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A few posts have mentioned being nervous at 2-0 and perhaps it’s just me looking back with a bit of bravado now but I didn’t really feel that nervous atall from about the 70th minute ownward last night. We looked confident and relatively comfortable and if anyone looked like scoring again it was us. Ward’s great save apart we were never in danger really. Usually when we play Celtic and we’re in a good position you’re expecting to lose at any minute…you know that killer ball down the flanks or through the middle and you’re just waiting for the South Stand to erupt or else we gift them something or they get a penalty out of the blue and it all crumbles for us. But last night we saw it out with relative ease even when they started coming back into the game a bit. And that was a pretty amazing feeling and something I’ve not seen since my early days of supporting Motherwell going back to the early 90s.

I can only imagine our players having a bit stuck in their teeth from the semi final and a bit of revenge in mind. I hope that gives us an edge to beat them. I’ll take a 1-0 to us right now and SR to take it with his usual grace.

Robbo has already shown JBA his hand in the semi final, so I fully expect us to counter their tactics far better and improve on our last performance against them.

I'll go with either Emil Gron Pedersen, Kristoffer Odemarksbakken or Erling Myklebust, based on them being Norwegian and I like their names. KO is a winger, but he would be a great partner for AP and JT from an xSyllables perspective.

I’d imagine there are plenty of good players out there short on minutes, looking at us and desperate to come here, at least on loan, in January.

The KMI panel outcomes don’t matter a jot anyway. All they do is highlight incompetence and cheating, and further infuriate fans because there is no accountability.

I can only assume the intent behind this show is to rub the poor decisions into the faces of the fans on the wrong end of them.

Has this explanation been used before? In many previous cases of ours, VAR has been involved in many finely balanced decisions that were neither clear nor obvious.

I wonder if the way we are setting ourselves up to play actually widens the talent pool we can recruit from, since this style is very prevalent in the rest of Europe. Prior to this season, our record with signing foreign players directly (i.e. not via another British team) has been woeful. Who was the last foreign player we signed from a non UK league that was successful? This season we have Fadi, Said and Just who have been excellent, as well as Priestman, who is promising. That's a crazy improvement.

Yes, the key for us, is to get that all important first goal and disrupt, if not obliterate, their gameplan. As others have said, this will be a very different game to last night's and St Mirren will focus on disrupting our normal gameplan. A little bit of good luck will be very welcome on Saturday.

A case of aye you’re right but so are we, ref fucked up but VAR didn’t - arse covering exercise of the highest degree.

Even setting aside the cross for the Said goal, SOD was outstanding. Other than one early last ditch clearance which fell to a Celtic player, he strolled through the game and brought a calmness to the defence. Never rushed and looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Two incidents stood out for me...once when he calmy ushered the ball out for a corner when Celtic players were snapping at his heels and the other when Said picked him up after his goal. The joy Said showed when scoring was infectious.

Texas, Maeda was played through the middle which was a tactical gift to us and was ineffective there.

VAR KMI panel outcome for our penalty claim at Ibrox: The majority (2:1) of the panel agreed that the on-field decision of no penalty was incorrect and therefore the final outcome decsion of no penalty was incorrect. However, the majority (2:1) of the panel agreed it didn't meet threshhold of VAR intervention. So the majority thought it should have been awarded but also a majority vote that it wasn't a clear and obvious error so the referee was not asked to have another look?

I didn’t get to sit down and see the first half but caught short segments on my phone and listened to some of the audio from Motherwell TV. I got home in time for the second half and was amazed to learn that Maeda was being subbed for the second half. I had no clue he was actually playing the first half. I can’t actually say that McGinn amd O’Donnell played blinders in defence, it just seems to be that the way that we play as a team has us defending well agInst opposition without the need for last ditch tackles and heroic blocks. To clarify, i do think both players Mentioned had great games amd I’m sure Welsh will be impressed at the way they strolled thru it, just like he strolls thru games.

This season has been a revelation. I’ve never seen as many non well fans compliment our style of play and looking thru Facebook the number of Celtic supporters actually admitting that we played them off the park is unheard of.

Same, during the game I was so nervous. I knew we were set up to see out the game at 2-0 and basically letting Celtic have the ball but on watching the game back and knowing the score we looked absolutely comfortable. The only real scare was the great save from Ward

I’ve said this for years, that mindset is self defeating and is used as a pre-made excuse for not performing in these games and it absolutely is something that has been all too prevalent throughout the club and several key individuals on and off the park. And whether intended or not it drips down to various players and managers because it’s like with any line of work, any business. If the message from the top is “we’re only a small company so don’t worry about exceeding expectations or going the extra mile, just as long as you hit your base targets each week/month/year” then that is not going to motivate and inspire employees. JBA coming in as an outsider to Motherwell FC and the goldfish bowl of Scottish football wouldn’t be aware of this mindset and more importantly he doesn’t appear to be easily influenced either.

I'd have Longelo in for his height at set-peices, Stama/Hendry is a toss up not overly bothered who starts. I'd be taking Preistman out for an attacker they'll give us the ball and sit in their shape not convinced preistman is going to be very good against a low block.

Regardless of team selection I think the key is for us to score first. if they score first, it could be a repeat of the semi game. The Ibrox game Last week was similar to the semi except Rangers didnt get the break of the ball/punish us like St Mirren did in the semi. Having said that, I think JBA learned from the semi and has us more aware/alert to stop teams scoring against us on counter attacks. I’d Love to see us win this three or four nil but I’ll take 3 points any way we can get them in this game.

I would start Johnny K left back instead of Longelo. Keep Stama on bench as st mirren too physical for him. Keep priestman in

No suggestion as such. Heard Willie Miller talking on Sportsound about Aberdeen's misfiring strikers and how they would be in the market for a striker in January. Got me thinking that someone underperforming at a peer club (like a Nisbet) could be a realistic Jan loan target for us. No one would be too excited, but I think we've got a decent record of getting misfiring players firing again. Simon Murray anyone? Random guy from Scandanavia would be good though, probably save a fair few quid as well.

This for me exactly. Definitely think we have not had the correct mindset going into a good number of these games in recent seasons. It helps when we have a manager who doesn't talk our chances down before a ball is kicked. Jens last night , Wimmer at Ibrox last season. Baraclough in the playoffs being examples of this

Yep there will be enough of that without it coming from our own fanbase. Besides do we not think that this is Jens project, his baby? I really hope he and the players are here to see it to fruition [emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's the afterglow from last night. It'll wear off....