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Do you seriously think that all the people on here who wish to see Kettlewell replaced are trolls? If so, that is an entirely unreasonable statement. I want him replaced because his record is crap this season, which isn't an unreasonable assessment, nor is it troll behaviour to espouse that view. Furthermore, most of those critical of Kettlewell also comment on most other topics, whether we win, lose or draw. To be openly critical of something/someone is not always equivalent to being a troll. Your posts are generally well-measured and enjoyable to read, but if I've read correctly, this is a pile of dismissive nonsense. You can't blanket refer to all people of the anti-Kettlewell view as trolls with unserious views. That is such a cheap and simplistic assumption to make.

It's worth remembering that when you say "people" what you're talking about are a handful of trolls, basically. The same "people" who are nowhere to be seen when we win, yet are logged in the minute the final whistle is blown on a defeat. They're given the opportunity to post their nonsense on this forum because it's a place for opinions, and unless they're being way over the top (as one was and has since been put on post-approval) or outright nasty, they're allowed their views. But don't mistake that for them or their views being taken seriously.

It is a valid suggestion that Kettlewell's record over the past 20 games or so brings his suitability as our Manager into question. I don't really think anybody can argue with that and the debate on here has been robust. Whether for or against his retention. Setting aside contributing factors such as finance, injuries etc etc. But if those statistics are going to be the stick to beat him with then there are more recent statistics that point in another direction. Going on the basis that the current tables and form guide on the BBC site are accurate. If they are inaccurate then please dive in. Over the past 5 League games we have secured 9 points and are unbeaten. Only Celtic, Rangers and Hearts have a better record. Livi and County have amassed 1 point each, S J 5 points. More surprising perhaps is that Hibs have only gained 2 points and Aberdeen 3 over that same period. So in effect some folk want to ditch Kettlewell when we are performing better in the League than the vast majority of our rivals, in particular those sitting below us in the table. That makes no sense. In fact the stats suggest a corner has been turned. Then again those stats can change very quickly although even if we lose tomorrow we will still have a better 5 game record than 6 other teams, including Aberdeen. The time to make the decision is at season end. The time to change Manager is well gone for now. A change now would only add to the risk of relegation and I have yet to read of any realistic replacement that is available or would want the job. When that question is asked all we get is the cop out "That's not my job" Of course statistics can be contrived to suit any argument. Should we look at the last 20 games, 40 games even, or 10 games, 5 games? Each will provide a different picture. All that really matters is our final league position and ultimately that will be the deciding factor. But the demands will continue. It appears to have become personal for some, rather than logical.

Seriously, now I do think you are maybe being provocative for the sake of it. At this stage there is absolutely nothing to suggest Kettlewell and our squad won’t perform just as well or better than those around us. The Morton game is no more a definitive indicator on how all the rest of the season will go than the County game. RC aren’t looking for a permanent manager which shows how they are thinking and the “box office” tosser at Aberdeen is no long term solution for them either. A lot of clubs now limping towards the end of this season. I’d rather stick than twist thanks very much.

You've made this argument before. And I agree with you up to a point. You just need to look at Derek Adams and Ross County to see what happens when you throw your players under the bus. But its a fine line to tred if a players mistakes keep costing you points. You have to carry out a profit & loss analysis and look at your alternatives. Personally, if Oxborough was a credible alternative, then I would have reached the point where Id be putting him in. SK obviously feels that Kelly does more good than bad and that Oxborough isnt good enough for our level, otherwise the scales would have tipped in his favour. Its a big call, and I hope it pays off for all parties.

Here's my question to those talking about us "sleepwalking our way to disaster." The consensus is that this term means someone or an organisation "proceeding towards a negative outcome or catastrophe without being fully aware of the consequences or taking appropriate action to prevent it. It suggests a state of being unaware, passive, or complacent in the face of impending danger or trouble, much like someone who is sleepwalking is unaware of their surroundings or actions." Yet we see the same people using this term on this forum openly admitting that the club has been "seeking a beneficiary that can provide shortfall funding when we are not self-sustainable/propped up by the society for approximately 18 months now." This would suggest that we're not "sleepwalking our way to disaster." The club is making plans and moves to bring in external funding. We need to realise, though, that it's not easy to do that. Companies that can claim to offer a solid business plan and a good chance of a decent return on investment find it difficult to bring in funding. A small Scottish football club that can offer a slim opportunity to make a profit on investment will find it incredibly hard.

Well said. May I add to your list those that go into hiding when the team put in a good performance or certain players perform well. Or alternatively go into denial when one of the chosen few performs badly. The days after the County game being a standout example. Yes, of course they are entitled to their opinion. But those opinions might actually carry a bit more credence if they were more balanced, less obsessive and more constructive. I sometimes wonder if they actually sit there desperate for us to get a hiding so they can say "Told you so. He is shite" Every player has good and bad days. Every Manager has good and bad days. But you would think that was not the case if you listened to a few on here. Thankfully they are in the minority. Noisy but fairly few in number.

It's that time again, and as we head towards the end of the season, we have the following player's loans ending or out of contract unless I'm mistaken (please let me know if any of these have changed): Out of contract (1st team squad) Aston Oxborough Bevis Mugabi Ricki Lamie Stephen O'Donnell Callum Slattery Signed new deals: Aston Oxborough (under contract until May 2025) Sam Nicholson (under contract until May 2026) Paul McGinn (under contract until May 2025 with a years option) Mark Ferrie (under contract until May 2025) The players who we'd still have under contract are as follows: Dan Casey (under contract until May 2025) Shane Blaney (under contract until May 2025) Davor Zdravkovski (under contract until May 2025) Lennon Miller (under contract until May 2025) Harry Paton (under contract until May 2025) Andy Halliday (under contract until May 2025) Theo Bair (under contract until May 2025) Ross Tierney (under contract until May 2025) Moses Ebiye (under contract until May 2025) There's a whole load of youth players who's contracts are up as well, and who have been out on loan. I'm not going to add them to this discussion. Wider squad discussions Goalkeeper - Unless we re-sign one of the current goalkeepers, we'll be going into next season with a brand new goalkeeper and backup. Both of our first-team keepers are out of contract, and so are Matthew Connelly and Josh Bogan. I don't think we'll re-sign Liam Kelly. I reckon it's reached the stage now where it's probably best for all parties if we move on. He could do with a fresh environment, and we could probably do with someone else. Will be interesting to see what happens here. Defence - With Mugabi, O'Donnell, McGinn and Butcher all out of contract, there could be a relatively new-look defence for next season. As tempting as it may be for the club, the only player I'd retain from our out-of-contract list is McGinn. I think we need a change. Gent is out of contract at the end of this season, I think, but I doubt we'll see him again. We'd also be losing Lamie, although he's been out of the picture for a while. Casey and Blaney will be retained unless we decide to move them on. Midfield - Priority here has to be Spittal. I'd be looking to match whatever St Mirren or anyone else is offering unless it gets daft. He's a quality operator and is probably at the ceiling of the kind of quality a club like us can hope to attract. We retain Miller for another season, although I think we'll look to sell this season unless he signs for another year. That might not be as crazy as it sounds, as he's not featured much this season. A full season with us next year and a move next summer might be for the best, but I guess we'll see. I'd let Maguire move on, but have a feeling the club will offer Slattery a deal. I'm not fussed either way really. Davor I'm happy to keep, Paton likely won't be going anywhere if Kettlewell is retained. Forwards - Obika has to be let go. I'm not sure Nicholson warrants being kept around, so we likely head into the summer with one recognised striker in Bair. We need to make some proper moves in this department. So, that's the squad for next season as things stand. I'll be honest, going into the summer with all of the above and having Nick Daws in charge of recruitment gives me the fear.

I would've thought the best indicator of how the rest of the season will go for us and our relegation rivals is how it has gone so far. You could measure that by checking how many points each team has amassed up till now, since it's the number of points that will determine who stays up and who drops, nothing else. Seems bloody obvious, but obviously not everyone considers it the most relevant statistic.

Are all the other teams around us who can hardly buy a point, like Ross Co and St J getting special permission to play teams from a different league in the run up to the split or are they playing the same teams as us ? Are St J and Ross Co more likely to take points off Hearts, Rangers and Celtic (or even Aberdeen and Hibs) than we are ?

I hope Kelly walks at the end of the season. He is a decent shot stopper, but that's it. He doesn't command his box so any high ball into our box causes problems. Any semi decent keeper is able to use their reach advantage to gather high balls but this is beyond Kelly. Yes he may be a big presence around the club but if he's not competent at the basics then he shouldn't be playing. However seeing Kettlewells interview it looks like he will play Kelly against Aberdeen so the messages is clear, no matter how bad you play you'll remain in goals for our next game and beyond. I despair.

Yeah, that's my point, maybe Kelly has been dealt with differently and in private. SK comes across as someone who is a good man-manager and, more often than not, he knows how to get the best out of his players.

Everyone reacts differently to criticism - Gent has been superb since that very public kick up the arse.

I take it you were being a “troll” when you constantly criticised Theo Bair for 3 months on here?

I think we have got to accept the fact that without some form of inward investment our place in the pecking order is going to drop. Ourselves St Johnstone, Livingston abd St Mirren are all in the same boat having to try and compete against teams with more money than us either by way of larger supports or sugar daddies and that's something we're just going to have to accept. Some seasons we'll land lucky with a good managerial appointment and/or a squad that gels from the off and we punch above our weight, other seasons we will struggle along at the bottom end of the table or even get relegated. That's always been the Motherwell way and we just have to get on with the ups and downs.

I think it's more than loyalty at play. The one thing Kettlewell has had in our bad run of winless games is the full support of the squad. We've seen what can happen to managers when they piss off the majority of the squad or even just the influential dressing room leaders. He's had that support because he's played it very smart regarding squad harmony. Like him or not, Liam Kelly is a huge presence in that dressing room. He's the captain for a reason. From what I've heard, the players rate him very highly, and to remove him from the team would basically be Kettlewell signing his own P45 at this stage. We've seen at Ross County how far some man-management skills can take you. Absolutely nothing Derek Adams said about his squad was incorrect. But because of how he handled it, the players pretty much downed tools from day one. He was never getting that squad back onside. Kettlewell has retained the squad behind him partly because of how vocal he's been in support of a very influential player who's having a tough time. He's been incredibly smart in that regard, and it's why we're sitting where we are in the league instead of lower down the table. Look at the managers who work with Kelly regularly. Kettlewell and Clarke. Now, on form alone, Kelly should be nowhere near the Scotland squad. But he is. Why? Because Clarke knows that a third-choice keeper is likely never going to get game time, but again, in that dressing room, Kelly is well-liked and respected by the other players in the Scotland squad. He adds a ton in squad harmony, and we've seen how far that has gotten Scotland. There's a method to the madness, basically. In my opinion.

Not much to disagree with there. I think what happens with CEO / Chairman is the most important part for me. It will dictate who the manager is and whether recruitment process is revamped That will ultimately decide who stays and goes. For once though it feels as it might be quite an exciting summer, as we have a fairly blank canvas to work with and no real dead wood. Provides at least the hope of something better next season. Whether it turns out like that though is another matter!

Thank-you Mr Weir.

This is a far more nuanced response and one I wouldnt argue with. I think we all want whats best for the club and we would probably all point towards the same deficiencies. The difference would be who or what you attribute those deficiencies to and how we fix them.

Sounds more like the last of the summer wine yes?👏

The club is indeed fortunate to have fans like you that still have the enthusiasm. Thankfully in the small support we've I would consider myself in the minority and for the clubs sake hope it stays like that. Even if we had 12,000 more of them every week would we be any better off when you look at Hibs and Aberdeen over the last few years. The Scottish game is going nowhere because there is no genuine competition. How's it managed to survive this long as a two horse race ever year is truly astonishing.

My first season was 1963 (unfortunately I missed both St John and Quinn). It's very, very difficult to gauge relative levels of playing excellence or even competence over the last sixty years (gulp!) but we were very poor when relegated in the late 60s (watch the YT vid of our defeat at Dens Park that year for example) and when we spent three years in the second division (along with Hearts). Can't imagine what people would have said then if there had been social media. No point in listing the many lows and disappointments since then but I was given hope by last Tuesday night's victory and still think we will scrape up this year. The whole of Scottish football is circling the drain, though, mainly because of the perennial incompetence of our footballing authorities and the colossal finanncial imbalance in the UK caused by the huge amounts of money pumped into the game down south, including gambling industry money (which I find particularly disgusting since it exploits the most desperate in our society). Given that, I'm not sure what kind of quality players we can afford to attract to a fan-owned club of about 4,500 hard-core fans without some rich investor chipping the odd million in. It can work for Hearts because they have a large support but we're trapped like many in an economic bind. Best we can hope for short of a Sugar Daddy is unearthing a Turnbull or Milller occasionally who will then be snapped up for relatively small change when the time comes. Loanees are a short-term option which may tide you over but can bite you on the bum, as we saw with Mika. Perhaps after about forty years in the top flight our time has finally come and the bullet can no longer be dodged but I don't actually think so. I appreciate that the brave souls who travel from far away may be close to breaking point after so much disappointment and some of it may be age-related, although I have two neighbours in the POD who remember Baldy Shaw and Andy Paton and they still seem up for it. Admittedly, they are locals and I doubt I would be travelling regularly down to FP if I lived in Perth or Inverness and we all have to decide what's worthwhile for us and our families. Living in Hamilton, I'll be there next year if we go down, if only to avoid going around Asda on the weekly shop or watching endless re-runs of Midsomer Murders on the TV. Also, I hear the FP chicken chasni pies are good, although at my age I don't think I'll risk them. I think wellgirl's positivity has rubbed off on me too. She seeems to have been through a lot for a a young person already yet still shows great commitment both to her studies and the club. Keep the faith if you possibly can, dossers. You could support West Ham......

The whole club is stagnant and directionless and there is a great deal apathy surrounding everything just now and that’s been the case for a good few years now. As a club we have zero ambition and a gutless yellow streak which results in our dismal cup performances, in my opinion. The other night was no surprise whatsoever, just like Raith Rovers a year ago today wasn’t either. And let me be clear here. I am not expecting us to win Cup competitions but i would prefer it if we didn’t whimper out early the minute we are paired with a fellow top flight side or mid to high table Championship team as we do all too often. Basically the extent of our ‘ambition’ these days appears to be to be less shite than the shitfest two teams in the division and hope we can avoid relegation, anything else is a bonus. We are always skint, as the club constantly ram down our throats the product on the park reflects this. I don’t know what the plan is. I don’t even know if there is anyone in place to put a long term plan in place but it just feels like we trundle along until the year we are eventually relegated, and when that happens we will almost certainly be looking at part time football. Sad times.

Thing is, it's not just our club. I could live with that, having seen us play even worse at times over these many long years. And at least we haven't been relegated, unlike Hibs, Hearts, Dundee, Dundee Utd etc. However, the whole league is now an increasingly bad joke - I mean, how can we be THIS bad this season, and still be above so many other teams? The general quality is in the toilet, "entertainment" is often non-existent (thank heavens for KVV last season) and the spiral is indeed ever-downwards, I just can't see any light at the end of this dismal tunnel.

I've been going to Fir Park since the late 50s and haven't lost my enthusiasm. I still get annoyed at defeats but am no longer surprised. TV has changed the game irreversibly and its a small, very small consolation, that it's nothing to do with me. I'll continue to support MFC come what may.

Talking of an angry man! Maybe you should check your facts. Like him or loathe him, Imrie's record at Morton is decent. Since taking charge in late 2021 he led them clear of probable relegation and then missed the play offs last season on goal difference. Currently in a play off position on a good unbeaten run. Numerous Manager of the Month awards and a win % in excess of 40. In a League where his budget is way below the majority of his opposition. And the team he coaches has just deservedly beaten a team from the Division above. As I said previously, credit where credit's due.

Agree with this. Personally I think the last half hour v County was a missed opportunity. Then again, if SK had made numerous substitutions on the hour and County had fought back, he would have been slaughtered for throwing away three precious points. Also, as much as some fans have an OTT dislike of Imrie, perhaps he is turning out to be a very good Manager and an astute tactician. Credit where credit's due. He did us over.

I've been going to games since 1987. I'm not a die hard in my view simply because I've had too many times in my life when I've been too poor to buy a season ticket. Or even to pay cash at the gate. I don't go to away games for the same reason. I can't afford it. But every time I've had money to buy a season I buy one. By the way I don't judge any fan who can't afford to go to games. I've been that person. However. If I was going to throw Motherwell FC into the bin for not performing well I'd have sacked them off a long time ago. That probably does colour my view on things but that's the way it is. I was not a fan of the Hammell appointment but I was not shouting for his head on social media and I'll back Kettlewell to the end. And it's ok if other people don't feel the same way. I just think it's got way too negative lately. I think Alexander was hounded out and I don't want that to happen to another manager.

I'm just going to say this quite plainly. You wrote every new signing we had off on another thread. Before they had even kicked a ball. You also suggested that Bair wasn't good enough. As for your digs that Kettlewell isn't good enough and a baboon would be better this is the same Kettlewell who saved us last season. I have no time and I mean none for people who want to boot the team when they are on a bad run and I have even less time for people who do nothing but make snide digs at the manager and other posters on here. You are completely entitled to your opinion by the way. I just don't need to agree with it.

They would, but they still finished in the play-off spot. You could probably say the same about every team who were in the Premier then and now.