MJC

Tam Cowan is one of the worst culprits of this and he’s a Motherwell fan. He spent the entire month of January on the radio basically trying to sell Maswanhise and just about every week states that he hopes Jens is “as far away from Scottish fitbaaawww as he can get” come the start of next season. Just shut up and enjoy it while we’ve got it ffs.

Ross County in 2022, KvV hat trick. One of the few bright spots in Hammell’s tenure.

Motherwell 1-2 Dundee United Just be typical of us to lose especially against this mob.

Superb performance tonight. What a way to bounce back

Arrogance Swagger Pomp Defiance Brilliant stuff Motherwell

This is insane. Brilliant goal from Bjorgolfsson.

When we’re good fuck me we are good! Total domination tonight.

Just like that eh? Tidy finish

Pretty much as you’d expect tonight with the strongest team starting.

Getting beat 2-1 at HT now too. Not that I take any pleasure from that as it’s just another reminder that they are fucking rotten and we blew it in true Motherwell Cup tie fashion the other night.

There is absolutely zero chance of us winning the league this season. Let’s be clear on that to start with. Apart from us being ten points behind the current leaders Hearts (who won’t win it) and eight behind 2nd place Rangers, we just do not have that killer touch, that clinical streak in us that we would need to be considered as serious contenders. Our away form isn’t that good and certainly not the standard of a side who are truly in a title race. We have lost at Ibrox, Parkhead and chucked away a 3-0 lead in less than half an hour at Tynecastle so far this season, add to that we have failed to win away in the league at Pittodrie, Easter Road, Falkirk, Dens Park and Tannadice. We will be nowhere near the title come the end of the season. As for your point about those clubs I mentioned spending time in the lower leagues. Yes they have, but they can all point to tangible success which we have failed to match despite not playing outwith the top flight during the same period. I don’t know about anyone else but I would take that over 40 odd years (or 22 for the “only saved by technicality” pedants) of top flight football and zero trophies.

You’re right! Thank you for only solidifying my point that losing to them was a major boot in the stones and that they were a side we really should have been beating.

It has been yes and it has been absolutely brilliant so see. But at the same time it is tainted with that frustration that we saved our worst two performances of the season for two massive Cup ties and lost both. A scenario we have seen all too often with various Motherwell sides under various managers and with various players. Since we last lifted silverware 35 years ago this May, Dundee Utd have managed it twice…St.Mirren have managed it twice, St.Johnstone have done it three times, Kilmarnock have done it twice and even Livingston, ICT, Raith Rovers and Ross County have managed it once. That is a hard one to take.

Maybe on paper it isn’t, if you look at the difference in budgets and size of both clubs as I know is something of a favourite go-to for us and some of our fans. But that Aberdeen team really aren’t anything special. They are nine points and thirteen goals behind us in the league and we have a game in hand. We have beaten them in three out of the last four meetings before last night and they are also managerless. As for the mentality side of things. When Motherwell FC start showing that they can win big games in Cup ties (and let me be as clear as I possibly can here, I am not talking about us actually going the distance and winning the competitions, just not losing to poor sides in the early rounds four years in a row) then I might change my position on our mentality.

Because I hate seeing us lose, nothing unclear about that surely? I predicted we would lose this tie, yes, because like I also said, I simply do not trust Motherwell to win any cup tie against anyone and last night was a prime example of why I don’t trust us. Even if we had won last night would anyone really have been surprised if we then fucked up against Dunfermline? We have the wrong mentality as a club when it comes to Cup ties and I don’t know how we change it.

Perhaps start taking Cup games more seriously? Perhaps the team on the park at the time not folding and losing to teams that they are well capable of beating in Cup ties? It’s not on just any one particular manager. I’m talking about us as a club and as a team failing to reach the Quarters of the Scottish Cup four seasons in a row especially when you look at the sides we have been paired with and who have knocked us out in those campaigns. I don’t think that that is anywhere near good enough or acceptable. If anyone disagrees that’s up to them but I have given my reasons why I and I stand by it.

No. It is unacceptable that we have failed to reach the Quarter Finals in the Scottish Cup in the last four seasons having been knocked out by two Championship sides, bottom of the table St.Johnstone and a rank rotten Aberdeen side way below us in the league. Unacceptable. Put it in your pipe and smoke it.

It’s not disrespectful to the team that finished second/third/fourth at all to say that the European ‘reward’ is nothing more than a bit of fluff at the beginning of the next season which looks good on paper for the club but is nothing to write home about on a football scale. I thoroughly enjoyed us finishing 2nd in 1995, for example, but the least said about My-Pa-47 in Europe the following season the better. Likewise our 2nd placed finishes under McCall. They were great at the time and I look back with fondness at what those teams did in those seasons. But you could not pay me to sit through the games in the resulting European ‘adventures’ again. Our ‘victory’ from those seasons was the football we played and the consistency in performances from the team.

The Winning a Cup vs Playing in Europe debate comes up every single year and from a football perspective I cannot see any reasonable or rational reason for why playing a few rounds in Europe early in the season could possibly trump winning a domestic cup. Ask ten different Motherwell fans who were around to see us lift the Scottish Cup in 1991 to name the starting eleven from that day and I’d guess that most of them would be able to answer it correctly. Then ask the same ten Motherwell fans to name the starting eleven that played against Panathinaikos in the Champions League Preliminary qualifying round 1st leg in 2012….how many would be able to name half the team that played that night? I have said this before and I will say it again. The majority of people who say that they prefer Europe to winning a Cup do so because they are more interested in going abroad for a good time and a piss up than the football itself. ”Big leap to the left! YAAAAAASSS! Big leap to the right! YAAAAAASSS! We’re all goin on a European tour let’s get pissed and fall into a fountain WHOOP WHOOP!”

The way always goes and it’s absolutely infuriating. What is also galling is that we haven’t even managed to reach the Quarter Finals in the Scottish Cup for FOUR years now. And not once in that time have we been paired with one of the Old Firm or been beaten by an inform high flying side. We’ve lost to Championship Raith Rovers and Morton in the 5th Round, a bottom of the table and utterly hopeless St.Johnstone side in the 4th round and a rank rotten Aberdeen side who are nowhere near us in the league. That is absolutely unacceptable.

Nailed on draw this one. 1-1

He is not a legend, let’s be clear about that. Certainly not on the level of Tommy McLean who managed to win us the Scottish Cup. He has been excellent for us this season overall and surpassed all expectations with the football we have played and the results we have got. But he has fallen badly short in two massive Cup games and his selection tonight was just ridiculous and it’s cost us. If he can pick the team up, pick the correct players and finish 3rd or maybe even 4th and possibly secure European qualification then that is a big tick for him. But he is absolutely not a Motherwell FC legend yet.

Probably is yes. But as I’ve already said I really like JBA. He’s been brilliant for us this season and I hope we can hold on to him for a while yet. But he got it badly wrong tonight. There is no other way of putting it I’m afraid.

Don’t, just don’t. We were never in contention for the league title but the Cup was a genuine opportunity if we had only taken it seriously. That is Tam Cowan levels of “Ach well, we can concentrate oan the league title challenge now he-he-he aren’t we a great wee diddy team we’ve goat everybody billing and coo-ing about oor fitbaaaw” patter.

Just Bloody Awful We’ve been badly let down by the manager tonight.