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Motherwell V St Mirren Sat 02/10/2010


Tartan Copper
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You could see today at the start of the game St Mirren looked like a team who had taken on half a dozen boys out the 2nd div. We ssemed to be carving them open at will 1st twenty mins, Then we seemed to go back in our shell. A wins a win but all in all Scottish football is in a pretty unhealth state at the moment. You def could not call that value for money.

Pretty much agree with the 1st part of this - the Midden looked out of their depth for the the opening 30 mins. No doubt the goal so early knocked the stuffing out of them, but what concerns me a little in the home games, is the (so far) inability to kill teams off when we're well on top, which is biting us in the arse later on in the game.

 

The end result yesterday could well have been the half time score had we been more clinical in what we did, but we end up losing a daft goal and losing the grip on the game. The Midden imploded in the last stages of the game yesterday, and the end result definitely gave a better feel to everything, but not every team coming to FP is going to cave in like that.

 

Bizarrely, at the moment, I'm reasonably confident about going to the Bigots, but for home games I'd be tempted to play Sutton up front with Blackman, and let Murphy have a free(er) role from the middle - just feel we're losing what Sutton offers us when he plays in there, when we're trying to be offensive

 

But hey ho, 3 points when we looked like we were going to end up with 1, and at least Pa appears to recognise that we have a lot more to offer

 

 

MON RA DOSSERS

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I know he is the pantomime villain on here, but McGhee showed you could play good football and finish high up the league. I still don't understand why people think you have to give up winning by playing good football.

 

 

I don't think Craig Brown has as good a squad of players to choose from as Mark McGhee ,in fact Craig is doing an incredible job with what can only be described as a pretty average group of players.

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We should feel pretty optimistic this morning as we beat ST Mirren, and are in 3rd spot, but performance wasn't overly impressive - it followed the pattern of previous games. We start off well, score early but then sit back or are penned back for the rest of the game of the game.

 

For spells in the second half, we not only had 11 men in our own box but 11 men defending deeply in our own box - no one even on the edge of the box. Despite those armadillo style tactics, St Mirren still managed to score.

 

The midfield again let us down. Although Chris Humphrey did well in the first half and scored a great goal, he disappeared in the second. Keith Lasley and Steve Jennings had passable first halves but then disappeared completely in the second. The defence has had worse games days but struggled to cope with St Mirren's aerial ability. We were unlucky that Steven Saunders had to go off as he gave us some height at the back and it was worrying when John Sutton went off too for the same reason.

 

Our strikers were all over the place, with Nick Blackman playing at left back for spells in the second half. If he wasn't there, he was on the wing supporting Jamie Murphy in the middle.

 

I think Alan Gow made a valuable contribution when he came on and surely now is worth a starting slot, but on the wing please. Darren Randolph too impresses and its reassuring to have a reliable stopper.

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What did they say? They were stinking.

"Supporting Your Team Is Not A Crime!" , The club tried to ban flags this week enforced by the horrible "weasel" steward who took things to extreme. Any flag used in the last section in the east was being confiscated, which is an absolute joke! Not allowing us to use flags, the telescopic flags, a drum and a megaphone only encourages methods like smokes and other pyro!!

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I know he is the pantomime villain on here, but McGhee showed you could play good football and finish high up the league. I still don't understand why people think you have to give up winning by playing good football.

 

He was a one trick pony and he got found out in europe and our last season

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Pish performance, but great result.

 

Could not for one second understand why when we are 1-1 at home against the worst team in the league we would take a striker off and replace him with Ross Forbes. Absolute madness in my mind.

 

Saying all that, we won, we got three points and we are sitting at the top of 'our league', so can't complain too much. I just wish that Brown would send the team out to leather the opposition before easing back down through the gears. Scoring in the 2nd minute against a team who are as bad as St Mirren, would have ruptured their confidence. The next 20 minutes would have been the perfect opportunity to throw everything at them and decimate them.

 

Still, 3 points is 3 points!

 

:thumbup:

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I just wish that Brown would send the team out to leather the opposition before easing back down through the gears.

 

I think once the opposition is one down it almost becomes like an away game for us. They are chasing the game and trying to get a goal, so theoretically we should be able to sit back, draw them out their own half and hit them with pace on the counter attack. It's worked so far this season away from home and it makes sense to play this way because we tend to run out of ideas if we're trying to break down a ten man defence.

 

I think the plan came apart yesterday because their left back battled hard with Humphrey and done well to nullify his pace and because Murphy wasn't his usual magical self. That seems to be our main source of inspiration the now, hopefully Gow will come onto a good game and give us more options.

 

 

 

I was quite surprised to hear Brown barely acknowledging the few good spells we had yesterday too. That's no bad thing mind, just shows what he thinks the squad is capable of!

 

Anyway, I fuckin enjoyed yesterday. Mind not have been pretty but it was a fairly exciting game even if the standard wasny great. 3rd in the league and 6 points clear of the bottom six, that'll do me just fine.

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Could not for one second understand why when we are 1-1 at home against the worst team in the league we would take a striker off and replace him with Ross Forbes. Absolute madness in my mind.

 

If the thinking was to take off a poor Sutton and allow Blackman too take up his role by putting Forbes into midfield then it made perfect sense, unfortunately that didn't seem to happen as Blackman continued to play in a wide left role.

 

Felt Page at least deserved a look in yesterday, 3 goals so far and accredited himself not to bad in his defensive role.

 

Based on yesterday I now think if we play to the strengths of our current squad then the formation is as follows:

 

--------------------- Randolph ----------------------

Saunders ---- Craigan --- Reynolds --- Hammell

----------------- Lasley --- Jennings ---------------

Humphrey ---------- Murphy ----------------- Gow

--------------------- Blackman ---------------------

 

Sutton

Forbes

Page

Hutchison

McHugh

 

Not forgetting Sutton's threat in the air and the fact the midfield is a little sparse. This formation suits a rapid counter attack and if we get the goals at the beginning of the game, which CB seems to favour, then a few subs to shore up things. Plus Humphrey and Murphy seem to run out of steam after 60 minutes play.

 

Only thing that concerns me is that our central defence will probably be altered by January at the earliest and definitely by May. Craigan can't have many seasons left in him, which suggests a partnership with Saunders initially and then Hutchison replacing him. Leaving the RB open.

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I think once the opposition is one down it almost becomes like an away game for us. They are chasing the game and trying to get a goal, so theoretically we should be able to sit back, draw them out their own half and hit them with pace on the counter attack.

 

Some good points but I'm not so sure about the game plan. On several occasions in the second half, when under pressure, we broke and the striker(s) were looking for support to mount an attack but the midfield steadfastly refused to come out of their shell. The front men looked a tad hacked off with them.

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If the thinking was to take off a poor Sutton and allow Blackman too take up his role by putting Forbes into midfield then it made perfect sense, unfortunately that didn't seem to happen as Blackman continued to play in a wide left role.

 

Felt Page at least deserved a look in yesterday, 3 goals so far and accredited himself not to bad in his defensive role.

 

Based on yesterday I now think if we play to the strengths of our current squad then the formation is as follows:

 

--------------------- Randolph ----------------------

Saunders ---- Craigan --- Reynolds --- Hammell

----------------- Lasley --- Jennings ---------------

Humphrey ---------- Murphy ----------------- Gow

--------------------- Blackman ---------------------

 

Sutton

Forbes

Page

Hutchison

McHugh

 

Not forgetting Sutton's threat in the air and the fact the midfield is a little sparse. This formation suits a rapid counter attack and if we get the goals at the beginning of the game, which CB seems to favour, then a few subs to shore up things. Plus Humphrey and Murphy seem to run out of steam after 60 minutes play.

 

Only thing that concerns me is that our central defence will probably be altered by January at the earliest and definitely by May. Craigan can't have many seasons left in him, which suggests a partnership with Saunders initially and then Hutchison replacing him. Leaving the RB open.

 

 

No Tom Hately in your team?

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Predicted the score correctly but didn't think we would mug St Mirren to get it. Makes it all the sweeeter. Up ye St Mirren. They were better than I thought they would be......but I still think they will go down.

 

Into the international break in 3rd place. Brilliant.

 

Rangers away next.....and I'm a wee bit positive we can sneak a point. No way can the pair of them keep their run going for much longer. Something has got to give. Might as well be against us.

 

Hopefully Saunders won't be out for long.

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Im delighted with the 3 points but for long spells not the performance. We definately improved when Sutton went off and Gow came on im not a big fan of Sutton and hopefully with the 2 week break we can get him up to speed. Still mustn't grumble we're toddling along nicely in 3rd. :cheers: .

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quick question for the computer know hows on these boards, cause i know theres a few :cheers:

right, im currently outwith the uk on holiday, and tryed to watch the match highlights on the bbc sport website, but unfortunately bbc dont stream there video highlights outwith the UK. Basically, to cut a long story short, is there any way one of you guys could inform me of a way I would be able to watch the highlights as I am out the country for another 2 weeks and would miss the chance to see them online :lol:

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You could see today at the start of the game St Mirren looked like a team who had taken on half a dozen boys out the 2nd div. We ssemed to be carving them open at will 1st twenty mins, Then we seemed to go back in our shell. A wins a win but all in all Scottish football is in a pretty unhealth state at the moment. You def could not call that value for money.

 

The new guys at St Mirren were their only decent players, its fuds like John Potter, Hugh Murray and Michael Higdon that are making the spl stagnant

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If the thinking was to take off a poor Sutton and allow Blackman too take up his role by putting Forbes into midfield then it made perfect sense, unfortunately that didn't seem to happen as Blackman continued to play in a wide left role.

 

I still wouldnt agree with that. If you need a goal, are playing at home against the worst team in the league, you dont persist with 1 upfront. You send on more strikers.

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Made a great start and then it was almost as if we didn't want to get a 2nd goal. Were very lucky to go in 1 up at half time, despite dominating the first half. Made our traditional 2nd half start of allowing the opposition into the game resulting in the expected equaliser (which Jennings had all the time in the world to launch clear, instead he headed it stright back to them!) which we really have to learn to eradicate. From then on in, right until the penalty, we were as poor as I can remember. Why/how we managed to play that badly was worrying. Very fortunate to get the win, but not complaining as we should've beaten Hibs and probably Aberdeen. The league table makes great reading right enough and once again Broons post match comments were spot on.

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I thought over the 90 mins we deserved the win. St Mirren had a few chances either side of half time, but never really put us under any sustained pressure.

 

We on the other hand had a bout 35 minuts of constant presssure, but just couldn't get that second goal that would have killed them off.

 

Gow did make a difference. He ran the line with intelligence and was in the right places at the right time to get us the goals to win the game. When fit I think he could be a real asset.

 

Great start to the season and hopefully thats the 'home hoodoo' of our backs.

 

St Mirren were not as bad as I thought they were going to be and in fact their better players were the guys they signed from Cowdenbeath. Also the boy McGowan looks a decent player. They just got punished by make school boy errors which we pounced on.

 

With Hibs and Hearts looking pretty average this season and Aberdeen in the middle of a terrible injury crisis then this could be the time to put a bit of a gap between them if this run continues.

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Made a great start and then it was almost as if we didn't want to get a 2nd goal. Were very lucky to go in 1 up at half time, despite dominating the first half. Made our traditional 2nd half start of allowing the opposition into the game resulting in the expected equaliser (which Jennings had all the time in the world to launch clear, instead he headed it stright back to them!) which we really have to learn to eradicate. From then on in, right until the penalty, we were as poor as I can remember. Why/how we managed to play that badly was worrying. Very fortunate to get the win, but not complaining as we should've beaten Hibs and probably Aberdeen. The league table makes great reading right enough and once again Broons post match comments were spot on.

 

You're not allowed to stay stuff like that apparently (even though Broon said the same) - lacks perspective and fails to take into account our meagre resources.

 

(even tho' I still maintain if we'd played the style of football we did first half yesterday - we'd be sitting on 18 points (that's taking into account our meagre resources and using a bit of perspective) :evilgrin:

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Football's all ifs and buts though Stevie - or swings and roundabouts (or whatever cliché you like)...

 

We perhaps didn't play as well as we can against Killie and took all three points. Similarly, we weren't brilliant against St Johnstone and beat them fairly comfortably.

 

There's no doubt about it, we should have beaten both Hibs and Aberdeen and you are right to say CB has himself said that.

 

But, all in all, 13 points and third is a pretty fair assessment of how well we've done so far this term.

 

I think what others are saying is that to have 13 points, and to be in 3rd place, when there are teams below us with five times the football budget and two or three times the home support is an excellent achievement so far and credit is due to both the management team and the playing staff...

 

Long may it continue... :evilgrin:

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