MJC

Just before my time that one but yes it’s similar too.

The jersey is quite similar to the 2009/10 Canterbury effort especially with the badge and the manufacturer logo in the centre. That kit had amber shorts mind you.

And what in the name of utter fuck is that shorts sponsor??

A nice jersey but the sponsor kind of wastes it. And the white shorts ruin the entire kit as they always do. Not our worst effort with Macron but not a patch on last years cracker.

Clear vibes of “move on, move on, nothing to see here! But if you speak out about this we’re coming down on you” right here.

The Herald reporting that we are facing sanctions for social media posts about the Celtic penalty award in this match, as is Elliot Watt.

The fact that he is only 35 concerns me. That is extremely young in managerial terms and something that has failed in the past at other clubs, Ian Cather at Hearts being the obvious example. The ‘aura’ thing is on point too. Good managers have that air of authority about them, that bit that just makes players sit up and listen to them. It can’t be learned, you either have it or you don’t. JBA had it, just that “I am in charge, I am your leader” about him. AJ? I’m not seeing it yet.

I’m going nowhere. I’m Motherwell til I die as the song goes. 😊

Oh right. I’ll say again, I just think Derek McInnes is a good manager. That’s it. You got anymore anecdotes about Sir George Graham or anyone else who was involved with the SFA that was favouring Rangers 60 years ago and how that’s somehow relevant to what happens in the modern game? No? Okay, let’s move on.

Sometimes the so called eye bleeding football works in Scotland though doesn’t it? It worked to an extent with Robinson when he was with us and even more so with St.Mirren. Killie under Steve Clarke weren’t easy on the eye either but they were effective and got results. And our last manager to win a trophy wasn’t renowned for ‘great to watch’ football but we ended up doing pretty well under him. (And yes, before anyone says it, I know that that wasn’t always the case and fans were protesting against Tommy McLean in the late 80s)

I am too as long as it works. It kind of worked with Wimmer in that he kept us up that season but he left pretty sharpish. JBA was obviously a big success for us and we are obviously hoping that Alfred Johansson will also do well. But only time will tell and as I said he’s very young in managerial terms and our job will be a big challenge for him. But I am right behind him.

Which would be the club I should be supporting going by that post then? Hearts? Aberdeen? Kilmarnock? Or maybe St.Johnstone? Or are you just going down the usual lazy route of “anyone who says anything remotely connected with Rangers must be a Rangers fan”??? I think Derek McInnes is a good manager. That’s all. Artichoke, Cholmondeley, Pedigree, CHUM. I think Derek McInnes is a good manager.

You don’t say about Craig Brown do you?? I don’t think anyone would seriously dispute that he was very much out for himself but when he was here he was very much being described as a Motherwell man, even up until his departure with some on this very board citing that supposed fact as the reason he would not leave us for Aberdeen.

He would more likely than not have a League Championship with Hearts to his name if it hadn’t been for John Beaton’s shitebaggery against us. He won Aberdeen their first silverware in almost two decades and never finished lower than 4th in the league whilst regularly reaching the latter stages of cup competitions with them. He also won the championship title with Kilmarnock (and St.Johnstone for that matter) and took them to Europe. I’d say that’s a pretty decent track record.

Well it certainly worked for us when we brought in Craig Brown to sort out Jim Gannon’s mess. I’ll even grudgingly credit McGhee second time around for stabilising us after the Baraclough shambles. Though granted your point about managers from Scotland having that defeatist mindset when it comes to us playing bigger sides is absolutely valid. Plenty of our fans were describing the aforementioned Craig Brown as a ‘Motherwell man’ before he moonlighted to Aberdeen. And to be fair calling him Del is pretty cringeworthy. I think ‘Mr McInnes’ sounds much more staunch and dignified.

That is approach is fine as long as it works out and there may well come a time sooner or later where we need to get back to basics and hire someone with a better knowledge of the league we play in. Rangers are doing just this by hiring Del after a string of foreign or project managers with little to no knowledge of the Scottish game.

Never heard of him but two things jump out. He’s very young for a manager at 35 and despite this he has experience of managing a pretty big club in Rosenborg. As with any appointment this is a gamble and only time will tell if it pays off. Best of luck to him and welcome to the club Alfred.

Away to Hibs first game of the season with a 1630 kick off on Sunday 2nd August. First home game is against Falkirk.

And the Daily Record headline on this subject is “Motherwell and Hamilton Accies fined and reprimanded by SPFL amid pyro use and pitch invasions” and that is the main story of the article with the fact that Celtic were also involved and hit with similar sounding like a mere side story. We all saw what happened but that is how it is reported. Anyone who seriously doubts the influence and clout that Celtic have over football, the media and more in this country these days needs to wake up.

Of course but that would indicate that they recognise Celtic and their fans as being more culpable than anyone else for this type of behaviour. But that is never going to happen in 2026 where Scottish football is run by Celtic, for Celtic.

So suspended punishment of a reduction of 100 tickets for Celtic which lasts until 30th June 2027 and a £2500 fine. And the same fine for us with a suspended closure of Block E for the same timescale. And five of our fans and five Celtic fans referred to the SPFL Trusts pyrotechnics awareness course. So there you have it, a slap on the wrist for Celtic and us lumped in with them to dilute the blame. That’s not to say that ‘Block E’ are blameless and indeed they gave the authorities the open goal they needed to drag us into what happened, but this non punishment for the true culprits is as predictable as it is laughable.

It is clear from that that Beaton simply erred on the side of caution and gave the decision in Celtic’s favour. As I said, that tells us nothing that wasn’t already obvious. Beaton is compromised by Celtic and is scared to go against them given past experiences when he has. There was nothing “clear and obvious” about that incident yet VAR thought it was enough to intervene and Beaton obviously had made his mind up to award the penalty as soon as he got the shout, hence the almost immediate awarding of the penalty. Like I said, the whole thing stinks.

The problem so many people have there is that by not lumping them both together and instead calling out Celtic alone then it is seen that you are somehow showing support or favour for Rangers. You see examples of it all the time even on anonymous forums like this, result being that people don’t want to say it’s a Celtic issue for fear of being labelled pro-Rangers or a bigot. Celtic and their supporters know this and cynically exploit it for their own means.

I’ve mentioned this before but will say it again, Celtic went over 80 domestic matches without a red card from March 2024 until January 2026. That is a stat which is got to be some kind of record and indeed one that had it benefited Rangers then Celtic and their cheerleaders would be screaming from the rooftops about “Masonic cheating refs.” And the key thing to remember about this incredible run was that it began when Brendan Rodgers publicly went after Beaton for calling a red card and a penalty against Celtic in a match against Hearts which Celtic lost. They even got their lawyers in to contest Rodgers touchline ban for it.

No I can’t agree that it is an ‘Old Firm’ issue. Not in today’s game and today’s world where Celtic clearly have more clout and control than Rangers do. They have the media, the authorities and politicians on their side in a way that Rangers simply don’t. Time was Rangers were the ‘establishment club’ in the country and I think if you look at the 1990s in particular they got far more favourable refereeing decisions than anyone else, Celtic included, but just because something was the case once doesn’t mean that it is still the case now. The game has changed, the ‘Overton window’ has shifted and now through excessive PR, crying victim, hounding referees to the point of getting some thrown out the game and striking overall it is Celtic who are refereed to a different standard than everyone else. And their support are becoming more and more entitled and emboldened with each passing year. You see it in the way they behave even towards their own club at times and that’s before you mention numerous pitch invasions, overcrowding away stands and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to stadiums. And yet you never hear a peep from the media or the authorities about it unless they can bring another set of fans, usually Rangers, into the equation to reduce the spotlight on Celtic, but even if they can’t bring Rangers into it they manage to mention incidents at lower league matches to try and balance it out. And that is why it will keep happening with Celtic and their fans. Finally, you say that had it been Rangers we were playing and they were going for the title then the outcome with that penalty decision would have been exactly the same, well I’m not sure it would have been, certainly not with Beaton as the ref. Put it this way, had Beaton given Rangers a penalty under those circumstances which enabled them to win the League any deny Celtic the title then he wouldn’t referee another game. He would have been hounded by Celtic and their media mouthpieces in a way much, much worse than he was over the actual incident. And Celtic would be pushing all the way for the audio to be released, probably getting their legal teams involved until they got what they wanted, which they absolutely would get. I’m not saying that Rangers don’t have a lot more sway in what goes on and more media exposure and support than us and clubs like us, because they clearly do, but Celtic are way, way out ahead of them on all fronts in this day and age.