Ya Bezzer!

There is no point in sacking Hammell if we are just going to have another 'Who Wants To Manage Us' open day. We need to have an actual plan. An experienced manager, with a record, who's been identified and is in place ready to go. Otherwise it's just more chaos and uncertainty. The club has made a series of terrible knee jerk reactions and the last thing we need to do is 'out of the frying pan into the fire', which, one suspects, is exactly what would happen. We laid out our season's path at the beginning of the season and it's all about finishing anywhere above 12th now.

Since Covid I've only gone to home matches so I'm aware that I'm only really seeing half the picture but I thought in the recent home matches, although we hadn't won, we played some decent football, scored goals, created chances, were relatively entertaining to watch and I could see something you could pin your hopes on. Tonight was absolutely deplorable. I've seen some shockers in my time but that was right up there. Losing goals 4 and 3 minutes into each half is unacceptable. The midfield was no existent, the defence is pathetic and the front line has chucked it. I'm looking at senior players in that team - Kelly, Lambie, Van Veen, they look lost. There is no leadership, no grit. And Stephen O'Donnell? Worse than a player down, more like having an active saboteur in your ranks. The guy should never wear a Motherwell shirt again after tonight's display. I'm not saying at this stage that the new players are worse than the old one's but they have made us a worse team. Players aren't up to scratch, a lot of them don't know the league, don't know each other and the cohesion and fluency of the football has gone miles backwards because of that. It's going to take 4 or 5 weeks for these players to gel and you don't have 4 or 5 weeks when you have 1 win in 14 league matches. It's one performance but that tonight looked like the later day of Robinson's time when the team looked like it didn't believe it would actually win a game from minute 1. And the football we were trying to play has turned into pass back to Kelly and hoof it up the park. We really need to turn this round on Saturday.

Well I mentioned the confidence factor but as usual you have us at 'already or very near rock bottom' when we've lost 2 out of the last 6 matches with 7 goals scored. I think it can get worse than that. Say, St. Johnstone who are on the worst run this season with 5 losses on the trot and an away trip to Rangers coming up. I certainly don't want us to lose to Arbroath but the context of my comment was the condition, mentioned by some, that Hammell gets fired if we don't win.

Some times though offering a longer contract is what gets the player to sign for us over similar or even better wage offers from other clubs. If you look at lower league clubs who are often completely or almost completely rebuilding their squads each season most of them struggle most of the time and quite a few of them have disappeared into non league football.

We need wins soon but I think at least on the ball we are playing better than we have for a while. For me there is a wee chink of light there and I always feel that the teams that get relegated are the teams that struggle to score. We've score in 11 of our last 13 matches. Scored 5 in our last 3 home matches, hit that bar twice, hit the post etc. Obviously we are in a tricky position but the doom merchants have us worse than we actual are. If we'd kept 3 our 4 clean sheets in the last 15 or so games we'd probably be up around St. Mirren/Livingston/St Johnstone area of the league. Sorting out the defence is the priority right now. As I said last week I don't even think it's the players, it's a confidence thing. Lamie/Johansen might not be the best around but they are capable of better and we've all seen it with our own eyes. There is still a lot of football to be played and you might be surprised to know we haven't lost to a non city club since August. Certainly on the evidence I've seen recently are better than Kilmarnock and at least as good as Ross County. I think Dundee Utd might pull away but Hibs might drop down to replace them as their form is stinking. St. Mirren also, who benefited from a lot of home games at the start of the season, and haven't been great recently. We are going to be down in the bottom 4 for the rest of the season. Our aim this season is anything above the automatic relegation spot. Next weeks cup game doesn't really matter other than perhaps for confidence or financial reasons. This season is all about staying up and everything else is a distraction.

We knew Hammell was inexperienced when we appointed him. If we fire him we just wasted 6 months of time that we could have used to develop the club. Having appointed him, we need to support him. Everyone at the club needs to be pulling in the same direction.

It's not the worst team in 36 years. People on here have short memories. Remember the latter days of Robinson when you knew we'd do absolutely nothing every week? And you need players like Goss if you want to do anything. That ball he played over the Hibs defence in the first half. Absolute class. It's the other players that aren't doing enough.

We scored 2, hit the bar twice and Marshall had a very good save. Middle to front we are fine and actually play watchable football. The other end is the issue. We are a bag of nerves every time a team is in or near our box. I don't even think it's the players necessarily. It's a confidence thing. Kelly isn't making the outstanding saves he was making before. Lamie and Johansen aren't bad in the air but they aren't winning the headers. Too many mistakes. Players not getting close enough. Very poor goals being given away every week. We desperately need an experienced defender to come in, someone who is a leader - a Peter Hartley type. I've actually enjoyed the football we've played in the last two matches but you cannot be conceding 2 or 3 goals at home to bottom 6 teams.

His contract doesn't run out until 2024 but I think Bruce Anderson would be a player that we should be looking at as the next Livingston player we bring to Fir Park on a pre contract.

They have also lost 8 out their last 9 away matches. They haven't taken an away point since October against Ross County. They have also conceded 17 goals in their last 5 away. (6 v Celtic, 4 v Aberdeen, 3 v Rangers, 3 v Hearts, 1 v Kilmarnock) This is a match we really need to be winning.

Some of those clubs have significant private investment. And even then all of them have been up and down the leagues.

"Alexander seemed happy enough" By the way Tony Watt had 9 goals in 18 matches last season. This season Van Veen has 9 goals in 18 matches.

I believe that due to some selective memory many Motherwell fans think we are a bigger club than we are. Sure, we have been in the top league for as long as even fairly old supporters have been following the club but only because we got lucky with relegation three times and had the fortune to meet a Rangers in disarray in the play off. As the situation currently stands I think it's almost inevitable that we will be relegated in the short to medium future. We have used up our luck in escaping relegation in the past and now, with the club being self financing and clearly struggling, over half a dozen seasons now, to attract good quality players or management it is always going to be a a difficult task. We are pulling in less than 4,000 supporters most weeks and that's all that's keeping the lights on. We are unlikely to have a slew of transfer fees coming in the immediate future. Things are going to be tough and supporters need to get their head around the reality of fan ownership.

So a lot of people thought the stupid decision to make was the correct one. So what? Happens all the time. As for our squad it obviously would have been added to if the manager hadn't departed so to say that Alexander wouldn't have done so is more nonsense. Josh Morris hasn't worked out but Paul McGinn and Blair Spittal are far from being some of the worst signings in recent years. We had 31 points this time last season. This season we have 19. If you don't think it was a mistake then what exactly is?

Absolutely spot on. However it should be pointed out that our own support put massive pressure on the club to get what they wanted. It might not have been possible to keep Alexander even if the club backed him. I said it at the time and I'll say it again. Our supporters can shoulder a lot the blame over what has happened, and potentially, what does happen this season. Not that anyone will ever admit that of course. You still get people blaming Alexander for our results this season.

You can compare how they competed against their contemporaries and how the standard of the day was. For instance when we won the league championship in the 1930's Scottish football was probably as good as anywhere in the world. So our league winning side was probably close to the pinnacle of world football at the time. Heady days. I also think top players find a way to win so I buy into the 'show us your medals' philosophy. If you put everything together I'd give you Wilson Humphries. Won both the Scottish and League Cups, was capped for Scotland, is just short of 300 league appearances so is one of the players with most appearances for the club and is also one of our top post war goal scorers, with over 100 goals. So in terms of success at the club, longevity, club records and international recognition he ticks all the boxes. Worth noting he also scored 6 goals in the clubs biggest ever win, 12-1 vs Dundee Utd.

We had a mad couple of minutes and that was it. We had Maguire, Morris, Tierney and Cornelius on the bench and a bunch of kids. Don't tell me any of them would have safeguard the points. When he actually made substitutions he got booed for taking off McKinstrey who had a great 1st half but didn't do much second half. Fans got what they wanted at the start of the season and it's probably mostly the same ones getting on Hammell's back now. You don't become an experienced manager in 20 games. Short term-ism is not the way to go. Wasn't at the start of the season, isn't now.

With all due respect this seems like a retrospective view. I doubt many would have had us getting any less than 3 points when Power was sent off in the 68th minute and we aren't exactly the most optimistic bunch. By the way we basically had 4 players with any first team experience on the bench tonight so I think it's fair to say his options were pretty limited.

There was a lot of chat last season about supporters wanting to watch better football rather than grinding it out. Well there you have it! I'm not going to be too harsh on the team. First half we were excellent, played some really good football and should have been more than 1 up. 2-0 and cruising and then we do what seemingly only Motherwell can do. To be fair Kilmarnock didn't cause us much worries other than an OG and a wonder shot but you have to ask yourself about our fragility even in tonights situation and what does the footballing narrative say about what's happened in that match? Kilmarnock were lucky tonight, we should have been saying a lot of good stuff about the performance but we have, let's face it, fucked it up in a spectacularly inept fashion. 2 wins in 13 now doesn't make great reading. We are known as the Steelmen but although there was some good suff there tonight there wasn't much steel. Right now it looks like we can have a good 70 minutes and a ropey 10 and not pick up 3 points and that's not exactly the formula for success. We need to add a bit more robustness and savviness to what, at times, was quite good football.

Depends if you mean pay for them or watch them......

In a football world where virtually everything is decided by television money and sports washing Scottish football is and always will be an insignificant player. We exist within the constrains of a limited market and nothing is going to change that. Even Rangers and Celtic are deluded if they think they can garner a worldwide following. What Scottish football should be focusing on is developing youth players and modern tactics and coaching but one look at most line ups on a Saturday, the standard of fare which is basically a grim slog for annual survival in the Premiership for most teams, and the absolutely catastrophic state of the youth development system in this country, which goes backwards by the year, shows we are intent on hitting the self destruct button over and over.

John Philliben basically played about 350 games for us plugging any hole in McLean's back 5. Could play anywhere across the back. He played a lot at right back latterly. Stevie Kirk was mostly a midfielder but at times played upfront as a striker. Tom Boyd mostly a centre back or left back. I do seem to remember him having a spell in midfield though. Didn't he score twice against Hibs playing in a midfield role? It was 5 decades back so I might be wrong!

Does anyone know why the SPFL highlights of this match have been taken down and aren't available any more?

If we consistently can't bring in the right type of players during the summer I wouldn't get your hopes up for the winter window. It's getting harder and harder to bring in good quality players . You've got the impression it's been a real struggle going back over several managers now and Hammell probably has fewer contacts in the game.

I didn't see the game today but I think Moult can still play in a 4-4-2. Any other formation probably not.