Andy_P

I'm not sure where you're looking Dave but as far as I can make out:- Sat 27th Feb: Hibernian (A) Sat 6th Mar: Livingston (H) Sat 13th Mar: Blank (Presumably would have been Scottish Cup QF weekend) Sat 20th Mar: Kilmarnock (A) Sat 27th Mar: Blank (International Weekend) Sat 3rd Apr: Game 34 (Post Split1) Sat 10th Apr: Blank (Presumably would have been Scottish Cup SF weekend) Sat 17th Apr: Game 34 (Post Split 2)

Two weeks is it not? Last pre-split 20th/21st March, first post-split 3rd/4th April.

Now, that offered a bit more reassurance! Regardless of circumstances I'm always of the belief that a point away from in this league is no bad thing. I think to get a point tonight though, on the back of the last two results and performances lifts some of the pressure that's been building and the performance offers some belief. It would have been absolutely lovely to have got the win both to help with the current predicament and to ram it up them for the Covid-19 carry on, but even though it wasn't a win it feels like a goods night work. In a broader sense I enjoyed the fact that reading beforehand I was seeing St Mirren fans saying they were now back at full strength and how they couldn't see anything other than a home win tonight. Well, that full strength side with top six ambitions and all looked second best for much of that game to an under strength away side but the key thing was to stop the rot and that that we did that with a clean sheet was a real boost. A lot of players stepped up out there tonight. It doesn't quite give us a security of a seven point advantage over the bottom two that was a possibility beforehand but I would hope that performances of that standard and if we can continue to eek out the wins and draws we had have been doing, the Hamilton and St Johnstone abominations aside, should see us all right. Encouraging.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Here we go, another deflection back to Robinson. It was all Robinson's players this, Robinson's players that right up until about half-time in Dingwall. Not a peep thereafter about them being Robinson's players when they won three in fairly quick succession. We lose to Hamilton and lo and behold suddenly we're back to it's all Robinson's players again. We are to believe that Alexander is going to relocate his family lock, stock and barrel a couple of hundred miles up the road having knocked back several jobs beforehand because they weren't suitable but is happy to accept a position at a team struggling near the bottom of the table where he he has little or no say in half a dozen players being foisted on him. Really? We really think he's going to take on the job in those circumstances? He took over on something like 7th January. Smith, Nolan, Magloire, Roberts and Foley were all signed at least a fortnight, some of them three weeks later. And they are supposed to be too far down the line to stop? Laughable.

Relegation. And another Lanarkshire side still being in the to flight. That's your doomsday scenario.

I suspect you might be right, and the considering options ties in with it -i.e. why would you need to consider options if when you next play you are contracted for another year, but nothing was said confirming that was the case.

Indeed. The last two games have been gut-wrenching. But it is redeemable.

There was no announcement at the AGM. There was a non-committal, open to interpretation response to a question about Gallagher's contract, but a leap to say to it was official or had been announced.

A win on Wednesday and we go seven clear of two teams and five clear of another.That puts a lot of pressure on them. This relegation is far from set in stone.

A little sarcasm on my part (apologies if that wasn't apparent) to draw some of the sting in the immediate aftermath of a shocker. No more than that and does nothing to detract from Johnston's display. And it also still says Man of the Match immediately underneath the title too.

I remember not so long ago I was desperate for three points in this game to get it right up this lot for their Covid nonsense. Now I'm just desperate for three points...

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.

Your thoughts and votes please...

I'm now firmly on board with your original view that is indeed easily possible we could go six on the bounce without collecting a point.

I was as pissed off as anyone after Saturday but on the evidence of what we've seen so far since Alexander took over I think it's quite a leap to say you could "easily" envisage us losing the next five games. Hamilton was awful. Utterly awful, but as yet it's one awful game out of eight. I think it's a touch early to go into full blown "we're doomed" mode just yet. Might still come but based on what I've seen I would anticipate the smattering of wins, draws and losses we've seen thus far. For some perspective within a few months of taking over mid-season Stuart McCall was on the back of 6-0, 5-0 and two 4-0 losses. When McGhee came back and stabilised Baraclough's team he still presided over a 6-0 and 7-0 loss. Awful, abysmal defeats are not in themselves uncommon for Motherwell managers in their opening months in charge.

Apologies for my moment of grizzlyness....

Crawford is very much a poundshop Allan Campbell but collectively if you intend playing three alongside Maguire and Campbell (without having seen Foley) his inclusion offers the best balance of seeking to protect the defence whilst offering some kind of support to the attack. At least with Crawford in there you very much know what the role is and what you are going to get. He's going to do his share of hustling, breaking things up and being something of a nuisance. It's much less clear what O'Hara's intended role is. When O'Hara is in there the mix just doesn't seem right. He doesn't appear to offer anything more than the oft slated Polworth creative wise, he seems to impinge on Campbell's freedom to get forward and in defensive terms I've always thought he's looked a lot more comfortable at centre-half with the full pitch in front of him rather compared to when in midfield. I'm not saying Crawford is a better player, but the mix seems that bit better. A trio of Maguire, Campbell and Crawford is a midfield that doesn't strike you as suggesting it offers wonderful creativity or goalscoring threat but let's not forget that our last two goals from open play have been scored by a midfielder.

St Johnstone's performance against Celtic today taken in isolation wouldn't necessarily concern me unduly. The level of performance that can be achieved in a high profile game like that, with the cameras there, isn't necessarily replicated in the immediate game thereafter. I've seen countless heroic displays by Motherwell sides over the years against one of the Old Firm that have immediately been followed up by utter dross. What is of more concern is the general level of consistency they've achieved both in performance and in results. The worst they've had since before Christmas is single goal losses to both Rangers and Celtic. It's the kind of record that we aspire to currently. That all said there hasn't much between the sides. A win and a draw in the league and we tossed away a good opportunity in the League Cup from a winning position. Factor in what I anticipate will be some kind of reaction to yesterday's debacle and I'll be hopeful of avoiding defeat at least.

If Hamilton was supposed to be about righting wrongs God only knows what St Johnstone is about.

Where to begin... I didn't see it coming. Results of late have been half decent, even with the much maligned central defensive pairing of Mugabi and Lamie. Performances have been half decent (in spells of games at least). The noises beforehand seemed to strike the right note of being confident but appreciative of the fixture and what it has generally entailed. I felt positive we could keep things going. Firstly the start. Again, another lacklustre opening. This time there would be no opportunity provided by the opposition to build our way into the game. Three goals and a man down, the game finished before most of them looked like they'd brushed away the sleep from their eyes. Ridiculously bad. The first was bad enough but for a player who has played however many times for his country, who has been handed the armband in a fairly obvious attempt at tempting him with a long term contract Stephen O'Donnell has an incredible lack of awareness at times. From that shot at Tannadice in injury time to whatever it was he felt he was going to achieve in the box today, Red card, penalty. Out for the next game too. Well played Stephen! And then we wait for the obvious substitution from Alexander to attempt to shore things up and prevent a confidence sapping pummelling. And wait. And wait. And..... fucking hell we're now 3-0 down before we decide to take off one of three strikers moping around the pitch whilst Accies are now cutting through us like a hot knife through butter. It was a ridiculous decision not to react. Take the sting out of the game. Slow their momentum. Who knows you might sneak a goal and then be able to chase it in the latter stage. They are hardly the most attack minded of sides at the best of times. Instead we invited them to kill us off and are now looking back on the end of a potentially confidence sapping hammering. The second half was pretty much a write off. A training exercise for them in trying to pick off a beaten team and for us with debut for Johnston and some messing about with positions. You would have been hard pressed to believe that a derby game this season could be any worse than the pathetic performance over there at New Year, but there you go, Motherwell never cease to amaze. Thee deficiencies and weaknesses in that team, if they had been hidden or disguised in any way in the weeks following Alexander's appointment have been laid bare for all to see. In the longer term that might well be a good thing but for now its concerning how easily and quickly they were again exposed. The faith, belief and confidence that many had built up in Alexander has taken a considerable dent today. This wasn't just a smash and grab. This was an embarrassing hammering. He has a job to raise spirits/kick arses/do whatever he feels requires to be done to ensure that, at least in terms of the period since he took over, today will come to be seen as a blip - a fucking horrible blip, but ultimately a blip. Over to you Graham...

Laughable though the notion is (again), your thoughts and votes please...

A slight aside but it did raise a chuckle last night when I watched Chris Lucketti's interview and he spoke of "earning the right to play football". I'm sure I've heard that before somewhere...

The only vague mention of prospects or youth that I can recall was a reference to the U15 team, I think it was, of which they had high hopes. That this mention came following the discussion about the difficulties of retaining players given the lucrative offers available to them elsewhere perhaps also unwittingly tell the fears that lie there.

Apologies. My mistake for not reading your post properly!