joewarkfanclub

Dunne made a decent return but faded towards end as you would imagine. Carson was solid enough. I kinda agree with Yorkyred re Bowman. He did nothing spectacular, but you always get a shift from him. He put himself about and at least tried to hold the ball up to allow the midfield to close the gap between them and the front two. Without him there would be no link up play. Campbell and Turnbull were the 2 best performers. I went for Turnbull purely because we are crying out for someone with his composure on the ball to improve us as a team.

Frustrating player at times but gave us some great moments in a very good Motherwell team. Needless to say he would walk into the current side. Sad to hear the injury has got the better of him. Wish him all the best with whatever the future holds.

So Steve Clarkes target for Kilmarnock this season is to keep Kilmarnock in the league? Should he be pilloried for lack of ambition like our manager when he stated the same thing? Discuss.......

First time Ive gone for null vote. 2nd half was just awful.

Home game for me! COYW!

Motherwell v Rangers 26/8/2018 Was a fantastic game of football. The man you blame was in charge.

I was pretty happy with my lot last year. Yes the football wasnt always the prettiest but nowhere near as bad as some made out. 2 cup finals and just missing out on top 6 seemed like pretty good progress from the year before. If Im really honest, I am disappointed we havent kicked on this season and built on last years success. There are reasons for that of course, losing Cedric was always going to hurt and injuries to Dunne, Tanner and Bowman havent helped our start. Main has been carrying an injury and Caddens form has dropped right off. My biggest disappointment is that other than Aldred, who isnt really new, and Johnson, who has shown some promise, none of the signings seem to have made any impact. Gillespie seems a decent back up and may eventually replace Carson. ATS, I think was signed as the left wing back we were needing, but for whatever reason hasnt shown enough to be picked. Donnelly and Mbulu are both young and probably signed as development players who might make us money in the future. Gorrin was clearly signed as a replacement for Bigi who has ended up staying so hasnt really had a chance. Sammon is the one signing that I cant fathom. With Main, Bowman and Johnson and Newell all on the books I just didnt see the need for him. I dont think he is absolute shite but we have 2 players who can play his role better. We dont know how much of last years money the manager got to spend. You can bet it was a relatively small proportion of what we made as we have to take these opportunities to pay down the debt. We also dont know who was available in our price range that wanted to come to us. That said, I would still have expected us to be able to see some improvement in the quality of the squad which hasnt really materialised as yet. Im not overly concerned with the results so far with the exception of Accies who we should have beaten, and some of our performances, particularly against Rangers have been good. Its a long season ahead and there is plenty time to improve. I still think Robbo is the right man for the job, albeit I think he has made mistakes in team selection and substitutions at times, but he is as good a manager as we are going to get and I think he buys into the ethos of the club and what we are about in terms of being a fanowned community club. Much rather have him than some of the usual suspects. There is plenty of room for improvement though, and now that we are out the cup he will have his work cut out keeping the baying wolves from the door.

I see Las has hinted that Main has been carrying niggling injuries since the start of the season which together with choice of striking partners might explain his form. Hopefully he will make it tonight and be paired with Bowman, who for me has been the best foil for him since he arrived. Given the way the game is likely to be played tonight, Johnson from the bench could be a good option to have later in the game. Hopefully some more of the injury doubts will make it as well. Need as close to our first 11 as possible to have any chance tonight.

What he said was he wants us to put balls into areas teams dont like to defend. That could be high balls. But it could also be balls in behind, down channels or cross balls. All of which we were pretty good at last season when everyone was fit. He never said we would stop trying to pass or keep possession so the headline is false and continues to play to the agenda that we are nothing more than a team of cluggers. Our squad has its shortcomings and limitations no doubt and you might agree with that assessment. However, imho, I think we have been and can be a bit more than that.

Sammon is cup tied. The article states Bowman and Main likely to return. Also, in usual Record style the headline has only a passing resemblance to the actual quotes made.

I find criticism of Cadden puzzling. We shout and clamour to get young players in the team (see Turnbull and Maguire) yet we pillory them when they dont perform? The guy is 22. He has over 100 appearances for Motherwell already and has been in both full and U21 international squads so he cant be as rubbish as some make out. He is not excempt from criticism and if the team was settled and playing well, I think he would be fair game. But to have a go at him in the current circumstances is imho unfair. This is a form slump. Not entirely unconnected to how he is being asked to play, the number of games he is playing and the general inconsistency of the team. He will come good again. I have no doubt about that.

Great interview Andy! Easily the most impressive football administrator in the country. He may have his detractors on here but he talks a lot of sense and can genuinely see things from a fans perspective. I think the future of our club looks bright.

Cheers mate. Is there any way to block those off of your phone so you can get to see it? Im not very tech savvy.

Sorry to appear thick, but do I need to register for this service to see the game or is that just a dodgy pop up to farm my details?

Great choice of tune on the closing credits this week! Wondered where the hell you were going with it until I twigged what the song was! Wont spoil it by spilling the beans but nice work!

If they did, they missed out on some absolute scenes!

Difficult to pick a winner today. The whole team played well and different players could be considered deserving for lots of different reasons. Thought both Hartley and McHugh were excellent at the back and both took their goals well. Johnson looked lively up front and looks to compliment Main, who also looked more like himself, very well. Ended up going for Bigi because, not only did he provide some excellent deliveries but he was able to control the tempo of the game and he never hid from his defensive duties either. If he can keep up this level of form, keeping him could just be the best bit of business we did this summer.

That was a really enjoyable game of football today. A really good performance against a much improved Rangers side. We should take a lot of confidence from that going forward and it says a lot that we are probably a bit disappointed not to have taken all 3 points. The scenes at the end though after that equaliser! Just shows what a special group of players we have. When you see how much that result means to them its pretty easy to feel that bond between the team and the support. Hopefully we can put to bed the negativity that was growing within the ranks and follow it up next week with a win. I thought Thomson hada pretty decent first half hour but it then started to unravel for him. I disagreed with a number of his decisions but its the inconsistency that pisses fans off, particularly when it appears that those inconsistencies only go one way. I dont think he is particularly anti Motherwell, but he does appear to be unduly influenced by the bigger supports. Anyway, it all adds to the wee rosy glow of contentment we are all feeling tonight! Heres to you Stephen Robinson!

Robbo hinted in his presser that due to injuries both Bigi and Gorrin will start. Be interesting to see if this is the case and whether the football on show improves as a result.

Maguire and Turnbull have already shown they are good enough at this level and will be disappointed at some of the signings we have made which looks like limiting their chances. Not sure how good young Scott is. I would have been happy to see him as 4th choice behind Main Bowman and Johnson. The signing of Sammon seemed unecessary at the time. However, with Bowmans injury and Mains poor form so far, it might not prove to be so. Hopefully the likes of Hastie and McLean will benefit from their loan spells and come back equipped to push for a first team place and encourage this years crop to do the same We need the pathway to be successful to attract the best young local talent away from the bigger, richer clubs. Developing our own is far more satisfying than filling our squad with players from the english lower leagues, even if we do unearth the odd gem here and there.

Sorry just got what you did there! Nice work!

Didnt we try that against Hibs?

I agree. But until Dunne is back we look short of options. Donnelly and ATS havent looked concvincing and I dont see anyone else with the correct attributes. As per my last post going 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 arent without their own issues.

I dont agree that Bigi is anything like Rose Grimshaw and McHugh (who I would agree are all defensive minded midfielders). He has a lot more football in him and is far less defensive minded. I take your point re Frear. He would be most effective in a 4-4-2 but we would be giving away the midfield to most teams in our league which is never good. We could go 4-5-1 but then you have one less target to hit in the box unless you can get your forward running midfielders up in support. Bit of a conundrum!

Id like to see what Bigi and Gorrin would be like playing together. I think its incredibly unfair to chuck one of them into our current set up and expect them to be able to change things on their own. They need others to find space, run channels and make themselves available to take a pass. I lost count the number of times Bigi got the ball on Saturday and looked up to find nobody in front of him to pass to. Our movement off the ball was very poor and resulted in Bigi having to pass backwards, passes going astray or being dispossessed. Bowman and Tanner being fit would definitely improve this. Meantime Id like to see us set up: Carson Aldred McHugh Hartley Campbell Cadden Bigi Gorrin Tait Main Johnson If we need to chase a game we can bring Frear on for Tait or take Cadden off and put Tait back to the left. Against the better teams in the league we could drop one ball player for Rose or Grimshaw if required. I dont think we need major surgery. But a few tweaks here and there and deploying the right personnel for the tactics would help. Edited to say: I wouldnt discount playing Turnbull in such a set up but figure thats less likely to happen.