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I was sorry to learn that John Boyle took unwell and collapsed at Fir Park this afternoon. Hopefully he's ok. Its great that he still takes an interest in us and I still have a lot of time for him. I met him on several occasions and he was always pleasant and approachable. Yes he made huge mistakes, but his heart was in the right place. Hopefully he'll be attending games again in the near future. As I say, I hope he's recovering and its nothing serious.

4 defeats in the league all season, the first in nearly 3 months and all of a sudden the players are full of themselves or we need X, Y and Z. Sometimes it'll just be an off day or luck won't quite be in your favour. If people can't just accept that without the character assassinations in this season of all seasons then I honestly don't know how you manage to go about your daily life.

The bigger picture is Rangers and Celtic will never field poorer teams than this season and we are better than any other team in the league if we field our strongest eleven. Load management? Hectic schedule? We never played a match for weeks. The whole point of this season is we'll never have a better chance to win a trophy and we've fucked it with a very poor performance against St. Mirren and a crazy selection by the manager for this match. Obviously Askou has done great things but he's not infallible and he got this completely wrong. Trying to make out like there is some mysterious greater purpose to the season that we mere mortal don't understand is just feeble apologia.

There are 2 counter arguments going on here that can be true at the same time. It is clearly very difficult for a club like ours to hold onto a good manager and good players, because as many have stated, money talks. Players and managers are ambitious so they will always want to test themselves at a higher level (and be remunerated for that). However, just because the manager and our better players will move on, doesnt mean we cant still try and build on that success. If we are smart, we move the players on when it suits us, for fees that allow us to re-invest in the squad and strengthen as a club. We also trust in the process that led us to Jens and try to find someone else who fits the same mould. Obviously, there is an element if luck attached to these things, but just as there is a cost to bad decision making (as we have seen in the past) there can be a benefit to good decision making. With the Well Society now pulling the strings at the club, we have discovered our identity, and we now have a model in place, that if done correctly, can be sustainable. Being the best version of ourselves that we can be is the ambition the club needs to show, and so far its going pretty well.....

I have seen lots of posts like this tonight. The game was massively effected by the red cards, we spent most of the first half trying to adjust to their 11 men and then the last 10 trying to force our way back into the game, there was no rhythm to it due to this. Then JBAs game plan is effected straight after kick off in the 2nd. If it was 11-11 all night and he played poor then fair enough, but throwing players under the bus based on what happened tonight is really unfair in my opinion.

I cant believe some of the stuff I am reading seems to me folk cant see progress just want to piss and moan about anything christ we could win the league and Scottish Cup folk would still wet the bed we didn't win the treble. We might not have won anything but give me this season over any season we have had recently that's for sure.

Ifs buts and maybes, sentimental pish, we are having a great season and its not over yet, so lets all get behind the team ans see where we end up.

Nice internet debating technique. Don't want a substandard stadium build then you are a luddite. It's possible to hold two (or more) thoughts at once. I don't want a substandard new build and don't like the substandard facilities we have now. Maybe there are other options that are better, and that's why we have invested in reviewing options.

Can't think of many things worse than a flat-pack effort of a stadium at that desolate Ravenscraig

Davie Cooper would have been 70 today. Tragically taken from us far too young. Still one of best players I ever saw in a well jersey

Very disappointed at result but more than anything the manner of it , hard to stomach , so much went wrong . But I will not question our leader or our team , long time since went to FP with smile on face and left with a bigger one . We are a Motherwell I'd thought never see again with current set up and resources available i used to trudge to every game now I skip

A look at your posts over some time re the uglies clearly shows an attempt to minimise the awfulness of RFC. Walk like a duck comes to mind!! Yesterday's aftermath is a case in point in that you blame Celtic supporters when even the dogs in the street can see the Rangers fans where in attack mode . Celtic fans although they shouldn't have invaded the park were largely celebratory. And of course I don't recall Celtic supporters attacking Rangers players!!! I suggest you fully brief yourself on RFC as even the most basic analysis shows that it remains a cornerstone of bigotry in the 21st century. For example this is seen by them continuing to play in orange strips when this colour is nowhere to be found in their official colours. RFC clearly knows its support base . And aside from their ' values' we can't forget their liquidation resulting from their evidenced cheating of HMRC and indeed other clubs ( including us) from points, trophies and European places. Any other club would have been put out of existence. Yup, Celtic and many of its supporters are distasteful but they are manifestly not as disagreeable as the blue lot no matter how much you might want to disagree. Finally, when posting in the future you might want to remember the great journalist Ian Archer's description of RFC and its support " As the permanent embarrassment and the occasional disgrace". Never a truer word.

I'll throw my two cents into this debate as she who shall not be named ruined it the last time this surfaced. A year ago I wrote a presentation as I thought we had reached our Rubicon with respect to FP. It was written with Lennon's prospective transfer in mind as we were due to receive a second once in a generation fee for a player four years after the last one. With the success we've had this season we could be facing a high seven to low eight figure cumulative total this summer which only adds to our list of options. I think it's worth pointing out that while the McLean adds to the quirk of FP, since it was completed the second tier has earned us approximately £10-12m in extra revenue over a single tier stand. I suspect that extra income has played a major part in our 40+ top tier status and often kept the wolf from the door. For example, St Mirren will never sell more than 2,000 seats to away support in their 8k stadium. We will sell 20k extra away seats than them over a season which is approximately £400k in extra revenue. I should add, I'm very much a proponent of a new stadium and studied architecture at university, I’m just convinced in the modern game you need to have multiple ancillary income streams beyond hosting 25 or so games a season. However I'll flag some of the issues I've seen brought up on this thread already: It's human nature to be resistant to change, I can't fault anyone for nostalgia being a factor for them. We can't ignore FP is limited in what we can do or achieve. If we strive to be the best we can be on the pitch that should extend to what surrounds the pitch. Training Facility - We were looking at one in Muirhouse, now there's talk of Watling Street. A building with changing, physio, conditioning, gym, rehab, dining room and kitchen and possibly an integrated grandstand. If moving to a new stadium the first thing to consider would be a campus where all facilities are centrally located. The main stand could incorporate all of these functions to avoid duplication with training pitches around the stadium footprint (think Man City). Essentially the cost of a satellite facility could be absorbed and spent on the stadium to give an enhanced experience. Design - When there's so much to admire off the park in recruitment, transfers, etc. why would anyone assume the decision makers would drop the ball and not take heed and avoid the traits of all the poor stadiums constructed in the past 25 years. You'd think they'd look to Tynecastle as a very good basis for ideas. I think this fear is unfounded. Transport - Best not to use 2026 transport links to a pretty much empty site to what may evolve. Not many bus companies that would spot an opportunity and then not act on it. Income - Vast improvement on hospitality offering and revenues. Ability to hold all events PotY etc. in house, ramp up outside/midweek events. Look for business' that may want to be tenants, have facilities available for public 7am to 11pm such as cafe/restaurant/etc. and sweat the asset. Cost - Safe to say since covid base materials have jumped as has labour, what we may have faced years ago have increased at a rate of knots. However there are ways and means to address it. If we pursue a new stadium we would have a sizable down payment. We could easily sell the McLean twice over to the OF and that stand perfectly illustrates the precedent of maximising and exploiting the OF support. Look to grow home support from current 7k (still a bit mad to type that) to 9k and continue to allow away support a minimum of 5k (to maintain current away revenues) moves us into a 14k capacity stadium territory. If you assume every 1,000 away capacity we add we make at least £100k per season (1000 seat x three OF games x £33), expand that to 2,500 seats (17.5k stadium) and it's £250k per year extra over current revenues. Over 20 years that generates an extra £5m + inflation at the conservative end of the projections over and above what we earn now. Get top six in half those seasons, plus Hearts and Falkirk have shown this season could easily bring in excess of the McLean 4,800 capacity if it was possible. The cost, upheaval and disruption of demolishing the POD and it's replacement out of commission for at least one full season cannot be overlooked. That stand is our primary breadwinner and our revenues during the construction would face a 7-figure loss in addition to the build cost. I appreciate a lot of the above is back of fag packet sums but I'm happy to address any omissions, errors or oversights if highlighted. I have one idea that I think would have legs but it would need major central and local government involvement but I don't think there's anything in the pot. Future Stadium - Presentation

A wee bit of self promotion, sort of! Myself and fellow Well fan Gary Muircroft (Crofty off Go Radio) have started a podcast called Motherwell Daft. It's available on You Tube, Spotify and Apple. We've done 2 episodes already, pre and post St Mirren. We plan to do a weekly preview and then review of all Motherwell matches, so any feedback is appreciated, not to mention likes, shares and for folk to subscribe! Cheers 👍

Your best joke ever 🤣

I am unsure exactly when it happened, but at some stage in that match we must have earned the right to play football.

You’ve obviously not been listening to the manager… ‘load management’ is often mentioned. Given hectic schedule, I was comfortable with changes. We get it, an opportunity missed. A lot of variables went against us tonight. ‘All on Jens’ and questioning Matty Connolly’s inclusion is quite the stretch. Maybe some should look at the bigger picture…

I think it’s a bit hard to blame the team selection when the game plan goes out the window after two minutes. We don’t know if it was going to work. Connelly other than that one mistake with the pass was excellent tonight. Once it goes to 10-10 we looked like we were getting back into the game and then the second red which to me was just mental. He wasn’t the last man and has two covering defenders ahead of the striker. It’s a really odd decision, similar to the Celtic one earlier in the season that was also not a red. Game is done once we go down to 9, but we still created a few chances. I agree you maybe go with your best side, but we could still have gone down to 9 with that team too. Hard to criticise team selection based on the way the game went.

We were discussing this in the pub around Christmas time, given an out and out centre forward is maybe the one piece missing from this team, which Motherwell striker of the past would complete this team...? In terms of the last 40 years, my answer to this question is always Tommy Coyne irrespective of style of team. However in this case, I think it's doubly true. Coyne's intelligent runs with Watt, Slattery and Just feeding him...? Good god...

This thread is getting nauseating, which is what tends to happen once the Rangers/Celtic fans pile in.

JBA and our stock is high, building on it would put it stratospheric, fingers crossed we show some ambition

We've gone from winning title chat to struggling to finish 4th. I mean we're still just 5 pts behind Champions League qualification. Long way to go for chat, in both directions.

Spot on , my thoughts as well its been a joy to come to Fir Park this season and watch the football we have been playing, long may it continue.

See you next season, enjoy your extended break. What an absurd take on things.

A wee bit of self promotion, sort of! Myself and fellow Well fan Gary Muircroft (Crofty off Go Radio) have started a podcast called Motherwell Daft. It's available on You Tube, Spotify and Apple. We've done 2 episodes already, pre and post St Mirren. We plan to do a weekly preview and then review of all Motherwell matches, so any feedback is appreciated, not to mention likes, shares and for folk to subscribe! Cheers 👍

Hopefully we don't treat every game like a cup tie!!.. 🤪🤪

You summarised pretty much what I have been thinking since last night. Some of the reaction to our defeat has been difficult to believe, given the amazing transformation in our style which had been achieved by both manager and players working in unison this season. Maybe some posters should find something else to do with their Saturdays if they are so disenchanted with and critical of the team they claim to support after a freak result in a game with so many refereeing "inconsistencies" and played on a poor playing surface whose condition should have been taken into account by any sensible referee/VAR team at the first and crucial sending-off. IMO, the last time we played football of such quality was the era of the Ancell Babes. We had (from memory) six full internationals in the team but won nothing because our attacking philosophy neglected the more practical/cynical aspects of the game. People who saw that team still talk about it, whether they supported MFC or not. Frankly, I wouldn't swap watching MFC for St Mirren this season, despite their winning the League Cup. I've had enough of the eye-bleeding football inflicted on us by various recent Motherwell managers, thanks very much. I'll be interested to see how JBA plans our recovery from a disappointed night so I look forward to the rest of the season. Let's get behind the team and management and see where they take us. And smile, we could be Arsenal fans 😱.

I have no interest in you pro rangers agenda, your opinion doesn't matter either tbh, Motherwell are at Celtic on Saturday, stick to predicting defeats.

You really are trying too hard to ignore the facts to suit your narrative. Firstly you don't comment on the fact that Rangers fans invaded the park when they thought they had scored and indulged in goading of the Celtic fans. Did you forget this? More importantly the Celtic fans didn't react. Furthermore you overlook the fact that once the Rangers fans attempted to attack the Celtic fans after the penalties the latter resisted the goading. Lets be thankful they didn't. As for the Celtic fans having the form you refer to which ofc is not inaccurate, you dont note the facts that Rangers fans have on many more occasions over the years invaded pitches. The list is endless, examples of which include a League Cup final in mid 60's, Scottish Cup final in 1969, Newcastle in 1969/70, Scottish Cup final in 1980 and in more recent times when Rangers fans brought a halt to a game at Fir Park when playing Jock Wallace's Motherwell. In all instances Rangers had either lost or were losing. Spot the pattern? Could of course add Manchester when they caused untold damage to that city but what's the point. Let me repeat the Celtic fans who surged the gates, caused damage and left disgraceful graffiti deserve every condemnation. But when it comes to the aftermath on Saturday it is patently wrong to say the Celtic fans are the main culprits. Finally, you might want to ask yourself why in a much more important game the Celtic fans didn't charge the Aberdeen fans after penalties following last season's Scottish Cup final. In short he contrast with Rangers fans last Sunday is stark. No more comments from me on this subject. Anyway let's get back to this coming Saturday when I'm sure whatever our differences we will be rooting for a Motherwell win.

If you're not ultra optimistic as a Motherwell fan, it must be a hellish pastime. Four major trophies in 140 years tells its own story. This season may or may not be repeated, but while we're waiting and hoping for silverware, I'd much rather spend my hard earned watching a team at least attempting to play decent football. Or in St Mirren's case, football.

Keep running tracks out of football stadia, oval stadia for football is outdated

I think he is the one player in the team we would struggle to replace. On top of being one of the best technical players in the team his work rate is ridiculous. Top player.

I see the luddites are out in force tonight, we have two srands at Fir park that are not fit for purpose by todays standards and expectations from the paying public, bolting seats to old terracing and having people pay to sit on seats in the pod stained with pigeon crap, every 2nd or 3rd one broken, turnstyles that were modern the last time we won the league, unsafe congestion in public areas etc and people are getting teary eyed and sentimental about it, aye ok then. Would you accept sub standard and or potentially unsafe conditions in a theatre, restaurant etc, football grounds are no different.

Seems simple to me . Move to a soulless new stadium like all the other horrible new stadiums built in the last 30 years . Ruining the history and wiping out the legacy of our home Fir Park. Or keep the three existing new refurbished stands ,knock down the main stand and rebuild it from scratch as a modern base for a modern club to our required specifications. We have a great playing surface and three modern sides to the stadium 75% of a good stadium already in place . Obviously a lot of disruption ,planning and organisation required for this but the best one . Nowadays history and tradition seem to go for nothing in the corporate world and the sporting world.. Surely its a matter of pride that we have been at the same site for over 100 years and worth presrving. So what if you need to park in a street n walk to the ground on match day ,its all part of the matchday tradition . Everything has got to be so new , sanitised and shinny these days . You could have a stadium in the middle of no where with a carpark right next to it costing £10 to £20 park every home game and an hour to get out of after the game ,no thanks Redevelope the Main Stand for me.

I very rarely post but have posted on this a few times in the distant past. I love Fir Park dearly and believe we must preserve our history and stay / redevelop if at all possible. If we leave Fir Park we will lose something we will never get back. Realistically, we would not get anything special or architecturally interesting, it would be Almondvale with different colours and a bigger away end. That is the economics. I don't know the ins and outs of course, but surely rebuilding the POD from scratch would provide a platform to modernise the stadium / facilities while addressing the worst of the problems, and though expensive would be a more manageable project than a complete move to RC?

This is a game we should be winning but I noticed a couple of things. Our pattern of results is 2 wins, a draw, 2 wins, a draw, 2 wins..... So I decided to look and see when we last won 3 matches in a row and was surprised that it was way back in September 2023. Hopefully that stat gets updated at the weekend!

Yes money talks and bigger clubs can offer a lot more than us, but thats only part of the deal, as we all know the atmosphere at either of the ugly sisters is toxic, especially Celtic, so i agree i dont think JBA would move to parkhead. We all know he will move on eventually, but for me it will be to a club that aligns with his values or he gets a chance at a really big club, a category that neither of the ugly sisters are in. He is obviously very happy with all aspects at Motherwell both on and off the pitch, so he may see us as a longer term project,for domestic and European sucess, a Scottish Bodo Glimpt, so lets just continue to enjoy this season and see where we end up

Gonna have to give a 9/10, Tommy Coyne wisnae fat The Stevie Cowan appreciation society isnae happy either

Looking for. The SFA to do something is a waste of time, they will do feck all in case they upset the ugly sisters. Play acting, diving, cheating, simulation call it what you like has been going on for as long as football has been played, and it wont stop , if a player thinks he can take a dive, or manipulate a situation to win a penalty, get an opponent sent off etc they will do it. Motherwell can be all sanctimonious about it, make a stand by pulling Slattery up for it, go on about the integrity of the game etc, but the rest of the clubs will say nothing and behind the scenes piss themselves laughing. Its the authorities that need to deal with it, VAR could easily have overturned that red card on Saturday but they chose not to, the same way they ignore loads of othe blatantly wrong calls. So if the SFA / SPFL etc do nothing why should the clubs bother. As ie said before many times the governance of the game in Scotland is not fit for purpose, particularly re VAR and referreeing standards and until it is sorted nothing will change.

I think it was a bad brush on his eyelash….. as a contact lens wearer I’m forever having problems with them and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve fell and rolled around on the ground in Merry Street after a little gust of wind hits my eyes. I’m just hoping he’s fit enough for next Saturday as eyelashes are a big problem in football today…. I don’t think it’s mentioned enough 🤥

Not sure, I've still got wood from bossing Celtic at FP

The thing that annoys me most about the Champions League is teams that win their domestic title but have to enter the competition at qualifying rounds. Meanwhile, other teams that finish 2nd or 3rd enter later in the competition. I know the competition has been dead an buried as a proper Cup since the big teams ganged up and decided getting knocked out in a early round wasn't fair to them (or their bank balance), but they could at least have all the Champions qualify automatically and enter at the same stage. I used to really enjoy the European Cup when it was 2-leg straight knock out. as it felt like a genuine competition. Now it's just yet another league that's manufactured to ensure the big teams win and are further enriched. I barely watch any of the games these days.

I find it difficult to know where to start when reading the comments of the last 24 hours. One thing is for certain, all the good will that has been built up over the last 6 months seems to have been tested very quickly. We can talk about a special bond between manager, players and supporters all we like but when all it takes is an accidental slip on a slick Pittodrie surface to show the cracks in the supports patience then it is clear that there is no special bond. We are not any different from any other support in the country. Nobody knows if the team selection would have worked last night. Going down to 10 men after 3 minutes changes the game completely. We played with a man short for 3/4 of the game and probably still looked like the better team. The attitude of the players was fantastic. We cannot expect that the same starting 11 play ever game. Watt is coming back from injury. Slattery has looked tired in recent games. I find the energy that Just manages to put in game after game quite remarkable . The modern game requires some squad rotation. JBA has always been clear about that. Anybody expecting that we just turn up to a Scottish Cup tie away to Aberdeen and walk away with a simple victory are displaying OF levels of delusion. We can talk all we like about building a platform for the future, building a playing style and identity, a new way of looking at the game in Scotland. What the last 24 hours has shown however, is all that really matters is the result and that even an exceptional manager like JBA has very little wriggle room to manoeuvre. It is disappointing but not surprising. The result will dictate if it is all sunshine or all shite after Saturday night. It's the way it always was and the way it always will be.

Correct. Getting fucked out of Europe barely laying a glove on most teams we've played doesn't even register for me compared to a Cup win.

Maybe it's just me but last night does nothing to change the enjoyment I've got out of this season. Ultimately it takes more to winning a cup than just being good. You need a fair bit of luck as well which we clearly didn't have last night and we've not had in general for a while when it comes to things like the draw. It seems like for a good few seasons now all we've had, in both cups, is ties against a Premier League team, the recently relegated Premier League team or Morton. No trips to Auchinleck Talbot for us. Everyone needs to settle down a bit. We've had 2.5 bad games all season, it's just unfortunate (as much as it's a bit of a scunner) that 2 of them have been in the cups.

Far too many needless changes made yet AGAIN in a Cup tie. Previous Motherwell managers have made that mistake and been punished for it and JBA deserves criticism for it too. You play your strongest team in the Cup. To do otherwise is just plain stupidity or even arrogance. The Cups are the only competitions we can win, we are not winning the league, so why we continually fail to go hell for leather in cup games under numerous managers is beyond me.

Thanks for letting us know ‘cause I was stumped

1 down, 12 games to win the league...

I'd have Willie Watson in before those two.