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Motherwell Vs Dunfermline Matchday Thread


David
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Belter of a game, and the most enjoyable one at Fir Park this season, despite the ref being an idiot!

 

Didn't see what happened to Craigan, and haven't saw highlights yet so cant really comment on the red, but the fact the ref seemed intent on dishing out yellows to every Motherwell challenge but allow Dunfermline to get away unpunished only served to rile up the fans and unite the team.

 

Well done to every player in claret and amber lastnight, great performance. Big Higgy was clearly much better playing with a partner, and wee Ojama, was quality buzzing around and fighting for every ball. Great finish for his goal too. If he's only on peanuts, then reward the boy right now. Dig into the pockets and get some sort of deal around his neck or else he will be out the door in June as other clubs will only need to offer him a half decent wedge.

 

When did Nicky Law learn to shoot? Great goal.

 

Finally, great performance by the boys doing the singing. Had the place bouncing along all night. More of the same on Saturday please!

 

Mon the 'well and lets all do the higgy!

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Absolutely delighted with the guts, character, determination and never-say-die attitude of the team last night. Playing with ten men for 73 minutes was a big ask, but everyone raised their game and their workrate and we got a deserved 3 points.

 

Thought the support was great too, right behind the whole team from the off.

 

Alan Muir was a disgrace, the disallowed goal was onside and showed up the linesman for making a decision without thinking and/or knowing the rules. The sending off I'm not 100% about, but Crags seems to have reacted to something and confronted Barrowman.

 

Overall, chuffed to bits! Back to 3rd where we belong!!!

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From watching the highlights back, Ojamaa was definitely onside and Higdon pulled up the second the ball was played, taking himself out of the game. Poor decision to give the offside there. Still none the wiser about the red card. You can see Craigan going for a word with Barrowman but then the camera moves away. Craggs' reaction to the red isn't one of a player who's just stuck the head in someone though, he seems genuinely surprised by the decision.

 

Don't know if there'll be enough evidence to appeal but hopefully the club will explore every option if it's felt to be incorrect. In saying that, I'm more confident that we can cope given Clancy and Hutch's performances last night.

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We can cope without him but it's the principle. Neither of them deserved a red for what went on, both put their heads together, neither headbutted the other. Kind of convenient the cameras didn't pick it up eh? Especially considering how they've been picking every minor instance up lately. Time to knock this trial by tv on the head when they clearly miss out on a major game changing incident like this yet players are being pulled for the slightest little thing and banned for them.Even if it did change the game in our favour, thanks Ref :thumbup: GIRUY ya fud btw.

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Don't know if there'll be enough evidence to appeal but hopefully the club will explore every option if it's felt to be incorrect. In saying that, I'm more confident that we can cope given Clancy and Hutch's performances last night.

From McCall's comments on the radio last night, albeit supposedly before having seen the TV footage or spoken to Craggs about it, he didn't sound too desperate to appeal, so I suspect he probably saw it happen and thinks there's no point.

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Craggs went in with the nut. Was a bit of handbags, but the ref is using the letter of the law.

 

Two good results on the bounce and a welcome 4 points.

 

A win against St Johnstone would be a massive result and I think would cement our top six place.

 

It will be a very hard game though.

 

Thought the starting line up last night was perfect and suits our style of play perfectly. Hopefully we can use that same formation against the Saints.

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Best home performance of the season which could turn out to be a very important 3 points in the race for Europe.

 

The Alba pictures for the sending off look inconcluive but Craigan should never be getting involved there with the experience he has. Clancy looks far better in the centre of defence than at right back and thought he had a really good game when he came on as did the rest of the team. Ojamma gives us a spark that we've been missing recently bringing a lot more energy and hunger to the park. Good work for the goal albeit with a little help from the pitch to go over Turner.

 

We always looked in control of the game even with ten men with Randolph never really being tested in the second half. Thought Lasley gave away a lot of possession but he made up for it with his work rate. Hopefully we can take a bit of momentum into Saturday now and go 6 ahead of St Johnstone. Mon the Well!!

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Last night perhaps was one of the most satisfying results of the campaign for me.

 

Ok you can point to the fact Dunfermline are bottom of the league and have been for much of the season but I don't think you can understate the result, performance and character shown.

 

I thought we'd startly brightly as it was but to go on and win as we did with 10 men for over 70 minutes was just tremendous. And we did it intelligently by playing good football, scoring a couple of cracking goals and in the face of refeering that made you feel it was 12 against 10 never mind 11 against 10.

 

I didn't see the Craigan incident last night, other than him being caught in the face, so I don't know what's gone on there. Tweets last night seemed to suggest a headbutt, which appears unlike him. He's been known to do a bit of ranting and raving over the years if things haven't gone his way but not his style to react in that manner.

 

But so much credit to the team for the way they about it after that. I just hope they aren't running on empty given the effort that was put in, and that we don't have half a team sitting in the stand suspended when Saturday rolls around.

 

I'm assuming we did get some credit and the importance of the win for us was highlighted on the radio post match as by the time we got back to the car it was all talk about Dunfermline's missed opportunity with talk of penalty claims and missed chances that could have turned the game their way and how the biggest winners of the night were Hibs. What??!?!?!

 

Anywyay a great three points won in some style by 'Well.

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I'm assuming we did get some credit and the importance of the win for us was highlighted on the radio post match as by the time we got back to the car it was all talk about Dunfermline's missed opportunity with talk of penalty claims and missed chances that could have turned the game their way and how the biggest winners of the night were Hibs. What??!?!?!

 

Anywyay a great three points won in some style by 'Well.

 

Yeah, we did get plenty of credit. They were all creaming over Ojamaa on the radio when I made it back to the car, saying how they wished he was Scottish blink.gif. Gave us a lot of credit for the win. By the time they moved on to Dunfermline they took it from the "missed opportunity" angle, which to be fair, it was for Dunfermline. Any team would look at a result like that, playing against 10 men for 70 minutes as a missed opportunity.

 

Completely agree, Craigan should know better than to get involved and if he did nut the boy he'll just have to do the time. Like I said, just found it surprising as he's not one to get violent usually, a couple of verbals usually does the job.

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Does anyone else think that it would be a better partnership upfront if we'd play Murphy and Ojaama upfront?

If Ojamma gets someone who can actually play football and run, it would benefit the whole team.

 

seinfield.gif

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Ojamma and Higdon up front works well enough.....why tinker with that to put Murphy in, as he looked a bit clueless last night again ??

 

keep Murphy on the bench, and use him as an impact sub like they did with Humphrey last night.....fresh legs with a bit of pace coming on at 70 mins :thumbup:

 

anyway more of the same on saturday please.

 

is it worth asking the SFA or the Compliance Officer if we can play with 10 men every game ??

 

:whistling:

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From McCall's comments on the radio last night, albeit supposedly before having seen the TV footage or spoken to Craggs about it, he didn't sound too desperate to appeal, so I suspect he probably saw it happen and thinks there's no point.

 

I thought it was telling that McCall's reaction at half time was to go and speak to the Main Stand linesman re the offside rather than wait for the ref.

 

Loved that Higdon appeared to be saying to the ref something along the lines of "they hate you more than they hate me" as they went off at half time together .

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Ojamma and Higdon up front works well enough.....why tinker with that to put Murphy in, as he looked a bit clueless last night again ??

 

keep Murphy on the bench, and use him as an impact sub like they did with Humphrey last night.....fresh legs with a bit of pace coming on at 70 mins :thumbup:

 

 

We don't need to tinker with it to put Murphy in. We will be allowed to start with 11 men on Saturday! ;)

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One of the best all round team performances I've seen from us in a long time - the Craigan sending off seemed to galvanise us. Hope this kick-starts us again.

 

The referee (again and I know he's an easy target) but he was very poor and his competence to be officiating at Grade 1 level must be questioned. Overall his decision making and handling was bad and in the worst of these he booked 3 Motherwell players needlessly in my view; allowed his main stand linesman to incorrectly rule Ojaama offside when he scored; and missed a blatant penalty for Dunfermline when Hutchison shoved one of their forwards to the ground in the penalty area. The accusation levellled against referees by fans week in, week out, is that the majority of them are simply not competent and when some of their major decisions get reviewed, they apologise for making an error (e.g. the ICT sending off against Celtic earlier in the season) but no action is taken.

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Which is where the Compliance Officer idea falls down- they publically issue a "notice of complaint" to a player from something picked up on TV footage, but when blatant referee errors are made, they may get a slap on the wrist but no action taken and no publicity of said situation, if they are intent on keeping with the compliance officer idea, they should also issue these notices of complaint to the ref and offer them a 1 week suspension from officiating in a professional game.

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Didn't go to the game last night but managed to watch it on bbc alba, was very impressed by the fight and effort from the team and we thoroughly deserved the 3 points, but as a purely footballing spectacle the game was nothing special imho. For me the big test will be on Saturday when we play an on form St Johnstone side ,a good performance in that game might convince this hard to please Motherwell fan that we've turned the corner. :whistling:

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Didn't go to the game last night but managed to watch it on bbc alba, was very impressed by the fight and effort from the team and we thoroughly deserved the 3 points, but as a purely footballing spectacle the game was nothing special imho.

 

 

Its quite hard to make it a spectacle when you are down to 10 men though.

 

In terms of entertainment, that was easily the best we have had at Fir Park this season.

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An absolutely huge 3 points for a variety of reasons and even more impressive considering we played with only 10 men for over 70 minutes.

 

The red card is still inconclusive at best from TV footage and it is worth remembering Craigan has never been sent off in an SPL game in his career (and only once in a Scottish Cup game v Killie about 6 years ago) and you don't earn that statistic on luck alone. He is not a dirty player. Whenever there is a red card issued to non Old Firm player I always ask myself " would a Rangers or Celtic player been shown a straight red there?" And there's yer answer...The same question can be asked for Higdons ridiculous possible ban.

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A terrific performance last night and I would say the best game of the season. All credit to the players. SM & KB also called it right with their substituions. The referee had a night he should want to forget with a string of wrong and inconsistent decisions. Henrik Ojamaa's disallowed goal being a main talking point.

 

Crag's dismissal was justified if only for showing intent. Post match comments suggest he was jabbed in the eye by Barrowman - certainly unlike him to react in such a fashion. The referee certainly galvanised us as others have said and the lads showed great determination and not a little skill. Ojamaa stole the show with his perpetual motion performance and I fear he won't be allowed to do that on Saturday. Good to see Higgy get some credit too from the stands which he acknowledged.

 

A great night and of course important 3 points.

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