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As bad, if not worse than last week, without the excuse of a red-card (and trying use to Barry Maguire being hit with the ball in the face as a factor). I had been generally impressed with what Alexander had achieved in the short time since his appointment. I've had my concerns about the way we've tried to shut up shop towards the end of games, but we had made some progress. But last weekend had the alarm bells ringing such as the lack of activity when the game was beginning to get away with us. That has only been exacerbated after today. It was an excellent finish for Saints opener granted but you don't have to look too hard to see how it could have been prevented. The second, the epitome of shooty-in. The third, further lack of awareness from Polworth on the back of Pittodrie. But Polworth wasn't alone in seemingly learning nothing from previous matches. Three isolated forwards again? Especially when you have little or nothing in the way of creativity to give anything remotely resembling a fighting chance and a make-shift defence that desperately requires all the protection it can get. Still the perseverance with the short kick outs at goal-kicks? No Jock, it isn't dangerous because of the conditions or the pitch. Its dangerous because of the frequency we try to do it, the signal it sends out to the opposition and the standard of the players trying to carry the manoeuvre. Alexander is being hamstrung with the sheer number of players that are available to him, that is pretty obvious, but he's not helped himself in several respects and has now presided over back to back results and performances that have been as poor, if not worse, as those that resulted in the change of manager in the first place. There was absolutely nothing. One attempt to goal to twenty plus from St Johnstone. That is an absolutely horrendous statistic. A team that we could actually have overtaken had we won and we are allowing more than twenty efforts at goal from them. Apalling! That the teams below us have gained no ground and that another game has been ticked off is about as positive a spin as you could put on it. It says much that its as good as it gets. There was some great work undertaken in the early part of this year that put us in a position to really move ourselves clear of bother. We are in danger of completely screwing up all that good work. We have a game in hand that could allow us to put ourselves seven clear of second bottom but do you have any faith that we can go to Paisley in midweek and make that happen. I'm afraid to say that at this moment in time I'm struggling to find it.

It is getting to the point where I don't know why I watch this. It just makes an already crap weekend worse.

Well the youth player, just turned 17 did ok and kept plugging on till the end. Same can’t be said for Polworth and those to jokers at centre half Young boy showed more commitment and guts than those 3 put together

See when a manager has watched a formation not work and watches his team get over run and still doesn't change it ? That's not a good sign. The three centre forwards playing with 2 as wingers has never really worked, yet we still persist. Utter shite.

This is the exact problem!!! I said it in December/January, that we needed 3/4 quality bodies with experience to galvanize this squad. Not loan players, but guys tied down to contracts. Yes, it would’ve been a change of tact financially, but not having those players would be far more detrimental. For anyone who has seen the series ‘Sunderland til I die’ series 1 you can see the culture of players that don’t give a shit and what it can mean. We’re in exactly that situation and it was coming like a slow motion train wreck. We’ve brought this on ourselves

Probably not. Nobody checks the players before they arrive here.

Its February and we are only a handful of points away from the bottom. It really shouldnt matter what the players, Craigan, you, or whoever 'we' are think of the manager. These fannies need to roll their sleeves up and play for their own proffesional pride and careers. Im not ITK, no idea if GA is good or bad, but now isnt the time for fucking about. Craigan rightly or wrongly tried that before with Gannon but at least it was early in the season. We cant afford to have them spit the dummy and if they do, every single one of them should be shown the door at the end of the season regardless of what we do with the manager. Its time for them all to man up!

What does it even mean? Fairly self explanatory... The club don’t have to release every bit of information do they? The salivating of some for titbits of information is laughable. Give the in-the-know stuff a by. There’s plenty information out there without having to dig for it. You’ll get no apology from me if my part answers or hints irritate you. Not for the first time, some news that comes our way can’t always be leaked in the way some do. Offers protection for those who’ve offered it & belies the inaccuracy of plenty that makes it way onto this chat. I’ve been consistent in my approach with the new management - just not bought into their soundbite. I'm not the only one who has mentioned discontent... Stephen Craigan’s post match comments were pretty telling for me. Certainly aligns with a few things that came our way recently & not from those not being involved. No smoke without fire?

What does this even mean ? I have nothing against you OTF but if I am being critical you are guilty of coming on this forum and giving part answers or hints and often actually telling us nothing. It is clear you are in the know but and I speak for myself it can be quite irritating. You have hinted at some discontent with current management and I along with others are totally bemused as what is unfolding re the amount and nature of injuries. To have 18 players unavailable is probably unprecedented in any football club. Thee could be perfectly valid reasons for all of them but something appears to be amiss.

Formation really gets on my goat for the following obvious reasons. The front 3 - don't play well together. Long is a centre forward not a wide player so it doesn't work. 3 midfield players don't work with our current team for the can't pass or are slow. We get outfought /over run every game in midfield. We could play 3 -5 -2. and have 2 wing backs 4-4-2 Bottom line is If we keep playing the same formation its 1) easy for the opposition 2) madness to expect it to work This is stuff I'd expect a new manager to change and I'd certainly expect us to change formation mid game when getting humped - it's not good enough.

This is a cross purposes argument. Are Gallagher, Campbell, O’Donnell et al. Strong enough to play for St Johnstone or most teams in the league, probably. That’s not the issue and isn’t my point. My point is that we have the perfect storm. Players with no affiliation to the club winding down their deals, short term players and loans. Ask yourself how many of those players are committed to Motherwell for the next 2-3 years unless someone comes in with a big bid and bigger salary and the answer is probably fewer than 10% of the squad.

Have to agree,trying to use st johnstone as some kind of example of how a club should be run is nonsense,aye we're having a shit season but even then I wouldn't swap anything they supposedly have over us.

When your in a situation like this you need players with heart and who are willing to put their bodies on the line Any one of the following would do fine at the moment Willie McVie, Peter Miller, Stuart McLaren or Luc Nijholt None of them great footballers but anyone playing against them new they were in a game. This mob of spineless chickens are not going to get us out of this mess

A model of how to do what, avoid relegation and settle for a bottom 6 finish, they have been as shit as us in recent weeks , a couple of results makes a big difference. Compare like for like ie 1st choice players for both teams, not the thrown together shambles we had today, do they have better players , maybe 1 or 2, in certain positions but overall I would back us to beat them as we have done consistently in recent seasons. We are a fan owned debt free top flight club for 30 odd years, multiple European qualifications, do StJ regularly challenge for a top 6 finish or a European spot, no. So are they miles better than us playing wise..no, how the club is run...no, they are a mid table club just like us.

And when he did kick a ball it went out for a throw in 60 yards away.

You don’t have a point. Saying they are in a cup final because Celtic and rangers aren’t is both obvious and irrelevant. They have qualified on merit by winning matches and fair play to them. They have a settled sqaud and a lot of long serving players, younger players like Mccart and McCann who would walk into our side and a couple of decent recent additions also. For a mid level premiership team, they are currently a model of how to do it. They have stability and clearly a vision at the moment for how to conduct themselves - right now, I cannot see that at Motherwell to anywhere near the same degree

Excepting his 2 runs, Maguire has been very poor, but he is a central midfielder.

Every time I say Ricki Lamie's name in my head it's in the voice of that X Factor announcer, which is quite apt as he's clearly won a competition.

Would've been 2 tin cans and a bit of string, but they're playing in midfield for us.

I had us getting a point from this fixture with our first team and that was maybe with a bit of claret and amber in the lens. St Johnstone are a better team than us and they are certainly better than our 2nd string. I said it before with the fixtures we have (and the injuries/suspensions) I think 5 points would have been a decent haul from the fixture going up to the break. It's going to the post split fixtures and there is no point getting upset about being beaten by better teams.

Fucking disgraceful,second week on the trot the game is over by half time,we make even the most average of opposition look like world beaters,I'm totally scunnered with this lot,the sooner this season is over and they can all fuck off the better.

Anyone checked Bevis' contract for an appearance related extension clause ??

He's out with a potential contract extension..........

think it's a myth , cos a bloke doesn't run about steaming into tackles therefore hes lazy Scottish football is full of hard workers...dont remember Bobby Russel getting pelters for not tackling everything that moved. that's why you have a midfield of different types....ok I've set him up to have a mare.

Good to see Polworth back, his positive and hard working attitude along with great set pieces will be huge help today. Hope Liam reads this and goes out to show me his call up vindicated

Or maybe you're just talking shite.

thats a good wee listen, and obviously not your normal irish sellic fan so take a bow big chap i take my hat off to you for not going down the usual route

Im with you however the majority on here think we have 2 international superstar defenders and Tony Watt was in with a chance of going to the euros as Scotlands number 9 , despite someone only "surprisingly" finding out today he doesnt score goals Always been the way on here , Connor Ripley was the next Gordon Banks etc We did beat Ross County a couple of weeks ago though after giving them a goal of a start and have picked up a few other points so all those who have disgracefuly ran the white flag up already should be aware that we are still favourites to stay up and have a good at least a fighting chance of doing so. We are Motherwell, we are Motherwell, we are, we are

Max johnstone ,17 yrs old thrown in at the deep end and showed up the rest of them.

Don't know how he thought that. When I saw the team I couldn't see us getting anything from the game. I would have rather he had put another two players in midfield, and hope for a breakaway goal, or a draw.

You can't realistically count Dunne as a possible starter, given how long he's been out and the questions over whether he'll ever play for us again. You'd be as well using Tait or Hartley's absences as an excuse. We're probably missing Donnelly more than anyone, but the club knew how long he'd be out, so why the hell didn't they prioritise finding a replacement long before January's window opened? We managed to bring Kelly in on relatively short notice, so it can be done. Somebody has to answer for the mob we did recruit, because the few who are available are undoubtedly useless in our current situation.

Until we get players back and fit nothing is going to change, it’s going to be a struggle to stay out of the bottom two with what we have just now. I think with that starting 11 we will struggle to win a single game.

Question is, do we keep Alexander if we go down? We were on a hiding to nothing with the injuries today but sticking with 433 was just ludicrous! You would’ve thought we might have at least tried to make ourselves hard to beat. Apparently not... Was Alexander behind the January signings? If so would you trust him with a rebuild? Where did we find clown shoes Chapman? Was it via the same system that identified the January signings? The whole squad is rotten to the core and many of us detected a whiff of this months ago and were dismissed. We’ve got 1 or 2 max who give a shit and the rest of them are a disgrace to the profession. Unless many of these mysteries injuries clear up from Wednesday onwards this team is taking us down as there’s barely a player among them you’d want in the trenches. Many look like they’ve given up the ghost already. And the manager too possibly?

Only problem is that they still have us to play...

Let’s just pray teams keep beating Accies and Ross County, as it’s the only chance we have of staying up

Get Alexander tae fuck

I'll keep using till the shite has left Fir Park

Only so long you can use that line.

What's this 'got dropped for David Turnbull two years ago' chat? Cause your talking absolute shite, thats a few times you've hit out with it as well. See if your going to have a pop at a player, have some grounds for it.

I'd happily see Polworth sacked for that. An absolute tadger.

I guess that’s also going to be Robinson fault.

Never mind the revamped John Hunter shed is looking good, new sound system installed and hot water in the toilets. We'll have one of the best stadiums in the championship.

We wouldn't change it even if we had other midfielders available,we really are our on worst enemy,the obsession with a 3 man midfield is beyond a joke now.

New faces versus a team not wanting injuries before a final: as long as we get in their faces we have a chance. 3-1 the mighty Well

That terracing looks great. I vote for leaving it as-is.

Who picked this team the x manager of the Hartwood Lollipops

If thats the lineup then we have got t go a four in midfield been getting rag dolled in there recently pull watt back into the top of a diamond and have cole and long closer together

I believe talks are already at an advanced stage with that in mind.

Jordan Roberts getting a glowing reference from the Hearts guy on View from the Terrace: 'The most negative winger in world football' Why did Motherwell take him on loan? 'I've no idea, it's baffling'. No just us then.

I was a guest recently on Irish Footy Vlogs discussing former League of Ireland players in Scotland, supporting Motherwell and collecting the jerseys as an Irish fan and my top Irish players at Motherwell from down through the years. Even got a shout-out for Upper Crust in there too!