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He looked like a man, whom never having played football, drunkenly agreed to play with his mates. Waking up with a dreadful hangover, and struggling to understand why the fuck he had agreed to something so silly, he didn't want to let his mates down. So, despite his reservations, he put his dad's old Samba's on and did his best to impersonate a footballer. And fooled no one. Onwards to Wednesday!

You got the impression things had just turned a bit for us and not in a good way. This was a game we really had to win and we did. Dare I say it, the result was more important than the performance.

As good as our midfield can be, Slattery makes a big difference. Watt, Fadinger, Just and Slattery is a perfect balance,

Too much foreplay and not enough penetration,need to up tempo and shoot more often.

What kind of dug meat? Winalot?

MJC seals the win for Motherwell!!! Keep talking nonsense!! It works an absolute treat!!! Great result and well deserved. The players were due a win for their efforts!!

I wouldn't even think for a second about ditching VAR. It's a pox on the game.

Seriously? How any Motherwell fan can so easily dismiss getting to a cup final is beyond me. Im 56 years old and Ive seen us play in 5. Ok, we have only won one of them, and having either Celtic or Rangers in the final always makes things harder. But these are not strong Rangers and Celtic teams, and this Motherwell team has already shown it can go toe to toe with both of them this season. The League Cup semi final is a huge game for us. Given that we cant win the league, surely we can still dream of winning a cup?

VAR has no business ruling on offside decisions until there are at least two correctly placed cameras on both sides of the pitch.

I thought he was very inconsistent and weak. Livi committed 3 fouls in the first 3/4 minutes alone and its easy to see why they top the league's crime count. Despite Livvy players escaping cards for several bad fouls, it was odds on we'd collect the first card and lo and behold we did. The lad who suddenly went down injured after a long VAR delay and just as our penalty was about to be taken was clearly at it and everyone but Nick Walsh could see it.

Yes just watched the highlights. Both offside decisions were very very tight. As for the first I thought at the time that Just was well offside but on TV it looked as though he was just on. Millimetres in it and certainly not clear nor obvious. VAR rerefereeing the match.

Whilst I agree with your statement, I absolutely do not believe the technology used in Scotland can prove this beyond doubt.

Absolutely! The introduction of Slattery changed the dynamics of the game. He drove forward and made forward passes that just weren't happening before he came on. So, very glad that he is back.

Well he does bring a certain pedigree chum, wouldn't you agree?

VAR is ruining football and the stadium experience for supporters. Get rid of it before the fans walk away.

Lead flippers at that!

We hold on for narrow 2-1 win........just 🤣 Massive result and now 6th, shows you how tight league is. Let's hope for more of same on Wednesday

Exactly .not really poor didn't think but most chances we have given up. I think our confidence took a knock last week plus astro added to it. But great result and Livi will give everyone a game there. They really surprised me today

Bringing slattery on was key,we needed someone to take the ball forward from a central area as it was sideways to many times today,the winning goal came from that and it was a peach.

It doesn't just get into their heads, it's awful to play on and when you don't train on it every week can be difficult to adapt to. When the ball has strange bounces and passes get stuck, things that players do instinctively on grass need a little extra thought to adjust - and that slows things down. Killie's pitch is worse, and if you can bear to watch a game on there, you will often see players having to take 2 touches to control a bouncing ball that they would normally have tamed in their sleep. Plus, it's easy for teams to make it difficult for passing sides but making sure it's kept dry and sticky. The worst example of that I saw was at an Accies game where they literally watered the half Accies were attacking into at half time, and kept the other half dry. Can't get rid of it soon enough.

Canny believe he's been in Danish 2nd division. He is outstanding. Love watching him and so chuffed he got winner.

2 shots on target and 2 goals. That was a very, very important win for JBA and the team.

our two worst performances of the season have given us 6 points. Football is crazy. We will need to improve.

got to laugh at that booking given what they have been doing all match. To many of our players reverting to old habbits.

how many late fouls is this referee going to allow?

Decent pen given all the palava and the GK trying to psyche him out

thats five late fouls and no book

hows about a booking ref.

That’s just typical Scottish football dinosaur attitude about foreign managers. That said the only way to shut that talk down is for us to turn our good play and good possession into positive results and we’ve been unable to do that so far.

Correct and that’s why all that talk of JBA being the best manager we’ve had in years and “how long will we be able to hang on to him” a month or so ago was utter madness because the main thing that he’s shown so far is that he is unable to win football matches. We have ONE league win to our name from eight matches and only got that due to Aberdeen’s goalkeeper producing a howler in stoppage time. The harsh reality is that TJ, Watt, Just and Longelo apart we are toothless and ineffective and the manager has so far shown that he has no idea how to turn that around. Now, he might well today, we all desperately hope he does but the stats don’t look favourable for him so far and they are getting worse with each passing week and each failure to put three points on the board in this league.

which as you agree is complete bollox. scottish football will never improve with those attitudes. This win at all costs, has not worked.

Fuck sake is longelo playing with flippers on

Have it on just now , no issues here to be honest

I see that Livingston are releasing blocks of seats in the same way that the Hampden authorities are doing. Best views are released later. Its one of my bugbears that clubs like Livingston constrain seating to tight sections. I'm not saying that most of the stadium should be opened up for our benefit but its annoying when most of the available sections are full; latecomers can't find seats and they steadfastly refuse to open up another section.

We’re lucky to have eyes though and a modicum of footballing knowledge to realise we are watching 100% better football than any of the statistical seasons above. We could easily go on a run of wins and I still don’t see us finishing in the bottom six. we have the keys to a suped up twin exhaust Honda civic here 🤣 time we all realised it

Was looking at previous starts to the season up to this point. 25/26 Askou - 8pts 24/25 Kettlewell - 13pts 23/24 Kettlewell - 10pts 22/23 Hammell - 10pts 21/22 Alexander - 14pts 20/21 Robinson - 8pts 19/20 Robinson - 16pts 18/19 Robinson - 5pts 17/18 Robinson - 13pts 16/17 McGhee - 8pts 15/16 Barraclough - 7pt So Askou's start is in the bottom 5 and there has only been 2 worse starts in the last 10 years. Looking closer at the seasons with 8 points or less (but obviously not including this one) there are 4. We finished Bottom 6 in 3 out of 4. The manager was also fired or resigned in 3 out of 4. The exception was season 15/16 when Barraclough was fired after 8 matches, McGhee came in and we shot up the league. Now I definitely don't want another manager replaced and I think the season can still go either way but just looking at the facts over the last ten seasons it doesn't look great for Askou. Really need to win at Livingston tomorrow.

While that might be true we would never have got to the final without a brilliant performance by Marshall in the semi final.

But was pretty decent getting us there

Brilliant post, agree 💯

Exactly!! Very similar to my view. He’s barely got his feet in the door and already has transformed us and done something that I don’t think I’ve seen in all my years supporting the ‘Well…. Increased the attendance at Fir park!!! Yes, we all want results but it’s early days and we need to have confidence that results will come. However, we need to realise that they might not come as quickly as we would like and may not come till after January or maybe next season. I think we have a much better chance of becoming a good team by supporting JBA and the players in what they are trying to do than reverting back to “normal” guid honest laddies approach which makes your eyes bleed. Fair enough to make comments and some criticism on forums but let’s keep it in perspective and let’s not get on their backs and start panicking, especially at the games. We know there will be ups and downs but I think the fans have to stay positive. I’m excited to see what JBA can achieve with us and have already enjoyed this season way more than any of the recent past ones.

Stop talking nonsense, for a club like Motherwell getting to a major final is massive. Yes every one we have contested since 91 has been against the ugly sisters both of which had teams far superior to the teams they have now. So yes if we make the final it will be against one of them but given the way they are both playing currently we have nothing to fear, especially from the blue uglies.

Just listened to managers press conference and doest he come across great. He is big on little percentage differences and how our league position isn't justified. I am fully with him on this. Football yes is all about results but their needs to be foundations for it to be sustainable. Jens is trying to build as we all know and I just hope that some who I feel are shortsighted in their feelings about our results do not chase him out and we are back to firefighting every year. He is ambitious and talks about other small clubs throughout Europe who are now competing with big boys. Yes tomorrow is big and we certainly need a result but if we don't which is possible I just hope the majority keep calm.

Agree that we need to win, this is the type of game we always need to win and fingers crossed we do. Personally think some of the criticism is a bit harsh. We're the 4th top scorers in the league and at half time on Saturday we were at that moment 3rd - appreciate it was fleeting but it does highlight the margins. Appreciate we've fluffed our lines at times, some defending has been poor but in the main it's been individual errors rather than poor tactics and that could well be down to the type of player we can afford at our level. I do think the energy expelled in the first half comes back to bite us - a little more judgement needed re when just to keep the ball v's go in all out attack but we're literally less than a handful of games into a new season, new squad, new manager. This is all going to take time. The positive re low expectations is that's often when we surprise ourselves. 3 points please at the weekend chaps, that will do nicely.

We’re not winning this one. We’re toothless up top, our final ball is generally pish, and the defence is soft with a dodgy keeper behind it. All we’ve really got going for us is some tidy midfield play that rarely leads anywhere. Martindale won’t need to do much. He’ll just let us play in front of them and wait for the usual daft mistakes that gift them a goal or two. If we do lose, the midweek game against Dundee Utd before the semi turns into a cup final for us. The pressure’s on JBA and the players now.

Not anymore, although like our good friends from the other end of the M74 we have beaten Livi away 2-1 with a last gasp winner. Hopefully they draw level with us on league wins tomorrow by putting Kettlewell’s Killie pies in their place.

As it stands the only teams with 1 win are us and Rangers....

This is a concern I have and is one of the reasons I remain unconvinced by him. Don’t get me wrong I like JBA and like what he’s trying to do with the playing style, but he needs to show more awareness with his use of substitutes and game management particularly when we’re ahead in games. I fully accept that we are never going to have the ‘perfect manager’ but just little things like that and as you say tweaking lineups and tactics here and there could make all the difference. If we play like we did yesterday we will lose again, or at the very least we won’t win. We also won’t beat Dundee Utd with that approach and St.Mirren will nullify us, boot us about the park and knock us out the cup again. This is a potentially season defining run of games we are now entering I think.