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This forum is so negative! We were put out by a side with a 40,000 seater stadium who can sign players from Porto. We more than held our own for over 60 minutes and with a bit of luck could have scored which would have made it a very different tie. Also all this roadmap pish, in case you forgot we are in the middle of a pandemic and can’t have fans in the stadiums, I think Motherwell and most clubs worldwide are just thinking about basic survival right now. End of the day we got a decent wee run in Europe that will have netted the club a wad of cash. Spare a thought for clubs not in our position who without fans could easily go to the wall. There are far bigger issues out there right now than how we spend £4 million like it’s fucking football manager time!

There was a pot of gold if we could have got past the next few games, Hapoel had pedigree but were beatable. We had a mare defensively (not for the first time) and a couple of short circuits at critical moments. In that flurry of yellow cards for them after half time we should have been streetwise (a favourite phrase of Robinson so why the fuck don't we do it) and got in those particular players faces and drew more fouls. That would have given us a fighting chance. They were full of that any touch, roll about on the floor holding your face bullshit. The wing backs don't press and whip in balls and despite having a plethora of wingers we're not using any of them and when we do, they don't take on the opposition, they run until they are closed off turn and square ball if we're lucky or pass back to the defence. The front two partnerships of Long and Watt now seem to be inter-switched with Whyte and Lang, to hell with Hylton, Seedorf and Hastie. I have to wonder, you compete all season long to finish as high up the league as you can, progress as far as possible in the two cups, blood youngsters and hope players you bring in get added value. 2019/20 we finished 3rd (an extra 150k was it over 4th?), this gave us entry to the Europa and conservative estimates for prize money minus travel expenses means another 500k. The business over the summer has been more misses than hits, I can only hope the youth academy is getting a fair chunk of this extra wedge otherwise where and who is it going on or is it being banked as a rainy day fund? I follow this team and give my money over the years because I want to see an improvement, a rise to where the datum is higher than the year before. When windfalls come in I want to see it used on bringing better players in or at least being spent on that potential through our youth setup (which has paid dividends to the nature of 5 million in the past couple of years). Turnbull, Scott, Hastie, McKinstry and no doubt Campbell who will go before the deadline, all this talk about signing him up etc. Campbell has refused multiple contract offers because he's seen the guys he grew up with and had less consistency and impact cut about in Merc's on 4x his salary and upwards. To think the club haven't put something in front of him repeatedly is naivety.

Thank goodness you are on this message board Andy. I was beginning to think I had watched a different game from some of the suicidal posters venting their spleens once again. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but to suggest there was nothing good in last nights performance and that everyone is shite bar Campbell and Watt is raising the doom mongering to new levels. Compared to where we were 3/4weeks ago, we have improved dramatically, and while we beat ourselves last night through naivity and indiscipline, there was plenty in that performance to show that we will be ok this season.

Some people react differently or have different outlooks or personalities but don’t be fooled by their negativity. They are still staunch MOTHERWELL supporters..... albeit they moan a lot.

When it comes to the whole happy clapper/pantwetter debate, I dont think it needs to be "either/or". We should be able to constructively criticise the team when necessary without being overly dramatic about it and maintaining an element of realism about the size of our club and the budget available. I just find certain posters are almost always entirely negative and that becomes tiresome after a while. That doesnt mean we shouldnt expect the management team to spend any money we make wisely for the betterment of the squad/club. Robbo has his faults, but we are not gonna get a manager who doesnt. So while I am in no hurry to have him sacked, if he got a better offer and left, it wouldnt leave me devestated either as Im sure we would replace him with someone of similar stature. I would like to see a more balanced recruitment policy, and potentially use any spare monies to improve the standard of the squad rather than just numbers. That is difficult without increasing our pay structures. Overall I think the club get more right than they get wrong and Robbo does a fairly decent job, whilst still having plenty room for improvement. I guess its where your expectations lie dictate whether your glass is either half empty or half full......

So you confirm your approach is mainly Political. Good to have that confirmed once and for all. Social gatherings of any description can lead to rising infection rates. That's a fact you cannot deny. There are numerous examples in sport and elsewhere, in the UK and overseas. Some have been listed but you choose to ignore that evidence to suit your own purposes. As another example, a charity football match in England resulting in a requirement for 300 folk to isolate. Restricting Social Gatherings across all settings is a sensible response as is trying to find an economic and mental health balance. Until an effective vaccine is available to all, I hope our Club and our Government continue to take a cautious and realistic approach.

For what it’s worth a couple of my thoughts We weren’t pish and looked good at times but as with most games this season, we couldn’t create/convert decent chances. (Lack of 2 or 3 quality players due to our financial structure which I’ve pointed out before could have been slackened with the cash generated over the last 12 months to allow us a better chance in Europe & domestically - even taking Covid into account) They should have had a player sent off in the first half but the ref thought different. They should have had a penalty earlier in the second half. Was Lambie out of position at the first goal? ( if we were playing a zonal defence for set pieces and Lambie was to cover the front area then I’d say it’s the guy who was supposed to be covering the middle of the goals who was missing ) although his passes back to the keeper always give me the fear of being short or wayward. Finally I’m pissed off at us always looking for a rough diamond and just wish we would sign someone who is already cut and just needs polished or reset

Thats exactly the attitude to take, as has been proved by all the new students not giving a feck and getting mad with the bevvy and whatever else during freshers week and spreading the virus. Assume the worst case scenario and legislate accordingly, peoples health and lives are more important than fans getting to watch football.

I still think the biggest thing is mental. We have guys like Long and Gallagher who just can't control themselves and will let you down. You could hear them on the touchline after they came off last night as well and it's pretty obvious they aren't willing to take any responsibility. The Israelis were vicious but they clearly targeted several players and did it in positions that weren't dangerous. European games are where this gets exposed the most but it happens domestically as well. Grimshaw cost us two goals in a Scottish Cup Final and faced zero consequences. If you set low standards you'll get the results we get. Standards in terms of fitness have increased greatly since McCall and McGhee and last night and sunday showed we could hold a defensive shape but individual players still let us down with daft errors and poor decisions. The two free kicks in the first half were criminal, the ball has to go in the box to play the percentages, a well coached team doesn't make errors like that.

Rangers flying high, only lost 2 goals all season, great win away in Europe, full of confidence, while we have a very dodgy defence, zero goal threat, just been pumped by an average team, never beaten Rangers in the league, in years, can only be one outcome....home win

This one stings. It wasn't an especially poor performance by any manner of means, we weren't great but for a large chunk of the game we were more than half decent. And I don't think the opposition were particularly startling either. If, as was said Glentoran and Coleraine were roughly a Morton or Queen of the South, then I'd say this lot were perhaps going away to a Killie, Hearts or St Johnstone. Difficult sure, but by no means unbeatable. But a combination of naivety and stupidity cost us dear. Break it right down and your sliding doors moment perhaps, they put the free-header they had in the net, we put ours over the bar. The free-kick given away by Long was naive, the marking in the box appalling. But until then I thought we'd played pretty well. Long did well with the turn and shot, Watt a little unfortunate to get his feet tangled and the shot from close range blocked. But we were matching them comfortably. Their theatrics that were garnering them fouls I think we'd one shot to concern ourselves with. So frustrating for Long to be suckered and the poor defending so close to the break. I thought we started the second half purposefully but without creating a great deal of chances. And you can't then pass up the kind of chance that fell to Gallagher. I was anticipating a change and when McGinley gifted them the opportunity I thought that was the time to go to four at the back and put on a winger. But then Gallagher killed it. If there was some justification in "taking one for the team" with the first yellow, to immediately follow that up seconds later by attempting to strange someone in the box. I mean come on!!! It was done then. The third adds what feels like some undeserved gloss but in much the same way as we were clinical at Pittodrie so too were Hapoel tonight. I don't have Odense, Stjarnan, Katowice or MyPa style regrets but this is most certainly an opportunity lost. Particularly when so much of the damage was self-inflicted.

And no doubt you will be on here after the game telling us all how you called it, do you enjoy being Yodo and Steelboy's padawan, learning the ways of negativity

I’d say it’s more of a quick risk assessment, guys standing next to each other for a 30 second photograph, I’m here to be proven wrong but I don’t anticipate any transmission there...even if one of them was positive.

I have no idea, and I dont care wether there was or wasnt. The point is, even the most blinkered person would admit a photo like that at times like these is at least naive and at most utter fucking stupidity. ESPECIALLY when the club is putting posts out on social media asking people to wear masks and social distance to keep lanarkshire safe.

The only manager I have seen us win a cup played some of the most dire football ever seen at Fir Park for a few seasons first and only avoided relegation thanks to reconstruction.

It's almost getting like Tories telling the SNP to stop talking about independence and then continually talking about independence. The only ones who constantly harp on about the Cup Finals these days are the ones who want to see the back of him. EDIT: And oh look! There's Yodo skipping along to further re-enforce the point.

We will play our "fantastic" brand of football, passing between the back 3 before one of them launches it 50 yards to nobody, we will gift them a goal with comedy defending, give them a stupid penalty and they will run out comfortable 3-0 winners, Robbo will blame the trip to Israel and the happy clappers will be smug cause Grimshaw passed the ball to a teammate twice in the match and managed a non illegal throw in. Declan will come on after the match saying "the boys worked so hard/we never got the breaks/Im proud of the effort" Back to the bottom of the league, but its all good, Robbo DID take us to 2 cup final pumpings a few years ago!

I don't know but he maybe looked at your dig at the Scottish Government, your listing the date of the Scottish Parliamentary elections and had a sneaky suspicion from that you were being political.

We won all our games in Europe wearing white shorts. Switched to claret and we got pumped 3-0.

Sadly out before the proper Europa tournament kicks off, and another full claret hooped shirt opportunity missed. We have clearly too much belief in the team that one day we will make the group stages. Perhaps if we change our kit strategy we just might do it. I can hear the conversation now... “Hi it’s Motherwell, can you produce some home shirts without the full hoop as we’ve only gone and qualified for the Europa league group stages.” Joking aside, the kit has looked great so far.

Football is irrelevant in the scheme of things. Socially and psychologically it would be great to get to matches but there is a bigger picture. And from a financial point of view, it would be a drain on the Club for little purpose. No income whatsoever as attendance limited to existing Season Ticket holders and no retail outlets open. Furloughed staff brought back to facilitate opening the ground plus Police and Steward costs. There is a reason our club is not pushing this. The Club has a structure that is coping fairly well, so why change that. And as for outdoor events, there is no guarantee of safety with regard to CoVid. There is no bigger an outdoor sporting event than Cheltenham Races and that did not work out well. And an outdoor Rugby event in Italy was the source of many of the original infections in this country. Travelling and socialising are part of sport and that will happen if fans are allowed back, regardless of any guidelines. But as you wish to push your Political agenda, how many track and trace findings identifying football attendance as the source do you think it would take to enable shutting down sport at all levels indefinitely?

University's going back isn't comparable at all. There aren't many similarities between sitting in the East Stand and a house party full of students. Football should be a safe activity because it's outside where transmission rates are extremely low and we can have allocated seats to ensure people are distanced. As for people moving around the country so what? It's a tiny amount in the total amount of people that are on the roads/railways for work or leisure every single day. An Old Firm season ticket holder might get a home game every 6 weeks, it's irrelevant in the scheme of things.

Exactly. Part of our problem is thinking we have played OK when we haven't. It's like a fundamental misunderstanding of the sport. It's a game of small margins. Most of the time winning or losing, no matter how 'good' or 'bad' you are in general play, comes down to a handful of incidents. Being good is ultimately judged on how you deal with those incidents and all season we've been found lacking in our decision making, our concentration and so forth. That's how the game is. There is no point saying 'Oh we were in the game and then this happened'. The whole point of the game is making sure 'that' didn't happen for them and that 'did' happen for us. In the end we lost 0-3 and that's a pumping. Harsh? Maybe but that's football. It's a merciless sport.

Just look what’s happened with the university’s going back. It’s not inside the grounds that you have to worry about it what fans do before and after games … do you trust them to follow guidelines. Then we take in the old firm they have fans who travel the length and breadth of the country and from Ireland or do we just say only fans within 25 miles of Ibrox and Parkhead can attend games, going to go down well with season ticket holders in Dundee and Aberdeen. Even our limited fan base travel a fair distance Edinburgh,Stirling Ayrshire. Who decides which season ticket holder gets in and how often do they get in ??

That is blatantly against the rules, they'd spot we had 18 players on the pitch in no time.

You’ve hit the nail in the head. As fans, you pay to see as good a team as possible on the park. Fan ownership means we are all privy to the knowledge of being debt free, Prior. Between player sales, prize money and sell-on fees, we must have netted close to 4 million in profit in the last 2 months yet we are without a stated plan of investment and clearly watching a squad that needs it badly. I refuse to believe for a second that Mcginley and Lamie are commanding the salaries of Hartley and Tait or at least I hope to god they aren’t as they a fraction of those players. So again, I ask the question, where has the money gone or is planned to go? Others have said correctly, that side were there for the taking and you cannot help that feel that had we already invested in 2/3 players of quality that I and others have been crying out for, we would be looking at a playoff at home for a shot at the groups. It’s only correct for the club to now come with a roadmap. We seem to be paying salaries for a raft of players either not good enough or indeed not good enough to even get a look (not to mention permanently crocked Dunne whom I’m imagining is a larger earner) so again, what’s the forecasted return of investment from a fans perspective now? Not in terms of money, but in terms of product.

I actually enjoyed the first 25 mins of the second half. We came out and pressed up high. Turned it into a very open game where I thought we were holding our Own but unfortunately we still had one foot that hadn’t been shot yet!

Fixed that for you.

I couldn't care less what they have done in the past...tonight they were there for the taking and but for poor discipline for the 1st two goals we would have given them a real run for their money

With there being a Cobra meeting today to discuss Corona and us playing Hapoel Beer Sheva, it doesn't half give you a thirst!!!

Obviously i didn’t. Wondered what that whoooshing noise was.

I see what you did there.