MJC

Re: Kelly, I’d be looking to move him on in January. He’s out of contract at the end of the season, his form has been rotten this season and perhaps as was suggested last night, the ‘fame’ of getting a Scotland cap has turned his head. Punt him, give Oxborough the gloves and give Butcher the armband.

He was but the ref didn’t cost us that game last night, we lost because we are a rank rotten piss poor side who can’t defend, can’t score and are far too easy to play against.

We didn’t draw the second half. You can’t win/lose/draw a half of a game and get points for it. That is another of these phrases used by pompous, po faced pundits nowadays that means absolutely nothing. The game lasts 90 minutes plus whatever injury time is added on and for the fifth time in our last six games we lost the match and have no points to show for it. There were no positives to take last night. None whatsoever, not even two consolation goals when the game was well and truly beyond us.

Another defeat.

Some crumbs for the Happy Clappies to munch on tonight if nothing else.

The entire team in front of him hasn’t turned up and been ragdolled as a result. He’s far from the only culprit tonight.

Our luck ran out. Killie outplayed us at Fir Park, Hearts had an off day at Tynecastle and luck shone on us in both games but we soon got found out. We are a poor, poor side.

There may be a number of reasons why, but our clubs mentality (we’re just a wee club punching way….etc etc) has a great deal to do with it.

And now? Like I said on the match thread, I don’t see him being sacked or walking away any time soon. However he has failed miserably to address the loss of KvV and also Max Johnston in the summer. And after a reasonably good start to the season with some impressive results things have taken a turn for the worse and his dreadful transfer business now looks like it is catching up on us. It’s still early yet but the alarm bells are starting to ring, in my opinion.

Exactly. Any side losing a 29 goal striker was always going to struggle to replace him. When that same side replaces him with an injury prone loanee and the 4 horse men then they are more than likely going to be bang in trouble. And we absolutely are bang in trouble.

An issue with VAR apparently.

There’s absolutely no danger of him being sacked any time soon. And he’s not going to walk away on his own accord either. As bad as this looks just now it’s still only early November, therefore he’s still got time, on paper at least, to turn this around.

Absolutely abysmal. I feel like a broken record saying this but I’ll say it again. We can’t score goals and we can’t defend. Therefore we can’t win football matches. We look absolutely devoid of confidence and direction on the park and it’s looking increasingly more like it was Kevin van Veen rather than Stuart Kettlewell that kept us up last season.

Dreadful defending. And how many times does that prick McGrath score against us?

But again that depends on how many match going fans in the surrounding areas would be prepared to get involved in that sort of confrontation. If that’s in the family section of the Cooper then I’d reckon plenty would be reluctant to get involved and if it happened in the East Stand especially near the Well Bois section then you would have the potential for a different problem with too many wanting to get involved and in that case it wouldn’t be to shepherd them politely towards the exits. Cutting Celtic/Rangers allocation further just wouldn’t work imo. It would only ensure more of their fans in our sections and wouldn’t encourage more Motherwell fans to attend these games.

Miller back in, Bair drops to the bench and Wilkinson starts up top. Mika also on the bench.

By ‘self policing’ do you mean point them out to stewards/police? Who’s numbers are forever dwindling? Or do you mean a good old fashioned scrap in the terraces like back in the 80s and early 90s? Not every match going fan is up for that, indeed the possibility of that would almost certainly drive more Motherwell fans away from attending these games, especially those who go with their kids or elderly relatives. And it’s also worth pointing out that we already have cut the OF allocation at Fir Park. We stopped giving them half of the Phil O’Donnell stand five years ago and it didn’t make a slightest bit of difference to the home attendance. That section of the stand has almost been completely empty the last couple of times either of them has been here.

No you’re not because that’s not me you’re quoting there: And that’s not something I think could or would work for us as we don’t have the numbers in our core support to make up the difference and anyone who thinks that their fans wouldn’t just buy home end tickets is kidding themselves on. This would of course result in a much more poisonous and intimidating atmosphere and increase the potential for crowd trouble. The playoff 2nd leg was different because there were probably as many non-Motherwell fans in our ends that day than actual Motherwell fans, that wouldn’t happen for run of the mill games. And I have to add as well, nothing seems to make more Motherwell fans turn up to league games at Fir Park. Various initiatives have been tried by the club over the years and the core support has barely increased, if at all. The same happens whenever the team are playing well. I’ve said this before, we have a lazy support base. We have supporters out there who for one reason or another just don’t go to games every other week. I appreciate that in some cases life happens and other commitments prevent them attending, but at the same time I know plenty of Motherwell fans who’d rather go to the golf or sit in the pub or just stay in the house and watch MFC TV rather than going to Fir Park. The only time you see them is if we reach the latter stages of the Cup competitions or play in Europe. So cutting OF allocations wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.

It probably didn’t help that our own wee version of the Green Brigade also decided to jump onto the park at the equaliser so that would also have been a factor in the club not calling out Celtic fans doing it albeit in much bigger numbers.

The media won’t dare report something like that, not if they want to keep their jobs. And as for “banning” the Green Brigade, how many “bans” is that now? They’ll all be back in their usual places at Celtic Park before Christmas at the very latest.

To be fair no one got the chance to give Jordan White pelters or abuse because he didn’t play a single match for us in front of a crowd as his short time here was during the lockdown season. He was pretty dire for us though.

And I’ve met him and spoke to him on more than one occasion. He’s an absolute gent as I’m sure you and anyone else who’s met him will know. He is also a club legend and will forever be in Motherwell FC folklore. But I still didn’t cheer or applaud him when he played against us after he’d moved on and the same goes for any other player.

I don’t care if it is. I support a club not any individual player.

No and I didn’t applaud him when he played against us either, Cup winner or not.

Compared to Dundee Utd, yes. But even then the only club I love and support is Motherwell.