joewarkfanclub

Must admit I did raise an eyebrow last night when I saw the team selection. But I neednt have worried. One of the most complete performances Ive ever seen from a Motherwell side. The players all now look so comfortable with what they are doing that there is a calmness about their play, and thats being transmitted to the stands. We are passing in areas that would have had us tearing our hair out at the start if the season, and its now just "normal" for us. Thats some transformation by the manager and players in such a short space of time. My only complaint about last night is we didnt put St Mirren to the sword and score 2 or 3 more and get 3rd spot outright. But thats just me being nitpicky. Although it looked like we were trying to score the perfect goal, second half, and turned down loads of opportunities to throw it in the box, it did mean we starved Hibs of any opportunity to catch us on the counter, probably something the manager has driven home after some of our early season collapses. Loved listening ro the manager talk about his change of tactics and thought processes last night, although, I might not have namechecked big Hanley! It doss show a higher level of tactical thinking than maybe we have been used to. Slightly concerned with no Stama on the bench last night. I hope it was just a matter of giving him the night off with a view to Hearts on Saturday. Another injury would be a bit annoying. Overall, very satisfying. Having rotated so heavily last night we should have plenty fresh legs for an entirely different challenge on Saturday. Life is good!

See! Thats how good he was!

Just and Maswanhise were great first half. Totally loved Saids mad scissor kick thing! Several others had very good performances. Overall 90 performance though I went for Priestman

Id suggest when you are in the first team and playing regularly you still need to do exactly what you are asked by the manager and coaches, or you will be straight back on the bench. Lets just agree if Lennon Miller focuses on his club and is playing first team football by May, he is going to the world cup.

Surely the two are the same thing?

Nicholson, Stuparevic, Robinson, McGhee?

He did. But he generally gives it away in the opposition half after he has dragged us up the park. If we can coach the final ball into his game he could be some player. He is 23 though, so not sure how much more development is in there when really its decisikn making that is the problem.

Its mental that we sell a generational talent for £4.5m and end up with a better midfield than we had before. I would have loved to have seen how Miller might have thrived in this team, but alas, thats not the way the world works. I expect Slattery may well be the next one to be sold and there will undoubtedly be suitors for Watt and Fadinger. Just need to enjoy them while we can (no pun intended).

Thought we controlled the game in the first half and had majority possession, albeit Kilmarnock still created some decent chances. Thankfully we were able to defend them properly for a change, and took our chances when they came along. Second half, Killie pressed us really hard and we lost control of the ball. The game became far more end to end and it was really disaapointing to lose the goal from a really encouraging position for us. The goal gave Killie a lot of encouragement and we were a bit fortunate to survive with one off the line and one off the bar. The penalty settled things a little and although we werent fully comfortable I think overall we deserved to win the game. Good 3 points. We have played much better and lost/drawn this season.

Big test against one of the form teams in the league. It would be a statement result if we could beat them and re-inforce the feeling that our league position should be better than it is (albeit still more than adequate). Might need to refresh a little given we are playing Sat/Tues/Sat so would expect to maybe see Stama, Just and RCC from the start. Maybe SOD featuring at some point. Thankfully the squad is in a decent place right now and some rotation is possible without necessarily weakening us.

Fadinger for me. Works so hard for the team and the second half he really came to the fore to ensure we didnt conceed further and held onto our lead.

Id go with this today, and bring on the travellers late on if required...... Ward JonnyK McGinn Welsh Longelo Watt Fadinger Slattery Said Hendry Stama

Wasnt the pig just called Pig? 😆 I remember Octavia the Ostrich and Topov the Monkey! 😆😆😆 Hartley was a pain in the arse though!

I think 10 pts is decent. 12 is achievable. 15 would be a phenomenal return and take us very close to safety.

Didnt see the game, so for rthe second time in 8 days its a nil vote for me.

Ive seen plenty hit the first man or go flying over his head. Not seen too many whizz across the 6 yard line waiting for the tap in. Its the very thing that was remarkable about Hendry's goal in the semi final. The fact that it was Sparrow that delivered it might say something.

It was the kinda ball that Stama must have been dreaming of all season. We just dont deliver enough of them. Hendry and Stama seem like similar types of striker to me, albeit Hendry seems a bit handier with the physical side of the game. We could do with something different in January. Something Theo Bair shaped......

Even the cheaper tickets are £40 & £25 which is a significant jump from the semi finals (£30 & £15). Mum, Dad & 2 kids £40 more expensive. Pretty brutal.....

Dont see us beating Aberdeen 3 on the bounce with back to back wins up there. Would take a draw right now. That said, Thelin is under serious pressure right now so you never know. Be nice to see a reaction and a positive performance at least.

Absolutely. Slattery should have been hooked at 60 minutes on Wednesday in preparation for starting yesterday. Just didnt play at all and could easily have managed 30 minutes. Maswanhise was also absolutely burst with 20 to go on Wednesday and was invisible yesterday. To be fair, I do think the injuries to SOD and potentially Welsh on Wednesday night altered the gameplan for subs, but it definitely felt like there were different decisions that could have been made then, that look even worse now.

Longelo was very frustrating yesterday. Never went by his man once. I did wonder whether he wasnt 100% fit or if he had been instructed not to leave any spaces in behind him (albeit that would seem to fly in the face of how we play). Similarly Maswanhise was very disappointing. He is such a frustrating player at times. Capable of lighting up a game and scoring from nowhere, but an empty jersey the rest of the time. I felt there were too many of our players just not at their level yesterday and wonder whether the exertions of Wednesday night took too much out of them. It does raise more questions of JBAs game management on Wednesday night now that we have seen yesterday play out.

One positive from today, a crowd of 21,377 is a great effort from 2 supposed diddy teams. Shame we couldnt put on a show to encourage more of our lot to come back.

Nil vote.

Deleted. Wrong thread.

Really disappointing today. Didnt turn up first half and although St Mirren didnt cut us open we gifted them 2 goals and its a long way back from there. Second half we were better, but once again poor decisions in the final third cost us. Stama was very poor today and Im ready to accept Hendry should be starting until we can get someone better in. Maswanhise, Said and Longelo all seemed well off it today as well, although by no means the only ones. I thought once we got the goal we might get back into it, but instead we lost all discipline and composure and on the wrong end of a bad scoreline. You could argue that the starting line up was wrong, but none of us know what the injury/fitness levels of various players are/were, and I didnt have any real arguments with the lineup beforehand. We certainly improved with Welsh, Slattery and Hendry on the pitch, but could they have started/lasted 60 minutes? Just really disappointing to shit the nest in such an important game. Will take a few days to lick the wounds of this one.