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Excellent gif

Another part of Campbell’s development will be learning to manage the game whilst on a booking. I fancied the Spaniard to come on, but, there’s a reason why Mr Robinson picks the team over me. Andy Rose doesn’t have to be on the ball to contribute. Bigger picture, time some looked at it.

As I said earlier on in the discussion, this was my first time of seeing the team this season, and on that showing I have absolutely no idea what everyone was wetting their knickers about!! All the talk beforehand was about how Peter Hartley had done Rangers team-talk for them, on the evidence of the match though it looked like Steven Gerrards cries of 'we'll be bullied by nobody' actually gave the Motherwell team a wee incentive, with Campbell, Hartley and Aldred in particular crashing into tackles and challenges from the 1st minute and Johnson and Main up front causing Goldson and Katic that many problems that they had to re-arrange their defensive shape. Johnson and Main, look like a partnership that could work, throw Bowman into the mix and we have options...I also thought Frear had a smashing cameo appearance as well. Rangers have been getting lots of plaudits for how much they have improved under Gerrard, however upon glancing at their starting XI, it looked to me like there was an obvious weakness in the middle of the park. Any team with a central midfield pairing of Halliday and Jack, cannae be that good can they? This is where I think we took our momentum from, with Campbell and Bigirimana dominating that pair for reasonable spells of the game, while Rose was there clearly to shadow Ejaria, with mixed success. A wicked deflection off Tait, who I thought had an excellent match, a moments lapse in concentration from Aldred at the 2nd and an uncharacteristic error from Carson cost us getting the 3 points, but to come away with 1 point was probably more than most would have expected given our current points total. If we can play even 50% of our league games in the manner we played yesterday, then relegation will be a word that is never spoken about this season, while top6 is a distinct possibility and probably a straight shoot-out between us and Kilmarnock.

Totally in agreement about Andy Rose Didnt seem to do much today but if anyone’s taped the game have a look and see how may times he breaks play up and wins headers Someone has to be in the team for the dirty unglamorous work and Rose seems to have this down to a tee and goes under the radar to a lot of people

An expression of religious and civil liberty? I, as many, will have seen orange parades taking place in Motherwell. The dregs of society following the March, never cease to amaze, its like the night of the living dead. This element of Scottish society is the last bastion of the “Rule Britannia” brigade. It has in contemporary culture, as is well researched and documented, little to do with religion, than it does with a demographic graphic so disengaged and disenfranchised through direct and indirect action, that it clings for the safety of a group whereby they are no longer the marginalized but rather have the ability, for a short time, to marginalize others. So, yes I stand by my point that anyone prepared to celebrate Irish religious wars and killings (on either side of this divide) for the purpose of momentary groupthink, should be flushed out - there should be no place for this in modern civil society, in 2018, Scotland. But hey ho, my and my ignorance eh?

Curtis Main's home strip sponsors The East of Scotland Motherwell FC Supporters Club held there first meeting of the 2018 - 2019 season under our new chairperson Sheila McLuckie. We meet once a month in the heart of Jambo territory, The Roseburn Bar, Murrayfield. With members traveling to most games home and away. If you live east of Lanarkshire and wish to join a very active supporters club then find out more from our East of Scotland MFC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eosmfc/

Funny how after the game yesterday and the feel good factor that it brought. That folk are still having a go at Sammon, who played a total of 19 mins in that match. However, I will say you’re entitled to your opinion. Even if that opinion is coming from a complete roaster.

Said that at the game today. That starting 11 would have beat Accies comfortably. Danny Johnson’s movement alone would have caused their defence chaos. I’m actually starting to think we have a right find here. He looks the business.

Delighted Bigi is showing why we brought him in. Even more delighted that Robinson is starting him.

Not all substitution are tactical. Campbell and Johnson were absolutely burst and needed to come off.

Excellent on many levels today, perfect no, but night and day from the Hamilton game. Carson should do better at the third goal and there seemed a lack of communication between him and his central defenders at the second, they were also able to swing a lot of crosses in unopposed. Middle of the park going forward though was much improved, we created plenty of chances by playing decent football and whilst it is disappointing to hold the lead twice and not win, a last minute jump about is a great way to end the game, and a point was the least we deserved. As to Mister Thompson, somebody said he had a good game, but I can only assume good is used as a relevant term, i.e. good compared to last year, how Lafferty and Morelos got through that game unspoken to, let alone unbooked, is a mystery of Detective Rebus proportions. And how he could book Hartley (correctly) for dribbling the ball away after conceding a freekick, then, about 60 seconds later, ignore their number 6 launching the ball 60 yards up field to prevent us taking a quick throw in would be laughable if it wasn't typical of Scottish refereeing standards.

Bigi, McHugh and Main were outstanding. Has to be Bigi though.

CHAMPIONS SWPL2 2018

"Orange Walks are just about being pro-Protestant." "IRA songs are just about being pro Irish." "UKIP is just about being pro UK." "Confederate flag is just about celebrating our southern history" "KKK is just about being pro-white." Same old language. Same old bigotry. Welcome to the 21st century.

The referee could greatly influence a game without causing a win so hard to quantify this really. As always stats don't take into account alot of different variables. The most noteworthy thing is that the more high profile guys generally get the bigger games. Regardless of stats I'm not really buying a team having a genuine bias against Motherwell. On the whole refereeing is pretty bad but I put the majority of the mistakes down to general incompetence. Make them go professional, if they are training day in, day out they should improve. Whilst I don't think there is anyone 'out to get us', there is definitely still a few who concisiously favour either side of the Old Firm. I also believe that given the support and pressure by both the fans and the media that some referees often give wrong decisions in favour of the Old Firm rather than the smaller team. This may be a subconscious thing but I am 100% sure this still happens. A classic example of this was McGregor at Fir Park last year to save the timmy unbeaten run. Collum in that case either had a severe biased towards Celtic or felt the pressure to 'save' the situation at hand. Following the incident we were fed obscure camera angles filmed on a pizza to justify the decision. Ultimately the reverse angle and view that Collum had that day showed that it was a ridiculous decision. This is the sort of decision that I think frustrates most of us. Given the David against Goliath situation we face against the Old Firm I think we all just yearn for someone who can call it straight down the middle and isn't pressured by the fans/media in the ground.

Recent chat got me interested in the actual facts about referees and perceived bias of certain officials. First of all I looked at win ratio against referee in charge. Over the last 4 seasons, not including this season, we played 179 domestic matches with a win ratio of 36.8%. Therefore I expected most referee's to be roughly around the 35% mark. I've excluded referees who officiated less than 5 matches. FINNIE P6 W4 D0 L2 66.6% WALSH P7 W4 D2 L1 57.10% MUIR P11 W5 D2 L4 45.4% CLANCY P14 W6 D1 L7 42.0% MADDEN P21 W8 D0 L13 38.0% ALLAN P8 W3 D1 L4 37.5% DALLAS P8 W3 D1 L4 37.5% McLEAN P17 W6 D4 L7 35.2% THOMSON P17 W6 D2 L9 35.2% ROBERTSON P12 W4 D2 L6 33.3% ANDERSON P9 W3 D1 L5 33.3% AITKEN P6 W2 D1 L3 33.3% BEATON P10 W3 D2 L5 30.0% COLLUM P16 W3 D6 L7 18.7% So as you can see most of the referees didn't fall far below our overall win ratio, with two exceptions. Beaton who was almost 7% lower and Collum who was a massive 16% off of where you'd expect. Out of interest the referees who didn't make the 5 match cut were.... COOK P4 W2 D1 L1 50.0% MURRAY P4 W2 D0 L2 50.0% CHARLESTON P2 W1 D0 L1 50.0% DUNCAN P2 W1 D0 L1 50.0% COLVIN P4 W 0 D1 L3 0.00% CRAWFORD P1 W0 D1 L0 0.00% I intend to look into cards issued against us by referees and against opposition by referees but that will have to wait for now.

McHugh back into midfield I'd guess.