Welldaft Mk1

Sammon bashing is quite a thing on here. He was signed in my opinion as a back up option and one where Hearts are paying the majority of his wages. He is no world beater for sure but he has hardly been woeful such as Petravicius or Blyth. As for being similar in stature to Main and Bowman etc. He is not a similar player. He prefers the ball to his feet. Probably means he is in the wrong team, but the truth is Rangers shat it big time last weekend in the last 15 minutes and Gerrard admitted as much. On the face of it Killie and St Johnstone have had better windows, but then St Mirren and possibly Dundee a lot worse. Jury out on Hamilton although again for their shitty level it looks like they have strengthened. I still think Johnson will prove to be the diddy signing of the window and he will prove to be as prolific as Moult was for us.

Exactly - anyone with any common sense can see Sammon is a semi decent player for what we are probably paying. 9 caps for Republic of Ireland. I am not saying he is great, but the usual pessimists on this site happy to label him a donkey and why exactly ? I would not expect any less tbh. I don’t think he has done any worse than Bowman. He came on on Saturday and was fine and will do as back up to Main, Johnson and probably even Bowman.

Just win Motherwell and we can look forward to happy and positive posts from Ya Bezzer, Milo and Yodo.

Livvy know they will be going out after playing the Cup specialists so I can understand them pushing for a higher ticket price. There - I have jinxed it for us :-)

Not sure I agree with this at all. We were so comfortable up until the goal and looked the more likely team. I am not saying I was at all happy and we flattered to deceive for the most part but Accies were 2nd best until they scored the goal. Pretty much 2/3rds of the game. As for the goal - it was a belter. Fair play to the lad but he could try that another 50 times and it will not come off. They could and should have scored a 2nd but we were chasing the game at that point. A draw and probably 0-0 would have been about right given the way the game was going but sh1t happens.

I probably fall in the latter category Dave. And despite the fact we did dominate 2/3rds if the game it is a results based business. Despite dominating the game we did not look all that threatening and that is the worry for me. We had Moult this time last year to help us amass a decent amount of points. Mains form has so far gone off a cliff and that is a worry. I was surprised to see Main and Sammon start yesterday. In my opinion not only do they look similar but so are there playing styles. So far there is little evidence to suggest it is a partnership that is going to flourish. It is maybe too early to panic but even I as a more positive thinking fan am quite worried about the season ahead. Worried that we are even this early involved in a relegation battle. I hope I am proved wrong and we can get a couple of positive results in the next two to three games.

Sadly I have now sobered up and yesterday was not a bad dream. I am undergoing a conversion from happy clapper to moaning Minnie. We were comfortable in the game yesterday, but whilst not looking threatening as such we were the better team. But as is the way a team seemingly need only 1 shot on goal to score. Either we are terribly unlucky or we are as bad as it is starting to appear. Outside the cups our league form has been poor and on the evidence of yesterday it is easy to see why. Even our form players of last season have gone into reverse. Hartley and Main in particular look shadows of the players they were. With Hartley that is costing us goals and with Main not scoring any. I admit to being flummoxed by the subs yesterday. Clearly Robbo went for broke and it backfired. Surely one of Main or Sammon had to come off for Johnson and unless he had an injury I would literally never sub Alan Campbell. I don’t know where the goals are going to come from. And that is a worry when it is clear our defence is apparently weaker than last season. We need a performance and result to galvanise and kick start our season. It has to be a win in either of the next two games. Lose the next 2 and the knives will be out more than they even are now. Even this early on I think we need to take a bit of a gamble and spend some money on a goal scorer. Maybe Lawrence Shankland at Ayr. There is absolutely no evidence that Main and Sammon are a working partnership. So far even a couple of games in it looks like it will be a long hard season ahead.

Yes but Bigi did what is the best and quite frankly worst piece of movement all game. On the goaline and misses. He is a better footballer but today proved he is not the messiah or nowhere close. That cross that went out of play when we had 6 or 7 players in the box. Just. Awful. awful. Fkin does my nut in.

That was woeful. Hamilton were rank but we still lost to them. As soon as I saw Main and Sammon star5 I thought what the fuck. Johnson deserved to start that game. We need to wake up soon or we r fucked for the season.

Maybe my response was a tad strong. Apologies. But I will not change my view that there are more moaning Minnie’s than happy clappers on this site. And it is depressing to read and futile to respond. I am a realist. We are a relatively small club with one of the lowest budgets in the league. I happen to think the Manager has done a GREAT job since he has come in. Is everything perfect - no. But then it is not at Man Utd either. I think quite a few posters on this site are quick to judge and not at all realistic in their expectations.

No offence Weeyin but open your eyes ! How can a constant stream of criticism based on signings so far and style of play not be deemed as negative. We are one game into the league season. ONE-game. Now we may have a shite season and we may be fighting a relegation battle and we may get knocked out of the cups early. And u know what if all of that happens I will be as pissed off and miserable as everyone else. But at least I will wait to see before p1ssing my pants before a ball has hardly been kicked. I think I will give this place a wide berth for a while. Depresses the fuck out of me.........

Great - that is all we need. A.N other miserable ****** on Steelmen Online

The cup finals brought a chunk of money into the club. Maybe you don’t care....... And you choose to conveniently forget the 2 cracking cup semi final wins v Rangers and Aberdeen that got us there. Sure it was disappointing on the day(s) but Celtic are streets ahead of every team in the country so hardly surprising outcomes. Anyway - I have long know that if we won the Champions League you and Ya Bezzer and co would be on the next day moaning we only scored 2 goals in the final ! Some of us can actually see positives instead of constantly focusing on the negatives like quite a few on here.

2 Cup finals for the 1st time in over 60 years and for only the 2nd time in our history. Sure - points to me questioning the effectiveness of his favoured style............ Nobody is saying it is particularly pretty to watch at times but even for you that post is a belter

We just have..... Although he looks to be earmarked for reserves initially.

Valid point about pace but Kipre main weakness was misjudging aerial balls and he was at fault last Saturday for 1st goal playing for Wigan. Aldred meanwhile may not have his pace but is better in the air. It would be great to have both but unlikely we could afford such a defender

I for one would not be unhappy with that turn of events. You can talk about where he is v Kipre but I thought he was solid as a brick wall and passionate with it. Also id true it should take him less time to settle in at the club

Well it would appear there is little else to talk about...... Looks like any further players leaving would be outside of Engurland.

I don’t disagree but 30 for a goalie is hardly over the hill. Have Chelsea not signed Rob Green at 38 ! Maybe no fee involved but shows clubs are willing to pay for experience even as back up. Carson has just become an International goalie so should put him more in the spotlight. After we rightly told Celtic to GTF in January I hope he gets a decent move which allows him to earn more money, perhaps because he was totally professional about the situation. All that said I always said I could see Carson becoming like Randolph. A v good keeper who we never receive a decent bid for. Again if he was in league one or championship he would probably be sold for several million. Seems to be the way. Time will tell but I think more than likely he will be with us after the window closes. Not a bad thing especially if we do sell Cadden. 4 saleable assets and selling 2 of them would be more than enough in this window.....

Asked the Jambos on P&B what they thought of Ross Callachan. Here is one response: Read that 1st sentence again !

It is quite a random story that like Connor Sammon I believe in the no smoke without fire theory. There must be something in it. It may be if does not get off the ground as he may get a more lucrative offer elsewhere or we are not prepared to pay a fee in line with what Hearts may be expecting. Either way if it does happen then I can see one or more of Rose, Grimshaw / Bigi moving on as we would be overloaded in midfield without a doubt. As for whether I think it would be a good move. I trust in Robinsons judgement. If he feels it will improve the team I am all for it. Campbell and Callachan in midfiled would be a strong if not particularly creative central midfield.

I agree with Robinson in that there was little in the game for the first 30 minutes. After that and up until Johnson came on Hibs were on easy street. It has been mentioned on here numerous times how narrow we were. I am no tactical expert, but to have both Hibs wingers playing in acres of space is only going to lead to one outcome. It is no exaggeration to say that when the ball went out to them they had no Motherwell player within 10 - 15 metres and had all the time in the world to either cross the ball or take on a defender. As for the Hartley free kick - like most I thought it was harsh. But seeing it again it is clear he did raise his arm and so it was the correct decision. Not happy but there are extenuating circumstances. We have players playing when not match fit and maybe even carrying an injury. We have players injured that would start. Our main midfielder suspended and the player who played most minutes for us last season sold at the very end of last week. Add that to the fact we were playing one of the top 4 away from home and the outcome was not all that surprising. It is likely we will always have one or two key players missing through injury but losing Dunne is a big blow at the very start of the season. Midfield is a curious one. It would appear that Bigi was not getting any game time as he had asked to go back south. That now seems to have changed or apparently changed. Not sure the background to all this but again he did offer more when he came on. In fairness it would not have been difficult. Not a great start and we have quite a few issues to deal with. Will wait to see how we perform v Accies and Livvy in the cup before forming a more accurate picture of how we are likely to perform this season.

It was not good today. No doubts about it. But I will agree with Robinson and say there was not much in it until they scored. And what a surprise 1st shot on target = 1 goal. 2nd shot on target = 2 goals. Just for once it would be refreshing if a team needed a few shots to score a goal. Would need to see the Hartley handball for the free kick again. Might have been harsh but so was the Johnson goal imho. Madden cannot what to blow his whistle. Wonder if either free kick would have been given at Ibrox against Rangers...... We would have struggled v Hibs with a full team inc Campbell, Dunne, Kipre and Bowman. But without them we were too weak. Main talks a good game and was very effective second half last season - but so far this he has been utter pants. Only bright spot today was Johnson. Yes Hibs has downed tools a little but he could have scored 3 or 4 goals and was unlucky not to have scored two - hitting the post and the disallowed one. He should start next week. Did more in 20 or so minutes than the 2 other strikers combined. It is going to be a tough season ahead and we will probably finish 7th at best imho -but with our budget is that really a surprise. I am worried - but I will at least wait for a few more games before I go pissing my pants like the usual suspects. But they cannot help themselves. And it is not about not being able to voice concern or be critical. I can guarantee which posters will go into full panic mode after 1 league game - no surprises.....

It is a good debate. But we suffered with lack of squad depth last December and with limited budget I can understand Robinson looking for quantity rather than one key signing. You also have the issue of wages. I would have liked O’Halloran to have joined but he was reportedly on £5000+ a week at Rangers. And who is to say that Sammon won’t be as successful as Tony Watt at St Johnstone. It has only been a few weeks but so far I think Sammon has looked a shrewd signing and probably for very little outlay.

One wonders whether we have put an offer to Cadden of an extension. Surely with a year to go we would have at least tried ? Then again we may wait until the transfer window closes and he is still a Motherwell player. There is less than a week to go before the window closes down south. At least it gives us another 3 weeks before our does. Although I assume we cannot buy players contracted in England and likewise they cannot buy contracted players up here after the 9th August ?