MJC

This is our problems in a nutshell, we just cannot do the absolute basics of football. We can’t defend and we can’t score goals and that’s why we are almost three months to the day since our last league win and have only recorded one home league win all season.

That is just pathetic. Another uphill struggle to just get a point here.

Depressing right enough. Mandron being injured just sums up our fortunes this season.

Danzaki not involved as clearance not through. Mandron not involved as he’s injured so Shields starts.

We don’t have anywhere near the support and fanbase that Hearts do though. Not just numbers either, I would go as far to say that the Hearts support is second to none in Scotland with the way they support and back their club through thick and thin. They united together and saved their club from the ruinous state that Romanov left them in and now they are reaping the rewards. If any club could make fan ownership work, it’s Hearts. I admire them for that and am more than a wee bit jealous of their support. For us there probably are ways to improve the way the WS functions but sadly we just don’t have the numbers.

Riku Danzaki confirmed pending international clearance which if granted will make him available for today. He will wear the No.14 jersey. How do you say “Welcome to our great wee club” in Japanese”?

Well given that we are frequently told that clubs in the Championship are able to pay more wages than we do then you would have to think so yes. If and when we are relegated then I’m afraid it will be a pretty dark picture for us as a club.

I think there is a very real possibility that we will end up going part time if/when we are relegated, especially more so if we have a sustained period in the lower leagues. We have been a top flight club for almost 40 years, qualified for Europe several times, finished 2nd and 3rd on more than one occasion, won the Scottish Cup and reached four finals in that time. But all we ever hear from the club is that we are on the bones of our backsides, so if we are relegated then it is inevitable imo that our cloth will be cut even more accordingly. The idea of the Well Society is a brilliant one, but as has been said we don’t really have the size of support to sustain it and in these current tough financial times it’s even harder. The club certainly is at a crossroads and perhaps this is why Alan Burrows has decided it is now time for him to move on. Whatever happens the next few years are going to be very difficult for us as a club.

We’ve got them a week on Saturday though…

It’s a bit concerning, in my opinion, the lack of updates regarding our youth system. Other than when they are loaned out to lower league clubs we get little to nothing in the way of information regarding what is going on about who is standing out, who is showing promise and who is the promising hope for the future. As a club we really need to be bringing through youth players who can make that transition to the first team but we don’t see enough of that. Obviously this season we have seen Miller, Luca Ross, Speirs, Ferrie being either involved in match day squads or getting game time, but Speirs is now out on loan and we’ve only really seen Miller being involved, albeit on a limited basis, which is understandable as he is only 16/17. Even Max Johnston spent the first half of the season out on loan though he is now appearing for the first team. But for a club that puts a lot of emphasis on communication with the support we hear very little about who is making the grade at youth level and that is a worry for me.

Going by the social media promotions of this game it looks as though we will be wearing our ‘Shivute’ kit again this weekend. Not that I’m complaining as it means we will be spared our home strip for another week.

Are there currently any Brazilians kicking about in the English conference leagues? If so there’s every chance we will sign him as that is ‘our market’.

Full time: Darvel 1 Aberdeen 0 😂 Utter humiliation for the Dons!

Not a home draw but that, is Sooo-effing-perb! A winnable tie and a great away day potentially!

I see what you mean but surely even we wouldn’t lose to Elgin/Drumchapel/Linlithgow at home? Obviously Raith would be a potential ‘banana skin’ but you’d like to think we would have enough against them? But I would be much more comfortable facing Accies or Thistle away from home than I would be at Fir Park.

If we want to progress then we need to avoid Celtic, Rangers and Hearts. We pull any of those three and we would be as well asking to forfeit the tie straight away. The best draw for us would be a home draw against Elgin/Drumchapel or Linlithgow Rose/Raith Rovers. But Cup draws are never that kind to Motherwell.

Amazingly we are the only side to have beaten them at home in the league this season and their only other home loss was in the League Cup Group Stages against, believe it or not, Arbroath! We really need to get League points on the board but this will be a tough one. 1-1 I think.

Our home strip should be a predominantly amber top with claret band and/or trimmings with predominantly claret shorts with amber trimmings. At the very least the top should be mostly Amber even if the shorts alternate to also Amber and occasionally white(although I’m not a fan of white shorts one bit but I know some are). I don’t know if we tried to be too ‘out the box’ with this seasons effort but it just doesn’t work. If it was actually like the 1980s kit with the Amber panel on the back as well as the front with claret numbers and the shorts design matching up with the top then it wouldn’t be so bad. But it isn’t…and it is.

Announced as 2,067 which is very impressive. I’m not keen on the fluorescent kit despite its good cause and I am usually a firm believer of always wearing our first kit unless there is an obvious colour clash, but I would make an exception for this seasons horrific home strip. Whoever signed off on that abomination should get their jotters. As well as not really being like the 1980s kit that it is supposedly a ‘throwback’ to it is just an awful kit to look at. Far too much claret and the trims and designs from the top and the shorts don’t in any way match or align. It’s just a shambles of a strip.

Not a good performance but job done and that’s what the Cup is all about. Liked the look of Mandron, as well as scoring a brace I thought he put himself about well and chased everything. I enjoyed that today even though it wasn’t a great spectacle, but going away to an old terraced ground like that right next to the sea with a big travelling support is what makes Cup football special.

Yeah quite pleased with that lineup too. I’d imagine Blaney will be at LB and good to see Mandron starting, if nothing else it hopefully gives Van Veen some much needed competition.

KvV benched, Mandron, Crankshaw and Blaney all start.

I think it is 2, they had their game called off the same day as our St.Mirren postponement in December there.

Livingston v Dundee Utd off tonight which means Utd can’t go above us.

Well it’s all well and good saying we’ve only lost 2 from the last 6 but at the same time we have won 0 from the last 8. The football on display is poor and the signs aren’t encouraging. A loss to Arbroath would only make the mood worse. I don’t think Hammell will be fired if we lose next week, but I think he might walk.