MJC

Yeah I thought they would be, which is why I don’t see why we’re not in Claret & Amber. I suppose it’s down to some agreement between the sides seeing as they had to wear their away kit at Tannadice against us to avoid clashing with our away kit. But anyway, if we get a result tonight it will pale into insignificance.

A good line up that, quite impressed with it. On an unrelated and irrelevant note, are we wearing the black away kit tonight?

Could have been a lot worse though it’s far from a gimmie. Morton took us to penalties last season and Inverness have a habit of knocking us out of the Scottish Cup so this will be difficult.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this game is off, weather forecast for heavy rain and high winds on Tuesday so a postponement must be very likely.

Utterly dismal stuff. It seems that unless this team manages to score first then the heads go down and we end up chucking in a couple more. Let’s face reality here. We are a poor, poor side. We played well last week against Hearts in what was our best performance of the season and deserved the win, but against Aberdeen we were very, very lucky as we offered absolutely nothing for 55 minutes then found ourselves 2-0 up out of nowhere. Pressure is upped on the manager after this, no two ways about it.

Think this one is a draw, 1-1.

It was Dundee we would have played in the final that year, but your point still stands, we should have beaten Rangers in that Semi Final. We were 2-1 up and all over them and David Clarkson missed an absolute sitter to put us 3-1 up and it cost us big time. We’d certainly have fancied our chances against Dundee in the final. 2012 that’s correct, albeit in different seasons. The year later they knocked us out of the League Cup at Fir Park despite playing with ten men for about 77 minutes. That was another brilliant chance to win a Cup pissed away, as had we beaten Aberdeen we would have been into the Semis with St.Johnstone, Inverness and a Hearts side full of kids.

We went out of one of the Cups three years in a row at home against Aberdeen under McCall. Two of the three of them were at a time when Aberdeen couldn’t buy a win against us in the League yet we simply failed to turn up in the Cup games. The above mentioned game at Pittodrie when we were 1-0 up with seconds to go then conceded an equaliser resulted in a replay at FP which saw one of the most gutless, pathetic performances I’ve ever seen from us as we went down 2-1. We then played Aberdeen again two weeks later in the League on Boxing Day and absolutely pumped them 4-1 going on 8. I’ve said it a million times before and I’ll keep saying it to those who like to paint Stuart McCall as some kind of legendary Motherwell manager, for all we had a great side which did well in the league, his cup record in the same time cast a major black mark over his tenure and I look back on it as a big missed opportunity for us to win a trophy.

Correct. We on the other hand have failed to beat another top flight side in either Cup competition out with the 2017/18 season and Livingston in 2018 in the last ten years. That is a truly shocking statistic and nothing to do with luck.

I’d take us being lucky if that saw us lift a trophy. St.Johnstone ‘got lucky’ twice last season and indeed have ‘got lucky’ three times since we last did in ‘91. Kilmarnock have managed to ‘get lucky’ twice since then too, as have Dundee United, whilst St.Mirren, Ross County, ICT, Livingston and Raith Rovers have all ‘got lucky’ in the last thirty years.

I wouldn’t. Granted I’m probably in the minority on that one but I still prefer to see us playing in a competition we actually have a realistic chance of going far in than in one that is way beyond our reach. I accept that and I’m not saying we should be aiming for bottom six so that we can focus on the Cups. It’s just that I’d prefer to see us win silverware and would consider that a much better and fulfilling achievement than playing a couple of glorified friendlies in the Europa League before the schools go back. Absolutely. Looking at the run of fixtures it was difficult to see where our next point was coming from, never mind our next win. Yet we have beaten Aberdeen and Hearts and kept two clean sheets into the bargain. Kelly seems to have rediscovered his form in the last two games and looks a lot more confident.

I can count on one hand the amount of ‘European’ games we’ve played that I have actually enjoyed. If you offered me a 7th placed finish with a Scottish Cup win this season then I’d take that before finishing 3rd any day of the week. That would of course get us ‘European football’ next season but I would take much, much more satisfaction in that knowing that it was achieved by winning tangible success rather than a high placed league finish whilst we whimpered out of the cup.

4 years, 9 months and 15 days ago on Saturday 4th February 2017. Game was a lunchtime kickoff and Carl McHugh was red carded as we lost 3-0. Just seeing as you mentioned it.

Not confident atall for this one. 0-3 Hearts

I know, and whatever my views I reckon you’d see us or any other club do the same for any non-Old Firm club should they reach a major European final again. But a pre-match announcement for three players, two of whom playing against us for their part in a match which secured Scotland a playoff place? That’s right, a playoff place, not qualification for the World Cup. Nah, not for me. What happens if we do a nice wee pre-match acknowledgment of the Scotland three then O’Donnell reverts to his Motherwell type form, Gordon plays a blinder, saves a penalty and Souttar scores the winner? It would generate a lot of likes on social media mind you, once again showing what a smashing wee club we are so the social media dept would enjoy it. Probably make a video of it for Twitter.

Whit???? Why don’t we just get the rest of the players from both sides to form a guard of honour for the three of them as they walk on to the park separately while we’re at it?

Not a former player but a former manager….Tommy McLean. We have named the South Stand after him.

Close one… Went for van Veen for two very well taken goals. That is just what we need from our No.9 striker and it shows that if you give him the proper service he is capable of delivering. Kelly was a close second though for his ridiculous double save from point blank range.

Well that was as brilliant a result as it was unexpected. The least said about the first half the better but in the second half we actually looked like a team that could compete and two very well taken goals by the big man. We always seem to get big results against Aberdeen when we need them, that has been a bit of a trademark of ours over the past few years. As ever get it RIGHT up Aberdeen, their dour pussed followers and their army of cheerleaders on Radio Scotland. I’m away to pour a G&T and listen to Richard Gordon’s crestfallen dulcet tones.

Beautiful finish from KvV. Now don’t sit on our own 18 yard line for the remainder of the half!!

McGinley must have something on Alexander to be starting every single week.

I’d like to think that by “defending better” GA means actually competing in the middle of the park and not standing off wide players allowing them to rain cross after cross into our box which we have proved time and again that we aren’t capable of defending. But I won’t hold my breath sadly.

O’Donnell being out gives me confidence. 1-1 with Watt on the scoresheet again.

I can completely understand why Zander Clark has been picked over Liam Kelly, going by both their recent form. O’Donnell has been dismal for us but looks a different player in a Scotland jersey. And, most importantly, Tony Watt isn’t selected

Agree with the above post, I think there is a lot of apathy within the fan base just now and it’s been growing during the last five or six years. In my view there is too many within the club that are within a comfort zone, on and off the park. It seems like we are putting more and more emphasis on the social media side of the club rather than the most important area of the club - the field of play. Result of that is that our recruitment is poor, our youth development isn’t producing and we see certain players merely going through the motions because they know they won’t be dropped, but at the same time they clearly don’t give a fuck about the club. And yet that appears to be tolerated. I’ve seen it argued many times that what happens in the boardroom doesn’t have an effect on the manager and the players but I disagree with that. If players, coaches and managers are working for a club where it is deemed acceptable to simply avoid relegation without entertaining the fans with good football or cup runs because “we’re just a wee club” then it is no surprise that they drop their guard and their effort. Like I said, our problems run far deeper than the man sitting in the dugout.