wellsince75

hadn't realised that, thank you. Hopefully would create a bit of a gap from the bottom 2 clubs. The more breathing space the better.

I can't recall coming through a tougher spell of games. Every week for the last few months it's felt like we're against Goliath , we've lost narrowly to teams with much bigger budgets. The players and everyone at the club must be feeling the pain and struggle , in the same way we all have. Typically I'm more interested in performance, seeing improvement. To be honest I'd be delighted just to get 3 points, irrespective of how we do it. We need a shot in the arm, 3 points and a move up the league table will do just that.

I'm with you here. Slattery is not brilliant at chasing back. Solution - stick him in front of the defence , have him as holding midfielder. Goss , completely agree - why do people expect him to go win a ball, it's not his game, he has craft and guile - if he could tackle , chase etc he'd not be at Motherwell. The missing bit for me is we need more than 3 in midfield. I believe we're a better team with Corenelius than without him, not saying he's impressive but it works for us and helps connect the move forward part of midfield. All day long I'd drop Shields (for just about anyone) but for now an extra midfielder and push up the wingbacks when we can makes a lot of sense., not just v' Celtic but in general.

Personal view is Goss and Slattery are amongst our better midfielders . That said I'd shore up the midfield and with likes of Cornelius and perhaps Maguire. Be happy to play KVV up front and bring on Moult on 2nd half.

Appreciate I'm in the pro Hammy camp. I don't believe we're far of being pretty decent team. We've lost marginally to several teams with much bigger budgets than ours. When we see players making basics mistakes , that's not for me about training and tactics, it's because Hearts and other clubs pay 2-3x our salary and have better players. Today could have gone either way, basics mistakes are costing us and have been for the best part of the year. We need to improve the quality of defence but overall I suspect we're good enough to be anywhere in the league from 10th -6th. Problem being, that's the same for several clubs. Losing games suck, bad runs suck. Getting some reinforcements in Jan may help. Equally I'm quite enthused about the prospect of VV, Moult, McKinstry as a front 3. That could be pretty exciting.

Penny and McGinn are by a distance our best defenders. We need reinforcements in the middle.

The January transfer window is always tough - unless you have lots of cash to splash and willing to pay over the odds. I'm hopefully we can land a few quality loan players , feels like the best option to land younger players who need game time or more experienced players who want to get themselves in the shop window. Also believe our chances are strong in landing decent centre halves as there's plenty out there.

Hearts at Tyncastle is often a tough venue to pick up points BUT... they've not been firing on all cylinders either. Won 5 games, same us ourselves. When we played well we got cuffed 3-0. Be quite happy to not play to our full potential and take something from the game. We're certainly capable of walking away with something. Fair to expect 1 goal separating both teams.

That's a damn fine formation and line up & makes the most of what we've got. Would swap Cornelius and Slatterys position but overall a damn fine choice.

My issue with the incident is how why the ref initially played on. Watt caught Goss, had a free kick and yellow card been awarded it would never have gone to VAR. Given how close the ref was how the heck did he miss it. in terms of red , had that been one of our players I think many would feel hard done by. It wasn't anywhere the type of challenge Mugabi put in when he was sent off v's His and many of the Well fans felt Mugabi was harshly treated.

great to get the 3 points - vast majority of our games come down to a single goal margin. Great that's its a goal in our favour. Hopefully gives the players that bit of confidence to get the ball on the deck and start entertaining again.

I don't understand the level of pessimism , recent games have been against Old Firm, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs. We won the game convincingly against RC. I don't think it's a stroll in the park, expect an evenly matched game and the odd goal either way likely to win it for either team. Be lovely to pick up 3 points and give us all something to cheer about.

personally both Goss and Slattery would be in my first eleven. I'd much rather put in an extra midfielder , preferably Cornelius and only work with 2 up front. Overall though I don't believe the formation to be the issue. It's been and still is a very tough run of fixtures and when you lose confidence it's hard to get back (just look at Liverpool/Rangers/Aston Villa etc) . We need to find a way to get a result in next few games and sometimes you just need to change for changes sake to give us something different. Hence a change in formation and win more in the midfield. We don't have the best central defence so makes sense to give them a bit more protection. (or put McGinn at Centre Half and bring back S'OD)

Confidence and lack of is often the difference. under GA we got off to a good start last season , got confident and had a good streak . We were then brutal for a long series of games and rightly he left the club . Hammell came in late in pre season when majority of teams already have their squads sorted . He brought in a few positive signings and got the team playing well . we gained confidence and picked up points against the the lower half teams . we’ve lost confidence playing the better , top half teams . No surprise . we need to dig in and pick up results , more so when we play teams of similar budget and stature . Personal view is too many people expect us to outperform our salary and cost base . Anything above 10th this season is ok for me . It’s not the long term ask but for now it’s realistic . Hammell needs a few years and a few transfer windows . Patience and tolerance is required

Overall it's pretty tight our side of the league. Played 12 games, won 1/3 of them. Scored 15 , conceded 16. Pretty similar stats from position 5th downwards. The squad won't change hugely between now and the end of the season. Winter window doesn't tend to offer much. Perhaps a couple of decent loan centre halves. Key is confidence, at start of season we played with intensity, freshness and enthusiasm. The run of the last 6+ games has understandably eroded confidence. Need to grind out a result or 2 over the next few games.

KVV is the man who’ll get on the end of something. let’s get stuck in , play a bit of footy , ride our luck and get 3 points

Our level = most of teams in premier . Kilmarnock, county , st mirren . I don’t expect us to take many points of the old firm , hearts . in short I expect us to compete with teams of similar stature and finances . Occasionally we’ll take point of bigger clubs but I’m not going to get upset when we struggle against the old firm

we've just come through tough few games . Hearts Celtic , Ross County, Hibs, Rangers, Celtic. We won the game we should be winning (RC) . Never nice losing 4-0 but sadly no huge surprise or any real reflection on how good we are. Unfortunately our next games are all tough v's Aberdeen, Utd, Hearts and Celtic again. It's not til closer to Chrimbo before the fixtures look more our level. Being realistic 1 or 2 points are the likely best outcome. Doesn't mean we're suddenly a poor team, but important we find something to keep confidence and stay in the pack.

A bit harsh to put much of this on Hammell. He came in late in the transfer window, not able to bring in many/quality as most teams have snapped people up. In addition we've got several key players out at the moment. No team has done us over, including the OF. We've competed and been much better on the eye than the last 12 months with Alexander or Robinsons last 12 months. We're 8th, which is about where we should be. We've given some cheap goals away, that's no different from GA and most are the same players, it's individual capability the issue rather than poor game mgt by Hammell. In terms of other managers, there wasn't an extensive list to pick from. From those quoted I personally believe we made the right choice. Continue to approach games as we have, make chances, play creatively I suspect we'll be 9th or better come the end of the season and that will do me just fine. Hammell needs a few years to build a team, over a few summer transfer windows.

overall I thought we looked poor and appreciate the gulf in difference between the teams. We didn't look like a team that believed we'd be taking 3 points today. Don't blame any individual players and appreciate we have several out, which reduced our strength. Personally I think we have better bit with the likes of Corenelius - not sure why as individually he's ok/nothing special but we generally look a better overall team with a bit more bite when he plays. It's been a tough run of games and the lack of pre season hiring is taking its toll. Honeymoon period feels to be over. hopefully get back to good energy, high press and create decent chances over the next few games.

Another close result , where if we had a little more about us could have gotten something from the game . Think it becomes obvious the gap we have when we’re not able to play out preferred 11 from the start . I thought mcginn would be pushed into centre back and a lot s’od into rb . Mugabi shouldn’t be our option off the bench . frustration today - they were their for the taking.

if the OF left it would make the league more competitive but I don't really believe we'd have bigger crowds, possibly lower given how much the OF bump up the stats. Something much bigger than the OF leaving would need to happen to get back to the crowds of yesteryear. As an entertainment, thing to do on a Saturday it's been slowly dying for decades. Probably as far back as the 60s. Just watched the highlights of the Livingston game. A plastic pictch with 75% of stands with no one in them. A Diddy league we've become.

got to say - I'm impressed we were able to bring in Kettlewell - seems like a great guy and decent pedigree.

This is where Cornelius would gives us that bit of bite in midfield. Always feel we're better with him than without.

Agree with this GazzyB, in the main our domestic league has been left behind , the gap widens each year and as you say not just v's English teams but the broader European set up. I don't see how the Old Firm can compete in Europe . They would need to be in a far more competitive domestic league with teams of a similar stature. Playing +40 games against teams who have 1/10th of their financial reach can't be good for them, and arguably not great for our league. Even if they could compete financially with the mid tier European teams, they need to raise their game significantly, they may occasionally do well but will always be found out in the long run.