MJC

Well firstly that was six and a half years ago now, and we haven’t managed to record a win against either of the OF since then. And secondly, having Robinson as manager who had only just recently taken over was a factor IMO, because he was at that time an ‘outsider’ to us, Scottish football and our place in the game. Pretty much the same as Baraclough in the 2015 playoffs. Of course both of those results count, but they were a long time ago and few and far between and, crucially imo, we had managers who hadn’t been with us long and weren’t with us long enough to buy into the “we’re punching above our weight” mentality by the time those games came around. Put it this way, Mark McGhee or Stuart McCall would not have overseen wins in those games.

The gap in quality between us and Celtic is significantly bigger than the one between us and Hearts. And we aren’t as cowed by Hearts as we are by Celtic. Its pretty clear to me.

Celtic and Rangers will win the vast majority of games against us because they have too much quality. That is a fact. That fact also applies to every other non OF side. However we’ve seen Kilmarnock beating Rangers once and Celtic twice this season. We saw St.Mirren beating Celtic last season and St.Johnstone beating Rangers in the same campaign. Livingston beat Celtic a few years back, Dundee Utd beat Rangers. Ross County knocked Celtic out of the League Cup in 20/21 and St.Johnstone did the same to Rangers in the same season. My point being that while other sides of similar stature to ourselves are able to take advantage of that time when they play one of the OF and they aren’t at their best, we’re never able to do the same. And please don’t anyone try and raise me “but we beat Celtic with Jamie Dolan in goal almost 30 years ago” or “have you forgotten us beating Rangers on Boxing Day when we were in admin and they were top of the league” because our record against both of them in the last 10-15 and more years speaks for itself and it doesn’t look good for us.

Not necessarily, but it could certainly help. It’s not even close to being the same thing.

The odds are always going to be stacked against us when we play Celtic, or Rangers. But I would suggest that we stop simply shrugging these games off beforehand and merrily accepting that they will beat us and that there is nothing we can do about it because “we’re only a wee team and we’re punching waaaaay” above our weight. As has been said above, for us to get anything out of these games the first thing we need is for them to not play to their full strength. But even then we need to believe that we can take advantage of them being out of sorts and for far too long now we fall short in that regard. The September game at FP against Celtic was the prime example. They were well below par but we showed nothing in the way of belief, they score late on, we equalise in stoppage time and still contrive to lose the game. And afterwards we get Motherwell fans trying to console themselves that we were “unlucky”. We need to stop playing the name and start playing the actual team in front of us.

No, because Celtic have significantly more quality than we do regardless of whether they aren’t firing on all cylinders and regardless of how they play against us this coming Sunday, we just don’t have the bottle, the belief or the mentality to get anything out of it. And one goal or four goals, it doesn’t matter. We still lost those games. And this will also count against us because Celtic and Rodgers are going to be hounded in the press this week so they’ll have a point to prove on Sunday. I think we’ll see them come out like a steam train, score early and have the game done and dusted by the half hour mark.

Our home games against them in recent years have been awful. vs Celtic our last eight home games have been 1-2, 1-2, 0-4, 0-4, 0-2, 1-4, 0-4, 2-5 and vs Rangers the last eight home games 0-2, 1-2, 1-3, 1-6, 1-1, 1-5, 0-2, 0-3 Sixteen games combined and one draw to show for it. And the support weren’t allowed inside the ground to see it. Truly depressing regardless of budgets.

Celtic will be under even more pressure to win now that Rangers are ahead of them. That will also count against us in this game. They tend to struggle more at home this season for some reason but away they usually get the job done and Sunday will be no different.

They couldn’t have picked a better game to get back on track if they tried in that scenario.

I don’t know how many times over the years that one of the Old Firm has dropped points just before they are due to play us and you get folk on this forum rubbing their hands together about us beating or taking a point off them…and it never happens. Not that we would have taken anything next week anyway but it’s even less likely with Celtic dropping points yesterday.

Mugabi and O’Donnell need to be out of Fir Park this summer, no two ways about it. Mugabi as I said yesterday just can’t be relied upon and SO’D is and always has been an out and out imposter in our jersey.

We were ineffective against a far superior side yesterday and while Hearts will take care of most sides especially at home our frailties at both ends were all too easily exposed again yesterday. We just don’t have that cutting edge up front and we cannot defend balls into our box to save ourselves. Shankland is the best striker in the country just now and he was always going to punish us when he gets space in between two defenders like that but to be honest any half decent forward player would probably have done the same if presented with that same situation for the first goal yesterday. We are weak as tap water at the back and never learn any lessons, inspite of how “fizzin” Kettlewell was about it. We are on a dismal run stretching most of the season if we’re honest and if we are realistic we were never getting anything yesterday and the same applies next Sunday, so we now look to the Livingston game as our next chance of picking up points. Which we will be under serious pressure to do when that one comes around.

And that’s why our record against them and the other OF lot is so horrendous and won’t be changing any time soon, because this mentality that “these games don’t matter” runs right through the club. It’s hard enough playing Celtic without resting players.

“Celtic are there for the taking, what better time to play them”? ”We were unbeaten in six before Tynecastle” ”Killie took points off them in their last game, no reason we can’t either” 1-3 Celtic Same old story MJC 7IAR

Kettlewell is here until the end of the season at least whatever anyone thinks of him. I think if he was going to go it would have happened early December after the Ross County 0-3 away.

Mugabi has proved time and time again that he just can’t be relied upon. His concentration and position sense are woeful.

Because if he was rested for any other reason than being injured then it’s unacceptable to not involve our best player. I’m not getting into a debate about this because I’ve said what I think and I stand by it so I’m saying no more about it.

You think/hope that that’s the reason for him missing. That’s what I assumed when I heard he was out altogether but a post on here suggested he was being rested. I don’t know that posters source I’m just going by what was said.

Someone said he was ‘rested’ today. I don’t know if that’s the case or not but if it is then it’s unacceptable.

Some of our fans never ever learn.

If Spittal wasn’t injured today then serious questions need to be asked of Kettlewell and his selection. We had absolutely nothing about us today. Two league wins in over twenty games now is absolutely shocking. And with Celtic dropping points to Killie today that means they will be even more likely to scud us next week as they bounce back.

I’m sorry if I caused any offence. I’ll rephrase. That team is going to be defeated quite soundly today and concede several goals, in my opinion.

No Spittal today? Injured I take it? That’s a hammer blow if that’s the case. The undroppable Captain Fantastic and Paton keep their places. That team is going to get fucking hammered today. 4-0 Hearts.

At the moment yes we have more of an upward momentum than Ross County but there is a long way to go and things can change quickly. In terms of the playoff, if we finish 11th then our momentum would be downward, or so you’d think, whereas the Championship side’s momentum would be the opposite*. I’d much rather we just avoided the playoffs altogether. *And yes, I do remember that the last time we were in the playoffs we beat the Championship side 6-1 over two legs, I’m not likely to forget it. But unfortunately none of the sides we could potentially meet in a playoff this year are managed by Stuart McCall.

Quite a bold statement to make when the team currently in 11th have a game in hand over us and we are almost certainly facing back to back defeats. Plus it’s only February, there’s a long way to go yet. With the way we defend and our goalkeeper being in horrific form plus our inability to win football matches it’s seriously naive, imo, to not be worried about us being in the playoffs just now.