Caley Stan

I hear Terry Butcher and Maurice Malpas did a fine job building a Motherwell team from scratch after a difficult start.

I agree with Mantis.

Does she really give you points for your performance?

Vigurs was dropped yesterday. We all saw potential in Vigurs but his release was hardly the turning point in our fortunes.

I think this is an important point. From what i've seen of our home form this season, we haven't been playing badly but there has been a nervousness about our play which has resulted in some basic mistakes. This is entirely understandable. Most of the players are on one-year deals and their own futures are dependent on them having a good season. This is a heavy load for many of the young, inexperieced, previously rejected players that have come in. Hopefully the fall-out from yesterday's result will be an emphasis on longer term thinking from everyone. We aren't going to be promoted so we have to look at building a team for the future.

Here's a quote from a QoS fan on P&B:

If County get promoted, maybe they'll sign him and make him their highest paid player.

So have i but this home form just cannot be defended. I saw signs of promise in the team early in the season but the lack of of experience has hit us and confidence must be rock bottom. It's going to be long hard season.

Robbo said that in the first minute and hasn't mentioned it since. I'd be very surprised if the formation is any different to the one that Butcher has played in almost every game since taking charge - a 4-4-2 with one of the strikers (Sanchez) dropping deep to look for the ball.

I'm surprised at how little game time he's had as i thought his experience would prove useful in this division. It seems that Butcher is commited to playing with two creative winger types in the wide positions and i don't see Roy fitting into this system anywhere. He should stick at it though, the recent resurrection of Russell Duncan shows that the manager can change his mind.

Same team as yesterday with the exception of Tokely for Proctor and i'd like to see this team given a run until Imrie and Odhiambo come back...... ....or we could make 5 changes and play a 2-3-3-2 formation as Renegade suggests.

Glad to see Russell getting a bit of recognition for his performance. Our lightweight centre midfield has been our biggest problem so far`this season and we looked far more solid yesterday. Hopefully Butcher sees it the same way and Duncan stays in the team.

I think County can feel a little hard done by as they had a couple of decent chances in the second half and we didn't create a great deal. I thought we controlled the first half and it's a shame we couldn't kick on from there. The goal was indeed a fluke but as Robbo said shortly after the game, flukes like that can be the turning point in a club's season. Let's hope so.

I think Hayes was very lucky not to get sent off for kicking out off the ball shortly after the elbow (or was it a shoulder?) incident. The ref let a lot of things go today, preferring to give players a good talking to rather than producing cards. Vigurs should've been booked for his tackle on Eagle early in the first half, as should Russell for halfing Vigurs shortly afterwards. Good to see an few crunching tackles in the derby though. The last one was far too tame.

There are a few guys on P&B complaining that money generated from this Cup should stay in the SFL. Apparently, this will be the first time in the competion's 18-year history that the final has been played in an SPL ground. I take the point, but given that there will definitely be a Highland team in the final, Perth does seem to be most neutral venue.

It's and interesting squad and i'm glad to see call-ups for few younger players and Fox with a few of the older ones making way. Alexander and Weir won't be serious options come the next campaign but Paul Hartley (who turns 33 in a couple of weeks) can still do a job and i'm surprised he's not in the squad. Is he injured? Also, i assume Burley and Smith have made an agreement to rest Kenny Miller for this one.

First rule of smartarsery Alex - YOU MUST BE RIGHT! Detention for you boy. Is it practise or practice?

I don't buy that. We're 7 games into the tightest league in Britain. The league positions of Queens, Dundee and Dunfermline only tell us that they have had a good, average and bad start to the season respectively. We still don't know who will challenge for the league this season but i still think Dundee and Dunfermline will be up there. The County is huge. Given our poor run of home form, a win against the gypos could be exactly what we need to kick-start our home form and a cup final wouldn't be bad for morale.

I hope that the fans realise that the board are full of sh!t and that with the resources available we will be doing well to compete with clubs as big as Dundee, Partick and Dunfermline. Competing with the clubs listed above and showing signs of progress with what is a very new team.

Wait a minute. We've got one poster saying he say him at the airport early this morning, and another who saw him at the stadium after training. So anything but promotion is regarded as a failure at this club now? Some people really need to go back and take a look at where we came from.

OK, so you've mentioned Hayes and Cox who have both shown potential in the early part of the season. Stratford, Eagle and Bulvitis have been disappointing but it's too early to judge these signings. Don't forget, Butcher also signed Foran, Odhiambo and Golabek.

:D Good stuff. We're missing the Nairnuc banter.

What did folk think of Barrowman on Saturday? It seems that Butcher sees him as the player to drop off in search of the ball and given that this was his task i don't think he did badly. He`must be raging about being hooked. Butcher says in today's Courier: I agree with every word. So why the feck didn't Sanchez start?

Highlights

mmmmm, Les Murray - that man does not like Terry Butcher: Les Murray on Terry Butcher