star sail

I noticed that. It was a slip of the tongue but it absolutely gave away his thoughts on the matter. He clearly believes that the teams above are there for the taking. As you say. Legend!!!

I was talking the other day about my memory of the last time Motherwell were in a genuine title challenge in Tommy McLean's last season and it all coming to an anticlimactic end with a loss to Dundee Utd at FP. I would hate for history to repeat itself. I wonder if the pressure will start to mount a little for the players as a title challenge becomes a possibility?

12 added minutes at Almondvale. I don't think my heart can take this. Exciting times

I will take that as confirmation that we are better than Man City.

I find it hard to believe that having only lost 3 games this season (two in Glasgow) with a gd of 27, we are still 10 points behind a stuttering Hearts. They were able to grind out another win yesterday. That resilience will probably make the difference in the end. It's shows the value of wins over draws. I still believe that we are the best football team in this league and we have to believe that we can win this league. It is a huge task but the dream is still alive.

Joint best goal difference with Hearts. That could still become important. Incredible season.

What do we want from Hearts v Falkirk. Stick or twist? I am going all in for a Falkirk win. The potential of being 7 points behind Hearts with a game in hand would be pretty exciting. Away victories for both Falkirk and Motherwell is a very tough ask right enough.

I find it difficult to know where to start when reading the comments of the last 24 hours. One thing is for certain, all the good will that has been built up over the last 6 months seems to have been tested very quickly. We can talk about a special bond between manager, players and supporters all we like but when all it takes is an accidental slip on a slick Pittodrie surface to show the cracks in the supports patience then it is clear that there is no special bond. We are not any different from any other support in the country. Nobody knows if the team selection would have worked last night. Going down to 10 men after 3 minutes changes the game completely. We played with a man short for 3/4 of the game and probably still looked like the better team. The attitude of the players was fantastic. We cannot expect that the same starting 11 play ever game. Watt is coming back from injury. Slattery has looked tired in recent games. I find the energy that Just manages to put in game after game quite remarkable . The modern game requires some squad rotation. JBA has always been clear about that. Anybody expecting that we just turn up to a Scottish Cup tie away to Aberdeen and walk away with a simple victory are displaying OF levels of delusion. We can talk all we like about building a platform for the future, building a playing style and identity, a new way of looking at the game in Scotland. What the last 24 hours has shown however, is all that really matters is the result and that even an exceptional manager like JBA has very little wriggle room to manoeuvre. It is disappointing but not surprising. The result will dictate if it is all sunshine or all shite after Saturday night. It's the way it always was and the way it always will be.

Two posts tonight Johnstone and the only person that is speaking any sense.

Every player that started for Motherwell tonight is a Premier League full time professional. Every player that started has made a contribution to a very successful season to date. The gameplan was thrown out the window after 3 minutes. It is very easy with the benefit of hindsight to say that the starting 11 would not have won that game tonight. We will never know because of the way the game started.

What? For a start, this is Aberdeen away not Albion Rovers. The day any Motherwell fan thinks we can simply turn up to these games and walk away with a victory is the day we have turned to OF levels of entitlement. Secondly, ever player that started tonight should have been capable of putting in a decent performance. Gordon was the natural replacement for Welsh. The club have just invested in Connelly as a long term goalkeeping option. But for an unfortunate 3rd minute incident we could and probably would have been more than competitive this evening. It is very interesting how quickly it all turns sour. If JBA were to read these boards this evening he would have every right to think WTF!!!

Agreed. It is amazing just how quickly the angst comes back and the blaming starts.

He did not intervene on VAR when Tarvenier wiped out the last man a few weeks back v Kilmarnock. So Beaton loves that rule.......sometimes!

Thanks for checking that. I must have been mixing seasons but I knew that Dundee Utd game was important. Was a huge anti climax.

I think we were at one point. My memory was that had we won against Dundee Utd and Rangers lost ( as they did at Easter Road) the gap would have been two points coming into the final 6/7 games. As it was Dundee Utd won, we stayed 5 points adrift and had a terrible end to the season finishing 15 points behind. Our form thereafter dropped off a cliff with McLeish. I think he had been benefitting from the afterglow of Tommy McLean's success. I am relying purely on memory so I can't remember the details but it was close up until mid March, early April.

I have a memory of heading to Firpark one midweek in Spring when Alex McLeish was manager for a Dundee Utd game when we were on the coat tails of Rangers. My memory was being disappointed by the attendance for what seemed like a very important game. It was a very flat performance that I think we lost 1-0. Rangers were at Hibs and also lost but it effectively ending the title challenge. I am not sure if that was the same season.

We have Celtic away and Hearts away before the split. Is that a mountain to climb or an opportunity? Many would call it a mountain. JBA would call it an opportunity.

Fadinger will be a contender for player of the season. Slattery probably won't make it into the top 3 midfielders of the season which shows the high standards in the middle of the park.

I don't think this can be right. If we win the game in hand v Dundee we go seven points behind Hearts. Beat them twice takes us to one behind. If they win all their other games and we win all our other games, they beat us by one point (my calculations may also be wrong) Crazy to think we could win the next 12 games, having lost only 3 games the ENTIRE season and still not win the league. It will not work out like this of course. Hearts will not win all their other games. 😛

I am finding it interesting just how quickly I am becoming greedy for success At 1-0 HT today, I was dissatisfied that it was not a more comfortable 2-0, 3-0 so that we could start resting players for midweek. As the weeks pass, 4th place is becoming slightly mundane with the dream of top three within touching distance. I suppose it is that kind of inability to be truly satisfied that took man to the moon. I fear that I am developing the mentality of an OF fan. A severe dose of entitlement. They must have medicine for that type of horrendous affliction? It really is dreamland at the moment.

Crazily even that might not be enough. If we do win every game and Hearts win every game (except the 6 points they drop off us) they would still win the league. It is a totally hypothetical situation but it does illustrate the incredible consistency required to win a championship.

Firstly, I don't think Motherwell were under par. Rangers had to fight very very hard to keep us under control. I thought Rangers played very well to contain us. They were killing the game from 10 minutes in. We deserved to win the match. No complaints with the sending off. Best team in the league, no question.

I think we have to dream now. I don't think it is looking at things with a Motherwell bias to say that we have been at least as good as the teams ahead of us. There has been nothing between Motherwell and Rangers this season in head to head encounters and but for a contentious penalty decision it could easily have been two draws between the sides. A win on Wednesday would be a massive statement of intent and it would pile pressure onto Rangers. Win and it is a huge result in the history of the club and provides the platform for what could be a very special season. Defeat would represent a significant anticlimax. I can't remember being as fired up for a game for some considerable time.

Well if Stephen Welsh runs across the goal line to slap a certain goal bound ball away with the palm of his hand, let's hope John Beaton makes the same honest mistake he made at Ibrox against Livingston. These things swing in roundabouts after all. 😉

From memory, in all three the referee David Dickinson had no hesitation in giving all three decisions, to give Rangers the penalty on two occasions and to dismiss Motherwell's claim for a penalty.I don't think VAR was involved in any of the three. Interestingly in last night's Tarvenier decision, VAR did not get involved whereas it did get involved to upgrade Trusty's yellow card to a red. There are huge discrepancies in that system regardless of which team you support.