Lobey_Dosser

Dingwall aside, I‘ve pretty much stood by Kettlewell but tonight is a black mark. There’s little to dispute with the starting line up but the in-game management was poor. A change in personnel should have arguably happened at half time but to then make 3 subs as soon as it went 2-0 smacked of panic and whilst Devine and Vale made positive contributions, we played out the 95 mins with three centre halves and absolutely nothing in midfield. Kettlewell will see out the season and hopefully keep us in the league but both of our tame cup games exits have to be taken into consideration with respect to a contract renewal. In the meantime, he must refrain from pleading poverty for a while. We’ve once again thrown away a golden opportunity to earn a decent wedge of cash.

Motm goes to our poty. Outstanding performance from Spittal! Love Gent!

Really pleased for Gent. I look forward to seeing the partnership he and Montgomery can build.

I hate to think how many senior figures from the club and well society reviewed that video before its release. Utterly pathetic. Putting the cringe and desperation aside though, is this campaign genuinely aligned to the investment initiative that’s been in the pipeline for the last couple of years?

I had a wobble after the Ross County game given the starting lineup and performance. That aside though, my support for Kettlewell largely remains. In my book, he still has a little credit in the bank for the remarkable turnaround after the Hammell disaster. The players are clearly behind him too, which is a telling factor. Of course though, he needs to get the monkey off his back with a win and ideally pick up minimum 4-6 points between now and 2nd Jan to keep himself in a job and readdress the balance of the squad during the window after a poor summer spend.

Despite our run of poor results, I’ve got lots of faith in Kettlewell and this group of players and was quietly confident going into tonight. The performance though was shocking, not miles off the real lows we experienced under Hammell. Two tricky away trips ahead. Big response needed or the pressure will build. If the players are all pulling in the same direction, I’m sure we’ll be fine. I am however wary that with so many key players in the last year of their contracts, heads may start to turn and relationships may fracture - hopefully I’m a mile out with that inclination.

As much as I rate Turnbull and want to see him do well, I don’t see him getting near a Steve Clarke starting XI, even if he was playing regularly. He doesn’t do enough off the ball, nor play at the required tempo for many managers. It’s a shame really, I think his quality would have been far more appreciated 10-20 years ago and I’m interested to see where he ends up next. I’d say Lewis Ferguson is the lesser talent, by some distance, but he’s doing very well in Italy.

I may have got caught up in the emotion of the game but I couldn’t contemplate throwing any criticism at the players just now. I thought we were excellent, the players ran themselves into the ground and the last two performances against Rangers and Celtic have been miles ahead of the insipid performances that we’re routinely watched for much of the last 10 years. Full credit to Kettlewell and Frail for that. No harm to Theo who did well but we’re a proper striker away from being a right good team. Devastated today, that was up there with Kane in 2017 for me. Onto Livingston though, we need to return to gaining points rather than prolong a hard luck story.

Paton. An outstanding footballer.

Hard lines today. I thought we played really well in spells and largely controlled the 2nd half. There’s few games we don’t score in but the absence of 3 strikers is obviously going to cost us as times. Hopefully Wilkinson is back by the start of the October. The bench was very inexperienced today and whilst I’m pleased to see the club significantly reduce our staff costs this summer, we could be in for a lean spell on the pitch at some point this season. Particularly if Spittal, Slattery and Miller run out of juice, which feels kinda inevitable. In the meantime though, we have a team that is good to watch and we have little to fear going to Ibrox next week. McGinn for Blaney should be the only change.

I thought everyone was very good and young Spencer looks a very promising signing. Mugabi just edges the motm award for me though, got his head on absolutely everything.

Just back, that was an outstanding performance, full of character and a fair bit of quality. We have an excellent manager.

After the disappointment in Paisley and the depressing news since on the injury front, that last minute winner was quite the buzz. Credit to Kettlewell for altering things at ht after a dreadful performance to that point. Paton’s quality combined with the change in shape to a box in midfield gave us absolute control of the 2nd half. It’s evident we are lacking quality in key areas and Kettlewell’s decision to only use one sub speaks volumes. If we can get a couple of quality and reliable additions this week I think we’ll be in very decent shape. Aside from the quality of both goals the biggest positive today was the character of the team. The likes of Casey and Spittal drove us on and look like real leaders to me. Finally, no harm to Killie but I love getting one over an in-form/fancied McInnes team. We seem to have quite a knack in doing so.

Today was little different to how we’ve played previously this season. Up against an organised and determined outfit in St Mirren our drop-off in quality in key areas from last season was exposed. For Kettlewell’s formation to work we need to replace both Max and Furlong, disappointing that this hasn’t been addressed yet. In midfield, I wouldn’t be surprised to see us make another move for Goss as Davor was miles off it and really shouldn’t have came out for the 2nd half. Then there‘s obviously the need for a bit of pace and creativity in forward areas. Pass marks for McGinn and Casey today, not many others. At a time that the manager pleads poverty in every interview, I’d have expected us to have had a right good go today but we never posed a threat.

Butcher is a huge loss, on a par with KVV for me. We unfortunately don’t have another defender at the club who has the attributes to play middle of the back 3. On the goal, I’m not sure who was at fault but it was great movement from Cameron.

A decent enough point. There’s plenty of effort on show but we are missing some quality in key areas that would make a world of difference. Kettlewell has said from the outset that two dynamic wingbacks are key to our system so until we identify and recruit them, we’re going to toil somewhat. Time and time again Slattery and Spittal got into good positions but didn’t have players with the quality, intelligence and energy of Max and Furlong to link up with. Young Lennon continues to impress. However, I hope Davor is the real deal and can help protect our defence. Dundee ran through the middle of us with ease on multiple occasions. They do have two very good players though in McCowan and Cameron. Less than 800 fans at the opening game of the league season. Is that the norm? I was expecting a good few more. Maybe the league cup campaign diminishes the anticipation of the league opener.

Excellent first half from Louis, nice to see.

I’m not much of a traditionalist when it comes to Motherwell kits but that’s a belting design. Shame about the sponsor.

No idea but I’d hope the Board have been sounding out possible replacements over recent weeks. Experience of man management and ability to coach the basics a must.

You touch on another slightly baffling element of the current regime. When Hammell was appointed, I naively assumed that this would be good news for Cornelius, Maguire and other youngsters that were knocking on the door. It’s been quite the opposite unfortunately. In the case of Cornelius, it looks to me that Hammell prefers midfielders who are more comfortable at receiving and moving the ball. Which is a shame as we clearly need a tenacious and energetic midfielder to compliment our ‘ballers’ and the one man at the club with those attributes has yet to be regularly played in a midfield role that allows him to develop and maximise his impact.

Regardless of how poor Arbroath may have been this season, they’ll see us as soft touch with a donkey at the back and go for the throat. This could be horrible.

Max for me. Carried a threat going forward and showed a bit of character. Didn’t look the most assured defending though. McKinstry did fairly well too although the interplay with KVV that led to the goal has to be happening far more frequently.

That was the third insipid performance of an utterly uninspiring week. Whilst acknowledging the unavailability of a few players, I’ve been unimpressed with how we’ve approached each match. We’ve stuck with the same 4231 formation but putting shape aside, teams are strolling through the middle of us with ease and we look physically weak. Furthermore, the free flowing football that seen us batter Dundee United 0-0 has quickly disappeared. Today we were resorting to long throws into the box. With the crowds dropping the initial feel good factor has worn off now. Couple of wins required before the World Cup or we could find ourselves in real trouble.

Aberdeen overdue a 3-0 against us.

This was always going to be an incredibly difficult week but I hoped we’d come out of it with a degree of positivity and a sense that we are heading in the right direction. Instead, the alarm bells are starting to ring. Our primary issue is the lack of quality in the squad, particularly from middle to front where we’ve been largely powderpuff since the night Sligo came to Fir Park. This will take some time to address and the gambles we took in the transfer market towards the end of August have evidently not paid off. That aside though, our approach to these last two games has been a cause for concern. I like Hammell a lot but I struggle to buy into his belief that we can look to impose a similar style of play against all levels of opposition, the consequences of which have seen us barely lay a glove on Celtic or an under-par Rangers. There has been little aggression and physicality in our play and we continue to fail to do the basics like tracking runners. The standard of goals we are losing is embarrassing. Big response needed against Aberdeen or much of the positivity from a month or so ago will be quickly forgotten.