fizoxy

Tierney pulled up after the winner on Saturday, and I'm going to guess it's not cramp. Hope he's ok. It looks like we're easing some back into the side, and we were protecting others, such as Ojala, on Saturday. We really need Ojala or Bevis back for Weds, as Carroll struggled. I'd be surprised if KVV doesn't start, unless he's another with fitness doubts.

If we had any sort of creativity or cohesion in the final third we would have comfortably won that game. Woolery was poor, and always too tentative on the ball, and Sheilds worked hard but was constantly a yard to late to get onto things. Roberts looked the most likely, but he also had a tendency to hold onto the ball too much. We had this problem with Watt in the team as well. We need to get Van Veen on the park for as many minutes as possible, bit he also needs to bring others into the game when it's the better option. For the most part the makeshift defence handled the long stuff fine, but solholm has the tendency to do weird things, he needs a solid player beside him. I had no issues with the midfield. Maguire tried to put his foot on the ball, and not resort to mindless punts, and for me was the better of the three. Tierney looked tidy for his spell, and was unlucky not to score. It was great to see Donnelly get that goal after all the time out, on his bad foot too.

Carroll has already played center half this season, whereas McGinley has never played center half for us (I don't think).

I wouldn't wish an injury on anyone, but I hope that lineup is injury related.

Going on what GA said on his interview today, he said Tierney was an attacker, albeit one that can fill multiple positions. Someone on P&B did one of those heat map things for Watt and Tierney, and they were surprisingly similar. Although, that would be from when Watt played out wide to accommodate VV.

Getting some money for him is pretty decent business. Not sure of it's good business on Utd's part though, bit time will tell on that. I'd have been fine with him playing out the season for us (we're going to have to get used to these things, players arent going to wait until they are out of contract to look for their next deal), as he's a good player, but he does come across as a bit of a dick, so I'm not going to cry about him being gone. It seems that Tierney is viewed as an attacking player, so I wouldn't be surprised if we held off on bringing in another forward. Roberts can operate in the same wide areas Watt was effective in, so maybe this is his chance.

Gogic is shite

People expect us to be shite all the time, so I'm not surprised by the stats. I think that our points and league position are a bit better than our performances have deserved, but that is exactly why sport in general is so popular, because of the level of unpredictability. The analytics can be useful for looking at past performance, and possibly catching red flags with potential injuries, etc, but there are so many factors that come into goals and assists, that predicting future results is not reliable. Stats are good in baseball because they have 162 games per team, there isn't a whole.lot of movement, and it is easier to isolate individual performances. The sheer number of games can help even out issues like shite umpires, good fielding plays, game situations, etc. But in football it is easier for a couple of weeks of bad form, luck, or bad refereeing to define a season.

It seems that GA has been preparing for life after Watt for a while, with the KVV signing, and possibly the Tierney one. This may see us keep Roberts too, since he's more suited to that wide left role. But looking at some of the subtext above, does GA have problems with him?

Does it not mean Utd paying us for the remainder of his contract? That's usually a big part of transfer fees.

I'd take mulgrew just cos he's Tony's pal. Other than that, I don't know any of their players.

Thought we were pretty comfortable the whole game and deserved the win. I thought we'd be shaky when livi scored, but we saw the game out pretty easily after that. It was nice to watch the game at the right time of day, and with family. Shite that I couldn't actually be at the game, but I would only have spent it calling Tony Watt names.

My first game since ciftci hammered Accies. Thought I might miss it cos my day 2 PCR test results were delayed, but all worked out and I got to subject the weans to a freezing Fir Park and steak pies (which they liked), and they now have the impression that Motherwell are good. Very nice of everyone to arrange the win to recognize my travel efforts. Great to see Sol back in and Donnelly get 90 mins. Cornelius had a good game on top of the goal, and McGinley is winning me over as well. St J looked like they packed it in after the 2nd. I think they'll find a way to stay up, bit they were dugmeat going forward. Who is their striker?

No one really had a bad game, but Bevis was immense. It's getting to where we'll be lucky to keep him, not something I thought I'd be saying at this point. The back four in general all had decent games, defending well and keeping it simple under pressure. We didn't give them a sniff of a dodgy penalty either.

I liked our approach, and it almost paid off with the chances we had in the first half. I thought we regrouped well when they countered, and limited them to few real chances. The free kick did look soft, and it was never a booking. Half of Van Veen's bookings have been totally needless. If we are being told to be "robust" we need to limit the bookings for stupid stuff. No one really had a bad game, and Carrol was fine as a makeshift CB. I was worried about him being his usual rash self, but he was pretty solid. Maguire worked hard and made some good interceptions, but he needs to learn not to be so wasteful on the ball. It was good to see Donnelly back, which is timely since Slattery must be due a suspension. I don't think Celtic were particularly bad, rather we did a good job of making them look that way and playing to our strengths. Hopefully we can keep those levels for the upcoming games.

We should have been 2 up before they scored, with cornelius' chance when clean through the closest. Mugabi should have attacked the cross for their goal, the build up was well worked, but the cross wasn't that good. Van Veen was his usual frustrating self, and was lucky to escape a 2nd yellow just before going off. Woolery didn't get as many chances to run at Hibs as he did against Utd, but Hibs did a decent job of nullifying him. Watt was pretty sloppy up until his goal, giving the ball away in dangerous positions a couple of times, which is uncharacteristic of him. However, despite that we created plenty of chances and it was am excellent finish for our goal. Playing a chunk of the game with four full backs was interesting, I thought Carroll did well in the circumstances, and McGinley had a solid game too. Didn't think at any point this season we'd be struggling to have two fit center backs. At least it's only Celtic next week. Overall it's a point I'd have been happy with before the game, and I think it was fair on the balance of the game. Porteous is way overrated too.

O'Donnell was unlucky with the miss, he did well to sneak in at the back, but the ball just didn't bounce. He might get his place back if Sol and Ojala are still injured on Saturday, and I see O'Connor is out too. Otherwise Mugabi should keep his place out there. It was a shame that Maguire got sent off, as he was starting to build up a run of games again, but it was a pointless challenge to get the yellow. Others have spent a lengthy period on the bench after a red, so Maguire may have to wait a while. It looks like it's going to take an injury or a suspension for Carroll to get back in, and McGinley is on 5 yellows, so that may not be far away. Woolery looks to be growing in confidence, and tonight was definitely his best game. Like others, he's not going to be on it all the time, but he has the potential to be unplayable on his day. Lamie is just plain solid now. Didn't miss a thing. Alexander has some record of improving the players he inherited. Our pitch held up well considering, but it was getting dangerous near the end, and I was more worried about a ridiculous late abandonment than Utd scoring. The Dundee match was a clever ruse to avoid winning manager of the month. Alexander is a clever guy.

Didn't see the Maguire sending off, was it a straight red?

Dundee unlocking our defence by playing the ball forward aimlessly and often was a tactical masterclass. Lamie was the least shite of the bunch, but we did conceed three easy goals, so that's not saying much. I didn't think Shields deserved to be hooked over anyone else, but the two subs looked dangerous for five mins. Out inability/refusal to make tactical changes when things clearly aren't working is why we are going to be up and down like this. It was clear 5 minutes in that we were up against it. Fair play to Slattery for playing chicken with the ref, he just kept on fouling away after that yellow. I now believe he will go the season without a red.

We clearly screwed up their game plan and hurt their feelings because we dared to try and beat them. The way they played and their reaction afterwards suggested they expected to just turn up, get the three points, and go home and celebrate moving up to second. For a team that just got promoted, and are now only 3 points above us with the same number of wins, that's a bit rich. They were whining about time wasting as soon as we scored, and once they were 2-0 down and realized they were toast, they started throwing the dummy when the real game management started. I think their league position has got to their head, which won't be a problem if they keep that attitude when playing the so called smaller teams.

Went for lamie due to the goal on top of his excellent defensive performance. Both he and Mugabi are benefitting from not being asked to do anything silly, like play passes, and the movement and workrate from the forwards helped them greatly as the ball wasn't coming right back to them. Hopefully this will allow us to get Ojala fully fit and not rush him in to get injured again.

There's a decent shout for man of the match for all the outfield players. The back four were all excellent, and handled the few times hearts broke with ease. Lamie picking Ginelly's pocket when he was clean through was something else, and he won everything in the air along with Solholm. Our second goal was similar to that at Aberdeen, with another excellent ball in from Goss to Lamie. McGinley was solid and cut out the nonsense, and matches Slattery in being snide as fuck. We need to find ways to accommodate Bevis in every game, he is box office value. The key to the press working was the front three, especially shields and Woolery, who both had their best games for us. Shields is rapid and ran himself into the ground. We suddenly have a great set of options across the front three. Also, that's two games without short corners, nice.

Hopefully if she goes, it's in the next couple of weeks or she holds off until January. I'm going to be back for some games in December, and I'm still pissed about the Killie game getting called off the day Diana died. I'd already turned up for the supporters bus as well. Alexander tends to stick with a winning team, but I'd be surprised if Slattery wasn't back in. That midfield against Hearts would be a disaster. Roberts will also drop out, so I assume Woolery will be back in to body a guy, run past another guy, then take the rest of the game off.

It looked like the groin strain by the way he walked off. Hopefully the international break gives him time to recover.

Lamie was brilliant when he came on, threw himself at everything. I've moved on from thinking he's a bombscare, he's a solid center back. I thought McGinley was fine too, he got overrun when they switched to a back 4, but bringing on Carroll nullified that. Once mugabi realizes he can just run through people up the right wing he's going to be a fun right back to watch. Solholm was really shaky in the first half, and almost cost us a couple of times. He was better in the second half, and Ojala was solid until he had to go off The midfield was awful. One day I'll understand the tactics around it. The win column suggests it works, bit it is not fun at all to watch. Slattery willost likely be back for the next game. Those finishes from VV were excellent, and Goss played his part in both goals. If we can get decent deliveries into the box Watt and VV will score plenty. Kelly is the man.