fat_tony

Just caught the highlights on there. McNamara was on the radio moaning that United didn't get anything from the officials all night and that Connolly was a mile onside when he hit the post. Not sure what replays he was watching, as that clearly shows Connolly's head and shoulders being just offside as he starts his run - really good decision. Ainsworth was a mile on though. That boy Futon or whatever was an absolute diddy. The Polish Gary Kenneth.

Delighted with that. Not the best performance and we definitely rode our luck at times, but there was some excellent play in there. While United can complain they may have been 2 or 3 up on another day, we could quite easily have been the same. I'd say that performances aside, the big thing we've missed from last season, has simply been that bit of luck and belief. Players slipping over, mis-kicking, poor decision making (players and officials)...we've had plenty go against us, and tonight it went for us. Ojamaa was outstanding and unlucky not to get a goal, Ainsworth and he linked up extremely well at points. Vigurs again showed glimpses of his real ability, although is still incredibly frustrating. Amazing that seconds after punting an easy pass out of the park, he skins two United players with a Zidane-esque turn, runs infield and skins another two. Good, calm finish for the goal though - and you could feel the whole stadium lift when it went in. Special mention to Reid and (in the second half at least) Lasley, whose work rate and sheer determination today were outstanding. Some great stops from McManus, Kerr and Twardzik as well. Stuart McCall must be asking himself where that came from though, as that level of application has been sadly lacking all season.

I think we beat them 2-1 at Fir Park the week after the cup replay?

Kenny Black is taking over as caretaker.

Full article from the site, in case people haven't been able to get in to it:

I think the suggestion was someone "like" Craig Brown, meaning a short term, experienced appointment like Brown was when Gannon was given the boot. Someone to steady the ship. Black is stepping in as caretaker while we find someone else.

How many crucial goals is that we've lost this season through players slipping and gifting it to the opposition? Sure, it's attitude, and tactics, and application, but right now I'd settle for just a little luck. Really got the fear about next Friday now.

Not many options on the bench, but good to see Ainsworth playing. Now we just need him (and the rest) to put in a performance today. There's not going to be much protection for the defence though, with ZFA at left mid, Ainsworth at right, and Vigurs in the middle.

Mike Ashley looking to add another club to his portfolio?

From the Dundee game, I thought Ojamaa was trying to do the same thing. The issue was that any time he did get in position there was nobody within a country mile of him to offer support. Several other players had the same problem at times as well. I agree though, Clarkson did look impressive, but there's no way to tell if he would have doing anywhere near as well in a thoroughly disjointed Motherwell team.

Exactly. And just because Clarky is banging them in for Dundee, it does not mean that he'd be doing the same for us. He'd be going off exactly the same level of service that Sutton and Ojamaa are receiving.

Yep, this one has all the hallmarks of a "must-win" about it. On the positive side, St Johnstone have been almost as bad as us so far this season. On the negative, I'd not be surprised in the slightest if Faddy took us to pieces. Which I think would be even more gutting than losing itself. I don't know how McCall will do it, but we need to take the points on Friday.

We hired a new physio in the summer whose profile appeared on the website. She's a blonde. Strangely enough, it seemed to coincide with all of our players getting injured...

Can't see past Ojamaa. Did just about everything he could to try and get us something today, with little support at times, and ran himself into the ground. Getting back to the form he showed before he left, now we just need some of the others to pick up, too.

Yep, I agree with you totten. I did notice that McCall's apparently had the players in all week with no day off. Good to see we're focussing on getting the heads down and working on improving. Hopefully that translates to the pitch tomorrow.

Fair enough - I wasn't the game so can only comment from the highlights, which made it look like Kerr was posted missing and Vigurs forced to track the guy from the half way line. Regardless, as seen at the third goal, this is exactly the type of situation that seems to happen all the time at the moment. One player gets caught out and nobody covers them. Totally agree with you, YB regarding the system. If we want to play all our best players, and use their strengths while shoring up their weaknesses, we have to use a different system.

Ideally, yes. But when we've been unable to field a consistent first 11 due to injuries, and the majority of our players are under-performing, it makes this impossible.

Was it the first goal that people are saying Vigurs didn't bother tracking back? Just seen the highlights and it clearly shows him sticking with the man all the way, despite being obviously well beaten for pace. No sign of anyone else near him. Apologies if I've got the wrong incident! Great strike from Ainsworth and maybe it's time he was given another chance in the starting line-up. Despite his habit of hiding at times, he's one of the only players capable of a moment of magic from time to time. Very disappointing goals to lose though. From the lack of cover at the first, to letting the Partick player run straight down the middle of the pitch unmarked at the third, we really need to sort out the mistakes before it's too late. To those suggesting that Carswell's not good enough - remember that despite the amount of time he's been in the first team, he's still only 21 and not yet the finished article. I definitely think he's shown the makings of a decent SPL-level midfield at worst, but his game is still developing.

Rambunctious, that post is far too sensible. I agree with the majority of your summary though. Central midfield's the one area we should be strongest, but with the way we're set up we're almost always overrun when we don't have the ball, and bypass it when we do. Switching to a 3 or 5 midfield would allow us to play with the likes of Lawson in front of the defence, where I think he'd be able to contribute best, and play two from Leitch/Lasley/Vigurs/Carswell to provide offensive support. However, as others have pointed out, moving to 3/5 in the middle, makes us weaker in other areas, as Sutton is not a lone striker and would likely struggle in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 setup, and our full-backs don't really offer enough in an attacking sense to get away with 5-3-2. Still though, if the majority of the team are set up in their strongest positions, surely that's better than hampering the majority, as we seem to be with the 4-4-2.

Personally, I blame Macron.

Criticising a goalie for not saving penalties is like criticising a player for not being able to run faster than they can. Anything a goalkeeper can get you at a penalty is a bonus, the odds are massively stacked against them, and if a taken penalty is of sufficient quality, no keeper in the world will get near it. It strikes me, that the points we have gained this season, have been the only matches (in the league) in which we've taken the lead. In previous seasons, I've always been quite confident that we could turn things around when we've fallen behind, and in some cases it's tended to kick start us into a higher tempo. Maybe it's down to a sense of belief in the team. This season however, when we concede, the heads seem to go down and that's that. Confidence is fragile, and I suspect we're going to have to start getting on the score sheet first to stand any chance, at least until we get some belief back.

Depends on the Higginbotham you mean. He certainly didn't show enough when he was with us to have our fans clamouring to bring him back instead of Faddy (wonder goal against Hibs aside). He only really seemed to kick on after joining Partick and having a point to prove. Still, hindsight's great isn't it? I still think Vigurs is a quality player, more so than he's demonstrated so far, but much like Faddy last season, we don't utilise a system where we can play to his strengths. He's definitely a bit of a luxury player, and you can't always get away with using that type of player in the midfield of a 4-4-2. McCall seems to be most guilty of the old managerial crime of picking a system and fitting his players to it, rather than choosing a system to suit the personnel.

I think it's generally underestimated the amount of freedom that Faddy's presence alone gave the rest of the team at times last season. Like Humphrey before him, teams knew he could hurt them if left to his own devices, even on an off day, so tended to focus on him. We simply don't have anyone at the moment that scares other teams. Ojamaa could certainly fit that bill, but not until he's fully fit and playing like he did during his last spell.

To be fair on Twardzik, he hasn't been the issue in any of the games I've seen this season, and has actually kept us in them at times.

I'm probably one of the happiest of clappers, but I'm getting really concerned now about the fact that we don't even seem to be showing any signs of improvement. At least if we were looking like we were getting somewhere there would be cause for optimism, but we seem to be totally devoid of ideas. I still don't think it's "McCall out" time, but we need to do something: a change of system, training harder, something, because the same old isn't working any more. St Johnstone, Partick, St Mirren and Dundee are still all within three points of us, so a couple of results could see us shoot up the league, but with Dundee, Aberdeen and St Johnstone coming up before the end of the month, on current form, it's hard to see us picking up points against any of them. We really need someone on the park to step up and lead.