Andy_P

Your thoughts and votes please...

I'm anticipating the kind of reaction we got after the opening losses to Hibs and Hamilton where the performance we got against Rangers was much improved. Whether that materialises and produces a win remains to be seen. And whilst I fully accept that I'm getting ahead of myself a bit if we did happen to win it's a right pain in the arse that we'll have to wait a fortnight to build on it with the international break, which came at exactly the wrong time last month.

So long shitty September, hello opportunistic October....

I could well be mistaken but I'm pretty sure I saw something on social media, can't remember if it was Motherwell themselves or one of the players and they appeared to be on a train going to Aberdeen. Kind of makes sense if it was the case what with greater opportunity to move about and all. Stuck in my head a bit as like you the assumption would be they'd travel by bus.

Are you giving up your season ticket or something?

I'll bow to your knowledge of wins in the period you've quoted, and perhaps turn games around wasn't the best wording I could have used, but I was referencing Robinson's reign as a whole and specifically mentioned adversity rather than pointing to come from behind victories. But yeah, skim through the games I still believe there is plenty of evidence to suggest there was a spirit to fight back that arguably isn't evident to the same extent currently, even if it might not actually have resulted in a victory. You can cite for example his first win in charge at Killie where we were a goal down and we won 2-1 or responding to being pulled back to by 2-2 by Inverness and going on to win 4-2 or the severe wobbles we experienced at 1-1 before going on to beat Killie 3-1 to stay up. Last season you had the comeback to beat Edinburgh City, coming back to beat Hearts, Hamilton and Dundee. Digging it out with 10 men in Dingwall in the League Cup. Coming back to draw with both capital sides in Edinburgh. And even though both ended in losses there were recoveries from 3-0 down to 3-2 against Partick and Ross County. There was a fair bit of character of required from those on the park and some bold decisions to be made off it to recover, or go some way to recover, from losing or mentally challenging positions. There's also the small matter of having players of the necessary ability to enable you to do so but that's perhaps an argument for another thread...

Masters of our own downfall once again sadly. Solid start, people generally playing in their right roles and we looked more balanced for it. Even managed to get a goal (and what a goal) to the good. But then... Main's penalty was awful and immediately gave Kilmarnock and their support a lift. Even then though, Taits's terrific header off the line apart, I thought we looked comfortable. But conceding just completely spooked us. One of the better traits of Robinson's reign has been an ability to cope with adversity during games and turn it around. That seems increasingly less so this season with the double substitutions that weren't uncommon similarly failing to have the same effect. We do indeed as has been said already look like we've a soft underbelly. Once poked we don't seem to have it in us to respond and look done when we go behind. The second half was dreadful. We barely kicked a ball. Even with four forwards on the park at the end we barely had an effort of any note on target and were fortunate not to concede more. Galling to fall to such a soft, weak defeat when the opportunity was there to give ourselves a stong foothold in the match. Frustration is obviously growing with each passing defeat but there has been no great outpouring of venom at games as yet. I'm not sure that will still be the case if were looking at a fifth successive loss this time next weekend.

Just as an aside, with all this chat of late about how lucky we were apparently last season I wonder if a year from now if Killie hit upon harder times will their fans look back on their win today and ponder that since our keeper palmed the ball to their player leaving him with an open goal and a tap in, our midfield and defence decided not to bother tackling and gifted them a penalty really they were nothing special at all, and well, were lucky. Or is it just our fans?

Your thoughts and votes please...

That I don't disagree with you, although to a point for every journeyman like Fletcher there's been a Moult, for every Frear a Johnson, for every Straker a Tait etc. so I do at least understand what they hope to achieve with the punts from England.

No, we put in context the standing of the club based upon the budget and target set. That's not to say I don't aspire to us doing greater things then coming in tenth. Which taes us back to the point you made about changing the people setting those targets and budgets. I assume that given there's a pathway to the boardroom via the Well Society and given the high level of discontent you share on a weekly basis when I go to vote on the candidates for election you'll have put yourself forward to right all these perceived wrongs and your CV and pitch will among the candidates yes?

Aye and neither is playing in the lower leagues which at least six of those clubs have also done in the last decade. Which yer man helped save us from once, ensured it was never an issue by about February last season and will most likely ensure it isn't an issue this season either. You know seeing as we're disregarding Cups whenever it suits the argument.

Currently I don't see us challenging for the top half but I'd still like to think that we have enough about to be free of relegation worries when the business end of the season comes around. But the point you make about going forward is a good one. Now other than remarks I've seen attributed to Robinson I have no idea what our budget actually is but is it generally reckoned that we are coming in with the second or third lowest budget in the division. If that continues to be the case, we do maintain the sale of an asset each season, then we do run the risk of the post-administration years where things regressed to that point under Malpas where if the season was week longer we'd probably have gone done. It takes us back to what I remember being an excellent discussion last season where (Ya Bezzer springs to mind) made the suggestion was made that the focus had shifted too much from the team to concerning ourselves with the financials. Perhaps there is a case? Personally for now I think we are managing things fairly well between eradicating the historical debt, given that with each month that passes the period of those favourable terms becomes more limited, and ensuring we remain competitive on the park. I tend to think that taking a longer term view that a couple of years with more modest investment in the playing side in the short term is going to be worth it if you're able to secure the future of the club and will therefore be better placed to increase your investment in the team for a more sustained period further down the line. The difficulty of course comes when you hit that sticky bit as we kind of have now. Do you hold your nerve and stay on course, release funds for a refresh of the team in January or as some evidently wish, look at a change in the dugout? A test of nerves for sure that one!

It might be worth recollecting what Robinson's remit has been since he became Motherwell manager. Both he and the club have stressed regularly that first and foremost it is to keep us in the top division, have decent Cup runs and ideally try to sell a player a season. Given that he's retained top flight status twice, never failed to reach a Quarter Final whilst selling on three players no matter how little you rate Andy Rose or how basic you believe the style of football is, he's done the key things asked of him. Not to say that will still be the case in six months but for now I can't see the club having any plans to move him on at the current time.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I have my doubts but getting through (note we might not necessarily have to actually win) here is far from beyond us. We have consistently risen to the occasion in Cup ties against top flight sides over Robinson's tenure and I would hope that would be the same on Wednesday. Whether that is enough to beat Hearts though that remains to be same. Celtic finals apart this is arguably as difficult a fixture as we've had in the Cup games. Points taken about the manner in which we've scored this season and obviously we would want to be scoring a good deal as a consequence of our own open play but when it comes to Cup games it's all about getting through and I'll be content enough if it's an OG, penalties or a shot that was heading for the corner flag deflecting off a Hearts defenders arse f it means we get through. Hope to fuck they've been practicing their penalties after Stranraer though in case it comes to it!!

I think concern is understandable. There is of course a sense that for some the last couple of results have been seized upon almost gleefully for the opportunity to sniff blood in (the vain) hope for change but concern at the losses and the way we've gone down with a relative whimper I think is perfectly understandable. I do think we've come on from the last "crisis" though and my own concern isn't perhaps as great as it was pre-Livingston. Outwith Hibs each of our defeats have been by a single goal and could all conceivably have ended up as draws. By no stretch of the imagination have we been outclassed by Hamilton, Hearts or Aberdeen but for a bit a of a worldly, a defensive howler and a shot from McHugh about six inches too high then we could easily be sitting with just a single defeat to our name. Were we on a run such as Dundee are on and losing every game or going down by two's and three's like St Mirren then that would be altogether more worrying. It's not going to take a massive leap for those kind of defeats to become draws. We've also come on a little bit from the style being utilised at the beginning of the season albeit there has been a real lack of creativity in the last couple of games. Robinson can't be criticised for Tanner being injured but there is a question to be asked over the balance of the squad when Frear for example finds himself starting on the right hand side because we really don't have any other attacking options when Cadden isn't starting. The question was posed yesterday about where our standing is. I tend to think we're not a million miles from where we're going to be. Realistically there was there only ever going to be one top half spot up for grabs and we'd be somewhere between sixth and tenth. I don't see that we have enough about us at this point in time to be challenging for the top half but I do think that there is enough in us, and enough improvement in us, that we shouldn't be worrying about eleventh or twelfth. Robinson's summer plans of looking to boost positions 12-18 appears to be a stick being used each time we lose to beat him with. I still think the principle is fairly sound albeit that has to be qualified considerably be stating obviously that it's only going to work if you have the right players to be your next in line. But I can't see that notion of trying to reduce the drop off between your first choice and those who may have to come in is that crazy an idea, nor that it's that daft a thought that knowing said next-in-line is breathing down someones neck for a place isn't going to drive the current incumbent on. As yet admittedly those brought in haven't quite had that desired effect but I can see at least what he's trying to achieve. I think there's room for improvement. There's a few players in the team who owe Robinson more than they've been delivering. I have my concerns that if we don't have any trips to Hampden to look forward to, by comparison to last season, this season will feel a good bit more dull and more of a slog, so in that respect Wednesday is hugely important, but in terms of the league I'm still pretty hopeful of a steady if not spectacular mid-table finish rather than becoming embroiled in a battle to stay up.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I take your point fully. Going back as far as Stuart McCall he was another who continually spoke of the importance of the first goal. I would like to think that given the number of times under Robinson we've had to come back during his reign though that would be slightly less a mental issue. Yet funny you should say 3-0 though, now clearly the fact we were 3-0 down removes a huge chunk of pressure on us to realistically get anything and any onus to continue to make a game of it on the leaders, but you compare the chances and way the game was taken to Hibs on the opening day, last 30 minutes compared to the tentative way we were even at just a goal behind yesterday and it was night and day. Not without effort I hasten to add but the intensity and ability to break Hearts down sadly just wasn't there.

A very unfulfilling afternoon. I thought we started as you would have hoped. Decent efforts on goal early on from Main and Tait and Rose unlucky with the deflected volley but even by the time of the calamatous gift that cost us not only a goal but our goalkeeper things had began to even up a lot more. The giveaway was painful in more ways than one. From the Hunter Stand at least there was almost a collective "don't pass it, don't pass it, don't.......ahh for fuck sake"... Haven't seen it back but did notice a few minutes after Flow going around various folk in the vicinity of the bench showing something on his phone and making the "planted foot" action. Can only hope Carson isn't out for long, albeit Gillespie did impress when he came on. And that was about it really. Never threatened again in anger, the nicely worked but weakly finished free-kick shortly before half-time apart. Around a year in and Levein has once again built Hearts in the style and with the mindset in which he demonstrated as a player. Masters of the dark arts they may be, aided and abetted by the ever clueless smiling buffoon that is Bobby Madden, but when all's said and done we just didn't have the quality or ingenuity to break them down. You could argue I suppose given the chances at the start, and that their goal game from a mistake ours rather than from anything they created themselves that a point would not have been unwarranted. But I'm just left with a feeling of disappointment that unlike the Rangers game where we were going at it hammer and tongs towards the end, we went down yesterday more akin to a whimper by comparison.

Your thoughts and votes please...

For the Airdrie Challenge Cup game at Fir Park, they were in the South Stand and we had the POD Stand. That might just have been because it was Airdrie though. Even if there was a need to segregate you could probably still comfortably fit everyone into the POD and save on costs.

No losses for the home side in each of the last four encounters between the sides. Make it five!

There was an arrangement put in place when the Welsh and Northern Irish sides that a certain amount (a figure of up to £4k comes to mind) that would be allocated for each of the teams that had to travel to Wales or NI. I'm sure that would have been extended when English and teams from the Republic of Ireland were added.

PJ Morrison to Albion Rovers on loan until January. Ten successive defeats. A breakdown in relations between their new manager John Brogan and their supporters weeks into his reign. Everyone's favourites to drop out of the league. That could be a tough gig for PJ! It also could I suppose be the making of him as he's certainly going to be busy and it will be a test of both of his ability and character.