joewarkfanclub

I agree. The points for safety will be higher this year. I think St Johnstone are gone. There's no way they take 16 points more than us in the second half of the season when they have only managed 15 total in the first half. But everyone else is still within striking distance. Thats why games like tonight are so important. Killie are currently 6 behind, so not losing tonight would be great to just keep that gap ticking over. A win would fantastic and give us a phenomenal return for the first half of the season given the injuries we have had. Its actually quite mental that we should be in any way still worried about a play off place. Given that we could be a point off 3rd at the end of the night!

Andrews seems like the kind if signing we should be making at this time of year. Young player with greater quality than we can normally afford but needs a platform to gain some senior experience. We have a big squad and plenty of midfielders, but as others have said, most of them are not match fit. I would envisage him being used to support the rehabilitation of Slattery, Nicholson et al. Looking forward to seeing what he can do.

33 points to the midway split would be some achievement. Particularly with the catalogue of injuries we have had. Looking back, our best ever total (in the 3 points for a win era) is 70 points the year we finished 2nd with McCall. He also did a 62 and a 64. Obviously all achieved when the dead club were in the lower leagues. I think we would all agree there is still plenty of room for improvement, but if we could match that total in the second half if the season, it would be some feat and a huge carrot for the players.

Some Morton fans on P&B were saying although he has been scoring goals for them he hasnt been contributing much else. SK was very non committal on recalling him during an interview I saw. My take is that he probably has the ability but isnt prepared to work hard enough with it, hence why he was farmed out to Morton in the first place. I could be wrong, but thats my reading of it. Shame because he certainly had a bit of pedigree when he was younger. But there has to be a reason he has repeatedly gone down the levels.

Wasnt his worst game, he does cover a lot of ground and closes off space well. But he isnt the strongest in the tackle and his passing is always a hit or a miss. Thought the yellowcard he got was a bit harsh given Halliday had just got clattered by the guy Davor tried to tackle. Walsh ignored that and was very quick with the yellow. Couldnt believe they were actually considering a red!

Doing some quick maths on the stadium seating plan, its about 1k.

No one is saying there is anything wrong with slowing the ball down. We just did it at the wrong times. Also pretty sure the shot that hit the bar was in the last 20 minutes, so I would say we were anything but comfortable in that period. If that went in, we would have been under serious pressure. Whereas at 3-0 its game over. Not suggesting we should have gone gung ho, in fact, quite the opposite. But where is the risk in punting a ball long to a single striker when the other 10 are still in position behind the ball?

To be fair to Valikari, he is just in the door and hasnt had a window yet to move some players on and get his own in. That said, their results have not improved despite him changing their style of play and making them easier on the eye. Maybe shitfesting games is the way to go after all? 🤔

Hopefully sell that out quickly and get extra sections behind the goal!

We are certainly set up to let other teams have the ball and play them on the break. McInnes did deal with that effectively at Fir Park by not playing into that tactic which made it really difficult for us. But will he be able to get away with the same thing at home when they have just lost to Ross County? Be interesting to see their fans reaction if he does. Hoping Paton is fit again and we dont need to see Davor and Halliday together again!

I heard that as well. But didnt the league vote to ban plastic from the top flight from the end of this season? There were some Falkirk fans losing their shit over it at the time.

Not sure you can put lack of game intelligence down to SK? Players either have it or they dont. I thought Halliday was the only one yesterday that looked like he was trying to manage the game out. Probably not surprising as he is one of our most experienced players. SK also mentioned in his post match remarks that he was frustrated we didnt manage the second half better, so I dont think the players were doing it under instruction. We do have a fairly young squad, so hopefully they will learn and improve. The return of the likes of SOD, McGinn, Nicholson and Slattery should also help.

Aye just been on and got the same thing. Hopefully no one has bought tickets for the league game by mistake as the Motherwell ticket link takes you straight there. Hoping we get the main stand as I prefer the view, but I suspect we might get behind to goal to allow for a potentially larger away support than normal due to it being the cup?

Aye Patons absence was puzzling. I know he wasnt great against Hearts but he wouldnt have been turfed right out of the squad. Hope it is just a bug thing. We will need as many fit players as possible in the next couple weeks to cope with the schedule. Re the second half, I thought we showed a real lack of game intelligence to make use of the extra man. We went long far too quickly at times gifting Aberdeen the ball back, and then held onto it too long when there was a switch of play on. Very frustrating.

Defence and Ox were all generally very good. Thought Halliday put in a shift as did Watt, albeit Tony didnt have his best game on the ball. Tawanda is MOTM by a distance though. When he is on that form he can be unplayable. His take down and finish for the goal is probably just as good as the Rangers one.

Another derby for me. Would be lovely to get 3 points and try and gain ground on Aberdeen and United. But not losing and stopping Killie from making any inroads into the gap between us would be an acceptable return. Not sure any of the injured players will be risked on the plastic, so could be a few selection issues again.

Thought we were honking for the first 25 minutes with the usual shitfest hoofball missing out the midfield. Albeit the application and effort were much better than Tynecastle. Aberdeen played the better football in that period without really hurting us. The Casey chance seemed to be a turning point for us and really should have been converted. Thought both our goals were very good finishes and the red card deserved. Watt does Rubezic up like a kipper and he falls for it. He can have no complaints. Second half I thought we failed to control the game and made much harder work of it than we should. We still played some decent football on the break and probably should have got the third goal to finish them off. Overall a good 3 points. Not the perfect performance but under the circumstances more than acceptable, particularly with the league tightening up behind us yet again.

Just seen its the Premier Sports game today. Not sure why our games ko needed to be moved 30 minutes and the Glasgow Derby went ahead at 3pm, but hey-ho!

Thanks for pointing this out! I had totally missed that and had planned for 3pm!

Much as I want the game to be on tomorrow, that might not be the worst result for us as a club. Gives a few more days recuperation going into the Killie game and then the Cup. Possibility of getting Stama and Seddon fit would ease the pressure a little bit. Especially if we could re-arrange the bounce game for those others that need minutes due to coming back from injury. Of course, none of the international breaks helped us in that regard so maybe just wishful thinking.

To be fair, you have been consistent in your disapproval! 😉 Some of your criticism is absolutely justified and the hyperbole can be quite entertaining!

From Scott Burns as well, so reputable source. No idea what the boy is like, but if he has the quality of Kaleta or Vale, then age shouldnt really be an issue. The English academies are full of players who might not make it down there but would light up the SPL......

Or an average Scottish Premiership level manager who makes his fair share of mistakes, has signed some diddies, but has also signed some decent players and somehow has us sitting top 6 despite one of the worst injury crises I have seen in my lifetime. The football is shite to watch and he has deserved criticism at various points, but a donkey of the highest calibre would have us bottom of the league surely?

I didnt see any touch by a Motherwell player in real time. I couldnt believe SOD had tried to play the ball when he could have just let it go out, so I guess he felt it had come off someone. But it was such a rotten touch it was unbelievable as he wasnt under any pressure to play it. Thought he had a poor game yesterday, but unsurprising as he hasnt played a lot of football recently.

Thought Casey did ok and I do love his mazeys out out defence, but went for Ewen Wilson who stuck to his task, got up the line when he could and had a few decent blocks and interceptions.