joewarkfanclub

Seriously dude? 🫣🫣🫣

The Well Society ran a poll on VAR earlier in the season. Not sure if any other clubs have done similar, but there have certainly been similar from other fan organisations. Just needs someone to pull it all together and take it forward. If the SPFL is indeed there to facilitate the clubs, then they would have to listen. No point complaining about it if we dont try to effect change. Im sure the Well Society are well aware of and share the view of most fans.

Best for both parties. A bit like Stama, just hasnt worked out. Also too injury prone to be serviceable for us. If the Saintees want him we should facilitate this.

Im under no illusion of my importance, or lack of, to the SPFL. But I would hope my club views it differently and makes representation to the authorities in conjuction with all the other clubs to try and sort this. As you say, football is an entertainment industry. In a season where we have enjoyed the best football many of us can remember, and attendances are up, we should be taking this one up on behalf of all supporters to improve the experience. It would be an act of utter self harm if fans are driven away from the game due to poor officiating....

Hearts were indeed "robust" yesterday, as you would expect them to be when they are chasing down a title. I have no issue with that if both teams are refereed to the same standard. But, not for the first time, yesterday we were not. We are not as "robust" a team as Hearts, but time and again we were blown up for soft fouls that Hearts appeared to be getting away with more often than not. I dont want to see our players going down easily, but it just felt that it got to the point yesterday where the players were getting frustrated by the referee's performance that they were left with no choice. Said was probably the worst offender, but there was one challenge where he got sandwiched by 2 Hearts players and the foul was given against him. It was getting to the ridiculous stage. Edit: PS for a team who enjoys as much possession of the ball as we do, you would expect the number of fouls on our players to be higher and with the number of touches we get in the opposition box, that would mean penalties.

I understand your sentiment, but that would be a real shame. I think Im of the opposite view. A kind of "f#ck you" you wont make me go away that easily. The SPFL do really need to have a major review of refereeing and VAR at the end of the season though. Fans of all clubs feel the same way about the situation. At a time when attendances seem to be on the up, it would be crazy to ignore the paying punter.

Longelo for me. Very good in the forward role and capped it with his goal.

We will need to score 3 to win this as the officials move into overdrive in the final straight. Slattery is back so expect some quality shithousing and a major bust up with Rangers players desperate to try and get him sent off. Rangers 2 (Tav pens) Motherwell 3.

I thought today was a much improved performance from the last few weeks, with most of the starting 11 raising their levels. It was telling that McInnes sounded relieved at the end of the game and gave us some plaudits, albeit that doesnt really help us any in terms of points. We can talk about the refereeing (unless the rules have changed, I dont see how Kabore isnt enndangering himself by trying to head itnon the ground) but if we put any if the 4 chances away before that, then its less of a problem for us and may not even occcur. Overall, JT much better off the right side. Just fantastic thru the middle. I liked the 4-2-4, was a twist on our usual set up and played to our strengths. Fadinger much better without the mask. We will play worse and win before the end of the season.

I agree with you, but we dont really have a big physical team. So its no real surprise we are shite at set pieces. Jens isnt obviously sign any hammer throwers, but it would be nice if we could get a couple of signings in close season that could play football, but were 6 foot plus and/or had a bit of bite about them.

Double post.

There's those damn statistics again. 15 matches. Only 2 wins. But also 7 draws and only 6 defeats. So while our record could be better, we have been more than competitive against the top 6.

One or two couldnt have argued had they been benched today, but Jens has challenged them to go and be better. They will know that if they dont there are others ready to take their place. Like you say, huge game.

Without knowing anything about the planning, design, costs invovled, I would just like whatever we build to be the best we can with the resources we have. It seems Jens has had significant input into what is required, so you would imagine the players have been consulted, or at least catered for. I do have concerns about ploughing money into a site that we dont own, but as others have alluded to, given its a charitable organisation we are/will be in partnership with, you would think both parties interests are intertwined. Some sort of lifetime lease or similar perhaps? Anyway, without more information, I dont think its worth getting exercised about......

If JBA goes on a 16 game run without a win soon, then maybe we can start to compare! Ketts was very good when he first came in and took a struggling team and got it functioning again. But the wheels very quickly came off the bogey after that. My use of the word legend was in response to Grizzly being picked up on his use of the word and was tongue in cheek. But Im not having him compared to Kettlewell (yet).

Maybe we are to Hearts, as Falkirk are to us? 🤔🤔🤔

Nuance & perspective are wonderful things! Clearly JBA isnt a Motherwell legend (yet), but he deserves a little more credit than he is being afforded in some quarters. The number of draws we got in the first quarter of the season were a little disappointing given how well we played at times, but they were achieved by a manager and team trying to bed in new players and a totally new system. Mistakes were made and a few wins slipped out of our grasp. Disapppointing but understable. However, we did slowly improve and after the League Cup semi final exit (reaching Hampden seems to have been turned into a negative) we seemed to have unlocked the secret to a water tight defence and results improved. Our record against the top 6 is held up as a weakness this season. Yet we are undefeated against Hearts, have drawn twice against Rangers at home, lost narrowly at Ibrox after a hotly disputed penalty claim. Beaten Celtic resoundingly at Fir Park, lost twice narrowly at Parkhead in keenly contested matches, unbeaten against Hibs home & away. Only Falkirk have got the better of us. So our poor record is actually a myth if you turn it around and ask what the top 6 teams record against Motherwell is. The Aberdeen Cup game was a sore one and Jens has to hold his hands up a little for the starting selection, but the the state of the pitch, weather and 2 red cards are at least mitigating factors. We have broken all sorts of records this season with least goals conceded at home, clean sheets records, longest home run without a defeat, attendances etc etc. Of course the wheels have come off a little bit and you could argue that the pressure of being involved in a potential title race got to us, but you have to factor in the recent injuries, suspensions and some really chronic refereeing decisions. Has Jens been perfect? No. Have the team been perfect? No. But whilst our deficiencies have been shown up in recent weeks, its still the best season I can remember for quality of football and entertainment, and we are still sitting with a GD of +25 in April. Picking holes in an otherwise fantastic season is easy to do and if you ignore the circumstances, you can make a compelling case, but just as circumstances can fall for you, they can also conspire against you, despite you having control over neither.

I like Priestman, but I dont think he can play the Slattery role. He could however play the Fadinger role and maybe push Lukas forward? Another option would be Nicholson, who I thought looked sharp yesterday when he came on. Similarly, McGhee looked very comfortable at right back yesterday. Good to have some options. We should use them to keep the squad fresh and give the opposition a different question to answer. Id be interested to find out what the issue was with Eythor as he was definitely in the training pics during the week. I know folk have their doubts about his quality, but big Henderson was getting away with murder yesterday and needed bodied!

There are some good points in there, but the no plan B thing isnt one of them. Jens has made various in game changes and employed the long ball regularly throughout the season when necessary. I agree with Mcghee and Nicholson, both looked very useful yesterday when they came on and I would like to see both get more minutes as we go into the split. As for Falkirk. I agree McGlynn is a very good manager. But to suggest he is doing better than Jens because he has got them top 6 and has a winnable cup semi final is pushing it. We are above them in the table for a reason, and have also been to a cup semi final. If MGlynn gets them to the final there is a conversation to be had about who has done better, but not yet.

I wouldnt blame Ward, and not necessarily McGinn (although he could have cleared it up the line to Sparrow), but Watt plays the pass back to Ward blind and clearly cant see the Falkirk players behind him. I think its fair to attribute blame there (if blame is to be attributed at all) as Im sure the manager doesnt coach that.

Hard to see us winning this one with the form we are in currently but Hearts have also struggled at home against poorer opposition than us. Id happily take a point. Not so sure we will get it though, unless the officials decide to throw us an unlikely bone!

Longelo for me too. Was the only real out ball in the first half and made a lot of good runs going forward. Nicholson, Priestman and McGhee were all decent when they came on, but werent on the pitch long enough to influence MOTM.

Falkirk (and McGlynn) did a number on us again today. Their press was very clever. They waited time and again for the ball to go to our full backs (mostly SOD) which triggered them to go mob handed to close the full back and the midfielders that side blocking off all the available outballs other than back the way or over the top. They were more than happy for Ward or the CBs to have the ball. We struggled with it all afternoon and it caused a fair amount of disruption to our usual passing / possession game. That said, the goals we lost were all very poor. The first is a free header with Fadinger being the culprit for losing his man (he hasnt been at all himself wearing that mask. I do wonder if it obstructs his vision). The second comes from the aforementioned press, but should have been cleared by McGinn and/or Watt who plays a totally blind pass putting Ward in trouble. The third just isnt a penalty, or there would be 20 penalties a game. Overall we had 14 shots to their 12 with 5 on target to their 4. So even though we were off it in terms of performance and Falkirk deserved to win, the stats for us werent horrific. The fine margins are going against us at the moment, so we are going to have to dig deep and find a performance from somewhere. Slightly concerned that there was no Eyrhor today as it left the bench looking very weak. Although I did think Priestman, Nicholson and McGhee all looked decent when they came on. Maybe we need to freshen the starting 11 up next week?

No, he appears to be available. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c070d7v7nj7o

Good piece of business. A good full back at our level and probably still room to develop. Hopefully the sign of things to come.