MJC

I’m not convinced Morris would offer much even at left mid, but I agree that that’s where he should play if he does play. As for Moult, if he can’t get up to the required level of fitness then we should be terminating his loan as all he is doing is taking up space on the treatment table.

Absolutely the first goal is crucial. We get it on Saturday and we’ve got something to work with but if they get it we’re done.

Exactly and if that is the club’s view on games against the OF then they should deduct them from the season ticket prices and save everyone money as well as the time and effort to go to them. This “we’re punching above our weight” mindset goes all the way back to Terry Butcher. He was one of the worst for coming out with self defeating talk before games against either of them, especially Rangers but you never heard him talk like that when he was at ICT.

This outlook runs right through the club up to the very top imo. It’s no coincidence that so many managers, players of the club come out with this same old line and excuses. The only ones that didn’t were Baraclough and Robinson when he first took over but even Robinson came round to the club’s “we can’t compete” viewpoint and mindset after a year or so. It’s also no coincidence that our only victories against Rangers in the last two decades came under those two managers, ie. two men who were outsiders to the Scottish game.

Unless either of our top scorers van Veen(pen) or o.g. deliver for us we’ll get nothing from this one. 0-3 Aberdeen.

It’s not just that we struggle against the OF, we rarely even lay a glove on them and that’s the biggest issue for me. Rangers were there for the taking on Sunday yet at no point did we look as though we believed we could take them and last night we were beaten before the game started and lucky it only ended 4-0. I know we are not going to compete against either of them and will lose the majority of games but it’s the manner we lose them that is most galling. There is definitely some kind of mental block on our part in these games nowadays.

The sad reality is that the majority of the squad are of a poor standard and some of them are painfully out of their depth at this level. When you are pining for Joe Efford to get back to fitness then you know you are in bother. We need to avoid relegation and then have a massive (and by massive I mean almost the entire squad) clear out and allow the manager the opportunity to try and rebuild.

No I didn’t know that at the time, but thanks for letting me know. I should pay attention more I suppose.

We’re in a horrible run of fixtures against the city clubs but losing becomes a habit which is hard to get out of. Another loss on Saturday could well be a hammer blow to our confidence, so we really need to get something.

We’ve been absolutely done over by a much better side, that’s the main thing here and it won’t just be us this happens to this season against Celtic. They are significantly better than us and a great deal better than every other side in Scotland. That’s just a fact I’m afraid. However from our point of view our long standing failings are still letting us down. We are too slow in attack, weak in defence and as soon as we go 1-0 behind we are basically beaten. We were never going to get a positive result tonight so we need to put it behind us and focus on Saturday against Aberdeen, which is crucial for us.

As soon as this team falls behind the heads drop. It’s not just against Celtic or Rangers this happens it’s against everyone. Depressing and worrying.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It lets you comment on events wherever you are in the world, which includes contributing to match thread discussions on the game you are watching. Ahh, weeyin’s standard ‘go-to’ whenever he is losing the argument. Not heard that for a while but nice to see you still resort to that when you’ve got nothing else. I don’t think I’m a better supporter than anyone, but I’ve still been at more Motherwell games than you can even dream of in the last decade. Back to the game, 0-3 now and a matter of how many Celtic want to score.

Pretty much as expected from that first half. We’ve been outplayed and could/should be at least four nil down. Bar from McKinstry’s chance from a defensive mistake from them we haven’t threatened. Had we got to HT at 0-0 then we might have had some kind of foothold but losing that goal when we did has killed us and it’s a question of ‘how many’ now sadly.

I doubt that to be honest. I’m at Fir Park supporting my team and you…aren’t. You probably give your dentist the same snidey feedback that you give posters on here. I genuinely doubt you take any joy from anything.

Game over. (hiya weeyin, hiya pal, how’s the game on yer laptop?)

Jeezo what a sitter from McKinstry. Cannot afford to miss chances like that in these types of games

They are the absolute worst. The feeling of so near yet so far then all the patronising bullshit afterwards about “how well we played, how unlucky we were and how with our budget our great wee team shouldn’t be competing with them bla, bla, bla fuck”!

And also had a goal wrongly disallowed. We were awful that night but getting that late equaliser was a bit of payback for the game a year earlier.

That bulgy eyed prick Callum McGregor with a swan dive for the penalty. We drew 1-1 with them a year later, Danny Johnson late equaliser on a foggy midweek game. That was the last time we didn’t lose to them. Team just been announced and Spittal & Shields start with Morris and Tierney dropping to the bench. Still no Moult even among the subs.

I genuinely don’t think we’ll ever beat either of them again, sad as that sounds. As for tonight although a hammering is the most likely outcome, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s going to be an absolute sickening heartbreaker. I think I’d actually prefer to see us get pumped 5-0 than run them close and lose a close game or on penalties, it would certainly be easier to stomach.

Getting back to Sunday. I see a 15 year old has been charged for throwing an object onto the park during the Rangers game. This is becoming all too frequent from that particular area of the ground and it especially seems to be games against Rangers that bring the worst out in that ‘group’. A couple of years ago stuff was thrown at Morelos and the same thing happened the previous season at that very same section. Hammell has felt the need to comment saying “conduct yourselves in a respectful manner while you’re here” ahead of the game tonight. This is the same area of the ground and I’d wager the same group that frequently bleat on about over zealous stewarding and policing but nonsense like this keeps happening from them.

Most players can be made to look good, or at least not shite, from YouTube clips and indeed in the clips I saw of Morris when we signed him he looked decent. Unfortunately any time I have actually seen him play in the flesh in a Motherwell jersey he has been absolutely rank rotten. Andy Roddie-esq almost.

In the first half of last season we had a player who could get goals to turn draws into wins, losses into draws. If you think about Livingston away (2-1), Dundee, Ross County, Dundee Utd(H) all won by the odd goal and the common denominator was Tony Watt scoring goals. Without him in the 2nd half of the season we weren’t winning those corresponding fixtures and, without wanting to sound like a broken record, failed to record a league win until APRIL and only managed another two before the end of the season. And in that time I think I could count on one hand, barely, how many times we actually played well. We were lucky to finish top six and qualify for Europe last season, no two ways about it. And when we got our arses handed to us by a LOI side losing 0-3 over two legs we were shown up for how poor a side we were and how lucky, spawny, jammy, call it what you like, we were to be in that competition.

The point being that when Watt left in January our form nosedived and we didn’t win a league match until April. We hadn’t been playing particularly well pre Christmas but how many times did we win by a the odd goal thanks to Watt? He leaves and potential narrow wins become draws and draws become losses. And whether I or anyone else ‘liked’ Alexander or not is irrelevant. Our form from the turn of the year and the end of the season was dreadful and almost certainly would have seen us right in the fight to avoid the drop if hadn’t been for the aforementioned Watt’s goals in the first half of the season. The football we played in that same time was terrible and the luck came from sides around us cutting their own throats and a last minute equaliser against Livingston which got us top six. Any team who wins three matches in five months yet qualifies for Europe is lucky. And only Ross County not holding on to a 1-0 lead against Dundee Utd while we getting royally pumped at Celtic Park on the final day prevented us from being even luckier and finishing 4th.

I agree and as you say both Robinson and Alexander came in and turned things around at the time but both outstayed their shelf life with us, particularly Robinson. In Alexander’s case we and him were merely ‘going through the motions’ from the start of 2022, possibly longer and only Watts goals in the first half of last season and a lot of luck got us the finish we got. There was clearly no plan, no vision other than just shitfesting it every week by chopping and changing the team and hoping for their best.