star sail

Yes. Almost every single statistic in every game we have played so far. The most important statistic, the final result, has not matched the in game stats but undefeated after 5 games with three away from home is still a reasonable return. It has been widely recognised that we are playing some of the best football in the league. We outplayed the team sitting top of the league for 60 minutes on their patch. There is plenty of reasons to think we can beat almost anybody in this league if you actually care to give the many positives some consideration.

Thanks.

Thanks. I am on the ball as always. Completely missed that.

Has Blaney left? The BBC feed suggests he has. It says omething along the lines of 'with Blaney and Casey departing Motherwell will need to strengthen at the back'

I am really pleased for SOD. He has taken some unfair criticism and deserves the praise when it comes his way.

The referee, linesman and VAR decided it was not a foul, not that there was no contact. Football is not a non contact sport. The Killie player has actually been really cute by unbalancing Ward without giving away the foul. I am not sure the point you are trying to make about me being in the Killie end when I am the one trying to give the benefit of the doubt to our player.

This is what I find really strange at times about the Motherwell support. Where as most supporters tend to be biased in favour of their own team, particularly regarding refereeing decisions, we seem to find weird and wonderful ways to argue against our own team If you want to say that Ward could have done better, that's fine or that it was not a foul, fine, or that he was ahead of the ball, fine, or that he jumped early, fine. To say that there was no contact whatsoever however is made up fantasy. Ward gets a nudge in the lower back by the forearm of the incoming Killie attacker. That is what is clear from the Sportscene highlights. Why make things up just to argue against the team you support?

I have just watched the highlights and Ward definitely gets nudged in the back. The Killie attacker is actually very cute about it making no attempt to play the ball. He just pushes with his arm into Wards lower back to unbalance Ward and push him underneath the flight of the ball It would have been a soft free kick but Butland got a free kick for similar contact against Tony Watt last season. I would go as far as to say that if that had happened to Jack Butland yesterday going into the last 10 minutes with Rangers defending a lead , it would have been given as a foul. Ward should still have done better but it is not as black and white as it maybe first appears. More generally on the game, the support were crying out last season for a better style of football that was attractive to watch. We now have it. Happy days.

I see that the weather has to change fairly dramatically around kick-off to heavy rain and strong winds. That might suit Kilmarnock if they are looking to make the game physical and disruptive. I think Motherwell will get over the line with a victory today but only just. I am hopeful that the supporters will focus on our own team and the positivity around the good start to the season because any negativity, like the adverse weather, will play into Killies hands. A narrow 1-0 victory with plenty of patience required throughout the 90 minutes.

Pretty much this for me. I have mellowed over the years with my opinion towards the Old Firm in particular. There was a time, not so long ago that I would want to see them lose in Europe but now I am happy to see them both progress. I can't really remember when my feelings switched on this. I have enjoyed watching all four teams in Europe this season, particularly Hibs and it has been disappointing to see them crash out. It is a win/ win with the OF at the moment because if they do progress great, if they don't the meltdown that follows is equally as entertaining and it is interesting to listen to as a dispassionate observer. Bottom line is if the Scottish coefficient is improving it means generally speaking that the game in Scotland is improving and I can't see any negatives with that.

I just don't get the hatred towards Kettlewell. He saved us from relegation in his first season in charge, there is almost no doubt about that. We got our first league win at Ibrox in many years. He got the best out of KVV, turned Theo Bair into a sellable asset and introduced Lennon Miller to the first team squad. It is generally agreed that he worked his socks off for the club to the point where it all got too much in the end. When the fans turned on him in the last few games ( as they did very vocally) he reacted in kind and made some ill judged decision. It happens with human beings under considerable pressure. Would any one of us want him back as manager of our club? No. Does he really deserve to be slaughtered for contributing to the continued SPFL status of our club, a status that allows JBA to now do his thing? I don't think he does. There were some comments over the last few weeks about Dougie Imrie being the pantomime villain and how tragedy shows how shallow those negative emotions actually are. Do we really need Kettlewell to be another pantomime villain so that we can enjoy the football and feel validated in our opinions?

Because Motherwell were generally equally as shite. I think Motherwell have taken a big step forward under JBA and I think they will have enough on Saturday but it will not be easy because Kettlewell was not nearly as shite as he was made out to be and Kilmarnock will be motivated and well organised. Loses to shite teams with shite managers is not just simply down to the whims of chance.

There seemed to be a consensus on here in the end that Kettlewell was an imposter as a manager. If the people that were confident in that opinion have the courage of their convictions they will feel very confident about this coming weekend.

I think MJC enjoys a little bit of trolling and a few of his predictions are a little tongue in cheek. It is when he predicts loses against the Scottish 3rd /4th tier teams that I start to think he may be on the wind up. As you say though, it adds a good element of colour to the forum and it would be far more boring without his predictions. I think we will win today. I have been impressed by the start we have made and I don't buy into the Derek McIness love in of the Scottish media. St Mirren beat Hearts last weekend and I don't think that was a surprise. 0-1 Motherwell and the Gorgie faithful to start turning on McIness.

Great result today and there is a growing sense that JBA could be the real deal. Tough draw at Aberdeen but I suppose they all are now. As an aside, I remember around the late 2010's when Rangers were making their way up through the divisions again I noticed that they got home ties at Ibrox in the vast majority of cup draws. I kept a tab on it for a while and eventually lost interest but the trend has continued. It would be interesting to do the analysis over the last 7/8 years but it must run at about 80/90% home draws in all cup competition, very often against lower league opposition. We have not been nearly as fortunate in that same time frame. The vagaries of chance.

I am not sure that it was his coaching ability. He would probably have made a very good coach but he was not a football manager unfortunately . Some of the younger players like Steven Saunders improved dramatically in a short period of time under his guidance. His problem seemed to be managing the senior players and he did not fully recover from his fall out with Craigan. Unfortunately that was a pattern that repeated itself when he moved on to other clubs after us. At the time I thought Craigan was possibly at fault for that whole incident but history was to prove that Gannon was never shy about starting a fight with people in Senior positions.

I think this could be a question that has different answers for different reasons. If I was to give a simple answer, I would say best Tommy McLean and worst Maurice Malpas both for reasons that have been mentioned but The best football I watched was under Mark McGhee in his first season and I thought the way he handled the death of Phil O Donnell was almost statesmanlike so he is up there for me and Now the controversial one. I was never as optimistic about a new start to a season as when Jim Gannon arrived. He brought in some good players (Jennings/ Ruddy/ Coke/ Jutkiewitz) and some fresh ideas that in the first quarter of that season really looked as if they were going to take us to the next level. Were it not for a last minute Jim O Brien penalty miss at Firpark against Rangers that first quarter could have been fairly exceptional. Unfortunately though Gannon seemed determined to press the self destruct button and the rest is history. I do wonder though what might have been if Gannon had had the temperament to put his vision into reality. We can't forget that Motherwell qualified for Europe that season via the fair play award. It was Gannon that instilled that playing culture at the club at that time.

Congratulations Lennon Miller. It must take no small amount of courage to go to a European country without being able to speak the language at the tender age of 18. It would have been easy to settle for a British club with the comforts of home. For his bravery alone, I hope he is hugely successful and we can all be proud to say that he started at our wee club.

Dundee Utd looked good this evening and it was an excellent result for Hibs. Top six may be a little more challenging this year. I understand what you are saying and I have very mixed emotions about seeing our rivals succeed. Good for the coefficient and good for the standard of Scottish football in general but it does makes Motherwell's task all the more difficult. On balance I welcome the success because I think it will directly and indirectly raise the standards at our club too. Scottish football has been in the doldrums for too long so it needs some success.

I think it really could be a season that we finish anywhere from 3rd to 10th. I don't think Aberdeen or Hearts are going to be that much better than they were last season. McIness has been around for a long time and it a decent Scottish Manager but he is a safe pair of hands rather than a revolutionary. I think Hibs will be the strongest of the city teams. My concern is that for all the Scottish Managers are not the best at providing silky modern football, they are generally street wise and are fairly adept at sucking the life out of any team that is trying to play an expansive game. Kettlewell, McIness, Robinson, Goodwin ( don't know much about Falkirk's style) all fall into that category and if they can work out a way to nullify out threat and JBA struggles for a plan B we could suffer. Celtic struggled to a victory against a well organised St Mirren on Sunday so it will be no easy task to break these teams down. I am hoping that there will be no answer for our new style but experience of watching Scottish football tells me that the standard tends to get dragged down to the lowest common denominator. With the new additions to the squad I am confident that we will not be fighting relegation. I think the game against St Mirren will tell us a lot. I am going to go for the right side of the middle ground and go for 6th in the top half along with Celtic, Rangers, Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen. That would represent a huge step forward particularly if it was entertaining along the way.

Kris Boyd gets paid well for this kind of critical analysis. He must have given it all of zero seconds thought and research when he was making his season predictions.

That was Michael Stewart. He has been very complimentary of Motherwell's new approach and the new manager. Great result today and a really good performance. I am really excited for the season ahead.

Stephen Craigan bemoaning the new approach from the manager on the BBC (and not for the first time). He must be nostalgic for the last 10 years of abject mediocrity.

Agreed.

I remember when Gannon started, he was obviously trying to implement a different style of football. I remember the first European game in Airdrie and Steven Saunders had obviously been told not to launch the ball forward. Every time he got the ball he would look up, panic and pass the ball back to the GK. I think he was playing left back that evening although I always remember him as a right sided player. I must be wrong on one of these counts unless he switched. The good news was that Saunders became a decent player under Gannon over the following 6 months. Great result last night. It would have been a brave Well fan to call that scoreline pre match. It would be fantastic if we are seeing the beginning of a cultural shift in the way the game is played at Fir Park. With Martin at Rangers and Rodgers already playing a high energy possession game at Celtic bringing Scottish football into the 21st century, let's hope we are on the right side of the revolution.