MJC

Finishing top six last season was down to a combination of sheer luck and other sides around us cutting their own throats. Sheer luck with us having Tony Watt’s goals in the first half of the season to get us results that we weren’t able to get in the second half. Other sides cutting their own throats with us scraping last minute levellers at St.Mirren and Livingston and the rest basically showing no consistency. A team playing as poorly as we did and winning only three league matches from Boxing Day and the end of the season yet qualifying for Europe is down to luck, nothing will convince me otherwise.

I think it’s downright unrealistic to expect this team to be finishing top six this season. We have an inexperienced manager in his first ever managerial appointment who has inherited a largely poor squad from the previous regime. There will be ups and downs this season and while there are most definitely reasons for optimism for us since emptying/mutually consenting Alexander and the Stuart McKinstry loan which is certainly something to be optimistic about, we still have the majority of the team that played so poorly last season. For me Stevie Hammell gets a ‘free pass’ this season, regardless of what happens, even if the worst happened and we were relegated. I’m not saying that I think we will be but it’s definitely a possibility and if it happens then that’s on the board for allowing Alexander to sign some of the absolute dross that he did and that that same dross that won three league matches in 2022 last season would do for us going into this one. But as I said, there is definitely cause for optimism. Certainly more than there was this time last month because we were basically sleep walking into the lower leagues with Alexander in charge.

If we win this one then we will have won as many league matches in less than a month than we won under Alexander from December ‘21 until May ‘22. It’ll be tight and it’ll be scrappy but I think we’ll shade it 2-1.

Likewise, this is an exciting signing and not just because of his potential but because we are going to get to see one of our academy graduates grace our first team this season. One of the most frustrating thing in modern day football for clubs our size is that we lose our best young talent without them ever playing a game for us. I am genuinely looking forward to seeing McKinstry play for us.

McKinstry confirmed by club Twitter. Welcome home Stuart.

The Aberdeen support is a joke. They seem to take no joy or pleasure in anything apart from beating/scraping a draw against Rangers once a season. They live off the early 1980s success that they had but can’t get their heads round why they aren’t winning leagues and competing in Europe anymore. Their ‘songbook’ consists of dirge like “Staaaand free” and chants mocking the Ibrox distaster and the Simpson-Durrant incident whilst trying to portray themselves as ‘better’ than the bigoted nasty Old Firm/weegies. They think they have a divine right to be better than clubs like us and their media chums help fuel this. That is why very little in football gives me more satisfaction than slapping them down. Fuck them.

The Livingston game next week will be a big indicator if we have actually started turning a corner. As brilliant as today was we have tended to get results against Aberdeen against the odds over the last couple of years. I don’t know if it’s been because they have always been favourites and we thrive on the ‘underdog’ tag but we have certainly done okay against them and a lot better than expected beforehand. A win and a good performance at home against Livingston next Saturday is crucial.

Their fans are, in the main, obnoxious, odious dangle berries. Fuck them.

That is fucking amazing. Brilliant result Best performance in 2022 by a mile Hate Aberdeen so Get it right up them and their dour pussed followers and cheerleaders in the media Delighted for Hammell and Kerr

Nah, he doesn’t have the C&A gloves to be able to be compared with Roddie.

KvV is the absolute scourge of those Dandy bastards. Get in!!

Horrible time to concede an equaliser but this performance has been night and day to what we’ve seen for a while now. We have actually played something resembling football during that half…let’s hope it catches on.

To be fair I’d say he still is, but at the same time well done to him.

We’ve quite often managed to pull a result or at least a better performance against Aberdeen over the past five years when we’ve been on a dismal run so who it’s hard to say. That said, this most definitely is much more encouraging and we’ve got a lead into the bargain.

Good to see Cornelius and Slattery starting. Not so good seeing Solholm starting, though I appreciate we don’t have a lot of options.

Nothing wrong with being positive mate. Nothing at all. Indeed I love a bit of positivity and am fully supportive of Steven Hammell as manager. I just hated that “We are all Stuart McCall” pish that we got back in the day. It’s up there with ‘FHW’ in the cringeworthy, toe-curling abominable patter stakes. Neither of them top “We exist to improve people’s lives” mind you. If the media team changed that to “We exist to wipe people’s arses” it wouldn’t be any more or any less pointless or ridiculous.

Dear suffering Christ not this horrific patter again. Indeed it would.

Six now. The reality is that for every Scottish club outwith Celtic & Rangers, European football is simply a level way beyond their reach. Not that that in any way excuses our debacle against Sligo Rovers mind you.

Absolutely this. If we do end up going down this season then it’ll be on Burrows and the board for allowing Robinson and then Alexander to blow so much of our meagre budget on absolute dross. When you look back at some of the absolute guff we’ve brought in over the last five years it is absolutely galling. We are in big trouble this season and relegation is a distinct possibility. As I said before I reckon it’ll be between us and the two Saints clubs to avoid the bottom two spots and even though it’s early the signs are not good. For Stevie Hammell it is a massive ask to keep this squad in the league. He has inherited an absolute pigs ear from the previous manager and those who allowed him to assemble it. Needless to say he is going to need all the luck he can get, as well as support and backing from both the fans and those in the boardroom.

Like others this wasn’t my preferred choice but it’s Hammell who’s got the job and we need to get behind him. He’s got a huge job on his hands and I’m sure that every Motherwell fan wishes him the very best of luck. He’s given his all to the club for over two decades and he will do the same again as manager. Good luck Stevie

Fair enough, you’re entitled to do so.

Whatever anyone thinks of him, Neil Lennon will not be our new manager. He’s a club just now and as I said earlier we are not going to pay compensation to get a manager to move here. And that’s before you take into account the salary Lennon would demand and that he would be wanting assurances on player budget, something that caused issues for him at Hibs I believe. It’s not going to happen.

And this is the same posters view on Barry Ferguson and Bob Malcolm. There were plenty in our support who had a problem with McCall simply because of his Rangers connections and the posts I quoted above are just a tiny example of that. Likewise the suggestion of Barry Ferguson getting the job now. I remember McCall’s first match in charge for us, New Douglas Park on New Years Day 2011. The game hadn’t even kicked off and the guy in front of me was being fairly vocal to his mate how he wasn’t best pleased to have “this (banned word beginning with H) bastard in charge now”. We’ve tended to do quite well with ex-Rangers players as our manager. McCall for all his faults did okay with us, as did Butcher and of course Tommy McLean got us promoted and won the Scottish Cup for us. Yet I can recall all three of them getting abuse in the stands at Fir Park because of their Rangers connection so it goes both ways.

I’d take MacKay but there is not a chance in hell that we would pay compensation to Ross County to get him. Our next manager will be someone either currently out of work or Hammell/Kerr. Unless of course Burrows decides to appoint himself which I genuinely can see happening one day.

He’s not even been seriously linked with the job and already it’s clear that the support would be divided by his potential appointment. That says it all for me. Avoid.