joewarkfanclub

For what its worth, I have every respect for those who have served and even more so for those that have given their lives in the service of their country. I have little respect though for the majority of politicians who send our brave lads n lassies into danger. Very rarely has it ever been for the right reasons. Power & greed are usually the order of the day. I would never disrespect a minutes silence, but I no longer wear a red poppy, mainly due to the insistence of the same politicians that not doing so is in some way unpatriotic. I will continue to stand silently and wear a white one for peace, in the hope that no more of our sons & daughters have to die needlessly in the name of politicians who could never do what they do.

I think they still do some of their training with us. I presume that side of things is still looked after. But nothing beats gametime. Wilson benefitted of 6 months with Beith Juniors. He went away a boy and came back a man. Of course he had two poor loans before that. All about picking the right loan club.

I agree, but the SFA (or the League) have tried things in the past. The 3 foreigners rule was stopped because of employment law and the U21s rule just saw bench places taken up by boys who never played. Not really sure what the answer is. Certainly doing away with the reserve leagues hasnt helped. I know they cost money, but in the overall scheme of things allowing youth prospects the opportunity to cut their teeth playing alongside and against senior pro's certainly seemed to have boys ready for first team football earlier back in the day. (Which you would imagine would save a club like Motherwell money in the long term). Of course its not just as simple as that, but it is a contributory factor.

Id forgotten about that. His first touch was sublime. Woulda took the roof of if he had finished it!

The only thing Halliday is guilty of imho is not wanting to he smacked in the face with the ball. He turns his back to stop himself being hurt and the rotation brings his arm up towards his face (possibly trying to protect it). I dont think he makes his body bigger and the ball wasnt going in. Last season it was a penalty all day long due to the idiotic rules. This season we were supposed to have re-evaluated and raised the threshold, resulting in far fewer decisions like yesterdays. You can definitely make a case for it being a penalty if you choose to, but I thought we had moved on.

I thought the referee was poor today. Reminded me of a young Willie Collum. That said he wasnt any worse than some of the others we have had. Thankfully we got the 3 points so it didnt matter.

Some really good performances today, particularly first half. Seddon was brilliant first half and some of his passing was de Bruynesque! Kaleta was excellent down the right and Maswanhise had a great first half and scored a very good goal. My Motm though was Sparrow. He covered every blade of grass and finished off a fantastic team goal. His energy and enthusiasm in midfield just makes us a much better team.

I really despair with this place. If nobody can see any positives out of that first half today, I dont know where to start with you. Yes, St Johnstone played some nice stuff at times, but it was reminiscent of us under Hammell and we know how that turned out. We havent had a functioning midfield all season. Our tactic is clearly to let the other team have the ball and to hit them on the break. And you know what? It works! I thought Seddon was immense first half mopping up at the back and spraying passes about. Kaleta was electric down the right and Maswanhise gave their centre backs a torrid time. We scored 2 really good goals and really shoulda been outta sight by half time. St Johnstone made 3 changes at half time which shows you how Simo thought it was going, and tbf to him, it did make an initial impact until we worked it out. Thought the rest of the second half was scrappy, but I didnt see Saints scoring until the penalty. Not really sure what Halliday is supposed to do. Its fired straight at him from close range and he turns his back on it. Yes it hits his hand and its the kind of thing that was given regularly last season, but we had raised the bar this year and I thought we had seen the last of those decisions. Obviously not. At that point I think the players lose the plot. Balmers head was gone after his clash with Kimpioka and Davors miss, deary me! Couldnt see the hand ball for their 2nd, but VAR calls it so happy to take it after the pen call. Overall. Far from perfect. It never is with us. But lots still to like and another well deserved 3 points. 2 weeks to rest up now and re-focus as we go into a very important run of games which could effectively see us clear of relegation by xmas which would be nice. PS thought Lennon Miller looked a little bit off it second half today. Not suggesting he should call off from the Scotland U19s. But I wouldnt be devestated if he had a niggle that kept him out. Boy has played a lot of football.

Obviously that was debated at length at the time and I do get the arguments for squad harmony, leadership dynamics, Kellys Scotland place and the Euro money that came our way. But even taking all that into account, there were points during that winless run where mistakes were being made and it must have been under consideration. Then I remember the saves during the win at Ibrox and I think on balance Id take that be happy that we have now moved on! The Big Man is getting his plaudits now, so hopefully he just goes from strength to strength!

Helpful hint for Zach Robinson. Dont back into Mikulic and try and wrestle him. You will lose and the referee wont give you any fouls. You will be quicker than him however, so I suggest knocking it in behind and running after it!

Stama not being picked this time round will be good for him and us in the short term. Last break he travelled to the other side of the world and played zero minutes. His move hasnt been straightforward having to relocate his wife and newborn child, getting injured and the aforementioned travel. He really hasnt had any opportunity to settle down and show us what he can do. After this break he will get a run of games and we will hopefully start getting more players back that will allow SK to have us playing in a way that suits him. Long term we need him playing well, scoring goals and being selected for Australia as, I presume, the plan is to sell him on down south for a significant fee.

Aye with Gordon out, there will be a lot more pressure on Balmer and The Ox to deal with crosses into the box.

SOD confirmed out at Gordon suspended. So in the basis that SK wont change from 3 at back Id go.... Ox Casey Balmer Blaney Kaleta Seddon Halliday Miller Wilson Watt Stama with Sparrow Maswanhise and Moses our subs on the 60 minute mark when Halliday, Watt and Stama are burst.

Im no financial guru. But I suspect having all those things included in the development is how you go about financing a new stadium. Beside any private investment, I would imagine there would be numerous government grants etc available for re-development. With all the additional services going in there you might even get a bus route or a train station.

Also some good people appointed to the WS Board. Didnt realise Alison Thewliss was a Motherwell fan.

Lots of youth, talent, enthusiasm and experience there. Look forward to the club making huge strides in all areas as we move forward!

I presume to because he had some dignity after the fact and it keeps everyone in the tent? Otherwise it just appears vindictive and alienates those who were of a similar mind.....

Some really good appointments to the Executive AND Well Society Boards. A broad range of skills and experience now within the club and Society. Hopefully this will be the springboard to showing that fan ownership really does work!

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2024/11/06/executive-board-update/

Build a Little Birdhouse in My Soul! 😍 Is that too happy clappy? 😆

No. He is saying that despite his faults, our manager might be better than you give him credit for. Re your second point. Thats just a poor trope. Peps a decent guy and Im pretty sure he has won a trophy or two.

I guess it depends what you mean by moved us forward? I was all for his appointment in the beginning as he appeared to be a more "out of the box" choice than some of the usual suspects, but IMHO he took our football back to the dark ages. It was absolutely fine when he was winning games and he deserves a lot of credit for keeping us up in his first 6 months, but what followed after that was abysmal. He did turn it around, get us top 6 and into Europe (making it absolutely impossible for the board to fire him) but at what cost? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if I was going back now, I wouldnt hire him again.

Who knew Craig Levein was such a visionary! 😆😆😆

Good post. I think the manager did get it tactically wrong yesterday. He also got the subs wrong. He would never admit that in public but hopefully he knows himself. Very disappointing but not a sacking offence. The reaction to the disappointment will be important.

I dont disagree with a lot of your post, but I am starting to get a bit fed up with the Happy Clappy tag as i I dont think its remotely accurate. However, given Im clearly in the group assigned the label I will respond. I havent read a single post by the so called Happy Clappy Brigade that professes to be satisfied with the standard of football entertainment we are being presented with this season. In fact most of us are actually quite critical when its merited. Its just usually done in a constructive manner. Defence of the manager under fire from the usual suspects doesn't mean that you think everything he does its perfect. It just means you apportion some realism to the situation. I would love for us to play more attacking football and be more entertaining, but our league position is good and we got to a cup semi final despite being a limited group of players. This is also the same manager that got 28 goals out of KVV and 15 out of Theo Bair. Anyone really saying large parts of that werent entertaining? I view us being a team / squad in transition at present. Im reasonably happy that our keeper and defence have been upgraded. The next stage has to be midfield, after that I think we will be able to assess more accurately whether any of our strikers are any good ( I personally think Stama will turn out to be a find, and at 22 its probably toi early to right off Robinson, regardless of how critical I have been of him thus far). As you rightly say, the time to judge the manager and his signings are at the end of the season. The fact that this time last year Theo Bair had scored 1 goal should be a lesson for everyone.