Ya Bezzer!

That's Van Veen's 20th goal of the season in all competitions. Off the top of my head I think only two other players have managed that at the top level since I started going to matches in the early 80's. Higdon and Sutton of course.

If Kelly has genuine international aspirations he's going to have to improve massively on his distribution. Punts up the park don't cut it at higher levels in the modern game and I'm sure the Scotland team will have a big red mark against him on that. It might even be the reason he's not been capped when his general form was better.

Disappointing that the first two Rangers goals are howlers from us. Overall though I thought there was enough in the first 60 minutes to be relatively pleased with the performance. Unravelled a bit in the last half hour but we were a man down and Mugabi I'm afraid got ripped to shreds pretty much every time after he came on. If we can performance at that level against Dundee Utd we should win.

The number bods had predicted we only needed two more wins, before Saturday, as 33 points is expected to mean safety. It's not my prediction. However given we are effectively 7 points ahead now with 10 games to go Kilmarnock and Ross County would have to win 3 more matches than us when they have only won 6 all season. So maybe it won't be far from the truth.

Excellent win. The projection is 1 more win for safety but let's aim for 40 points at least.

What ever way you cut it the Max Johnston situation is a failure to protect a club asset. O'Donnell has been absolutely dismal for us and for a lot of last season we were playing Mugabi at right back. It's not like there wasn't openings in his position. I'd also say going back to Johnston's first couple of appearances in the first team in 2020-21 it was clear to most that he was a player with potential. If there is a Bologna deal going Johnston would be daft not to take it but you'd like it to be a harder decisions for him. Sadly we've not done much to make him think about it.

A wee while back a Kilmarnock fan on P&B asked me to research Kilmarnock's record since they installed the plastic pitch excluding Steve Clarke's time at the club. Between 14th Aug 2014 and 11th Dec 2021 (excluding Clarke's reign) they won 31 out of 105 matches so their record was pretty poor and certainly no excessive home advantage. If anything it went the other way with a 29% win ratio. Their record at home this season isn't too bad but yesterdays results meant it was 4 home matches without a win.

One of those games where a defeat is a really poor result and a draw is a great result.

Two words - "Jim". "Gannon".

Not convince Kettlewell is a long term answer but in the specific situation we in right now it seems like the sensible option, especially with the upcoming fixtures. Not the time for a new broom to come in. And I think our bump is more to do with the players own shame in how they had performed previously than anything Kettlewell did. Sometimes it takes something drastic to happen to get the collective to see and adjust. I think that's what has happened here.

Yeah but we have two new centre backs who have been miles better than who was there before. O'Donnell and Slattery who have both been imposters are rightly warming the bench. And we are actually playing two up top. All those things make a massive difference. Especially on our defensive performance which was really the thing that was holding us back all season. The truth is there isn't much between 12th and 3rd in this league. Just having players who are confident is probably the difference between Top 6 and being in a relegation spot.

Remember when you used to enjoy the football? Getting a massive blast of nostalgia for today's performance! Best performance in ages, a clean sheet, couple of goals and spanking the hated Hearts. We won midweek but today was a big step up for me. We showed much more composure this afternoon. If our final ball had been a bit better it could have been a big win and one for the ages. Excellent performances right down the spine - Kelly looking confident again, Butcher & Casey great, thought Spittal put in probably one of his best, if not the best, performance in a Motherwell shirt, Obika and Van Veen both caused problems. If we play like that next week we can make our season a lot more comfortable but it goes without saying that we need to keep up the recent momentum and not get lazy again.

Yes. He's been enormous for us since he came in. I'd be reluctant to put him in midfield now.

I actually meant the last home match cos I don't go to away games anymore. My fault for not clarifying.

Teams win and lose but it's usually narrow margins. Last time out against Hearts though I thought there was actually a noticeable gap between the teams. Hearts haven't lost against anyone outside the OF since October so probably looking like a win would be a unlikely result but if we can win, with results going our way today, we'd go 6 points clear of Dundee Utd with a decent goal difference advantage. One can hope.

I had to go straight to bed after the football last night so..... The thing I was mostly thinking about was if a board of the top tacticians and coaches in world football was assembled, asked to watch the match last night and then asked to draw up a report on it. I'd be very interested in what they had to say! I mean I'm not grumbling about 3 points but it was more akin to pinball-on-speed than football. We showed some vim in the opening stages but as soon as St Mirren got the goal we just sort of slowly deflated to the point we were hanging on at the end. Johnston's goal was fantastic but overall you can't really see the 'revival' continuing through the weekend if we perform like that. It's that old broken record but the standard of Scottish football is comically bad. 22 wind up toys bumping into each other.

I was thinking the same. Any new manager coming in needs to address our pathetic defensive play so it makes sense to go 3/5 at the back and match up against St Mirren.

I've been critical of the board but to be fair to them no one with any reputation is going to touch this job with a barge pole so they have a difficult choice picking out the least worst of a bad bunch. The standard of the names linked with us are bordering on terrifying. It's wall to wall failure.

4 results in a season against the OF and 4th place in his one and only season = 'doesn't exactly have a resounding CV'. Also look at where Dundee Utd were pre Courts and post Courts. What calibre of manager do you think we are going to attract? I'm not even sure Courts would come here with his not resounding CV. He might feel 4th place Dundee Utd to 11th place Motherwell might be too much of a step down.

I'm not sure if Tam Courts is the manager we need right now (ie relegation dog fight) but I'd put him above either of the others. And the difference between Tam Courts and Hammell is that he did quite well as a manager including good performances against the OF (3 draws and a win) and finished 4th in the league whereas Hammell, eh, didn't.

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Jack Ross has been a rip roaring shite show in his last two jobs where he had far more resources than he'd have a Fir Park. Jim Goodwin has never had a Top 6 finish in his career. Again he had way more resources at Aberdeen than he would have with us and the way they totally collapsed towards the end was even worse than Hammell's demise. Tam Courts did a reasonable job at Dundee Utd. He improved them over the last manager, both in results and style, and showed a willingness to play youth players.

One of the problems now is who are we appointing? Someone to save our ass? Someone who's progressive going forward? Someone who can keep us trundling along in the top level. Someone that can get us up next season, if relegated? Most likely it's the first one, which means going forward we might not have the right guy in anything other than the very short term.

It's easy enough to see who fails every time when they come in or contribute nothing over a long period of selection. I feel sorry for Hammell cos I think he was put in a very difficult position but, well, the fact is he picked O'Donnell yesterday, and that's almost a sacking offense in itself. Let's stop trusting guys who have let us down time and time again.

The club custodians have a lot to answer for. They have thrown a club legend to the lions because they can't do their own job. The events around Alexander leaving the club showed they were spineless. Appointing a completely inexperienced manager under those circumstances was idiotic. Burrows leaving when and how he did is also very suspect. We also need to have a long and serious look at who is identifying signing targets. The vast majority of our signings have been dire going back probably as far as McGhee's second spell. There is also the fact that players have been linked with us under managers and then signed under different managers. I don't believe for a minute Hammell did anything other than OK this latest batch out of desperation. Coaching at the club stinks. Youth development stinks. Players aren't organised and can't do basics. Why do we have so many players, over four or five seasons now, THAT CAN'T MAKE A SIMPLE PASS. The players can also hang their head in shame. Guys like Kelly, O'Donnell, Slattery, Van Veen, Lamie etc, players that should have been the spine of our team are too busy crying on telly, to stand up and give us some leadership. They are boys masquerading as men. Show some fucking balls! There are still a lot of points on offer and it's important not to relegate ourselves by throwing in the towel. However, everyone over there Fir Park needs to up their game and there cannot be any further catastrophes. We have three months to get this ship back on course and there should be no further excuses for not doing so.