Motherwell v Hearts 12/04/2025

[Kmcalpin]

Very pleased with the result but not with the performance. My expectations pre match were very modest. I had completely discounted a top six place so our failure to achieve that didn't bother me. I simply couldn't see us taking anything from the game so a point was very encouraging. Ross County, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock all losing was the icing on the cake for me. If Hibs beat Dundee tomorrow that will top off my weekend. 

It's all to play for, of course, but we've got an excellent chance of avoiding 12th place and a good chance of avoiding 11th spot. After the split, it'll be dog eat dog,which will benefit us. 3 home games will also benefit us. 

[joewarkfanclub]

As long as Hibs win tomorrow then I think we only need 1 win to be safe.

Dundee and St Johnstone would both then need 4 wins from 5 to get ahead of us.

Given that they would both need to take some of those points from Killie and Ross County to overtake us, it would need a pretty remarkable set of results for us to go down on 42 points.

[dennyc]

17 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Very pleased with the result but not with the performance. My expectations pre match were very modest. I had completely discounted a top six place so our failure to achieve that didn't bother me. I simply couldn't see us taking anything from the game so a point was very encouraging. Ross County, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock all losing was the icing on the cake for me. If Hibs beat Dundee tomorrow that will top off my weekend. 

It's all to play for, of course, but we've got an excellent chance of avoiding 12th place and a good chance of avoiding 11th spot. After the split, it'll be dog eat dog,which will benefit us. 3 home games will also benefit us. 

I agree with your game comments, but are you certain we will get 3 home games? We might be due that to give us a 19/19 split, but I think we are only due Killie and St J at Fir Park. County, Hearts and Dundee have all visited us twice I think. So who is told to visit FP for a third time given how tight the bottom six is and how critical home advantage is likely to be?

As has happened previously , teams can end up with an 18/20 Home/Away split even though that is unfair.  

Hopefully you will tell me my calculations are wrong?

[wellfan]

Impotent, clueless shite, but what’s new?! And Wimmer’s post-match interview doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence that he knows what’s required either.

This team hasn’t shown anything in recent weeks to suggest that it’s capable of winning another game this season. Worrying times ahead. 

[robsterwood]

I think we should be ok. Enough mediocre teams below us to give us 3 points we need. Also I'm not bothered about the midden hammer throwers getting top 6 as they are so far away from Europe place. That's the only reason for top 6 other than finances.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

As long as Hibs win tomorrow then I think we only need 1 win to be safe.

Dundee and St Johnstone would both then need 4 wins from 5 to get ahead of us.

Given that they would both need to take some of those points from Killie and Ross County to overtake us, it would need a pretty remarkable set of results for us to go down on 42 points.

Assuming that Dundee lose tomorrow, then surely if we win one more game, then they "only" need to win 3 games, as we'd be 8 pts ahead of them no? 

[Mad Dog]

1 hour ago, mothman said:

Dire game as others already said, real lack of quality. Only positive for me was Johnny Koutroumbis who played well. Would like to see Ox back in goal, Paton in CM and think Wilson deserves another go at LB. Not sure if there's a solution in the squad for our struggles in the forward area... Ebiye well out of the picture it would seem.

I prefer Ox in goal but Balcombe had a really good game today, so to drop him would be harsh.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, dennyc said:

I agree with your game comments, but are you certain we will get 3 home games? We might be due that to give us a 19/19 split, but I think we are only due Killie and St J at Fir Park. County, Hearts and Dundee have all visited us twice I think. So who is told to visit FP for a third time given how tight the bottom six is and how critical home advantage is likely to be?

As has happened previously , teams can end up with an 18/20 Home/Away split even though that is unfair.  

Hopefully you will tell me my calculations are wrong?

I think that if a team finishes in the predicted half of the table (based on the previous season's final league placing) then they are guaranteed an equal split of home and away games. That being the case, both Hearts and Kilmarnock might well be the ones to lose out.

[dennyc]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

I think that if a team finishes in the predicted half of the table (based on the previous season's final league placing) then they are guaranteed an equal split of home and away games. That being the case, both Hearts and Kilmarnock might well be the ones to lose out.

Thanks. Hope that’s how it plays out. So possible we get Hearts at FP in addition to Killie and St J. Should find out fairly soon. 

[mio]

I just want to avoid rugby park, that’d be a bonus.

A trip to Dingwall on the last day of the season knowing we were safe I wouldnt mind that either.

[Kmcalpin]

A disappointing performance today, but a very good result. We also achieved a rare clean sheet, although we couldn’t manage a single shot on target.  I thought Casey, Koutroumbis, and Slattery were the pick of the bunch, despite the latter two being played out of position. I had an inkling that one of our central defenders would get injured today and so it proved.  Neil Critchley said that our set up caught him by surprise. Not sure what he meant by that but assume that he expected a high press game. 

At no time did I expect our approach to live up to the pre match hype. it certainly wasn't a high press as we sat off Hearts and played quite narrowly. They looked fitter and better organised than us and their off the ball work rate, when not in possession, was far higher than ours.  

I felt a bit sorry for TJ and Watt as they were starved of decent service.  TJ proved a bit lightweight and isolated and aerial balls aren’t his forte. For long spells I completely forgot that Watt was playing, he was so anonymous. Again, Lennon Miller was very subdued apart from from the odd flash of skill. Hearts had done their homework and learned from St Mirren and Kilmarnock that "industrial" tactics do pay dividends against us. They knew beforehand that we don't like it up us. 

I still don't get Balcombe being preferred to Oxborough but there will be a reason for that. Injuries continue to crucify us and I just hope that the likes of Gordon, Kaleta and Seddon are available after the break.

[MJC]

Well another dismal performance where we offered nothing in attack and were pedestrian as ever. Fortunately for us though Hearts were equally poor and as a result we managed to scrape a rare clean sheet and a point.

We need to hope for a kind set of post split fixtures but in truth it’s hard to see us winning another game this season.

[Kmcalpin]

47 minutes ago, MJC said:

We need to hope for a kind set of post split fixtures.

Not St Johnstone just after the break please. 

[MJC]

21 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Not St Johnstone just after the break please. 

There isn’t one potential fixture that you’d be confident of getting a result from with this team. The first post split game could be St.Johnstone at Fir Park or Hearts at Tynecastle it wouldn’t matter, because we wouldn’t win either.

[steelman1991]

For a game that carried so much pre-KO, that has to be one of the most "insiped" matches I've ever witnessed. Neither team looked as if they wanted to win it and fear stifled any invention at all. Absolute pish - from both teams.

[Spit_It_Out]

The most annoying thing about yesterday was the fact we had a chance to get into the top six and we done nothing not a thing to put in a performance to fight for it not even one shot on target.Did that looks like a team up for it?

This brings me back round to is this a team that's going to put up a fight sitting in 10/11th position I wouldn't bet on that.

Team of loans and players end of contracts that don't give a hoot.

[wellsince75]

For me it’s completely unacceptable in any football match not to have a shot on target .

many of us got frustrated under kettlewell for reducing down to 2-3 shots , first one coming after the 65th min sub .

but we’re regressing further and further - someone mentioned 5 shots in the last 4 games. 
 

It’s so far from being acceptable -  I hope what wimmer is saying behind closed doors is different to what he said post match.  

 

[wellfan]

This squad would see any manager under pressure and fail to achieve most of what they set the team out to do, but if Wimmer (as is rumoured) offers a number of these players new deals then he’s only got himself to blame when he loses his job.

He more or less has had a free hit this season, other than to keep us up, and now has the opportunity to completely overhaul the squad come the end of the season. Let’s hope he takes it. 

[wellon]

1 hour ago, Spit_It_Out said:

The most annoying thing about yesterday was the fact we had a chance to get into the top six and we done nothing not a thing to put in a performance to fight for it not even one shot on target.Did that looks like a team up for it?

This brings me back round to is this a team that's going to put up a fight sitting in 10/11th position I wouldn't bet on that.

Team of loans and players end of contracts that don't give a hoot.

I don't think it's lack of effort,  just not good enough 

[twistandshout1983]

This squad definitely needs trimmed in the summer .  Stephen McGinn I heard highlighted we are running with a squad of 36 first team players

Absolutely no need for this amount 

[Spit_It_Out]

45 minutes ago, wellfan said:

This squad would see any manager under pressure and fail to achieve most of what they set the team out to do, but if Wimmer (as is rumoured) offers a number of these players new deals then he’s only got himself to blame when he loses his job.

He more or less has had a free hit this season, other than to keep us up, and now has the opportunity to completely overhaul the squad come the end of the season. Let’s hope he takes it. 

That's the thing sure we have certain extensions in contracts that get triggered nothing he can do about it but good god if any of these players have impressed him then he must be easily pleased.

Watt and Taveras we have basically took a wage of rivals clubs  and paid for that privilege got nothing in return.

I can't think of two worst transfer windows at the club than the last two never seen club funds so badly used.

[mfc]

For me in terms of numbers and quality,this has to be the worst squad we have ever assembled,it's such a bloated one dimensional squad that lacks pace,energy,width,we don't even see basic stuff being done like passing and moving,I said it yesterday but the amount of players that we have that don't even look comfortable with the ball at there feet is ridiculous.in terms of relegation or the play off spot,I think we will be just about fine but that's only done to the lack of games left to play and nothing else.wimmer simply has to get as many of this squad out the door as possible cause if we're left with too many and we then have another disastrous summer signing spree,then next season we be in exactly the same spot all over again.

[grizzlyg]

Team that finished yesterday had 5 loanees, add other loanees that didn't feature and also out of contract players and it will be a totally different squad next season.

Also McGinn, Gordon, Seddon and Stama missing doesn't help.

As I said to my mates yesterday,  it's like keeping a car ticking along till it's MOT is due.  Just want to survive this season then we rebuild but Wimmer needs to be given a chance and his first transfer window hopefully gives us an idea of how we will look

[Spit_It_Out]

No excuses to shift a majority of this squad and get players in that will bring the qualities that he needs to carry out the tasks asked of them.

We shalll see.

 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, twistandshout1983 said:

This squad definitely needs trimmed in the summer .  Stephen McGinn I heard highlighted we are running with a squad of 36 first team players

Absolutely no need for this amount 

Agreed but that's largely down to our catastrophic injury list this season. The worst I've come across in over 60 years. Quality is another matter entirely.