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Motherwell V Aberdeen 11/8/13


Welldaft Mk1
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I've said before and I will say again, Hateley wasn't the perfect right back and made mistakes but at least he generally made them far enough up the field they didn't tend to be big chance or goal costing. Ramsden has worried me when I have seen him at right back in the preseason games because he seems to have a tendency to wander infield and leave space on the left wing. But as with the rest of the defence it is a work in process and I don't doubt he is good enough and adaptable enough to do a job for us there.

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Aberdeen have signed one or two reasonable players but beyon that I honestly don't understand why pundits are putting so much stock in them. On paper I think Hayes, McGinn and Flood are good. Langford, he is a slightly above average SPL keeper, Anderson isn't the player he once was, Reynolds - would he dislodge Hurch or McManus? Robson is 34 and has had recent problems with his knee. The rest of them, Wylde, Zola, shaughnessy, vernon, pawlett, magness etc don't fill me with fear.

 

I might be overconfident but I think we have a squad that shouldn't go into any league game this season thinking we are inferior, and I include Celtic in that.

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I'm not very confident for tomorrows game.

 

A few reason for this... Our new signings are definetly still to 'click', thinking back to how the European games affected our start to the campaign last season and Aberdeen look like serious top six contenders this year (that said, I did think that last year too).

 

I'd take a draw now, but hopefully we can sneak a win.

 

Looking forward to the first competitive home game of the season anyway!

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Reading back over my post I should add that pundits may be talking them up due to other teams who would traditionally be considered contenders being so weak such as Hearts, Dundee Utd don't look entirely convincing, Hibs early games have been a disaster. I've not read many pundits accounts on us.

 

 

Pundits are talking them up cos they're basically lazy bastards who haven't the brains to make a judgement which may require some perusal of facts.

 

"Oh they've got big crowds, therefore more money, they must be a good bet." Easy option.

 

Based on their record of spending that extra money, I'd say bottom 6 was more likely, big surprise if they manage better.

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It's just occurred to me that we've really missed a trick here. With Celtic playing a nonsense friendly today rather than a competitive league match a bit of foresight could have seen us take advantage of a ridiculous rule in our game. We've known for a while when our euro fixtures would be played so surely we could have arranged a friendly against whomever and sent our youths out for, in effect a bounce match and prevented the need to rest key players in our second leg game.

 

Not that it would have made that much difference...

 

Might have shown up what a ridiculous idea it is to let teams skip important league games foe meaningless freindlies though.

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They should just get rid of that rule. When and why did they introduce that rule anyway and what is the rule?

 

From memory it came in, for the start of 2011'12 season brought in under the guise that because the SPL had chosen to start the league three weeks earlier than normal and Celtic had already signed up to a pre-season tournament, as a one-off they would allow clubs to scheduled to be at home in the opening two or three weeks to cancel their fixture.

 

Celtic fucked off to Dublin and Rangers cancelled their game to play Chelsea. Their opponents Killie then subsequently arranged a game with Blackburn. The slightly surprising one was non-Old Firm side taking it up with Hibs, cancelling their game with St Johnstone to play Sunderland I think it was.

 

As a one-off due to the tardiness of the SPL or opportunism/sleekitness of Celtic in confirming a pre-season arrangements too early (delete as applicable) I could understand the SPL allowing it, even though I personally thought it pandered and showed weakness to Celtic - no surprise there ofcourse - and belittled the status of the competition.

 

But then the SPL chose to continue the arrangement last season albeit limiting it to the second week of the season and this is where it really began to rankle for me. Although they ended up outwith the SPL, the league had actually gone to the trouble of initially scheduling both Rangers and Celtic at home in week two, so two diddy teams would be shafted just so they could both make a mint.

 

And so it has continued this season.

 

I disagreed with the SPL's assertion at the time that teams cancelling league games to play friendlies benefits Scottish football as a whole and still do. It makes a mockery of the competition and is particularly irritating when you have someone like Neil Lennon whingeing about having to play actual competitive matches after they played Cliftonville yet here they are cancelling league matches to play a friendly a fortnight later

 

Whilst it is true that the opportunity exists for all top flight teams scheduled to be at home on week two, the reality is that going forward it is a rule designed to line the pockets of the Old Firm alone. That Hibs managed to get lucky with that Sunderland fixture is the exception to the rule. Frankly any English side of note is unlikely to want to have their final pre-season match against the likes of Motherwell, Partick Thistle or Ross County when they can coin it in and play matches of higher standard of opposition from Spain or be well rewarded for exhibition games in the likes of Dublin or Helsinki.

 

If the newly formed body really wanted to help boost Scottish football's profile across the world then the opportunity to cancel games before or after a European clash, allowing time for additional preparation and recovery, for me holds much more merit than letting teams cancel league games to play friendlies.

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we didnt know if we would be away first or second leg so we could have been losing a weekend home fixture and the income associated with it, when there was no need.

 

I wouldn't think we'd be too worried about losing a home gate at the stage of the season and we could have been due to play Celtic at home anyway.

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Some media up here are talking this game as a 2nd/3rd place decider :tumbleweed:

 

Lot of Dandies more confident this season than they have been for a long while, and most Reds I know are heading down so there should be a sizeable Red Army at FP today.

 

Obviously I really really want to win this one --- so Go Motherwell :thumbup:

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From what I've seen they could be right. Inverness are a bit of an unknown again and could go well but from the rest I think Aberdeen, us and St Johnstone are light years ahead of the rest (obviously excluding Celtic). Aberdeen's defence had a 'mare against us both in September and on Boxing Day last year but generally they were watertight. If they can add some goals other than McGinn's they will be a good team in this league.

 

Fancy if we are to win today we need to get ahead early as I don't see us chasing down a lead if they get ahead as the travelling will catch up with us later on. THe 2nd half against St Johnstone last year we were dead on our feet and Greece is a much easier journey than Krasnodar was though I suspect the humidity during the game was less.

 

Not impossible we win today but I make Aberdeen favourites.

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I wouldn't think we'd be too worried about losing a home gate at the stage of the season and we could have been due to play Celtic at home anyway.

But we were not, in case you hadn't noticed its Aberdeen

 

But either way, im pretty sure the club would have considered losing around £40,000 from the gate money and probably more on lost hospitality, a risk not worth taking when we could have been at Fir Park on Thursday

 

 

 

 

As for the game, none of the players that stepped in should get dropped, so faddy Sutton and Vigurs can find their way back from the bench

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