joewarkfanclub

This is exactly it. The Well Society & New Board deserve a lot of credit getting us to where we are so quickly. We now have an identity as a club and as a team. We are financially secure for the short to medium term. The fanbase is fully engaged. The trick now is to maintain that and use it as a platform for continuous improvement. Mistakes will be made along the way, but as long as we get more right than we get wrong then there is no reason to believe that we arent entering a period of (relative) success.

He has also had many good games. In any case, he wont play, as Hickey is fit, playing first team football and by far the no.1 choice. We dont need 2 back ups.

Not sure how it works with international set ups any more. It used to be a FIFA rule that the player called up had to attend the camp and be assessed by the countries medical team to see if they were fit before they could withdraw. I dont know if thats still the case, although Im sure there must still be discussions with the clubs over injuries before a player is even selected. I know that Scotland are a bit more flexible these days and work more on trust and goodwill, so not sure if the rule has changed. Either way, I dont see a scenario where Just isnt available for Sunday and plays midweek. It will be all or nothing. The club would be mad to allow otherwise.

Where did it all go wrong Texan? 😆

It was certainly a lot busier beside me in the Hunter. If correct, 5700 home fans would back that up. Long may it continue!

Gordon was really solid, won everything in the air and looked far more assured with the ball at his feet. Great block at the end to keep us level. Welsh fits this system perfectly. Very good with the ball at his feet and really allows us to play out. SOD has been excellent all season and very good again yesterday. Distribution was a bit off in places first half, but was excellent second half and deserved his standing ovation. Love Said and the chaos he causes the opposition. Once he figures out the final third part he will be immense. MOTM though for me was Elliot Watt. So composed, just bossed the game. His partnership and understanding with Fadinger is excellent. It really is a joy to watch a midfield that can play football. Cant wait for Slattery and Just to be back so we can hand out a few hidings!

This will obviously be our biggest test to date. Be very ineresting to see how our system holds up against that level of opposition. Curious to see how Rodgers approaches the game. Celtic generally like to press high and play the way we do, so the match up could be interesting. Every chance we might lose, but I expect us to go and play our game and give a good account of ourselves. Good chance for JBA to test Celtics weakanesses in the advance of a potential Cup Final! 😉😉😉

I understand your point, but I think that doesnt give us enough credit for what we have been doing. We destroyed Hearts for 65 minutes and they are sitting top of the league. Aberdeen clearly learned from watching that and didnt press us as high over the 2 games making it much harder for us to play around them. But you just have to watch what they are able to do on the transition to see they have some quality players. I dont understand why they dont start Clarkson right enough. He is a clever player rand always causes us problems.

Really enjoyed that last night! There's always something special about a game under the lights on a pissing wet night! Aberdeen arent anywhere near as bad a team as their league position suggests. They have some very good players, and have been very good at trying to disrupt what we do over the 2 games. A bit like ourselves in that they have been unlucky in front of goal and their decision making let them down a couple times in the final third which is preventing them getting the goals they need to improve their results. Lazetic was greedy with his chance at the end and really should have squared it. Had he done so, we could have been 1-0 down. That said, I thought we were generally very good first half and stayed patient. Much better attacking wise second half and probably deserved to get the 3 points in the end as we had some very good chances ourselves. Really pleased for Stama to get off the mark. Really shoulda scored with his one on one with Mitov and was unlucky with the header that flashed at him very quickly. You could see what it meant to him getting the goal and its clear his team mates have his back the way they all celebrated with him. Great 3 points and keeps the feelgood factor going ahead if a difficultl trip to Celtic Park next weekend.

Not sure I understand your logic? I would have thought having fans together in one corner of the stadium would be easier and use less stewards to police than having us spread in 4 sections?

I get that they need to offer different sections with differing price points for these games, but I very much doubt that we will sell anywhere near 10k tickets at those prices. Our support is gonna be spread out and St Mirren will be the same, which will have a negative effect on the atmosphere in the stadium. For me the should have just ignored dthe South Stand and try and get as many fans together in the north and east as possible.

Same as we always mess up when we have a big expectant away support. Oh wait........

Ah gotcha. So if my rough maths is anywhere near correct we would take 1/6 of £1.8m so £300k. Add on the £50k uplift in prize money and the £30k tv rights and we have a nice tidy wee sum.

Why 1/6?

Had to go check that as I thought the ko was 5.15pm, but you are right enough. I guess the tv broadcast starts at 5.15pm. Bit of a shite ko time. I guess dinner will be a Chasni Pie Meal Deal!

From what I can make out from the SPFL website, we get an extra £50k prize money for making the semis, and extra £30k tv revenue plus our share of the pooled gate money. Taking a conservative estimate of 60k fans over the 2 games and an average ticket price of £30, the games will generate £1.8m. Obviously there are costs associated with that and the SPFL will no doubt take a share but we could easily be looking at doubling that number. If we were to win the game and get to the final? This is why cup runs are important to clubs our size and why it has been so frustrating that past managers have fielded weakened teams trying to get past smaller clubs and making an arse of it!

I see where folks are coming from re the European argument. The only game Ive been away to was Athens and although it was sa great trip/experience, the football wasnt great. I must say, I would love to see how a JBA team gets on in European comptetition. I have a feeling it might be an entirely different experience. Of course, the League Cup doesnt present that opportunity and Id much rather see us win that than get Europe if it was a straight choice, but why cant we do both? First things first however, lets get our first league win in the bag and then we can start thinking about the semi-final.

Diddy's United v The Ugly Sisters. Its the rules. I look forward to St Mirren fans supporting us against whoever we get in the final! 😉

Cheers bud. Saw both of them at the time. I agree. Very Good. And big Thewliss is a great interviewer / presenter!

Every transfer is a gamble. We got £1.7m last year for a striker that cost us nothing. Kettlewell gets a lot of credit for that, but he also signed Ross Callachan, Stuparevic and Nicholson. Given that Jens didnt sign Stama and he has had a pretty big rebuild job on his hands, I think he and the club need to be given a little bit of slack on the £800k thing. Its all well and good to say we shoulda took the money, but you still need to replace him. We tried with Hendry, Sule and Osong and right now Stama is the only one even half fit for purpose, and thats before we even work out how much of the £800k was coming to us as profit. Also, the player has to want to move as well......

Are we really jumping on BBC reporting to re-inforce a point? He spurned 2 chances. Neither of which were actual sitters. He may turn out not to be the striker we are looking for, but lets at least stay objective about it.

Absolutely fantastic presentation. Just reinforces that we have the right people in charge now and are heading in the right direction. Its a really good time to be a Motherwell fan right now!

I totally agree that Stama should have scored more goals than he has this season. The header in the second half yesterday, the one he just failed to connect with (which was similar to the one at Dundee last week where he hurt himself) are all good examples. But he is doing a lot right and has also been a bit unlucky with some of his chances (the header in the first half yesterday which was cleared of the line). His run and pass to RCC yesterday was also excellent and should have resulted in a goal. Im not aiming this at you specifically, but there is a desire in modern society to want things immediately and there is very little patience shown for anything, particularly in the footballing world (see The Rainjurs). We saw it with Higdon and Sutton when they arrived, more recently with Bair and now Stama. I get that he has been with us for over a year now, but he had a lot to contend with last season and this is the first real run at the team he has had. He is working hard, his hold up play is good and he is getting into good areas. I agree he should be doing that more and probably a bit earlier than he has been, but like a lot of our other players yesterday, mistakes will be made and I wouldnt expect to see the best version of us for a few months yet (which is why this is all pretty exciting). Like you say, there is nothing we can do about it now until January, so we need to hope that Stama does indeed develop or that Hendry can get fit and challenge him for his place and maybe push him on. The good thing is that regardless of how many he scores we still have goals in the team. By January we should know whether he is gonna be another Moult or just a Connor Shields......

Peter Leven cant really be considered a new manager! 😉

Its 10 minutes more than he had last week. Next week he might get 30. The week after he might get a start. Willing to bet thats the most minutes any 19 year old Scot has had in Serie A. Having watched their game against Inter, they have some seriously good midfielders. Its not Harry Paton keeping him out the team.....