MJC

I’ve said this for years, that mindset is self defeating and is used as a pre-made excuse for not performing in these games and it absolutely is something that has been all too prevalent throughout the club and several key individuals on and off the park. And whether intended or not it drips down to various players and managers because it’s like with any line of work, any business. If the message from the top is “we’re only a small company so don’t worry about exceeding expectations or going the extra mile, just as long as you hit your base targets each week/month/year” then that is not going to motivate and inspire employees. JBA coming in as an outsider to Motherwell FC and the goldfish bowl of Scottish football wouldn’t be aware of this mindset and more importantly he doesn’t appear to be easily influenced either.

It’s not good to hear and it really isn’t helpful to us as a club because that is the message that is put out to players and coaches, both current and prospective and many will buy into that. I know we have a core of supporters who like to portray us as this cuddly wee tinpot nonentity of a club, Cowan being one of the most vocal due to his position. And I am under absolutely no illusions whatsoever that we are a big club or anything like it, certainly not in the same scale as the Old Firm, Aberdeen or the Edinburgh clubs. But we have been playing top flight football uninterrupted for over forty years now. And even if the pendantic faither types want to go down the “ahh but we were only saved by league reconstruction one time and then Falkirk’s ground didn’t meet requirements” route, well the last time that happened was twenty two and a half years ago now. So we have been an established top flight club for over twenty years. Still pretty good going I’d say. Success we have will be fleeting and good managers and players we get will inevitably move on to bigger clubs at some point. I know that, we all know that and it’s not exclusive to us. That’s just the law of the jungle. But to hear our most high profile fan go straight on the radio just after we’ve recorded an emphatic victory over Celtic playing some tremendous football and his core point appear to be “it’s only a matter of time before the manager goes, x player gets poached cos a wee diddy team like us can’t afford to keep them” is pathetic stuff. At least enjoy the moment and let the rest of us do the same before spouting the “it’s all gonny get taken away from us soon” pish.

Exactly. In the last ten years we’ve seen us lose every possible way to them. 7-0, numerous 4-0 losses, two cup final defeats without laying a glove on them. Then all the last minute sickeners. 2-0 then 3-2 up only to lose 4-3 with the last kick of the ball. We score a last minute equaliser and they run straight up the park and score again. 2-1 up at Parkhead a few months back and relatively comfortable, lose 3-2 in the dying minutes. Even the one and only time we came close to beating them in the last decade we were denied by a dodgy late penalty for them to sneak a 1-1 draw. Last night was a long time coming and I will certainly dine out on it for a long time to come:

Great night last night but one ‘downside’ is I made the mistake of tuning into Off the Ball on Radio Scotland after the game. Tam Cowan couldn’t even let himself or the listeners enjoy the result without the age old nonsense about “we’ll be lucky to keep JBA to the end of the season, we’re only a wee club, much bigger clubs will be looking at our manager and our players” and so on. Lighten up ffs. I’ve no doubt of Tam’s love for the club but he is one of the biggest culprits of this “we’re only a wee diddy team punching way above our weight” especially seeing as he’s probably the most high profile Motherwell fan out there certainly the one with the biggest platform. That sort of nonsense is why we went more than a decade without beating Celtic as it drips into the club and numerous players, managers and staff buy into it. Fortunately Jens simply focusses on us as a team and doesn’t get caught up in the cliched tiresome rhetoric that so many before him have done so. And Tam Cowan really isn’t funny. His patter is pretty shite imo.

You better believe I am. And seeing as you mentioned it, if there are any Rangers or Hearts fans looking in and feel like offering us a patronising “thanks for doing us a favour tonight” type kind of appreciation. All I can say to them is “It is an absolute fucking pleasure” 🙂

Hiya Tom Boyd Hiya ya odious, sanctimonious dribbling prick 👋

In all my years I have genuinely never seen us that comfortable against Celtic. Ward’s fine save late on apart we were never in any danger of not winning that. Amazing night.

Wow! Absolutely AMAZING! We’ve beaten Rangers twice in the last couple of seasons. But beating Celtic blows that right out of the fucking water. Well done Motherwell and Get it Right Fucking up you Celtic you horrible detestable bastards. #HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW YEAR HULLO! HULLLO! HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR! HA HA! HA HAAA!!!# Two firm fingers right in your faces 🖕🖕

A minor thing perhaps, but JBA is absolutely brilliant in dealing with the media. He just sticks to facts about the team and doesn’t waffle out any cliched nonsense about either us or the opposition. Top marks to him!

SO’D, Priestman and Slattery in. Welsh out, Longelo and Hendry benched.

Or another interpretation is that I don’t buy into half baked conspiracy theories and aren’t seeing things through a cliched “Rangers get everything” set of tinted specs? 🤷‍♂️

Really? This is what I was getting at when I mentioned the ‘Penalty to Rangers’ thing before. That a narrative is pushed by the media (mainstream and social) and it is then accepted as fact. And that I am being questioned/accused of being a Rangers fan or at least having a soft spot for them is quite telling. All I am doing is pointing out some glaring weaknesses in this theory. If match officials and the VAR team were as is appeared to be suggesting out to assist Rangers even to the detriment of their own professional and personal reputation, then why did they disallow them a goal at 0-0??? And let me be clear…it was clearly offside and therefore the correct decision to rule it out. But surely a set of match officials influenced by systematic bias that goes beyond unchecked or else blatant cheating officials would surely have no qualms about ‘inventing’ a reason why they thought it was onside and should stand even though all the evidence otherwise was available and would see them questioned, scrutinised and ridiculed? Or is that just me ‘showing my soft spot for Rangers’ by thinking along those lines too?

You would have a point I think if the media weren’t going out of their way to highlight every questionable decision that goes in Rangers favour. But they do. Yesterday’s alone is being described as ‘controversial’ which it was and that’s before you take into account the hysteria over “Penalty to Rangers” a couple of years ago which not very subtly implied that every penalty Rangers get is dodgy and also that they get more penalties than any other side, the latter being easily disproven by facts but that didn’t stop the narrative being pushed.

It looked a stonewaller right enough but this “blatant cheating” and “conspiracy” nonsense is just that. Nonsense. If that really were the case then we simply would not get any decision in our favour in games like these because if that ridiculous theory is to be believed then match officials along with VAR would be so brazen as to look at a decision for us/against them and know fine well what the correct decision is yet decide to give the complete opposite one. Thus opening themselves up to media scrutiny ‘trial by Sportscene’ and in some cases having their reputation and their character dragged through the mud. Any decision that goes in favour of Rangers whether justified or not is poured over, looked at from every possible angle and subjected to a level of scrutiny that decisions involving no other side would get. So why then would match officials willingly put themselves in that position when they know what is coming their way?? I will say this again. Having looked at it it WAS a penalty for us and it should have been given. I don’t know why it wasn’t. But as has been seen all too often decisions by onfield officials and VAR have been inconsistent and in some cases downright baffling. For example, Kofi Balmer’s red card against Kilmarnock last season given by VAR which was subsequently overturned. I didn’t hear anyone stamping their feet and howling about cheating and conspiracies about that.

So, the optimists will see this a chance of bouncing back and ending a run of eleven(?) losses in as many of our last home games against Celtic. But this won’t be any different. Either 0-4 or 2-3 with them scoring the winner in stoppage time. Either way we just don’t have what it takes to win this one.

I think we will be too (in the mix for a top six finish). But this season and this team has all the look of “so near, yet so far” about them. We won’t get any ‘big’ results like winning today or against Celtic on Tuesday. We saw it the last time we played them at Parkhead in October, 2-1 up yet lost 2-3 in stoppage time. The same with being 3-0 up at Tynecastle in August and clinging on to a 3-3 at the end. We’re a good side, but frustratingly not quite good enough.

That’s another sore one in a season of sore ones. Our glaring weaknesses were exposed yet again. We can’t score goals when it really matters and we can’t shut teams down when they are on top of us.

Apart from the one Hearts got at Ibrox in September eh?

If you can’t make your chances count in games like these then it’s always going to come back to bite you.

Been coming. Game over.

That’s true it will be a bonus but at the same time it’s this outlook that has hampered us against both of them in recent years. We’ve basically just shrugged our shoulders and written these games off. I don’t think we will do that under Jens regime but unfortunately I just don’t think we will be clinical or streetwise enough to get anything either today or on Tuesday.

If we’re going to get anything from either of the next two games then I reckon it will be today. It wouldn’t surprise me if Celtic drop points at Livingston today, sack Nancy, bring back O’Neill and they’ll be completely galvanised when they come to Fir Park.

There definitely is some ignorance in that but there is also some truth. We don’t have the depth that Hearts and the Old Firm have and as we saw at the weekend we struggle to create that spark when Maswanhise isn’t in the side. We also aren’t nearly strong enough up front to be considered as in the mix for the title race. Yes we play some good stuff but all too often aren’t able to make it counts at the crucial time. We have a No.9 who needs penalties or else a dozen chances in front of goal before he converts one. We are also far too lightweight and don’t have anyone in the side like a Gogic or a Devlin who can give us that toughness that we would need to seriously be considered as in contention. I do think that 4th place is a realistic target for us this season. Long way to go yet but there is cause for optimism. Ultimately though this season has all the hallmarks of “another good Motherwell team that won nothing, but could have done so much more”. Which isn’t (before the ‘faithers’ start foaming at the mouth) a bad thing.

Absolutely and I will be delighted with 2 points, or 3 or 4 from the next two games. Obviously 6 would be the stuff of dreams but we need to be realistic. The reality is that we will probably get 0.

The fact that Rangers lost today leaves me even less confident of us getting anything. They very rarely lose two league games in a row and we’ve seen this all too often over the years when one of the OF loses or drops points just before they are due to play us and we get the backlash. We will not beat either Rangers at Ibrox or Celtic at Fir Park. We might scrape a 0-0 in one of them but that will be our lot because we are not physical enough or nearly clinical enough to make it count when it will matter. I’ve heard detractors of this current Hearts side making claims that “they are a team of journeymen” or “a typical McInnes side, big and physical” but they are a well drilled team and being big and physical pays off in this league especially if you have that other critical ingredient that successful teams have…forward players who can score goals. And that is why Hearts are top of the league and deservedly so. Because they are well drilled, play as a team, have players who can mix it up and crucially have players who can score goals when it matters. We are a good side and I am really enjoying watching us this season. But we will always fall short when it really matters for the reasons I mentioned above.