joewarkfanclub

Im hoping Liam Donnelly not featuring tonight isnt a sign! On the other hand Mohammed Sylla would do just fine!

To be honest. I wouldnt be unhappy at that. He is a decent player who brings something different to the squad which, once everyone is fit, is going to be a bit on the bloated side. I dont expect us to do a lot of business this window. A tweak here and there with some excess baggage loaned out is about as far as I expect it to go. Main thing would be holding onto Miller until the end of the season, or at least cut a deal to have him loaned back. We should be able to manage up top with Stama, Watt, Ebiye and Vale, unless there is a cheeky loan available. Be interesting to see if the rumoured defensive mid comes to fruition.......

I think saying it cost them a cup win is stretching it. There is no guarantee that they would have scored the penalty and even if they did, Celtic still had time to rectify the situation. Its a poor decision. But football has seen much worse and survived. As far as accountability goes, Collum has stated there is a system in place to reward/punish the performances of officials. They just dont advertise it to protect their colleagues the same way managers protect their players. Given the limited pool we already have to choose from, Im not sure firing them altogether is a good idea let alone legal due to employment law. Bottom line is, VAR is very frustrating. Id rather we hadnt introduced it, but its here and never going away. It has improved a bit this season, but it still has a long way to go.

Im in Irvine. Met 2 guys on the train from Ayr going to the League Cup semi. There was a boy from Troon I used to see on the train about 20 years ago. Im sure there must be others.

12 points from that run of fixtures would be a fantastic return. 9 points would be pretty decent if it included draws with Killie Hearts and Hibs away. Anything we can do at this stage to maintain the gap between ourselves and the clubs below us will leave us in a strong position on the run in.

😆😆😆 Right enuf!

I didnt think Killie would match us up as they normally play 4-3-3 with Armstrong and Kennedy wide but I see they played 3-5-2 today against Hearts. Be interesting to see how McInnes decides to go on Friday night. Having the ability to change it up is certainly and handy attribute to have.

As an Ayrshire Steelman, this is as close to a local derby as it gets for me. Will undoubtedly be another tough game. McInnes teams are hard to beat. But with players all flooding back and getting minutes in, we are finally starting to look like a functional outfit. Looking forward to another Friday night under the lights. Hopefully we can come out on top again!

Well what a day! Left Nürnberg at 5.30am this morning. Got into Fir Park at 10 past 3 to find it was 1-1 already! What a great game of football! Really entertaining from both teams and amazing what you can do when you play players in their right positions and put the ball in the box for your main striker! Thought we played really well first half. Seddon, Halliday, Miller, TJ and Stama all great! Second half not so dominant as Goodwin thru the kitchen sink at us, but our subs steadied the ship up to a point. Great 3 points against a team flying high with one of the best defensive records in the league. Still not home due to the absolute carnage on the west coast line from Central tonight. Gonna enjoy my red wine and domino's watching Sportscene when I eventually get home! 3 points for The Steelmen. Today is a good day!

Lots of players had very good first halves. But Lennon Miller apart, the only one had a complete performance was Stama. So unselfish to square for Sparrow for the 4th! Funny what happens to a striker when you provide him with service!

He has a contract we gave him. If he isnt very good Id expect to see him moved on in January. If he is still injured or has some sort of personal problem, we will look after him. Its what we do.

Id guess he is either still broken, just not very good or has some sort of personal issue we dont want to go public on. There's no way you play Tavares at RWB if Koutroumbis is fit and available for selection.

I hope everyone understands that moderation is a necessity for every social media forum to allow them to deal with various legal requirements? Its not just a bunch of guys (or gals) deciding who can be in their gang or not. Not that X does a very good job of moderating its users right enough.....

Quite similar profiles. Although Miller has played more first team football now than Ramsay did before he moved. Also Miller is a midfielder and inflation in the last 2 years should mean we are looking in excess of that fee.

Maybe says more about Accies than Sparrow! 😆😆😆

Didnt realise he was only 23. Maybe puts things in a slightly different light, a la Robinson. I had though we had got him in as a back up for Maswanhise. Maybe that still is the case. But I hadnt expected him to start at RWB!

Not sure why anyone would post derogatory comments about those who have served. Those who would put our servicemen and women in the line of fire for personal or political gain is a different matter. Neither should really need stated on a football forum however.

Best performance of the season! 😉

He roasted United down the wing in the League Cup.......

Oops! Forgot about him! I agree!

As I said elsewhere, Kettlewells strike rate on the recruitment side of things is no worse than most of our managers in my lifetime. It just comes down to the pool we can fish in. We need to find players that are willing to play for what we pay AND come to Motherwell. We can try spending a bit more money to get more quality but our competition in that regard then becomes Hearts, Hibs & Aberdeen instead of Dundee, Killie and St Mirren. Given current league positions there is no guarantee that a change of policy is going to be more successful, and it comes attached with a lot more risk. For me Kettlewells balance sheet this season looks like this Good - Kaleta, Gordon, Seddon, Maswanhise Jurys Still out - Koutroumbis, Balmer, Stama, Watt (although I believe both of them will come good) Injured/Not good enough -Callachan, Robinson, Tavares. Koutroumbis not being given a chance in the last few weeks makes it kinda look like he isnt going to be good enough, but much like the decisions to bench Kaleta and Maswanhise, there could be reasons behind the scenes that the club dont want to go public with, so not gonna write him off without having seen him play. Balmer is probably serviceable but he needs to concentrate on his football instead of getting wound up by the opposition and officials. Given we have Paton, Nicholson, SOD, Slattery, McGinn and Vale all to come back by January, I dont see us really doing a lot of business unless we can identify a holding midfielder and/or a physical target man. It should also be noted the SK has been very good at getting players out the door that werent contributing / part of his plans.

Your probably not wrong 😆😆😆

Playing Paton and Halliday alongside Miller might help with ball rention, which we have really struglled with of late. But depends on the shape and formation of the rest of the team. I do hope Kaleta is fit and able to play again as I really dont like Tavares being asked to play wingback. Also if we are playing a wide player Id much prefer Maswanhise on the other side as he is our player, and far more effective for me. He also provides natural width on the left which we dont really have with Seddon or Wilson. Problem we have with Watt unavailable is what we do up top with Stama. Do we play Moses? Or do we ask Maswanhise to tuck in?

My point entirely.....

Reading the posts above, I dont think most of us are a million miles away in terms of our assessments or the way we feel. The main difference is the threshold for change. Binning a manager always costs us financially. Not just in paying that manager off, but the inevitable turnaround of players when the new guy wants to clear the decks. You could argue, as Wellfan does, that not binning Kettlewell in itself is wasting money as he will inevitably fail so giving him more windows to sign players isnt wise. But for me, at our level we need to try and get stability and allow a manager to learn and improve, otherwise it just ends up a merry-go-round. Kettlewell is certainly frustrating as hell at times, but whoever comes in after him is going to have to deal with the exact same circumstances, so sometimes its better the devil you know. He knows the players, he knows their faults. He is in the best position to know who needs moved on and who can still contribute. He seems to be able to improve players (KVV, Bair and maybe now Tony Watt). His transfer business has been a bit hit and miss, but that applies to pretty much every Motherwell manager in my lifetime, and his success rate is better than a fair few. Its just the market we operate in. He doesnt need to change much to keep me happy. Progress to a less defensive more entertaining set up as our better players return. Play players in their natural positions. Score a few more goals, keep a few more clean sheets. Make top 6. Beat St Johnstone in the Cup and sell Lennon Miller for £5m plus with loan back until the end of the season. Simples!