El Grew

Whilst I appreciate your opinion, I would say that the time when a foul is committed is irrelevant, whether it be in the first minute or the last and it must be adjudicated solely on its merits as a foul whether minor or otherwise. Further, if VAR had been available yesterday and it confirmed the referee’s red card decision, we’d still have had to sit through 89 minutes of a game that was effectively over. VAR, as has been well demonstrated in the English Premiership, is far from being a panacea to help football make “the right calls”. Consider how many pundits and fans (from both clubs including many on this forum) forensically analysed the same TV replays and freeze-frames of Bevis Mugabi’s tackle yesterday. Now consider that having done so, opinions are still divided between those who think it warranted a red card and those who think it should’ve been a yellow. My point is, that referees only have a split second in real time to make a decision based on what they’ve seen and that even with VAR, there’s still room for doubt or debate as to the “final” decision. For my own part, when I saw the tackle in real time, admittedly from much further away than the referee, I thought it looked a bad one and risked a red card. Having reviewed it on TV, and, whilst I’m absolutely certain there was no malice on Bevis Mugabi’s part, I’m sorry to say that I still believe that it warranted a red card. What pissed me off yesterday, was seeing a number of Hibs players running at the referee waving their arms and demanding he send Mugabi and then later, Roberts off. This is despicable and has no place in football and I hope the referee has the guts to make comment in his match report on the conduct of the Hibs players involved at these incidents and that the SFA take appropriate action towards those players and send a message that this kind of conduct won’t be tolerated. If he fails to do so then Motherwell should raise the issue with the SFA direct.

Our chances of winning were in doubt with the manager’s team selection and went right out the window when Mugabi was sent off. We gave away 2 really cheap goals. At the 1st, McGinley and Ojala both culpable. McGinley was too easily beaten to let the Hibs winger get the cross in and Ojala allowed the Hibs striker to get in front of him on the near post. At the 2nd, one long ball over the top took out both of our centre-backs. At 1 goal down it was an uphill task but at 2 it became a lost cause. Credit to the guys for coming out in tbe 2nd half and making the game competitive and with a wee bit of luck might even have got back level. With 4 at the back I thought we seemed better balanced. Solhelm looked more comfortable with Lamie beside him and O’Donnell gave us width on the right. Efford, Van Veen and Roberts worked their socks off up front and gave the Hibs back line plenty of scares. However, my man of the match was young Dean Cornelius, who I thought was outstanding and our best player by a mile. The failures for me were McGinley, Ojala and Donnelly. Where we go from here is anybody’s guess but the manager must surely be under scrutiny by the board.

Hibs had a really good side at that time with a number of Scottish internationalists - Eric Schaedler, John Brownlie, Pat Stanton, John Blackley, Des Bremner, Arthur Duncan all played in these games. Later that year they beat Liverpool 1-0 in the UEFA Cup 1st Round 1st Leg at Easter Road.

Yes there was outbreak of flu and as Kmcalpin posted many of our players were out on their feet at the end. Marinello wasn’t fully fit but was on the bench and had to come on as a sub.

Agreed. My favourite Motherwell team. Pat Gardner was a lovely passer of the ball from midfield and could slide well-weighted passes into both inside forward positions where Davidson, Pettigrew and Graham would invariably be making runs. This was a really solid side with very few shortcomings. We could’ve done with a better centre-half as big Willie McVie could be a bit erratic and Bobby Graham could’ve been greedier in front of goal instead of trying to lay off for Willie P. Oh and we were cheated out of two Scottish Cup finals on the trot by really dodgy refereeing decisions.

This is only the 3rd time we’ve had a home draw against Hibs in the Cup. The 1st was the 2nd round in 1921 when we won 3-2. The 2nd was the quarter-final is f 6th March 1976. Details below: Motherwell 2 V Hibs 2 Scorers: Motherwell: Pettigrew, Marinello Hibs: Spalding, Duncan Crowd: 18,000 Team: Rennie, W. Watson, Wark R. Watson, McVie, McLaren, Gardner, Pettigrew, Graham, Davidson, Marinello. Replay 10 March 1976 Hibs 1 V Motherwell 1 Scorers: Hibs: Stanton Motherwell: Graham Crowd: 26,000 Team: Rennie, W. Watson, Wark, R. Watson, McVie, McLaren, Gardner, Pettigrew, Graham, Davidson, Marinello. Replay 15 March 1976 Ibrox Motherwell 2 V Hibs 1 Scorers: Hibs: Harper Motherwell: Taylor, Marinello Team: Rennie, W. Watson. Wark, R. Watson, McVie, McLaren, Gardner, Pettigrew, Graham, Davidson, Taylor. Crowd 16,000

Why is young Dean Cornelius not getting more game time. I know he’s only 20 and the club might want to nurse him along slowly. So far, he’s only had a handful of games but has always acquitted himself very well and he’s one of the few midfield players to have scored this season. He reminds me of a young Phil O’Donnell when he was just starting out with us - box to box, good at breaking-up and disrupting opposition play and always looking to get forward. I think he would do very well slotted into 4-4-2 formation playing with O’Hara, Slattery and Woolery. He must be worth a run in the team especially given some of the dross in the midfield just now.

Great post. Clearly and accurately identifies the root of the problems at the club.

Great post. Clearly and accurately identifies the root of the problems at the club.

Sorry, but no offer. They were all shite today.

Agreed, and he’s not the only one.

Team selections on postcards please to: The Manager, Motherwell FC, Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell.

He doesn’t know his arse from his elbow.

This was near enough a Dundee reserve team and they thoroughly deserved their point and might even have got all 3. The the only players I’d retain from that starting 11 are Kelly and Johansson.

There’s a ball on the park and two sets of 11 players but this is never football in a million years. We need to get rid of this manager quickly before he does any further damage.

The danger signals are there now. Dundee have realised that we pose them absolutely no threat and are they beginning to look the likelier of the two to win this.

What a load of utter shite. I don’t think I’ve heard FP so quiet - they’ve just about managed to put the crowd to sleep. We've played zero football. Haven’t put more than 3 passes together. All 4 defenders when they get the ball just high punt it forward to nobody in particular. Goss, O’Hara and Donnelly not in the game and Woolery reverts back to his default anonymous. Its just as well we got points earlier in the season because our current form is relegation

Here’s a few stats to chew over or maybe stew over. All-time home league record against Dundee: P106; W47; D23; L36 Their last win at FP was in 2017. We played them twice that year at FP and lost both — 5-1 and 3-2. Their away form this season reads: P14; W2; D2; F10; A27. Their last away win was on 9th February — 2-1 against Hearts. Our league record against them this season reads: P2 ; W1; D0; L1. We won 1-0 at FP in August and lost 3-0 at Dens Park in November. They also beat us 1-0 in the League Cup at Dens Park in August.

Woolery. No brainier.

Dundee are scrapping for their club’s premier league status and their livelihoods. If we turn in another 90 minutes like last night then they are more than capable of beating us. Lose this one and I honestly think Graeme Alexander’s days at FP could be numbered.

Shocking or not suck it up because the referee decided it was a penalty and he is the final arbiter in the matter. Its really come to something when we are arguing the toss about a penalty awarded against us in the 15th minute of a home game that we should be more than capable of winning. We had 80 minutes in which to do something about it but failed miserably. We didn’t lose because of the penalty but because as a number of previous posters have said - we were sh*te!

Doubtless I will cop a boat load of flak for this, but to hell with it. IMO the following players need to be shown the door at the end of this season as they are simply not good enough: O’Donnell, McGinley, Carroll, Ojala, Goss, Slattery, Lamie, O’Hara, Grimshaw, White, Amalazour, Shaw, O’Connor, Shields, Stefford, Roberts.

And just how is he going to “improve the quality of the squad”?? There is no f*ecking money at the club to buy and pay for better quality players. The club is run on a very low budget and the manager, no matter who that may be, has to operate within very narrow parameters when it comes to recruiting players. Hence we take players on loan deals, from Irish football and trawl the lowest depths of English non-league football for players, in the hope that we might just unearth another Louis Moult. However the yield from this policy is diminishing all the time and the quality of player being brought into the club whether we like it or not is falling and will continue to do so. I’m pretty certain Alexander wanted to keep Tony Watt and his remarks about not needing another striker were just bravado, as witnessed by his attempt to get Zak Rudden from Partick before the end of the transfer window. I also think he appreciates the situation the club is in all too well. Maybe if he hadn’t been unemployed when our managerial vacancy came up, he wouldn’t have considered the job. I’ve been going to Fir Park for many years now and I’ve always thought some of the poorest footballers that I ever saw at the club, were in the middle to late 1960s, under Bobby Howitt but I have to admit, that with a few exceptions, the current squad contains far too many footballers that would struggle to get into that squad.

They’ve been playing well recently and they are pretty adept at sitting in away from home and hitting on the break. So I think we need to ensure that if and when we get chances we score with them as our defence always looks as though it will lose goals.

Dundee have been down this road before and have twice been in administration as a result. They no longer own Dens Park so have no tangible fixed assets. They are owned by two US businessmen with no apparent connection to Dundee or Scotland and who know heehaw about Scottish football. They need to watch out because they're on the same slippery slope that saw the demise of Third Lanark.