MJC

27 years to the day since we beat Celtic with Jamie Dolan in goal. No matter how long it’s been that day will live long in the memory. I’d actually forgotten that that was one of his last appearances for Motherwell as he moved to Dundee Utd in a swap deal for Owen Coyle the month after. Also sadly no longer with us.

We’ll win 2-1. Based on nothing but hope and optimism.

It is a great post and in particular it raises a very important issue that seems to being missed by a lot of people. That the players and a good few of the same ones at that, have appeared to chuck it under three different managers now. The same also happened under Robinson but I think there’s only SO’D and Mugabi still at the club from when he left at the end of 2020. That would point to the real issues at the club going deeper than the man in the dugout. Too many at Fir Park have been allowed to live in a comfort zone for too long and this applies on and off the park in my opinion. The decision making with regards to recruitment, the appointing of managers and the process of replacing a failed manager have been amateurish for far too long, particularly going back to summer 2022 when Hammell was given the gig. And on the park the fact that Stephen O’Donnell is still with the club atall never mind getting a regular game is shocking. He is and has been nothing but an imposter in our jersey and his attitude and application is woeful and that is something that has ran through the tenures of Robinson, Alexander, Hammell and now SK. Yet he’s still getting a game. That’s a someone in a comfort zone right there.

I’ve spoken to a few who would have Faddy as manager. “Get him in that dressing room and he’ll show the players just what it means to play for Motherwell” being one of thems reasoning for giving him the job, that and “he’s a Motherwell legend”. I would obviously support McFadden if he was given the job too. I’d be absolutely disgusted but at the end of the day if he was the manager I’d be behind him at least until he proved that he wasn’t up to it.

The fans who spent time, effort and money to travel up there on a cold night just before Christmas.

The club need to show a bit of ambition and push the boat out further than their comfort zone for the next appointment otherwise we’ll be in exactly the same position in nine months/a years time. If that means “spending over the odds” then so be it. I would be looking at someone like Warnock or even Tony Mowbray. I’ve no idea that either of them would even want the job but at least ask the question, make a decent offer to someone of that calibre. However I know that we won’t do that and whoever gets it will be yet another cheap, unimaginative “promote from within” appointment. The only other possibility that we might try is going for an ‘appease the fans’ approach like McFadden which would be absolutely horrendous but the happy Clappies in our support would lap that up. Likewise Stuart McCall who would be hopeless for us in this predicament.

Kettlewell is done it’s only a matter of time before he goes. I suspect he’ll get the St.Johnstone game but if or when we go a goal down then the support will turn on him pretty quickly. If we lose there will be fans outside the Main Stand at full time and if that happens he’ll walk or he’ll be sacked.

You’d like to think it would be a chance to re-set the club and in an ideal world that’s what would happen but in reality it’s more likely that when we are relegated we will be out of the top flight for a significant period of time, perhaps for good. I think there is also a very strong possibility of us going part-time because the way the club is run is shambolic. Our business model appears to be non-existent, there is zero ambition and as we are forever being told we supposedly have no money. The reality is that we have some well meaning people with good intentions running the club but that’s all they are. There is no leadership or anyone with any business nous and as such as we as a club are a sinking ship and that is why we deserve to be playing lower league football whether we finish bottom this season or not, because we are a lower league club in everything but name already.

That’s exactly what will happen unfortunately. It’ll be Frail, Clarkson or Foster or a combination of all three.

If we don’t get relegated this season then we never will. We are in freefall on and off the park and in all honesty we as a club deserve to be playing lower league football.

Kelly the latest Motherwell player to be ruined (for us) by being involved with or being linked with the Scotland National team. Add him to Declan Gallagher and Tony Watt in that regard.

Time to step up Stephen Frail. Lets face it, that’s who’s next.

Stuart McCall is the absolute last thing we and this team need right now ffs! 🤣 The only ones that would benefit from him coming back would be the Nandos restaurants within the vicinity. I would genuinely take Alex McLeish back as manager before Stuart McCall.

If we get any sort of result out of this it will only paper over the ever growing cracks just like Saturday did.

Ach it’s all good. Like I said yesterday we’ll probably start playing around the 70th odd minute and equalise in the last minute again and Kettlewell will be given yet another stay of execution. Then we will lose 0-1 to St.Johnstone at home on Saturday…

“We exist to improve people’s lives” 🙄

We just can’t help but make things difficult for ourselves every single game. It’s basic, basic stuff that’s costing us all the time!

0-1 down already.

Wilkinson & Bair start along with Biereth. SO’D retains his place so Spencer continues out left it would seem.

Another must win game. Another game where we will fail to win. Nothing surer. 2-2 after we’ve been 2-0 down and don’t start playing until the 70th minute and we’ll scrape another draw with a last minute equaliser again and we and Kettlewell live to ‘fight’ another day.

Yeah okay we didn’t lose. By the skin of our teeth. But I was right again about us not being able to win one game, never mind three. And given that we were at home against an equally poor Dundee side then you would hope that we could have picked up maximum points. Instead we just scraped one by scoring in the last seconds. We are in the same position now that we have been for the last three months. We can’t win football matches and therefore we are in trouble.

You’re right, I don’t ever want to see us lose. But at the same time today I take absolutely no satisfaction in us drawing. We needed to win today, just like we needed to win against Ross County at the end of October. But we were rank rotten in both games, gave away cheap goals and scraped a 3-3 draw with the last kick of the ball in both games. Had we lost either game then, imo, Kettlewell would have been sacked/resigned/or at least been put under a lot more pressure than he ended up being in.

In all seriousness do you think that is a positive result for us? At home against Dundee having not won a game for three months, ten games and we scrape a draw with the last kick of the ball. Again. I’m sorry but for me that’s nothing to shout about. If that game finishes 2-2 then the manager and the team are rightly being slaughtered but by spawnying a 3-3 just like we did against Ross County just lets the team, the manager off the hook and gives the happy clappers in the stands and the boardroom something to munch away at for another week. Still though…. #scenes and all that pish.

We really are spawny bastards. That result changes nothing for us in a positive sense but it takes the heat off Kettlewell for another game. The bigger picture is that we have now failed to win in three months and have yet again failed to win a must win game at home. We are absolutely dreadful. We can’t defend, our forward options are hopeless and without 17 year old Lennon Miller and a flukey, underserved draw against Dundee changes nothing.

We would be as well playing Bevis at centre forward. He’s hopeless at the back but probably more of a threat than the rest of our so called forwards up the other end.