joewarkfanclub

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! 😆😆😆

Time to start scouring the training pics to see if he featured this week! 😍😍😍

Exactly this. We arent conceeding goals because we dont give the opposition easy ball. When a defence of SOD, Gordon, McGinn, Koutroumbis is keeping clean sheets after the evidence of last season, you have to take your hat off to the manager. Welsh & Longelo improve us playing out from the back, but they arent essential to the shape / structure, as can be seen from the consistency in performance despite squad rotation.

Aye. The boy is still a class act. Even if he left Cardiff, there would be teams with deeper pockets than us in the queue to secure his services. He is much better than a League 1 player. More the pity.....

They are but then St Mirren play a totally different style of football than we do. We saw it here with Robbo. Get the ball forward quickly into the final 3rd. Win your second balls. Pepper the box with as many crosses as you can. Get your strikers to attack said crosses. Dont get me wrong, Id love to have a striker that was contributing more in the goals for column. Would Ayunga or someone like him be that guy? Would Maswanhise score the same number of goals in their team for example?

On a serious note. With all the great publicity we are getting around the club right now regarding our football, community work and the general feelgood factor around the place we could really do without this. Block E do so much good stuff around the club with foodbanks and toydrives etc, I really dont get this kinda shit? Would be good if the group would take ownership of this and volunteer to clean up the mess or make some other form of reparation. Its ok to mess up. But when you do, own it and do the right thing.

Take Turnbull in a heartbeat. Someone who can shoot from outside the box would be a very useful addition to our team. Thats if he isnt in fact broken beyond serviceable use. I presume he is already a very rich young man and money might not be the be all and end all for him any more. Bring him home.

Not gonna revel in the fact he has lost his job. But not gonna shed a tear either. Thought he might do ok if he had learned anything from his time with us. Having spoken to a few Killie supporting mates seems he didnt. They and we move on.

Robbo should be congratulated for what he has done at St Mirren. Its a magnificent achievment. However, lets not forget he might have done the same for us if he/we hadnt come up against a Celtic team that went all season without defeat and won a treble treble....... As for Mandron. Would he have kicked on for us? I just remember his running style being akin to Moses and not much else.

Could we be that lucky? 😆

Some absolute miserable barstewards on here! Absolutely delighted that another diddy team has given one of the ugly sisters a bloody nose and won a trophy to break the monopoly. Its a victory for football and proves that such things ARE possible if the stars align. Yes, Id much rather it had been us, but Im not going to let that get in the way of something that really is a good news story. As for the hammer throwers tag? Did you watch the game? St Mirren are more direct than us and dont build the play like we do, but they still play some good stuff and I was throroughly entertained by them today, much in the same way I was entertained when Robbo got us to those 2 cup finals. Some of their fans may well also be insufferable, but loads of them are pretty decent spuds as well, maybe just not the ones that occupy social media. Id suggest maybe not interacting with those types. From a selfish point of view, it also heaps the pressure well and truly on to Nancy's shoulders and guess what, we play them in a couple weeks time!

I was okay with the starting selection to begin with as he has earned the right to prove us all wrong. But it was fairly obvious from early in the second half that we needed fresh legs and more width to counteract what United were doing, so my only beef is that the subs should have come earlier. We looked more of a threat when Longelo and Said came on. Be nice to see them start on Saturday.