Yesterday's result: St Mirren 3, Motherwell 0.

After a night of drowning my sorrows, I've finally plucked up the courage to write something about yesterday's Scottish Cup 3rd Round tie at Love Street.  I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said it was one of the most pathetic performances I have seen in almost 20 years of watching Motherwell, and 3-0 actually flatters us as we were completely outplayed by the First Division side.

The kick-off had to be delayed for 10 minutes to allow the large traveling 'Well support into the ground, but when the match eventually got underway it was virtual one-way traffic towards Graeme Smith in the Motherwell goal.  St Mirren winger Corcoran gave Corrigan and McCormack a torrid time all afternoon, and was unfortunate to see his shot from a tight angle rebound off the post after he'd rounded the goalkeeper.  Smith pulled off a great save to deny Kean, but was finally beaten after 22 mins when Corcoran again got the better of Corrigan and cut back for Adam to score.  The home side continued to dominate, and I'm afraid to say I can't remember any Motherwell attacks of note during the entire first 45 mins.

Our only semi reasonable spell came at the start of the second half, when we enjoyed a decent amount of possession without ever really threatening the St Mirren goal. It was game over when the home side added a second after 74 mins courtesy of a Potter free header, and the fiasco was complete when Adam added a third in injury time. 

This performance was an absolute disgrace from start to finish.  With Craigan suspended, TB decided to play two players (Corrigan and McCormack) out of position rather than call on a direct replacement in Kinniburgh.  Quite what message this sent out to Kinni as he took his place among the substitutes yesterday I really don't know.  

Not for the first time, the manager seemed unable to change things once we'd gone behind, and instead continued with the long ball tactic which never once looked like working all afternoon.  But aside from criticisms over tactics and team selection, perhaps the most galling aspect of yesterday's performance was that the players plainly didn't seem interested and were outfought by St Mirren in all areas of the pitch.  Simply not acceptable.

Finally, congratulations to St Mirren for their showing yesterday.  They wanted to win far more than we did and fully deserved their victory.

On a positive(?) note, surely we can never play as badly as this again.  And it's good to know that even as I approach my 30th birthday, I can still sneak in as a concession now and again...

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, McCormack, Corrigan, McLean, Hammell, McBride, Kerr (Clarkson 75), O'Donnell, Foran (Kinniburgh 45), McDonald, Hamilton.
Subs not used: Meldrum, Fitzpatrick, Darren Lee Smith

Booked: Foran.

Attendance: 6,507.

Ricky's report of the debacle is now available for any masochists among you.

Terry Butcher said after the game he thought it was his lowest point during his time at the club:
"It was the worst ever by a mile, I have got to say well done to St. Mirren as they played fantastically well today. As good as St. Mirren we were awful, all of us, very, very poor and we have no excuses and we have to say good luck to St. Mirren in the next round.

"I don’t know where that performance came from today as we were on the back of to good SPL wins, confidence should have been high, and we have already won here in the CIS Cup. It’s down to attitude and desire and certainly the St. Mirren players had bucket loads compared to mine.

"Bitterly disappointing, we will have to go away and lick our wounds, we have Rangers at home next week and then Celtic the following week. If we play like we did today we are looking at a heavy defeat. Hopefully it will be different next week as we have to respond, as this was totally unacceptable.

"We pushed Martyn Corrigan inside who is a very experienced player, it may have made a difference but I told the payers it’s not about systems. I had to change things at half time as Richie Foran was suffering from double vision, we change it around to 3-5-2 to match St. Mirren and we never did match them.

"It’s not about systems and tactics, it’s not about preparation it’s about attitude on the day and they were well fired up on the day and played very well and we can’t take anything away from them.”

"This was the worst possible performance when it comes to a cup tie, or even a first team game, I have never know it any worse than that and hopefully this will be the lowest point that we ever reach."

The Official Site confirmed this week that none of the players who are out of contract at the end of the season have yet been spoken to about agreeing new terms.  Corrigan, Hammell and possibly Craigan are now free to speak to other clubs, but TB says:
"We have no spoken to anyone yet as we need to know what League position we are likely to end up in and we know how we are fixed financially."

This comes in a week where there has been speculation about the future of Martyn Corrigan in particular.  Andy Devlin wrote in the Sun midweek that two English Championship sides and one SPL club are monitoring the situation, but TB responded by saying:
"There have been no enquiries about any of our players and we don't want any of our players to leave. We would like to keep this squad together.  If anything we may even be looking to add to the squad with one or two players having moved off the wage bill.

"We don't need to sell as we are stable financially but if we did receive a decent offer for any of our players we would have to consider it. Having said that I am reasonably confident that all our squad will be with us at the close of the transfer window."

A different article suggested Butcher might want to boost his attacking options, given that we have only three recognised strikers.

Today's Sunday Herald is linking us with a move for Ross County midfielder Jon Rankin.  Apparently St Mirren had a £20,000 bid for him rejected last week.

It seems that David Keogh will be allowed to leave the club to join Forfar Athletic.