Welldaft Mk1

To be fair I thought Cadden had a decent 1st half on Saturday. Agree in general his performances have been below expectations. Only one game but like Campbell before him Turnbull showed he has what it takes to play in the 1st team. Be interesting to see what he does with McHugh available next game. I have seen many comments and spoken to fans who attend reserve games and there is a growing consensus to give Adam Livingston a chance. We shall see.....

Actually thought like the Hamilton game we were better team for first hour. Not saying much as ST J were quite poor. But our failure to score from any chances means we are always likely to live to regret it at some point. Robinson admits the subs did not work out but, in his defence Frear and Johnson were put on to try and win the game. It backfired but showed some ambition. Not sticking up for Robinson but what can he do when neither Main nor Cadden can hit the target when clear and in the box. For all that St Johnstone stepped it up a notch last 20 minutes and we were poor. I think we deserved a draw but when you give opponents corner after corner something is likely to give. Robinson will be given at least the next 2 games but anything less than 4 points should leave his position untenable. We have broadly the same players who got us to 2 cup finals and some decent youngsters so would like to think we have enough to stay up. But maybe needs a fresh perspective to deliver a change in fortunes.

I agree it is about the here and now and more so the future or how it is shaping up. But it was not that long ago we had great days in the cup quarter and semi finals. This is probably what has given Robbo some scope and even with his biggest critics some time. But I am also looking to see what and how we address this slump. Make no mistake the next 3 games are VITAL. Failure to take 6 or 7 points will mean we will likely be in the bottom 2 in the very near future given the schedule we have afterwards. So come tomorrow if we see a performance and tactics similar to Livi at home then I will join the growing clamour for a change. You could almost accept trying something different for it not to work than the status quo.

Maybe a tad early but the Perth saints have hardly set the heather on fire so far this season either. In fact were we to win we would jump ahead of them on goal difference. Currently they are getting a bit of a thumping off Celtic and some good news (for us) is that Swanson was red carded. I assume that means he misses our game ? If so good as he always seems to play well against us. I think we are all in agreement this season will be a struggle but this is a huge game. Even playing Livi with their current form and results meant we were slight underdogs yesterday as unpalatable as that may be. St Johnstone are struggling like we are, but if they come to Fir park and play well and get 3 points - does not bear thinking about. If we win it may help start to turn the tide a little. For sure we will need to up our game considerable from yesterday. Are we capable of that. I think we are. Hopefully the international break will see Dunne back on the bench at least and our better players getting their mojo back.

Our place in the food chain is pretty much always where it has been. We are the most successful provincial club. We have not got the resources of the City clubs. We have actually won 500 more points than Kilmarnock in the top leagues. That is quite a fact. So realistically if we play to our position then we should always be in with a shout of top 6, but realistically no higher. Of course the seasons where we have finished top 4 we have overachieved and the seasons where we are in a relegation battle we have underachieved. But law of averages suggests that will happen from time to time for various reasons such as bad Manager, poor recruitment or vice versa.

I tend to err on the positive side too. One thing is for sure Robbo is not getting sacked anytime soon. Not unless we are starting to get cut adrift. And with Hamilton, St Mirren and Dundee the chances are as shite as we are or have been of late those 3 clubs may save his bacon. But one thing we agree on and even I do is that the standard of football we are playing is just awful. We seem to have regressed big time. We were never particularly pretty to watch, but we seemed to have an energy and a cohesive strategy which brought some great results especially in the cup. I don’t want like picking on any player in particular but as soon as I saw Donnelly in starting line up......he may well come good and yes he is a regular U21 N Ireland player but so far he has been very very poor and the signs are not promising. The players brought in perhaps minus Gillespie and Danny Johnson don’t look to have added anything in the way of depth and strength. And the expected star performers are just not at it. Cambell and Cadden don’t look like the players from last season. Sadly they get no break and must be knackered. The defence did quite well today in the face of a constant bombardment of long throws and punts forward. They are due credit for that. For all livi are getting plaudits they were almost as bad as we were. McHugh - just wow. I think (Hearts back pass apart) he has been solid in defence. So we put him in midfield and how did that turn out !!! It was almost like he had a bet on his sending off. I really don’t know where we go from here. The constant passing and punts up the field to no-one were a particular highlight. Thank Christ the break is here. We have St Johnstone up next. Who have always proved easy opponents for us !

I am clinging to the hope that we actually played quite well v Rangers at home. Mind we did not beat them (still 10 mins to go). They fight tooth and nail and are v strong defensively. I can see this being just as tough as games v Hearts and Killie. If they go ahead it could be a LONG match.

I kind of agree with both of the posts above. We have had misfortune with injuries at the start of this season. Dunne was a huge blow. Most would agree even with Kipre that he was our best defender for much of last season. One with strength and pace. I wonder if Killie score their 2nd goal had he been playing. ATS is just not as strong or robust. I was not there yesterday but was at Tynecastle midweek. Despite not playing that well in many games we have not been soundly beaten apart from yesterday and opening day v Hibs. Midweek Hearts were way ahead of us but that is no surprise given their start to the season. We showed what we are capable of v Rangers at home and why I think we can get our season back on track. At least to the extent we won’t finish bottom 2 but sadly not much higher. I do agree with Ya Bezzer regarding recruitment. I think is has turned out to be poor this summer. Pretty much every player we source will be a gamble given the wages we have to work with. I believe however our player budget is as high as it has been since Flow was at the club. Times where we finished 2nd twice and 3rd. So I would rather have seen less players and more quality. All that said each player we have signed you can almost understand why. Donnelly for example - recently broke record for N Ireland under 21 caps. Danny - scoring goals for fun in Conference which is where we got Moult from. ATS - I thought he was a great player when he was last in Scotland. Sammon - 9 full caps for Republic of Ireland and scored 10 goals for a relegated team last season. I hope Robbo can turn it around. I like the guy. Feel he talks sense in his pre and post match interviews. He seems to be a decent man Manager but suffers no fools either. Not sure what more we can expect at Motherwell. All that said if we continue on this path and lose next 3 to 4 games the pressure will mount. We cannot as a fan owned club be relegated. It would be a disaster and changes would need to be made.

To be fair we had 1200 + at Tynecastle midweek. I guess if you were to cherrypick one away game then no surprise it was midweek for a quarter final. I definitely would not criticise fans for being selective when it comes to away games. The price of a ticket + travel money + food / drink adds up to a reasonable sum. We actually have quite a big squad this year. I suspect we had hoped that Carson and Bigi would be off the books and have now effectively got 2 first team keepers. Carson forms has dipped this season also. To be fair he was fantastic last season and that still did not earn him a deserved move. Players arguing with each other is not a positive sign, but can be understood if you are a player busting a gut and someone else gives the ball away needlessly or does not bother to defend / track runners etc. The sooner Hartley, Rose and Dunne are back the better. Maybe clear the air talks are required to help kick start our season. All the players have talked in the last what a great tight knit dressing room we have but something appears not to be right at the moment.

Funny thing is Yodo I genuinely believe even if we were doing well you would be on here spouting all sorts of negative pish. Just seems to be the kind of guy you are judging by your posts.

You have answered your own question pal. If I was judged on my job or in my job I would want that to include times when I was doing OK. Starting off when things turned shite is not a fair assessment. That is fact. We are not playing well and he deserves the criticism coming his way. I have no problem with that. It is clear the players brought in have addedvery little. But we are playing the form team of 2018. A team that beat Celtic last week and on a shite plastic pitch. I will join others calling for his head if we lose the next 3 to 4 games.

To be fair getting Clarke was a master stroke. Before that Killie were rank rotten and survived via playoffs. So let us not kid on that Killie have been far ahead for anything apart for the last season and this. If the SFA were at all competent Clarke would be in charge of Scotland by now. As for the games v losses ratio. Where is the 35 games coming from. How about quoting from when his tenure started and stop cherry picking for effect. I am not for a minute sticking up for Robinson. We are on a rotten run and have found an art of how to lose games. As for Bigi. A decent player yes - but when u need a player to get stuck in he just does not have it. He is a luxury we cannot afford imho. Everyone can lose their sh1t of this forum but the Board will back Robbo until we are being cut adrift at the bottom. And so they should. Let’s wait until we have a full 1st run of fixtures and then we will know whether a relation battle is on the cards.

I keep making excuses but am starting to run out of them. Every week now we are giving away soft goals. Midweek Hearts deserved the win, but the momentum shift from Bigi’s brain fart played its part. Would it surprise me to find out yet again that our defending has been somewhat suspect ! Missing Kipre and Dunne big time and ATS and Donnelly are so far turning out to be average additions to the squad / team. The truth is we will finish anywhere between 12th and 8th. We will be nowhere near top 6. Yes we have played 5 top 6 teams in first 7 fixtures but right now I am not confident we will fare much better v St Mirren and Livingston etc.

With Dundee winning ! You just knew missing a penalty would prove to be costly. For once we get / got a break. We are becoming specialists in finding ways to lose games. A long way to go but to be leading and go in at HT behind is quite frankly poor.

You cannot assess a season without including cup games. Not in my opinion anyway. Motherwell fans have always liked cup games and our crowds are demonstrably bigger as last night proved. 1200+ for midweek game away to side top of the league. I think it is disingenuous to dismiss cup games when reviewing Robinson’s tenure. Inc last night I read we have only lost something like 3 cup games in nearly 20 games. Granted it includes league cup group stages, but even taking knock out games into account you could probably go back 5+ seasons to match last season and this. For all that I agree our league form has been poor. But again our budget is probably above only Hamilton and the 2 promoted teams. As to the players we have signed. Maybe our wage budget dictates we sign Danny Johnson (not a slight on him) rather than say Naismith, Greg Stewart and even Tony Watt. So unproven or journeyman players rather than proven players. Robinson is certainly not immune to criticism and I do feel we have been quite poor of late. We cannot seem to avoid conceding goals and usually self inflicted as farcical as Bigi last night. No excuse for that balls up. I still think we will not be in the relegation mix but nor will we be near top 6. So if finishing in the league in a position around where your budget sits is a sackable offence then we would be sacking Managers every season. Robbo will leave at some point and probably because we are in the mire, but I am hoping it is not for a while and not this season at least. The Board will rightly back him for the foreseeable future. Look at McCann still in a job after losing 6 straight games and not getting out the league cup group stage. I still rate him as a very good Manager given the resources he has to work with.

Good number. Should be decent atmosphere. Looking forward to it. Hope we are not talking about another ref decision or unlucky break. If Hearts win and comfortably I can take that more that a 1-0 defeat where we were on the wrong end (yet again) of a sh1t decision.

As to Ya Bezzer post. Those stats are not great for the league form. No getting away from it.... But yet again he fails to (as if on purpose) take into account cup games. Yes the league is our bread and butter (bloody awful saying) but you cannot judge a Manager on league games alone. Cup games bring in much needed revenue and give us fans a high and to be fair we Well fans have always put a lot of stock in cup games.....well apart from Ya Bezzer. Do us a favour YB redo the stats above for the 3 managers and include cup games and let’s see what that looks like for Robinson. Go on - you know you don’t want too. Our recruitment on our budget has been bloody decent and yielded 3 season in a row with £1m+ in transfer income. Of course mistakes will be made. But I think it is harsh in the extreme to complain about recruitment since Robbo became our Manager. We have more than held our own v Hearts and Aberdeen and a little bit of luck could have seen different results. I accept we have a struggle on our hands at the moment and we are creating very little with little or no final result. This keeps up and it will become a bigger concern. In the past however we have managed to get back on track. Hopefully we will do so again.

According to BBC we had 55% possession away at Pittodrie. Like Hearts game we seemed to hold our own but we seem powder puff up front. It is telling that when we have scored 1st we have not lost and when we have conceded 1st we have lost every game ! In essence we need to score 1st to give us a chance of getting anything......

The sad facts of life are that the Motherwell squad is likely to be poorer than every team in the top flight bar maybe Hamilton, St Mirren, Dundee, Livingston and possibly St Johnstone. Every other team has a bigger budget and some many multiples of a bigger budget. Dont want us to lose to anyone but losing away to Aberdeen were it to happen would hardly be a big surprise but.....Q the we are pish, the squad is pish, the Manager is pish. There is NO perspective taken in a lot of these posts which is hardly a surprise. If we can manage a battle for top 6 or even avoid relegation places (comfortably) and one or even two cup runs and surprise results will do for me. The problem this season is we seem unable to create or score so when we go one behind regardless the opposition - we struggle to get something form the game. Hope I am proved wrong today.........

Agree with most. His mistake was a bad one and will be rightly highlighted, but before and after he was our best player. As others have said you can pick up a few others as being as culpable from their general performance which was well below their capabilities.

I pretty much agree with this. Suprised at Dave comments. I thought we dealt as well as could be as expected with one of the few teams in the league that are every bit as physical as us if not more so. We also saw how well Hearts can defend. No coincidence they have conceded fewest goals so far. We can criticise team for lack of creativity but Hearts had 10 men behind the ball for last 30 minutes and dealt with some very decent crosses with aplomb. I am more concerned about Cadden performance. I am a HUGE fan but he is struggling big time for form this season. I doubt he will be dropped but right now I would be tempted to fit Turnbull into midfield for a couple of games at least. The cup game will be tougher but again after yesterday if we can carry a little more luck then we are more than capable of getting a positive result.

I am perplexed why people continue to respond to Yodo’s posts. I have never read so much shite from one poster. It is quite an achievement to spout absolute crap week in week out. I think he is an imposter and I would Q whether he or she is even a Motherwell fan. As to the game. Sore one. A draw would have been about right. McHugh has actually been a positive in defence this season but that was one almighty fuck up. As much as the goal was a kick in tha has maws I sincerely hope Carson is not as badly injured or it will be a double whammy. For all that i agree with quite a few points. One is that we looked as if we could have played for weeks and not scored. There are just no goals from midfield and that is a huge concern, Cadden again flattered to deceive. He has been one of our poorer performers this season. It frustrates the sh1t out of me when there is a shooting opportunity and the player opts to pass. Campbell was also guilty of that on a number of occasions, Hearts were not up to much but I think they did not play well themselves. Their defence was solid as a rock and we had no creativity to break them down in the 2nd half. Sadly I think that is a game that both Killie and St Johnstone would have taken something from had they been the home team. So right now it looks as if we are playing to avoid bottom 2 spots. Disappointing but budget wise perhaps no surprise. I hope we go at them in the cup tie. I will probably regret this but today’s game made me think there is actually little between the teams. Yes Hearts have a bigger and better squad but for the most part we more than held our own.

He is still relatively young and will and has made mistakes. He has some experienced businessmen in the background that will help him when it comes to matters commercial. It is hard to argue with the job he is doing. His absolute love for club comes across when he talks about the improvements around Fir Park. We can all see it and yes it is cosmetic to an extent, but I get the feeling it is almost akin to him talking about home improvements and in a way it is. There has been a noticeable improvement in almost all areas. I still think it would be good to have targets and KPI’s around response times etc. The biggest bugbear over past several years is not getting responses or getting very delayed responses to enquiries even those that are about putting revenue into the club, ticketing and hospitality etc. I hope he and the club continue on this upward path.

Now I would not dare to suggest that the law of averages suggests in this country that one of the three may have leanings toward a particular club. Of course we know they would be totally impartial as they are complete professionals...... The problem will arise (and it will) when a Well / Killie / St Mirren / Livingston / Hamilton * player brushes against a player and gets a 3 year sentence or a 2 to 3 game ban. Of course the Record and Sun will focus on that for 2minutes and it may merit a paragraph. * delete as appropriate

Tbh I know not the details of his wages but it has been widely reported that we are paying a % of his wages and not all. That would make sense as I doubt we could match what he was on at Hearts even if it is an extra £500-£1000 per week. As for why he was signed. He is quite clearly a big unit and we know that our Manager likes that is a player ! That plus he has 9 international caps and scored 10 goals last season for a team that were relegated. All said and done not a huge gamble and will ably fill in when asked to do a job.