The African

And a blast from the past, Stuart Baxter?

Maurice Malpas might lay claim to that honour.

Well that was shite. Predictable shite, but shite none the less. I think I am done with this until we make the necessary changes at the top to try and arrest this slide to, and beyond abject mediocrity.

The most disappointing thing from my perspective was the fact that we were obviously underprepared for what should have been considered an extremely important fixture. We are all aware that it is our first competitive fixture of the season, but this fails as an excuse because we were so obviously aware of it. Whatever we did to prepare, it obviously wasn't successful. As for hopes for progressing, we were behind for over an hour and threatened very like. It would be very optimistic to think that seven days will make too much of a difference in performance.

Glad it is Sligo, if nothing else for the 'well fans who had taken the plunge and sorted travel and accommodation already. Hopefully we can be ready for our first competitive match of the season and make it through to the next round. I do think that the fact that the opposition are half way through their season gives them a bit of an advantage though. We need to be ready for a bit of a battle.

Only in the UK where the show's title had to be changed due to it also being the name of a brand of cat food.

If we were seriously looking for a left back, do people think we would have resigned the two that we already have?

We have no real history/ tradition of playing in stripes, but I really quite like this.

I think there are enough differences from the situation St Johnstone found themselves in to say that that is not the case here. For instance, they lost a couple of key players just before the transfer deadline and were unable to replace them with anything like the same quality. We are also, unfortunately, not artificially buoyed by unprecedented success from last season. I do think that relying on the core of a squad that faltered so alarmingly in the second half of the season shows a degree of optimism in their ability, or the hope that they will improve, that I do not share. Relying on theist of the league to remain pretty awful seems both lazy and foolhardy.

I was thinking more along financial lines, but now you mention it......

Good luck to him with impending fatherhood. He has done alright for himself career wise, since leaving Fir Park. A good example of what a move to Motherwell can result in.

Nice work if you can get it. Is he still shagging a Saturday?

Can possibly see Burrows going on to do something at a national level. As for Lasley, a great playing career for us and a fabulous servant to the club. I can do nothing but wish him all the very best in his new venture and admit that his leaving has already achieved the almost impossible in that I now don't have quite such as seething hatred for St Mirren as I had before.

Or we beat Celtic. Dropping points against Dundee United suggests they are not infallible.

Gallagher must be odds on to end up at St Mirren, assuming they are in the SPL and Robinson is still in charge. He was great for us for a season, then blotted his copybook with all the issues over his contract. I can't see him coming back here, though stranger things have happened.

Based on nothing more than blind hope and the fact that amazingly, despite only one league win since Boxing Day, somehow the results have conspired in our favour to keep us in the race, I think we will get something from the game. For the aforementioned good fortune to continue, sooner or later it has to happen in a game we are actually involved in, so why not now? Realistically, another inept performance and result and our season is virtually over.

Is there any real benefit for Scottish football if Rangers somehow get to a European final? If their fans behave as they did the last time they achieved this feat, then there is probably more chance that we will all be banned from Europe for a couple of years. As for moving the game, I assume we had next to bugger all input into the decision and Burrows, who is a Motherwell man to his core, is stuck with having to try and put a positive spin on it for appearances sake. A complete no win situation for the club. My sympathies lie wholeheartedly with any and all of our support who have been mucked around by the decision, but the truth of the matter is that the people who had the power and influence over the situation don't give a monkey's cuss what we think.

Isn't it funny that the footballing Gods desert you when you are on a bad run. You cannot just rock up and think that a bad run will end. You need to do something to bring about better results.

Relegation might seem far fetched, thanks Dundee, but I would not be particularly confident going into a playoff on the back of recent performances. I think the post split fixtures could be very uncomfortable if we are less than six points clear of St Johnstone. Hence the importance of these next two fixtures. We have little confidence and no momentum, so all we can hope for is that the international break has, for once, done us a favour.

A watershed game for our season. Our poor run has taken us to this point and if it continues weoukd find ourselves completely in the mire. People who simply think that our bad run is bound to end at some point are missing the obvious -that change is required because simply rinse and repeat isn't working. If the manager fails to address this, and doesn't get it right, then he will surely pay the price in the very near future. His penchant for continued team changes should not be misconstrued as attempts at change. It is simply akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic If we are looking at securing our future in the division for another year, and our form this year suggests anything else is pie in the sky, then a point will not be the worst outcome. The gap between us and eleventh place is useful, but I think we have to do more than simply rely on Dundee and St Johnstone to keep dropping points. The example of Hibs under Terry Butcher should be enough to make us realise that we are in a relegation dogfight.

Odd that neither Kelly or Clark were given debuts over the two fixtures. Either the manager holds such store in keeping the unbeaten run going and having some momentum and confidence going into key qualifying matches, though you wonder what two draws where we lose late goals to give up a winning position does for that, or he really just doesn't rate either option as a viable replacement for a 39 year old.

Whilst you never know what goes on behind the scenes with contract offers etc, the O'Hara situation is one where a possible fifty fifty decision on a new deal is taken out of our hands. His departure will at least free up a wage and rumour has it that he was on a decent amount by our standards. He hasn't been bad for us, when available, but like a few others on here, I cannot get too excited by his departure. As for playing him in any remaining fixtures, we are paying him so, if it is to our advantage, why not? Lanier has been playing okay and he is also on a pre contract elsewhere.

As I see it, we have three options available to us with regard to Alexander. Option one, sack him now. Option two, let him finish the season and then sack him, trusting in the fact that the rest of the league, out with the Old Firm, are equally rank so our Premiership status is pretty much secured. Option three, continue with him for a further year, in the hope that things turn out alright. Option one has little to recommend it, despite the run of poor performances and results being such that it would have resulted in the trigger being squeezed at other clubs in our division. I like to think that one of the reasons we have stayed so long in the top flight is that, as a club, we have not been too quick to change manager, and history has shown that clubs that choose this route more often get it wrong than right. Throw in that there is no obvious replacement, the season is nearly over so the likelihood of any worthwhile " new manager bounce" is limited, and that his new contract will make this expensive and this option looks unlikely. Some might even contend that we could still finish fourth, but I think recent performances make this argument both spurious and delusional. Option two seems the obvious route to take. As long as the fates don't conspire to somehow land us in the bottom two. A few more crap performances and results to add to the argument that we gave Alexander every chance to turn things around and it just isn't working. He might even do the honourable thing and walk away and save us a few bob in compensation (yeah? Nah, doubtful). Option three doesn't really appeal. Yes, the league is generally poor quality, and, as our league position shows, we are probably not the worst, except on current form, but to continue as we are for another season seems like a recipe for relegation. Alexander seems to have run out of ideas and is what he is repeatedly trying with 4-3-3 isn't working. Getting someone new in for the start of the next season seems the obvious solution. Yes, getting rid of him will cost us, and there is no obvious candidate for what will always be a difficult job , given the state of our league and our limited finances, but continuing as we are is not a long term option that fills me with any hope.

Not a huge fan of our current away kit, but perhaps it is time to acknowledge the possible financial restrictions on fans over these difficult times and keep our kits current for more than a single season? Longer term, I like the idea of having three kits, of which we change one every season, although I understand that changes to kit suppliers and sponsors may make this untenable. I would suggest that our first choice kit remain the traditional amber with the claret hoop/band, our alternate kits would comprise a mainly white kit, my favourite and great under floodlights, and a further kit in all claret ( though the only all claret kit I have liked was the short-lived Canterbury effort) alternating with a different colour scheme every three years.

Our bad run has to end sme time but I have doubt that it will be with this fixture. St Johnstone are in deep trouble and their need for the points should be all the motivation they need. If they lose, they will have very little chance of catching us. Right now, I'd take a point.