Andy_P

This one Gadgey?

Slightly surprised at the generosity being afforded to St Mirren. I thought they offered next to nothing and were very fortunate to get away with a point. It's one of the mysteries of the season that they have managed to escape from Fir Park with 4 points from about three shots on target. They made no attempt to win the game yesterday and only after we scored did some genuine urgency come into their play. Not to say they haven't got their tactics spot on and achieved what they wanted to achieve of course. If the chance that was blocked on the line goes in it might well have been a different game but for the most part it was a bit of a struggle. In the context of building for next season, maybe no bad thing for us in terms of working out a way to grind out a result in such games. It looked like we'd eventually done that, without panicking unduly and resorting to aimless punts, until unfortunately we messed it up at the death. Like many I found the withdrawal of Turnbull a bit odd and as has been pointed out as we went into those final few minutes it was even more curious to have several players out of position that could have been played in their natural positions. But that in itself doesn't cost us the win. I like Frear and think he does offer something but he blew that opportunity to kill it yesterday big time and we paid the price moments later. Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

Your thoughts and votes please...

I think the, four on two was it, about a minute before only magnifies the annoyance of conceding. Fucking passback!

I like the relative closeness and ease of travel that games in Paisley offer so I would be quite happy for St Mirren to stay up. That said for reasons unbeknown I seem to have been scarred by bad results against them more than most over the years so whenever we play them I yearn for us to give them an absolute bleaching (Friday night Barraclough style). I'll settle a for a 95th minute deflected own goal winner off one of their defenders arses all the same of course...

You don't need to justify your reasons for renewing your season ticket to me or anybody but waiting until the end of August before deciding to whether you renew or not seems a little odd. As you allude to in your post the transformation in style of play and enjoyment levels can be marked within the same season. Who's to say you renew at the end of August after a great start and it all turns to shit? Or a rebuilt team takes a few months to gel on goes on to have a storming campaign but you've missed out. Just seems a slightly odd barometer on which to decide. Each to their own though of course. I get what you're saying about the football too but some of the best football I've ever seen Motherwell play in my lifetime was playing a 3-5-2 formation under Tommy McLean and was packed with "footballers" like Martin, Krivokapic, O'Donnell, Lambert and Coyne. Maybe the players and style of play is more important than the formation itself?

I'm inclined to think that Rodriguez-Gorrin has had a bit of a raw deal from Scottish officials since he established himself in the side. It reeks of paranoia I know but I am increasingly convinced he's somehow gained notoriety amongst referees and is not being afforded the same leeway that other players in his position get. Can you imagine Scott Brown or Ryan Jack for example walking for what he did yesterday? Unquestionably he needs to be a lot more astute in when to go in but I watched pretendy hard-man MacKinnon last Saturday boot people up and down the park for the best part of an hour before being booked yet in much the same time yesterday Gorrin was off the park for fouls that came no where near the severity or frequency of MacKinnon in the derby. And that has been the case in several games where he seems to get no leeway and gets booked very early on.

Craig Clay leading Leyton Orient back to the promised land. And I say that only partly in jest. Julian Lillington (Orient/'Well fan known to many) suggested to me the other evening he was a strong candidate for their Player of the Year.

Derek Ferguson (father), Willie Miller (ex Aberdeen), Richard Gordon (Aberdeen fan).... Lewis Ferguson is favourite? Funny that...

Your thoughts and votes please...

You didn't attribute blame to Scott no, but you were fairly dismissive of talk of the inclusion of a youngster as opposed to a more senior player. For me there is a balance to be found here between focusing entirely maximising prize money to the detriment of developing young players and vice versa. There is no guarantee that senior players will get you the desired result. Especially if several of them are potentially biding their time before moving on. You may gain as much if not more from a youngster eager to impress. I give you last season for example and the final two games of the season against Thistle and Hamilton. Again I don't necessarily see why we cannot finish 7th whilst affording less developed members of the team opportunities at the same time. Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk

I'm not disagreeing with your point about the finance but playing competitive games surely has to be better for a player's development than pre-season games. Has it crossed your mind we can do both? We were a misplaced back-pass away from beating Hamilton last weekend whilst including Scott. And it wasn't a youth player either who cost us the win.

You could just as easily argue that the benefits to Scott and Motherwell in the long run are better served giving him experience in competitive fixtures against two sides that were battling against relegation than a closed door against Newcastle's U21's and games against Barrow and Gateshead.

One slight positive we can take from Hastie's mooted move to Rangers, and indeed the McKinstry move to Leeds, is that it does re-inforce the strength and potential of our Academy; both for younger players on our books who we are seeking to retain or those we want to bring to the club. Whilst it warms the heart to read of players who, when they come through say it was the height of their boyhood ambitions to play for Motherwell, there will be countless parents of kids out there for whom Motherwell will be viewed as but a stepping stone for their laddie on his way to the top. These two might not have gone for the sums or at the times of our choosing but it does enable to clearly demonstrate the pathway through to our Academy. "Oh you're considering an offer for your son from Aberdeen. That's fine but only this summer two of our Academy players have moved to one of the Old Firm and one to an English Premiership side (maybe...) and three were involved in Scotland U21's." Not every club can say that when pitching for talent.

I'd argue absolute shite is stretching it a bit but I'm not so sure how much the new contract has had to do with it. He had a good spell of form and a little like the team itself is having a not so good spell of form at the moment. In some respects he's no different to many players who are a bit unknown in the Scottish top flight - and I say unknown in respect of him generally not having turned out at right-back very much before his current spell. You have a certain amount of time where you slip under the radar but it isn't very long at all before what you can and cannot do in a position is sussed by other teams (arguably like the player who's been in front of him since the end of January). He benefited from that "anonymity" but having played against most of the teams now in that role everyone is well aware of his strengths and weaknesses. He wouldn't be my first choice in the position but brain farts like yesterday aside you know you are going to get a certain level of performance and unquestionable effort from him. The catch 22 with him is that good player as he is to have in a squad it has always taken him a few games to get up to speed to get the best from him. In an ideal world we're going to find that elusive left-back, Tait will return to the right and he'll back dipping in and out again here and there.

An annoying conclusion to a game where we only have ourselves to blame for not leaving Hamilton with three points. I'd like to think had there been more at stake for us we would have sought to press home our advantage a bit more, particularly in the first half, and looked to have killed the game off. Instead it was akin to a cat playing with a mouse but somehow letting its prey escape and come back to bite it. Whilst I would obviously have preferred to have won, in the grand scheme it doesn't matter a huge amount. Truth be told I'd ratherhave a fixture or two at Hamilton than in Dundee (be that Dundee or Dundee Utd) so if our lapse of concentration helps that outcome materialise then at least some good might have come of it. It actually felt like they only way they were going to score was from something unexpected. They weren't without their chances but looked absolutely abject in front of goal until we made it so easy for them they couldn't miss. Pre-season game 1 of 2019'20 done and dusted.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Could maybe try On the Continent for the European stuff. I listen to that too and enjoy that. Main show is on a Wednesday and they have the Mailbag that goes out on a Saturday. Both usually feature James Horncastle and Andy Brassell. Speaking of Brassell he's started a pod called At the Match which is a really good listen too. He pitches up at a game across Europe and a good bit of is simply recordings of the crowd to give you a feel for the atmosphere with interviews with supporters or people knowledgeable on the clubs featured. A couple recently included Sporting v Benfica and Bayern Munich v Dortmund.

I quite like it. I really enjoy the Totally Football Show. I think James Richardson is terrific and the guests are always really insightful and well informed (folk like James Horncastle, Julien Laurens and Michael Cox) so when it was revealed they were doing a Scottish version I thought brilliant. I then became a little scpetical when it became clear the presenters were three Scots staying in London and wondered if we were going to get the Ian Crocker style of presenting i.e. designed for an English audience ("he's just scored the winner in the Cup Final.....which Birmingham City fans will remember all too well" kind of thing). But my fears were misplaced and it's become a good listen each week with some good guests that vary from players to podcasters to bloggers who all add a different dimension. I suppose it depends what you like. It's more polished than The Terrace but has much less dressing room humour like Keep the Ball on the Ground.

Shaun Fagan and Marc Fitzpatrick to name but two may tend to disagree! But I do accept your point that generally speaking there is an extra keenness to see a home grown talent come through and do well.

Not quite on the park but perhaps a rebuild of sorts. Whilst listening to the Totally Scottish Football Show on the way into work this morning one of the usual trio Laura Brannan mentioned she was returning from London to become Motherwell's "Senior Producer" whatever that role entails. She has mentioned a couple of times on the show in the past about doing filming for MFC so it'll doubtless be media related and perhaps replacing/restructuring in light of Lewis Irons moving on.

Robinson said beforehand about learning how far we'd come. He'll have learned that we have a good way to go! But whilst that much is true, but I suspect he won't quite have got the gauge he was hoping for because I think we are better than what we showed for the bulk of the game today and we didn't come close to showing what we can do against a side like that when at full pelt. I know it's easy to mock those who harbour such thoughts given the utterly appalling league record but I did go into the game with a quiet confidence. I did think we had an opportunity and was quite excited at the potential within us to give them a game. But we didn't really convert our early dominance into any genuine goalscoring chances and any real hope of making it a contest was quickly destroyed by our own defensive frailties. Okay Arfield finished things off but the players who created most dangerous players today generally wore claret and amber. I'm inclined to think it unfortunate that our defenders seemed to have absolute nightmare and turned in some of their worst displays in ages all on the one day. Don't get me wrong even at our best there's plenty of room for improvement but credit where it's due the defence has improved markedly in recent times and has been adequate enough. Not today though of course... He didn't influence the outcome but the referee's performance is perhaps worthy of a word or two. To say he was inconsistent in his response to similar demeanours is being kind. There is also the throwing of objects. In all honesty I really like the fact that plenty opposition players and supporters view the East Stand a cesspit. There's a whole power of good that can come from the support/venom that comes out of our stand but there's lines that cannot be crossed and one or two have crossed them today. The most annoying thing is that it will give the shower behind the goal the feeling of holding the moral high ground over us. Now personally I'm not going to take any lectures off a support that didn't get to see their team presented with their only European trophy because their fans were tangoing with Spanish riot police, but we can be sure that many of those who routinely have selective deafness in the commentary and press boxes of the land every Saturday won't be shy in making an example of us. I do think there have been some lessons to be learned over this past week though. From working out how to break down a really physical St Johnstone side last weekend, to dealing with the adversity that came with fortuitous goals at the keeper injury in midweek to how not to shoot yourselves in the foot against a clinical opponent today. I would like to think that there are a number of our team who will be the better for those experiences. It's been a little badge of honour that Old Firm sides haven't won at Fir Park for a wee bit so for that record to go so meekly today is a bit of a disappointment but given the top six was already out of reach it had a slight air of a free hit about it, so it's a case of bank the positives of the experience and quickly put it behind us and pump Accies again in a fortnight.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Been waiting for you UBH. I think before at least half of those you've said you don't think you'll ever see us beat them again in the league in your lifetime One day soon! One day soon!!

Personally I would be happy to retain Johnson for another year, or at least have someone of a similar style in the squad. I accept he's well out things currently and the present set up is not one in which he's likely to flourish but one of our issues in the opening half of this season was that for too long we remained rigid to the same style and often the same personnel within that formation. In much the same way the three-at-the-back eventually ran its course so too will this formation hit limitations, be that through opposition sides nullifying it, players moving on or whatever. We would surely want to retain a player in his mould to provide the necessary variation when the opposition or circumstance dictate. Plenty seem to have accepted that it's a matter of time before he goes but to me he has shown somethingand to me there should certainly be a place in the squad for someone of his style.