joewarkfanclub

Kaleta. Pace to burn. If we actually ever work out how to use him properly we might create more chances for our forward players.

Lets do this! 🧡❤️🧡

There are so many variables tomorrow there isnt really any point trying to predict what is going to happen. Needless to say we will have to play close to our best and hope Rangers have an off day to get a result. Lets just get to Hampden tomorrow and enjoy the occasion. Its a no lose situation for us as we arent a team that is expected to get to cup finals on a regular basis, just getting to a semi final is a big deal. Enjoy Lennon Miller leading the team out. Enjoy being part of a big Motherwell support. Enjoy the fact that we have a chance of doing something really special, even if it doesnt pan out that way. And maybe, just maybe, this underdog will have its day! Up The 'Well! 🧡❤️🧡

Steelboy raised it in the CEO monthly chat thread. Got a reply from Brian Caldwell claiming there was no overcrowding, merely migration from top tier. Followed by some debate questioning how that could be the case when it appeared visibly to the contrary. The thread then turned into another binfire.

For me the major benefit is that it shuts up all the naysayers who kept moaning about lack of follow through by the WS Board on strategic partners. First ones in the bag less than 4 months after Barmack got chased. Hopefully more to follow.....

Just bumping this for those at work....

Hey folks. I have one spare ticket for Sunday. East stand Motherwell section, fairly well back in the corner so should be a decent view. If anyone is interested please message me directly.

SOD confirmed as out on Sunday. So midfield is really the only question mark. For me Sparrow has to play, so the only question is, do we play Wilson in midfield and 1 up top or leave him at full back and go 2 up top. Neither have been that successful for our strikers. But I like the control we get with the extra midfielder. Id go....... Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Kaleta Wilson Halliday Miller Sparrow Maswanhise Stamatelopoulos

Id play Sparrow from the start with Miller in the middle and bring Halliday on later when we need an experienced head to close the game out. But SK obviously rested Halliday last night as he intends to play him on Sunday so you are probably not far away with that. I hope its not going to be a return to Davor and Halliday in the middle with Miller further forward again, as that would be a step back imho. I think the last 2 games should have shown SK how important legs and energy are in midfield the way we set up.

Clement and Rangers under serious pressure. The Bears wont be doing patience on Sunday. We need to be in their faces from the start and show them we wont be bullied. Dont let them play and we might have a chance.

Very pleasing result. Great confidence boost ahead of Sunday. SOD going off injured is a concern, but with Gordon to come back we have cover. Big decisions for SK to make. Clement and Rangers under serious pressure. The Bears wont be doing patience if they dont start well.

Im not implying anything. The CEO could have been provided accurate information from those in charge of the turnstyles and has communicated it in the belief it is correct. It is also possible that Celtic fans have found a way to enter the ground whilst circumnavigating that information. There doesnt have to be a conspiracy.

If he achieves that and we win on penalties, I think I can forgive him! 😉

I dont think for a minute that Brian Caldwell is lying. He is making a response with the data available. Its good to hear that preventative measures were in place, as it protects the club, but the stand was clearly overcrowded. There were no huge empty spaces in the top tier. In fact there were fans standing on the stairwells up there too. Given that you couldnt actually see any of the stairwells on the bottom tier, there would have to have been huge gaps in the top tier for migration to be the only problem. Something clearly doesnt add up. I think the matter requires further examination.

Ineffective? At what? He is light years ahead of Robinson at what we ask our strikers to do. He has good positional awareness, good first touch, wins his fair share of headers for a small guy (he is 6ft) brings other players into play, scored a very good goal at Easter Road, all in a stop start season where he has been injured, moved his family over here from the other side of the world. If you cant see a player in him I really do wonder what you expect for £300k!

Have you decided Stama is shite already?

Pretty sure the club will be aware of the problem and will be having discussions behind the scenes with Celtic and the SPFL to try and stop this. Much as I would love to see the CEO going public on it and "outing" Celtic on the matter, its not really the way these things are handled if you want to keep good relations between the clubs (again, I understand most fans couldnt give a shit about that, but the club will and should). There certainly should be greater responsibility placed on Celtic to "police" their own support. Additional stewarding both sides of fire exits, more police checking tickets before fans even get anywhere near the turnstyles are all possible and Celtic should be charged with picking up the cost of this given their fans are repeat offenders. I would ve concerned if there is doubling up on turnstyles given we dont have e-turnstyles. Its mostly young lassies scanning barcodes. Id hate to think they were being intimidated into letting this occur. One things for sure, it cant continue. Sunday was the worst Ive seen it in both top and bottom tiers and it is an accident waiting to happen. The club will know this and wont want to be held liable when it all goes wrong. Be nice to hear the views of the Society Board on this, at least to acknowledge the issue and that efforts are being made to address it.

Its a difficult one. His loyalty to players is how he always manages to keep the dressing room, regardless of performance or results. I agree the team needs to evolve and I have no doubt SK knows that. But its a much harder thing to do in practice and he certainly wont be saying it out loud. I actually thought Saturdays team selection was a veiled admission of our weaknesses. Putting Kaleta and Sparrow in provided much greater drive and energy into the team and dropping Robinson for Stama gave us more of an out ball quite simply down to the number of duals he won compared to Robinson. Ultimately it still wasnt enough, but until Paton, Slattery and Nicholson are fit SK is going to be left tinkering around the edges. I do expect to see Maswanhise or Tavares get a run out tomorrow night though.

Its actually something I regularly forget about when picking starting 11s is that Tavares and/or Maswanhise are options for midfield. Probably because SK rarely favours them from the start. But obviously we could play Seddon and rest Wilson altogether and put one of the wingers on in front of Seddon.

How do you know he didnt try and get a centre mid? Quite possible he couldnt find one that was good enough that was willing to come. Not sure I would have signed Tavares with Maswanhise already in the building. But he isnt the worst option to have to bring on if you need to change things.

Plenty of scope for changes to freshen things up with an eye on Sunday. I presume Halliday plays the semi final so I would rest him as I dont think his legs will manage 3 tough games in a week. Id pair Davor and Miller and put Sparrow in alongside for legs. He was very good yesterday and is young enough to handle it. Id bring Koutroumbis in and keep SOD Balmer Casey. Blaney is an option but wouldnt be my favoured one. Id start Stama to give him more minutes but sub him again after 60 to protect him for the final. The final call is whether we play Seddon and push Wilson up into midfield or persever with Robinson? Personally Id give Seddon a run out and keep Robinson as the Stama replacement. Ox SOD Balmer Casey Johnny K Seddon Miller Davor Sparrow Wilson Stama

I should probably qualify my last post. Im not saying I dont care about the game and we shouldnt try to get something from it. I dont think we are sending the youth team up to play it and resting everyone. But there will be enough enforced changes and we have enough squad players to rotate a fair few of them. Tell some players that there are semi final places up for grabs. Go take one.

Sorry, but Im 55 years old and we have been in 5 cup finals in that time. Sunday is a chance to get to another one. The League Cup is also one of only 2 competitions we will ever have a realistic chance of winning. So Sunday is the bigger game for me by a country mile. Not saying the extra money isnt welcome, particularly after the summer we had, but we all go to the football for the memories. Cup semis and finals provide pretty big ones. Also, Aberdeen might just surprise us and give us a punchers chance in the final!

Kaleta, Sparrow and Stama were all excellent, but voted for Miller on the basis that some of his passing is ridiculously good......

Thought the first half was very good but you have to put your chances away against Celtic otherwise its gonna come back to bite you. McCowan got the break of the ball for his goal with the ricochet, but it was poor defending from us after that as we backed off and let him hit it, instead of closing him down. Second half we started well enough but the second goal kills us. Not sure about the substitutions. Ultimately everyone got on, just not sure I would have put them on in that order. Stama is a huge upgrade on Robinson. Sparrow provided great energy and Kaleta was impressive going forward until he got injured. Some of Lennon Millers passes were ridiculously good. Unfortunately we never capitalised. Not a surprise to lose the game. Celtic are a much better team than us, with infinitely greater resources. Wednesday could be tough with Gordon and probably Kaleta both out. But saw enough today to feel positively about the semi final on Sunday......