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Declan Gallagher was on the losing side today

I was very wary at the start of the season but holy moly, organised, drilled, committed, fit, game management, threat and a bit of gallus (Van Veen), Tony Watt has finally found a club that fits and is loved. Added with a top class goalie and 2 CH who read the game and defend for their life's, Ojala will be a 7/10 minimum every week, I have not seen him sprint yet as he reads the game so well and is a massive upgrade on Gallagher. Long may it continue and let's not get hung up with possession stats as Jose in his Chelsea glory days didn't. Three massive games coming up which we will be quietly confident about. What a difference three results make, onwards and upwards.

A very satisfying game and result today. We did to Aberdeen what they've done to us many a time. Aberdeen started well and bulldozed our seemingly timid midfield who failed to protect the defence. At that point I was very concerned. However after 20 minutes or so we grew into the game and the first goal was crucial. The midfield then began to settle down and get Aberdeen's measure. Aberdeen looked very streetwise and I thought that I was watching a young Eoin Jess and Scott Booth again - going to ground at every lost challenge and rolling about in agony. Their left back, MacKenzie was lucky not to be booked for continuous simulation. For long spells, John Beaton had no control over the game, and missed many niggly incidents and one or two more serious ones that could have caused the game to boil over. Apart from the early stages I thought we defended well and crucially took our chances. Scoring the first goal was pivotal. We’re now starting to look more organised and harder to beat. I thought we saw the game out well and it was pleasing to see the likes of Declan Gallagher resorting to passing the ball sideways 45 yards from our goal. We deliberately gifted them possession, safe in the knowledge that they couldn’t breach our defensive wall. Many of us watched “great and entertaining” Aberdeen and Dundee United sides do exactly this for years. I was especially impressed with our 2 central defenders who look as though they’ll be very solid. I wasn’t convinced by Mugabi against Dundee but he won me over yesterday with an impressive performance at right back. Watt had an excellent game and Van Veen showed some real class but also a temperamental edge. He has a fine line to tread. I still don’t think our midfield mix is right though. Slattery played well and intelligently but I’m not convinced that Grimshaw and O’Hara are the right combination.

Was he in the starting 11?

A really decent performance and result. I always enjoy a result against Aberdeen even more since the 2nd place season! Lots of positives to take mainly the fact that we are looking stronger defensively. It was clear for too long before Alexander came in we were going soft and losing so many shite and often late goals. Good to see that moves have been made to address this and the new guys have promise. The shithouse approach we are taking is effective for now and it's good to see a Motherwell team being more streetwise and harder to beat. It gives you the platform to win games. We have some effective attacking players and once we get the right balance in midfield and things gelling more i'm sure some more possesion and a wee bit more flowing football at times will follow. Good start to the season overall.

Hibs and Hearts fail to win and we beat Rangers Sunday and go top, you heard it here first.

I went for McGinley when I heard he was playing left back it gave me genuine fear of a drubbing after seeing him pre season and first couple of games tbf he never put a foot wrong and I ate my words happily

While I am delighted with the result. This taking off all attacking options with 15 to 10mins to go, is not pretty. Its gives the other team the momentum and leaves you sitting in the Cooper watching a match at the other end of the park. I get it that it worked, but I felt at 2 up we should have kept on the front foot and really finished them off. Just my opinion.

If Grimmy could use his head it would have been 7

Couple of posts above saying we should not get carried away and that on another day Aberdeen would or could have won. As far as I can see everyone including myself is enjoying the moment and a great win. Also a recognition that maybe we have got our transfer business right this time around. The two new centre backs were very impressive yesterday. One game I know but I don’t think anyone had the right to expect Sondre in his first game to be so assured. Van Veen is going to be some watch this season. He does not give a f*ck. Ane we need that attitude v the better teams. Yes he will come unstuck and a red card is probably just around the corner. But he has been a breath of fresh air. My final point and main one is who did not expect Aberdeen to have the majority of possession and play some decent football ? Their wage budget must have increased massively this season. Normally it is double our budget at least. Scott Brown was on £25k per week at Celtic. You would imagine he is now on around £8-£10k per week. Fantasy wages for a team like Motherwell. So I was not surprised at the possession stats. What did surprise my was how well we defended and generally looked comfortable after going 2-0 up. A great day and a great win. Harder tests lie ahead but it has been a promising start to our league campaign.

Exactly this. Aberdeen had 23 shots and Kelly didn't have a serious save to make. Pretty much everything they hit that was on target was tame and down the middle of the goal. I would precede with caution on giving the opposition possession. If you have possession you control the game. If you don't you are depending on what the opposition do or don't do. Yesterday Aberdeen couldn't shot for toffee so we got away with it. Does anything think Rangers will have 23 shots at goal and not score? We deserved the win yesterday but the match stats were a bit of an anomaly. Over the season we are going to have to up our possession stats and control the midfield in more matches. If we don't, there will be consequences over the long term. I've not updated my stats yet but I think in terms of headed goals we have 6 and the next nearest team is Celtic on 3. Most other teams are on 1 or 0. It's a good thing that we are capable of scoring in these situations and I'm not making out that it's not but we cannot depend on headed goals across the season. Guaranteed teams will learn and be trying to counter act our strengths as we go into the 2nd phase of the season so we can't be dependent on a single strategy.

Sondre and Ojala looked excellent yesterday. Proper centre halves that love to defend their box, but can play a bit too. Loved how Sondre was always playing with his head up looking around for where the danger was. I think we have upgraded massively in that area. Slattery continues to impress in midfield. A very tidy player in the Gorrin mould. Hopefully with fewer rash tackles. We still need someone in there to help him though. Whether Goss will be that guy or we need to play an extra midfielder in there to stop us getting overun, Im not sure. KVV is going to be a big player if we can keep him fit. He looks like he and Watt are starting to form a real understanding. Woolery looked a little better yesterday but for all his raw pace and power he still looks like the one with the most convincing to do. Hopefully he will settle and come good soon. Overall. Reasons to be cheerful.

Any chance of a MOTM thread mods? Plenty to choose from this week for a change!

Not had that feeling at a game of football in what feels like years...I was still buzzing hours after the kick off, watched the game on Alba and watched the Sportscene highlights. The wife wasn't impressed at all. It was said on sportscene that the sheep had 75% possession and it certainly felt that way. This looks like a clear instruction from the manager to allow the other team to have the ball, let them huff and puff and we attempt to hit on the counter. It was evident against both Hibs and Dundee too At times its really difficult to watch, but who can argue with the results? The defence was essentially 4 centre backs today, before Lamie came onto make it 5, and that is going to be difficult for any side to breakdown. Ojala was excellent, Solholm looks like a good capture and the two full backs did fine. While a special mention for Kelly, who done everything asked of him...to me, he looks like a keeper that shouldn't be at our level. Midfield still really concerns me though, Slattery looks a top player but at times yesterday it looked like he was in Midfield himself with both OHara and Grimshaw, really chasing shadows and getting dragged out of position. Hopefully Goss, when up to speed will be the one to come in and help Slattery out. Up front, I've said it for ages now but Watt is an absolute joy of a player, his work rate is 2nd to none in our team and he can play football as well, he is brilliant and we need to tie him down. His partnership with crazy Dutch bastard could be quite something. I'm yet to be convinced by Woolery, he has physique and pace but I'm not seeing that fitba brain that I like fitba players to have. I'm in two minds on the shithousery thing...on one hand I quite enjoyed how obvious Alexander made it by whipping off his 3 forwards for 3 big units to help us defend against a side with no real know-how of how to break us done, but the constant dropping to the floor at the slightest touch and grabbing the ball on the way down is really tiresome, both teams were at it and the referee failed to nip it in the bud. A few other things; when the son of Derek Ferguson isn't getting pelters from the East Stand because he is so far down the bawbag list, you know that you are up against a team of fannies. How good was it to be so comfortable in beating a team with top-class arseholes like Gallagher and Brown in their ranks?...a new one to add to the list is the little bawbag right back, who seemed to take great delight in trying to rile up our fans when his own team were getting beat. Tony Watt taking the Harry Hunt out of Brown was a joy to see...as was the Aberdeen fans punching each other about the South Stand. An absolutely brilliant 90 mins at Fir Park.

I didn't notice it at the time but having just watched the highlights,watt running up and getting right in browns face when van veen scored was glorious

No need to pay extra if its a free kids season ticket, I got one for my grand daughter she won't be at every game but I assume they are counting it in the total number

The brown challenge that everyone got riled up about was nothing, and Van Veen had two or three worse than that. Brown is still a dick though. I thought woolery was unlucky with his yellow card, as they were just niggly fouls and nothing cynical. It's not his fault that he's a unit. Van Veen and O'Hara deserved theirs, with the latter coming from a pretty reckless aerial challenge. Grimmy had to work hard for his, with JET dragging him along for a bit after his attempted rugby tackle. The best bit was Slattery being a wide-o (is that how you write it?) all game and coming out clean. He's a sneaky wee shite. We know that GA will stick with a winning side, and that's fair enough. I think we will see SOD and Donnelly in as soon as we lose a game. Having both Donnelly and Slattery on the pitch with Van Veen will be some level of wideness, and I'd love to see it at Glasgow away game to generate some hate from those mobs. Liam should have went for the drop kick when that chance bounced off his chest. The 2nd was definitely Ojala's, it bounced behind the line after coming down off the bar.

I thought Beaton was very poor for both sides today to be fair.

Depends whether Alexander has taken over from Glass by then.

This is special

I’ve been looking forward to this game for a fortnight and it didn’t disappoint. I know Alexander isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I really like the team he is building, a team that is full of character, commitment and nous. Keep our key players fit and we could be in for an enjoyable season.

First half McGinley was constantly dealing with 2 or 3 Aberdeen players but looks like they sorted that for the second half

I'm getting concerned!!! Usually by this time we're seeing the cries to sack the manager and half the team. I'm not sure my constitution can stand too much of winning early in the season, or a team playing reasonably well. I might have to lie down and take a pill.

Well done Motherwell FC