Welldaft Mk1

Perhaps more surprising than shocking. He is now full time at the SFA and not MFC. I knew there would be applause on 22 and 44 minutes but not the thunderclap. I thought it was a good tribute and it is just a real shame any tribute was required at all. As to the match itself. Delighted with the performance and effort from the whole team. Hearts are more experienced and more physical outfit, but for the most part we held our own and created some v good chances against a top 6 side with a big gap in resources. The winning goal when it came was just desserts for a couple of the narrow defeats we have had v Hearts this season. Turnbull free kick looked tame enough but from the angle behind the goal it was a swerving free kick and whilst it might not have had a lot of pace it sure had a lot of swerve and added with the windy conditions led to the goalie mucking up. It was a bad mistake but actually think Turnbull deserves a lot of credit apart from the fact he had a v good game. Hastie scoring another beauty is brilliant but worries me that even the old firm fans are now jumping on the sign him bandwagon. Robinson has said we have made him our best offer. I am quite sure his agent will have been inundated these past few weeks. He has said himself he wants to stay but one wonders why if that is the case the contract remains unsigned..... 6 wins in 6 is brilliant. Long odds against 7 given our next opponents but would settle for a draw or giving them a tough game and moving on. Again I think Killie away will be another marker of how far this team has come and potential for next season.

I hope Hastie does sign in fact I am praying he signs. I may be wrong but I think the last time was not that long ago and was with Erwin. We ended up getting a decent wedge from Leeds in any case. I know it is not an exact science, but my Q to the club is were u going to offer Hastie a contract extension even before his appearance in the 1st team. Surely we would have been in a position to do so for him, Scott and Maguire before now. The key point is we have made it a lot harder now that he has played a few games and starred. If you believe the articles I am reading there are now up to 6 to 7 English clubs watching him and I am sure his agent is well aware of this. We all agree and it has been proven that leaving to early has an adverse effect on your career. So hopefully we can get this sorted, but my concern is we have left it too late.

Why do posters bother with the wind up merchants ? They are so obvious like a glo in the dark stick. Robinson deserves criticism for most of this season, but behind all that is one of the lowest budgets in the top flight. Most sensible fans could see he had something about him. 2 cup finals for only then 2nd time in our entire history. On the back of a reduced budget to boot. I could list the names but no need, most fans know who they are. The miserable brigade. Still find something to moan about after 5 league wins on the bounce. Here is a clue. Anyone who is still negative on the back of those results need to stop winding the good folk on this forum up. But then they have bugger all left to do in their miserable lives.......

Unfortunately it looks like taking a similar road to that of Turnbull. If the Record are to be believed we are quite a bit apart in terms of agreeing a new contract. Delighted he has made such an impact but not if it means he walks at the end of the season for peanuts. You Q whether the club have been caught out once again. We have some great talent coming through the youth ranks and I get we can not offer all lucrative contracts but we do seem a little slow to protect our investements. A positive outcome with Turnbull but it could easily have gone against us. Let us hope we can tie down Hastie but it may have become more difficult as a result of his impressive form. We shall see.......

A typical YB post. Not one player in the keep category....... Your comments on McHugh are well wide of the mark. And why I struggle to take some of your posts seriously. Yes he has had his ups and downs but to call him dreadful is disegenious imho. Cadden is a strange one. He just has not kicked on the way we would have all hoped. Maybe not playing in his best position has had an effect. But right now out of Cadden, Hastie and Turnbull which 2 would you opt to keep.....

Is it actually you Melvin ? I sit in front of that chap and depending on circumstances it varies from a simple out to a gutteral oot oot oot...... I have grown to like it :-) Wow what a transformation in the last few games. The emergence of Turnbull and more recently Hastie added to Gboly and a reliable Gorrin in midfield means we seem to have found a team that can actually play football. I am however cognisant of the fact that these games are v teams in bottom 6. Will be interesting to see how we perform v teams above us. I am sure we will suffer a mini slump again or a few losses but credit to Robinson for turning it around for now. Proves the point to me at least that panicking and sacking your Manager can yield a less positive outcome than sticking by him. 3 teams below us have all sacked their Manager and for at least 2 of them it will have made little noticeable difference. Club please sign up Hastie on similar if not longer deal than Turnbull. Do that and we will all be v happy.

Your all heart.

Bigi - decent bloke and a footballer in there. He may well prove an astute addition for Hibs, but most have covered what we all (mostly all) think and that is he was a luxury we could not afford. His defensive frailties were glaring and openly cost us goals. Good luck to him but not the slightest bit concerned he has gone. You realise how bloated our squad was when you see who has left in the window and genuinely believe we will not be one bit worse off. We are out of the cup so that is one source of revenue closed off. Prudent pruning of the squad imho. Would like Hastie to follow suit to Turnbull and sign extension as soon as.

To be fair I was at the Hamilton and Hibs wins. I have a friend who was not at the last 3 league games and he is coming to Livingston game. If we lose that I am hiding his season ticket..... Glad you had a good day out. Looked like we rode our luck a little. On a separate note I had a good evening and am in good spirits, unlike the usual suspects who post such negative drivel regardless of result. I do agree that we have been for the most part poor this season and silky football has been in short supply. But this clamour to change the Manager. If I knew for a fact it would make us better then I would be all for it. But there is absolutely NO guarantee this would happen. Robinson looks like meeting our objectives for the league once more. If we finish anywhere above 9th arguably he is exceeding his remit. Dundee and St Mirren have changed Managers this season and the impact has been minimal if not worse in the case of St Mirren.

YAWN...........

Like most it was an enjoyable game tonight. Makes Saturday all the more frustrating...... Main works his balls off but is is still struggling to score and again he had a couple of very decent chances. Stand outs for me were Hastie and Grimshaw. Gboly looked v good at times and early as it is will be good to watch. It helped that Hibs were impotent up front but that was a decent display and a balanced side. I get Ross Mccormack needs minutes but I was worried his sub may come back and bite us. Typical Motherwell. Hopefully we can halt the trend and out a few decent results together. If we play like that we stand every chance. What a goal too. Was a belter. Fine pass at the end from Hastie. Perfect.. Same starting line up for me on Saturday v Dundee.

With a few extra F words thrown.....made me laugh. But above all else I like the passion. I still think the break was a contributor to our loss v Ross County. That said the team formation and selection was a tad bizarre.

The crowd was on a par with a home gate. The fact that Ross County only brought 130 odd fans made it worse than it was. Not a criticism of them by the way. In fairness to Motherwell fans we do tend to turn up home and away for cup games. If you look at other similar sides they tend to lose a minimum 1000 fans for home cup games such as Dundee and St Mirren for example. I will agree however that what we watched yesterday will impact the gate on Wednesday. I will go along but only because I am getting a lift through from Edinburgh. Otherwise I would think twice. That said we have a tendency to surprise. But at the moment hard to see past a comfortable away win. Those stating we should have accepted his resignation - assuming this happened, have to realise it would have been based on his contract being paid up. Why else would you leave a well paid job for nothing ? I very much doubt we have a spare £150k+ or whatever to pay him off. That plus his remit is probably to avoid relegation and cup runs. Apart from yesterday he has achieved that much in his tenure thus far.

What investment ? We owe them money and they are expecting it back and have had a fair wedge back this past 2 years. The club is now fan owned. As a result neither Hutchison or Boyle would have any intention of fronting up payment to pay up Robinson’s contract. This is all on us now. I saw comment earlier about Robinson’s offering his resignation. Not sure whether true. I heard discussions did take place around results and style of play, but he has a contract for another year + iirc. He would not walk away without being paid his contract balance and that is understandable. If he got another job then that would be different. As I said he will get the next few games to see whether we can maintain the gap or even widen it as fanciful as that appears after yesterday. Of our next 8 games all but Celtic away appear winnable on paper. This next 6-7 weeks will dictate what happens next.

Despite our recent woes I don’t think there is any need to call the Manager names. We are struggling at he is at the helm so has to shoulder the blame. But he has a valid point regarding the money he has helped to bring into the club. You cannot dwell on the negatives and ignore the good work he has done. We could have very easily been in the Championship already had he not steered us to safety in his first few months. He also deserves credit for the 2 cup finals. All that said we are apparently going backwards. Gone is the grit and determination the team had last season. Not a pretty team but effective and prepared to fight - sometimes quite literally. Made up for some limited players and of course we have no Moult or Kipre. But the limited players seem to have worsened and their attitude is questionable. What struck me yesterday was that the players just did not seem to care. I like Turnbull but even he seemed disinterested which is a worry. Whether it is solely down to the 3 weeks away from competitive football, but even then I would have hoped for a better attitude. I am not sure we could afford to pay up Robinson’s contract. We will persevere for now and he should get a LITTLE more time to turn it around. I keep saying our budget suggests we should be 9th so arguably despite some of the dross served up this season we and indeed Robinson are not theoretically underperforming in terms of league position. My concern however is that if we keep playing like yesterday it may only be a matter of time before we fall back into bottom 2-3 places. If that starts to happen the the club must act. Robinson’s saving grace is that it appears for now as if the 3 teams below us are every bit as poor.

I am at a loss to explain that debacle. I went along today like most with a sense of optimism. A win v Hamilton and what looked like a decent couple of additions. A break in the sunshine to give us a chance to get injured players back etc. We have played badly at home this season on a few occasions but that tops the lot. The players looked disinterested. The break in Tenerife obviously worked against us. It was never going to be an easy tie. They have had a couple of poor results but still sit top of the Championship. Robbo in his post match interview cited the £4m he has helped to bring into the club through transfers and the cup runs. You begin to wonder what shape we would be in financially if that had not happened. The worrying thing is we seem to be cash strapped and that is after £4m injection (albeit a fair slice of that went to Boyle and Hutchison). I am scunnered after that today. I will go along midweek v Hibs and it would be typical Motherwell to win that one. I have always stuck up for Robinson. Mainly because he kept us up and got us to 2 cup finals. Our budget suggests we should be 9th and that is where we are. But I am starting to wonder if a change is required. We are probably not in a position to get rid of him financially and I still think he should be allowed time to see how it goes in the league this year. If however we start sliding toward bottom 3 I will start to fall into the Robbo out camp.

Most of us are old enough to remember many times we have lost out to lower league opposition in cup competitions. It is not exclusive to Motherwell as the FA Cup is proving this season. Be interesting to see how St Mirren fair v Alloa and Dundee v QOS. Hoping more likely to see an upset in those ties than ours. In fact one that sticks in the memory iirc was Ayr United at Fir Park. 4-3 it finished to Ayr. Early 2000 so going back a bit but it sadly sticks in my mind.,.... As a result anyone who is probably over 40 years of age will never suggest we are likely to win any tie. Those of a younger age will not forget Albion Rovers. Still Ross C have a fair few injuries, plus red card plus Paul Paton is I believe cup tied. Their form has dipped recently but they are still top of the league immediately below us. So only 4 places below us. Probably be like playing St Mirren to an extent. If we focus and are up for the game then we ought to win through but being Motherwell never take anything for granted.

Hopefully Ross County will treat this tie like Liverpool did. Hardly likely to play a second string but maybe in the back of their minds they think getting papped out the cup let’s them concentrate on league matters and promotion back to top flight. This has / had all the hallmarks of a difficult game. But our kids team ran them close and QOS thumping them 4-0 puts it into perspective a little. Will the break count in our favour ? Looking forward to getting back at the football. If we are up for it and thoroughly professional I see us winning through to the next round. Probably come too early for Ross McCormack starting at least judging by comments in Tenerife etc.

Certainly looks like it will be an interesting transfer window. I must admit the McKinstry transfer has for me come from left field. Never even heard of this kid, which is strange given a club like Leeds are reputedly prepared to pay up to £400k to sign him if the press stories are at all accurate. Another vindication of our youth policy. All that said if it does go through you wonder what kind of player he is was and is capable of becoming. In other words will we rue this day several years down the line. Rose is off ski as is Bowman most probably. Rumours of Main interesting clubs down south and silence on Turnbull, the latter of which were rumoured to be of interest to Southampton. Then throw in Ross McCormaack which if David is to be believed is a done deal. Again nothing concrete in the media and no info coming from down under where he is apparently still on loan from Villa. Could be an interesting window for sure. Just hope we are much stronger when it comes to end of January and the cup tie v Ross County.

Yodo is the classic message board troll and why anyone rises to his bait I really don’t know. I have never seen a remotely positive post and don’t expect to see one regardless how we are doing or who is in charge. It is too much put on to be sincere or realsitic. If I could put him on ignore I would

There was also one Motherwell Calendar left in the Gyle centre in Edinburgh as of 12 noon. Plenty of Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs left........

FFS Shaka it is quite clear you do not like him but to suggest he has been abysmal is stretching it. The good news I am going to give up responding to these overtly negative posts about Robinson. There is no middle ground. He is shite - end of. No taking into account his budget, no taking into account 2 cup finals. Whether the boo boys like it or not we are still in the exact position we should be with the 4th lowest budget in the league. That fact seems to escape them. No one likes losing games and not at home, but we have had some amount of bad luck thrown in to the mix. For the avoidance of doubt I would like to see him replaced if our results continue to suffer and there is a real threat we will be relegated. But unfortunately for the nay sayers he will get the January transfer window to try and strengthen the team and nd move the squad around. He will also get a couple of months on top of that. And if we avoid relegation comfortable he will stay in his job as it should be.

This thread is full of people that are glass half empty and glass half full personalities. I suppose that is no surprise as it probably represents life in general and most fans of football clubs. So you get an overly negative post and someone from the glass half full side comes into defend Robinson and Burrows and vice versa. I am a realist. I look at the situation and think should we be in this position and where should we be based on the money and resources we have at our disposal. There is no doubt that the football being played at the moment is not pretty to watch. There is no doubt that some of the players are not playing to their abilities and some of the summer signings have not come good (yet) as the Manager would have hoped. There is no doubt that the Manager tactics are a little agricultural and some formations and substitutes have proved to be mistakes. But the reality is that we are almost exactly where we ought to be in the league based on our budget. So however you look at it he is NOT failing in that respect. To dismiss as many do the cup results is just bizarre and to any rationale person fundamentally unfair on Robinson. Only twice in our 130 yr history have we reached 2 cup finals and that is not worthy of praise or recognition. In the finals we played a team with 20+ times our budget and were not humiliated in either. We had great semi finals, again beating teams with much larger resources and playing squads. Even this season we get to a quarter final. I remember many Well teams not getting through the 1st round of cup fixtures v lesser opposition. To dismiss that imho shows that your views are glass half empty in the extreme and that quite frankly regardless how we perform you will never be happy.... Short of getting Steve Clarke I am not sure what replacing Robbo would achieve. We could have a better brand of football but lose even more games. I personally hope he can keep us clear of the 2 relegation places and maybe another run in the cup if we are lucky with the draw. If he does that he deserves to stay on as Manager. If he does not and we lose to Ross C and slide back into 11th or 12th then I am sure the club will act and I would agree with that.

Missing this due to Xmas at the in laws in Perthshire....only getting there on Boxing Day lunchtime so would not go down well if I about turned. Even with the poor fare that has been served up of late I would rather be at Fir Park. In some ways our savings grace may come in the form that Kilmarnock will be favourites and will try and play football. We have proved v Rangers and Aberdeen at home that can inspire us. St Mirren were every bit as poor as us on Saturday but we tend to lose those games. Still expect a narrow defeat because Killie have decent strikers and wingers and we really don’t. They turn up occasionally but Greg Stewart seems to turn in decent performance as does Brophy. Would love any sort of result to go into Hamilton but can see a narrow 1 goal defeat. Hope I am wrong.....

To an extent what worries me the most is that performance was more akin to Livi away than any other recent home performance. We had a lot of the ball but did the square root of bugger all. The amount of times we got in and around the edge of their box and yet again the final ball was woeful. St Mirren defended well but then we let them. There was little in the game which makes all the more infuriating . You could see why St Mirren are one of the poorer teams in the league. Even for their goal they get a break and Gillespie’s save breaks between 2 of our defenders straight to Jackson to tap into the net. On to the negatives of which there were many. The team as a whole but mainly midfield and up front. This was a crucial home game but I saw no urgency or dynamism until they scored. I expected (wrongly) that the team would be right up for this. The front 2 could have played all day. I like Johnson but that was a poor game from him. Main again missing from point blank range. But what cost the game was the substitute. And that is on the Managers door fair and square. As has been mentioned the defence did not seem to know or understand what the formation was. How can that be. And for Bigi. Nice guy as everyone has said and decent enough footballer every now and then, but has proved time and again he cannot defend and has costs us quite a few goals as a result. I almost understand why they did it. But even with hindsight it was a poor sub. After that chasing the game. Crucial 2 games coming up. 4 points is minimum and less than that and we move onto Ross County in cup. An adverse result in that and it is time up for Robbo. I don’t think we have the money to pay him off so I hope he can turn it around. If we get a decent run in the cup and avoid relegation then to be fair to him that is pretty much his remit.