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Another hard game coming up for us on Saturday, but I'm hopeful that we'll take something from it. We'll miss Fadinger but Welsh will be back. A bit of squad rotation last night will also help. Given the other fixtures, its a chance to put a little more daylight between us and Hibs & Falkirk. A point would do us nicely. Maybe the team will be fired up, by a desire to thank the travelling fans, after last night's defeat. Still, I'm not one to listen too much to pre match talk - just go out and do the business where it matters. We were well overdue a stinker and hopefully that was it last night.

It was a horrible draw, which represented a bad start and that was well outwith our control. I get the need to rotate the squad but think that JBA overdid it a tad, certainly in terms of swapping keepers. To be fair though, he didn't really get the opportunity to find out if it would have worked. Once the game started, a mixture of bad luck (Priestman's red card and a deflected free kick) and questionable refereeing did for us. The pitch wouldn't have helped. Still, as with the League Cup semi it gives JBA another valuable opportunity to learn and assess his charges. He has to learn and quickly from it. We also avoided the need for extra time. To their credit the players never gave up. Some points of concern though. I'm still not convinced of Matty Connelly and despite some good saves, his early error killed the tie. Our lack of another left back is starting to hurt us. The fact that we didn't source one is a source of puzzlement to me. Like Grizzly, I'm just not convinced of RCC. Apart from a goal at Pittodrie he just hasn't done much. I ahd hoped that we'd learnt lessons from Sunday on how to stop Aberdeen's midfield but that didn't seem to be the case. Despite all our nice football, have we the qualities necessary to play on heavy tattie fields in winter? Still onwards and upwards and hopefully we can put tonight's experience to good use in preparing for next season's cups, which with some luck and ability to learn, we will have a more realistic chance of winning.

Why should that be the case, thats like saying we are not going to try in the league as we want to win a cup. Success in any form is what Fans want,from league titles, cup wins, European qualification, group stage football, playing effective attractive football, etc to avoiding relegation. Yes other clubs have won trophies since our last success in 91, but we have been successful in other ways, fairly regular European qualification we have played in the champions, Europa, and conference leagues since 1991, been a premiership team for the last 40 years, so is one cup sucess for say St mirren in that period equal to what we have achieved as well, fo me no it has'nt

McGinn. It was a difficult night.

Desperately disappointed that we didnt progress and take advantage of an open draw. And I guess there could be some questions asked over the starting line up. However, what can you do when you get a man sent off after 3 minutes? Regardless of what you think of the decision, the gameplan is already on the slates..... FWIW I thought we held on and tried to stabilise things and when it was evened up to 10 aside we looked like we could asset ourselves. The second red card is a joke, albeit, Gordon really doesnt need to make the challenge. Thought we were the better team with 9 men, but its really hard to effect the game at that stage. Overall, circumstances have dictated our exit. Its difficult therefore to criticise the gaffer or the team. Just need to concentrate in the league now.

I agree that this year's team is an exceptional one, but I've never had the impression that it was capable of winning a cup. Of all our best teams that I've seen, none had that cup aura about them. Our current one lacks a bit of bottle, steeliness if you will and it certainly isn't a lucky team and to win cups you need plenty of good luck. Of the current crop of Premiership teams, I'd say that Aberdeen (now)' Falkirk and St Mirren look better cup teams than us. However, we're the best footballing team and will finish above 2 of them, possibly even all 3 in the league and deservedly so. Pre match I rated our chances of progressing at no better than 50/50 and I can't say that I feel too down about the result. The manner of it however is something else. What I do feel a bit down about is what our fans had to suffer - once again virtually out the cup began the game had begun. Many of our travellers would have been optimistic, probably naively so, but thats maybe not a bad thing.

McGinn for me. Very few others got pass marks in my opinion.

Nah, there's a lot more to it than that. As someone who was there when we last won a cup, it's still something that lives in my memory to this day. Being there with family who are no longer with us, the anticipation, the build-up to the final, then the aftermath with the open-top bus parade and the whole town being absolutely bouncing. There's a reason why the team that won in '91 is considered club legends. Even if we did get to the group stages of European football in most likely the Conference League, which would be great financially, I don't think anyone will be sitting here describing it in the same way over thirty years later. Actually lifting a trophy at Hampden is likely as good as it gets for a Motherwell fan.

You can only judge what impact making 5 changes had if the game was 11 a side ovef the 90 mins. Down to 10 on 3 mins and 9 on 46 rips up any game plan JBA had so any critisicm is irrelevant.

This should explain who gets what this year ie the 2026-27 euro competitions https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/scotlands-european-places-for-202627-hearts-hibs-celtic-rangers-and-other-premiership-teams-affected-5414608

If we could win the league it would be unbelievable but realistically that ain't going to happen. 3rd I do believe is possible but only if we can bounce back . A worry is Maswanhise who just doesn't look same player since transfer window closed. We also cant afford a lot of injuries

I agree with you on the penalty, but I wouldn't want a penny back. From the word go not much else could've gone wrong, but they fought to the end, and I think the vast majority of fans appreciated that.

No its not , we can still win the league and i assume you get a trophy for that, plus with the team we have now qualifying for Europe which at the moment could still be Champions, Europa or Conference leagues we have the best shot in years to make the group stages, personally i think we are conference level but who knows. Prizes are awarded after 38 games so we still have 36 points to play for and that could be for any of places 1 to 4 its up to us, so lets dream big and be the best we can for those 12 games.

How high in league do we need to finish to get into group football? We shown we can't win cup matches so unless it's very favourable draw , it be difficult .

Winning a cup is our only chance of silverware and most other clubs in premier league and also Inverness and Ross Co have experienced it more recently than us If we got group stage Europe football it would be great but realistically that wont happen

I think people are forgetting we had a player sent off within 2 minutes and we were down to 9 men by 46 minutes. As such we will never know if tonight’s team selection might have worked over the 90 mins. Such a big decision happening so early does have a massive effect on the team. Perhaps it is a continental thing and appreciate it might be controversial but I am never really bothered about winning a cup. The only benefit winning the Scottish cup is getting into European competition. Looking forward this team needs to put all its focus over the next 6 months into achieving group stage football - this is the thing that could potentially have a massive financial benefit to the club and it is still very achievable for the team.

The gaffer

The fans that travelled

Brother Beaton, obviously.

We are in development phase. Priority is developing, not winning. Once we fully develop then I’m sure focus will be on winning. Have patience! Have faith!

I thought it was a stick on we would start Thor tonight. Hes looked useful in his sub starts and we know JBA like to use the squad. That one was more predictable than the keeper. (For me anyway)

Two posts tonight Johnstone and the only person that is speaking any sense.

One of the things is to accept that the manager is a modern manager, with style, tactics and squad rotation. What we know is that the squad is not yet ready yet for these challenges. I will also say that the big striker is way off the pace.

I have seen lots of posts like this tonight. The game was massively effected by the red cards, we spent most of the first half trying to adjust to their 11 men and then the last 10 trying to force our way back into the game, there was no rhythm to it due to this. Then JBAs game plan is effected straight after kick off in the 2nd. If it was 11-11 all night and he played poor then fair enough, but throwing players under the bus based on what happened tonight is really unfair in my opinion.

I’d vote for Longelo but his name isn’t above. I thought he did very well when he came on. I’m too disappointed to even think about this any more tonight, we just cannot be changing 5 players especially a goalie …. Who was responsible for priestmans sending off imo….in a really important game like this. Gutting.