2019'20 Game 6: Ross County (H)

[MelvinBragg]

Thought we played quite well but shape seemed to when O'Hara came on. Definitely wrong change. Carroll sending off looked fair enough from the East Stand (not the best view granted) and totally handed them the initiative. 

Positives? Confirmation that Brian Graham really is a Nightmare Opponent, it's not in our head. And our goal was a thing of beauty...

 

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

1 minute ago, MelvinBragg said:

 Carroll sending off looked fair enough from the East Stand (not the best view granted) and totally handed them the initiative.

I'd agree about the sending off but Robinson says it was never a yellow and to be fair he was a lot closer to it.

[stv]

Poor subs by the manager , the game was going no where other than our way until he made them. Was someone injured or tierd. Or was he being smart trying to   "Close the game out".

Move on to next week and keep tryin to score til the final whistle please.

[steelboy]

Carroll's first yellow was a border line red so that probably counted against him.

[Pepper]

55 minutes ago, steelboy said:

We didn't adjust to them going two up front. Pathetic efforts from Donnelly and O'Hara for the goals.

Even when we were well on top we weren't creating much apart from a few shots from Scott and the bit of quality from Campbell. Turnbull can't come back soon enough.

Absolutely this. Such a simple change in formation had us all over the shop. They went for us down our right side and Grimshaws' defensive frailties were all too visible once again.

By the time Robinson reacted game was a bogey. 

[wellwell91]

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

We didn't adjust to them going two up front. Pathetic efforts from Donnelly and O'Hara for the goals.

Even when we were well on top we weren't creating much apart from a few shots from Scott and the bit of quality from Campbell. Turnbull can't come back soon enough.

Gallagher gave Donnelly Pelter after their 1st goal

 

[underboyleheating]

We gave the ball away too easily for their second and seemed  like we were in too much of a rush to get rid of it. Decisions like this really show up how naive we are at times. Although County were never out of it and they did what they do best by scoring late goals on the break.

[MelvinBragg]

14 minutes ago, wellwell91 said:

Gallagher gave Donnelly Pelter after their 1st goal

 

Donnelly gave the ball away but there was a whole raft of bad defending between that and the ball ending up in our net. Not defending Donnelly, but not the sole culprit.  

For me, the manager and Carroll carry the can today. 

The change for Polworth would have made sense at half time when it felt like Ross County were controlling the game. The change was made when we were dominating. And although I'm not his biggest fan, Seedorf going off for Hylton didn't work  

Robinson can say all he likes about Carroll's second booking being soft but given he'd not long been booked, it was a rash decision at best...

[BAZ]

Thought we threw game away. After scoring we fell back and looked to be trying to hold on. Many a time we had no one in the attacking half  so when a ball did come there was no one there. Could not agree with the manager's substitutions, both Polworth and Scott were playing well and the substitutions were pretty bad. What is it with Motherwell, when they are praised as a good team they seem to throw it all back. A good crowd turned up today and they gave them nothing to cheer about.

Carrol's substitution did not surprise me as he had had a bad foul previously and from where I sat in the O'Donnell stand it looked as though he went in with his foot up. 

[Lobey_Dosser]

Decent enough game to watch in fine weather but it did feel like a preseason game. Plenty of tidy football but no real drive, energy or will to win. 

Great move to get us 1-0 but the tide inevitably turned as soon as Graham entered the pitch, he must love playing against us. 

The substitutions were questionable but I wouldn’t lie too much blame at Robinson’s door today. The team are naturally naive at times and it will take time to learn our lessons. However, we appear to be heading in a positive direction and it’s good to see so many fans turn up. Having thrown away the points today, hopefully we head to Perth ultra determined to win. 

 

[ropy]

51 minutes ago, BAZ said:

Thought we threw game away. After scoring we fell back and looked to be trying to hold on. Many a time we had no one in the attacking half  so when a ball did come there was no one there. Could not agree with the manager's substitutions, both Polworth and Scott were playing well and the substitutions were pretty bad. What is it with Motherwell, when they are praised as a good team they seem to throw it all back. A good crowd turned up today and they gave them nothing to cheer about.

Carrol's substitution did not surprise me as he had had a bad foul previously and from where I sat in the O'Donnell stand it looked as though he went in with his foot up. 

He wasn’t substituted 

[wellowell]

Imo game changed as soon as polworth went off they never got near our goal whole game yet Robbo decides to bring O,Hara on and 2 mins later they run right through our midfield and then for second he makes no attempt to stop cross so taking polworth off changed whole dynamics of game 

[Kmcalpin]

35 minutes ago, steelboy said:

Carroll's first yellow was a border line red so that probably counted against him.

The same as Gardyne's challenge then, for which he escaped Scot free.

[dennyc]

9 minutes ago, wellowell said:

Imo game changed as soon as polworth went off they never got near our goal whole game yet Robbo decides to bring O,Hara on and 2 mins later they run right through our midfield and then for second he makes no attempt to stop cross so taking polworth off changed whole dynamics of game 

Spot on. And no mention of any injury. Polworth was causing them all sorts of bother with his clever passing and Scott and Cole were dragging their defence all over the place. He was even contributing well defensively when we lost the ball.  A second goal looked on the cards. 

And then settling for a draw by taking Scott off for Tait sealed it for me. Just invited County to make a final push.

Two poor decisions by our Manager but according to him the defeat was all about the players being naive.

[wellowell]

Have not heard any after match comments but it was not players being naive it was Robbo . I’m a big fan of him but he got his subs all wrong today 1st 1 fine but taking off Polworth was a howler and then bringing on Tait admitted defeat and proved to be the case . We all make mistakes but if he has blamed the players and took no responsibility for his howling decisions then disappointed in him . Just need to win next week now to get back on tract . 

[texanwellfan]

Looks as though we thought we had won it when we scored. Lost the effort and focus. Perhaps due in part to the manager subbing Polworth? Carrol’s first card was a yellow. Not borderline red. The second was a foul never a yellow. He was putting his foot up but then pulled out as the county player came in 

[Andy_P]

I think Robinson certainly got it wrong with the O'Hara for Polworth substitution. I'm slightly torn on whether he thought the points were in the bag so he'd give the new guy 20 minutes or whether he had sensed that the balance was turning into County's favour with their change of approach and wanted to freshen things up a little. Instead it upset the balance of the midfield and really just heaped loads of pressure on O'Hara as he attempted to get up to the pace of the game. And of course he was absolutely ripped to shreds for their winner.

The Seedorf change I'd give him that. He has routinely been going off after around an hour and Hylton has come on and performed well on a few occasions off the bench so no issue there.

I would argue that the Tait substitution was more sensible than not. Of course I wanted us to win but there comes a point where when you're down a man, the opposition are in the ascendency that you think maybe a point is better than none.  I was thinking to myself well okay a point here today and the win last week, still kind of balances out what might have been expected.

Totally accept that sounds incredibly stupid given that we subsequently went on and lost but more often than not, that change at that time of the game will result in that point being achieved. In today's instance I thought  bringing on a full-back to give the defence more balance was the right thing to go as Donnelly was not looking comfortable in the slightest at left-back.  What I would say is that I was a bit surprised that it wasn't actually Donnelly that went off.

It still seems slightly inexplicable that after being ahead with quarter of an hour to go we ended up getting nothing.  I don't think we played at our best but I was quite impressed with the patience shown throughout the second half in particular as we looked to break County down.  That the breakthrough came from a lovely bit of football seemed just reward for that patience when in the not so very distant past we would have been increasingly panicky and resorting to hoofing it.

Even before the equaliser though we did seem to be retreating back further and further after their changes.  At first I thought it was a deliberate ploy to utilise the space and try to catch them on the break but it became apparent a combination of their changes and the desire to hold what we had meant we were much deeper than we wanted to be. 

The sending is difficult to comment upon being at the other side of the pitch but whether good tackle or otherwise it does not seem the most sensible thing to be attracting the attention of a referee when moments before you've got off with a yellow when on another day another ref might have given you a red.

It's pretty disappointing that the momentum has been stopped, that we lost when we've had about 4500 home supporters at a home game for I don't know how long and that at its most simplest that a good winning position so late in a game has been allowed to slip away.

This one should rankle with them.

 

 

[livivoice]

Often said that people can watch same game and have different conclusions.

For example I felt we bossed the game for most parts and it was only through our mistakes that we lost. 

I really don't get the view that County changed the flow of the game through some sophisticated change in plan. C' mon they are 0-1 down and have to change. Even then they hardly had us under the cosh!! Instead I felt we were confident in seeing the game out but for 2 terrible errors as in not closing down the County player for first and O'Hara making a pig's ear of second. 2 very preventable goals. As for Carroll he made the referee's decision easy.

As for subs I'll give Robbo the benefit of doubt. Certainly the Tait sub made sense on basis of 1 point better than nought.

 

All in all I left game with view that we will play worse and win. As for County they must have travelled north in a state of disbelief that they won.

Onto Perth with a few lessons learnt.

[Kmcalpin]

A sore one to take but County deserved their win.  Unfortunately controversial and inconsistent refereeing left a bad taste in the mouth.  Its no exaggeration to say that County could and should have had the game won before the clock showed 15 minutes.  In that opening spell they could have scored no less than 4 goals, all from good chances.  Our defence and midfield was a shambles.  

For the middle part of the game we played reasonably attractive football but lacked punch in the final third.  Despite that I never at any point felt we were comfortably on top. We scored a peach of a goal but after that the wheels came off big time.  In the last 30 minutes or so we completely lost our way and had Carroll not been red carded I think there's a fair chance we would still have lost.

Our substitutions were poor, with the exception of Hylton for Seedorf.  Tait was brought on, presumably to play left back but then didn't seem to play there as we retreated tortoise like into our own box.  Once again defensively we were shambolic and disorganised.  

Hopefully lessons will have been learnt and we haven't suddenly turned into a bad side but top 4 we are not.  Some decent performances from the likes of Gallagher and Polworth and Campbell and although the latter two weren't in top form they still put in decent performances. However we must move on and some fine tuning of the team is required.  Once again today Grimshaw proved he's not a full back.  Midfield maybe, right back definitely not.  Hartley had a nightmare and if Mugabe is half like the thing then I'd start him at Perth.  Up front we look lightweight without an out and out striker in the middle.  The squad really lacks a number 9 and thats something that ought to have been recognised in the summer as it will cost us on the park.  Goal apart I thought Cole contributed little and looked ill at ease in an unfathomable and ineffective position.  James Scott showed some nice touches but, to me, is wasted out wide but not yet ready to play against hulking defenders.  

County did ride their luck and it just wasn't our day.  A decent goal chalked off and a very strong penalty claim waved away.   

[Ya Bezzer!]

29 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

A sore one to take but County deserved their win.  Unfortunately controversial and inconsistent refereeing left a bad taste in the mouth.  Its no exaggeration to say that County could and should have had the game won before the clock showed 15 minutes.  In that opening spell they could have scored no less than 4 goals, all from good chances.  Our defence and midfield was a shambles.  

For the middle part of the game we played reasonably attractive football but lacked punch in the final third.  Despite that I never at any point felt we were comfortably on top. We scored a peach of a goal but after that the wheels came off big time.  In the last 30 minutes or so we completely lost our way and had Carroll not been red carded I think there's a fair chance we would still have lost.

Our substitutions were poor, with the exception of Hylton for Seedorf.  Tait was brought on, presumably to play left back but then didn't seem to play there as we retreated tortoise like into our own box.  Once again defensively we were shambolic and disorganised.  

Hopefully lessons will have been learnt and we haven't suddenly turned into a bad side but top 4 we are not.  Some decent performances from the likes of Gallagher and Polworth and Campbell and although the latter two weren't in top form they still put in decent performances. However we must move on and some fine tuning of the team is required.  Once again today Grimshaw proved he's not a full back.  Midfield maybe, right back definitely not.  Hartley had a nightmare and if Mugabe is half like the thing then I'd start him at Perth.  Up front we look lightweight without an out and out striker in the middle.  The squad really lacks a number 9 and thats something that ought to have been recognised in the summer as it will cost us on the park.  Goal apart I thought Cole contributed little and looked ill at ease in an unfathomable and ineffective position.  James Scott showed some nice touches but, to me, is wasted out wide but not yet ready to play against hulking defenders.  

County did ride their luck and it just wasn't our day.  A decent goal chalked off and a very strong penalty claim waved away.    

I'd pretty much agree with everything up until your comments on Cole.

I thought Cole showed today he links up far better than Long does.  He had some really nice touches and lay offs around the 18 - 20 yard area.

Having said that Long has a couple of goals without really looking like a player whereas Cole doesn't really look a goal threat.

I'd rather play Cole right now, have some joined up play and hope he can contribute goals at some stage.

The problem today was we were sloppy in midfield and there were too many over hit forward passes but I thought Cole showed a hint of something.

[The African]

Sadly predictable result. We have to accept a certain amount of inconsistency with the nature of our squad, but it doesn’t diminish the disappointment when a good little run comes to an end in a fixture we considered winnable after previous results. Was it Spike Milligan who coined the phrase” it only happens all the time”?

[mfc88]

Real disappointment. I hope the few extra home fans who turned up arent put off.

Polwarth off was a strange one as there didnt seem to be any need for it and he has been so pivotal in our midfield all season - it's as if it was just to give o'hara a run out.

Carroll should never have been a second yellow. He went in a bit recklessly but the ref let a lot more go in the game. The 6 ft 7 county boy went down holding his face, red comes out and hes straight up to high 5 his team mate - played the ref a belter there. I thought we were still going to win the game up to this point.

Mix that in with the disallowed goal and the penalty shout and that's got to be one of the luckiest teams you'll see at fir park this season.

Campbell was again brilliant - theres got to be some vultures circling now. Our best player right now.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, mfc88 said:

Carroll should never have been a second yellow. He went in a bit recklessly but the ref let a lot more go in the game. The 6 ft 7 county boy went down holding his face, red comes out and hes straight up to high 5 his team mate - played the ref a belter there. I thought we were still going to win the game up to this point.

Mix that in with the disallowed goal and the penalty shout and that's got to be one of the luckiest teams you'll see at fir park this season.

Officials were shocking and not just at the major decisions.  County gave the impression of being a very streetwise team and the ref couldn't cope with that.  Gardyne for example could have received 3 yellow cards and Henderson broke Ikpeazu's recent record for the number of fouls committed without being punished - 7 by my count.  I've not seen the highlights but if what you say is true about the "6-7 county boy" then the Compliance Officer should cite him, for bringing the game into disrepute.  POD Stand side official let an awful lot of blatant jersey pulling go unpunished and that was really annoying. 

As far as Ya Beezer's comments about Cole are concerned, I agree that he looks to have something but just not in the role we played him in.  To me , we had no central focus yesterday, no-one to cause danger in the box.  Plenty of good leading up work but no destination for it.  Our "strikers" are just not producing the goods and that needs to be urgently rectified in January. 

Our priority for next week should be to get the defence and defensive midfield sorted out though. 

[Happy Dosser]

43 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Officials were shocking and not just at the major decisions.  County gave the impression of being a very streetwise team and the ref couldn't cope with that.  Gardyne for example could have received 3 yellow cards and Henderson broke Ikpeazu's recent record for the number of fouls committed without being punished - 7 by my count.  I've not seen the highlights but if what you say is true about the "6-7 county boy" then the Compliance Officer should cite him, for bringing the game into disrepute.  POD Stand side official let an awful lot of blatant jersey pulling go unpunished and that was really annoying. 

As far as Ya Beezer's comments about Cole are concerned, I agree that he looks to have something but just not in the role we played him in.  To me , we had no central focus yesterday, no-one to cause danger in the box.  Plenty of good leading up work but no destination for it.  Our "strikers" are just not producing the goods and that needs to be urgently rectified in January. 

Our priority for next week should be to get the defence and defensive midfield sorted out though. 

Yes, pretty much the standard streetwise RC performance you'd expect: textbook stuff with a late winner to really set us back on our heels. Having said that, I thought once we had shown so much patience to get our nice goal we would go on to win. In retrospect, subbing Polworth was a mistake (Gardyne always seems to have space to play against us). Unfortunately for O'Hara he wasn't up to speed and got mugged easily for the late goal.

As often happens, when we get a bigger and expectant crowd, we fluff our lines. And yet again we end up discussing a ref who seems totally unaware of the Dark Arts. From where I was sitting Carroll pulled out of the challenge and the RC player did the full Sarah Bernhardt: Robinson was raging at it.

Whatever qualities Cole might have, I don't see him as a conventional striker. He's not strong enough at the moment and the ball simply  doesn't stick with him.

We play another team in the same mould as RC next week but maybe a counter-attacking set up will prove more successful when we are not faced with a blanket defence.

[CoF]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

I've not seen the highlights but if what you say is true about the "6-7 county boy" then the Compliance Officer should cite him, for bringing the game into disrepute.  POD Stand side official let an awful lot of blatant jersey pulling go unpunished and that was really annoying. 

 

Didn't think it was a yellow at the time. Carroll turns to take the ball and pulls out - the two players come together. No big deal. 

Now I've seen the highlights I can see that the County player does go down holding his face. Completely conned the ref. I don't know the rules in terms of what can be cited and what cannot, but it's as blatant an example of cheating to gain advantage as you'll see all season. 

As for the chopped off goal - a really harsh decision. Can only assume it's because Gallagher has his hand on the defenders shoulder however it's no worse than is allowed all over the pitch.