Welldaft Mk1

That will be Hapoel Beer Sheva into the group stages after winning 1-0 at home to Viktoria Plzen. They scored with a Pen after only 4 minutes !

It is apart from the fact he is trying to reason with Yodo. That is where it falls apart. Brick wall and all that....

Have one of their fans won the lottery or something. They have put a substantial bid in for a St Mirren player ! The only chance Campbell will be offski will be if someone bids £1m +. We would be due £500k + in compensation and a season with him in the team could easily earn us the balance if we go from say 8th to 5th and potentially Europa Conference football or whatever it is. I suspect he will sign a pre contract come Jan for a Championship club and we will get any compensation due.

Reinforcing your point would be to agree that we are the worst football team with the worst players on planet earth. Thankfully most posters can see who are the overly negative ones on this board who regardless of circumstances would rather find something to moan about. Anyone who finds reason to gripe about a 3rd place finish and Europa League spot illustrates this perfectly. I still believe that some people on here believe we have a budget on same level as an Aberdeen or Hibs. We have some shit players because it is all we can afford to allow us to stay within our fairly meagre budget. And when you are operating at that level you are going to get players that don’t come good. Most if not all are gambles that they will come good when for whatever reason they have not been before joining Motherwell. Some unsurprisingly just turn out to be not very good despite our best efforts. This is not exclusive to Motherwell. I was hugely disappointed after our recent win v Coleraine and did not feel much better after yesterday. But when the dust settles you realise the team have had a very tough schedule with lots of travel. Probably the worst team we could have played yesterday. Add that to the fact that Brother Madden was the referee. The 2 penalties we gave away are now by the letter of the law penalties. Similar to the one we got up at Aberdeen. It is a ludicrous law and is rightly being debated all over the place. That said Campbell’s was a penalty and everyone has agreed bar unsurprisingly the referee. I would also argue that Watts was a penalty also but again no chance we were getting it where at the other end - step up Tavernier. Some players deserve criticism but I do feel that many are getting it tight when in fact they will have the odd poor game because they are at Motherwell and not Liverpool. If Man City can lose 5 goals at home.......

Vigurs.......Polworth is twice the player he ever was for us.

Time is a healer they say...well I have mellowed after today’s game a little. I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that today lacklustre showing was due largely in part to the effort in the Israeli heat and travel from late last week. Easy for us to dismiss that as a reason but none of these players have that experience before and we can not rotate our squad like Rangers can and did. Aberdeen away showed what team are capable of and even 1st half v Hapoel Beer Sheva we did reasonably well against a seeded side. I think the next 4 games are key to our season. And will show us what likely lies ahead better than today’s game. If we can take 7,8,9 or more points then I think we will be OK and have a good chance of top 6. Tbh there is little between all other sides bar the top 4. I still think we are better than most of those teams. For me most of our team are capable of a decent level of football. Carson, Campbell and Watt are showing it consistently. But the likes of Polworth, Mugabe, Long, O Hara and Lang have shown in odd games they are decent footballers. There are only 1 or 2 who have been poor in most s games and they are really only getting a game due to injuries. That new penalty interpretation is rightfully causing huge outcry. If it hits hand regardless of circumstances and intention it is a penalty. Well you know that every side will now be trying to take advantage of that. If I were Robinson I would literally instruct the players to leather the ball as hard as possible towards any opposing players between there midriff and head. Do that every game and you will get a couple of penalties. A shite day at the office but hopefully we can get back to picking up points in October / November.

He did the same at Celtic Park. He may get away with being average against bottom 6 sides but against top teams Lamie is not up to it. We have seen it now for several games not just one offs. I thought 4-1 b4 game kicked off as I could not see how our defence could cope with a free scoring Rangers team. I was almost right. Sadly we were even worse than even I expected. I thought we were the equal of Hibs but based on that today we are miles out. Hoping for 5th but back to thinking avoiding relegation is our only target.

Someone said it elsewhere but if this is the case. I would instruct players to fire the ball at opposition players hands every time we are in the box. Knowing our players it would hit their heads. Such a passive performance. We know Rangers are a better team / squad and they are going forwards as we are going badly backwards. Give Lamie a rest please ! McGinley may be no great shakes but cmon to fuck Lamie is good for a goal against every game. Hope we can keep it to 3 or 4 or even get a goal back but I expect this to be 5or 6 by FT. Now watching Sheff U v Leeds. This is too painful.

Lamie to the rescue again......oh wait.... How can we see this but our Manager cannot.

Possibly another penalty there for challenge on Watt but ce we are getting anything form this baldy bugger in black.

Soft as shite and here we go Madden is a Rangers fanboy so no surprise there Why I bother watching these games against Rangers. Definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Sums up this fixture tbh

Early days but he has had the ball a few times and either passed to the opposition or gone backwards. MUST do better.

I get that but the truth is probably somewhere in between. They would comfortably beat Killie and St J in Israel more often than not. Anyway when I started this thread I probably did not think we would get past 50 pages.

That will be the game in a nutshell. No way are we keeping a Rangers side that won a way in Europe 4-0 at bay with our current defence. Thank fully Bevis is back but sooner Carroll is also back the better. That plus the constant bleating about referees performance and Hibs brutality means we are a stick on for at least 2 penalties and 2 red cards. Also Bluenose John Beaton is referee.

I think that is being a little disingenuous. HBS have a club coefficient of 14. That is a little less than Rangers and a whole lot more than a Killie or St Johnstone would ever have. They actually were not as good as I thought they would be but they have more experience in Europe and it showed. When you add that to the self inflicted wounds we make time and again then no surprise how it played out. I felt we played well enough up until the sending off and penalty. Thought midfield and Tony Watt were decent. Felt defensively we were poor. Gallacher since he has had the armband had gone backwards. O’Donnell will likely be with us beyond Xmas as he has been OK but was not great tonight. Had high hoped for McGinley but so far so average. Lamie is Lamie and a good squad player. Always good for at least one total lapse in concentration and fuck up that will last probably lead to a goal or good chance for the opposition. Downbeat but not disheartened. We got as far as we expected too if not a round further due to Coleraine beating Maribor.

For once I would love us to beat a seeded team. Many others manage it including Coleraine most recently. Hapoel Beer Sheva are not as good as they were when they beat Inter Milan home and away, but they still have a better squad and players being paid a lot more than our Motherwell squad. To be honest to have a chance we needed a home draw. Playing away in Israel (How the fuck are they in UEFA competition) is tough because of the heat. Even if we did manage to keep it at 0-0 till late on I suspect we would tire. Disappointing but I felt We matched them 1st half and even up till the 2nd goal. Missed Big Bevis. We mention for Tony Watt. Thought he had another good game.

I am not sure. A tangle in the box. You see that all the time. We have had how many free kicks and if I were Robbo I would be saying put your arms all around the defenders then throw yourself to the ground as if you have been kicked in the heid. Seems to work for teams we play against. Ah well another seeded team we have lost to. No surprise there.

Free kick in almost exactly the same place they got their goal from. We hit it straight into keepers arms. That could have been game over

3 decent free kicks in short order and very little. Difference at this level. They get one and score a goal.

Free header form a set piece once a fucking again. First attempt on target. Appalling marking as per usual. And just before HT also. Had done Ok up until then. No decent side would lose a goal from that set piece even if it was a decent cross.

I know - set up for their striker. Although the stream froze and I was not sure what the outcome was ! We have got into some good areas

I just heard - fuck me Ricki man. That plus the stream is freezing all the time. Surprise surprise e

There is no commentary

No surprise as their coefficient is 34. Similar to Celtic and double that of Rangers. They are one of the highest seeded teams. Were we to get thru tonight that would be an even more difficult ask. All thanks to UEFA seeding thru every round so the big guy/s progress. Really is a con of a set up. Still we will take their money for now.....

To be fair their summing up is not far off the truth. They state that apart from Celtic and perhaps Rangers our league is weaker than theirs. They say we have not been playing well but the 3-0 away win v Aberdeen has focussed their minds. Asking for tactics to keep it tight and as the game goes on we will tire due to heat and humidity and they can step up the pace and pressure. To be honest I will be delighted if we are drawing or winning the game come the 60-70 minutes. But given they scored 2 goals in the last round in 90+ minutes shows they will keep going. Yes Laci were down to 10 men but I wonder if we were 1-0 down would we be able to score away from home 2 goals to get through ? Going to be a hugely tough ask but we are due to beat a seeded side at some point in time. And the best chance we have to do that is in a one legged tie.