MJC

I’m not wanting to get into the tedious area of budgets, begging bowls and poverty pleading so the only thing I’ll comment on is the issue of the South Stand lower deck. So if the seats on the bottom tier are genuinely gubbed how come we can open that tier for games against Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and Dundee Utd in the League Cup?? And if certain seats are damaged then why not block them off and use the rest of the stand? And of course if we know which club and which support are to blame then why aren’t we shouting from the rooftops if that club aren’t paying for the repairs for damaged seats??

He’s not getting sacked and he will be here until the end of the season at the very least. There does need to be some serious conversations and discussions had with him about his football and his recruitment though because what is being served up just now and throughout his tenure is only going to drive fans away.

I can’t remember the last time I was as confident of a win as I am for this one. 1-0 us.

That’s the thing, I genuinely do think that Kettlewell does have a bit of passion and desire to do well for the club and for that I want to like him and want him to do well. But the problem is he just isn’t pulling it off and we are seeing the same failing performances week after week. And that’s why it’s not sustainable.

As I’ve already said I think we might well scrape a win next week. However the damage is already done today and even if we do win next week the team and the manager will still be in the bad books with alot of the support for today’s pathetic showing.

The support that we’ve taken to the last few games at Hampden both this season and way back in 17/18 and even further back in the 10/11 season show that those games mean so much more to the core support and also the ‘potential’ support. Getting to that stage in either of the domestic Cups just providers a general lift to everyone. ‘Europe’ on the other hand is good for the club on paper but it’s a level we can’t even make a scratch at. But hey, it’s some experience and a lot of fun eh? ”Big leap to the right! Yaaaaasssss!!! Big leap to the left! Yaaaasssss!!! We’re all goin on a European tour! Yaaaaasssss” Win draw or lose we booze! Yaaasssss!!!!”

Okay, if that’s how you see it. All I would say is that I see Europe as a little bonus for a good league season, nothing more. That season under Stuart McCall where we were finishing 2nd playing lovely stuff, gubbing Hibs on a Friday night with Faddy running the show, beating Celtic twice and Higdon banging in the goals was brilliant at the time and we got Europe as a result of that. Yet the actual European ‘experience’ was one big anti-climax as we lost 0-3 on aggregate without laying a glove on an unheard of side in Kuban Krasnador. And in that case we actually reported that we lost money rather than the opposite.

Anyone who claims that us qualifying for Europe is better than us getting to the latter stages of the Cups is either lying or is more interested in the Tartan Army style jaunt abroad and swally session than the club and football itself. You look at the League Cup Semi Final and the excitement ahead of that and the crowd we took there and you could see what it meant to the support and the club. Nobody is telling me that ‘Europe’ is better than that.

Even if we did punt him, which we won’t, then we’d only end up with Frail or even Richard fucking Foster.

“We’re all very disappointed it’s not the result we wanted. Support were great, decisions went against us. But, but…..we exist to improve people’s lives”.

That’s all we strive to do now. And while yes, that is and should be our number one priority, our Cup record and the amount of exits to absolute dross is nothing short of shameful. It’s all well and good saying “ah but we can focus on the league form now” but the Cups, especially the Scottish Cup is something that can provide some hope, some enthusiasm for the support. Not for Motherwell though. Another year, another rotten draw, yet still a big travelling support and yet again another let down.

Absolutely pathetic. Cue all the “ah well at least we can concentrate on avoiding relegation now” pish from folk on Twitter etc

Kettlewell should be fined for this performance.* *I am well aware that he won’t be but he deserves to be.

Season always deflates when you exit the Scottish Cup especially in such dismal circumstances. However I don’t think we’ll be in any danger of relegation come May. And I wouldn’t be atall surprised if we go back up to Perth next Saturday and scrape a win. Today was the big one though, the one that could have kept our season interesting but as usual we blow it in the Cup.

Slattery for Nicholson Classic Kettlewell