Motherwell v St Mirren 02/04/2022

[joewarkfanclub]

5 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I personally think Stephen ODonnell gets far too much criticism. Way too much. I thought he had a solid game today. I also really like Graham Alexander on so many levels. He praises his players when they deserve it. The thing that struck me today was the backing the fans gave the players. At one point the whole of the east stand was on their feet clapping the players and that was when we were at 2-2. For me the one thing I was happy about today was the win so that people would give Alexander a break. For context I’ve been going to fir park since 1987 and I don’t think he’s a poor manager. Also. If you go on twitter tonight you will see their fans calling for Robbos head. Yes Alexander has made mistakes but 3 points next week and we are top six. That will do me. The fans were phenomenal today and they really should be applauded for that. I’ve not seen support like that for the team in a long time. The whole stand was on its feet clapping the team and that’s the way to get behind them. Particularly when we’ve been struggling lately. 

I agree with much of that. I think the frustration is that, if it had not been for the managers inexplicable mistakes, top 6 would have been home and hosed weeks ago. He has many fine qualities, but he needs to identify his weaknesses and learn from them by not making the same mistakes over and over again.

Oh, and bin the hoofball. Today proves we can actually play a bit and still get results.

[fizoxy]

O'Donnell does get way more stick than he deserves. Thought he had a decent game. I expected him to cut onto his right all game, but he played some decent balls into the channels with his left, and could have come away with a goal if their keeper hadn't made a good block.

Sol and Lamie were both poor, with frequent daft mistakes between them. The first goal was unfortunate, and more the fault of whatever that was on the right touchline. I can only assume their second stood because the ref got confused by the number of fouls they committed all at once and he panicked.

I'm glad Cornelius is getting a real run in the team, hopefully he can cement that place.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[GazzyB]

No sarcasm at all, I thought he was much improved today and offered a threat going forward. I would much rather have SOD at LB than McGinley or Carroll. 

[bigmack]

1 hour ago, wellgirl said:

I personally think Stephen ODonnell gets far too much criticism. Way too much. I thought he had a solid game today. I also really like Graham Alexander on so many levels. He praises his players when they deserve it. The thing that struck me today was the backing the fans gave the players. At one point the whole of the east stand was on their feet clapping the players and that was when we were at 2-2. For me the one thing I was happy about today was the win so that people would give Alexander a break. For context I’ve been going to fir park since 1987 and I don’t think he’s a poor manager. Also. If you go on twitter tonight you will see their fans calling for Robbos head. Yes Alexander has made mistakes but 3 points next week and we are top six. That will do me. The fans were phenomenal today and they really should be applauded for that. I’ve not seen support like that for the team in a long time. The whole stand was on its feet clapping the team and that’s the way to get behind them. Particularly when we’ve been struggling lately. 

Agreed and well said 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

He was average at best. Even thought Sol was dodgy at times today. Mugabi struggled against Jones. 

Need to totally revamp that defence today. Conceded 2 but could have been 3 or 4 easily.

I'm with you on that Iain. Slack defending could have cost us more goals. I didn't think either full back played well and Saints caused us problems down the wings with fast breaks. I thought midfield was far better today and in my view it is the strongest we could pick, albeit we've yet to fit in Tierney (maybe next season). The best balanced too. Great too to see young Dean Cornelius score a classy goal - he's coming on nicely. Up front I thought that Shields and Van Veen did well but not so much Efford.   

Saints second goal should have been chalked off - at the corner kick, the ball was well outside the arc, when taken. Power was also very fortunate to remain on the park as he made a second nasty tackle after having been carded. Luck wise, Saints were fortunate, whilst our run of bad luck continues.

A reasonable performance attacking wise with some half decent football on dispaly but oh dear ...our defending.  

Just watched the highlights of the St Johnstone v Livingston game and noticed that Penrice was only booked for a shin high, studs showing tackle - compare that to Mugabi's red card tackle a few weeks ago. 

All in all a very valuable 3 points and an entertaining match, although some of our defending was cringeworthy.  

 

 

[I'll*no*be*back]

5 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I agree with much of that. I think the frustration is that, if it had not been for the managers inexplicable mistakes, top 6 would have been home and hosed weeks ago. He has many fine qualities, but he needs to identify his weaknesses and learn from them by not making the same mistakes over and over again.

Oh, and bin the hoofball. Today proves we can actually play a bit and still get results.

exactly you have to wonder why we have played so much hoofball all season

[grumpy]

 

10 hours ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

He was average at best. Even thought Sol was dodgy at times today. Mugabi struggled against Jones. 

Need to totally revamp that defence today. Conceded 2 but could have been 3 or 4 easily.

I thought Mugabi looked terrified of making a tackle, probably due to the decision in the Hibs game. Defensively we were poor today and we could have conceded at least one more due to a general lack of common sense. We should have scored another three or four ourselves though and we actually looked like a football team when we had the ball. I thought we played out the last twenty minutes beautifully, especially as I was expecting Alexander to revert to type and put on extra defenders.

 

[joewarkfanclub]

8 minutes ago, grumpy said:

 

I thought Mugabi looked terrified of making a tackle, probably due to the decision in the Hibs game. Defensively we were poor today and we could have conceded at least one more due to a general lack of common sense. We should have scored another three or four ourselves though and we actually looked like a football team when we had the ball. I thought we played out the last twenty minutes beautifully, especially as I was expecting Alexander to revert to type and put on extra defenders.

 

I said exactly this at the game.

Much more comfortable for the fans to see us defending the ball at their corner flag than camped back in our box.

Much better game management.

[wellsince75]

Mugabi is a centre half , he's not cut out for right back.  If he plays it should be in centre half.

If S'OD is the best player in left back (and he is) then it's a disgrace that McGinley got a new contract - both Carrol and McGinley should have been moved on. 

I'd be happy to bring in young Johnstone at right back, put S'OD on the left and then pick from Mugabi, O'Connor, Sol, Ojala for centre halves.
 

[Kmcalpin]

If McGinley had made the same mistake as SOD did for the first goal then he would have been crucified on here. 

[1991]

34 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

If McGinley had made the same mistake as SOD did for the first goal then he would have been crucified on here. 

What else could SOD have done, if anything Sondre was not aware what was going on round about him, he had no idea where the ball was, it was really unlucky the way the ball fell but you single out SOD 

[Yorkyred]

So are we putting the “nailed on relegation fight” on hold for another season ?

[joewarkfanclub]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

If McGinley had made the same mistake as SOD did for the first goal then he would have been crucified on here. 

SOD was unlucky with the first goal yesterday.

Our 2 centre halves were posted missing and he was forced to come in from the left to cover the space.

He gets decent first contact on the ball. Not sure you can blame him for it rebounding off Sol into Brophy's path.

I must confess I thought GA had totally lost it yesterday when I saw the team line up on the field.

I naturally assumed SOD would be on the right and Lamie on the left with Bevis and Sol in the middle.

I still think that would have been preferable, but I thought SOD had a decent enough game on the left.

[joewarkfanclub]

17 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

So are we putting the “nailed on relegation fight” on hold for another season ?

It was never nailed on, and yesterdays win makes it more unlikely. But its still not impossible so we should continue to keep our counsel until after next week!

[dennyc]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

If McGinley had made the same mistake as SOD did for the first goal then he would have been crucified on here. 

SOD was our best defender by a mile yesterday, and I include Kelly in that. Yet he still gets crucified with folk analysing every move he makes in the hope of finding fault. There is absolutely nothing he can do to turn some fans round. Suppose if folk are fixated on him it takes the pressure off others. Charles Dunne attracted the same attention. Further back it has been the likes of Hateley. Has to be one target each season I guess. 

 Mugabi and Lamie are our best centre back pairing and should see out the season. And Mugabi should never play right back again. Don't know if Alexander was trying to prove a point, but it backfired big time.

[Ya Bezzer!]

4 hours ago, grumpy said:

 

I thought Mugabi looked terrified of making a tackle, probably due to the decision in the Hibs game. Defensively we were poor today and we could have conceded at least one more due to a general lack of common sense. We should have scored another three or four ourselves though and we actually looked like a football team when we had the ball. I thought we played out the last twenty minutes beautifully, especially as I was expecting Alexander to revert to type and put on extra defenders.

I don't want to pour cold water on a win but we won yesterday because we killed the game in the second half, it wasn't fun to watch but it got us the 3 points.  If we'd played like we did in the first half St Mirren would have scored again, simple as that, and who knows what the score/result would have been.

Also St Mirren were terrible defensively.  

I've said all along in this poor run that we weren't as bad as a lot of people were making out, I think we also need to display a little bit of caution on thinking we are 'a football team' on one good result.

[texanwellfan]

2 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

SOD was unlucky with the first goal yesterday.

Our 2 centre halves were posted missing and he was forced to come in from the left to cover the space.

He gets decent first contact on the ball. Not sure you can blame him for it rebounding off Sol into Brophy's path.

I must confess I thought GA had totally lost it yesterday when I saw the team line up on the field.

I naturally assumed SOD would be on the right and Lamie on the left with Bevis and Sol in the middle.

I still think that would have been preferable, but I thought SOD had a decent enough game on the left.

Agree. We had two players out right who could have closed down the guy (or at least one of them) to put pressure on him crossing the ball. Both of them ran away leaving him plenty of time and space to deliver ball in the middle.  O’Donnell covers well but Sol gets in the way of header. 

[texanwellfan]

51 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I don't want to pour cold water on a win but we won yesterday because we killed the game in the second half, it wasn't fun to watch but it got us the 3 points.  If we'd played like we did in the first half St Mirren would have scored again, simple as that, and who knows what the score/result would have been.

Also St Mirren were terrible defensively.  

I've said all along in this poor run that we weren't as bad as a lot of people were making out, I think we also need to display a little bit of caution on thinking we are 'a football team' on one good result.

Im pretty sure we were as bad as a lot of people made out. I also think there was a huge amount of frustration because a lot of people believed GA had choices available that could have sorted, or at least improved, the results via team selection and/or tactics. 

[I'll*no*be*back]

Just now, texanwellfan said:

Im pretty sure we were as bad as a lot of people made out. I also think there was a huge amount of frustration because a lot of people believed GA had choices available that could have sorted, or at least improved, the results via team selection and/or tactics. 

Correct we were every bit as bad as everyone was making out. Make no bones about it if we get into the top 6 or even Europe it is no way a sign of a decent team. Its a sign of the utterly pitiful standard of teams in the league. In no other season would this points tally to date have us a baw hair off Europe. Even playing semi decent stuff yesterday we gave away amateurish goals.

[stv]

4 hours ago, I'll*no*be*back said:

Correct we were every bit as bad as everyone was making out. Make no bones about it if we get into the top 6 or even Europe it is no way a sign of a decent team. Its a sign of the utterly pitiful standard of teams in the league. In no other season would this points tally to date have us a baw hair off Europe. Even playing semi decent stuff yesterday we gave away amateurish goals.

Dont go back then

[I'll*no*be*back]

6 minutes ago, stv said:

Dont go back then

So let me get this right you only think people should go if they think we have been playing well.... thank christ that idea hasn't taken off or you'd be sitting there yourself.

[santheman]

11 minutes ago, I'll*no*be*back said:

So let me get this right you only think people should go if they think we have been playing well.... thank christ that idea hasn't taken off or you'd be sitting there yourself.

Think that was a bit of satire on your username rather than a personal dig.

[El Grew]

Fair play to Alexander and the players yesterday. The game had all the ingredients for another hapless display and probable defeat but for once that script went into the bin.

We really played quite well and I think having 3 recognised midfielders who can pass the ball made a huge difference - no howitzer deliveries  for the front 3 to deal with. 

Sure we lost a poor opening goal but the important fact is the players didn’t chuck it. They simply reset and started again and scored 2 goals in a minute to turn the game on its head. 

The 2nd St. Mirren goal was the result of a misjudgment by Liam Kelly but you can’t pillory him for that as he has kept us in a lot of matches this season with some fantastic goalkeeping displays.

But yet again, the players reset themselves and went again and deservedly went in front through young Cornelius.

I think St Mirren dominated most of the 2nd half but without causing too many difficulties for us.

Van Veen’s lead up play for our 4th goal was fantastic and it was great to see somebody beat players and drive into the heart of their defence causing mayhem in that manner.

I thought the side had a balanced look about it yesterday that has been absent for a while.  Each of the players seemed to understand their individual role and their role in the collective unit.

I think this was down to the midfield 3 where Cornelius being there seemed to give Goss and Slattery the confidence to look forward and link with the front 3 each of whom I thought were very good.  Efford’s running, pace and persistence was a constant problem for the St. Mirren back line and they were never able to contain him. Shields too with his willingness to make runs into the inside-right and inside-left channels caused problems for the St Mirren defence who couldn’t seem to work out how to play him. And Van Veen was at times simply unplayable and when he’s in this kind of mood he is a fantastic attacking spearhead.

The weaknesses were mainly in defence but then that maybe that’s the first time these 4 have played together in these positions so I’m not going to slaughter them.

Same starting 11 next week please.

[grumpy]

7 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I don't want to pour cold water on a win but we won yesterday because we killed the game in the second half, it wasn't fun to watch but it got us the 3 points.  If we'd played like we did in the first half St Mirren would have scored again, simple as that, and who knows what the score/result would have been.

Also St Mirren were terrible defensively.  

I've said all along in this poor run that we weren't as bad as a lot of people were making out, I think we also need to display a little bit of caution on thinking we are 'a football team' on one good result.

Actually, I didn't say we were a "football team", I said that, "with the ball, we looked like a football team." I'm actually normally quite optimistic, and always expect a bad run to turn on the next game, but, before yesterday, I was worried that we were in danger of being over hauled by St. Johnstone. 

Also, given that we should have scored at least two more goals in the second half, and that St. Mirren barely troubled our defence, I hope we continue to  "kill" games in that manner.

[stv]

5 hours ago, I'll*no*be*back said:

eSo let me get this right you only think people should go if they think we have been playing well.... thank christ that idea hasn't taken off or you'd be sitting there yourself.

 

4 hours ago, santheman said:

Think that was a bit of satire on your username rather than a personal dig.

You got it in one, next time i will use the sarcastic emojo so its obvious and every one can understand, well nearly everyone, maybe.