Motherwell V Dundee United

[Chris]

If it wasn't for John Ruddy we'd be fucked.

 

I fear the day he leaves us. So many times this season he's turned a defeat into a draw (Like today) and on the rare occasion a draw into a win.

[nethertonwellfan]

All this pish I'm reading about another draw we cannae beat ten men utter pish. Aye I was gutted too but do you know what I remembered from that game? .... Lukas' utterly fantastic goal thats what. Like last week I was thinking what you doin and he nestled one right in the onion bag. What about focussing on the positives for a change. Praise Lukas as he took enough stick in the early months (from me included) . Praise Sutton who may not have had the best of games but he got one over the so called better team at set pieces.

 

And Dundee United are one of the dirtiest teams I have had the displeasure of watching. They are made up of a bunch of brutes and diving dicks.

 

Mon the well.

[Ernie]

All this pish I'm reading about another draw we cannae beat ten men utter pish. Aye I was gutted too but do you know what I remembered from that game? .... Lukas' utterly fantastic goal thats what. Like last week I was thinking what you doin and he nestled one right in the onion bag. What about focussing on the positives for a change. Praise Lukas as he took enough stick in the early months (from me included) . Praise Sutton who may not have had the best of games but he got one over the so called better team at set pieces.

 

And Dundee United are one of the dirtiest teams I have had the displeasure of watching. They are made up of a bunch of brutes and diving dicks.

 

Mon the well.

 

I wasn't intending to go today but me and the better half got the Chrissy shopping done a lot quicker than I expected. It is disappointing that we have failed to beat a team who are men down again, I thought once again Lukas took his goal well and he does very well at holding the ball up and bringing others into play. The more confident he gets the more I can see why Moyes paid £1 million for him. United have always been a cynical and dirty team since the far of days of smiler Jim but they seemed intent to take it to higher levels today. I also thought the ref was an utter joke.

[WellTiliDie]

I was going in to todays match expecting a defeat so i can't complain too much about a point. I thought we were going to stroll through the match when they got the first sending off and we were until Lasley gave the ball needlessly away in the middle of the park leading them to have a decent chance then they score not much longer after that.

 

I thought Yassin was poor again today positionally all over the joint and his crossing was woeful. At fault for both goals letting Dixon get the cross in for the first goal and fuck knows where he was at the second. Maybe a bit harsh blaming him for their first as Forbes should have cleared it a lot better.

 

Good to see the Juke on the scoresheet again and Sutton bagging a goal for a change. Again i don't know if the changes were required when we were in a winning position with O'Brien been poor, giving the ball away everytime he had possesion, thought Lasley played well apart from nearly letting them into score.

 

Ruddy, Saunders and the Juke were our 3 top performers today. Hopefully we'll get back on track next week against Hibs.

[Tweed]

Unfortunate that the timing of the 2nd last pass was slightly off, but football at it's finest.

 

Lasley looked well onside from where I was sitting.

 

I thought we were a lot better today at protecting the lead than last week when we ended up deep and nervous. Today we held onto the ball a lot better and then blew it with a couple of slack passes, over fancy touches and a right back who ended up out of position. Thing is as playing against ten happens more often and we fail to win its going to become more and more of a monkey. However as the OF are coming little prospect of them losing a man and it may get it shelved to the back of our players minds. However United beat Celtic last week and we outplayed them today. The killer instinct maybe isn't sharp enough and thats the galling thing for us as fans. Its two points we blew but we're close.

[fat_tony]

I thought we were going to stroll through the match when they got the first sending off and we were until Lasley gave the ball needlessly away in the middle of the park leading them to have a decent chance then they score not much longer after that.

 

Very harsh to blame Lasley for giving the ball away there. Saunders should never have passed it to him in the first place as Lasley was under pressure even before he received the ball.

[Neil]

In that instance, Lasley was demanding the ball and Saunders gave him it, he played himself into trouble by demanding the pass from an inexperienced player.

[mwellhighland]

Very harsh to blame Lasley for giving the ball away there. Saunders should never have passed it to him in the first place as Lasley was under pressure even before he received the ball.

 

 

Hows it harsh? For all I love lasley he messed up big time for their 2nd.

I;m guessing Jennings was out?

Was at pisser for our 2nd goal

[DEWELL]

I thought we knocked the ball about ok yesterday and did ok against a more experienced team that had beating Celtic the previous week. We scored 2 fab goals and my only critisism is why dont we leave one man up when we defend and why do we sit so deep at times. .

[Wellfan1984]

Lasley looked well onside from where I was sitting.

 

He was about 5 yards onside from where I was sitting. Right in line with it too. That move deserved a better end to it than a wrongly given offside.

 

I have to admit when their first player was sent off, I never cheered. I had my head in my hands.

 

But I thought Sutton and the Duke were fantastic together, the never say die attitude at times from the Duke caused the "experienced" defence no end of trouble.

[Cookie Monster]

United have always been a cynical and dirty team since the far of days of smiler Jim but they seemed intent to take it to higher levels today. I also thought the ref was an utter joke.

 

Spot on Levein's tactics are dirty and cynical at best, the ref was shocking too which didn't help matters. I thought we moved the ball about a lot better than they did. Thought we should have won but the writing was on the wall when Ruddy pulled off the save just before they equalised.

[siebsbarmyarmy]

Just saw the highlights on BBC two very good goals from us. Bad defending for both theres again caught on the counter.

 

Most importantly though the lasley offside decision is down right shocking. He was clearly about 5 yards onside. that is a terrible piece of linemanship. No wonder Gannon is going off his trumpet, bad bad descision the lino was right in line so he had no excuse, it would have capped off a wonderful goal aswell and finished the game at 3-1.

 

Very poor, but not the main reason we lost all 3 pts.

[wellmanandy]

Just watched the highlights on the BBC Scotland website. Poor defending for their second goal - nobody picking up Daly's run. Then a great save from Weaver to deny Lasley right at the death

[Neil]

One other point of criticism for the ref, where's the consistency in over celebrating rule, Daly leapt onto the track and caused a crowd surge, yet no booking?

[star sail]

Just watched highlights and for me, but for the offside (which is shocking) the ref got the big decisions right. The penalty claim for Sutton was a good tackle and the one on Coke at the edge of the box was clumsy and looked worse than it was imo.

 

The one on Laslay is a shocking tackle and how Levein, Gannon, Craig Brown etc can all agree that it was not a red card seems incredible to me. It was dangerous, late, from behind. What else does it have to be? Is it only if Laslay gets stretchered of that it becomes a red? Surprised that Gannon thinks it was an ok challenge given that he likes to see players being protected.

[Joeboy]

I don't know how many times I'm going to say it, but I'd have taken a draw at the start of the game, but not the end. As much as I rate Jim O'Brien, I don't think we should be trying to work our selection around him. That's two weeks Murphy's has been playing well in the hole and has been needlessly changed. Think our midfield needs freshening up, perhaps a change from the start next week. Think big Lukas was fantastic, would be great to have a penalty box player beside him but we don't seem to have that in our current team! Their second goal looked like very poor marking but I'll need to see it again, but we defended well other than that I thought, Saunders in particular.

[Jay]

Keith Lasley clearly on side - played on by two, possibly even four defenders. The left back also appears to be playing on whoever it is Lasley squares it too - so even debates about "phase one" and "phase two" don't cut it. And then when Lasley does square it, the 'Well player in the middle is behind the ball. So at no point in the move is any body actually offside.

 

That would have given us an absolutely world class team goal and undoubtedly the three points. That makes yesterday's result a little harder to take now.

 

[steelboy]

that's a boot in the baws.

 

it was some move as well, maybe the best of football i've seen from us this season.

[gary_411]

God, watchin the video was bad enough but that still-shot is absolutely sickening

[Haggischomper]

Is that a bowling green we are playing on? Looking great.

[Rickoza]

The more you watch it, the more Bauben deserved what he got. Lucky not to be double yellow-carded for his initial offence, especially for the wild show of dissent, his second card was for a tackle from the back. One FIFA deem a yellow-card offence. Myrie-Williams should definetly have gone for that piece of thuggery on Coke which Mugger Malcolm would've been proud of, and Swanson was an hour-and-a-half late with his challenge. I don't think the Ref will overturn that, had he connected properly with Lasley he'd be plastered to both knees this morning. They could've, and should've, ended the game with just 8 men.

[milo]

The more you watch it, the more Bauben deserved what he got. Lucky not to be double yellow-carded for his initial offence, especially for the wild show of dissent, his second card was for a tackle from the back. One FIFA deem a yellow-card offence. Myrie-Williams should definetly have gone for that piece of thuggery on Coke which Mugger Malcolm would've been proud of, and Swanson was an hour-and-a-half late with his challenge. I don't think the Ref will overturn that, had he connected properly with Lasley he'd be plastered to both knees this morning. They could've, and should've, ended the game with just 8 men.

 

Yep.

[El Grew]

I'm not an apologist for referees but I can't understand what all the fuss is about Saturday's referee. IMO he got nearly all the big decisions correct. The tackle to deny Sutton in the first half was clean and fair - no penalty. Buaben's two fouls were shocking and both booking offences so after the second he had to go off. Swanson's tackle on Lasley was disgraceful and disgracefully late and merited a red card.

 

His one major blunder was in not sending Myrie Williams off for two reckless and shocking tackles. If these tackles had been perpertrated by us on Dundee Utd players I think Levein would be singing a different tune.

 

As for Lasley's 'goal' it should have stood. He was miles onside when he ran onto the pass before squaring it. I was sitting in line with the 18 yard line in the east stand side and the linesman on that side had four offside decisions to make in the game and he only got one right. You can't blame the referee for this.

[Rickoza]

Exactly right. The linesman was bang in line and had he taken his head outa his erse for a second he'd have seen what the rest of us did, and TV proved

[kmmfc]

Watched the highlights of the game again last night and here's my take on the "3" sending off debates:

 

1. Buaben - The ref gave a foul against Buaben which clearly wasn't a foul and due to this decision Buaben reacted. For the reaction, I think the ref was probably correct to book him, however, the ref made an erse of the first decision. 2nd booking was very soft indeed. OK, Buaben clipped O'Brien's heels, however, O'Brien impersonated Eduardo McGeady and the ref should have used a bit of common sense here. So, all in, I don't think Buaben deserved to be sent off.

2. Myrie Williams - Well, unfortunately they didn't show on the highlights his clear dive to win a penalty at the end of the first half which should have resulted in a 2nd booking. Then to confound matters he booked Jim "Tom Daley" O'Brien for taking a dive 40 yards out from goal in the 2nd half. Anyway, back onto Myrie Williams. Clearly, he could have no complaints about his 1st booking, but how he got away with his challenge on Coke was beyond me. The ref had a perfect view of the incident and for him not to show a 2nd yellow was ridiculous given the foul was so blatant. So, he should have been sent for an early bath as well.

3. Swanson - At the game, I thought it was a wreckless and malicious challenge and immediately thought he would be shown a red. Having viewed it on the highlights again, I actually agree with the ref on this one. Swanson flew in and if Lasley's legs (or leg) had been planted, he was facing a very long term injury. So, being honest, I think the ref called this challenge correct.

 

So, on the big decisions, I reckon Muir got 1 correct. With Buaben and Myrie Williams, he made several mistakes in eventually sending of Buaben and not sending off Myrie Williams.