tottenmfc

"Somewhat questionable"?! You really can't be serious with that chat! You can add the Rangers game and the home cup game against 10 man Aberdeen to the list. If you want to look at the league, the 3 pumpings from Dundee United were pretty bad too.

I think the point Al is making is that we have been a winning team for years but some people still point back to the 'dark days' when we were fighting relegation and suggest that we should just accept one high profile embarrassment after another because we're only wee sh**ty Motherwell. Continually accepting failure does nothing to stop it happening again. I appreciate that you are firmly in the 'happy clapper' club but for a professional team to lose over 2 legs to a team as poor as Stjarnan with a decent prize at stake is unacceptable. As with everything, you can make excuses if you try hard enough but I prefer to call a spade a spade and it would be refreshing if McCall and the team adopted that approach too!

I'm not as concerned about what is said as I am about what happens off the back of this shambles. The whole squad needs a serious wake-up call and the manager needs to lead in that respect... unfortunately there is nobody at the club capable / willing to ask serious questions of him. There are very few (if any) players in the squad that are irreplaceable and perhaps some of them need to realise that - as many have said, we have no right to win any game but as supporters we have the right to expect the players and management to give their all and dare I say show some professionalism. On the evidence of the last 2 games and the apparent lack of a proper pre-season, this is clearly not happening at the moment and a serious shake-up is required.

To be fair, some of our fans seemed to be more concerned with dishing out abuse to a player who played with us on loan briefly and was never offered the chance to stay than with the game. If I was in his position I would have did exactly the same. For what it's worth I reckon Higginbotham could definitely improve the squad we have at the moment simply by offering a bit of width and creativity but that's just my opinion.

My thoughts exactly! I know they're in the middle of their season but we have a squad of full-time athletes so over 2 legs if we don't do the business then it will be a complete embarrassment. I appreciate that it's "11 against 11" and I am well aware of what happened against Albion Rovers but we really should be disposing of this mob with a bit to spare. As for their 8-0 aggregate win - that was against another part-time side from Wales who were also still in pre-season so I'm not sure I would read too much into that.

What he said... the Albania chat etc. is tedious in the extreme!

I still don't see what the long term plan is for the Well Society. If they had raised all the required cash today and took control of the club, what happens then? Do we just use the cash to sustain the losses and hope that Rangers and Hearts return to the top league next year and solve all our problems? Do the fans need to keep paying over and above the standard outlays for tickets / merchandise etc. to keep the club going?

Someone somewhere seems to have created the myth that Paddy McCourt is some sort of footballing genius and I have yet to see any evidence that he is even remotely decent. If he was Scottish he'd have been ridiculed and hounded out by the Celtic fans when he was there but since he's Irish apparently he's brilliant!

Seems to basically be saying that our income is falling because we have no league sponsor and are giving cash back to TV companies (which is because they guys in charge of the game are not doing their jobs properly) but rather than deal with that the easiest way out is to look for the same hardcore support to put their hands in their pockets again. The target of the society always seemed high to me based on the size of our support and the current financial climate - I haven't invested myself because I have other things to be doing with the cash rather than essentially making a donation to a football club. I may have also missed something but what happens if we do reach the £1.5m target and the society does take control of the club? If we maintain current budgets we apparently keep losing money and if we have a couple of average seasons the £1.5m won't be long disappearing surely?

Sligo Rovers then Club Brugge then Hull City... not bothered who we get in the groups

I think the whole idea of a pitch invasion is traditionally that the fans are delighted about winning something / european qualification / avoiding relegation and want to celebrate on the pitch with the players. None of those things were achieved by us winning last night and to be honest I find it ridiculous that people feel the need to do it in any situation anyway.

You're not seriously suggesting that Motherwell vs Man Utd in a Europa League qualifier would attract a crowd of 35,000 are you?! If such a situation ever arose, we'd probably do well to get a sell-out at Fir Park!

Meanwhile I'm sure you'll be celebrating wildly that a poor wee victimised team with 140 odd years of unbroken history has triumphed over the 'haters'.

Should also add that I think we will pump Hearts on Saturday... 4-0

I'm well aware that at least 99% of your posts are designed to get a reaction out of others but this post is utter pish even for you! As has been pointed out, hindsight is a wonderful thing but even with hindsight we have basically re-built our team this season and sit 3rd in the league, still well in with a chance of finishing 2nd... what would it take for you to actually be satisfied? There have been a fair few low points over the season as far as performances go but there have also been some definite high points as well as a fair few battling performances to dig out 3 points (which Aberdeen have done in many of their games too!). To compare this season to the Malpas days can only be designed to get a bite and fair play you've managed it but you really do talk baws.

First chance I've had to post since the game but have to say I find the Higginbotham chat a bit ridiculous. The guy was a bit part player on loan with us for 6 months who did nothing particularly wrong, actually had a couple of decent games and scored one of the goals of the season yet he has been given abuse from 'Well fans in every game he's played against us. Whilst I don't particularly care about him getting abuse (even if I personally feel it's unwarranted), I do find it ridiculous that the same guys in the stand dishing it out get all upset when he has a good game and celebrates in front of them. He was hardly out of order and in his position I'd definitely have done the exact same... it all adds to the atmosphere / banter at the football yet some people still seem to be raging about it after the game! As for the game... not exactly a great performance but dug out a fine win from an entertaining match so have to be happy with that!

Pretty sure that every situation we find ourselves in there's always someone on here who says "we don't do well when..." Apparently we struggle when we have too much of a break, when we have too many games at the one time, when we play teams we should beat, when we play teams needing a win, when we play big games against teams around us, when we have a poor crowd and when we have a big crowd. It's amazing we pick up any points! Personally, I think the break will work in our favour as there seemed to be a few injuries in the squad before it. 3-1 Motherwell Anier (x2) and Sutton for us Taylor for them

I also find it a bit bizarre that Graeme Smith has even been mentioned on this thread... according to wikipedia he made 127 appearances in 4 seasons so was pretty much a regular and was part of the McGhee team. His penalty save in Nancy was about the only highlight as far as the match went and I actually thought he won the club poty / ppoty award around that time too?

I would say that rather than him being the golden boy (as proved by the ridiculous booing whenever he returns to Fir Park) you seem to have adopted him as your player to hate from early on and nothing will ever change that. I can't remember every arial challenge he went into in his Motherwell career but I would bet that you can't either so I'm not sure if there is actually any evidence to support the fact that he "was regularly beaten in the air by players smaller than him". Going off on a slight tangent, it seems foolish to write a player off based on arial ability considering I've witnessed you challenge for a few headers in your time and don't think I've seen you win one. Also, shepherding a player can often be much more effective than diving in and making rash challenges... but maybe that's just my opinion. We can at least agree on one point though... that striker for Aalesund was incredibly pish.

The only player I would 100% say should be included in this is Bob f*****g Malcolm... an absolute abomination of a footballer and by most (all?) accounts an absolute bellend aswell.

Had a feeling you would appear with this sort of comment. I admit I was struggling to think of centre halfs that really stood out in my time watching the team but as you know I'm all about total football so a ball playing centre half with a bit of pace seemed to fit the bill

Started regularly going to 'Well games when I was 10 / 11 I think and now 26 so the players that I remember will be fairly recent but my effort is this: Randolph Corrigan - Hutchinson - Reynolds - Hammell Murphy - Valakari - Lasley - Elliott Coyne - McFadden Subs: Ruddy Craigan Law Clarkson Higdon Possibly more my favourite eleven rather than 'greatest' eleven but never mind!

I've had the same debate with myself and while a few quid doesn't make that much difference it's maybe just enough to sway me and there has to be a point where you think it just isn't worth it to sit in the freezing cold. Changed my mind about going several times today though so I'll probably leave it to the last minute to decide!

Didn't realise it's being shown on Alba but it's very unlikely I'd be able to avoid hearing the score!

Like most posters on this thread I think we'll win by a couple of Saturday but if we don't this place will go into meltdown with MJC gloating about he was right and we're all doomed. I appreciate football is 11 vs 11 and anything can happen but surely no reasonable person can look at league position / form / squad and come to the conclusion that they fancy Hearts to win! On another note, I think I'll be giving this one a miss based on the £24 ticket price. Will decide tomorrow but £24 seems a bit on the steep side and since I can't stand Hearts it's definitely more cash than I'd like to give them in their time of need.