Lobey_Dosser

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.

Really meek performance, albeit we could have maybe worked towards a boring 0-0 against an under par Rangers. It says a lot for our squad depth when Efford and Spittal are significant absentees. Hammell will need to change it up a bit for Wednesday, we need far more aggression in our play to make up for the lack of quality.

O’Donnell for me, he played his part in driving us forward in the 2nd half and was solid defensively. Good subs from Hammell, that’s the most promising performance I’ve witnessed from Efford so far.

I enjoyed that. Today was all about digging in and we did. Kelly had two outstanding saves, Lamie was very solid up until the sending off and KVV was looking more like his old self. Clearly we are short of a couple of quality players and the lack of minutes during pre-season constrained Hammell’s selection. Credit to him, Kerr and the players for gaining an important three points and lifting the gloom a little. Despite starting a bit shaky, it was nice to see Kian Speirs handed his debut and rather fitting with Hammell at the helm.

The vacancy has arisen when there are no obvious candidates available. It’ll be interesting to see if the Board look for experience or are willing to give a young upcoming coach a chance. Big Dunc would probably go terribly wrong but he’s the one exciting name that springs to mind. Maloney and Thomson may express an interest. Lambert probably doesn’t fancy a return to Scotland.

Time will tell on that one. Alexander dictated that we went to Austria, I’m pretty sure he’ll have influenced the number of friendlies we scheduled. It’s obviously not straightforward with the new pitch and the league cup congestion but I expect the club could have organised an away trip or two if the manager wanted it. The absence of a game between both legs needs explaining.

Lamie was the only one that had a bit of presence about him, whilst Goss did show a bit of composure when he came on. The rest were powderpuff at best.

Having watched the Salford documentary at the time, I was pretty lukewarm to Alexander’s arrival. However, he came and dug us out of some serious trouble and he’s had my support since. The football maybe hasn’t been pleasing on the eye but in the first half of last season we had a bit of physicality, pace and character about us. We’ve been devoid of all that in the two Sligo games. The lack of preparation for our European adventure has been unforgivable. The one bounce game and friendly before the first leg smacked of arrogance, no friendly between legs is beyond belief. Embarrassment aside, this has cost us a helluva lot of money. Compounding the performances on the park, something just feels completely off at Fir Park. Selling Tony Watt to a competitor mid-Jan with 4 or 5 games before the end of the window made no sense, particularly when we still haven’t found a replacement. Our transfer business this summer has been uninspiring and frugal. The turnover of staff feels a little extreme and the apparent treatment of O’Donnell uncomfortable. I called for the sacking of Malpas, McCall, Baraclough and McGhee long before they were dismissed. This hasn’t been the case with Alexander but I can’t see him and his staff lasting much longer. The Board need to step in and try and make amends for a shambles of a summer so that the embarrassment of Sligo is a turning point and not a sign of things to come (ala Stjarnan).

A really disappointing, but largely unsurprising return to Fir Park last night. Going into the game, I had reservations about our lack of preseason friendlies but hoped we had learned from our mistakes in the league cup last summer. Clearly that wasn’t the case however and our lack of sharpness and speed of thought proved to be the difference in the game. That aside, I don’t think we were terrible - we do however lack quality in at least three key areas and unless KVV is firing on all cylinders, we don’t look like scoring from open play. Which brings me onto our signing policy this summer. I welcome us bringing in three steady pros but I did expect some additional quality or potential to arrival. Last summer, we brought in Kelly, KVV and Slattery amongst others - we have fallen way short of that standard so far this summer. Maybe it’s the case that we are holding out for players of a higher standard? Alternatively, has the budget been spent or, have the Board lost faith in Alexander’s signing policy? Off the park, things were no better. I was one of the ones caught up the main stand farce. It was particularly frustrating as the club emailed me on Wednesday to say I had bought a ticket in a cordoned off area, unfortunately the new ticket they allocated me was in another cordoned off area. As more fans in a similar position arrived, this took the shine off the pre-match countdown, which was a shame as Fir Park was looking tremendous with the new pitch and the colour oozing from the packed out home stands. The club have acknowledged the mixup today which is fine, however it points towards the office staff being spread a little thin as such mistakes shouldn’t be happening. Across the other side of the pitch, the ‘singing in the chapel’ was a real low point of the night. I admire the atmosphere the bois bring to Fir Park, they had the East Stand looking great but such chanting undermines the positives. It was weak of the club not to call it out for what it was in their statement earlier today. Here’s hoping the Sligo fans are a little more welcoming.

And it looks like the home end tickets can be bought in person only. Sligo looks like a nice wee place though, I’ll take my chances.

Have you looked at flights to Knock on the west coast? I hadn’t heard of this airport until the draw was made. My time away is curtailed due to work so I’ve just took a punt on cheap Ryanair flights from Edinburgh that will get me into Knock at 11.50 on the Thursday and I’ll come home the Saturday afternoon. Sligo is less than an hour drive from the airport. I am wary though that any flight cancellation would leave me screwed.