Still great to see again

[SteelmaninOZ]

The second leg at Fir Park 

[texanwellfan]

Enjoyed watching that 

[Spiderpig]

Still the biggest aggregate playoff win 6-1, to be fair that Rangers team was feckin brutal but after they had 2 straight promotions, slapping them down like that was very enjoyable  If only we could do it in the league.

[SteelmaninOZ]

Here’s another one this time Hampden

 

[SteelmaninOZ]

The first leg at Ibrox

 

[StirlingDosser]

I loved that playoff game for a few reasons. 1. The absolute demolition of that lot, 2. It put to bed some theory among parts that we are like Killie and somehow h**s without the bus fare and 3. Fir Park was rocking in a way I haven't seen since.

 

[MJC]

48 minutes ago, StirlingDosser said:

I loved that playoff game for a few reasons. 1. The absolute demolition of that lot, 2. It put to bed some theory among parts that we are like Killie and somehow h**s without the bus fare and 3. Fir Park was rocking in a way I haven't seen since.

 

Sticking it to McCall was also a bonus for me as well. Considering he set us on the road to that point with his poor signings and lazy attitude it seemed horribly inevitable that he would finish the job.
 

But of course as we all know, McCall couldn’t win a big knockout tie to save himself and the rest is history.

I look at that as karma for all the Cup ties that we bottled under his watch, not least the one at Ibrox a few years earlier. 

 

[MJC]

3 hours ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

The first leg at Ibrox

 

Ainsworth’s goal to put us 3-0 up that night was one of the best and most surreal moments I’ve ever had supporting ‘Well. I remember just screaming “is this actually fucking happening?!” for about 60 seconds after it hit the net. 
 

I still didn’t believe we were actually going to do it until the second goal in the second leg.

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

43 minutes ago, MJC_mkII said:

Ainsworth’s goal to put us 3-0 up that night was one of the best and most surreal moments I’ve ever had supporting ‘Well. I remember just screaming “is this actually fucking happening?!” for about 60 seconds after it hit the net. 
 

I still didn’t believe we were actually going to do it until the second goal in the second leg.

Ditto.........would have loved Lionel to have slotted the one he blazed over to make it 0-4 !!!

[steelboy]

One of the best things about that night was travelling into Glasgow and feeling real tension without all the day tripper pish that comes with cup finals. 

If Rangers weren't idiots we should really have had a couple of thousand there but 900 intense Motherwell fans in the corner going crazy was a great experience. 

[Happy Dosser]

MJC_mkII: "Ainsworth’s goal to put us 3-0 up that night was one of the best and most surreal moments I’ve ever had supporting ‘Well. I remember just screaming “is this actually fucking happening?!” for about 60 seconds after it hit the net."

Me too, a classic counter attack that is always a joy to watch.  Pearson  did really well nicking the ball in midfield and the crisp interchange of passing thereafter was  a delight.  I was sitting in front of the Rangers party (Andy Cameron, John Greig et al) in the FP tie  and   had to laugh at their bleating about the young 'Well fans invading the pitch at the end. Oh, the irony when you consider the conduct of their own supporters over the decades, including the appalling 3-5 game in 1978! They  were also strangely silent about the flare which was thrown from the section in the POD where some of their supporters had secreted themselves.

Hoping for good times next year once GA has sorted out the squad.

 

[MJC]

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

One of the best things about that night was travelling into Glasgow and feeling real tension without all the day tripper pish that comes with cup finals. 

If Rangers weren't idiots we should really have had a couple of thousand there but 900 intense Motherwell fans in the corner going crazy was a great experience. 

The tension was massive before and during both games. This was serious, serious stuff as relegation would have been a hammer blow for the club and losing to Rangers, particularly under McCall would have made it all the worse.
 

I know what you mean about there being no ‘day trippers’ and that’s what makes the Ibrox game in particular all the more sweeter for me. To be part of that group of Well fans in that corner, there more in desperate hope more than anything else I think(I certainly was) to support the team in a massive game, one of the biggest in the clubs history. It wasn’t about ‘a day out’ or a jolly into Glasgow more for the ‘sesh’ pre and most patch than the game itself, or folk bringing their maws pal that works in the butcher who has no interest in football, this was proper football tension and the Motherwell support that night were magnificent. 
 

The ‘Twist and Shout’ at the end in an empty Ibrox having just pulled off a result that hardly anyone saw coming was incredible.

[SteelmaninOZ]

Ok here it is 

 

[weeyin]

4 hours ago, MJC_mkII said:

Sticking it to McCall was also a bonus for me as well. Considering he set us on the road to that point with his poor signings and lazy attitude it seemed horribly inevitable that he would finish the job.
 

But of course as we all know, McCall couldn’t win a big knockout tie to save himself and the rest is history.

I look at that as karma for all the Cup ties that we bottled under his watch, not least the one at Ibrox a few years earlier. 

 

That's a bit revisionist for a guy that took us the the Scottish Cup final in his first season and led us to 6th, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd league spots.

(And he's hardly unique in having a poor record with us in Cup competitions, or bottling games at Ibrox. We haven't exactly set Govan on fire with our performances there before he arrived or since he left).

[mfc]

27 minutes ago, weeyin said:

That's a bit revisionist for a guy that took us the the Scottish Cup final in his first season and led us to 6th, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd league spots.

(And he's hardly unique in having a poor record with us in Cup competitions, or bottling games at Ibrox. We haven't exactly set Govan on fire with our performances there before he arrived or since he left).

Spot on weeyin,there was numerous reasons to take pleasure in stuffing rangers over the two games but for me getting one over on mccall wasn't one of them,his time at the club was one of my favourites following us.

[MJC]

43 minutes ago, weeyin said:

That's a bit revisionist for a guy that took us the the Scottish Cup final in his first season and led us to 6th, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd league spots.

(And he's hardly unique in having a poor record with us in Cup competitions, or bottling games at Ibrox. We haven't exactly set Govan on fire with our performances there before he arrived or since he left).

Yes but there weren’t many Motherwell managers other than McCall who had such a good squad of players at their disposal and at a time when circumstances were very much in his/our favour. Yet for all we did well, really well, in the league during his tenure, McCall’s Cup record in the same time was a disgrace and indeed saw us record two of the most embarrassing results in our entire history (Rangers in 2012 and Albion Rovers in 2014). That for me was a major black mark against him and a massive missed opportunity to win silverware again.

And to get back to the subject of the playoff, there was not a snowballs chance in hell we would have won that had McCall still been in charge of us. 

[AllyMax]

The surge of the Steelmen |!!! Fucking brilliant. I just remember being tense as fuck for at least a week before that, and pacing the living room with shredded nerves all game, going completely ape when each goal went in.  Even the build up to the 2nd leg had my nerves in tatters. First goal in the second leg turned it into an experience to enjoy ! 

[claretband]

"Ainsworth...fires home",  almost whispered, on h**s tv is an all time classic.

[claretband]

Hang on, why did h**s autocorrect??

[The African]

I think I enjoyed the first game more, in the sense that proving that they were sh*t* was more satisfying than just confirming it.

Following it from over here, one of the best aspects was sticking it right up the Scottish sporting press and media. They didn't give us a hope in hell, and were still talking up Rangers chances after the first leg. Apparently the fact that they weren't good enough to get promotion via winning the Championship was just forgotten and the standard line of old firm invincibility was trotted out.

[weeyin]

4 hours ago, The African said:

Apparently the fact that they weren't good enough to get promotion via winning the Championship was just forgotten and the standard line of old firm invincibility was trotted out.

Worse than that, they were the 3rd best team in the Championship that year.

Like most 'Well fans I was mostly worried because of our dreadful record against them. However, in any other year you'd fancy the Premiership team in 11th to comfortably beat the 3rd best Championship team, and that turned out to be exactly the case.

I've said it before - while Baraclough had some faults, the way he approached this play-off was pitch perfect in both legs. His enthusiasm in the press conferences, bigging up the team while letting Rangers be favourites was spot on; as were his tactics at Ibrox.

[Ya Bezzer!]

10 hours ago, weeyin said:

Worse than that, they were the 3rd best team in the Championship that year.

They were lucky to get to the play off final.  And we were lucky they got to the play off final too!