Partick Thistle V Motherwell 11/04/15 - Huge Away Crowd Expected

[Prestwickwell]

Said this last week after the killie game.

 

The amount of free kicks we give away round about our box is shocking

 

For the 1st goal the free kick McDonald gave away was criminal. Just no need for it.

 

Good player Lyal Taylor from what Iv seen.

 

But we didn't half make it easy for him today.

 

On a side note how pish was there support

[mio]

• Thistle are a poor lot but they fought for every ball today and deserved their win. We were beyond shambolic. We lost the first goal due to Macdonald being stuck in left mid giving away a needless foul, then followed by defending that wouldn't be accepted at under 11 level.
• £22 today to watch that gutless performance is hard to take, the players let us down "again" today.

[Ya Bezzer!]

A lot of Motherwell supporters needed a wake up call before this match but maybe they've finally got the message. Partick Thistle are a better team than us. Forget about the points, Partick are 27 goals better than us this season. 27! And it showed big time today. They closed us down right across our front four, won every second ball in midfield and looked a lot more dangerous going forward.

 

And as I said before the match, midweek all the pressure was on St. Mirren, today it was all on us. We looked subdued from the very start, players weren't doing the basics, no movement, they looked leggy from a few minutes into the match and we had absolutely no creativity. Basically it was a must win game and we froze big time.

 

Partick for me were far the better team, we never caused them any problems and they ran out well deserved winners.

 

5 games, we need to win 4 of them at least now. That's the task. We better hope we get 3 home matches post split!

[Malky79]

Couldn't get my shift covered today so missed the game and in hindsight saved myself some money and a raging hangover as I'd have been in the pub from 11 before it and might well be there still now after from what I understand is generously described as a poor display.

 

Play off now is all but certain, if St.Mirren see our loss as a chink of light and lift themselves to an unexpected win on Monday then we'll have our destiny back in our hands again at least, but for now it isn't and we are about 90% certain to be in the play off.

 

From what I gather we were no worse than them first half an then awful second. Sutton's early chance only real thing of note. Losing Marvin was a sore blow, I wish Barraclough had taken a chance on Thomas out there or even a slightly out of position Grant if he'd been fit as for my money the one thing that was madness about today was pushing Erwin out there when the lad has finally made a goalscoring breakthrough in last couple of games. So bad timing to see the shape of the team disrupted, I hope Johnson is going to be available for the post split matches as without him I fear we'll struggle to get the momentum back.

[Prestwickwell]

A lot of Motherwell supporters needed a wake up call before this match but maybe they've finally got the message. Partick Thistle are a better team than us. Forget about the points, Partick are 27 goals better than us this season. 27! And it showed big time today. They closed us down right across our front four, won every second ball in midfield and looked a lot more dangerous going forward.

 

And as I said before the match, midweek all the pressure was on St. Mirren, today it was all on us. We looked subdued from the very start, players weren't doing the basics, no movement, they looked leggy from a few minutes into the match and we had absolutely no creativity. Basically it was a must win game and we froze big time.

 

Partick for me were far the better team, we never caused them any problems and they ran out well deserved winners.

 

5 games, we need to win 4 of them at least now. That's the task. We better hope we get 3 home matches post split!

 

Pretty much nailed it with this summary

[MFCL84]

Absolutely fuming as a result of that performance today. The performances over the past few weeks had raised my expectations, and this game was of such importance that I decided to go along to an away game for the first time in a long time. I feel it was such a waste of time. Is it only Motherwell that these things happen to? Raise expectations, support responds and the team let us down hard! 1626 of an away support for a team in Motherwell's position is superb. It is a pity that the support wasn't rewarded.

 

As for the game, I was worried as soon as I saw that Johnson was missing. Big John just doesn't have any mobility, he is a penalty box goal scorer. If he doesn't get service he is an empty jersey.

 

I'll never agree with changing a winning formation unless it is absolutely necessary. McColl did it far too often, and it very seldom worked. Moving Erwin away from McDonald today to accommodate Big John just compounded our problems. No central movement and no delivery from the flanks. We may have got away with it if Ainsworth had been on top of his game, but that didn't materialise.

 

Thistle out fought us all over the pitch. They looked hungrier and stronger. Consequently, as soon as the first went in it looked like a very long way back. They deserved the points.

 

It isn't over yet, but avoiding the play-off is a hell of a big ask now.

[Catweazles ring piece]

This match was lost on the team sheet and player selection.

P.S. The Well support were brilliant today - take a bow!!

 

Great day with Big Colin and Wee Rhones

[milo]

When did Johnson and Grant get injured by the way and it didn't appear to be on Tuesday night?

[Pepper]

Absolute stinking first half which we probably shaded, just. If only Big John had been able to put the ball in the net after two minutes it might have been oh so different but to be fair to the defender it was a good block.

 

Second half was a complete disaster from start to finish. The marking at the first goal was beyond ridiculous but we've been guilty of the same all season and if we haven't learnt by now we never will. Concede goals like that and you don't belong anywhere near this division. Our arses collectively collapsed and true to form we concede another sloppy goal. Game over before Baraclough has his hands out his pockets.

 

Like most we were totally bemused by Sutton's inclusion and Bara's tactics. The pitch was bobbly as hell and any time Ainsworth got the ball there were two Thistle players all over him. Thomas made absolutely no impact when he came on either. It was not a day for players who like to run with the ball at their feet, which is where our most recent success has come from but punting long balls up to Sutton hasnt worked all season and didnt work today. Bar the scare in the first two minutes Thistle looked solid at the back and we could have played all day without scoring.

 

County win on Monday, and it's bye bye SPFL Premiership.

[CoF]

As for the game, I was worried as soon as I saw that Johnson was missing. Big John just doesn't have any mobility, he is a penalty box goal scorer. If he doesn't get service he is an empty jersey.

 

Good post, this point in particular was blatantly obvious about 10 minutes in. Why we had Sutton chasing balls into the corner flag was absolutely baffling.

 

 

 

 

5 games, we need to win 4 of them at least now. That's the task. We better hope we get 3 home matches post split!

 

With Hamilton and St Mirren looking like a guaranteed 6 points for Killie, St Mirren, County and Thistle, I worry that even 5 out of 5 won't be enough for us.

[milo]

We're going to the play offs. No 2 ways about it. Only question is now, how do we prepare for them? Play our strongest team every week? Wrap the key players in cotton wool?

 

Johnson is clearly key, but is he injury prone? What's up with Grant? Has Barraclough learned his lesson not to play Sutton from the start and stick Erwin out wide?

[Goggles & Flippers]

A lot of posters on here seemed to be blessed with the power of hindsight based prophecies coming to fruition.

 

Sutton has scored 4 goals in just over 60 minutes total time on the park over the past 3 games. Two of those games we were in the ascendancy and the opposition are in free fall, however I certainly don't castigate Baraclough for including him in the team from the start.

 

Sutton needs crossed balls rather than a nippy foil to be most effective. Erwin doesn't appear to have that in his arsenal yet and Ainsworth needs the everything from his morning weetabix to the weather to be just right or he's indifferent.

 

Signs were on the wall against St. Mirren though, a couple of their corners we didn't mark adequately and I found myself those around me howling on Josh Law/Straker to cover the wide man who had acres of space at a few set pieces. The defence is still piecemeal and a decent team would have caused us issues ..... fast forward 5 days and here we have the outcome.

 

I personally find it hard to swallow that professional footballers can function adequately or even be impressive, however when asked to move 15 yards to the left or right and perform a slightly different role they appear to go to shit.

 

The fact is, Partick away was always going to be tough, the grand predictions on here after Tuesday nights spanking was premature, Thistle have performed as well as us pretty much in the past 6 games however over the season they've been more cohesive while we searched for consistency and confidence.

 

It is by no means over, I can't see us not getting Killie (h), Accies (a) Partick (h), St. Mirren (a) and Ross County (h) probably in that order (I think the SPFL will schedule the Ross County game similar to last year to ensure a grandstand finish). So based on that our three hardest opponents are at home and the two teams imploding are the away fixtures. Is it definitely plausible to win the next 4 on the bounce. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks suggests otherwise. I do think there is enough grit in the team that when the return fixture is hosted at FP we'll make up for it.

 

Today's result would have affected pride and is a wiff of smelling salts which I hope is timely.

[stv]

It is by no means over, I can't see us not getting Killie (h), Accies (a) Partick (h), St. Mirren (a) and Ross County (h) probably in that order (I think the SPFL will schedule the Ross County game similar to last year to ensure a grandstand finish). So based on that our three hardest opponents are at home and the two teams imploding are the away fixtures. Is it definitely plausible to win the next 4 on the bounce. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks suggests otherwise. I do think there is enough grit in the team that when the return fixture is hosted at FP we'll make up for it. Today's result would have affected pride and is a wiff of smelling salts which I hope is timely.

At last some sensible perspective on todays bad result.

[Kmcalpin]

Dom got more than 5 minutes today. How did that turn out? since he's apparently our saviour. The Rangers aint that good, and we dont have McCall in charge against his beloved team.

A pointless substitution in my book. Ainsworth's big problem was lack of service and when Thomas came on he suffered from exactly the same problem. No surprise there. I could have seen the point in Thomas had been introduced in place of the totally ineffective Sutton.

 

As others have said we were beaten before kick off with bad tactical and selections errors. Why oh why do we have to repeat previous management errors ad nauseum? We had a number of options to replace Johnson on the left - Straker, Moore or Thomas. Of those three probably Moore was possibly the best bet. Central midfield with a clearly unfit Pearo was the root cause of many of our problems.

[Prestwickwell]

A lot of posters on here seemed to be blessed with the power of hindsight based prophecies coming to fruition.

 

Sutton has scored 4 goals in just over 60 minutes total time on the park over the past 3 games. Two of those games we were in the ascendancy and the opposition are in free fall, however I certainly don't castigate Baraclough for including him in the team from the start.

 

Sutton needs crossed balls rather than a nippy foil to be most effective. Erwin doesn't appear to have that in his arsenal yet and Ainsworth needs the everything from his morning weetabix to the weather to be just right or he's indifferent.

 

Signs were on the wall against St. Mirren though, a couple of their corners we didn't mark adequately and I found myself those around me howling on Josh Law/Straker to cover the wide man who had acres of space at a few set pieces. The defence is still piecemeal and a decent team would have caused us issues ..... fast forward 5 days and here we have the outcome.

 

I personally find it hard to swallow that professional footballers can function adequately or even be impressive, however when asked to move 15 yards to the left or right and perform a slightly different role they appear to go to shit.

 

The fact is, Partick away was always going to be tough, the grand predictions on here after Tuesday nights spanking was premature, Thistle have performed as well as us pretty much in the past 6 games however over the season they've been more cohesive while we searched for consistency and confidence.

 

It is by no means over, I can't see us not getting Killie (h), Accies (a) Partick (h), St. Mirren (a) and Ross County (h) probably in that order (I think the SPFL will schedule the Ross County game similar to last year to ensure a grandstand finish). So based on that our three hardest opponents are at home and the two teams imploding are the away fixtures. Is it definitely plausible to win the next 4 on the bounce. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks suggests otherwise. I do think there is enough grit in the team that when the return fixture is hosted at FP we'll make up for it.

 

Today's result would have affected pride and is a wiff of smelling salts which I hope is timely.

Im confused at your point ( could be the fact I'm still drunk to be fair )

 

You make it sound like a lot of Motherwell fans that spent decent money to watch that pish yesterday & pleased that there prophecies have been proved right???

 

You then go on to say effectively that Erwin is never a left mid as he wouldnt work for Sutton???

 

Also that the writing was on the wall from free kicks.

 

Seems your prophecies came to fruition as well.

 

For me I don't mind the fact we started with the team we did, but any Motherwell fan there could see it needed changed within 5 minutes of the re-start.

 

Baraclough new that as wee hence why he tried McDonald at left mid.

 

Why not simply take Sutton off ( who I like ), bring Thomas on left mid & get back to Erwin & McDonald up front.

 

Thomas was never going to do anything by the time he come on. The game was already done.

 

He's by no means the saviour, but couldn't have been any worse that the dross on show yesterday

 

I hope we do, but we're never winning 4 on the bounce

[milo]

Sutton may well have scored 4 goals in 2 games but they were 3 tap ins and a penalty when both games were essentially won. Benching him and putting McDonald and Erwin upfront was the catalyst for out recent good run. We've done nothing all season with Sutton starting. Bringing him on as an impact sub was actually a master stroke by Barrsclough.

 

Our focus on this issue has taken almost all of the focus of the fact that one of the single worst players in Straker seems to be a first pick every week now.

 

Barring a miracle win for St Mirren tomorrow we're effectively down before the split. That takes some doing.

 

Bravo Motherwell.

[Andy_P]

Tedious reading how many supporters appear to have thrown in the towel.

[Kmcalpin]

Sutton may well have scored 4 goals in 2 games but they were 3 tap ins and a penalty when both games were essentially won. Benching him and putting McDonald and Erwin upfront was the catalyst for out recent good run. We've done nothing all season with Sutton starting. Bringing him on as an impact sub was actually a master stroke by Barrsclough.

 

Our focus on this issue has taken almost all of the focus of the fact that one of the single worst players in Straker seems to be a first pick every week now.

 

 

I agree about Sutton but not Straker. Sutton is very much a penalty box player to use when we're on top - not in yesterday's type of game.

 

Straker? I admit he's a bit of a bombscare and erratic but overall he's no worse than Josh Law. Both were caught out time and again yesterday through poor positioning. In addition Law gave Ainsworth virtually no service at all. However to focus only on the failings of Straker and/or Law is to ignore major failings elsewhere in the side. Starker seems to be the figure of criticism for many but thats being selectively unfair.

 

I agree with andy P in that we can't afford to throw in the towel. There's now 15 points up for grabs and even if we do finish 11th there's still a play off in which to do the business. If the fans throw in towel now the players are quite entitled to do the same thing.

[milo]

1600 motherwell fans yesterday cheering their team on doing everything they could to inspire the players to victory to get the club out possibly the most precarious position we've been in since administration would suggest the fans haven't thrown the towel in.

 

We need to be realistic though and some folk seem to believe that a group of players with major flaws as a team are somehow going to win 5 games on the bounce and keep us up. Or somehow get results in a ultra pressure environment of the play offs!

 

Maybe we should throw the towel in when we see that the players/management appear to freeze/not perform/not mark/stick with a formation that isn't working when the chips are down?

 

It's not the fans we need to worry about

 

I might be moaning on here but I'm still going to be at every game supporting my team. That's my job. That's all I can do.

[Ya Bezzer!]

The blame Sutton people have to recognise a number things.

 

1) Without Sutton's goals this season we'd already be relegated.

 

2) Partick Thistle were better all over the pitch than us yesterday and have been all season, look at results and league placing, or if you were one of the 1,000 Motherwell supporters who came to this match on the back of the St. Mirren match expecting a win but weren't at the previous game at Firhill, on our last match there.

 

3) The team froze under pressure, would any other formation or minor line really change have prevented that?

 

4) When McDonald, Erwin, Pearson, Lasley, in fact the whole team, is poor, why does Sutton get the blame?

 

5) We've started Erwin upfront in 6 matches recently , won 3 drawn 1 and lost 1 and one of those wins only came after Erwin was moved to wide left, and the others were against the two poorest form teams in the league. What makes people on here think that we are some invincible outfit with Erwin up and that victory is inevitable?

[Ya Bezzer!]

Tedious reading how many supporters appear to have thrown in the towel.

 

That's because we are either the best team in the world or the worst in their eyes. They need to start clocking reality.

 

People on here have shown no respect whatsoever to Partick Thistle before or after the match, when they have totally outperformed us twice on their own ground, and have had a much better season with out throwing money at the team.

 

But we, mighty Motherwell, WOULD have won if not for a simple selection error by the manager. It all came down to one thing because because otherwise how could THEY beat US? Even though history shows we only have a 3 in 10 chance of actually winning there.

 

Seriously deluded.

[milo]

Good points Ya Bezzer.

[Welldaft Mk1]

TBH there was not a lot in it in the 1st half. A draw was about right. It was not a great game and of course just got worse.

 

Our defending at set pieces is woeful and came back to bite us yet again. The amount of space the Thistle player had to nod on to Taylor was comical. Once the 1st goal went in, they sensed blood and deservedly got a second. Disappointing thing is that we had no answer and were unable to create any real chances.

 

However unlikely we need St Mirren to front up tomorrow evening and try to make a game of it in front of their own fans. Should Ross C win, then we are heavily odds on for the play off spot. We could yet escape but would need to win 1st couple of games as a starter and hope one of them is v Ross County.

[GrahamH]

I may be wrong but I don't think many are actually blaming Sutton. They're saying that including Sutton up front at the expense of Erwin changed the dynamic of the team. That's not john Sutton's fault. Erwin can drag players around with his mobility and pace and that creates space for himself and others. That's not Sutton's game hence the reason we never had an out ball and ended up trying to pass in areas that were too tight or trying to force the play with passes that were not on.

 

We made it easy for Thistle and lessons need to be learned or we're down.

[Kmcalpin]

3) The team froze under pressure, would any other formation or minor line really change have prevented that?

 

4) When McDonald, Erwin, Pearson, Lasley, in fact the whole team, is poor, why does Sutton get the blame?

 

 

To take but two of your points.

 

We don't know that the team "froze" under pressure. Its quite possible yes, but in my view the team was just "flat" and that could be down to a number of reasons about which we don't know. If you have experienced pros like MacDonald, Pearson, Lasley, McManus, and Sutton freezing then there's something wrong somewhere.

 

I don't think anyone is blaming Sutton its more the decision to deploy him in the way that we did - thats a management issue. I doubt if many on here would issue a cast iron guarantee that a tactical/line up change would have delivered the 3 points but at best it meant we started the game at a disadvantage. As it was it meant that a striker's position was wasted but add to that Erwin being wasted out wide then thats 2 positions being weakened before a single ball was kicked. In a competitive game thats a bad start, a very bad start.