santheman

That was me. As a former Referee(many many moons ago) shouts from the touchline comes with the territory and you generally try to ignore it but the point I was making was that since his public outburst about Casey's ordering off he seems to have come more to the attention of the officials. How many cards has he had since then 2/3?. Did anyone notice that after his yellow card on Saturday for 15mins afterwards every 50/50 seemed to go to St Johnstone? A coincidence perhaps but that was what I used to do if the voices from the sidelines started to piss me off and believe me it always worked. They would either quieten down or work themselves up to a frenzy and a red card, either way it had the desired effect. Kettlewell is very vocal but no more vocal than any other manager in the League with maybe a couple of exceptions and I've never heard him swear or be abusive but he certainly likes to challenge decisions that he thinks were wrong which should be his right of course.

If its insurance I dread to think what our premiums must be🤔

A bit off tangent but in a similar vein, did St Johnstone fans not hold a demonstration outside the main stand at their last home game (although that might have been against the board and not the manager). Hearts held a similar demonstration I'm sure as well as the recent walk out by the Rangers mob. If fans aren't moaning about what's happening on the field then they're moaning about what's happening off it.

That's the $64000 question. We've certainly got the players capable of doing that, whether Mr Kettlewell takes the reigns off and let's them is another matter. I just feel that confidence looked very low yesterday and we need a good performance and a win to give the team and fans a lift. Maybe a couple of new faces might provide the spark we need.

We're perfectly capable of getting a result. Putting things into perspective and leaving aside our poor display, it's not as if St Johnstone ran over the top of us or created numerous chances so I fully expect another tight game on Saturday which could go either way. I certainly hope we at least compete better than we did yesterday. There's nothing to be frightened off from St Johnstone that's for sure, we just need to be more up for it.

As the old saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome.

I've been very much on the fence with Kettlewell and been happy to give him leeway because of our exceptional injury situation but im afraid he's got 45 minutes to stop me falling off it into the out camp. There's definite Sligo vibes in the stands just now.

My Hearts supporting mate doesn't think there's anything in the Casey rumours as it's seemingly just one guy who claims to be in the know who posted in one of the Hearts forums. They've just signed 2 CB's and have 2 currently injured so unless they're planning on changing their entire back line it seems a strange signing but then again you never know.

First of all to play entertaining attacking football you need to have the players capable of doing that and a manager who trusts them enough to be able to. I would say that if we had consistently had a full squad available then we might have seen a bit more of that. The reality is we've had so many injuries to key players all at the same time we've had to make do with cobbled together teams at times with little or no continuity. Just when we think we have a settled team we get another injury to a key player and its back to the drawing board. In those circumstances is it best to resort to safety first or throw caution to the wind, obviously Kettlewell prefers the former. Thats not making any apologies for the eye bleeding tactics which depending on what way you look at it has been foisted on Kettlewell because of the players he has available or he deliberately sets out to play in a certain way. This game on Saturday has Sligo and Alexander vibes for me as you can feel the mounting unrest in the fanbase and I think one more game like we've experienced lately, a poor performance with a defeat and that could easily become a groundswell which the board would have to address. I still find it weird that we're talking like this when we're sitting in 5th place but that's life being a Motherwell fan

If ever there was a game designed for us to play 2 traditional full backs then this is it. But we won't.

Is this the guy that comes from E.K? Possibly looking for a move closer to home in that case.

Xhamsters better😉

Already prepared myself for him being out for 4 weeks😒. Don't know if that will be with an injury or hypothermia.

https://x.com/SportsPeteO/status/1876323527999283651

Apparently been on the 1st team bench for most of the season with a couple of appearances as sub. Highly thought of it seems.

It's a strange one. Posters on P&B are generally in agreement that he had a very effective game whereas on here its the complete opposite. I can't really remember him making any brilliant tackles or passes likewise can't remember him making any glaring mistakes, so my take on that is he was probably quietly effective without doing anything to make him a stand out.

See this is the thing. I sit within earshot of him and Kettlewell has always been VERY vocal on the sidelines and imo he's not any more vocal now than he was last season. Is it just a coincidence that he's had these cards since he came out and openly criticised the Refs and VAR decisions? Don't get me wrong, he should learn to control himself on the touchline and not give the Refs the opportunity to flash the cards in the first place but I think he's become a bit of a target for them.

Could be worse. We could be St Johnstone fans. Be careful what you wish for.

Glad someone else appreciates the unglamorous stuff that Halliday does. He got us out of a few situations today with his positional sense. Like you I thought we looked pretty comfortable in central defence although I still don't think we defend particularly well in our wide areas. I also have the feeling that the refs now have a bit of an agenda against Ketts although admittedly he doesnt help himself at times. Walsh today had a little smirk to himself when he dished out the yellow card.

What really annoys me is that when we do go out and have a go at teams we've been relatively successful, Dundee Utd and Rangers being the recent prime examples so we can do it when we have a mind to. Were obviously going to be more defensively minded away from home but we should still be able to put in better away performances than we have.

Someone over on P&B saying the word on the street is 2 months out. Hopefully not🙏

And that's it in a nutshell. The rules are supposed to be the same the world over but the way they are applied up here makes a mockery of the whole system. That goal would never have been disallowed in the EPL. I've said it before if a Scottish Referee and VAR team officiated at an EPL game we would see numerous ordering offs and a penalty at every corner. Theres just no physicality allowed up here at all. The amount of VAR calls we're getting now for innocuous incidents is plain ridiculous and spoiling the game.

I never feel comfortable even being 2 up against the Old Firm because you know they have quality on the bench if they need to change things up. Was delighted when I saw Cerny and Igamane on the bench because they are Rangers 2 best players at the moment and Igamane single handedly got Rangers that point today. If only we could have held them out for the first 20 mins of the 2nd half I'm pretty sure we would have held onto the 3 points but when they scored so early I felt we panicked a bit and retreated into our shell. I don't think anyone would have been surprised when the equaliser went in. What impressed me was at that stage it would have been easy just to fold completely and let Rangers run over the top of us but credit to the boys they dug in and fought their way back into the game. 2 games in 4 days against the OF will no doubt take its toll physically and mentally which is something that shouldn't be overlooked.

Ox is signed till May 27

You might just have opened up a can of worms there.