MJC

I usually manage to breathe fairly easily, it helps me function. I know showing open dislike of Celtic is frowned upon by a lot of people, even those outwith the Celtic support nowadays, but that’s how I feel about them. They just have too much baggage, too much non football aspects to them and too much influence in not just football but society as well. As I said, they’re more of a cult than a football club.

No. I prefer Rangers to them any day of the week.

I fucking hate Celtic and everything about them. A horrible organisation followed by odious, sanctimonious hypocritical arseholes. A scourge on both Scottish football and Scottish society with the way they are able to bully, control and manipulate everyone else to ‘toe their line’. They are more of a cult than a football club. It won’t happen but I would fucking love us to go there and get some sort of result on Saturday.

They outbattled us in the middle and frustrated us, the same as they did in the 0-0 game after our initial dominant spell that day. We didn’t exactly cut them open at will on Saturday, we had chances, yes, but they played the game well against us.

It’s all ifs, buts and maybes just now and while I would say that it’s unlikely we will be relegated it’s not impossible either. We had a chance yesterday to all but guarantee safety and at the same time land a psychological blow on a relegation rival but we didn’t take it and now things are a lot less comfortable than they could have been. We will be going into the post split fixtures on the back of two defeats, who knows if we have the character to bounce back after that? A lot will depend on our fixtures, who we play, where and when. We could easily be up at Tannadice in the first game after the split and you wouldn’t fancy us there. As for binning the manager, again it’s all hypothetical just now but if we do end up dragged back into trouble and end up finishing 11th or 12th having had such a comfortable lead and the opportunity to seal our safety then I would definitely say it’s a sacking offence. For me anyone claiming that we are safe now and that there is no chance of relegation is more deserving of a “wtf” response. We will only be safe when/if we collect enough points that makes it mathematically impossible for us to finish 11th or 12th.

I would certainly play McKinstry over Mandron or Aitchison though it does appear that Kettlewell doesn’t rate him or doesn’t see him as part of his plans for the future. The thing for the manager is though, if we do end up getting sucked into the playoffs or worse after having such a cushion then I’d argue that his own position would be untenable and he should be removed, so perhaps it might be an idea to play our better players while there is still a danger of relegation.

We’re definitely not out of danger yet but it is still in our hands. I think we all know that next Saturday against Celtic is a defeat (I know, Jamie Dolan, Kevin Twaddle, Bob Malcom, we managed it 20 odd years ago etc. etc. etc) so we will be going into the split on the same points as we are just now. Obviously the way the fixtures are set out may well determine when/if we are safe, but we need to make sure that we ensure our safety as soon as we possibly can, so if our first fixture after the split is at home to Ross County or Kilmarnock then that is a big chance to secure it.

Kettlewell and the whole team were pretty much clueless all game. Jim Goodwin absolutely bossed him today.

They are a poor side but they definitely have our number. Yes we have created and missed several chances against them but they know how to nullify us.

Barring a ridiculous capitulation we should be able to avoid the drop. We should have home games against Ross County and Killie after the split which should give us a good chance of picking up points but we need to make sure we get them. I reckon one more win should be enough.

Thank you. Called it. No we aren’t.

Sometimes you can just see it coming. Today was one of them.

It’s a game between two poor sides but that’s when the fine margins matter. We have been wasteful with the chances we have had and lacklustre all over the park. Utd have clearly been the better side over then piece. The sad and frustrating thing is that it was obvious as soon as they made it 1-1 that we were losing today and even though it’s not finished yet you just know that we aren’t going to get back in it.

We’ve been pretty flat all day, we can’t complain about losing this.

And there it is. game over.

1-1 Only one winner now.

Right decision to be fair.

Been poor so far but I’ll take that. Johnson yet again makes the goal. A ridiculous length of time for a VAR check though.

They did, so we can. Not that we had a realistic chance of it anyway.

Butcher starts.

The bubble won’t necessarily be burst if we lose today, we still have a decent gap between ourselves and the bottom sides but it will certainly make things more uncomfortable for us going into the split. It just feels like one of those days when it feels set up for us to do well and it doesn’t happen. - We’re on a good run - We are playing the bottom side at home - We could all but cement Premiership safety with a win…. ”We’ll be singing, when we’re winning”

I hope I’m cheerful later on too. You want me to take some photos of inside Fir Park for you? Seeing as you’ve probably forgotten what it looks like.

Same, I would take a point if offered.

It’ll either be that or the white one which we wore at home against Dundee Utd earlier this season as apparently their black/dark away kit clashed with our predominantly claret home kit. We won’t get many more opportunities to wear the luminous kit so I reckon it’ll get an outing on Saturday.

It’s too early to say that we won’t be relegated in it, but regardless I’m looking forward to not seeing it again after this season and hoping for a traditional, simple and classical Motherwell FC home kit to be released in the summer. Why we have to keep trying to go out the box and be ‘different’ every few years is beyond me. We should be proud of our home colours and embrace our identity with a simple home kit. Take a leaf out of Hearts book, they have their vintage maroon and white kit and they largely stick to it with only a few minor alterations each year. As for this Saturday I suspect we’ll be in our fluorescent kit against Utd.