MJC

For the entire week leading up to that game all we were being told about was how Celtic were coming to Fir Park to win the league. How their fans had bought tickets for the home ends in their thousands and there was nothing we could do about it except sit, watch then slink away to leave them to celebrate winning the league at OUR home ground. That their obnoxious, sanctimonious, smug, arrogant followers were going to party in our stands as they cheered Martin O’Neill, Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon etc parading the league trophy around FP. So to stop them doing all of that, to rip it out their grasp and hand it to their bitter rivals with minutes to go and get the satisfaction and the glory of seeing them all deflated, broken and in tears was absolutely epic. Each to their own, absolutely, but to me only winning a trophy would top the feeling I got that day. We’ve had bigger and more important results over the years since that day, but 22/05/05 was just so, so deliciously sweet.

And as if there aren't already enough reasons to dislike Celtic, there's also Tom Boyd. The last Motherwell FC captain to lift silverware or not the man is an absolute wank.

Some proper “west of Scotland Celtic influenced” retort right there. Disliking Celtic more than Rangers does not equate to supporting or even liking Rangers.

One of my all time favourites that day. The way it happened just couldn’t have been better, couldn’t have been any sweeter and couldn’t have been anymore gut-wrenching for them. Even almost twenty years later they still haven’t got over that day and they never will and that is brilliant. Along with sickening their arrogant, self righteous hoardes in every stand at Fir Park that day and the ones crammed into pubs or in front of their TVs, that Celtic team was full of horrible, dislikable characters like Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Jackie McNamara and Alan Thompson and managed by that slimy, poisonous shit stirrer Martin O’Neill. So to ram it right up all of them in the manner we did was absolutely fucking delightful. And let me be clear on this, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as enjoyable and satisfying, for me at least, had it been Rangers that we had beaten to deny them the title. I’ll always be grateful to Rangers for winning their game that day otherwise Celtic would still have won the league at our ground.

That's just silly talk. As I said last night there is no 'campaign' or anything against the manager. There have been criticisms and concerns voiced following a disappointing performance and result at the weekend there but no one has turned on Stuart Kettlewell, either on here or actually at the game on Saturday. And I don't think there will be any of the "how can other sides beat them" chat when we lose to Celtic this Saturday. As you yourself said on the other thread, Celtic are relentless and haven't dropped a single point at home for almost a year. Even Rangers haven't been able to fare any better at Parkhead this season, despite them being best placed to do so given their budget advantage over the other sides in the league.

The Old Firm leaving Scottish football wouldn’t benefit anyone except the Old Firm and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. If you think there’s a lot of glory hunters following them now then that would only increase if they were playing in the EPL or something like that. You’d start getting young Motherwell fans proudly declaring that Celtic are their ‘English’ team and wearing Celtic tops more than Motherwell tops.

There aren’t any ‘rumblings’ about Kettlewell after one poor result at all. One poster (myself) as far as I can see has given a view based on a hypothetical/if/maybe scenario. I think it is unlikely that we will be relegated from this position, even if it’s not impossible as some are suggesting. If or indeed when we are mathematically safe then Stuart Kettlewell has done his job for this season and will deserve credit for turning things around from the dire situation we were facing just a couple of months ago. As has been said before, the difference in effort and workrate in certain players since Hammell left and Kettlewell took over has been night and day.

Games against Celtic at fir park have always had a much more intimidating and hostile atmosphere than games against Rangers imo. I’ve seen more incidents between both sets of fans in and around the ground at Celtic games than any other club. As well as the faux-victim mentality and contempt for anyone who doesn’t dance to their tune, the bile they regularly spout about Davie Cooper and how we are ‘Rangers without the bus fare’ they are just a horrible lot. They are obviously a lot worse when they lose but even when they win they are obnoxious arseholes. The only time I’ve ever felt anything like that at a game against Rangers was the playoff 2nd leg. Their support tend to have a kind of self inflated aloofness and keep to themselves on the whole, but they have never given me any hassle so they don’t bother me as much as Celtic do.

Again, that’s your view and based on your own experience and I respect that it is different from mine. And “my COS leaning towards Protestant leaning teams”. Like who? Rangers and…Hearts by any chance? I’ve no liking for Rangers, I just find Celtic to be a lot worse, in my experience. And for the record, I’m Catholic, practising and all so your “COS leanings” and talk about supposed Protestant leaning teams is way off, to say the very least. As far as I’m concerned football and religion do not belong together and shouldn’t have any bearing on what club you follow. The same goes for politics.

That’s your view, mine is different. To me Celtic’s ‘worst’ is a lot worse and more insufferable than Rangers ‘worst’. Rangers fans at worst are delusional, backward looking halfwits with their views on certain aspects of football and life and their ridiculous ‘WATP’ mentality. They tie themselves in knots to pretend that they believe that their club didn’t fold after their dodgy dealings caught up with them, but in the main I can let them go over my head. Celtic on the other hand are alot more sinister and dangerous in the way they operate, both club and support.

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.