lot of people come out of the woodwork for cup away days.

If he turns out to be as good as we hope then there could be an element of speculating to accumulate. The fee required may well reduce depending on how long his contract has to go with Everton - they may well be willing to recoup what they can. Of course, if he does well for us then he's also in the shop window and one of the bigger clubs could easily step in at the New Year.