MJC

If we lose van Veen now then it will be a hammer blow.

I don’t think any Motherwell fan would realistically expect ‘Brazil 1970’ or anything remotely like that. However as you say yourself the squad is weaker than last season. And last season we were awful. No flukey top six/Europa qualification can disguise that. We played next to zero football throughout and got by from Aug - Dec because we had Tony Watt who could get goals to bail us out. From Boxing Day ‘21 until the end of the season we won three league matches and didn’t win a league match in 2022 until April. In that time we were eye-bleedingly dismal to watch and we can thank our lucky stars that the rest of the dross in the league managed to cut their own throats enough times to keep us out of trouble. So if, as you acknowledge, the team is now weaker than we were at the end of last season then it’s perfectly reasonable for Motherwell fans to have concerns ahead of the new season.

It wasn’t great viewing, granted, and there are valid concerns about the upcoming season. Anyone saying otherwise is kidding themselves on, in my opinion. However today was a good workout and we managed to get the win. If you want positives, that’s your positives from today.

They all count though!

Our away strip is cracking to be fair.

Nothing wrong with that. Teams that are successful need that ruthless element. I appreciate that some Well fans of an older age than myself had different experiences with Hearts, but I’ve always found their fans in the main, fairly okay. Tynecastle is a great stadium for watching football and Gorgie Road has a certain charm about it with its old tenements. Their club song is a belter as well.

Certainly sounds promising right enough.

Josh Morris, as described by the club website; “The 30-year-old attacker, who operates on either side of a front three or deeper in midfield, has penned a two-year deal with the club.“ We are actually becoming a parody of ourselves now. That said, welcome to the club Josh Morris. You have my full support.

I’ve never liked Aberdeen. A club based in a horrible city and their fans are some of the most obnoxious bampots you could have the misfortune to encounter. Have a real dislike of Dundee Utd as well. I don’t actually mind Hearts too much. I don’t like them but kind of respect them. I still cringe when I think of the ridiculous ‘FHW’ patter on here back in the day.

Since the LC format changed in 2016 we have never drawn a side outwith the top flight in the knockout stages. If it happens yet again it will be no surprise.

St.Mirren fans are, in the main, odious boneheads. Whereas ours think we are ‘a great wee club’.

You really don’t like Robinson do you? No denying that’s an awful result for him and St.Mirren though.

Take it this was behind closed doors? Not heard much about it other than this and the post below that says we won 5-1?

McInnes is a very good manager at this level and I think he’ll prove it again this year with Killie, who I think will surprise a lot of people in the league next season.

Our season starts in two weeks time with a Europa League match though. And while, of course, we are not going to do anything of note in that competition we have seen before that a disastrous European tie with an underprepared squad can set the tone for the season ahead, ie. Stjarnan in 2014.

I absolutely get that and also that our budget is limited. But that is why we need to be shrewd with the signings we are able to make and we need to get it right as often as we can.

Agree on that but we also badly need midfielders who can provide creativity and support to the front line. We have a good striker in KvV but he has no support with the system and the players we have. I’ve described us as a ‘workmanlike’ side which is fine but we need to be able to offset that with something in the way of flair and goal threat.

I’ve thought this for weeks now, this up and coming season is going to be an absolute shit show. The squad we have just now has nothing in the way of attacking threat or creative spark and we don’t appear to be doing anything to address this. Efford and Shields will not do, they’re just not good enough at the level we play at. I’ve no doubt we will bring in one or two panic buys in the closing days of the transfer window for the media team to produce a nice wee video for Twitter about, but I just don’t see us making the signings we need that will make us any better than we were last season.

First time I’ve seen that since the night itself. The pitch was absolutely unplayable by half time and it was the correct decision to abandon at that point, but remember being raging about it at the time as we were 1-0 up. Was there not some story at the time that Hearts chief executive had gone into the referees room at half time and asked him to stop the game? I remember several of the Hearts players complaining that the ball wasn’t rolling(which to be fair it wasn’t). Nevin’s last minute winners in the re-arranged game made it all the sweeter. Their keeper, Rousset was sent off for them in the first half too I remember.

That was a weird season that one. Some memorable wins, the 2-0 v Rangers you mention above, beating Celtic 1-0 at Parkhead with 10 men and 3-2 at FP, beating Hearts with a last minute Pat Nevin goal in a re-arranged game after the first one was abandoned. But at the same time we had some absolutely awful results. We lost 4-3 at home against Ayr Utd in the Scottish Cup having led 2-1 then 3-2 and them having an outfield player in goal for a spell in the first half. There was also that ridiculous 6-5 loss at home against an Aberdeen side that had scored two goals all season before that game and a 4-0 home loss against Kilmarnock in a midweek game. Dundee cuffed us a couple of times at home as well. And yet somehow we almost managed to qualify for Europe. That was a very expensively assembled Motherwell side too.

New Year 2004 against Dundee Utd at Fir Park. Phil O’Donnell made his second debut from the bench, David Clarkson scored a hat trick as we came from behind to win 3-1 and Andy McLaren wanted to square-go the entire East Stand after they were goading them about some aspects of his lifestyle. That wasn’t a game you forget in a hurry.

We were excellent that day, thoroughly deserved our 2-0 win but lost out due to Hearts winning against Hibs on the same day. I must admit I’m surprised to hear that Goram was denied entry to the old Fir Park Club given that that was one of the biggest Rangers shops in town back then. I know I and alot of Motherwell fans avoided it for that very reason.

That was a ridiculous save that he had no right to make. His reflexes were absolutely astounding. For all he was past his best by the time he came to FP he still managed some incredible performances in our jersey and even managed to secure a loan move to Man Utd in 2001 on the back of it.

Awful to hear. Rest in peace.

It’s certainly been dull and also highly concerning with the lack of signings, especially those of an attacking nature. I get this horrible feeling that GA is more or less happy with what we’ve got, so expect another season of eye bleeding football and dreadful form. This time though we don’t have Tony Watt to bail us out for half a season so unless we surpass the luck we got last year we could well be in serious relegation trouble in 22/23.