joewarkfanclub

Having watched both Rangers and Celtic today, I dont see anything for us to be worried about. Rangers are a bit more solid than Celtic defensively but they look pretty toothless. Celtic have more going forward, but they have been extremely wasteful of late and are wide open at the back. They only won today because Aberdeen played the whole second half with 10 men. Not saying we will win both games or even one of them. But they are not the scarey proposition they used to be. If we turn up and play our usual game and dont make any stupid errors we will compete and hold our own with both of them. As for Hearts. Yes they are a good team and are well clear at the top, but they have also failed to beat us twice, so lets give ourselves a little bit of credit!

Fair enough. Was more or less the point I was trying to make in the post you quoted.

I would have thought the first line of my post gave context to the rest of it? I never said we had a poor game. I said we were poor for the first 20 minutes, and that was in the context of how our expectations have risen compared to what we have had to experience over the last few seasons. Im not sitting here unhappy with our days work. Quite the contrary.

Its a fair point. Our pitch yesterday looked bumpy for the first time this season. Not really surprising given how much rain there has been and the lack of daylight/warmth at this time if year. Still light years ahead of where it used to be at this time of year right enough. Obviously we dont have St Johnstones to worry about this season and looking at the fixtures we have a lot of home games coming up. Most pitches have improved, but still something we need to be aware of.

Really looking forward to this as it will be another stern test of where we are at as a team. This Rangers team arent great, but Rohl has steadied the ship and has them as a far more effective unit than Martin did. If we can go there and get a positive result it will be another big statement in an already outstanding season. Looking forward to seeing how our midfield and attack fare against a side that doesnt sit in to frustrate. Have the feeling it could be a Tynecastlesque game!

Matthew McDermid annoys me more than pretty much any other referee in Scotland and thats quite a feat! I always groan when I see his name against ours. Is he the new Willie Collum?

It was definitely between him and Welsh first half. Really like what he does. Even second half when they brought Priestman on and pushed him forward into Slatterys position, he was really effective. Thought Just's second half performance just edged it, but aye Fadinger is never less than a 7/10 and most weeks he is better than that. Thank you Mr Wimmer!

Like you say its about expectations. Only the first 20 minutes were poor, with too many misplaced passes or bad touches. After that we were generally fine. Big chances from Hendry (x3) and Fadinger could have had the game dead and buried much earlier. Its a bit of a compliment that teams are setting up to try and stop us play rather than have a go at us. However, some of the interplay in tight areas to try and unlock the low block was a delight to watch, second half in particular. Be interesting to see what happens in the next 2 games with teams whose fans will demand they come out and play against us.

Sorry, but have to disagree with this, mainly because of Thompsons apparent inability to find another Motherwell player with a pass. He ran about a lot, and looked like a football player, but that was about it.

Thought the entire team were off it for the first 20 minutes with Watt and Slattery the most wasteful with the ball. Over the 90 minutes I thought Welsh, Fadinger and Just were our best players with an honourable mention for Said. Went for Just for his workrate and the fact he never stops trying to create. His run to get to the byline, tackling their defender and coming up with the ball to cross it into the middle was fantastic and typified his performance. Top class footballer.

We were uncharacteristically untidy with the ball for the first 15 to 20 minutes today. Dont know if it was Dundee's press, the bumpier than usual surface, the sun in our eyes, or a mixture of all three, but we coughed it up cheaply way more than usual with Watt and Slattery being the main culprits. Fortunately Dundee did little with it and we were able to win it back quickly for the most part. After that, I thought the game settled down into our usual pattern and although we didnt create lots of chances we should still have gone in ahead. Hendry's chance was probably the best and having created it for himself he really should have put it away. Second half was one way traffic. A mixture of bad luck and bad finishing delayed our eventual winner. Not our best performance, but still comfortably the better team. We really should have seen it out more comfortably than we did by keeping the ball instead of bootingnit away repeatedly, however, we got their in the end. We are now in a really good position and can have a real go at Rangers and Celtic in the next 2 games without anything to lose or fear. 2 positive results could turn a good season into the prospect of a great one.

Aye, Priestman is the Watt/Fadinger replacement. Slattery is Just or Said.

Not that often. Well not good crosses anyway. Its not really a feature of our play. We tend to work the ball around a lot more looking for openings rather than just chuck it in there for someone to attack. Even when we do get to the by line, more often than not hit the first man or fire it way over the top. Not saying we dont need another striker, or that I wouldnt take Ayunga or someone similar. Just dont think its a given that they would score the goals we need. Id still like to find out though......

That should put a few more on the attendance figures! 😆😆😆

Time to start scouring the training pics to see if he featured this week! 😍😍😍