Lobey_Dosser

Is it not the case that league games take priority over cup games in the fixture calendar? We’ve already had at least one cup game in England forfeited due to Covid while league games have been rescheduled. It looks like we are doing the same in Scotland. It puts the cup competitions on shaky ground heading into the winter, while the fixtures are likely to pile up in the league. Ideally, at least one of the cups would have been scrapped this season but nobody is willing to concede ground. I can therefore understand why it’s one rule for the cups, and another for the league. In my mind, the only way a league game should be forfeited is if there has been a severe breach in Covid protocol.

That doesn’t sound great at all for Moult unfortunately. Watching the Celtic highlights there, Turnbull looks to have slotted in seamlessly.

I don’t think today is a day to be overly critical. Yes, the level of performance was pathetic but it wasn’t entirely surprising given the trip to Israel. Looking at the bigger picture though, there is little to get excited about. We are most likely to lose Campbell soon which will mark the end of an era where we excelled in the youth development department. We are then left with a mixed bag of players, few of whom we have any real affection for. The team may do well enough but one thing for sure is that we’ll rarely cause an upset against one of the big two. For whatever reason, the days of us raising our game against them seem to be long gone unfortunately.

No wonder we aren’t pushing for the return of fans...

There was always a risk of a hangover today and so it’s proved. No complaints over the Rangers penalties but Campbell should have had one too. Tactically, a back 3 was always asking for trouble against 3 forwards but whatever the shape, we’re having to rely on an out of sorts Gallagher and O’Donnell alongside a dumpling who was presumably brought in as cover. Keep it respectable Motherwell.

Soundbites from the likes of Lennon and the Aberdeen owner aside, I don’t get the impression top flight clubs in Scotland aren’t genuinely pushing for fans to return. Our own club has been relatively quiet. Acknowledging that capacity could never be above 20-25% until the virus is fully under control, there’s little to be gained from the bigger clubs pushing this. Yes, 2,500 in Fir Park or 10,000 in Ibrox would be good for the welfare of the fans that got to see their team but it’s not great financially. Maybe if the clubs sit tight and toe the line, the UK and Scottish Government may be more open to providing financial support.

There could be a variety of reasons for Gallagher’s loss of form but the absence of Hartley’s influence can’t be underestimated. While Hartley was far from flawless, he did a good job of talking those around him through the game. As for O’Donnell, he’s been terribly disappointing after his impressive debut at Easter Road. He’s always looked a wee bit out his depth for Scotland but I expected him to be a standout for us. Oneils40yarder was right all along.

It was refreshing to see fans at the super cup last night. 15,500 tickets were sold for a 67,000 seater in Budapest although I don’t think it went down well with local authorities. In isolation, 20% capacity at stadiums should be viable and does lessen the argument around transportation etc. However, it’s not going to be contemplated at a time when cases are rising significantly. In hindsight, Jul/Aug was the time to make a significant move on this. Also, it’s not worth comparing with pubs and restaurants. Think it’s pretty clear that if Scotland had the fiscal power to provide dedicated support to hospitality, we’d have introduced far more stringent measures this week.

If we had any depth to our defensive options, I’d be dropping Declan. Instead, I’ll settle for his pal being displaced. I’m not expecting much from this game as we’ll likely be low on energy but I have a faint hope that Watt, Long and Lang can give them a hard time,

So frustrating. They were there for the taking but you can’t afford to make the stupid mistakes we did. Gallagher deserves an absolute rollicking, he’s been below par all season and that was unacceptable from our captain. Hopefully this team get pumped in the next round, horrible cunts.

I’m not one to moan about refs but that should have been red with the reaction. Big fan of Long but what a stupid foul to concede. Then O’Donnell shouldn’t be losing his man, hopefully he can make amends in the 2nd half. Intae them Motherwell, nothing to fear here.

I’m not sure what the official line is on travel but when Scotland were playing in Czech Rep, it was a quick in and out with no trip to the stadium prior to the match.

That was beautiful to watch today. A clinical first 25 mins, fully capitalising on Aberdeen’s inept defending, followed by a thoroughly professional and hard working performance for the remainder of the 90. Campbell was immense while Mugabi, Long and Watt all impressed. Most pleasing though is the work ethic and togetherness of the team, we’ve responded very well to the criticism and given Aberdeen a bloody nose in the process. Thoughts go out to Willie Miller who was waxing lyrical about Aberdeen’s resolute defence pre-match. The trip to Israel is going to be incredibly challenging for a variety of reasons but hopefully we can do ourselves proud.

Campbell really is at the top of his game just now, head and shoulders above everyone in that Aberdeen midfield today. Mentions for Watt and Long, the latter looking the part again while Watt has put in a power of work between Thursday and today.

Just on Jamie Semple, I struggle to recall the last time I seen him play after QotS away but is he definitely the no8 we seemingly transformed him into? Or could he return to a forward role at Cove?

So the issue there is with compliance rather than the system. No doubt those individuals and businesses that disregard the rules will be the first to grumble if lockdown is tightened and/or the death rate shoots up. The only way we get out of this any time soon, and contemplate a return to sport stadiums, is with widespread compliance. As for digital accessibility, the app is one piece of the jigsaw that will have 1,000,000 downloads by tomorrow. That’s not bad in a week. The bread and butter for now though remains the telephone calls, something Scotland appears to have worked better than England, with a localised in-house service.

Quarantine aside, is Track and Trace not working in Scotland? I think it’ll take time to prove but if you are suggesting France have a better system, they are approaching 10k cases a day and reported 46 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Other than no audio during the Dundee Utd game and the highlighted outages yesterday, I’ve had no complaints and I’m impressed with the quality of stream and commentary. As a PPV customer, it provides good value for money.

Job done, the result is all that mattered today. Great to see Campbell looking so fresh after international duty, Lang getting 90 mins another positive. Lamie’s recurring blunders an obvious concern.

Hopefully Gallagher can find his form in the coming weeks. If he does, he’ll have a fair chance of playing his part in the 3 Scotland games scheduled for October. He obviously missed some of preseason due to injury and has never looked fully up to speed since.

It was mentioned on Radio Scotland weeks ago that Motherwell hasn’t been in discussions with the JRG on a pilot game for this weekend. Don’t know if that was down to us being hesitant due to cost. Will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few months as the transmission rate increases. I do think socially distanced crowds should be returning but it’ll become more difficult for Government to approve if we start to see significant increases in hospitalisations. I tend to keep an eye on horse racing and the jist seems to be that courses will be running at 25-40% capacity a year from now unless there has been a significant breakthrough (vaccine or digital passport linked to daily saliva testing for all).

Regardless of any possible change in Scottish or rUK guidelines, I think UEFA stated from the outset that there will be no crowds at any champions league, Europa league or international games during August/September to ensure fairness across Europe. Hopefully that rule is relaxed in time for the Israel playoff...

Some have been drawing parallels with our 2014/15 season. We managed to get a 1-1 at Parkhead around the same stage.

Thanks for clarifying. That is most welcome news. I’m sure we were earning closer to £70/80k per round 10 year ago.

Mugabi is the most improved player so far this season but it was good to see Christopher Long smiling tonight. He looks to be finding his fitness and benefited from having a strike partner. Motm for me.