joewarkfanclub

I think its more likely to be back 3. McGinn on the right and Lamie in the left so Sol knows he has to stay in the middle! Makes most sense given the Johnston and Penney like to get forward. Good to see some changes and a fresher looking starting line up. Should stop some folk losing their shit before kick off.... .

Aye but so will Spittall so evens......😄

Riku Danzaki? Seemed to be a pretty firm report. Presume we are waiting on him finishing with Brisbane and international clearance......

One more in defence and Riku Danzaki and Im quite happy. Love a midfield enforcer as well but cant be too greedy.

So we now have 3 players signed with 1 more definitely in the pipeline and possibly more on the way. Lets park the negativity for 24 hours and get behind the team for 90 mins. We need to win. Any which way we can. Lets do this.

Its really not bewildering at all. The most recent Skysports deal down south has scewed the entire wage structure of football within the UK to the extent that some Conference clubs can pay more wages than most SPL clubs. Thats where we are at, and there is nothing Stevie Hammell or any of the other SPL managers can do about it. Short of taking punts on young players with ability that can improve or taking punts on players form overseas leagues theres not much more he can do. Its all the more reason a club like ours needs to bring through its own talent from our academy. Unfortunately COVID meant 2 years without boys football so there is a huge gap in our system there that will take time to address. Our job is to compete with the other clubs in the same position as ourselves, so we are talking Ross County, Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, St Mirren, Livingston. If our new players can help us take points off of these clubs we will survive. If they cant, we wont. Simples.

No I get them too. Not sure why. Probably to stop folk going on a "thumb frenzy" 😄

Why are we limited to the number of likes we make?

Stockport County are mid table in League 2. I have a mate who watches them a bit and says he was pivotal in their promotion from the conference last year. He is surprised they were willing to let him go out on loan. Not saying that means he will be any good. But I certainly wouldnt right him off at this stage.

Hope springs eternal! 😍

The signing of Riku Danzaki is an interesting one and of the face of it quite exciting. Whether the reality lives up to the anticipation remains to be seen. I presume the fact he has come from Brisbane Roar means that Skippy and/or Aldred have recommended him to us and us to him so at least their is some connection there and not just some random plucked off a database. 2 in is good, but need 3 more. Preferably an experienced centre half, a midfield dynamo and an out and out striker.

I agree with lots if that. But I think the mistakes being repeated are due to bad decisions by the players on the pitch. Im not sure it can get any better without better players who make better decisions. But right now, until he can get players in, Hammy has to do what he can. If consistency and repetition of process isnt working, he may have to rethink. Craigan alluded to such on Sunday during commentary.

I like this. As I also like Stevie Hammells style of play. How about we make that the club ethos and get a Head of Recruitment who can identify players for the first team and academy that fit that philosophy? As a bonus, if they were young and could be developed to earn us a transfer fee, all the better. Its kind of what we did under Robinson and lost under Alexander. In hindsight, he was completely the wrong manager for our club and what our philosophy should be.

Everythings on databases now is it not? Hope Mr Daws left the passwords to his club laptop for Alan Burrows to access it otherwise we could be up Shit Creek! 😄

Rather have a wee grafter in a relegation battle!

Will probably be brought back as forum jioker after a succesful career on a football forum down south. We are Motherwell,its what we do......

But would they show the same commitmemt to the cause? Younger jokers just dont work as hard these days......

I know Blaney and Lamie are both left footed, but Lamie is performing to a higher level than Sol who is rash and slow. He had a part in all 3 Hibs goals yesterday because of his poor positioning and bad decision making. Id drop Sol for Blaney. For me Lamie looks like the only one trying to organise / communicate in our defence. I also wouldnt drop Spittal. Former players and old clubs etc......

Didnt watch the game yesterday as I was travelling, but listened to it on Sportsound and was quite deflated at full time especially after reading some comments on here. Watched the entire 90 minutes back this morning dispassionately obviously knowing the result, and Im a lot less disheartened than I was. Now, I will put a disclaimer on this, as some will no doubt pounce on the my happy clappy nature. I get that results have been poor, I get that we are in a relegation battle and that things are tense. I get that we have deficiencies in our squad and that fans are concerned over the lack of changes in tactics, team selection etc that some suggest show the manager is out of his depth. That may all be correct, but hear me out. Hibs are a bigger club than us with a far superior budget, better players and should be beating our so called shitey team quite comfortably. But they are not and didnt. We were never out of that game yesterday. I actually enjoyed our play better in the first half when most observers felt we were poor. But I felt we played better football, created better chances than Hibs and should have gone in level. Second half, yes we had more possession and created some good chances and scores 2 good goals. But it was a more direct approach, dare I say Alexanderesque! Other than the 3 goals they scored, which were all self inflicted due to poor communication and poor decision making by our defenders, I dont remember Kelly having a save to make. That tells me that there IS work being done on the teaining pitch. It IS working a lot of the time, but certain players are either switching off or having a brain fart and costing us goals. The bit between the ears cant be coached and Hammell cant be blamed for that. Its down to personal responsibility. The only way players will get better at these things is with consistency of approach. Alexander was slaughtered for his "tombola selection" yet Hammell has chosen what he thinks his best 11 are and is trying to get some consistency that way. The comments about Sheilds retaining his place are justified. He has had a lot of gametime and doesnt seem to be improving (albeit played out of position) and the amount of persoanl abuse he is getting isnt going to help his confidence. He could do with some protection feom the manager. Overall, I am obviously concerned about our position, but I dont see us as certainties for the drop at all. Look at the run we have been on and yet Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Ross County are all just as bad as we are and 2 of them have the "experienced heads" that many on here are calling for. Hasnt done them much good. Back Hammell. Back the team. We can still do this.

Oh its definitely important for a club our size to be maximising the bang for our buck in the transfer market and no doubting the importance of the position. Its just impossible to have an opinion on it with so many unknown variables.

Without seeing how much work is done behind the scenes and how many of the recommendations are taken up, not to mention how successful the negotiating team are, its impossible to say. What I do know is that its imperative he has a good January and that the manager and the board get their bit right as well.

Ooft! 3 good 45 mins! Bring him home! 😄

Maybe we would have won the league and gotten to a European Cup Semi Final against the Italian claret & amber! 🧡❤️🧡

Oh come now! He also had a good 45 mins at Ibrox that time!

Like I said before, it wasnt the losing to Sligo that got me. That can happen in early season as you rightly point out. It was the manner of the defeat. We were outfought, outclassed and well beaten twice. It wasnt even close. Had we huffed and puffed in the first game and drawn or had a bucketload of spurned chances in the second game having changed tactics and gone out to a dodgy penalty or something, he might have survived. But he played the same negative way in both games and just waited for us to be beaten without lifting a finger. He lost me that night and Im usually the last to turn.