star sail

If I was a player who felt he had been unfairly left out of a starting 11 because the managers favoured style of play did not suit my own, I would be very reluctant to sit in front of the assembled media and give a bullshit story about how the reasons for me being out of favour was that I wasn't trying hard enough. Your guess is as good as mine as to the reality of the situation. My original point was that it surprises me how some players always seem to get the benefit of the doubt whilst others do not. Your guess as to what happened last season is sympathetic to Bigiramana's cause despite the fact that the player himself has given a different account of events. This back's up my original point that some players get given the benefit of the doubt whilst some players/managers do not.

I don't think that it is good PR for manager or player to be publicly admitting to having a player that is to some extent going through the motions. I realise that you did not use the word 'good' but if the club is going to prepare some fluff, they should make up some good fluff.

Really? Admits he was not trying hard enough last season and this makes him a top guy? If one of the whipping boys of yester-year such as Marc Fitzpatrick had admitted to not trying hard enough would that have made him a top guy? The article certainly explains why Robinson was not picking him. Turns out it has little to do with Robinson not liking creative players, and all to do with Robinson not picking a player who lacked fitness and motivation. It is human nature for a player to have a poor season for the reasons mentioned so I am not judging Bigi. It just always interests me how some players, for no apparent reason suddenly seem to be beyond all reproach whilst others get hounded week after week.

So we fluked two cup finals beating Aberdeen, Rangers and Hearts along the way? You can spin things any way you like if you want to. I will not pretend that we have had a good start to the season and I agree that the style of football could be greatly improved but to write off two cup finals and a 7th place finish last season suggests to me that expectation is unrealistically high.

A tough first game of the season. With the exception of Livingston, we had the hardest tie of the first weekend. For all the columns of debate being taken up in the press arguing about who will finish second between Rangers and Aberdeen, my money would be on Hibs to finish second this season. Good manager who has assembled a good squad. Away points are going to be hard to come by against any of the city teams this season so I suspect that todays result may be a taster of things to come. My feeling is that we are fighting for sixth and actually if Killie can keep Steve Clarke, and keep Kris Boyd fit for the season, I think they will have sixth sown up. That leaves the rest, 7-12. Robinson has assembled a squad to fight this battle. It will be the games against these teams that will define our season. Sadly for me the difference may be this season that we don't have a squad with quite the same drive and determination as last season. If guys like Main don't buy into the cause (and there are signs already that he may not be) then the spark that gave us the edge over the bottom six last season could vanish. Robinson did an outstanding job last season but I fear that he may be running out of ideas. With one of the smallest budgets in the league it is little wonder that he is resorting to bringing in the type of player that served him well last season but without the intensity that brought success last season I fear that the squad does not have the quality required to match last seasons achievements. I wish him well because he has a touch job ahead of him. Like everybody else I would like our style of play to improve and like everyone else I hope that the quality we need may come from Bigi but I fear that there is a reason why he does not start games that runs deeper than Robinson's preferred style of play. It is the first game of the season but there was enough evidence in the league cup games to suggest that the team is struggling at this moment in time. It can all change ofcourse but I am not sure where the spark is going to come from. I hope that our next signing will be the one that sparks the team into life but with the money that Robinson will have to spend I do not know where that player will come from.

Was it not Robinson that gave Allan Campbell a chance. I'm sure that if the young players are ready and good enough they will get a chance.

Yes, that's the one.

Vigurs could be hit or miss but two of the most skillful pieces of football I have ever seen watching Motherwell involved him. The first was a pass he made at Tynecastle to Ainsworth (I think?) from central midfield to the right side of midfield that was not only inch perfect but also showed the type of vision that Luca Modric would be proud of. From memory Ainsworth ran about 30 yards from behind Vigurs to get onto the ball. Having watched the clip several times, I still don't know how he spotted the pass. Don't know if anybody has footage of the pass I am talking about? The second was against us unfortunately. He was playing for ICT and a corner was floated in to the edge of the 18 yard box. He caught it perfectly on the vollley. It was the ease and almost nonchalant way he did it that was so impressive.

You have made a very good point but this is the eternal problem for a club like ours. We simply don’t have the finances to recruit players that are a notable improvement on the players you mention. I have made this point already but three games in a row against Celtic (one being a cup final) under similar circumstances was the begining of the end for Dundee Utd. Look where they are now. Grimshaw, Rose etc are Motherwell standard players given the finances available. If one or two players push these players onto the bench this transfer window, then the closed season has been a success.

Bigirimana!!!! Best player on the park. Fantastic performance.

We are talking about one single game. There have been other times this season when Campbell or Grimshaw have made way first. I don't think anybody would argue that McHugh played well on Saturday but it is only one game. I would agree that McHugh has struggled in the second half of this season at times but he has still made a massive contribution to the cause. What interests me is that when fans look for a little bit of loyalty from players they don't see the need to reciprocate. For me McHugh has encapsulated the fighting spirit of the team this season. He puts his head and body where it hurts for the cause. He has flung himself into his duties as team captain both on and off the pitch and has played no small part in cultivated the togetherness that is apparent within the squad. I watched an interview where Tanner singled out McHugh as being of great support during his injury spell. Maybe he is just burnt out at the end of a long hard season. For me he deserves our support and that some are looking for him to be cast out after a poor cup final performance is a bit disappointing.

We were beaten by two very good goals and a Celtic team that are head and shoulders above any other team in Scotland.

A complete guess but maybe the reason for almost every single player being off the pace today is due to training being focused specifically on the cup final. If they are doing hard/ heavy sessions leading into games without the recovery time given to normal competitive games they could be feeling a bit jaded. I know nothing about these things but if there is an opportunity to optimise fitness for one specific game at the the expense of competitiveness in the games beforehand I would take a few leggy performances before the final.

People can only base an opinion on what they see. My last viewing of Ciftci was in the Hearts semi-final. He seemed to lack an edge that day and was pushed off the ball too easily by the big Hearts defenders. Bowman made a difference when he came on. I don't think that anybody would argue that Ciftci is a talented player but if he continues to lack fitness he simply can't access that ability. Somebody made reference to the 'fox in the box' earlier in the thread. A good comparison in that he was a player of undoubted talent who lacked the sharpness of his glory days but could still contribute in flashes. My hope is that Ciftci has been on a strict fitness regime and that a sharper, fitter Ciftci starts. If injury is the reason for his absence in recent weeks however Bowman should start. Moult and Bowman worked well in the League Cup semi final so why not have confidence that Main and Bowman can cause similar problems.

Cup runs have been non existent in previous season so if we were to swap this seasons cup wins for league wins we would be a further 18 points up the table (6 wins against Premier league opposition). That would take us onto 52 points and 4th place above Kilmarnock. By anybodies standards Kilmarnock have had a great season. You cannot discount 6 competitive matches against Premier league opposition when looking at the season as a whole. Progression has been made. That is a fact, not fantasy.

I think the stats that Ya Bezzer has just posted are made worse by the poor run in December. What we have to remember is that we had just played Celtic three times and the squad was depleted and exhausted. I made a point at the time about Dundee Utd suffering a similar fate in very similar circumstances. The difference is that Utd did not recover. We have. I think it suits certain people at the moment to dismiss the cup runs as almost irrelevant. What we have to remember is that we have beaten premiership opposition in every single knock out match (including the second and third best teams in the league). Kilmarnock have been given huge plaudits for the season they have had and rightly so. We have matched them if we allow the team the luxury of including their cup success. Remember as well at this time last year killie were in a stronger position than us. Steve Clarke has had a fantastic season. It would only be the harshest of critics that would not give Robinson huge credit this season.

If we are frustrated about our team not turning up for 15 minutes at the start of the second half, then what a huge step forward we have taken. For many a year we have had to endure Motherwell sides not turning up for the full 90 against Rangers. Robinson has to be congratulated for the change in mindset. I remember back to the League Cup game at Ibrox when Rangers were in the Championship when McCall was telling anybody that would listen how we were massive underdogs and how we would have to be at our best and they would have to have an off day, etc etc. We duly folded .3-0 was it? A total embarrassment. Was it ICT (maybe St Johnstone) who showed us how it should be done and put them out in the next round? To play with the intensity Motherwell play at for 90 minutes is a very difficult thing to do. It is particularly difficult after the body has cooled for 15 minutes in the changing room. Maybe this explains the slugginess (relatively speaking) at the start of the second half. To my mind, the real injustice about the penalty was that it was actually a fantastic bit of defending. A perfectly timed challenge under very difficult circumstances. If there had not been 5000 Rangers fans screaming for a penalty in the South Stand, we could have been talking this morning about a match winning tackle. I don't particularly blame the ref for that. A century of the Old Firm intimidating the rest of Scottish Football (and a Scottish Press that are happy to help them) at every level of the game brings these decisions about. Putting the situation in context, we have beaten Hearts, drawn with Celtic (with 10 men), drawn with Rangers at Fir Park in the last month. A cup final, and cup semi in the bag and we play the second place team in the league on Tuesday with many off us believing that we can win that game. Motherwell are performing like a top six team, in the first season for many when the top six really means something. We are going to fall short of that target but only just. I can forgive them a slack 15 mins. Maybe the next step in the progression of the team is that they can play with that level of intensity for 90 minutes and on a regular basis.

Do you mean by this that, Thomson had decided that he was going to send Kipre off for the initial challenge or that he was going to send Kipre off before a ball was kicked? I still think that the former could be the case. Can a referee go back and send a player off after playing advantage?

Just watched the highlights and I think Thomson has given the red card for the initial challenge. When Kipre steps over Brown with his right foot, he seems to stand on Brown's right thigh. It looks clumsy and accidental but when you see Thomson's positioning on the field it is a possible explaination. Very harsh decision regardless.

We had a family friend who was a grade 1 referee back in the 80's. He was also a Well fan and reckoned that he overcompensated (in favour of Motherwell's opponents) when refereeing games involving Motherwell.

That is an interesting statistic. Hard to know what clubs could do as an addition incentive to Season ticket holders.

Felt sorry for the players having to run out to a half empty home end today. This team have given everything in the cup, it is a shame that the fans did not match that commitment today. I would have gone with the weather argument were it not for the fact that the away end was sold out.Think the Hearts fans outnumbered us 2:1 today which for a home tie in a Scottish Cup Quarter Final is indeed baffling. Everybody is entitled to make a decision about whether or not they want to go to a football match. It would have been nice to see our players have better backing all the same. Enough of the negatives. What an effort from the players and what a goal to win it. Felt after 15 minutes of the second half that Hearts were going to go on and win it but the team showed real character to battle their way back into the game. McHugh and Campbell in the middle typified the commitment and McHugh deserved his goal.

Prior to the league cup final in November, Tommy Coyne, along with his two sons, were eating in the same restaurant as us. I assumed they were going to the game. Started a conversation at our table about who he would be supporting. I would like to thing that he is a Well fan but I think that may be wishful thinking. Heart said Motherwell, head Celtic. Felt it would be inappropriate to ask him. Does anybody know?

I am never one to let the facts stand in the way of a few wild allegations but thought I better check and see if I was making this up completely. So here are the facts: Starting with a home draw against St Johnstone on 23/9/15, Rangers were drawn at home ten times in a row (including a home win against us on 21/1/17). The run ended when Rangers were drawn away to Partick Thistle in the league cup on 09/09/17. Since then as Superward pointed out, they have drawn Fraserburgh (A), AyrUtd (A), Falkirk (H) in the Scottish Cup. That makes 11 home ties out of 14. So not the 13 out of 15 I claimed and certainly not enough to base a conspiracy theory on but they have had the luck of the draw over the last few seasons when it comes to home ties. I get a sense that I am talking to myself but incase anybody is interested 7 of the 14 were against Premiership opposition (St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Motherwell, Accies, Dundee). This does not include any cup ties played at Hampden (one of which featured a beautiful Louis Moult brace). I realise that I have just spent an hour of my life thinking about all things Rangers. I will never make that mistake again.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading that they drew 12 home ties in a row. Add your three in four to that would make it 13 out of 16. If they managed to swing a cup semi final to Ibrox then I really would be believing in conspiracy theories. Anyway regarding Motherwell, we have drawn the tie of the round. Could FP be near capacity?