MJC

Sometimes I like to ride bareback through the fields with the wind in my hair. Only when the mood takes me though.

I think it’s you who is trying to make something of nothing. I will say it again, this has been a very good season and JBA has been very good for us, surpassing all expectations. Obviously he is not perfect but we are never going to have the perfect manager. A poster earlier in the thread described him as a legend, which I completely disagree with because he hasn’t been here anywhere near long enough and we don’t yet know how this season is going to pan out. We might still get Europe, we might not but whatever happens it will still have been a good season. It’s just that it could have been even better.

In fairness I would put Tommy Coyne in the legend category. He never won silverware with us but he was the spearhead of a fantastic Motherwell side and scored many a crucial goal. He was also a terrific footballer into the bargain. Likewise guys like Keith Lasley, Stephen Craigan and Stevie Hammell, all club legends in my book for the many years of great service they gave us.

I haven’t at any point said that we haven’t been very good this season overall. We have clearly surpassed all pre-season expectations and then some and indeed the football we have shown we are capable of playing has been the best in as long as I can remember, possibly since McGhee’s first season back in 07/08. But nothing is black and white. There was nothing that I said earlier that wasn’t factual. We failed to win a league match until late September, throwing away a bucketload of points early season. We have a very poor record against the top six sides especially away from home. In both Cup competitions we exited in absolutely dismal fashion and the Scottish Cup tie against Aberdeen saw the manager rotate the team for no good reason. And since mid-late February we have fallen away performance and result wise and from being talked about as potential title contenders we now look like we could throw away fourth place. Now, let me be clear, even if that does happen it will still have been a very good season for us but I think while there will be a great deal of fondness for this season, Jens and the way we have played when we are at our best, there will also be a degree of “what might have been” or even possibly “what should have been”. JBA has been very good for us in his short time and I hope we can hang onto him. But he is not a club ‘legend’ yet as was suggested and he is certainly not the next Pep Guardiola as you would think with the way some both inside and outside our support have been gushing over him. He could very well go on to be a legend of Motherwell FC but he is nowhere near that yet. Artichoke. Cholmondely. Pedigree CHUM.

I don’t know about the first one but I just gave you a second for calling JBA a legend. He is NOT a legend. He has been good for us this season but after a very impressive spell from November to February we are falling away badly and are now in serious danger of throwing away 4th place. Our record against the top six is awful, McGlynn and Falkirk have had his/our number all season and unlike us are a pretty solid, competitive side. And they are in the Scottish Cup Semi Final, the same Scottish Cup we whimpered out of partly thanks to Jens needlessly and arrogantly not fielding our strongest team against Aberdeen. JBA has done absolutely nothing so far either in his time with us or in his coaching career to merit being called a legend. We failed to win a League match until the end of September after chucking away several points from winning positions in the first five games of the season, got our arses handed to us by a woeful St.Mirren side in the LCSF, haven’t won away against any of the sides in the top 9 never mind top 6 and appear be peaked and burst before the split. JBA? Just Bang Average

2-0 home win

“Alot of Motherwell fans are deplorable human beings”

We will draw with Falkirk and lose to Hearts. We have peaked.

Time will tell but I don’t think anything is certain yet over him staying or leaving. Obviously money talks and if a bigger club who can offer him more money come in then he will go. But that is a big ‘if’ still I feel. I don’t think he’s at the stage yet or done enough yet to have Celtic or English Championship sides seriously considering him. But maybe they will, as I said time will tell. Of course he may chose to leave of his own accord and take a job in or nearer his home country like Michael Wimmer did. Or he might not and instead opt to stay with us. But of course he then runs the risk of him not hitting the same levels he did this season and his stock falls as a result. Let’s face it, both Celtic and Rangers will not have another season like this one for a long time. At least one of or probably both of them will be a lot stronger and a lot more consistent. Hearts will spend money too and Aberdeen, if they survive that is, will be stronger next season you would think. JBA is 43 years old and therefore still a young manager and still developing his coaching skills. Bigger clubs especially Celtic who demand instant success might view him as too risky an appointment at this stage.

There’s no certainty that JBA will leave us for another club this summer either imo. I mean there probably as as good a chance of him being here as not next season but is his pedigree as a manager that high or his performance with us this season really been that exceptional that bigger clubs would be circling him? That’s not a slight on him, I think he’s been really good for us, but he’s been knocked out of both cups in really poor fashion and his record against the top half of the league really isn’t that impressive. A lot of lovely football, yes, but also a lot of draws and from being talked about as title contenders a few weeks ago (ridiculously albeit) we’re now looking over our shoulders to stay in 4th place. Put it this way, if he was to go to Celtic as has been mentioned by some then he would flop spectacularly in my opinion.

Falkirk are a good, solid team and we will struggle to break them down again. Our problem all season long is that we just aren’t strong or clinical enough up front when it really matters and that is why we were never seriously in contention for a top three finish. As someone highlighted in the match thread yesterday, our record against the top six sides is actually pretty poor. 2 wins in 13 albeit only 4 losses. As has been the case most of the season it’s the inability to turn draws into wins that has been our downfall. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if the end of the season sort of mirrors the start, with a lot more frustrating draws.

Another draw.

Poor stuff overall. We were unlucky with the offside VAR call even though it was technically correct but it’s that jobsworth nonsense that’s ruining football. After that we weren’t nearly good enough up front or going forward and didn’t deserve any more than we got. Maswanhise has regressed badly over the past month or so…believing his own hype? Just hitting a natural slump? Who knows? But he’s been way below the standard he set from November to early February. 4th is still ours to lose I reckon but we are less comfortable than we were before today now. We need to beat Falkirk at home as we will get nothing at Tynecastle in the final pre-split game.

Season looks like it’s going to peter out with a whimper after such a great run.

Clear and obvious? Not a chance. This is when VAR is an absolute nonsense.

Absolutely spot on in both posts. We’ve been great to watch this season and we’ve all enjoyed it, but it’s very much a case of “so near yet so far” when it comes down to results. And your point about taking St.Mirren’s season over ours 100x from 100 is also bang on the money and I will not believe anyone who tries to say different. Yes they may well be in the mix for relegation and may even be relegated. But they have put a trophy in their cabinet, something we have failed to do for 35 years now. They will remember and celebrate that long after this season, JBA and this current crop of ‘Well players have moved on and became largely footnotes in our history. And what hurts most is that that could very well have been us lifting that League Cup trophy in December against the worst Celtic side led by their worst and most incompetent manager ever but we completely shat it against St.Mirren in that Semi Final and got hammered 4-1. That very same St.Mirren we pumped 5-0 at their own ground just a few months later. That is a sore one. St.Mirren will probably get relegated, come back up and win another trophy before we even get a sniff of one.

3-3 draw

Too many of our strongest players just weren’t on their game. You talk about luck and yes you need that in games like these but you also need to be at your best and we certainly weren’t from what I saw. And when you take the lead in the 32nd minute of the first half you need to be able to see it out until half time. We couldn’t even hold out for ten minitues. It wasn’t a disaster today and it wasn’t the worst performance we could have put in but we can’t afford to have players like Maswanhise posted missing and Said offering nothing.

Alot of people both inside and more so outside of our support have gotten way too carried away about us this season. Yes we have been excellent and have turned in some great performances resulting in some big wins. Celtic at home being the main one, likewise Hibs at Fir Park and fairly comfortably took care of a good few of the bottom six sides especially at home. But as I said earlier we have failed to record a single win away against any of the current top six and have failed to beat either Rangers or Hearts despite all the credit (or “billing and coo-ing as Tam Cowan put it) over our performances in those games. We have also failed miserably in two massive yet on paper very winnable cup ties. I described us as being “Fur coat and no knickers” earlier in the season and I stand by that.

On a plus point Hibs failed to beat Livingston at home and drew 0-0 so very much still advantage us in the race for 4th. Next week at home against them is absolutely massive, we need to beat them to increase our lead and also to get back on track otherwise we could suddenly find ourselves in a bit of a rut after such a good run.

Going by the rules of the game it’s a penalty and when VAR is operating then you’re never getting away with that. That was not the reason we lost today and can’t be used as an excuse for it. We just weren’t good enough.

Ahh that old chestnut. “It widny happen up the other end” (3-1 as I type, game over) which usually means that you know fine well it’s a penalty but want to moan about it anyway. There was literally zero attempt by Longelo to play the ball. How can anyone look at that and say that that wasn’t a penalty ffs!?

It was a clear penalty. We would be screaming blue murder if exact same thing happened up the other end and it wasn’t given.

Could have, should have, did not. Game over.

We have certainly met and surpassed expectations by a considerable distance this season and however it pans out its been an enjoyable one. We are not going to win the league and we were never in contention for it. It’s actually more those outwith our fanbase that have been talking about us as though we were in fairness. For us I think our target should be 4th which would represent an excellent season. I don’t think we’re out of things for 3rd quite yet but I’d say it’s just a bit beyond us and I’d expect to see the top three pull away from us in the coming weeks.