star sail

Bigirimana!!!! Best player on the park. Fantastic performance.

We are talking about one single game. There have been other times this season when Campbell or Grimshaw have made way first. I don't think anybody would argue that McHugh played well on Saturday but it is only one game. I would agree that McHugh has struggled in the second half of this season at times but he has still made a massive contribution to the cause. What interests me is that when fans look for a little bit of loyalty from players they don't see the need to reciprocate. For me McHugh has encapsulated the fighting spirit of the team this season. He puts his head and body where it hurts for the cause. He has flung himself into his duties as team captain both on and off the pitch and has played no small part in cultivated the togetherness that is apparent within the squad. I watched an interview where Tanner singled out McHugh as being of great support during his injury spell. Maybe he is just burnt out at the end of a long hard season. For me he deserves our support and that some are looking for him to be cast out after a poor cup final performance is a bit disappointing.

We were beaten by two very good goals and a Celtic team that are head and shoulders above any other team in Scotland.

A complete guess but maybe the reason for almost every single player being off the pace today is due to training being focused specifically on the cup final. If they are doing hard/ heavy sessions leading into games without the recovery time given to normal competitive games they could be feeling a bit jaded. I know nothing about these things but if there is an opportunity to optimise fitness for one specific game at the the expense of competitiveness in the games beforehand I would take a few leggy performances before the final.

People can only base an opinion on what they see. My last viewing of Ciftci was in the Hearts semi-final. He seemed to lack an edge that day and was pushed off the ball too easily by the big Hearts defenders. Bowman made a difference when he came on. I don't think that anybody would argue that Ciftci is a talented player but if he continues to lack fitness he simply can't access that ability. Somebody made reference to the 'fox in the box' earlier in the thread. A good comparison in that he was a player of undoubted talent who lacked the sharpness of his glory days but could still contribute in flashes. My hope is that Ciftci has been on a strict fitness regime and that a sharper, fitter Ciftci starts. If injury is the reason for his absence in recent weeks however Bowman should start. Moult and Bowman worked well in the League Cup semi final so why not have confidence that Main and Bowman can cause similar problems.

Cup runs have been non existent in previous season so if we were to swap this seasons cup wins for league wins we would be a further 18 points up the table (6 wins against Premier league opposition). That would take us onto 52 points and 4th place above Kilmarnock. By anybodies standards Kilmarnock have had a great season. You cannot discount 6 competitive matches against Premier league opposition when looking at the season as a whole. Progression has been made. That is a fact, not fantasy.

I think the stats that Ya Bezzer has just posted are made worse by the poor run in December. What we have to remember is that we had just played Celtic three times and the squad was depleted and exhausted. I made a point at the time about Dundee Utd suffering a similar fate in very similar circumstances. The difference is that Utd did not recover. We have. I think it suits certain people at the moment to dismiss the cup runs as almost irrelevant. What we have to remember is that we have beaten premiership opposition in every single knock out match (including the second and third best teams in the league). Kilmarnock have been given huge plaudits for the season they have had and rightly so. We have matched them if we allow the team the luxury of including their cup success. Remember as well at this time last year killie were in a stronger position than us. Steve Clarke has had a fantastic season. It would only be the harshest of critics that would not give Robinson huge credit this season.

If we are frustrated about our team not turning up for 15 minutes at the start of the second half, then what a huge step forward we have taken. For many a year we have had to endure Motherwell sides not turning up for the full 90 against Rangers. Robinson has to be congratulated for the change in mindset. I remember back to the League Cup game at Ibrox when Rangers were in the Championship when McCall was telling anybody that would listen how we were massive underdogs and how we would have to be at our best and they would have to have an off day, etc etc. We duly folded .3-0 was it? A total embarrassment. Was it ICT (maybe St Johnstone) who showed us how it should be done and put them out in the next round? To play with the intensity Motherwell play at for 90 minutes is a very difficult thing to do. It is particularly difficult after the body has cooled for 15 minutes in the changing room. Maybe this explains the slugginess (relatively speaking) at the start of the second half. To my mind, the real injustice about the penalty was that it was actually a fantastic bit of defending. A perfectly timed challenge under very difficult circumstances. If there had not been 5000 Rangers fans screaming for a penalty in the South Stand, we could have been talking this morning about a match winning tackle. I don't particularly blame the ref for that. A century of the Old Firm intimidating the rest of Scottish Football (and a Scottish Press that are happy to help them) at every level of the game brings these decisions about. Putting the situation in context, we have beaten Hearts, drawn with Celtic (with 10 men), drawn with Rangers at Fir Park in the last month. A cup final, and cup semi in the bag and we play the second place team in the league on Tuesday with many off us believing that we can win that game. Motherwell are performing like a top six team, in the first season for many when the top six really means something. We are going to fall short of that target but only just. I can forgive them a slack 15 mins. Maybe the next step in the progression of the team is that they can play with that level of intensity for 90 minutes and on a regular basis.

Do you mean by this that, Thomson had decided that he was going to send Kipre off for the initial challenge or that he was going to send Kipre off before a ball was kicked? I still think that the former could be the case. Can a referee go back and send a player off after playing advantage?

Just watched the highlights and I think Thomson has given the red card for the initial challenge. When Kipre steps over Brown with his right foot, he seems to stand on Brown's right thigh. It looks clumsy and accidental but when you see Thomson's positioning on the field it is a possible explaination. Very harsh decision regardless.

We had a family friend who was a grade 1 referee back in the 80's. He was also a Well fan and reckoned that he overcompensated (in favour of Motherwell's opponents) when refereeing games involving Motherwell.

That is an interesting statistic. Hard to know what clubs could do as an addition incentive to Season ticket holders.

Felt sorry for the players having to run out to a half empty home end today. This team have given everything in the cup, it is a shame that the fans did not match that commitment today. I would have gone with the weather argument were it not for the fact that the away end was sold out.Think the Hearts fans outnumbered us 2:1 today which for a home tie in a Scottish Cup Quarter Final is indeed baffling. Everybody is entitled to make a decision about whether or not they want to go to a football match. It would have been nice to see our players have better backing all the same. Enough of the negatives. What an effort from the players and what a goal to win it. Felt after 15 minutes of the second half that Hearts were going to go on and win it but the team showed real character to battle their way back into the game. McHugh and Campbell in the middle typified the commitment and McHugh deserved his goal.

Prior to the league cup final in November, Tommy Coyne, along with his two sons, were eating in the same restaurant as us. I assumed they were going to the game. Started a conversation at our table about who he would be supporting. I would like to thing that he is a Well fan but I think that may be wishful thinking. Heart said Motherwell, head Celtic. Felt it would be inappropriate to ask him. Does anybody know?

I am never one to let the facts stand in the way of a few wild allegations but thought I better check and see if I was making this up completely. So here are the facts: Starting with a home draw against St Johnstone on 23/9/15, Rangers were drawn at home ten times in a row (including a home win against us on 21/1/17). The run ended when Rangers were drawn away to Partick Thistle in the league cup on 09/09/17. Since then as Superward pointed out, they have drawn Fraserburgh (A), AyrUtd (A), Falkirk (H) in the Scottish Cup. That makes 11 home ties out of 14. So not the 13 out of 15 I claimed and certainly not enough to base a conspiracy theory on but they have had the luck of the draw over the last few seasons when it comes to home ties. I get a sense that I am talking to myself but incase anybody is interested 7 of the 14 were against Premiership opposition (St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Motherwell, Accies, Dundee). This does not include any cup ties played at Hampden (one of which featured a beautiful Louis Moult brace). I realise that I have just spent an hour of my life thinking about all things Rangers. I will never make that mistake again.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading that they drew 12 home ties in a row. Add your three in four to that would make it 13 out of 16. If they managed to swing a cup semi final to Ibrox then I really would be believing in conspiracy theories. Anyway regarding Motherwell, we have drawn the tie of the round. Could FP be near capacity?

Russian involvement in the draw?

I am pulling figures off the top of my head but is that not something like 13 of Rangers last 15 cup draws being drawn at home? They certainly have the luck of the draw.

Agree 100% with what you say but unfortunately this requires some thought. As the Glasgow press well know, the headline is often all you need to sway the Old Firm readership, No coincidence that the people that this headline will appeal to is Rangers fans (Motherwell is a dirty team) and Celtic fans (Scott Brown is innocent), Why should they want to read on? The facts might get in the way of their firmly held prejudices.

If it's not bad enough that he should have been be seen in the past walking about with a laptop, he is now seen with a snow shovel in his hand. Disgrace. It brings the game into disrepute. What would BR say? Confident about today. Comfortable victory to make up for the league game. 3-0 Well, the new boys making a big impact.

A real shame to see this thread make it's appearance so quickly. We have to think back one whole calender month (yes one month ago), to a time when we were in a cup final and our manager was being mentioned for the Northern Ireland job. To be fair it was just as ridiculous then, that he should be being considered for that job as it is now that there is talk of sacking him. Dundee Utd suffered a very similar fate to ours just a few seasons ago.I don't remember the exact details, but after a very bright start to the season involving a strong cup run, they played Celtic on (I think) three consecutive occasions, losing all three. They then lost Armstrong and Mackay-Steven to Celtic and did not recover.The end result was that Macnamara lost his job and United were ulimately relegated. My feeling is that the team were burnt out after the trio of Celtic matches.The controversy surrounding the games did not help. To lose Moult and Cadden to injury (our two most influential player in my opinion) has only compounded the problem. I don't think we can underestimate the effort that went into those games. Interestingly, Celtic have struggled (by their standards) since then too. The winter break has come a few weeks too late I feel but it is now here. Let the players recover and let the manager freshen the squad then see where we go from there. If we look at the year as a whole Robinson has done very well. He saved us from relegation and got us to a cup final. As it stands at this moment we are still only a few points off the top six. He deserves a chance.

I can see the Monday morning headlines ' Chief Executive uses laptop shocker!!!!!' Tough week for the team and the club and it is really disappointing that after all their hard work it ends in a 5-1 defeat. It was just one bridge too far. I have a Celtic supporting friend at work who said he was really impressed by the fitness levels of the Motherwell side. He watches Celtic every week and said that the big difference with Rodgers Celtic team is their fitness levels. On that level alone Motherwell matched them, which few teams can now do. The difference is that it is far harder to chase the game no matter how fit you are. To run out of steam after 270 minutes of punishing football is no embarrassment. I want Celtic to win on Tuesday for no other reason than, if we are going to have to suffer the negative effects of a team with much bigger resources than ourselves then we may as well reap the benefits regarding money coming into the Scottish game and coefficients etc. Brendan Rodgers has let himself down a bit this week with his comments but he is a good manager who has assembled a very good side. Having talented managers and talented players in our league can only be a good thing. Owen Coyle and Steve Clarke will hopefully prove welcome additions and I believe that in our own man Stephen Robinson we have unearthed a really good manager who has really come into his own over the last week. So far this season we have had a cup final, we are sitting high in the league matching teams like Rangers, Aberdeen and Hibs. It's all good. Next week at Hearts will tell us more about our team and their resilience than yesterday ever will.

If Scott Brown feels the need to be moaning about fixture congestion, over-celebrating goals and Moult diving for a free kick 25 yards out he must be feeling the heat. Maybe the old legs are feeling the strain. Celtic know they have been in two competitive games. Including the PSG game they have had 3 very touch games in a week. If the Motherwell players feel tired, Celtic will feel at least as tired if not more so. I think Celtic are rattled. Young Alan Campbell relishing the prospect of another game tomorrow can only help. If Motherwell can put in the same intensity of performance again tomorrow, Celtic will not relish the prospect one bit. If Motherwell can put in the same intensity of performance again, it would underline the massive steps they have taken forward in terms of fitness. Celtic are still favourites for tomorrow but the cloak of invinciblity is definitely slipping. If we could leave Celtic Park tomorrow with a draw it would be a massive, massive achievement. I'm going for 0-0.

Complete the sequence: loss, draw,......... Have seen nothing to suggest that we cant win on Saturday. Celtic know that they have been in two very competitive games and will not relish a third before their champions league game next week. I felt we had a real chance before the game tonight and I feel the same for Saturday. This group of players and this management team deserve our support. Lets rise above the tedious west of Scotland stain and get the victory this time. COYW.

Had a day to think over the talking points of the game and have tried to look at it as impartially as possible: Firstly the Kipre tackle. Thought it was a great tackle at the time and when you watch it at full speed on the TV it still looks like a great tackle but when you see it in slow motion it was a dangerous tackle and a red card challenge, however given that Thomson does not have the luxury of a slow motion replay, his real time decision was the right one. Dembele's was a red card for me. It was intentional, dangerous and there was intent to harm. It looked that way at the time and it looked that way on replay. As for the two penalty claims, if one is a penalty, the other is a penalty. The only difference is that the Tierney challenge happens at higher speed and off the ball. . Unfortunately Kipre gave the referee a decision to make,That it should have also been a red card seems inexplicable to me. Even if the last man rule still held, (which it does not)it was not a clear goal scoring opportunity. Sinclair was moving away from the goal and Motherwell had two men standing in front of the goalkeeper who were within distance of intercepting the ball. Anywhere else on the park and that challenge would have been a yellow card at the very most. Having said all of that Celtic were the better team. A moment of quality from Forrest and a world class safe from Gordon the difference between the teams. Small margins. I feared the triple header a little before yesterday but actually I now feel quietly confident for Wednesday night. If we can just have more composure on the ball on Wednesday night I believe we can hurt them. No motivation needed and the intimacy of Firpark to help us. I am quietly confident for Wednesday night.