Tweed
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Posts posted by Tweed
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Looking back County have scored a lot of goals once the game has gone. Were 3-0 down to United and 2-0 down in Perth twice before they started scoring. Suggests they only start going for it when they have to really chase. Need to defend properly in this one but I think if we play Ojamaa and Ainsworth running at them, they'll give this team too much of a problem at the back. Agree that from what we saw yesterday that Erwin is maybe worth a go up top. However, I don't think it a coincidence that he got more involved than Sutton because Ainsworth was involved when he was on and not when Sutton was.
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Thought all of the subs were better than their replaced counterparts, but as far as I'm concerned, these threads would be as well being called the Twardzik awards this year.
This - he is on a rich vein of form at the moment.
Ferguson did everything we could have expected of him, Erwin and Ainsworth both added something, although we could do without the diving from the former. Ojamaa was good and I thought Angol and Law were both better than their own average. Too many mistakes from Vigurs, Lasley, McManus, Kerr and Ramsden left us chasing the ball and often with one or more of them out of position. McManus in the second half had at least two mental marauds into the Celtic half leaving Ferguson et al ridiculously exposed. Sutton fed off scraps again but did reasonably well but Erwin offered more.
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Baffled by the decision to only allow 2 minutes added time. All subs used plus Ambrose down injured. Obviously Celtic being up against it for the last couple of minutes played a part in the decision.
Ambrose and Kerr injuries plus 1 sub equaled 2 minutes in the first half
5 subs in second half but we did our two together so only four stoppages in play equaled 2 minutes in second half
Seemed fair enough to me.
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Unusually for a game that we lost against Celtic when a couple of decisions went against us, I thought the referee was absolutely outstanding. Angol's handball was ball to hand at close range, the red card was ferocious and DOGSO and Erwin blatantly dived.
As for us, we really don't learn do we? Dundee United waltzed through us time and again last week and this week we let an even better team do the same. Ramsden had a day to forget. Kerr's backpass could have been firmer but he was rushed by Guidetti (who despite not been at his best today, is one of the best movers I've seen at Fir Park for years) and it was good enough but Ramsden seemed to shield it from Dan and then run out the road. Was just kamikaze nonsense. Johansen and Stokes certainly punished us there.
Celtic missed so many chances, especially in the ten minutes after the red card it was frightening. However as they kept missing you could see the belief coming to our guys. My learned and drunken friend behind me told me with each passing sitter that this had 1-1 written all over it and when Ainsworth put that ball in, I believed for a second!
On the differing reactions to Vigurs and Ojamaa giving the ball away the reason for that, in my view, is that when Ojamaa does it he tracks back and attempts to win it back. When Vigurs does it, he sometimes does that, he sometimes makes a halfhearted retraction and he sometimes stands and admires the view.
Positives are that we clung into the game, Ferguson did well when he came on, despite the miss and dive Erwin looked lively as did Ainsworth.
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I think O'Brien has been our best centre half but I don't think he is markedly better than McManus, Kerr, Ramsden so I wouldn't object to reinvesting that money on someone who can maybe remove some of that pressure on them. Lawson is the midfielder who keeps the shape and rarely loses the ball. He is the unshowy unspectacular guy who can make your midfield and Saturday's first half showed that. He has had real good games for us before and only the odd torrid one, problem is he is never bloody fit!
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Twardzik for me,he kept it to 3 with some cracking saves..Ojamma deserves a mention for trying hard...as for the other 9 they were utter pish
Twardzik for his saves and also for noticing Reid unmarked which is what created the goal.
As for the rest:
1) Ojamaa and Sutton couldn't do much more with the scraps they were given.
2) Back four plus Ramsden defended well off the ball but struggled to keep it.
3) Lasley worked tirelessly but gave away a ridiculous number of fouls.
4) Vigurs and Ainsworth struggled to get a foothold in the game.
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So, not the first time we've been well beaten by a John Hughes team. For all his critics, he is capable of getting a well drilled team on the park playing good football. The results just don't seem to be sustainable over a season.
Black's comments post match were in stark contrast to what we've came accustomed to during the McCall years. Rarely has the player's dedication and desire been called into question.
On Hughes, he has an exciting and effective team at Inverness. Taken them to the next level after Butcher and Malpas.
As for Black, I think if you are going to slate the team you need to manage when you do it. For a man who doesn't have the job I think this was the wrong time as could lose them and I wonder if this was a comment for the benefit of McCall who he feels they let down. That being said I think McCall was soft on them sometimes.
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I think the press coverage of our performance and the highlights make it look worse than it was. Firstly, Inverness were excellent. I've never seen a team press so well and then pass so well when they get the ball. They are streets ahead of what I have seen from United and Aberdeen this season.
Throughout the game, when we got the ball they constantly were on us and there was no obvious forward ball on which led to us doing one of two things - going backwards or playing a ball with little chance of success and losing it. Given that, we did well to a degree as in the first half they only had two real good sights on goal - the goal and the one Twardzik saved from Christie. They had all the possession and territory but apart from one slip we were very well positioned and robust off the ball.
Second half we weren't quite as good as when Doran came on they stretched us a bit. Now, from the BBC highlights it looked like a procession but at the time it didn't feel like one. Although they had two or three chances at 1-1, I felt we were right in the game against a very good side.
Unfortunately when they scored the second one we changed our shape to give us a bit more hope up top. In doing so we lost the midfield and we could have shipped any number at all and certainly from then on I was concerned we could suffer a right mauling but for the first 70 minutes, against a team that are a good bit better than us we competed very well.
Of course, you could argue that given they have similar crowds but haven't had the experiences of Europe we have had they shouldn't be a good bit better than us and that is maybe something to look at internally but over the 90 minutes of the game, I thought we competed decently. I thought Black's comment that the fans had more enthusiasm was disgraceful. We maybe lack ability, decision making, pace but to say they lacked desire, I thought was out of order from what I watched.
We're in a league where there are at least four teams (Celtic, Utd, Aberdeen and ICT) that are miles better than us and I think we should be looking at points v those four as a bonus. What has been very disappointing is that we have picked up precisely nothing against the ones in the middle order (Hamilton, Killie, Dundee, St Johnstone and Thistle) and we must look to improve that or we will come 12th, no question about it. Ever since this season started to unravel in September/October, the last three games in December looked massive and we're almost at them. We must have a plan when we hit them.
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Not had the chance to comment on this one, but felt we went with a plan to be difficult to beat and then have a go later on, similarly to both our trips to Aberdeen last season. Unfortunately that plan didn't work because Stephen McManus neglected to put in a proper challenge in the lead up to the goal which left us chasing our tail. From then on the performance in stifling Aberdeen worked pretty well but we were fairly insipid going forward. Thinking that wasn't a bad idea and then have a go late on to try and square it. We just didn't have the impetus to do it.
Positives were that we kept Pawlett quieter, Aberdeen didn't get in behind us that often and we put in some good tackles after the early debacle.
Negatives were that we offered very little going forward, we didn't have the pace to cause any harm and we reverted to a hoof into an area far too often.
If we can take the sturdiness in defence to the next game and get to half time level at worst, we might then be in a position to take the game to someone.
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Problem is we are not allowed to schedule top flight games when the Champions League and Europa League are on which basically knackers every midweek from the end of July until Christmas. Because the Champions League takes a break in January, we can play some more league games there. We can re-schedule games for European nights but not originally put them there. Unfortunately that issue is hard to resolve.However, the Friday night thing is crazy. It's OK when the journey is shortish but the ones we have are three of the six furthest away teams to us. Mental. I noticed a wee banner in the SPice of Life Stand on Friday that said 'Paying Supporters Last Again' when Accies scored their first goal. So this is not just a Motherwell problem. A tougher problem for Aberdeen who are at least an hour away from every other team.
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In reply....
1) maybe this season will be reversed from last year ie we can beat teams in top six but not in bottom... But I doubt it.
2) Dundee hadn't won in 4 and Partick in 5.... Both pumped us.
Don't doubt it, just seems people have decided we are guaranteed nil points from the next five games. Not impossible but not a stick on.
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Our next run of 6 games is giving me the fear.
Can't see a single point from those games and some heavy heavy defeats. The Accies, Thistle, Dundee games on paper where the games to get results and have us sitting nice but a combined 0pts, scored 2 conceded 10 to now into games against Utd, Aberdeen and St J etc I'm actually fearing that come Dec we could be rooted firmly to the bottom.
Just want to point out two things:
1) our best showings this season have been against the better teams (Utd and Celtic away) so Aberdeen away doesn't give me the fear.
2) St Johnstone have lost five on the belt.
Take nothing out of these two then the brown stuff will be absolutely flowing.
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We came into this game after a break so we are hoping to get off to a good start. They haven't won in four and confidence will have been sapping. What do we do we gift them a goal inside two minutes? Stunning finish by Clarkson but the defending in the build up was very poor.
We were working hard to try and fight our way back into it but there was a distinct lack of quality in delivery and Dundee looked crisper when they attacked. Thought we were a bit unlucky for the second goal. Looked like a foul on Sutton when they won the ball back and then the shot by Stewart was a complete sclaff and if he had hit cleanly Twardzik was ready for it. We were a bit to react though and Harkins got all the time in the world to rattle it in.
Second half was a much better effort but before we got the chance to turn the screw we gifted them a third. We had a couple of shots that took a nick off a defender and went for a corner whereas had we won two in a row you just know we would have ended up getting the deflection and taking it into the net.
More promise than at Firhill or against Hamilton in my opinion but still miles from where we want to be.
For me the players with pass marks today were Twardzik, Kerr, Carswell, Ojamaa and Vigurs (offensively).
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We need to play three in the middle of the midfield and these three manage to be closer to attack and defence, too many big holes in that area at both the last two league games which caused us most of our problems. On Lawson, I've seen him twice this season and I think he was about the best player on the pitch v St Johnstone and one of the worst v Hamilton.
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We had nothing going down the sides, perhaps due to have a left footed player playing right wing and a right footed player playing left wing.
To a degree, I agree that the wings are a problem but we lost three goals because the gap between midfield and defence was hug. If we stop losing cheap goals we have a chance of winning. The wingers could be better, but they should be guys who win you the game, at the moment I think our top priority needs to be sorting out the guys who can stop you losing it.
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Since Zaine Francis-Angol isn't on the list, I went for Ojamaa.
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Not read through all of the pages but I thought there were some signs of encouragement today as well as a huge alarm bell that I'm not sure how to sort.
Firstly the positives. Ojamaa and Ainsworth as an attacking force seemed to be better and we had some periods of good ball retention.
To me the big problem today was Carswell and Lasley. Not so much what they did on the ball but their positioning sense. Very often they were very close to the strikers and what then happened was they were able to play one ball that either beat the whole defence or stretched it. If you watch all three goals, they were caused by this. Yes, there were maybe other individual errors as well but if we can sort out the middle I think we'd be in a much better place.
What is the problem? I think Carswell has bulked out and lost a yard. As a result, Lasley isn't being offer the protection he previously was. I think we need to move to three in midfield unless we can get a bit more pace in there.
Hopefully the next couple of weeks will see us revitalise and ready to go again.
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In response to some of the points Fat Tony raised, yes I totally agree with some of the bookings and pushing pulling (that Brown got a penalty for) that went on and we seemed to just meekly accept them. I'm not saying that we should be surrounding the red screaming at him, but Collum was so bad at times and we didn't seem bothered!
A sign of the lack of fight within us?
I thought Collum:
1) got the yellow for McManus right
2) got the yellow for Lawson right
3) got the yellow for Angol right
4) got the yellow for Leitch right
Additionally he:
1) could have sent Angol off after four minutes for DOGSO but he signalled the ball had been kicked too far
2) should have sent Lawson off for a crazy second tackle after being booked
3) having given the foul for the penalty Kerr should have been off for DOGSO, it was maybe outside the box but either way we got a break.
Therefore I thought we got more from Collum today than he cost us and to argue about lack of fight is just nonsense. Remember in 2008-09 we got into Europe as a result of us never ever picking up stupid bookings under McGhee. I don't think we ever got a booking for dissent or celebrating a goal under him which is why we were able to remain as free of suspension. Good discipline is something that cannot be under-estimated when you have a small squad.
I actually don't believe we have a lack of fight, I just don't think we channel it the right way. Today, when things started to go wrong we seemed to play even more quickly which meant we gave the ball away more often and in trying to rectify it our defensive positioning was dire. We put in a fantastic disciplined defensive performance at Tannadice and Parkhead but seems when we try and attack we forget to defend at all.
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Shocking from start to finish with a brief flirt with mediocrity for the first fifteen minutes of the second half. Angol and Lawson both lucky not to be sent off in the first half as well. We got papped 4-0 at home by a team who were competent and energetic and no more than that. Granted that's two things we weren't and why they won. Serious serious questions need to be asked as that was unacceptable. All four goals would shame a public park outfit too.
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Genuine question. How does the referee decide at which end of the pitch a penalty shoot-out will take place? Last night the ref clearly indicated that the penalties would be taken at the end of the pitch that had no stand behind it (no coin toss or anything like that as far as I could see). I suppose you could argue this gives neither side an advantage, but surely common sense dictates that the penalties should take place where the majority of fans can actually see what is going on?
Normally it is a coin toss. He, Lasley and their captain did get together and there must have been a toss of some sort to decide who went first at a minimum.. Usually one team chooses the end and one chooses whether to go first or second. However, on occasion a referee may decide himself which way we'll shoot and could do so because of pitch conditions (e.g. if there was a divot at one spot or other) or safety concerns (e.g. if some rowdy fans might encroach).
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Taking that game in isolation we were unlucky.
There were three very good penalty shouts in the 2nd half. Sutton had two chances you would expect him to bury. The double bar hit was careless at worst and a bit unlucky. But we did seem to disappear after O'Brien was sent off, the Accies just rolled their sleeves up when Hendrie went.
Disappointing ending but certainly very familiar. And again one tool with a smoke bomb has made this a loss making competition.
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McCall said on the interview on Radio Scotland post match that the referee had told him he gave it for the second contact inside the box.
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The handball by Deneyer is a worse decision than the penalty he gave Celtic although I think he got both completely wrong. Unfortunately it looked like his view of the handball was blocked by another Celtic player. Law did brush Brown who was slightly off balance from the tug from Lasley. Disappointing he gave it but not an unjustifiable error.
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Oh joy, a plastic pitch. We seem to do so well on them!
I know too many Accies fans to be overly looking forward to this and they say they are playing some great crisp attacking football. We should have oodles of confidence after the last two away games so hopefully we can go into this with a spring in our step. Sounded like we spent half the game today chasing the ball. That is energy sapping so hope it doesn't kill us late in the game.
Motherwell V Ross County 13/12/14
in Club Chat
Posted
Only positive I can think of is that we took one more point than we deserved.