fizoxy

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.

Tempted to go with Van Veen for the obvious reason, two sublime finishes out of nowhere, but we don't get anything out of that game without Kelly. That fingertip save near the end was something else.

Tough going. I don't think it's fair that were this bad when I'm already feeling shite. The universe shouldn't work that way.

He will inspire them to glory with his stories of playing for rangers.

Hopefully our media team have a Halloween party to go to, radio silence would be best I think. We are totally one dimensional tactically, and our inability to adjust to situations in the game is going to kill us. We have enough in the squad to eke out points here and there, but I feel we should be doing a whole lot better with who we have. O'Donnell deciding he didn't want to play the last 20 minutes hung us out to dry, and Rangers took the opportunity to boost their goal difference, when other teams may have coasted We panicked on the ball the rare times we had it, and we looked like we were more concerned with standing in nice neat lines as opposed to doing anything useful. O'Hara made a forward pass, so he beat grimshaw there, but he also just stood and watched folk run by him multiple times. Goss and Slattery were wasteful when they had the ball, and our full backs were left horribly exposed. The system only works if they are an attacking threat. Overall, you don't expect much against rangers, but to throw away a lead like that then completely chuck it at the end is piss poor.

I don't like VAR at all, but I know it is inevitable that we're going to end up with it. What is also inevitable is that Scottish Football will find a way to make an absolute shit show of it, since the officials managing VAR are the same ones who are hopeless on the pitch. I also agree with the above, this will lead to even more decisions going the way of the Glasgow two. I like the way it's implemented in cricket, and baseball to a lesser extent, where challenges can be made, and you lose your challenge if you're wrong, but is suits those games because they have frequent breaks in play anyway.

Terrible refereeing, are they held to account at all? VAR can still fuck off though. The result was probably fair, on the balance of play, but it's not up to the officials to even these things out.

Was he threatened with a contract extension?