Welldaft Mk1

Weirdest season ever. Looked like we were going to kick on and all these stop starts and cancelled games + Covid and injuries have done us in. That plus playing Lamie for which the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the Manager !

That is a very good Q. McGinley may be no world beater but he is less likely to sell the jerseys like Lamie does habitually

So we have Seedorf, Lamie and Mugabi on the pitch. What possibly could go wrong !

This. St Johnstone have looked the better side. Probably had the best chance but a good save from Chapman. We play like that 2nd half and we r out of the cup. Robinson needs to give them a kick up the backside or change things.

Watt has been pretty poor so far as well. Only Lang has been any decent of the forward players. We are not troubling them at all and they have been better for the most part.

Sadly Grizzly they are both likely to be ex players come Euro 2021. Both may be gone come January. Just how it is for us Well fans.

FWIW I said something similar a day or two ago. If you want to win the group go all out to do so in the game v Slovakia. Strongest team. They only made 4 changes and we made 8 ! Clearly Dykes was suspended but we have left ourselves with a hill to climb. Beating Israel in Israel will be very tough. They beat us comfortably last time we were there if I recall. The Czechs will win at home v Slovakia so we will need 3 points. Still I felt we were worthy of at least a point today. Almost 50% possession and more chances than a team ranked 15 places above us. We can all see improvements.

I was wrong. Rangers got Falkirk away. We however did get St Johnstone. So 3 years seeded and we get Ross County, Hearts and St Johnstone. For once give us a team from another division. I genuinely could not give less of a f*ck about this cup.

This. At 29 and with a young family his priority will be maximising his income for the next 4 years +. That will not be possible at Motherwell. I would love for him to sign an extension but I would put the chances of that happening at no more than 10%. January will be interesting. There will be interest and you would think a team may be willing to throw some money at us to tempt him away rather than relying on a pre contract agreement. If that happens then what constitutes a good offer. Qualifying for Europe was worth 750,000 Euros. Not saying we would not qualify if he leaves in Jan but it would be more difficult. In saying that I expect it would need to be £500k + before we would consider an offer. SOD is interesting. I don’t think he has been great for us and arguably he has played better for Scotland. But again you would think there would be interest in a Scotland Right back. So we could have neither of them come Feb 2021. Still I will always remember the time the Scotland defence was players from Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool and Motherwell x 2 :-)

So the draw for the last 16 is on Sunday. Which of the toughest non seeds will we draw this year whilst Rangers get Ayr at home and Celtic Dunfermline at Parkhead. More to the point I see Hamilton lost 2-1 at Stranraer tonight. Probably not a 1st 11 but after that and their 8 goal pumping at the weekend can someone explain how we routinely lose to them every season including this one !!!

To back up this point I am sure I read that St Mirren had 16 shots at goal v Dundee United recently. And NOT ONE on target ! Rangers scored 8 goals from 14 shots on target v Hamilton and Celtic 4 goals from 6 on target against us. That is why they win so many games and have a positive GD of a squillion come the end of the season. You could make a strong case to say that Ross County has as many chances on target at Fir Park recently as Celtic yet they score zero goals. Defending was not great certainly not for 1st and 3rd goal but for 2nd and 3rd you have to say that is also down to Celtic speed of movement and passing which you only really get against the Old firm.

I think you are being unduly harsh Dave. What I will agree with is that to play the same team and formation as we did v Ross C and Livi was bold to say the least and it meant Frimpong and Laxalt had the freedom of Fir Park at times. Damned if you do dammed if you don’t. We shut up shop and lose 2-0 and fans will say why did we not have a go. We have a go and we lose 4 goals and we say why did we not play more defensive. We needed a little more luck on the day. Ajer could easily have scored an own goal. Land would have been a soft penalty but we have seen them given against us plenty of times v the Old firm. We have lost our most capable keeper and I think he would have done better than Chapman at goals 1 and 3. Rangers put 8 past Hamilton. The gap and resources are getting wider and so these results will be more commonplace. Disappointed but a few mistakes aside I though we competed well especially early part of the second half.

Get a grip. Celtic have paid £9m for one player. They gave us our record transfer fee for a player who cannot even get a game. They have 4 players left NOT going on International duty. We had 4 players on International duty. The gulf is as big as it ever has been FFS. Why do we lose 4 or 5 goals. Because we try and play football and not just sit in like other teams do. Why do Livi and Killie give them more problems ? Because they have plastic shite pitches that Barcelona would struggle to play on. I am pissed off we lost but you also have to remember we are missing an entire defence and our No 1 goalie who would probably have kept the scoreline at 2-1 for longer. Celtic and Rangers should be beating every team by 4 or 5 goals given the advantage they have over every other SPFL teams. So no surprise they do it often against us. No surprise at all. Edit to add Rangers 3-0 up against Accies after 25 minutes. Why only us.....

I thought we would lose by a few goals and in some ways that is less frustrating than St Johnstone being at 0-0 at 85 minutes and losing 2-0. We were never really in the game despite the fact we played some decent football. We have away same chances v Ross County. Big difference is Celtic and Rangers will score one goal from two or three chances where other teams like us even sometimes will not score from half a dozen chances. I just wish we would not lose by an average 3 to 4 goals every time we play the Old firm

I said before the game drop a striker and put Grimshaw in midfield. Playing same team we picked v Ross C and Livingston was not very clever. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but to give Celtic a free run down the flanks is awful tactics. I am a fan of Robinson but he got carried away today.

Already Celtic are moving down our flanks with little opposition! Keep it tight - honest to fucking God. What is the point. Just get a shotgun every time and shoot our foot off and cut to 90 minutes

I am thinking we will add Grimshaw into midfield and drop a striker. Someone pointed out on P&B iirc that we drew with Celtic x3 at Fir Park when we were a more robust side with the likes of Main, Bowman and Rose etc. Since we moved to a more expansive - you could almost add footballing side Celtic have won by several goals each time they have come to Fir Park. Sitting back and waiting for Celtic to score is never a good thing, but even worse is having a go and leaving yourself open to the counter attack. I think the idea would be to keep it tight for as long as possible and then opening up a little if the games is still to be won. Celtic will have been wounded by the justified criticism and I expect sadly we will see a reaction today. We are better defensively than we have been for a while but I can see us conceding an early goal and our game plan going out of the window. Celtic to run out comfortable winners sadly. That is the most likely outcome. They have better players in almost all positions and if they play to their potential then they will easily get the 3 points. Be a big test for the stand in Goalie. We shall see how good he is this afternoon for sure. Hopefully he plays a blinder. Be good exposure for him on Sky Sports. I hope I am wrong of course and we can take something from the game to keep our momentum going. After our poor start no one is talking about us being in the mix for top 4. Yet we take something today and 4 or 6 points from our games in hand and we are only a few points behind Hibs. Aberdeen will finish 3rd. I still think we are better than all of the other sides outside top 3 and this would be the most high profile game to make such a statement.

I would rather they won comfortably tonight but now they will come to Fir Park with a rocket up their arse. It could go one of two ways. Sadly we have seen this movie before so many times. I would love to think we can pile on the agony but I suspect we will be the ones that will capitulate. I hope I am very wrong.

I went along with one of my best friends at the time. He was a very decent footballer but lazy as fuck. Had trials with Falkirk and Stirling Albion. He could have had a contract with either but he was not at all bothered. My abiding memory of the game was his number plate being called out during the game as he was blocking a driveway or something similar. Of course I let him trudge off to move his car...

Watt has been very good today. This bloody stream. I saw it was 4-0 on Sky Soccer Saturday before the goal on the stream.

Agree. Not great. Ross County pass these ball better or have so far. Long anonymous but Cole has been decent. I can see County scoring so another goal or two is a must 2nd half. Constant changes in team and lack of game time is showing.

See what happens when you put a good cross in the box. Great finish also.

As I was saying

Hopefully not a serious injury to Carson. This has been a difficult watch so far. Very slow from Motherwell. Poor passing all over the pitch. Can tell we have not played for a wee while.

Talking of injuries.....jinxed it....