Motherwell V Aberdeen 5/01/2025

[FirParkCornerExile]

2 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

That was a red card all day long. It occurred right in front of us. At first I thought that Watt had actually been nutted. I've seen several such incidents over the years and the culprit has always been red carded. The culprit's comments to match officials in the aftermath wouldn't have helped his cause either. I suspect though that TW wound him up in some way. You simply can't behave like that and expect to stay on the pitch. Jimmy Teleen's comment afterwards  that he didn't see it was nothing short of bizarre as it happened about 2 feet in front of him. 

Correct , Specsavers will be busy on Monday with Well fans who cant see it. TW made the most of it but it was a Red Card ALL day long. 

[weeyin]

2 hours ago, texanwellfan said:

If SK subs earlier they will get more minutes. Players should be going all out for 60 mins then sub to continue that level of intensity so we have it for 90 mins. 

The challenge is they need the game time in matches where making 17 mistakes in 30 minutes due to lack of game-speed practice won't cost us any points.

[Spiderpig]

2 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

At least one of those fluffed ones was because the ball he was given was pish, it was put behind him instead of a ball in front of him. A few things didnt come off for him but he put in a shift and won quite a few balls for us. For me apart from 15 mins before half time thought we were rotten. Had Aberdeen scored with the one that hit the bar we'd have has a nail biting second half. 

 

Shots on target 3 Aberdeen 2

Accurate Passes 253 Aberdeen 408

Forward Passes 156 Aberdeen 195

Total long Balls 68 Aberdeen 59 

Touches in the box 27 Aberdeen 29

 

Those stats against 10 men are poor. I'm delighted with the 3 points and cant fault the effort but we are still nowhere near a decent team. I have to say in SK defence he was screaming at the midfield during the game to press higher up but they didn't and in his interview readily acknowledges or use of the ball in possession could be better. Davors days have to be numbered. 

The only relevant stat you need to worry about is Motherwell 2 - Aberdeen 0, the rest is meaningless drivel.

[FirParkCornerExile]

1 minute ago, Spiderpig said:

The only relevant stat you need to worry about is Motherwell 2 - Aberdeen 0, the rest is meaningless drivel.

You are correct the only stat that matters is 2-0. I'll pass your message onto SK to tell him he can o get rid of his analytics team cos their work is meaningless drivel. 🤣🤣

[grizzlyg]

4 hours ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

We win again 

As The Bee Gees once said

[grizzlyg]

6 hours ago, MJC said:

We’re never scoring today, it just has that look about it already. 

Ahem.....

[grumpy]

We started slowly today but grew into the game as the first half wore on. Oxborough had one good save at 0-0 but we could easily have been 2-0 up before the first goal. Typically, we reverted to type and gave the opposition too much respect during the second half. That said, after they hit the bar, at no time did I think they were getting back into the game and we actually took the sting out of the last 20 minutes quite efficiently. A very enjoyable 3 points.

Nick Walsh should be removed from the refereeing list forever.

[Big Stall]

Took a while to get going but we were pretty good first half. Should have scored a couple before we did. Casey i think missed a sitter of a header & someone took the ball out of hallidays feet before he was about to smash it from 8 yards.

2 great finishes & fat tony did what he does by niggling & goading that red card. Superb stuff. The rest of the first half we passed it about in complete control.

Fuck knows what happened 2nd half. The ball was a hot potato that our guys just panicked anytime they touched it. We really missed Miller not being able to take the sting out it & play a few passes. Aberdeen looked the team with 11 men.

Three points, clean sheet, great stuff but by god we made hard work of that 2nd half

[Kmcalpin]

Over the piece, we deserved our win. When the teams took the field, it became clear that we needed to keep the ball on the ground. Each team that visits us seems to be bigger than the last and Aberdeen had 3 lads 6-3 or over. Our line up seemed  a bit weird but was no doubt influenced by injury and I suspect illness. We began slowly but after 1 or 2 scares, gradually carved out chances for ourselves and it  was a great to see Ewan Wilson score his first goal with a rocket finish.  Rubezic rightly saw red. He butted the annoying Watt and probably made contact. If that wasn't enough he feigned to butt him again and then shoved him to the ground. If that isn't a red I don't know what is.  MOTM Manwhanise then scored a well taken second. He was a thorn in the Dons' flesh until he was retired.

Unbeknown to most of us, Peter Leven and Richard Foster had a slight disagreement in the tunnell at half time and were red carded for their sins. 

Somewhat predictably, the second half was an anti climax as we sought to see out our lead. At the time I thought it was overly negative but in hindsight, SK likely had an eye on next week's game and told his charges to go easy until full time. Still it was disappointing to see a 10 man team create several chances for themselves, find space around our box and smack the woodwork. Aberdeen look to be a decent side albeit they can handle themselves physically and won't be bullied by anyone.  It was encouraging to see the likes of Nicholson, Slattery, Vale and McGinn, but not Koutroumbis, get some game time. Tony Watt worked hard, made a goal but not much came off for him.

The gamble of playing with only midfielders worked up to a point. It was ok when we were in possession but not when we were out of it. Halliday had a decent game doing some unglamorous work, but I thought Davor looked a like a wee boy lost. That said he was on a hiding to nothing. He picked up an early yellow card (?) and faced much bigger and heavier opponents.

All in all a good result with some good football in short spells, but a few weaknesses as well.  I've watched worse games at Fir Park and those who couldn't make it or chose not to, lost out unfortunately.         

[joewarkfanclub]

Thought we were honking for the first 25 minutes with the usual shitfest hoofball missing out the midfield. Albeit the application and effort were much better than Tynecastle.

Aberdeen played the better football in that period without really hurting us.

The Casey chance seemed to be a turning point for us and really should have been converted.

Thought both our goals were very good finishes and the red card deserved. Watt does Rubezic up like a kipper and he falls for it. He can have no complaints.

Second half I thought we failed to control the game and made much harder work of it than we should.

We still played some decent football on the break and probably should have got the third goal to finish them off.

Overall a good 3 points. Not the perfect performance but under the circumstances more than acceptable, particularly with the league tightening up behind us yet again.

 

 

[texanwellfan]

There has been mention of a bug doing the rounds among the squad and I wonder how much that has affected players performances. Paton really struggled against Hearts and i thought Watt struggled tonight. Once (if) we have a full squad I think we will finish the third round of fixtures pretty strong and maintain our top 6 spot. We have already beat the team in third position 3 times This season so what can’t we be aiming for third??

[Kmcalpin]

6 hours ago, texanwellfan said:

There has been mention of a bug doing the rounds among the squad and I wonder how much that has affected players performances. Paton really struggled against Hearts and i thought Watt struggled tonight.

I asked around yesterday but no-one seemed to know whay Harry Paton was missing. Someone though did see him outside the ground. Given his "lights on but no one at home" performance against Hearts; his absence yesterday; and management comments about illness, I assumed it was due to a bug. Maybe I'm putting 2 and 2 together to get 6 who knows.

Certainly a fit Paton was badly missed yesterday. Long balls worked up to a point but aerial bombardments proved totally fruitless, as we soon sussed before kick off. We lacked energy in the engine room and coped ok as long as we were on the ball; however when Aberdeen chose to attack through the midlde we had little answer and thats one reason why we struggled after the break.      

[joewarkfanclub]

Aye Patons absence was puzzling. I know he wasnt great against Hearts but he wouldnt have been turfed right out of the squad. Hope it is just a bug thing. We will need as many fit players as possible in the next couple weeks to cope with the schedule.

Re the second half, I thought we showed a real lack of game intelligence to make use of the extra man. We went long far too quickly at times gifting Aberdeen the ball back, and then held onto it too long when there was a switch of play on.

Very frustrating.

[wellfan]

23 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Aye Patons absence was puzzling. I know he wasnt great against Hearts but he wouldnt have been turfed right out of the squad. Hope it is just a bug thing. We will need as many fit players as possible in the next couple weeks to cope with the schedule.

Re the second half, I thought we showed a real lack of game intelligence to make use of the extra man. We went long far too quickly at times gifting Aberdeen the ball back, and then held onto it too long when there was a switch of play on.

Very frustrating.

Everyone and their dug has some sort of virus at the moment, which I imagine includes football players.

Your point on the lack of game intelligence epitomises the Kettlewell approach at times. It’s so infuriating. 

[joewarkfanclub]

6 minutes ago, wellfan said:

Everyone and their dug has some sort of virus at the moment, which I imagine includes football players.

Your point on the lack of game intelligence epitomises the Kettlewell approach at times. It’s so infuriating. 

Not sure you can put lack of game intelligence down to SK?

Players either have it or they dont.

I thought Halliday was the only one yesterday that looked like he was trying to manage the game out. Probably not surprising as he is one of our most experienced players.

SK also mentioned in his post match remarks that he was frustrated we didnt manage the second half better, so I dont think the players were doing it under instruction.

We do have a fairly young squad, so hopefully they will learn and improve. The return of the likes of SOD, McGinn, Nicholson and Slattery should also help.

[grumpy]

I thought we saw the last twenty minutes out quite comfortably yesterday. I sit in the Cooper and the number of shouts at Oxborough in that period to get the ball up the park quickly was astonishing, holding on to the ball as long as possible then keeping it short was working well at that stage, much better than the twenty minutes before that when the defence was lumping it aimlessly and letting them run straight back at us.

Sometimes I despair at the fans "Game intelligence".

[Kmcalpin]

10 minutes ago, grumpy said:

I thought we saw the last twenty minutes out quite comfortably yesterday. I sit in the Cooper and the number of shouts at Oxborough in that period to get the ball up the park quickly was astonishing, holding on to the ball as long as possible then keeping it short was working well at that stage, much better than the twenty minutes before that when the defence was lumping it aimlessly and letting them run straight back at us.

Sometimes I despair at the fans "Game intelligence".

Whilst I get the need to slow things down, I understand the shouts about Ox not releasing the ball early. On a couple of occasions  when 10 man Aberdeen were fully committed to attack, we outnumbered them 2 to 1 on the halfway line  and quick punt up the park to the likes of the expectant Maswhanise or Vale or indeed almost anywhere would have caused all sorts of problems for them. That's why some fans became animated. 

[grumpy]

1 minute ago, Kmcalpin said:

Whilst I get the need to slow things down, I understand the shouts about Ox not releasing the ball early. On a couple of occasions  when 10 man Aberdeen were fully committed to attack, we outnumbered them 2 to 1 on the halfway line  and quick punt up the park to the likes of the expectant Maswhanise or Vale or indeed almost anywhere would have caused all sorts of problems for them. That's why some fans became animated. 

Fair enough, and I get that, but, a badly directed punt could have seen the ball come straight back with the imbalance of players then in their favour. I was pretty happy with the way we slowed it down.

[joewarkfanclub]

49 minutes ago, grumpy said:

Fair enough, and I get that, but, a badly directed punt could have seen the ball come straight back with the imbalance of players then in their favour. I was pretty happy with the way we slowed it down.

No one is saying there is anything wrong with slowing the ball down. We just did it at the wrong times.

Also pretty sure the shot that hit the bar was in the last 20 minutes, so I would say we were anything but comfortable in that period. If that went in, we would have been under serious pressure. Whereas at 3-0 its game over.

Not suggesting we should have gone gung ho, in fact, quite the opposite. But where is the risk in punting a ball long to a single striker when the other 10 are still in position behind the ball?

[wellfan]

2 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Not sure you can put lack of game intelligence down to SK?

Players either have it or they dont.

I thought Halliday was the only one yesterday that looked like he was trying to manage the game out. Probably not surprising as he is one of our most experienced players.

SK also mentioned in his post match remarks that he was frustrated we didnt manage the second half better, so I dont think the players were doing it under instruction.

We do have a fairly young squad, so hopefully they will learn and improve. The return of the likes of SOD, McGinn, Nicholson and Slattery should also help.

The buck stops with the manager. It’s a team, not individuals. If he has to shout like mad at them during the game, then he’s not preparing them adequately or selecting them appropriately. But, yes, young players can be forgiven in this context, but they’re not all under 18 and/or inexperienced.  

[weeyin]

If yelling at players mean you didn't prepare properly or picked the wrong players, managers like Klopp and Mourinho must be useless.

 

 

[wellon]

16 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Over the piece, we deserved our win. When the teams took the field, it became clear that we needed to keep the ball on the ground. Each team that visits us seems to be bigger than the last and Aberdeen had 3 lads 6-3 or over. Our line up seemed  a bit weird but was no doubt influenced by injury and I suspect illness. We began slowly but after 1 or 2 scares, gradually carved out chances for ourselves and it  was a great to see Ewan Wilson score his first goal with a rocket finish.  Rubezic rightly saw red. He butted the annoying Watt and probably made contact. If that wasn't enough he feigned to butt him again and then shoved him to the ground. If that isn't a red I don't know what is.  MOTM Manwhanise then scored a well taken second. He was a thorn in the Dons' flesh until he was retired.

Unbeknown to most of us, Peter Leven and Richard Foster had a slight disagreement in the tunnell at half time and were red carded for their sins. 

Somewhat predictably, the second half was an anti climax as we sought to see out our lead. At the time I thought it was overly negative but in hindsight, SK likely had an eye on next week's game and told his charges to go easy until full time. Still it was disappointing to see a 10 man team create several chances for themselves, find space around our box and smack the woodwork. Aberdeen look to be a decent side albeit they can handle themselves physically and won't be bullied by anyone.  It was encouraging to see the likes of Nicholson, Slattery, Vale and McGinn, but not Koutroumbis, get some game time. Tony Watt worked hard, made a goal but not much came off for him.

The gamble of playing with only midfielders worked up to a point. It was ok when we were in possession but not when we were out of it. Halliday had a decent game doing some unglamorous work, but I thought Davor looked a like a wee boy lost. That said he was on a hiding to nothing. He picked up an early yellow card (?) and faced much bigger and heavier opponents.

All in all a good result with some good football in short spells, but a few weaknesses as well.  I've watched worse games at Fir Park and those who couldn't make it or chose not to, lost out unfortunately.         

I thought Davor was OK yesterday but I'm not a fan. 

[santheman]

1 hour ago, wellon said:

I thought Davor was OK yesterday but I'm not a fan. 

It's a strange one.

Posters on P&B are generally in agreement that he had a very effective game whereas on here its the complete opposite.

I can't really remember him making any brilliant tackles or passes likewise can't remember him making any glaring mistakes, so my take on that is he was probably quietly effective without doing anything to make him a stand out.

[joewarkfanclub]

6 minutes ago, santheman said:

It's a strange one.

Posters on P&B are generally in agreement that he had a very effective game whereas on here its the complete opposite.

I can't really remember him making any brilliant tackles or passes likewise can't remember him making any glaring mistakes, so my take on that is he was probably quietly effective without doing anything to make him a stand out.

Wasnt his worst game, he does cover a lot of ground and closes off space well. But he isnt the strongest in the tackle and his passing is always a hit or a miss. Thought the yellowcard he got was a bit harsh given Halliday had just got clattered by the guy Davor tried to tackle. Walsh ignored that and was very quick with the yellow. Couldnt believe they were actually considering a red!

[wellfan]

Davor was rendered useless once booked as he was unable to make another tackle to try to break up play. A bit unfortunate for him in that regard.