MJC

We win this one, right? We have to.

Not the worst result and a decent performance, but yet again no win. Tuesday night is absolutely massive.

A poor start but we finished by far the better side. Great goal from Bair! This is there for us. We need to make this one count.

He’s got Vassell, Watkins and Armstrong to pick for his starting eleven though. Unlike us they actually had decent options before they signed Stewart and van Veen.

Unchanged line up and despite signing umpteen fullbacks SO’D keeps his place. I don’t even know why I am surprised. Kettlewell is a dunderheid.

Perhaps his injury was also a factor in them recalling him. They loan him out in August and a week later is out injured thanks to a shocking tackle from a hammer thrower. Scottish football gets a reputation for being full of dirty players and hatchet men and that would have played right into that stereotype. Then he comes back and they're watching him basically being the one quality player in a mediocre team. Just my view as you said, I don't know if that's exactly what happened or not, but it could well have been a factor.

It'll be a tough one today, a battle. I think a point today and three points on Tuesday is the most likely scenario but would love all three today too.

Absolutely and it's also very possible that Arsenal themselves were not impressed with how we were 'aiding his development' given our turgid, dismal style of play each week. They would certainly have been keeping tabs on his progress here and would have been less than thrilled and they, his agent and Biereth himself realised that all parties could do alot better than us. And I wouldn't blame any of them one bit if they did think that.

There is a split and indeed I’m not even sure myself which side I’m currently on. I don’t want to see us part company with yet another manager, he would be the third in less than two years, but at the same time we can’t go on as we are. One win in eighteen league matches is relegation form and after the way the transfer window has gone if we don’t get at least one win from this home double header then I don’t see a way back for Kettlewell. I’ve already got ‘Hammell at Starks Park’ or ‘Baraclough at Cappielow’ feelings about next Friday night. And ironically we’ll be back at the ground where it ended for Baraclough. I can see it going the same way for SK.

I get the feeling that there is a general downer around the club and the support just now, exacerbated by our dismal transfer business. That and potentially seeing KvV turn out against us tomorrow isn’t helping the mood. The only way things can improve in the second half of the season is for us to start winning football matches and perhaps, hopefully, a decent Scottish Cup run. At the moment the signs aren’t good and there isn’t much, if anything, to suggest that we’re going to suddenly turn the corner. We are weaker now than we were at the beginning of January and we’re going to be relying on Theo Bair for goals. Theo Bair! No harm to the guy I like him and think his effort and workrate is first class, but he’s not going to get us goals and he has nothing in the way of support that would enable him to be a foil for a proper striker. Hopefully we look back at this in May as we secure another year of top flight football (and maybe even celebrate winning the Scottish Cup!) but at the moment I don’t see much reason for optimism.

We’ll find out tomorrow. But we’ve got more to worry ourselves with just now. The way I see it is that we need a minimum of four points from the next two home games and progression in the Scottish Cup within the next week or Kettlewell is done. If we lose tomorrow or even do our usual and fall behind early on then the reaction from the stands will be unpleasant because I get the feeling that more and more of the support are at the end of their tether.

As a club we are in trouble imo, on and off the park. Financially we are flagging and without knowing all the ins and outs I struggle to see how we can sustain our position as a top flight, full time club when we are told that we can’t even match half of what the likes of Killie and St.Mirren can offer signing targets. What is our plan going forward? Do we simply live hand to mouth, day to day and hope that there are worst sides than us in the league to help us avoid the drop? Because that’s what it looks like. Our management and recruitment are are falling way short of where they should be. We looked poorly coached every week and I cannot for the life of me understand why we’ve added two more full backs on the last day of the window when it was clear that up front was where we needed to strengthen.

You can dress it up any way you like but if someone had said on 1st January that by the time this window closes we will have lost Biereth and the only forward replacement we signed was a kid from Blackburn with zero track record of scoring goals then it would have seemed unbelievable and totally unacceptable. But that’s where we are now. An absolute shambles of a transfer window.

The usual mugs in our support will cheer him no matter what he does. That said though the mood in the support is at a low point and on the back of this clusterfuck of a transfer window if van Veen plays and scores against us for Killie tomorrow while we struggle for goals and watch to see if our umpteen full backs can make an impact then it might be a bridge too far even for the East Stand fan boys.

Perhaps yes. But at the same time in St.Mirren’s case, with Paisley, would they not have at least as much if not twice more the amount of football fans who follow the Old Firm in their town? Given their proximity to Glasgow then it’s hard to think otherwise surely? Kilmarnock are a bit more out of the way, but the town and general area will almost certainly have more Celtic/Rangers fans than those who support Killie I would have thought?

But St.Mirren and Kilmarnock don’t seem to have quite the same amount of ‘stay-away’ fans as we do?

I’m not feeling in a joking mood and often find your ‘humorous’ interjections irritating, to say the least. But I did laugh at that. 👍 Nice one! 😆

Yes as I said I get that, times are tough. But by the sounds of it both you and your brother go to the games whenever you can go? That’s great. As I said though we have ‘supporters’ who for whatever reason choose to spend their money elsewhere on match days most weeks. That’s up to them of course.

I see it now thanks.

Where are you seeing this?

I get that and I know that in modern times it can be hard for fans to fork out their hard earned week in, week out to go and support the team. Life happens. But I’m not ‘having a go’ at fans who for whatever reason can’t go to the games. I’m more meaning those who could go but choose instead to spend their Saturday/or whatever at the pub or the bookies, or the bowling or the golf…all of which costs money too. I know a fair few Motherwell supporters who fall into those categories and I dare say others do too. Semi Finals? Cup Finals? European ties? They’re there. But run of the mill games against Kilmarnock on a Saturday and Ross County on a Tuesday night? Forget it. Like it or not we just don’t have a very good or loyal support with the exception of the small, faithful band of regulars.

As I’ve said before, maybe if so many of our ‘supporters’ weren’t as lazy, fairweather and only turned up when we get to Hampden or for European games then we might have been able to do a bit better than only being able to match half of what St.Mirren do. I genuinely didn’t think that that would leave us so far behind the likes of St.M & Killie in terms of wages etc but I suppose it all adds up.

Great. Just in time for him to debut against us at Fir Park on Saturday then.

He did. But where do we stand as a club?

Noted. But it’s still pretty galling for us to be ‘gazumped’ by them by double and brings us back to the issue we face that fan ownership isn’t feasible for us as a club. This is just my opinion but I don’t see how we can sustain ourselves as a top flight and full time club on our current structure and as I’ve said before if and when we are relegated then part time football is inevitable for us.