MJC

Yip good riddance. Wasn’t good enough first time around and contributed nothing second time around. A pointless signing and a waste of a wage and it’s best for both parties to go their separate ways.

Bit of a distraction aren’t they?

He did yes. But on the other end of the scale there was Declan Gallagher who seemed to lose focus/interest for us once picked for Scotland. So it could go either way. Tony Watt has been a man of many clubs for the last decade, he’s never properly settled anywhere for whatever reason but he seems to have found his feet at Fir Park and is playing very well. I would just prefer it if he wasn’t picked for Scotland just now and his sole focus was continuing to play well and deliver for us.

Yes it’s a selfish viewpoint from a purely Motherwell perspective, no denying that. I’m happy for him, and any of our players for that matter, to not play international football if that prevents them getting injured, their heads turned or noticed by other clubs. I make no apology for that because Motherwell are my priority in football. However I accept that if Tony Watt continues his form for us then he will be on the national sides radar and indeed that of other clubs so if/when that happens then good luck to him. In the meantime though I am in no rush to see that happen.

I think in Watt’s case he’s seen as a ‘journeyman’ who’s struggled for form at several clubs before joining us and perhaps that counts against him in terms of national team selection. But as I said, I hope he doesn’t get picked any time soon. I’m not a Scotland fan I’m a Motherwell fan and I want him fit and fully focussed for us without the distraction of international football and the exposure to other clubs that playing for Scotland would bring him. If he stays with us, below the radar, focussed and playing well it will benefit us and himself in the long term.

It’s ‘whisky’ in Scotland. Our national drink and so many people spell it wrong. It certainly does help improve your mood and enthusiasm mind you, I fully agree on that.

It’s just as well Celtic beat Aberdeen away on Sunday, otherwise they’d be coming to Fir Park having not won a domestic away match since February….and everyone(well some) would be saying that “teams on a bad run always end it against us”. And that, along with Turnbull being the “ex player who always scores against us” would be like a double whammy.

I meant in a purely footballing sense of course. They’re maybe not as good as they were under Brendan Rodgers or ‘that good’ by their own standards but from what I’ve seen of them so far this season is that they are very strong from middle to front yet suspect at the back. Their front players like Kyogo, Jota, Abada and Forrest (if fit) are by far and away the best frontline players in the country and if we play against them like we did at Tynecastle then we may well get an absolute pasting. They also have a good midfield which is also an attacking threat in McGregor and Turnbull (who is bound to score against us). In short, they are more than good enough to give us a sound beating in two weeks time.

They are definitely suspect at the back, but we need to be absolutely clinical with any chances we get, something we weren’t yesterday. What worries me more is up the other end and how we handle the pace and quality of their attacking players.

We’ll get our back doors caved in.

No chance! If Celtic get their act together and stop dropping daft points they will romp the league but we all know that Rangers will finish second in that scenario. Hearts are, I maintain, a level above us and will certainly be in the mix for third but they’ll be nowhere near a title challenge.

Not disputing that but if you give players like Boyce chances he’ll punish you nine times out of ten. That was only our second league defeat of the season with the other coming against Hibs, two sides who are a level better than us and have players who can punish our mistakes at the back. We are an improving side as we’ve shown with impressive results against Aberdeen and at Ibrox and as you say we shouldn’t be fearing the likes of Hearts or Hibs when they come to Fir Park and indeed on our day we could well get a result against either. However we will need to work on our defending and chance taking if we are to get such results.

Celtic will destroy us in two weeks time. We won’t cope with their pace up front. As I said, it’s the worst possible game to hope to ‘bounce back’ in.

If you give away cheap goals and don’t take your chances then that’s what happens. Hearts as a side are a level well above us and that’s why they took the points today. They have forward players like Boyce who is clinical at this level and a top quality goalkeeper in Gordon playing behind a better centre half pairing than we can put out. We’ve got a long way to go before we can start taking points against the ‘better’ sides regularly. Unfortunately for us we’re now into an international break then we’ve got Celtic next so it’ll be a good few weeks before we can realistically hope to get back on track.

Just a matter of how many now. We are improving as a side but we’re nowhere near good enough to deal with sides who have the forward players to punish us. It doesn’t help when we give away avoidable penalties into the bargain. Big reality check for us this.

Mugabi in for Lamie today.

The one time Seedorf actually looked like a player for us.

You’re right, but it doesn’t always work like that does it? A point would be a great result today and this will be a big test for us, especially defensively.

I’m never confident going to Tynecastle. Plus they’re top of the league and have players that can punish us at the back. I could also mention that our unbeaten run is due to end and the manager of the month ‘curse’ into the bargain….but I won’t bother.

I don’t see us getting anything other than a pumping today. Not confident at all. 3-0 home win.

Aberdeen fans will always want more. They are the most deluded, arrogant, pig headed, po-faced chumps out there. They think they have a divine right to be challenging for league titles and making inroads in Europe when the reality is that they are are no more than a standard Scottish top flight side these days. Whoever takes on that job would be on a hiding to nothing.

And could GA be linked with a move to Aberdeen should that happen? Obviously purely hypothetical just now but it wouldn’t surprise me.

I think that’s just down to laziness on the part of the journalist/commentator to be honest. They don’t have much/any information on the player or anything useful or interesting to say so throw in “ex Rangers/Celtic” where that option is open to them. However as I said they also do this with other players and it’s not uncommon to hear John McGinn referred to as “former Hibs player” on occasion when playing for Scotland. As usual though folk get up in arms when one of the Old Firm are mentioned as the previous club of a particular player, even in hypothetical cases like with Kelly who hasn’t even played for Scotland yet. In his case I genuinely don’t believe that if/when that happens that he will be widely referred to as “the former Rangers goalkeeper” in the media. Edit: I don’t remember Gallagher ever being referred to as “ex Celtic player” by the media during his time with us or when he was called up by Scotland, even though he was as much of an ex Celtic player as Kelly was ex Rangers.

Did he ever actually play a match for them? It’s unlikely that the media would label him as that but even if they did it’s a pretty daft thing to get annoyed about surely? Incidentally I’m sure I heard Ian Crocker refer to SO’D as “the former Kilmarnock player” during the recent Austria v Scotland game on SKY but I didn’t let it get to me.

He was a classic example of a player getting too big for his boots after getting an International call up. He was superb for us during his first (3/4) season and thoroughly deserved his Scotland selection but his application last season for us was dreadful. He was the best defender at the club by a mile and he knew it, but in his mind he seemed to have decided he was already on to bigger and better things than us. Shades of Mark McGhee in 2007/08 after he was linked with the Scotland managers job actually.