St Johnstone V Motherwell 18/01/2025: Scottish Cup

[gaz7]

14 minutes ago, twistandshout1983 said:

I am still a supporter of Stuart Kettlewell, he has passion for the club which most recent managers have not had , Stephen Robinson not included 

The style of football recently is not going to get many others going to Fir Park,  but it is what it is at the minute when everything is taken into consideration 

Really get where you  are coming from and I agree to an extent but there is always an end to everything and I feel it's coming. His signings to play how he wants have been terrible.  No pace or power anywhere 

[FirParkCornerExile]

7 minutes ago, dennyc said:

I did say "And at other times during the season". 

And I agree with your list.

fair dos you did, im still too fucking angry to read clearly.....

[mothman]

Absolutely horrible display again today. Injuries are no excuse - the players on the park should at the very least be giving their best effort and they certainly don't look like they are just now. Seen a few of the 1st team recently saying that it's "the best changing room" they've ever been in and things to that effect. Aye very good, having some great craic every day lads, nice one. How about trying to look like professional footballers who actually give a f*ck for the fans who pay to watch that utter pish.

[wellon]

25 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I am too 

Me too but he's got get rid of guys who aren't doing it for him, some he bought, some he inherited 

[gaz7]

I wish to stop this thread now with a simple.......... our players are not very good!!!

Seriously look at them and you will know.

Goodnight 

[dennyc]

47 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

fair dos you did, im still too fucking angry to read clearly.....

No probs. I think I am beyond angry now. Disbelief and dismay more like…. Although I should know better by now. 

[MFCL84]

3 hours ago, wellfan said:

Yet another predictably poor performance and defeat where zero personal responsibility is taken by Kettlewell in the aftermath. 

Having watched that interview, I got the distinct feeling that he didn't care.

[wellgirl]

4 minutes ago, MFCL84 said:

Having watched that interview, I got the distinct feeling that he didn't care.

I don't agree 

[MFCL84]

2 hours ago, ppower said:

Every game without fail we have around 30% possession. In the first half today St Johnstone had 72% possession. The ball is continually hoofed up the park in the hope that we can feed of scraps.

This is a huge part of the problem that we have. Lack of worthwhile possession puts the back line under constant pressure. This leads to the guys at the back making mistakes. Keep the ball better and play as much of the game as possible on your own terms in the opposition half and the defence will make fewer mistakes.

[smiddy]

1 minute ago, MFCL84 said:

This is a huge part of the problem that we have. Lack of worthwhile possession puts the back line under constant pressure. This leads to the guys at the back making mistakes. Keep the ball better and play as much of the game as possible on your own terms in the opposition half and the defence will make fewer mistakes.

Your explenations are far to sensible for on here 😜

[steelman1991]

One thing that was obvious today was the lack of a "press". I can understand that against more skillful teams who will hurt you, but this St Johnstone team and the others we've played recently definitely don't fall into that category. Utter dug shite today and for a good bit of the season so far. Time for change in my opinion.

[ppower]

Just watched his post match press conference. Talked but actually said little. More heat than light. He certainly threw Mair the new goal keeper under the bus. He said. "We have had the new goalkeeper in for the last two games and conceded 4 goals and he hasn't saved the ball." WTF. What about the imposters in the defense who have played all season so far. Also, if there was a blow up with him and Casey at halftime, it's time he walked. Between the bookings and the red cards and sent to sit in the stand, it is quite obvious he is losing the plot. Today we got the tombola football. Subbed half the outfield players. His time is just about up.

[MFCL84]

23 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I don't agree 

I have no problem with that, it is just the way that I saw it.

[wellgirl]

7 minutes ago, ppower said:

Just watched his post match press conference. Talked but actually said little. More heat than light. He certainly threw Mair the new goal keeper under the bus. He said. "We have had the new goalkeeper in for the last two games and conceded 4 goals and he hasn't saved the ball." WTF. What about the imposters in the defense who have played all season so far. Also, if there was a blow up with him and Casey at halftime, it's time he walked. Between the bookings and the red cards and sent to sit in the stand, it is quite obvious he is losing the plot. Today we got the tombola football. Subbed half the outfield players. His time is just about up.

He said that the goalkeeper had barely a save to make in the last two games. Not sure that's him throwing the keeper under the bus. 

[wellgirl]

Just now, MFCL84 said:

I have no problem with that, it is just the way that I saw it.

That's good it's fine to disagree. 

[wellgirl]

If Casey has had a blow up with Kettlewell at half time why should it be Kettlewell that has to go - come on now - no one needs to know about disagreements because of "someone" who knows something who knows someone on pie and bov.

Remember Liam Kelly sitting crying when Alexander got the boot - the players are responsible too and they know it - this is not all on Kettlewell. They need to get the collective finger out and soon 

[wellfan]

2 hours ago, star sail said:

9 injuries today are significant. A squad with limited resource cannot absorb that kind of set back without it affecting performance. It does not make the performance today acceptable but neither can it be ignored.

Limited resource? That’s an excuse I cannot accept when Kettlewell has been given the budget to build a huge first team squad of 28 players. It’s actually more if you count those he’s sent out on loan. The reality is that he’s signed a significant number of players and still can’t get the best out of the current 19 first team players who remain fit and eligible to play for him each week. He only has himself to blame in that regard. 

[Kmcalpin]

18 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

If Casey has had a blow up with Kettlewell at half time why should it be Kettlewell that has to go

It depends what was behind it. Players have different personalities and I suspect that Dan Casey is a big character in the dressing room. If it was simply one extrovert that spoke up on his own at random then I agree. However if he was articulating feelings of others then the manager has a huge problem of his own making. What concerns me is that many fans including me, feel that SK is hanging some players like Casey, Wilson, Vale and Maswanhise out to dry and is not playing to the team's strengths. 

[wellgirl]

Just now, Kmcalpin said:

It depends what was behind it. Players have different personalities and I suspect that Dan Casey is a big character in the dressing room. If it was simply one extrovert that spoke up on his own at random then I agree. However if he was articulating feelings of others then the manager has a huge problem of his own making. What concerns me is that many fans including me, feel that SK is hanging some players like Casey, Wilson, Vale and Maswanhise out to dry and is not playing to the team's strengths. 

I honestly do not think if Casey and Kettlewell had a bust up at half time that it should have been made public. Or posted about on pie and bov. Where did that come from - Casey? Or another player - if so that's completely unprofessional 

If they want to down tools and get the manager out so be it - but Casey signed for us at the last minute last season - and we pay his wages - another manager might want to punt him 

Surely if Casey has an issue with the manager it should be kept private - that's the professional thing to do. And as I'm sure you know - the social media stuff always grows legs and gets blown out of proportion 

[texanwellfan]

1 hour ago, MFCL84 said:

This is a huge part of the problem that we have. Lack of worthwhile possession puts the back line under constant pressure. This leads to the guys at the back making mistakes. Keep the ball better and play as much of the game as possible on your own terms in the opposition half and the defence will make fewer mistakes.

That’s a good point. At the start of the season we were playing a lot less hoofball and actually looking like a football team. 

[texanwellfan]

Today it looked like we had no clue how we were supposed to be set up. Not defensively because there were huge gaps, not compact at all. Not flooding the midfield because we were totally out numbered time after time there. Not attacking/hi press mode because two forwards were isolated with very little support and left to chase after hopeless hoof balls. So WTF was the plan???

   I really really don’t want to jump on the new manager merry go round again but SK needs to show some sort of willingness, soon, to be flexible in his approach to games and play the system that best suits the players at his disposal at any given time and at least try to play football because his negative hoofball approach is not working so if we are going to get beat I’d rather we got beat playing football. 

[Kmcalpin]

There's no point in repeating many of the above comments with which I agree, and so I'll highlight a few other thoughts after today's debacle. 

On paper our line up seemed reasonable given our injuries although playing Maswanhise out wide and isolated from Vale was a big mistake. I was a bit disappointed that 16 year old Jack O'Connell was named  as substitute goalie. I quite get that it may have been difficult to source another keeper at short notice though. OK it was unlikely that he'd be called upon but potentially chucking on a 16 year old in goals in a cup tie? Really. 

It came as no surprise to me to and some others, whatsoever, that West Ham recalled Hegyi due to lack of game time. We were expecting exactly that. If we could see that why couldn't management? A lack of planning. Early days and although Mair didn't have much to do he didn't inspire confidence with cross balls and fumbled one. Could he have done better at the goal?  Its the first time I've seen Kai Andrews but he looked a little boy lost today.  Too early to judge a very young player but was he a panic knee jerk signing?

Our gameplan, if it could be called that, defied belief.  I'm no tactician but constantly firing high balls down the throat of 2 huge central defenders is ever only going to end one way. Talking of defences, our central defence needs completely, and I mean completely, revamping for next season, maybe Gordon aside. 

No manager is going to have 100% success with signings but it seems to me that SK made more than a few errors last summer and some of his choices & decisions are now looking to be mistakes. A point made by a few posters before.

Management and players let down our big travelling support badly today and they won't forget it in a hurry. 

 

[wellgirl]

2 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

There's no point in repeating many of the above comments with which I agree, and so I'll highlight a few other thoughts after today's debacle. 

On paper our line up seemed reasonable given our injuries although playing Maswanhise out wide and isolated from Vale was a big mistake. I was a bit disappointed that 16 year old Jack O'Connell was named  as substitute goalie. I quite get that it may have been difficult to source another keeper at short notice though. OK it was unlikely that he'd be called upon but potentially chucking on a 16 year old in goals in a cup tie? Really. 

It came as no surprise to me to and some others, whatsoever, that West Ham recalled Hegyi due to lack of game time. We were expecting exactly that. If we could see that why couldn't management? A lack of planning. Early days and although Mair didn't have much to do he didn't inspire confidence with cross balls and fumbled one. Could he have done better at the goal?  Its the first time I've seen Kai Andrews but he looked a little boy lost today.  Too early to judge a very young player but was he a panic knee jerk signing?

Our gameplan, if it could be called that, defied belief.  I'm no tactician but constantly firing high balls down the throat of 2 huge central defenders is ever only going to end one way. Talking of defences, our central defence needs completely, and I mean completely, revamping for next season, maybe Gordon aside. 

No manager is going to have 100% success with signings but it seems to me that SK made more than a few errors last summer and some of his choices & decisions are now looking to be mistakes. A point made by a few posters before.

Management and players let down our big travelling support badly today and they won't forget it in a hurry. 

 

It was probably bad luck that Heygi got recalled just before Ox got injured. However Matty Connolly was on the bench last week I believe so none of us know why he wasn't this week. It could have been for any reason 

The reason that Heygi didn't feature was because Ox hit form 

Mair has a good rep by all accounts and it can't be easy being flung in at the deep end like this 

[Clackscat]

1 hour ago, wellgirl said:

It was probably bad luck that Heygi got recalled just before Ox got injured. However Matty Connolly was on the bench last week I believe so none of us know why he wasn't this week. It could have been for any reason 

The reason that Heygi didn't feature was because Ox hit form 

Mair has a good rep by all accounts and it can't be easy being flung in at the deep end like this 

Connolly cup tied with EK, thats the reason

[Mootherwell86]

We’d have done much better today if Connolly had been on the bench.