joewarkfanclub

I think Gerrard and the Rangers support will be desperate to keep your goal machine. The board not so much. Balancing the books and the Ashley court case dictates that they would very much like to cash in on their most valuable asset.

Thought Gallagher played well again and Polworth did some good work with the ball, but he lost his discipline a bit and could have walked 2nd half. Cole led the line and took his goal well. Went for Bevis as MoM though. Aside from the 2nd goal, he was solid and we might just have unearthed another gem there

I thought it was a very disciplined performance. We just didnt quite have enough quality to hurt them on the counter without committing too many bodies forward. You can pick holes in the performance, such as Gillespies punch for the first goal, Bevis losing his wrestling match with Helander for the 2nd, Long passing up 2 very good chances. However, we limited a team that have handed out skelpings to a number of teams this season, to very few clear cut chances, whilst offering some threat going forwards ourselves. Play to those standards every week we will win more than we lose....

I hope their flight is delayed and they get back in the early hours knackered and carrying a few knocks!

Just giving this another bump.

I seem to recall that whenever Aberdeen came to Fir Park in the late 70s early 80s we changed into our white away kit. Not really sure why as its not an obvious clash of colour. Maybe just an excuse to wear it. Not sure kit suppliers would have had anything written into contracts in those days.

This has a feel of the Ross County game about it. A game we think we should be winning and coming into in good form, and we somehow manage to conspire against ourselves to lose it. Im usually an optimist, but we are going to need to play to our best to get anything out of this. Hopefully thats what happens and we are not bemoaning another missed opportunity.

Re Tom Boyd. It would be easier to just induct the entire team as one entity and ignore him as an individual. I would do that with all our trophy winning teams to ensure fairness. If an individual within one of those teams deserves a nomination on their own merits then so be it.

Graham and Pettigrew should be inducted as a double act....

Mulgrew is a stick on to start. After that its one from Findlay, Devlin, Gallagher. I would have thought Findlay would be favourite purely because Clarke knows what he can do and is more likely to trust him. However, if the other guys show up really well in training you never know. More chance of game time in the San Marino game I would have thought, but you never know what could happen with injuries / bookings etc.

Fair point....

Id have him back anytime. If he feels he has made enough money and just wants get regular gametime, its possible.

Let it go mate! No one is more pleased for big Declan than me. Given all the call offs, his selection is absolutely justified. But at the time the question was asked there were a number of guys with a claim all playing at a higher level of football than him. I hope he gets selected, plays a blinder, cements his place in the first team and scores the winning goal in the play offs. Of course, if that happens, he wont be a Motherwell player for very long, so lets just enjoy him being in the squad....

I would encourage every Well fan to get a copy and/or read John Swinburnes book, A History of Motherwell Football Club. Its a great read and insight into not only the greats that have donned the claret and amber, but our clubs place in the history of Scottish and indeed World Football.

One of my first Motherwell heroes. Different class!

Stephen Robinson on Sportsound tonight with Kenny Miller and Stevie Naismith. Talking about Scotland squad, international football and his time at Motherwell. Was a good listen and he appeared to be held in high regard by Miller and Naismith. Pretty sure you can get it as a podcast on BBC Scotland.

Happy to accept your evaluation of Hanley and Cooper. However, both are at far bigger clubs playing in better leagues. Evidence that they arent good enough "at international level" isnt evidence that Gallagher is.

Turnbull was unlucky not to be picked in June before his op and the transfer debacle. However, unfortunately for him, he plays in a position that Scotland are currently well served. McTominay, Christie, McGregor, Armstrong, McGinn, Jack are all experienced players who have played for longer at a high level. Shankland (and to an extent Brophy) are different, in that they play in a position where we have very few options. Given that the next 4 games are effectively warm up games for the play off's we might as well have a look at him and see what he has got. Using the same argument, I can understand the feeling Gallagher deserves a shot, he has been very good this year in our league, but do we really think he is better than Hanley who has captained Norwich into the EPL or Cooper who captains Leeds in the Championship? There is no evidence for that. Comparisons with McKenna, Soutar, Devlin, Halkett and Findlay are fair enough, but even that is subjective given we see far more of our player than the others. Stevie Clarke will undoubtedly have been the same which is why he picked some Kilmarnock players for his first squad but only the 2 who deserve to still be there on merit remain.

Strong language given the 2nd half of my post actually qualifies the first half. If I had said, "I dont think he is of a standard that would significantly improve Scotland at International level", would you still argue? You can argue the point of whether you think Gallagher is good enough or not but arguing the use of language is a bit tiresome.

I think I answered that in the second half of my post.

I think Gallagher has been excellent for us but I dont think he is at the level required for international football That said, we are not exactly blessed with options at centre half for Scotland. I would say when fit McKenna and Souttar are probabably the best we have. After that its up for grabs. Mulgrew, Hanley, Bates et al have all shown vulnerabilities. I think Halkett maybe had a shot at the squad but he is now injured, so its not that fanciful an idea if Steve Clarke wants to try options ahead of the play offs.

Why not?

Not many outfield players getting anywhere near pass marks, so has to be Gillespie.

Wasnt a great performance yesterday. Lots of misplaced passes first half and everything was just a bit slow and predictible. Was good that we managed to get a goal and were able to tough it out, but we really need to be showing better quality than that if we have true top 6 aspirations. I thought the referee was terribly incosistent across the piece. The entire St Johnstone midfield were guilty of repeated fouling, yet they got away with it whilst some of our indisgressions were immediately punished. Davidson clearly dives for the penalty which is quite embarassing for both him and the referee. At least justice was done with a great save from Gillespie. Re the red card. Its never a stamp as some on here are claiming. However, Donnelly does throw an elbow out and throw Kane to the ground so, although the ref has got it wrong, Donnelly cant have any complaints. One area of concern for me is how much Richard Tait appears to have regressed this season. He looks half a yard slower and his form has dipped terribly. Hope its not a permanent decline.

I thought Cole and Polworth both did well in parts of the game. Carroll was having a decent game until the red card. Scott was decent. But the outstanding player on the park was Alan Campbell. The wee man was everywhere and capped it with a really good goal.