joewarkfanclub

A little trickier today as no one was an absolute stand out. Went for Ewan Wilson as he was generally solid and made some great blocks and interceptions.

I really dont know what this team and manager need to do to please some folk. We were far from perfect today, but we dominated the game for 60 minutes, shoulda been outta sight before Levein spun the wheel with his subs, scored and goal and gave us a nervous 10 - 15 minutes. After that we dug in, got ourselves back in the game and deservedly scored the winner. For all our faults (and the managers) this team has something. Previous Motherwell teams would have found a way to lose that game. This one found a way to win it. If you cant be happy with that you need to find a different hobby. Given our injury list and fixture schedule, I would have bitten your hand off for 7 points at this stage. We now have a couple of weeks to rest and recuperate. Hopefully one or two will be closer to a return and the manager can get some fitness into the legs of those that need it (looking at you Tony!) Overall, it was a pretty decent day out.

Im guessing Stuparevic didnt go anywhere? Re Vale, I liked him in the advanced role. He knew how to hold the ball up well and bring others into play. Always felt Theo played better with Vale alongside rather than wide or deeper. He also makes good decisions when he has the ball. Whether he can score enough goals is another matter and probably depends on why he has been signed and where he is played.

Always a tough game up in Perth, never too much between the teams. Expect the same today. Its one of those weird fixtures though where Im usually more confident playing them up there than it Fir Park as it feels like we always seem to shit the bed against them at home. (No idea if the stats back that up btw!). Hoping big Gordon has a point to prove to some of his critics up there and gets us a clean sheet. If we do that there is every chance we can nick one and come home with the 3 points. Presume it will be same starting 11 as last week as SK "is big on" not messing with what he perceives to be winning formations. Be interesting to see what he does with Watt and Vale though as in theory they should be competing for the same spot. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Of course he is earning significantly more money for him and his family, playing with better players, better facilities, European football etc. But on balance, he probably made the wrong decision!

I think thats fair enough comment. Although his in game substitutions have been better in the last 2 games. Something I have been very critical of him for in the past. Hopefully that continues.

There seems to be a lot of folk getting their knickers in a twist about what ultimately is the Safeguarding of Children in a football stadium. I get the fact that when we were younger we all had the opportunity to attend the football unaccompanied at a younger age, but times have moved on. As KMcAlpin quite rightly says, we live in a far more litigious society than ever these days. Clubs and organisations are held accountable to far higher standards than ever before, so rightly or wrongly, there has to be some sort of legislation or guidelines to cover these things. I do think that there should be a benchmark that all Scottish clubs should adhere to so that it is the same for everyone but as there isnt, the club has to pick a number and there will never be unanimous agreement on these kind of things. Motherwell have picked 14. Rangers have picked 13. Some clubs in England (I checked Sheffield United and West Ham) are 16 for goodbess sake! There are loads of things folk could quite rightly have a go at the club for. Im just not sure this is one of them.

Dont forget the couple of blatant dives trying to get our players into bother. Odious wee player.

Good move for the wee man. Signing for the manager that took him to Luton in the first place. Hopefully signifies more game time and potentially a move next year. Fingers crossed for him.

This is where the whole 'Well Society / Executive Board thing isnt working for me. And not just on this issue. The Society are the clubs majority shareholders. That being the case it should he having significant input into how the club is run (thats not to say it needs to be involved in the day to day running. Paud employess do that). Lets face it, if a club isnt run for the benefit of its majority owner / members / fans, then what is it for? We should never again have a situation where the Executive Board of the club can tell the Society what to do. If there are legal impedements to that, then they need addressing. Im hoping the new Society Board are well aware of these issues and plans are afoot to change them. Maybe then when issues like this arise we have a democratic way of influencing decision making for the better.

I posted this on P& B where a similar discussion is ongoing..... "Young fans will always be a bit "edgey" and want to push the boundaries of what is allowed. It's what makes it fun for them. Its also what allows for rules to be changed that are quite frankly ridiculous. If we all sat there and did as we were told by the authorities without challenging anything, then women wouldnt have the vote and you could still beat your wife with a stick no bigger than your thumb (extreme examples, I know). That said, there needs to be some acceptance and collective responsibility from Block E and The Bois, that when they get it wrong and push it too far, the club simply have to act. The club is also subject to the rule of law and also SPFL / SFA regulations. If they continued to flout them, ignore them, push the boundaries, they will eventually be fined/punished. Dialogue is the key. That way we can all get on with supporting Motherwell however we want to do it in a safe and enjoyable manner."

I think his problem is that everyone judged him on his Kilmarnock and Scotland performances and we have never really got to see that for us as he has played for a few managers whose style of football didnt really suit him. Obviously being ostracised by GA didnt help but we are finally getting to see the player we all anticipated we were getting 3 years ago! If he keeps his levels up, I dont imagine we will be seeing much of Marvellous Marvin!

Everyone played well, but the most complete performances were young Wilson and SOD. SOD gets my vote as he led by example all day, coached his team mates through the game and iced the cake with the important second goal. For a player who has been much maligned at Fir Park it was the complete performance and thoroughly deserved!

Really enjoyed that today! Thought we started slowly and Hearts dominated the ball to begin with, albeit we created the 2 best chances in the first 20 minutes. After that I thought we were the better team and throughly deserved to be in front at the break. Second have was great right up until we scored the second goal, then we seemed to take a step back teying ro protect the lead and invited Hearts back onto us. Thankfully their goal seemed to spur us on and the absolute desire feom the players to make sure we got the 3 points was a joy to watch, encapsulated by Sparrows efforts at the 3rd goal. Not the perfect performance today, still plenty of room for improvement, but that effort and will to win can go a long way. No failures today at all but big mentions for young Wilson who was superb and Andy Halliday who had his best game so far. MOTM for me was SOD though. His best performance in a Motherwell jersey by far. He seems to be flourishing having a manager who finally trusts him and has taken responsibility for his leadership position. Was so good to see him get his goal today. Thoroughly deserved.

Not sure what the stats split is for home and away fixtures, but it certainly feels as if our record at Tynecastle is relatively poor and our home record is decent. Hopefully it turns out that way today. Id take a point right now. But 3 would be sweet!

Is the food drive still going ahead today?

Cracking wet day for a game of fitba. Should ensure a slick pitch. Hopefully get a blood and snotters performance and maybe a victory by the odd goal! On the down side, the beer garden will be shut! Up The Well!

Some context would be good. Is it anything to do with the firecrackers at Hampden?

Until someone is actually signed, maybe we should just hang fire until we see what business is actually done? Given our standing in the market, I would have thought it was fairly obvious we would have multiple irons in the fire.

Not trying to play it down at all. Obviously it would be far better if all our members were fully engaged in Society matters all the time. Not just when we need to keep the wolf from the door. Im just not overly concerned right now as we have seen significant change in the Society in the last 12 months in the way it operates and its plan for the future. I have every faith that the right people are now in place and will be looking to address the many issues both it and the club have going forward.

Re the politics in football thing. If someone is posting stuff on an official club / society feed thats one thing. Using your own personal accounts to post stuff is fair game imho. Particularly if you are a volunteer of an organisation and not a paid employee where certain rules apply. The Society elections were open and democratic. If you dont like someone for whatever reason you dont need to vote for them. Coming on social media after the fact seems quite cheap.

Maybe they didnt view it as big given the number and quality of the candidates though? They voted in bigger numbers when it did matter, even though it maybe didnt in the end given Barmack pulled the plug, so I wouldnt get that animated about it. If people had been elected that were not in line with what the members view is and the Society Board were once again split, that would be a bigger problem.

I think its possible to do both. Part of the Our Club, Our Plan document is certainly to engage our current members and non members to become more involved. But pretty sure exploring "other markets" will be part of the outside investment strand of the plan.

More likely that there were too many suitably qualified candidates for people to try and whittle down, so many just didnt bother assuming whoever got in would do a good job. I only got 2/4 of my votes in but I cant say Im disappointed by the result as the other 2 were on my shortlist anyway. Regardless. We now have a strong Society Board. We now need a strong Executive Board and a far clearer constitution / standing orders or whatever you want to call it to ensure the Executive Board can be held accountable for decisions in the future!

Well done to those elected. Can only echo Steelboys comments re the others Lots of skill and experience there we should be trying to keep engaged. Now for the Executive positions......