ScottW1886

It was Souleymene (sp) Maman who we had on trial. His brother Cherif Toure Maman played for Livingston.

Is the music going to be on sale?!

To be fair, nae place for sectarian comments at a Motherwell game. Be that anti-catholic or anti-protestant comments - leave that shite to the Old Firm support. By the sounds of it, a few idiots out of a majority involved the other night though, so no real need to demonise the entire support.

A lot of people questioning what impact throwing away a 4 goal lead will have on Hibs, and their ability to lift themselves for Sunday....... Is there an argument for Motherwell being lifted by clawing back a 4 goal deficit, and confident about Sunday? Every action has an opposite and equal reaction and all that!! Going to be a difficult game, no doubt, but I think we'll finish the season 4th.

MY HEART......... WAS BROKEN....... SOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOW!!! SOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOW!!! Roon' ye Nish!!

Ah, apologies!! Read that post too quickly

Park and Ride is a decent shout - 25 is the bus you want though, which stops right outside Tynecastle.

I would love to see Motherwell beat those Mackem bastards!!

Probably for the reasons I outlined earlier - Ruddy's saves and clean sheets. Granted, Michael Fraser hasn't had the luxury of an extended run in which to make saves and keep clean sheets. But there's your reason there.

What should Reynolds have done with the return pass that was spinning straight for the corner flag then? If he waits for the ball to go across him and onto his right foot the ball is beyond him and out the park....... The better option was Stevie Hammell who asks for the ball in plenty of space if you watch the highlights. As for the quality of the pass back, no different at all from Stephen Craigan's for the first goal - I await your criticism of that pass back from your hero.

Hmmmmmm... where to start with that yesterday. First goal: For me, he took too long over the passback - the ball to Saunders was on for a long time, but he ignored it and as a result was closed down, knocked the ball too far ahead of himself and slipped trying to retrieve the situation. Second goal: Poor passback maybe, but he still took a touch (well) and had a chance to clear the ball into the stand if he's not confident going up the park- as has been said, you can't score from a throw in. The incident where he dummied Daly would maybe suggest he had confidence right enough. Instead he's given Mark Reynolds an impossible ball to control, in an area where he's going to struggle to actually do anything and we lose a soft corner. First reaction was that you forget that and make sure you defend the corner, and I thought we did that very poorly. Now hearing that Coke may have been blocked we were perhaps unfortunate there. Third goal: The scorer should never have been able to run with the ball from where he did, and for as long as he did, so the blame lies more with the outfield players for me. That said, Fraser didn't deal with the shot very well for me. I actually feel sorry for him though, I've heard rumours that he hasn't settled down here and that he's unhappy for non-footballing reasons. John Ruddy has obviously had an extended run in the team, and made some vital saves and kept a record(?) number of clean sheets. Hence why his error at Tannadice, which was just as bad as Michael Fraser's yesterday, was forgiven a lot quicker. I'm sure if you looked at every game Ruddy has played, you'd probably find he's made similar errors over the course of the season, but just not in such a short space of time. Michael Fraser in the 5 games he's played in has had very little to do, but unfortunately has made some bad errors with what he has had to do. Is that down to a lack of ability, or sheer bad fortune? Ironically I think what he needs is an onslaught for 90 minutes where he's got a chance to make some saves and get some confidence. The ironic cheers and booing yesterday aren't helping him though. In the heat of the moment immediately after the first goal, the negative reaction was to be expected, but almost half an hour had passed before the ironic cheers started.

Terry Butcher wanted him to stay at Inverness, and wanted to sign him for Motherwell when he was here....... So Butcher does rate him. I wouldn't necessarily say that Gannon didn't rate him, but identified that the defence needed a more commanding presence behind them as we are susceptible to cross balls. There's not much of a height difference between Ruddy and Fraser, but Ruddy seems to command the area a bit better. As has been said, Michael Fraser will be in goals for the next couple of games at least and they are vital games for us, so let's get behind him.

Pretty sure that Giles Coke is hopeful of staying, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hateley staying. Jim O'Brien I'm not so sure about, but I get a feeling that he's more likely to stay than go.

Aye, but we can't let a chance to belittle John Ruddy pass by can we?

Ah, fair enough then. Although to be pedantic, he did say in and around the box, so that would be indirect!!

There was a post some way back that stated that folk on here will defend a player no matter what, regardless of how that person performs. And likewise, those that will pillory a player no matter what their level of performance. That's spot on for me. Last night, Michael Fraser made a tremendous save from Robbie Keane. Credit to him. He then made a poor decision just seconds later which almost gifted Celtic a goal. Criticism for that is fair enough I reckon. Praise where it's due, and criticism where it's warranted. I thought he was poor for both of the goals last night to be honest, particularly the second, and looked suspect with the high balls coming his way for a spell. The defence must be aware of this though, and should be dealing with the high balls a lot better. But to say that he cost us the game is ludicrous. Our back five last night are what they are, none of them are particularly dominant at taking cross balls or dealing with them, and we'll always be under pressure from them. In that respect, I'd play Ruddy ahead of Fraser due to his physical presence. We'll never know if he'd have prevented either of the goals last night, but I suspect he would have. Conversely, Keane may have beaten Ruddy with that chance.

Motherwell's goal last night came from a free kick taken by? A. Tom Hateley B. Stevie Hammell C. Michael 'Higuita' Fraser Tom Hateley regularly puts dangerous balls into the box that cause the defence and goalkeepers problems. He's doing fine.

Wouldn't be surprised if we took a pounding tonight due to a backlash from Saturday's performance. Equally wouldn't be surprised if we won tonight. All hinges on the first goal, or possibly the lack of a first goal for a while for me. If Celtic score early I can see that settling the nerves and we could be up against it. We score early, or keep it to 0-0 for a while and the fans will start getting restless and the tension could get to their players. 2-0 Motherwell.

If only!! Vodka in that there glass of his! Good pictures there, none of the air guitar duo though!

Was the voting structure not changed to stop that happening? i.e the Old Firm blocking motions. Used to require an 11-1 vote, but was changed to 10-2, or maybe just a majority actually, to stop the Old Firm doing this?

Ruddy's out for the next 2 or 3 games with his injury.......... Fraser will come in and do fine.

2 different nights then, the one after the Aberdeen game was the official club night was it not? 5th April was the Supporter's Association POTY dance. The one on Saturday looks to be a combination of both judging by the initial post.

The POTY dance 2 years ago was on the 5th April, the day we beat Celtic at Parkhead....

It's been around this time (of year) for the last couple of years........ I'm sure it's more to do with the availability of the centenary suite, rather than an attempt to dish out the awards early. Ruddy POTY Hateley YPOTY

Re the 10 years continual service question, pretty sure that's not a hard and fast rule anywhere but just a tradition. Colin O'Neill received a testimonial but couldn't have had 10 years service, that was more due to the fact he had to retire through injury. John Kennedy is getting a testimonial for the same reasons at Celtic.......