joewarkfanclub

Pretty pleased with the business we have done. The areas of the park that required addressing have been addressed. Of course, it remains to be seen if any of the signings will be a success, but thats football. Lets all now get behind the manager and the players and give them the encouragement and support they need!

My memory appears to have bigger holes than our defence! Maybe I did just imagine that he was any good!

Cheers. Id forgotten about "The Fish".....

Its all about opinions mate. Remember goalkeeping has changed a lot in 30 years. The goalkeepers you have listed are all very good goalkeepers in the modern era. My dad always raved about Keith Macrae, but Im too young to remember him actually playing. My memories are of Stewart Rennie, Hugh Sproat and then a long line of others who were dubious at best. Maxy was a very good goalkeeper, but we barely felt his loss when Sieb arrived. Sieb also got a good move to Dundee United out of it (may even have been wee Tommy that took him there). My memory may be playing tricks on me, it may just be the pornstar moustache, the maverick dribbling out of his box, but in my memory at least he deserves to be in the group that you mention togather with Ally Maxwell.

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this. Sieb was up there with one of the best goalkeepers we have had. He was a good shotstopper, but his prowess on cross balls into the box was almost ridiculous, Hence the shout "Sieeeeeeeeb!" I agree he did endear himself to the fans to an extemt and wee Tommys chagrain for his penchant for dribbling out of his box and he did make the occasional mistake which tended to be of the howler variety, but to suggest he wasnt a very good goalkeeper just doesnt sit right with me.....

Cant make the game today but feel it could ve a pretty entertaining one. Hoping KVV is back in the starting line up, as I feel he can be a huge player for us this year and we have missed him since he has been injured. I agree with others that the movement of he, Watt and Woolery could cause a lot of teams problems this year. I also thought Amaluzor showed enough last week to show he can be a threat going forward. The defence will take a bit more time to bed down once we have a full squad. Going for high scoring end to end ripsnorter! 3-2 Motherwell.

Exactly.

He was the 3rd one that played the guitar!

You did. And many of us disagreed with you then, and appear to disagree with you now! Im well aware that Alan Burrows is CEO of Motherwell. So if he posts news of signings for Motherwell on his personal Twitter account or from the clubs account it really doesnt bother me in the slightest. Im also not on Twitter much so had no idea of this signing until I came on here. So it would appear that he was able to reach me with the news without me seeking it. Anyway welcome Sean Goss. Ive cant recall ever having seen him play so I will maintain my excitement over his potential until proven otherwise!

You are in serious danger of making Yodo look like a happy ray of sunshine!

The problem I have with the decision isnt that a free kick was given. Its that it appeared to be given as an after thought. The ref cleary stops play for the head knock, not a foul. Id probably still be really annoyed if we hadnt wont the game, but as we did, its easier to let is pass....

I dont think anyone is claiming that Grimmy is the solution to our midfield issues. But his performance today was refreshing due to his energy, directness and battling qualities. Something we sadly lack as a team a lot of the time. I think most folk are just recognising that for what it is. For what its worth, I certainly think he is worthy of a place in our squad as he can amply cover a number of positions and will do so without quarrell. I wouldnt be building a midfield around him but he is certainly good enough to play the role he was asked today against most of the teams in our league.

No one said anything about going gung ho. Shutting down the game at 2-1 with 10 mins to go is a perfectly legitimate tactic and one I would expect most teams in our situation to employ. However, there are many more ways to defend other than just lining as many defenders as we can across our box. Keeping the ball would be one of them. Im not criticising the performance or the result, both of which were entirely acceptable. However, I dont think its being to demanding to expect a little organisation and composure to see a game out rather than just backs to the wall stuff, which ultimately comes down to luck.

My point entirely. Our defenders were heading the ball out to nobody only for it to be returned straight back. Even Robbos infamous 5-5-0 would have been better than that last 15 mins.

Great 3 points which takes the pressure off a bit. But a real mixed bag of a performance both from the players and tactically from the manager. Initially, I wondered what the hell he was up to with the team selection, but heard him pre match say he was forced into it thru illness and injury, so got to cut him a bit of slack there. Thought the performance for the first 30 mins was not too bad. We looked the better team and ones most likely to score, but our defence still looks like it can conceed at any time, so it was no surprise when they did. I actually didnt see too much wrong with their first goal that was disallowed. Maybe Sportscene will clear that up! We did well to get to half time without conceding further. 2nd half I felt was a bit more even, so it was ironic that we scored twice in that period before withdrawing into our shell to defend our lead for the last 15 mins. GA will undoubtedly feel vindicated in his substitutions as we picked up the 3 points, but it is absolutely brutal to watch and we dont look any more solid with 6 defenders on the park as we do with 3 or 4. Much to work on. Hopefully a couple more faces in, some of the ill and injured back, and maybe start trying to find a more settled team selection. A step forward. But only a little one.

Pretty easy this week. Liam Grimshaw. Solid all round performance. Great finish for the winner! Great block to save us at the end, and a trade mark lung busting run to split the Livvy defence and pass to Woolery who should have scored. Tony Watt the only other serious contender for a consistemt performance over 90 mins.

If we havent won a game by the end if the first round of fixtures AND there is still no sign of a structure and patterns if play to give us any hope that our prospects will change, then I think it would be fair enough to start asking serious questions. However, this is a new group of players. We need to see the rebuild complete and give players a chance to get to know each other and the league before we start getting itchy trigger fingers. There are a lot of question marks at the moment without doubt. But the manager and the players deserve at least a chance to try and answer them. Expect a shitfest today, although the rain will help the surface. Wont be paying £20 to watch it. But might have to use an alternative streaming source and watch through my fingers.....

Not the games Ive been to. We never seem to match them in the physical contest. They always seem to bully us. Especially from set pieces, but then I guess everybody does that to us so not sure what point Im trying to make!

Id agree with that. No point trying to play football on that park. Match them up, get stuck right intae them and try and "Out-Livvy" Livvy.....

That would be my recollection. Even in the Championship chasing seasons of the early / mid 90s I dont recall us breaking the 10k barrier and they were really good teams to watch. So I cant see how we can have dropped over 50% of our crowd in that time. Happy to be proved wrong though as my memory isnt the greatest any more!

Hope he is able to transfer the positivity from this interview onto the pitch! We could be doing with a win on the board soon!

Sorry, but from the way you have worded your post, it just appears as if you are just reading what you want from the article so you can have a go at the club, or maybe Alan Burrows in particular The article says "Motherwell cannot promise to challenge for trophies every season...." but it doesnt say we wont try. Like other contributors have already posted, its perfectly possible to try and be the best club we can be in every department. The problem we have right now is that it feels like we are still struggling to get things right on the field of play, whilst at the same time doing very noteworthy things off it. I quite liked the article. Never at any point did I read "Alan Burrows doesnt care about winning trophies or football matches".

Really? Id be surprised if thats true. We have had around 4500 season tickets on average for the last few years. I dont ever remember us getting crowds regularly in excess of 9000 apart from games against the ugly sisters.....

Personally, Ive never bought into the importance of an on field captain. I think the captains role should primarily be as a conduit between the players and the manager/club and whoever has the trust/respect of both the manager and the players is best suited to the role. On the field I want to see leadership all over the park. It shouldnt be down to just one player to do that. Unfortunately thats an area where we have been sadly lacking in the past couple if seasons. Robbo put great faith in the beginning to getting the right sort of player through the door with the right mentality, and it paid dividends with a run to 2 cup finals in one season. Sadly, that strength of character has been lacking for some time under both Robbo and now GA. In short we are far too soft/nice a team, so our lack of football ability in certain areas is magnified. Hopefully that can be rectified before the window closes and some of the new signings will be able to bed in and show their worth......

Best of luck!