Ya Bezzer!

What's tiresome is fans actually thinking, over and over again, that we sign up a professional coach or footballer on a 2 or 3 year contract, and they instantly become diehard fans of Motherwell who will then turn down massive increases in wages, more resources and more media exposure at another, bigger club. And if they don't they are some kind of traitor. It's not me that boos guys that did a great job for this club when they come back in a different jersey. These are professionals. It's not a fun little hobby on the side. It's their career and anyone good at something wants to go as far as they can. I'm super positive about this season, I think we can split the Old Firm and maybe even challenge for the league if we can get the big results we need against the Top 5. However it's not a 'small club mentality' to actually realise Motherwell are well down the pecking order of international football and at the end of the day, money makes the world go round. It's just a realistic assessment. 95% of the people on this forums would leave Motherwell for a job somewhere else that paid twice as much and we actually are fans. That's just reality. People have kids and mortgages and a professional striving. I'd like to think Askou will stay here this season because he started something and he wants to see where it goes. Also you'd maybe want to wait and see what other offers come in rather than take the first one. But the chances of us keeping him here even medium term are virtually zero. Like I've said I'd be highly doubtful if he's here next season. It's also entirely possible we could keep this team and coaching staff together and then we are completely shite next season. Cos that's football.

I'd be amazed if we start next season with Askou in the dug out. A lot of this team will be away as well. That's why we have to enjoy this season and really go for it and do the best we can. This is a once in a life time season. There will never be another in the modern era where the Old Firm are as beatable as they are now, where 5 teams are realistically challenging at the top of the league, where a club like us have the right blend of talent on and off the field to be right up there.

Was a bit scrappy in the first half but we eventually took a grasp of the game after about 20 minutes and ran out deserved winners. Another clean sheet too. If we can get something at Easter Road we have Livingston and Kilmarnock coming up in the league. We have the best defence in the league and are the most consistent performers in the league. BELIEVE.

With Rangers, Celtic or both definitely dropping points this is a big game for us and a win could be potentially huge. St. Mirren are a bit of a bogey team for us, we've not beaten them in 2025, and they always make it tough and I wouldn't expect anything different this time. However this team just looks like they don't give a fuck who they are playing and our home performances have been excellent minus one half against Falkirk. Like I said ending the year on 36 points would be massive.

We've only lost 2 out of 6 against the Top 3 and we should have won at Tynecastle and got a point at least at Celtic Park and Ibrox. That says to me we are absolutely as good as them in one to ones. What we need to do is win games like the one coming up which I kind of alluded to in my original post. The best Motherwell team I've ever seen should have won the league but lost to lowly Dundee Utd and St. Johnstone sides. That's the tricky part rather than the big games when you challenge for a league. It's likely the 'top' teams will drop a lot of points in the run in as there genuinely isn't a gap between the Old Firm and the others now so it's down to us to keep up our performances and form going and you never know. We are further back that the Top 3 so we are probably going to have to beat the Old Firm and Hearts a couple more times this season to have a chance but this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity. Motherwell are a club who will always struggle to keep talent and I don't expect that to change but this season everything is in place. The stars are aligned. It's there so why not go for it? Right now though we just have to get the heads down, keep the performances up and tick off the games. Let's get into February/March and see where we are.

Elijah Just. Absolutely burst his self to get that win. I'm actually a bit surprised he miles ahead of everyone else on the poll because it was an excellent team performance but I'm glad he's getting the plaudits.

Fortress Fir Park continues. Just 1 defeat in our last 17 home matches.....and we should have won the one we lost! To be honest it was pretty much what we've seen for most of the season. We treated Celtic like any other team, did our thing and looked pretty good at it. Well worthy of the win, players were excellent to a man but they generally have been for most of the season. Obviously it's great to beat Celtic, we've had that result coming for a while after a few near misses. But we should put it behind us and make sure we go into the St Mirren focused. We are where we are at this stage of the season and there is no reason we can't do even better. There is no team in the league that's better than us, so I say, look upwards.....

Just on the misplaced passes yesterday. It'll be interesting to see how we deal with winter pitches with this style of football. Its inevitable passes are going to go astray. I mean Fir Park has a great surface but winter means it will inevitably degrade even if it's not that obvious to the eye.

OK, everyone knows we are 6 clean sheets in a row. But I was looking at our home record and we've only conceded against Falkirk in the last seven home matches going back all the way to September. Aberdeen 2-0 Falkirk 1-2 Dundee United 2-0 Hibernian 2-0 Hearts 0-0 Livingston 3-0 Dundee 1-0.

The referees are fucking horrific. They literally can't even walk or run about properly. I've never seen referees get in the way, block off passes, bump into players, get hit with the ball and all that sort of stuff more than this season. Never mind making decisions. There was one game earlier in the season when the absolute dumpling in the middle got hit with the ball about 5 times and had to restart the game every time. I don't know what sort of training they do on positioning, by the looks of it none. It's like the first thing on the application form you need to tick is 'Are you a bumbling lummox.' They used to say Gerald Ford couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time, our refs are right up there. And then every week there are absolutely abysmal VAR decisions. I mean look at St Mirren's disallowed goal yesterday or the Ranger hand ball incidents. Who looks at those on a video loop and makes those decisions?

We'll need to defend set pieces. That's a big part of their game right now.

Stephen Welsh is the best defender we've had at the club for ages. And he had a bandage round his head like an olden days centre back. MotM/

Well we got there eventually. Looked like it was going to be one of those games but even though we weren't at our best today and we definitely missed Maswanhise we still created enough chances to comfortably win the game. For me Said is far superior to Regan-Cook but maybe Said is just one of those players who's better coming off the bench. Either way we struggled in the final third first half but still should have gone in 1-0 up. Second half it was almost constant pressure on the Dundee box without anything coming off, some poor final ball, poor finishing and a few unlucky breaks. Maybe it was lucky we scored so late in the game cos Dundee looked like a different team after the goal and instead of grimly trying to hang on looked like a real threat. However I thought McGinn and especially Welsh were absolutely fantastic today.

I've not actually put in today's appearance yet so it's actually 22 (9) 11. I dunno if that strengthens your case slightly!

Stam's actual stats in a Motherwell shirt for league games are 21 (9) 11 Not really that bad. All his goals last season came from open play and penalties still need to be scored. He has missed chances but strikers will always miss chances. You'd like him to be scoring more, especially this season but I do think there is something in the style of play argument. And again 11 goals off 21 starts is really not that bad.