MJC

Doormen, stewards, police. Bit of a common theme running there isn’t there? Now either they are extremely unlucky and as they say being picked on and singled out for unfair treatment by people in these types of roles….or they simply have a massive chip on their shoulder and have an issue with authority and being told they can’t behave in the way they want to whenever they want to. No doubt alcohol and other substances are involved in fuelling their behaviour but even aside that that group comes across as very ‘entitled’ and they don’t handle it well when they don’t get their own way. Right out of the Green Brigade textbook of “we’ll dae what we like and if you tell us we can’t then we’re being unfairly treated”. In other words, total bullshit.

I don’t know what Hearts equivalent of the Well Bois/Block E brigade is or even if they have one. But I do know that their support as a whole is significantly better than ours in just about every aspect, not just the numbers they have. And their club song pisses all over “Up the Well” from a very great height. “You can find us at fir park the home of foo-oot-ball” Suffering fuck.

Yes i think that’s pretty accurate. If I remember correctly those incidents were the basis for the ‘protest’ that group had in the March ‘23 game against Rangers at Fir Park. The day before that game they put out a long winded, Green Brigade-esq statement/sermon crying about heavy handed policing and asking other fans to join in with them in boycotting the first ten minutes of that match. Of course that hilariously backfired on them because we scored to go 1-0 up in the 5th minute and all the ‘protesters’ who had congregated at the top of the East Stand stairs then all came running down towards the front to celebrate the goal so their wee ‘protest’ didn’t really get past first base.

No disputing that but at the same time it helps if they behave themselves when they do come to Fir Park or whatever away ground. I seriously doubt that the club are simply handing out stadium bans for nothing.

Ahh ‘Block E’ the ‘Well Bois’. It’s never, ever their fault. They’re just normal match going fans who like a singsong and creating atmosphere. It’s not as if they’ve got any previous for throwing stuff, pyro, confrontation with police and stewards and jumping on the park or anything. No reason whatsoever for their card to be marked so they’re clearly being victimised. Seriously, why can’t they just go to games, support the club/team without acting like arseholes? Then when they inevitably attract attention for their behaviour they start with the ‘grievances’ and feet stamping tantrums. The rest of the support seem to manage it no bother and funnily enough they don’t get banning letters and stewards giving them attention. Tragic.

I’ve always hated it when we do this too. It kills the limited atmosphere there is at FP. Come on now! Can’t be saying stuff like that or you’ll get people suspecting that “Rangers are your big team”. Both Old Firm teams fans are as bad as each other yada yada yada. But on a serious note we’ll surely need both tiers open for Hearts fans this coming Sunday as they usually bring a big support.

They rotated their team quite considerably against Falkirk and regular starters like Clark, Shankland, Grant, Kent, Devlin and McKay didn’t start the game. That won’t be the case against us. And then there’s the ongoing issue with us and our ineffective attacking play which has seen us play now three competitive games and fail to score a goal by any of players in 90 minutes. We’re getting nothing on Sunday.

0-3 Hearts as they get their first win in eight. But to be honest if somebody had offered before todays game that we get past Kilmarnock in the League Cup then get pumped off Hearts I would have gladly accepted it.

Desperation tactics even though we are ahead. Thump the ball 40 yards whenever we can. That is our tactics it seems…

Discounting the group stages that’s three competitive games and zero goals scored by any Motherwell player. We have serious problems.

This is absolute torture. We’ve got nothing about us to suggest we’re going to score and it’s just kicking the can down the road until the inevitable penalty shootout defeat.

The ‘Well Bois’ would probably start greetin and stamping their feet about “Heavy hands, empty stands” if we did that.

Both Dundee clubs, St.Mirren and Killie are better than we are. And then of course you’ve got the bigger clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs. We are a poor, poor side with a manager who is out of his depth.

You’ll not see Ap Stam for a while, if ever.

Watt on the bench, Halliday remains undroppable, looks like one up front again. Playing for penalties by the looks of it

Extra Time today if level at 90 mins, it’s only the group stages that goes straight to penalties. Expect it to go all the way today with the boot in the balls at the end with a penalty shootout loss to ensure maximum agony for us. Apart from us being weak as piss up front and unable to score goals, these types of games are usually the type that Motherwell just do not win….a Cup game against a Premiership side. Our record in such ties is dismal and I think our Scottish Cup 5th Round win over Aberdeen a few years back is our only win against a top flight side in our last TEN. It does not bode well for today. And on a separate note, can Tony Watt actually play for us today? As in it is known 100% that if we do select him we aren’t breaking any Cup tied rules??

We won one, perhaps two league games between the January and the split that season and when 0-2 down at Livingston we’re heading for bottom six until we scraped a last gasp leveller and other results going our way over several weeks helped our cause no end. It was a fluke, no two ways about it. If anything the credit should go to Tony Watt for his goals in the first half of 21/22 otherwise we would have been in relegation trouble never mind in with a shout of top six.

Correct and had we not fluked our way into the top six he would have been gone at the end of that season. As it was we weren’t going to sack a manager who’d got us top since and Europe and he wasn’t going to walk unless a better offer came in. We then had the Sligo shambles and a parting of the ways was the only reasonable outcome for both parties. Stephen Robinson wasn’t without his faults and some of his teams played dreadful stuff too but I’d take him over Graham Alexander any day of the week.

He missed a penalty against St.Mirren in the shootout after that 4-4 horror night just before lockdown in early 2020. I genuinely don’t think any Motherwell player can be trusted to score a penalty in a shootout when it really matters*. But even then, is he absolutely clear to play in this game? I’m not so sure. *I know Colin O’Neill scored a crucial match winning penalty against Morton before they were even called ‘Greenock Morton’ 33 years ago

Regarding the respect aspect and the manner of Watts departure, we have seen worse behaviour in the past from certain individuals and those same individuals have been brought back, with varying levels of success. The most obvious example is Mark McGhee. A man who treated the club and the fans with contempt with his comments and behaviour in the second season of his first spell, held out as long as possible the summer he left to see if he could get the Celtic job before eventually settling for Aberdeen when we were in desperate need of a rebuild. He was brought back and in fairness did achieve top six but again disrespected the club and the support before overseeing a complete collapse of squad morale to end his second stint. Whatever Tony Watt did or didn’t go, said or didn’t say, nothing compares to that walloper and his behaviour towards us.

I posted the other day that there was no scenario where I could see us winning this tie. Well there’s one. We actually play well, win the tie in 90 minutes reasonably comfortably, bring on Tony Watt as an 88th minute sub and are subsequently disqualified for fielding an ineligible player.

If and it is a big IF Watt can recreate his form and application from his previous spell then he will be the best striker at the club. He has ability and can score goals and that’s what we need. However if he can’t and more especially if he gets injured or can’t get fit the way Moult didn’t two years ago then this signing will be another black mark against Kettlewell. This signing has to work for both us and the manager. And unlike Moult he’s not coming back on the pedestal and a lot of fans still harbour a lot of resentment towards Watt over the way he left so he will get little leeway.

Welcome back Tony. And good luck with your impending speedy recovery.

Finished 3-0 to St.Johnstone against Killie. They will bounce back next Sunday against us, nothing surer.

Kilmarnock aren’t any great shakes themselves. They are currently 0-2 down against St.Johnstone at home and have a European game on Thursday night. I can see us running them close and drawing with them but ultimately losing on penalties to them.