Scottish Premiership Motherwell V St Johnstone Sat 18 Mar 15:00

[grizzlyg]

I can assure you Waldo i was at the game and i am entitled to my opinion the same as everyone else

[Brazilian]

Fairly sure the 'what if/if only' moments , should have sent us home much happier today.

 

highlights starting on Alba in a few minutes if anyone wants to analyse before club put up their version.

 

100% onside for 1st goal against

[Haggischomper]

Understand your frustration as I dont rate him either but we have no one else. The loanee from Everton has not impressed in the U20s and there is only one other kid keeper so blame the previous manager for taking a chance on a crocked Brill. Sarcastic cheering when he does catch the ball is moronic in my opinion and only makes things worse

 

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Ollie Pain is playing for the U20s, not Griffiths.

[Clackscat]

Ollie Pain is playing for the U20s, not Griffiths.

Apologies I was at the u20 3-2 loss v Dunf and Griffiths played in that game, was poor at one of the goals, and I was wrongly told he was in goals in the 6-3 defeat by Thistle. Mind you having just watched it on you tube my point still stands. I know these can be one offs but if either of Saints 2 goallies today were in our squad I would hope they would play in front of Samson

 

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[Ya Bezzer!]

If we'd had Buffon in goals we would still have conceded two. McHugh made at least 3 howlers in central defence today and Zak Jules fell over the ball multiple times. Ferguson cost us a goal with a weak header and the first goal was wretched from the whole back line but it seems like it's all Samson's fault.

 

Pure scapgoat stuff. The ironic cheering is embarassing. Is he the best goalkeeper we've ever had? No. But he's not even the worst in recent times. Would I try and replace him. Yes. Do we have anything better now. No.

 

I'm guessing all his critics are forgetting the absolutely superb save he made down at Rugby Park a couple of weeks ago that ultimately got us our only win in the last seven matches.

 

I don't like Clay and I don't think he should be at the club but at least I can put my hands up and say he had a half decent match today.

 

Now that McGhee's gone its obvious that for some EVERYTHING will be Samson's fault. It's down to Samson to inspire confidence in everyone in front of him? Well what confidence should Samson have in those in front of him? Not much based on recent displays. Even when we won a match or defence was attrocious.

 

It's a team game. Every player has to go out there with confidence in himself and support his team mates not look over their shoulder to the goalkeeper.

 

If we go down we weren't good enough as a team. This blacklist stuff is bullshit.

[CoF]

If players were desperate for Robinson to get job then that scares me as after it went 2-1 there was no fight until injury time.

 

Disagree with that. Their second well and truly knocked the stuffing out of us for a good 15 minutes, which, I admit I was disappointed to see the players react that way. However, the latter parts of the first half, the first 20 of the second (up to the goal) and the last 10 the players were clearly giving absolutely everything.

[Waldo]

I can assure you Waldo i was at the game and i am entitled to my opinion the same as everyone else

Oh,I know. And I've got a different opinion. I thought we showed more fight today than we have on a long time and I think, for the first time in a wee while, if we continue like today, we've got a chance of not finishing 12, 11.

I don't think it was attitude today, I think it was individual errors. If I am right, we can sort that.

Glass half full and all that

[middleeastdave]

Ollie Pain is playing for the U20s, not Griffiths.

He played against Dunfermline under 20's a few weeks ago, although he was seemed to be doing a lot of shouting at his defence he was definitely at fault for one of the goals, overall I wasn't that impressed with him, but that was his only one and only game for Motherwell, so I might be a bit unfair on Griffiths and maybe he might fit the bill for having a shot in the first team.

Was Samson really at fault for the two goals....I don't think so, but he does have his hairy moments, as most goalkeepers have!!

[SuperSteelman]

Craig Samson can go and take a fuck to himself, ginger heided fucking useless twat. Seriously how many fucking points has this guy cost us this season. A goalkeeper is supposed to command his box, he is a joke and can't even come out 3 yards to catch a ball.

[MFCL84]

I'm not about to blame Samson for our predicament, but in my view he has many faults in his game that do cause goals and don't help the team. The worst for me are his great reluctant to come off his line to claim any kind of ball, and his unwillingness to catch anything but the simplest of takes. He also doesn't help the team to build an attack, his distribution is very slow and he generally chooses to kick long when there are options to keep the ball. There are other things that bother me about his game, but I'll stop there.

It is a team game and if we go down, it won't be just his flaws that cause it.

[El Grew]

How anyone can blame Samson for us losing today is beyond me. He had no chance with either goal. The four guys playing in front of him, and I use the word playing, advisedly, were totally inept. Some of the worst defending I ever seen at FP. They were totally shapeless, never played as a unit and were continually caught ball watching. If we are depending on this lot of players to keep us in the SPFL, then I'm sorry to say we've had it.

[Shire Greats]

If we'd had Buffon in goals we would still have conceded two. McHugh made at least 3 howlers in central defence today and Zak Jules fell over the ball multiple times. Ferguson cost us a goal with a weak header and the first goal was wretched from the whole back line but it seems like it's all Samson's fault.

 

Pure scapgoat stuff. The ironic cheering is embarassing. Is he the best goalkeeper we've ever had? No. But he's not even the worst in recent times. Would I try and replace him. Yes. Do we have anything better now. No.

 

I'm guessing all his critics are forgetting the absolutely superb save he made down at Rugby Park a couple of weeks ago that ultimately got us our only win in the last seven matches.

 

I don't like Clay and I don't think he should be at the club but at least I can put my hands up and say he had a half decent match today.

 

Now that McGhee's gone its obvious that for some EVERYTHING will be Samson's fault. It's down to Samson to inspire confidence in everyone in front of him? Well what confidence should Samson have in those in front of him? Not much based on recent displays. Even when we won a match or defence was attrocious.

 

It's a team game. Every player has to go out there with confidence in himself and support his team mates not look over their shoulder to the goalkeeper.

 

If we go down we weren't good enough as a team. This blacklist stuff is bullshit.

I thought McHugh was our best player today

[Kmcalpin]

Hammell and Ferguson should have done better at both the goals but they were hung out to dry by their team mates.

 

One of the reasons mistakes are costing us so dearly is no one is covering for their mates. Every individual is a last line of defence and if they make an error we are fucked. That's not how you defend.

 

Ferguson's header was poor but he was the only Motherwell player in the post code. And Liam Craig caused us big problems all day making runs from midfield so why was no one picking up on that? Surely a midfielder has to match the run at the very least.

 

No surprise we have the worst goal difference in the division.

A very telling post, which hits the nail on the head for me. Over the piece I don't think we did quite enough for a point. Certainly Robinson has given the team a bit of lift in terms of effort and thats plain to see, but I think we, not him, got our tactics a bit wrong. Certainly we were hampered by injury but all too often our old faults were evident.

* Moult ending up playing wide

* MacDonald sitting too deep and not linking with Moult.

* Us using Moult & MacDonald as targetmen with long high balls.

* Shambolic defending with Saints players being afforded too much room and time - our players not supporting each other.

* Playing Pearson in the wrong role.

 

Saints were far more organised and workmanlike than us; got in our faces; and supported each other. They didn't make nearly as many errors as we did. They were also far more clinical than us in taking chances.

 

Interestingly the corner count was 9-2 in their favour. It took us over 35 minutes to register an effort on goal and we hardly troubled their keepers. That said, we scorned a good few chances. Admittedly Saints were carrying a good deal of luck and shocking officiating didn't help our cause. In the second half we improved a bit and exerted more pressure but Saints always looked like they had more in their locker and so it proved. As Tweed wrote I was a wee bit baffled by our substitutions, although Robinson did try to shake things up.

 

A worrying note for me was in the first half when Saints had a corner. Frear was trying to cover 2 men just outside our box. Faddy gestures to him to move up the park, which he did. The 2 Saints attackers stand their ground, by now completely unmarked, one gets the ball from a poor clearance and fires off a decent shot.

 

So, some signs of improvement for me today in terms of attitude but we have a long, long way to go.

[Kmcalpin]

McGhee has left hasn't he?

It was hard to say at times wasn't it? Improved effort aside, it could well have been him in charge today. In terms of organisation and tactics I couldn't detect much difference. What hasn't worked in the past didn't work again yesterday. We have to be fair to Robinson though in that they probably weren't his tactics - he will not have wanted to change too much too soon. It could well take him a handful of games before he can make much improvement tactically. Midfield and defence looked disorganised for long spells and the hard working Moult and MacDonald were poor. We're still playing lads out of position in midfield and attack - hopefully he'll sort that out quickly.

[Jacol]

 

Disagree with that. Their second well and truly knocked the stuffing out of us for a good 15 minutes, which, I admit I was disappointed to see the players react that way. However, the latter parts of the first half, the first 20 of the second (up to the goal) and the last 10 the players were clearly giving absolutely everything.

I thought it was the change of shape, that was made after losing the 2nd goal that we didn't adapt to quickly enough.

On the whole I thought we were the better team and with a mixture of better luck, better finishing and better refereeing could have won the game convincingly.

[MFCL84]

I too think that we were slightly better than Saints and were certainly worth a point. Silly mistakes are costing us.

[wellowell]

IMO we were very unlucky stonewall penalty not given when McDonald pulled back in 1st half and only a fantastic save at end stopped us getting deserved point . Their winner was terrible goal to lose Ferguson came in too far and misjudged ball but for me Craig should not be scoring from that angle and Samson seemed to move his hands away from ball instead of saving it .The effort was there but silly mistakes costing us .Fully expecting our usual Rangers defeat next up which would mean we would have taken 1 point out if 45 from top 5 teams which is shocking ,but at least we will have 8 games left after this and all against teams out with top 5 .The Accies and ICT games coming before the split are massive but if we keep the same effort ,cut out the silly mistakes ,and start taking more of our chances we will be fine sounds simple dosnt it.I think it's between us ,accies .ICT , and RossCounty

for bottom 4 as think Dundee and Killie will survive bottom 6 and Partick will be top 6 but time will tell .The 1 thing for certain is we have a roller coaster few weeks coming up .

[Kmcalpin]

Just watched the TV highlights. Quick comments on Skippy's penalty claim and the 2 goals we lost. It was a definite penalty (from both the front and back views) as he was wrestled to the ground. So Saints were lucky to get off with that.

 

First goal: Hammell caught badly out of position and he allows the St Johnstone player both time and space to pick out his target. How many goals like this has Hammell cost us over the years? That said our central defenders allowed Craig too much leeway to get his header in. Samson not to blame.

 

Second goal: a horror story from start to finish. On our left flank we have 2 players who could and should have closed the Saints player down but instead both back off (exactly the opposite of how Saints would have dealt with this threat). The Saints player has all the time and space in the world to pick out Craig. Ferguson has lost his man but then again Samson could have given him a shout. Not just Ferguson though - no other defender near the back post. Could Samson have done better at his near post? Maybe?

 

These defensive shortcomings were evident from start to finish yesterday and are typical of our failings this season, irrespective of who has been playing. No wonder we have the poorest defensive record in the league.

[CoF]

Just watched the highlights -

 

We should've had a penalty.

 

The second goal was an individual error by Ferguson.

 

The first goal a bit more complex if we want to attribute blame (since that's the name of the game on here) - If you look at their head movements, McHugh obviously had an eye on their number 9 coming in, assuming Ferguson was picking up Liam Craig; and Ferguson was distracted by Swanson on the edge of the box and was assuming McHugh was picking up Craig. If either of the runners into the box had been picked up properly by the midfield (I'm looking at Pearson in particular, who saunters in) then this might not have happened. Then again, Ferguson and McHugh need to communicate to snuff out the immediate danger - in this case I think Ferguson needs to pick him up as he's the one facing him.

 

Unfortunately that's what happens when we need to play youngsters who aren't quite ready.

 

Also, Samson is in no way to blame for either of the goals.

[supermarv]

 

Pure scapgoat stuff. The ironic cheering is embarassing. Is he the best goalkeeper we've ever had? No. But he's not even the worst in recent times. Would I try and replace him. Yes. Do we have anything better now? No.

Tell me this, have we actually tried anyone else to see if they are better cos I'm 100% sure nobody else has played in goals for us this season

[coop91]

OK, so yet again another defeat. Still think there was a lot of positives to be taken from yesterday's game. On another day we could have won comfortably. We're not dead and buried. There certainly will be a lot of exciting games after the split and I for one think we will be fine. This ain't about being a happy clapper and more about trying to remain positive. Hope the player think the same.

[Shire Greats]

Just watched the highlights -

 

We should've had a penalty.

 

The second goal was an individual error by Ferguson.

 

The first goal a bit more complex if we want to attribute blame (since that's the name of the game on here) - If you look at their head movements, McHugh obviously had an eye on their number 9 coming in, assuming Ferguson was picking up Liam Craig; and Ferguson was distracted by Swanson on the edge of the box and was assuming McHugh was picking up Craig. If either of the runners into the box had been picked up properly by the midfield (I'm looking at Pearson in particular, who saunters in) then this might not have happened. Then again, Ferguson and McHugh need to communicate to snuff out the immediate danger - in this case I think Ferguson needs to pick him up as he's the one facing him.

 

Unfortunately that's what happens when we need to play youngsters who aren't quite ready.

 

Also, Samson is in no way to blame for either of the goals.

Just watched highlights too and it would be harsh to blame Samson for the goals , although I still don't rate him...I think a top goalie would've come and got something on the cross for the first , but he's not a top goalie.

 

We could easily have got a couple of pens, couldn't see the Cadden one properly but the one on McDonald for me is a pen, although he's not going to get the ball, Easton hauls him back.

 

We need more out of Pearson, don't know if he's injured....but he wasn't really in it

[Kmcalpin]

We need more out of Pearson, don't know if he's injured....but he wasn't really in it

Agreed, he's been a big disappointment so far. OK age is catching up with him but he's being played in a defensive role which just isn't his game. Too often yesterday he sat deep and allowed Clay to play further forward which he isn't suited to doing.

[underboyleheating]

Can anyone explain to me how McDonald missed that open goal? I’ve watched it over and over again and it looks easier to score.

[Andy_P]

I must admit yesterday's game left me fairly deflated.

 

I'm generally fairly positive and try to take what good you can from a game whatever the outcome but not getting anything from yesterday was really sore.

 

We lost a poor goal and were fortunate not to be out of it completely but battled our way back into it. It was pretty raw and basic stuff but we had sufficient fight about us to build a sustained spell of pressure that culminated in our equaliser. That should have of course have come a good earlier with the missed opportunities from Cadden and McDonald but there was no question by the time we levelled we deserved it.

 

I thought we started the second well pretty well too but were lacking a bit of guile and quality. Again though we had chances. Their winning goal though just seemed to completely deflate us for a good 15 minutes. And no wonder. It was about their first foray up the park and to culpable in our downfall again was pretty dis-spiriting.

 

That header in injury time though? Jeez oh. I haven't seen the highlights back yet but I think I'd been celebrating a good few seconds before the disbelief that we hadn't actually scored kicked in. From my vantage point in the East Stand you saw Bowman connect, the header go over the keeper and heading right for the goal. Everyone seemed to celebrate and then....

 

Injury time last week and this will certainly be a test of our mental character. When stuff like that happens it would be easy to allow thoughts that things are fated to begin to drift in.

 

The break will be useful for recovery time and getting players fit but its an absolute pain in the arse going into an international break on the back of a defeat knowing there's nothing you can do any time soon to try improve the league position.