bobbybingo

We're on 74 mins as the average time of our goals, the latest in the league. Every other team has scored most of their goals in the second half (apart from St Johnstone, funnily enough), most of them between 50 and 65 mins. We're 7th top scorers, so it's the goals we're conceding that are killing us. 30% of all SPL goals so far have been scored in the last 15 mins. Most folk seem to see that as a positive sign, obviously you don't.

I know what you're saying. My point is, most teams, including us, can't afford to spend much of their budget on back up goalies they hope won't be needed, so you'll probably find they're not on a par with the first choice guy. A decent goalkeeper like Mark Gillespie might be content to sit on the sidelines and watch his career drift away at Newcastle, but you won't see anyone of that standard happy to get splinters in his arse at Fir Park on our wages. I said earlier, Kettlewell doesn't have many sellable assets, but Kelly's one of them. We'll see what he thinks of Oxborough if/when he's sold, which could well be in January.

My bosses don't have a back up for me. That's probably due to the fact they're not gonnae pay someone to sit on their arse doing hee haw as long as they know I'm doing my job adequately. Obviously, I'm not a professional footballer, and in that industry the bosses are obliged to employ people who may only ever be back up. I doubt they want to shell out a fortune in doing that, so there might be a big difference in quality between the first choice goalkeeper and his back up. Personally, I couldn't name you the second choice goalies at most Scottish clubs because they very rarely play, barring injuries. As long as Kettlewell thinks Kelly is the better option, he'll pick him, unless he's actually trying to lose his job.

Does he look good in training?

Kettlewell's already been talking about teams looking closely at Kelly following his cap. We've done well with loan keepers in the past, so even if he doesn't fancy Oxborough, he must be thinking hard about the money he could get for shifting Kelly in January. Not a fortune, but mibbe enough to help bring one or two better quality players in, including an actual goalscorer with 2 working legs.

If he's getting 10K a week (or anywhere near that) at Groningen, you think we should have paid him that? Where would that money come from - whatever billionaire you think would like to buy the club?

Ok, I don't think he had any intention of staying, but let's say we'd thrown money at him and he had. There's no comparison between Van Veen and what we've replaced him with, but there's no guarantee he would've had another great season. As for showing ambition, Motherwell will never be able to hang onto players who hit form like that, it's just the way things are now for most Scottish clubs. As Craigan said tonight, enjoy them while they're here.

Do you honestly think Van Veen was ever considering staying?

Horses for courses. Assuming he goes with the 4 man midfield/lone striker option - which was much more secure than the 2 striker system - it has to be Shaw or Bair. Wilkinson probably has better goal scoring instincts/ability than both put together, but he's been as slow as a week in the jail so far, and does Kettlewell trust him to do the dirty work on his own up front? We know he thinks Bair can. And of course he's one of our first choice strikers now. The others are currently either fecked, half fecked or feckin awful.

With Miller coming back in, I think Kettlewell will be reasonably happy to keep it at 0-0 till he can get Biereth on, so I won't fall off my seat if he reverts to starting with Bair.

Is McGinley injured again? I don't think he's played a minute for Thistle and he hasn't even been on the bench for the last few games.

Obika's had injuries, but he's still played 3 times the games Moult has in the last 4 years. To be fair, I wouldn't have signed Obika again, injured or fit. As for the gap between the SPL and the Championship, you might well be right about the top 4, but that still means more than half the teams he's facing are of a lower standard. I also wonder if he'd cope with Killie and Livi's pitches twice a season - they're a minefield for players who haven't had the problems he's had. I know Utd didn't play him at Falkirk earlier in the season for that reason and were reluctant to bring him on against Raith Rovers.

The pity is, we brought back Moult the first time when he clearly wasn't fit. That balls up meant the club wouldn't risk a second attempt, when everything pointed to him being very damaged goods. There's still a long season for him to get through and I really hope things keep going well for him, but there's a big difference between the teams he's facing now and the teams we play every week.

A lot of folk used to sniff around Martindale. Then he got the jail.

Very true. But the general concensus seems to be they've signed a load of shit players in the summer and there's nothing to suggest Cleland will get any more out of them. He's been a caretaker 5 times, never landed the job, and they surely won't be looking at appointing him now, after taking a chance on Steven MacLean. They've got a couple of games before us, so we'll soon see if there's a positive reaction.

Yup. If we can stop them scoring early, their defence is a collective bombscare.

Unless they find someone very quickly, it'll be Alex Cleland. He's been stepping in and out since McInnes left, so I assume he's not intetested in the job.

I don't doubt it. I find a bit of optimism, blind or otherwise, makes that more enjoyable, but to each their own 🙂

Ok. Just Hearts you like then.

Uh huh. We scored 3 yesterday, they had one attempt on target today. Till now, they've 10 goals in 9 games, same as us. As for keeping clean sheets, has that worked out better or worse for them so far?

I don't know any other Motherwell fan who wants us to draw Dundee Utd in the Scottish Cup so they can give Louis Moult a hero's welcome, and wouldn't care if he then scored the winner. That's a bit weird.

Turned out fine in the end. You seem to only factor in our deficiencies when it comes to predictions, while choosing to ignore those that riddle just about every other team in this league. Quite what you've seen from Aberdeen that convinces you they're gonnae beat us on Wednesday is beyond me, but that's your opinion, so fair enough. It's certainly not an opinion shared by many of their fans today. Mibbe yous could form a crisis support group.

The players are shit, but our clueless manager sticks with the same duds, invisible forwards can't manage a shot on target, 3 must win games in a week and we'll lose them all. Aberdeen fans sounding awfy familiar. Let's see if their team at least has the guts or desire to scrape a draw out of this

And when Rangers hammer Hearts later, they drop below us. Sorted.

We shouldn't have to throw the kitchen sink at it again come January, but the priority has to be a decent striker, because we're one injury away from being screwed again. Given Kettlewell's recent comments on Kelly's future, I wonder if he's looking to punt him in order to finance a move for an actual goalscorer.