Ya Bezzer!

We should be favourites but sadly the standard of Scottish football these days has long past a time where we could go into a match like this with any kind of arrogance about winning. In recent times our clubs have lost to teams from Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Iceland, Wales, Armenia, Lithuania and Kazakhstan. Excluding Rangers and Celtic we've had 28 teams in the Europa League in the last 10 years and 18 of them were eliminated immediately after one tie. No one has made it past the 3rd Qualifying round since 2011-12. 10 YEAR RECORD - SCOTTISH NON MAJOR CITY BASED CLUBS IN EUROPA LEAGUE 2019-20 Connah's Quay defeated KILMARNOCK 3-2 agg 2017-18 FK Trakai defeated ST JOHNSTONE 3-1 agg 2015-16 Astra Giurgiu defeated INVERNESS 1-0 agg 2015-16 Alashkert defeated ST JOHNSTONE 2-2 (a) agg 2014-15 Stjarnan defeated MOTHERWELL 5-4 agg 2014-15 ST JOHNSTONE defeated Luzern 2-2 (a) agg 2014-15 Spartak Trnava defeated ST JOHNSTONE 3-2 agg 2013-14 Kuban Krasnodar defeated MOTHERWELL 3-0 agg 2013-14 ST JOHNSTONE defeated Rosenborg 2-1 agg 2013-14 Minsk defeated ST JOHNSTONE 1-1 (pens) agg 2012-13 Levante defeated MOTHERWELL 3-0 agg 2012-13 Eskisehrispor defeated ST JOHNSTONE 3-1 agg 2010-11 MOTHERWELL defeated Breidablik 2-0 agg 2010-11 MOTHERWELL defeated Aalesund 4-1 agg 2010-11 Odense defeated MOTHERWELL 3-1 agg

Better performance, a point away at Easter Road is fine BUT... Failed to score in three out of four matches. Already voiced my concerns about the forwards signed by Robinson. White/Watt/Long don't cut it for me.

Best performance of the season so far but I do still think part of Hibs game plan is to give you possession and then make fast counters. We need to be careful.

Grimshaw should be dropped just based on the Livingston game never mind a long run of being a not very good right back.

Just read this on the BBC. One of the very first football matches I was taken to was Tom Forsyth's Rangers (hey, don't judge) testimonial match against Swansea (then featuring guys like John Toshack, Dean Saunders, Dai Davies, Robbie James etc.) As a player his Motherwell period was before my time but anyone getting 22 caps for Scotland in the 1970s was obviously pretty good. And of course he was Tommy's assistant during the best times that I've ever seen as a Motherwell supporter. Will go down as a true club legend no doubt.

Hibs have 3 wins out of 3 and have never dominated possession in any match. They'll let us come forward and play on the counter. They have been much more clinical up top than we have (nearly twice as likely to score from a shot) so I think they'll fancy their chances even if they don't create a lot.

I'd fancy us away to Barcelona but it's Hibs we're playing. It's a different level.

We'll find that out in a couple of days.

Excellent signing. We needed a right back and we've brought in probably the best one available.

It's all a bit mixed up. As a club we've been putting out a 'come to Motherwell, we'll get you a big move' type message. Then we lose a couple of games and the managers tearing strips off players for having agents.

It's not that bad!

I don't think Long is absolutely terrible but I don't think he's been great either. Yet even though he didn't want to be here and didn't set the heather on fire I think it's rather strange that Robinson went back out there and brought him back. I'd have thought he might think he could bring in someone at least as good, if not better. I mean, he must know he doesn't fit into his preferred formation, right? They are different types of players of course, but presumably ourselves and Livingston have scouted the Championship last season and they have brought in Forrest and we've brought in White. That sets off some alarm bells for me.

It's still early in the season but I just had a look and if you include cup matches this is actually Robinson's worst run of matches, 13 for 1 win. If you just include league matches we had a 12 for 1 win in 2017/18. Currently on 11 for 1 win between the end of last season and the start of this one. I've said it before but we've barely kicked a ball since James Scott departed.

I thought he was lucky to not give away a penalty two weeks in a row against Dundee Utd. Not been anywhere near last season.

In the three games this season we've managed a shot on goal every 34 minutes. Could make all the difference if we get 12 minutes of injury time.

And he highlighted Campbell as our best player despite leaving him out for the first match. Hmmm.

How the fuck are we 8th in the league?

My concern is that there just aren't enough goals right across the pool of forwards. Watt and Long have never got in double figures in their careers. White's record isn't great and what there is is at a low level (Scottish Third division!). Lang has got a few goals at League 2 level but it remains to see how he adapts. McIvor is just a young lad. I think we'll be lucky to get one of those guys over 10 league goals his term and if you look at teams that really struggle it's usually because they don't have a goal scoring forward.

Watt may or may not be better than White but he's not scored more than 4 league goals in a season since 2014/15.

3 performances that just haven't been good enough. Have Hibs and Celtic away coming up and of course Accies at home. Eeeek!

Funny old game. Thought we were playing a wee bit better and then we've lost the lead.

We've been poor apart from the goals and don't deserve to be ahead but football isn't and never will be fair so we'll take the good fortune. Good to see Campbell score. Got 6 goals from a curtailed season last time and he's got us the lead tonight. He gets into good areas and I think its a part of his game that goes a bit unnoticed and something he can get better at as well. I did say after the first game of the season we build the team around Turnbull and Campbell....

With all due respect you are stretching a bit. We finished four points behind a great Rangers side in 93/94. Celtic at their lowest ebb in 93/94 were still a better than any team in the league last season other than, arguably, the current Celtic team. Again the Hibs and Hearts sides of that era were far superior to last seasons, budget cuts or not. Aberdeen were still a genuine force with title aspirations etc, etc. The point is Robinson supporters are using 3rd place as if it denotes a fixed value like a Queen in a pack of cards. It doesn't. It varies from year to year - points, wins, defeats, goals scored, goals conceded, standard of opposition etc. It's entirely possible to finish a season in 3rd place and be mediocre. Or in McLean's case, be probably the best Motherwell side most of us have actually seen. If you genuinely think our team and our performances last season matched other 3rd place finishes then say so and stop with the parlour games. Of course, I know you don't because to do so would be ridiculous.

It's not a negative spin. It's putting into context. Finishing 3rd was an achievement, no doubt. But it isn't equal with our other high league position finishes. Only a fool would say Robinson's 3rd place had equal status with, say, Tommy McLean's, for example, or, in my opinion, with any of our other 2nd or 3rd place finishes. Robinson deserves some praise for guiding us to being 'the best of the rest' but at the same time it must be accepted that the standard of the league last term was atrocious and that almost any other year our performances wouldn't have seen us finish where we did. We need to look beyond just finishing 3rd like that fact alone encapsulated all that needed to be known about last season. The two best things Robinson has done in his time at the club have been his League Cup run and the second half of the season 2018-19.

I agree it's only two games BUT the whole 'finished third' thing needs to be put into context. Firstly our form was in a serious dive when the season was curtailed prematurely by Covid. Secondly since 2000 a third placed team has only lost more matches from 38 twice, than we did in 30 last term (which was 12 defeats) ie, we weren't even that great in, probably, the lowest quality top level season ever. Also we've only won 1 match from our last 11 (from a pretty favourable fixture list BTW) so it's not just a problem that's suddenly appeared. It's way, way too early for burning effigies but I do think that there have been consistent problems over a period of time that just haven't been addressed by the management team, the right back position for instance, and people are entitled to vent their frustrations. Robinson has plenty time to turn things around but ultimately this is a result driven business and if you don't win that's just how it is.