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Def Peters MacRae Whiteford and Wark Forsyth McCallum and Donnelly Anyone help with the rest? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All the holding in the box these days drives me nuts. I'm not aware of any changes in the rules, so it really needs to be cut out because it leads to so many inconsistencies in decisions. I'm not talking about jostling for position. I mean the arms around players, grabbing, shirt pulling and the like. Players are coached to do it, and they are coached because they can get away with it. Throw in the fact that teams like Celtic will get those decisions in their favour than teams like us, and it just adds to the frustration.

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Longelo gave the officials a decision to make. Very soft but the sort of challenge that the old firm get awarded penalties for week in week out. The issue like the game at Fir Park is that questions need asking on why the officials failed to send Celtic players off for obvious offences. Tho it is a recurring theme for all teams against them. Then you have the officials turn a blind eye to shoves in their box or over zealous challenges. The shove was soft but a foul everytime outside box. Just was targetted yesterday and was kicked constantly with no protection from the officials. Given how tight the title chase is these officials and the decisions they make are only going to be more biased and outrageous. Hearts have no chance. As for the media and Authorities they ignore the big issues and as a result our game is still in the dark ages and struggles to modernise. All we can do is play our football and try to grow as a club.

For me its the double jeopardy that i have issue with. Penalty yes, and denial of a goalscoring opportunity. But its only a red if its cynically denial of a goalscoring opportunity, otherwise just about every penalty is a red also. Its jostling at a corner, maeda gets the better of him, and the foul happens. Is that a clear and obvious red, when its basically a result of jostling? Not for me. Not like hes scythed him down through on goal. VAR right to step in regarding penalty, shouldn't be recommending a red though. Making it up as they go along though as usual.

Alan Campbell coming on as a sub for St Mirren v Rangers.

Dont disagree with any of that. The only thing I would take issue with is that its a "mentality" thing. Some bad decision making, lack of quality at vital times, bad refereeing decisions and just plain bad luck have all contributed to the games we have lost this season. At no point have I felt that we just never turned up or bottled it.....

I think the red card is for DOGSO. My reading is that Longelo and Maeda are wrestling with each other prior to the corner. Maeda rolls Longelo and gets in front of him. Longelo continues to hold Maeda who has the opportunity to head it towards goal. Longelo prevents this and Maeda goes to ground. If Longelo lets go there is no penalty and no red card. Maeda probably scores, but we still have 11 v 11. Its a sore one, and a lesson learned for Longelo, but I dont think we can argue it. I know some folk think that "double jeopardy" should come into play, but thats only if there is a genuine attempt to play the ball. Longelo has no idea where the ball is, let alone trying to play it.

After watching highlights I tend to now think pen and red card was correct decision though nice of sportscene not to show ox incident. Sparrow definitely at fault for equaliser but Said badly at fault also. It's gone now and would love to get revenge at fir park.

Just watched match of the day on I player and seen 4 worse examples of holding in the box in 4 different games. No fouls given no cards issued. Our referees and pound shop VAR are a complete and utter joke compared to down south.

We move on and hopefully can bounce back. If we can win this one its 9pts clear plus a much better goal difference. I think we were all starting to believe the impossible so possibly explains a lot of the frustration especially on my part...plus I despise the old firm. Maswanhise needs to get back to his levels or else he won't be getting any big move. I think big Thor alongside him would help and save Said as an impact player off the bench

Absolutely spot on in both posts. We’ve been great to watch this season and we’ve all enjoyed it, but it’s very much a case of “so near yet so far” when it comes down to results. And your point about taking St.Mirren’s season over ours 100x from 100 is also bang on the money and I will not believe anyone who tries to say different. Yes they may well be in the mix for relegation and may even be relegated. But they have put a trophy in their cabinet, something we have failed to do for 35 years now. They will remember and celebrate that long after this season, JBA and this current crop of ‘Well players have moved on and became largely footnotes in our history. And what hurts most is that that could very well have been us lifting that League Cup trophy in December against the worst Celtic side led by their worst and most incompetent manager ever but we completely shat it against St.Mirren in that Semi Final and got hammered 4-1. That very same St.Mirren we pumped 5-0 at their own ground just a few months later. That is a sore one. St.Mirren will probably get relegated, come back up and win another trophy before we even get a sniff of one.

Thats a fair point and we won't know the answer about mentality until the dust has settled on this season. The proof of the pudding and all that. I was speaking to a Hearts fan during the week and after complimenting us for our refreshing style of football he said that he thought his team would falter as their character and mentaility were not what it takes to be winners. For all of the top 6 teams there are hard games coming up and there will be no hiding places. A good start for us will be to beat Hibs next Saturday. If we are to be ruthless, I'd like to do so in a manner that impacts negatively on their confidence. Just read Joe's post on P & B and I agree that we need to mix things up a wee bit. Maybe we've become a bit stale and predictable in recent weeks?

Hearts just lost at Kilmarnock. They also lost a huge game at Ibrox and have failed to beat us so far. Celtic lost a cup final to St Mirren and still trail Hearts in the league. Rangers have only lost 2 league games but still sit in 3rd place, They lost a 2 goal lead at home to Celtic, and followed that up by going out of the cup to them in a penalty shoot-out last week. St Mirren have 9 huge league games coming up, plus another semi-final. We'll see how those go. Other than Falkirk fans, probably, I guarantee every other set of supporters have asked/are asking questions about their team's mentality this season.

100% agree Joe. It was a clear penalty and possible red card - I don't know the exact rules about the card in such circumstances. Longelo appeared to elbow his opponent in a bout of wrestling - was that what it was for? If so why wasn't Sevelj red carded at Fir Park for a similar elbowing incident at Fir Park a few weeks ago? Its always hard to tell from carefully edited BBC highlights but on the limited evidence I saw, our defence was pretty poor on several occasions and Ward seemed to have an off day.

No, those are all fair points. Our away form certainly hasn't been outstanding, though it hasn't been disastrous. One home loss in March is beyond anyone's wildest dreams, as is the quality of football. The success of the season does all depend on these last 8 games. It feels as though everyone's pretty much running on fumes at this stage. Those guys have put themselves where they need to be, so I suppose we're about to find out if they have the mentality, or to put it more bluntly, the balls to stay there.

Hearts, Celtic, St Mirren (This season) you can argue Rangers. Before you tell me St Mirren are staring at a play-off I'd have their season over ours 100 times out of 100.

My target this season was 7th spot. So, we've more than achieved that. Bottom line its been a great season results wise. Performance wise even better. As the season progressed and we settled in 4th spot I became increasingly optimistic that we could finish there. I never thought, at any stage, that a title challenge was even a remote possibility. Ambition wise, that left a top 3 finish, and I always felt that was extremely remote and is now well outwith our grasp. My disappointment at Dens was our chance to win our game in hand and pretty much seal a 4th place finish and we failed. To put things in perspective, this is JBA's first season in charge and he's introduced a completely alien way of playing. I've been surprised at just how well the squad adapted. Our possession stats rocketed and just look at the number of clean sheets we achieved - unheard of in my time. Its the best football I've seen from us since I was a young lad i.e. the latter days of the Ancell era. Is it the best Motherwell team I've seen? No. The team of the mid 70s, which won nothing, was a better all round team. Why am I questioning our mentality in big games? Rangers in 2 home games; Hearts at Tynecastle where we blew a 3 goal lead; 2 losses at Parkhead; League Cup Semi Final defeat to St Mirren; Aberdeen loss in the Scottish Cup; and Dundee at Dens. Now I'm not saying that all of that was down to our mentaility because it wasn't. JBA settling in tactics wise; poor refereeing/VAR; and sheer bad luck have all played a part, but lack of that hard mentality has been a theme running through these games. As I'm finishing this post, I've just read Thewellfan's post. To crib from him/her our away form has been fair at best. Our possession stats haven't always translated into hard goals and results. We are where we are and I'm more than happy with that. I'm confident these weaknesses will be rectiifed in time for next season. Apologies for the rant and straying off topic.

Which team in our league has a big game mentality?

We do not have a big game mentality. Bottled a 3-0 lead at Tynecastle, got hammered of a poor St Mirren team in the LC semi final. Haven't beaten a team in the top 9 away from home in the league. (We did beat Aberdeen in the LC QF). Lost to an Aberdeen side with an Interim manager in the Scottish Cup. The minute we got spoken about as potential title contenders we've been beaten of Dundee and Celtic. We've had some good wins at home but we're going to look back on the season as another opportunity missed to put a trophy in the cabinet.

It's a tried and trusted tactic by them...is there any chance this " Rangers man" is not going to give them all the 50/50 s, the hassle wouldn't be worth it. All the refs are Masons...Ken what I mean

Jens didn't sound like he was questioning the penalty or the red card in his interview. VAR were always going to give the first, which was always going to result in the second. It's what the 3 wise monkeys choose not to get involved in that's the pisser, even though we know those were the rules long before VAR existed.

The 2 home games against Hibs and Falkirk are absolutely critical to finishing 4th. I can't see us winning both games. From that lot I can see us picking up maybe 6 or 7 points. Thats not to say, of course, that we still won't finish 4th. Hibs may well pip us at the post, but they're not perfect either as their failure to beat Livingston yesterday shows.

Kmcalpin has repeatedly said we were never in the mix for a title challenge, so that can't be his reasoning. Singling out defeats as proof we lack big game mentalty while ignoring the home wins against Celtic and Hibs, the draws against Rangers, or any other 3 points that have helped put us where we are now, feels harsh. The title's still up in the air and only St Mirren have won silverware (while staring at a play-off), so we're pretty much all in the same boat when it comes to questioning mentality - which Hearts, Hibs and Falkirk fans are probably doing this morning.

I think Tex meant for wrestling in the box at a corner. I agree, you dont usually see that. However, when it happens at the back post, your defender is isolated and the keeper has come and missed leaving the goal wide open, it creates a particular set of circumstances that is hard to defend.