joewarkfanclub

Not sure why any of this needs to be a conspiracy at all. 1. Our officials are poor and often get decisions abysmally wrong. 2. Big teams always get more decisions in their favour. Especially at home. Its a tale as old as time. 3. There will undoubtedly be unconcious bias with all officials. As human beings, we all have that. As for the penalty. Thought it was a stonewaller in real time. Less so now Ive seen it from the side view. Fernandez hangs his leg out and there is definite contact, so I think its still a pen, but it is of the softer variety. If thats a goalkeeper going to ground and not getting the ball and the attacking player takes the contact and goes down, its being given all day long and he is praised for being "clever". Its 100% given at the opposite end, or at least reviewed by VAR.

Anyone watched Morocco? Asking for a friend! 😆😆😆

Delighted enough to let him play tomorrow night? 😆😆😆

Of the outfield players I thought Fadinger had a good game. But obviously its Ward......

Celtic are very good going forward. But they are wide open at the back. If we can get the balance of possession/attack right we could well get something from this. Could be a high scoring encounter. Please let us score 1 more than them!

Great first 20 minutes. Absolutely bossed them. But if you dont score when you are on top its gonna come back and bite you. The middle third of the game we were second best. Too many forced passes not coming off instead of trying to keep possession and settle it down again. Said was awful until the last 20 minutes. Slattery not much better when he came on. Both gave the ball away far too easily. I get that they play high risk football a lotnof the time and when it comes off its great, but when you are under pressure, just keep the bloody thing! Finished strongly and might have got the equaliser at the end (albeit we could also easily have conceded as we were so open at that point). Not sure we would have deserved it, but Id really like to see the Fadinger incident again as it looked like a pen to me. Disappointing. Frustrating. But miles above many of the turgid, gutless performances we have been acustomed to in Glasgow.

Maybe a Military Coup? It is Fife after all! 😆😆😆

I just want us to go there and impose our game on them and prove that we can. After that, I will take whatever result comes our way as there will be other factors that will determine the result over and above what we do.

Merry Xmas! 🧡❤️🧡

In a normal season, I would agree with this, as experience tells us this is the way things usually pan out. This isnt a normal season though. Im not suggesting we are in the title race, but to dismiss it like Sutton has shows the kind of arrogance that has led Celtic to where they are this season (with the money they have in the bank they should be miles ahead of everyone). FWIW I dont think Hearts are going away. They have the technology and the resource to strengthen in January and seem to be more astute in spending their money right now than Rangers or Celtic. We will need to address the striking position and get some cover in for Longelo and Welsh to be in the equation. But we have showed over nearly half the season that, if we can keep everyone fit, we are a match for anyone in the league.

Not bothered whether Jens plays Hendry or Stama. We will get a similar shift out of either and its hard to call which if any are more likely to score. Maybe Stama edges it as he at least has the confidence of his penalties to boost his confidence. I agree re Said and RCC. Although Id play Cookie on the left in front of Longelo. I think he is more effective there and Said can play fine on the right side. Id keep Slattery as a straight Just replacement as we will no doubt rotate fairly early with the 2 games in 4 days coming up.

Having watched both Rangers and Celtic today, I dont see anything for us to be worried about. Rangers are a bit more solid than Celtic defensively but they look pretty toothless. Celtic have more going forward, but they have been extremely wasteful of late and are wide open at the back. They only won today because Aberdeen played the whole second half with 10 men. Not saying we will win both games or even one of them. But they are not the scarey proposition they used to be. If we turn up and play our usual game and dont make any stupid errors we will compete and hold our own with both of them. As for Hearts. Yes they are a good team and are well clear at the top, but they have also failed to beat us twice, so lets give ourselves a little bit of credit!

Fair enough. Was more or less the point I was trying to make in the post you quoted.

I would have thought the first line of my post gave context to the rest of it? I never said we had a poor game. I said we were poor for the first 20 minutes, and that was in the context of how our expectations have risen compared to what we have had to experience over the last few seasons. Im not sitting here unhappy with our days work. Quite the contrary.

Its a fair point. Our pitch yesterday looked bumpy for the first time this season. Not really surprising given how much rain there has been and the lack of daylight/warmth at this time if year. Still light years ahead of where it used to be at this time of year right enough. Obviously we dont have St Johnstones to worry about this season and looking at the fixtures we have a lot of home games coming up. Most pitches have improved, but still something we need to be aware of.

Really looking forward to this as it will be another stern test of where we are at as a team. This Rangers team arent great, but Rohl has steadied the ship and has them as a far more effective unit than Martin did. If we can go there and get a positive result it will be another big statement in an already outstanding season. Looking forward to seeing how our midfield and attack fare against a side that doesnt sit in to frustrate. Have the feeling it could be a Tynecastlesque game!

Matthew McDermid annoys me more than pretty much any other referee in Scotland and thats quite a feat! I always groan when I see his name against ours. Is he the new Willie Collum?

It was definitely between him and Welsh first half. Really like what he does. Even second half when they brought Priestman on and pushed him forward into Slatterys position, he was really effective. Thought Just's second half performance just edged it, but aye Fadinger is never less than a 7/10 and most weeks he is better than that. Thank you Mr Wimmer!

Like you say its about expectations. Only the first 20 minutes were poor, with too many misplaced passes or bad touches. After that we were generally fine. Big chances from Hendry (x3) and Fadinger could have had the game dead and buried much earlier. Its a bit of a compliment that teams are setting up to try and stop us play rather than have a go at us. However, some of the interplay in tight areas to try and unlock the low block was a delight to watch, second half in particular. Be interesting to see what happens in the next 2 games with teams whose fans will demand they come out and play against us.

Sorry, but have to disagree with this, mainly because of Thompsons apparent inability to find another Motherwell player with a pass. He ran about a lot, and looked like a football player, but that was about it.

Thought the entire team were off it for the first 20 minutes with Watt and Slattery the most wasteful with the ball. Over the 90 minutes I thought Welsh, Fadinger and Just were our best players with an honourable mention for Said. Went for Just for his workrate and the fact he never stops trying to create. His run to get to the byline, tackling their defender and coming up with the ball to cross it into the middle was fantastic and typified his performance. Top class footballer.

We were uncharacteristically untidy with the ball for the first 15 to 20 minutes today. Dont know if it was Dundee's press, the bumpier than usual surface, the sun in our eyes, or a mixture of all three, but we coughed it up cheaply way more than usual with Watt and Slattery being the main culprits. Fortunately Dundee did little with it and we were able to win it back quickly for the most part. After that, I thought the game settled down into our usual pattern and although we didnt create lots of chances we should still have gone in ahead. Hendry's chance was probably the best and having created it for himself he really should have put it away. Second half was one way traffic. A mixture of bad luck and bad finishing delayed our eventual winner. Not our best performance, but still comfortably the better team. We really should have seen it out more comfortably than we did by keeping the ball instead of bootingnit away repeatedly, however, we got their in the end. We are now in a really good position and can have a real go at Rangers and Celtic in the next 2 games without anything to lose or fear. 2 positive results could turn a good season into the prospect of a great one.

Aye, Priestman is the Watt/Fadinger replacement. Slattery is Just or Said.

Not that often. Well not good crosses anyway. Its not really a feature of our play. We tend to work the ball around a lot more looking for openings rather than just chuck it in there for someone to attack. Even when we do get to the by line, more often than not hit the first man or fire it way over the top. Not saying we dont need another striker, or that I wouldnt take Ayunga or someone similar. Just dont think its a given that they would score the goals we need. Id still like to find out though......

That should put a few more on the attendance figures! 😆😆😆