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Avoided coming on here yesterday post game cause I knew the degree of pant-wetting from the usual suspects would be painful. We were pish, simple as that. Davor sold the jerseys for the goal and was a mile off the pace. St Mirren looked a little better than us but still a very Robinson style team. Fight like fuck for the second ball. Once Miller came on, there was pretty much nothing in it between the two teams (i.e. they were as pish as us). Fact is, that outside the two arse cheeks, your team is not going to win every week and the odd crap performance is inevitible, regardless of who the manager is, so an 'unexpected' defeat was always on the cards, especially given Kettlewell's record over the last 20 odd games. If someone had said after Hammy's last game that you were going on a run that would see you lose 3 in 22 (or whatever it is), everyone would have been delighted. If you think your team should win every game every week and play expansive attacking football, probably best to go and support Celtic or Man City. Last week, we beat Hibs (and the usual suspects had that down as a tanking before it kicked off). In fact, Hibs, a team who have progressed in Europe with a couple of decent performances, did not lay a glove on us all game and only scored because of that ridiculous penalty. So, agreed, we were crap yesterday, but every team in the league will have crap days. If you're on here posting about the eighth defeat in a row, that's the time to wet yer knickers.

I am 54 years old. In the first 22 years of my life we had appeared in exactly zero cup finals. In the last 32 years we have been to 5 and won 1. Of the 4 we lost, we played Celtic or Rangers in every one. We are one of a select number of clubs who have won all of the major trophies available to Scottish top flight clubs and have a rich history in taking the beautiful game around the globe. You can also add in numerous top six finishes and European appearances to that list. This belief that there is somehow something wrong with our club because we lost a very tight cup tie by the odd goal away from home against a similar sized club who are in good form is just ludicrous. Yes Kettlewell got the team wrong yesterday and thats on him. Whilst he may not say it, he will know that, and it will hurt him. However, his record is still excellent and the squad he is building is still well short of where he (and we) would like it to be. Can we just for once, wait until October or November before we decide he is shite, his players are shite, he will be gone by xmas?

It's down to the manager. My impression is that our managers are usually quite happy to come into the club and not challenge the external impression that we are middling club who won't do much other than make up the numbers. It makes their far job easier. You look at yesterday and we had 1 shot on target from 25 yards in a cup tie but after the game Kettlewell sounded quite cheerful on the radio then his mates talked him up in the segment after it. If Hearts, Hibs or Aberdeen had put in that performance their would have been some discussion of why they played so poorly but with us it's expected and the manager seemed to go along with it. He actually said it played out exactly as he imagined which should pose a few obvious questions about what the fuck he was doing last week but as there's no scrutiny of Motherwell managers there is no follow up.

What I'm looking for is just to beat st mirren. We will never compete with ugly sisters but we can compete with others. My 12 year old son Nick used to hate football. I was hoping for a win and get him to come again to a match. He loved atmosphere. Well boys thanks. Hes sensible and logical about football, knows the rules. He seen how willie gollum has managed game and was so emotive about it. Taking interest in it. Hoping we would equalise. Watching st mirren time wasting. Hes wanting to go to next match v st mirren. Even though we lost. I've managed to get my boy to give a fk about goin to next game. That's enough for me. Happy days.

And those St Mirren fans who have seen them win a cup, have also seen them relegated a number of times, fought relegation the majority of years they were in the top league, never saw them in europe, never had the 2, second places and 4? Thirds we have. Until May there they never had a "top 6 trophy" which we must have stacks of. So yes, they have a cup win which would be awesome, but would i swap our last 30 years for theirs? Nah, not for me

Has someone hacked your account?? 🤣🤣🤣🤪

Most folks are probably pissed about yesterday because Kettlewell fielded a different and objectively weaker team (due to Soare's injury and trying to rest Miller) for a one-off knockout game. That was unusual for him. That is, given that he always stuck to what worked last season, it's so annoying that he decided to change quite a lot yesterday (McGinn from RCB to LWB, Casey from LCB to RCB, Blaney into LCB, and Davor for Miller) instead of slotting McGinley/Wilson into Soare's LWB position and continuing with Miller. Our collective mentality around cup games is pathetic, as is our general form over the years. A club like ours should treat cup games as do-or-die situations. Kettlewell fucked it yesterday.

I thought you were the big joker here?!

Like I said last night I don’t know who, if any one person, is actually to blame for our mindset as a club. However I do believe that we have a losers mentality which runs right from the boardroom to the support and as steelboy says a lot of managers and players pick up on that. Terry Butcher for example, the architect of “we’re punching way above our weight” was never done talking down our chances and harping on about us being a small club and skint when he was with us. When he went to ICT I never once heard him say similar about them. Stuart McCall and Mark McGhee also firmly bought into the “we’re only a wee club” mentality too. The only manager we’ve had in recent times who actually went against that attitude was Robinson when he first took over, but even he gradually came round to the Motherwell way of speaking and thinking. Speaking of Robinson, him and Baraclough are the only two Motherwell managers in the last twenty years to oversee victories over Rangers. Both of them at the time of those games were ‘outsiders’ to the Scottish game. In that same time several managers who have had a much better knowledge of the game up here than those two did couldn’t manage to guide us to wins in that fixture. So I think the question does need to be asked. Why do we continually fail in Cup ties when other clubs our size can (semi) regularly reach the latter stages and occasionally win it? Just like the question of why have several clubs our size managed to beat Rangers in the league in the last twenty years while we haven’t managed it? The answer to both questions, in my opinion, is because we have the wrong mentality as a club.

Fletcher can wait until after the window closes for someone to throw money at him in a panic. Hopefully it's not us. I dont mind him, but I do mind how much he will cost. Also, I'm sure he looks after himself but we really need to bring in folk that have had a decent pre season and can play 90 mins from day 1. Wing backs are key. That's where we can add some pace to the side. We are missing Butcher, but I think we're missing pace more. Choosing an out of position mcginn over McGinley tells us everything we already knew there, he really needs to be gone.

Fletcher was interviewed the other week and said he has had a fair few offers but wants something that and I quote “gives him that buzz”. I shall leave the rest upto your good selves to come up with the answers why he has signed. Also I find it pretty alarming SK has signed a few players that are injured or have been out with serious long term injuries sounds a bit familiar with another former manager that signed a few that backfired greatly. If this forward line scores 20 plus between that shall be a good season.

Even just talking about trophies any of our fans younger than late 30s won't have seen us lift a trophy. Guys the same age who support St Mirren, Dundee United, Killie, St Johnstone, Ross County, Inverness have seen it. That's a big disapointment for a lot of our support and every Motherwell manager should be told no weakened team pish in cup games.

Ahhh no worries pal, fair do's. I first thought you meant 11 days to save his job. Yep the signings so far a tad concerning but same time it can take players time to settle and get used to new team mates, formations etc

I think we’ll bounce back here too and 2-0 sounds about right. That would put us on seven points from a possible nine which is a very decent start to the campaign.

fair point. SK has proven to be good at managing what he had. Keen to see if he can bring in better than what we had.

The hand held scanners they use at Fir park Dave are much better as the operator can make sure they can see all the barcode so it scans OK. So St Mirren are obviously not wanting to pay for turnstile operators and their stewards don't want to know so that's how delays occur.

For me it's too early to assess the success of the window. Soare looks a decent player - he may just be out with a knock. Casey is a good player . He's one of the few players we should have resigned. Zdravkovski - give the lad time to settle. Suspect he'll be decent. Another Simo would be just great. Wilkinson - has a reasonable goals record. Again a bit of time needed to adjust to league but he could be ok. Mika - he looks far too good for our level but we get the chance to nurse him through and benefit for a season. I wouldn't have signed Paton, Obika or Bair for a mixture of reasons but time will tell. Suspect a couple more of our squad will move out , leaving way for a couple more signings. More premiership loanees please.

The main problem with our business this summer is that pretty much every signing was a gamble. Before anyone jumps down my throat here, I know we tend not to sign "sure things" but last summer among other signings that were gambles we signed Paul McGinn and Blair Spittal, two players with track record at our level. This summer? Obika: Gambling on his injury record. Wilkinson: Just returning from a serious injury. Bair: Unproven at SPL level. Souare: See Obika. Casey: Missed preseason. Loose cannon without Butcher alongside him. Biereth: Unproven and just returning from injury. Zdravkovski: Coming from abroad, always a gamble. Paton: Injured again.. If we had signed a couple of players of a similar level to Spittal and McGinn without horrendous injury records, I'd be a lot more confident in the business we had done... EDIT Oh, and the chat about Van Veen is absolute nonsense. He had no intention of staying here...

Give your head a wobble.

Yes mika looked best option. Why could we not have used wages of wilkinson plus bear plus 1 other to keep big kev? Clubs run by amateurs.

Yer maw.

Kettlewell has 11 days left to prove he's not a one-hit (i.e. half-season) wonder.