MJC

And we all know what that means. Disappointment and defeat.

Scott Howie was largely good for us after a bit of a shaky start. He was even on the verge of a Scotland call up during his final season with us IIRC and deservedly kept Woods out of the team imo. He had a much better command of the box than Woods did and the defenders in front of him seemed to have more confidence in him. Stevie Woods was/is a decent guy and clearly the top goalkeeping coach in the country, but as an actual goalkeeper he was a bombscare. He was hopeless at decision making, his distribution was terrible and he was forever being beaten at his near post. He was good at saving penalties though so perhaps that was an indicator of his ability to read players when he had the time to think about it that has gone on to serve him well in his coaching career.

Esapa Osong, 20 year old forward. Welcome to the club!

I’d disagree about Kettlewell being the worst manager during the time dating back to the McLean era but absolutely can’t overlook or forget his behaviour during and after his departure. As you said he threw the entire fanbase under the bus in order to create a false narrative and preserve his own reputation. Absolute snake behaviour.

In my time it’s obviously Tommy McLean. Took us from the 1st division to the top flight where we have remained ever since and won the Scottish Cup. Terry Butcher would be my second best for the way he took over when we were at our lowest point and gave us some tremendous times. Stuart McCall did well for us, but his Cup record when he had such a good team at his disposal badly tarnished that and that’s before you take into account shitting it from 3rd division Rangers and losing to Albion Rovers a year later. Mark McGhee did an incredible job in the first season of his first stint but treated the club and the support with contempt. He is without doubt my most disliked Motherwell manager. The worst manager during my time is Maurice Malpas. An absolutely awful and lazy appointment and he showed absolutely nothing to suggest he would succeed as a manager. The season he was in charge was absolutely horrible.

Confirmed on Udinese’s Twitter/X account. All the very best Lennon, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching you play for us.

1-1 and a penalty shootout loss.

We’ve got a League Cup last 16 tie against St.Johnstone before this one.

Well we’re two league games in and unbeaten, which when you take into account that the two games were against Rangers at home and then St.Mirren in Paisley then it’s pretty decent. We need to improve in certain areas though otherwise we’ll not be winning many games but there is still time in this window to do something about that.

A good solid point today and I’m pleased with that. Kind of a ‘game of two halves’ in that it was a good first half performance where we completely controlled the midfield and then fell away quite a bit in the second 45. Watt, Fadinger and Slattery were very comfortable throughout even though they looked less effective as the game wore on. A clean sheet too into the bargain so that’s a big positive. On the downside we continue to look ineffective upfront and that will need to be addressed going forward and the potential for yet another ‘speedy recovery’ with Johnny K. But definite grounds for cautious optimism.

Same issues as last week some good midfield play and absolutely nothing up front. It does look quite blustery out there which isn’t helping either side.

Nah, it’s just bad luck. Footballers get injured all the time, we can’t blame Kettlewell for this one bla bla bla

“John Koutroumbis has sustained an injury and will be sidelined for a significant period of time. Speedy recovery Johnny”

You definitely can and the same could be applied to the aforementioned Andy Goram, someone I was never keen on playing for us as he was taking in a big wage with us whilst being very injury prone and clearly on the decline. Plus he was a complete roaster of a man. Tom Boyd is the absolute worst though. An obnoxious, horrible Celtic bastard. The worst type of person.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of or seen Colin O’Neill so blatantly disrespect us in the way Boyd has, but anyway. For me it would be… Dijkstra Corrigan..Martin..Nijholt..McKinnon O’Donnell..Lambert..Cooper McFadden Higdon..Coyne

Llanelli in 2009. And it was a great experience which I thoroughly enjoyed. But the most important thing was that we won.

It definitely does not help our cause when clubs like Dundee Utd are able to rake in good money for good results in Europe. We can’t really complain though as whenever we have qualified for Europe we have utterly embarrassed ourselves and got well and truly humbled. That’s the thing that’s always annoyed me about us and European qualification, the way the club and most of the support seem to hold mere qualification up as a kind of trophy and how we actually perform once we’re actually there is almost an after thought. It’s the same with Scotland when they qualify for the Euros. ”Big leap to the left YAAAAASS! Big leap to the right YAAAAASS! We’re all goin on a European tour YAAAAAAS!” ”Who cares if we get gubbed let’s just enjoy it WOOP WOOP!”

But he wasn’t picked to play from the start, which would suggest that either he isn’t 100% fit or the manager doesn’t rate him, which I would find strange given that Ox is clearly our best goalkeeping option. Games last 90 minutes + though. And we get there eventually. So…I’ll say it again, Connelly being loaned out leaves us a bit short on goalkeeper options. Unless Ox is due back*. (*back as in fit enough to play)

That leaves us a bit short on goalkeeper options surely? Unless Ox is due back.

I am yes. You okay Chief Admin?

They don’t have to tell us what the problem is, you’re right about that. But if there is one then I want to see them sort it out because I’m sick reading the words “speedy recovery” on our social media platforms about whoever the latest lengthy injury is about.

It’s possible that it’s down to a bit of both as as I’ve already said we played well on Saturday. However we only drew and it took a late equaliser for us to get that draw. Had that been a Dundee Utd or a St.Mirren or even a Killie playing Rangers the other night they would have beaten them, I’m quite sure of that. And Rangers for some reason tend to do okay in Europe but struggle against Scottish Premiership sides especially away from home. This Saturday against St.Mirren will be a big test for us and more of an indicator of whether we have improved or not.

I don’t know, that’s why I am asking the question and would like others within the club to ask that same question and look at our training methods, facilities etc. Because I refuse to believe that having so many players picking up injuries that result in lengthy layoffs is simply down to bad luck and anyone who thinks that it is is kidding themselves on. Yes players get injured. But that’s not my point and not my issue. It is the AMOUNT of injuries that we pick up and the LENGTH OF TIME that they are then out for that is the issue here. It’s been going on now for too long and happened to too many players now for it simply to be shrugged off with “players get injured”.

Absolute joke. Serious, SERIOUS questions need to start being asked about our recruitment of players and/or our training methods. This is not down to bad luck.

A lot of folk getting carried away over one good performance at the weekend there. We did play well against Rangers, but they were bang average at best and we still very nearly allowed them to slink away with all three points. Our glaring weaknesses at both ends were badly exposed with the goal we conceded and our powderpuff efforts in the penalty box up the other end of the park and that will continue to cost us unless we address this asap. And if Rangers play as badly as that on a regular basis then they will be dropping plenty of points this season so I don’t think we can read too much into Saturday’s 1-1 draw. We will be bottom six this season, whereabouts in the bottom six only time will tell but I have my concerns and I still don’t believe that JBA will last the season with us. And we will do nothing of note in either cup.