star sail

Interested in why you think that Steelboy?

Doing a little reading on GA and the Salford fans seem to think that he was a decent enough guy who's teams did not play particularly attack minded football. His home record was relatively poor apparantly (away form was good) and he had a natural tendency to be defensive minded in his approach. A suggestion that he did not get the most out of a fairly expensive squad. Also listened to his last couple of post match interviews with Salford and it sounded not dissimilar to Robinson latterly. Complaints of players not doing the basics properly (I think Robinson term was the right to play football) and poor decision making. Having said that, there was no character assassinations suggesting he was a total dud. If anything most fans wished him well and thought he might shine at a club that would be a better fit. Will we be that better fit? Time will tell. If he is to be our new man I wish him all the very best

It is a tough decision for the club. I don't have any real sense of excitement for the candidates in contention. I can't help but feel that we will not improve on what we had before so there is not a sense for me of a bright new dawn. I think on balance Tommy Wright would be my preferred candidate. If he could do anything like Craig Brown did the last time we needed a wise old head to steady the ship then I would be delighted. We need a streetwise element to our team and TW would be the man to bring it. Marry that to a fair bit of ability(Campbell, Long, Gallagher O'Hara, O`Donnell) and we may have a bright new dawn after all.

Scott Mullen on BBC Sport Scotland saying four candidates including Lasley will be interviewed in the he next two days with the new man being in the dugout by the weekend. Lasley and 3 others so who are the three? Sorry, don't know how to post the link from the BBC.

I agree with this 100%. One of the downsides to the Internet age is that people can hide behind forums and post anonymously with little to no repercussions or consequence. It gives a voice to a minority that can then influence a mood or sporting landscape more than the reality reflects. When you actually look at the brief summary of Robinsons achievements, posted by the club itself, it his hard to marry the reality with the criticism ( and on rare occasions abuse) that has been a feature on this forum. Two Cup Finals, a 3rd place finish, European football, a strong financial balance sheet. Hold you head high SR. It would be interesting to look under a microscope at the daily business of some of the vocal anonymous critics and see if they too could hold their head high. This is a culture that is not going to go away and any manager good or bad will have a 2-3 year shelf life. I think we will look back on Robinson's time as some of the better in Motherwell's history. The managers change. The critics are ever present.

Would never want to see McLeish anywhere near our club again. Talk about a manager wasting money on transfers, there is your man. A media darling whose reputation far outstripped his ability. Ruined a decent Motherwell team, and was heading the same way with Hibs. There was horror stories of player indiscipline at Rangers and yet he managed to maintain a good reputation in the Scottish game. His second spell as Scotland manager I think is a fair reflection of his capability. I would take his Aberdeen playing partner Strachan over McLeish any day of the week.

What makes you think Craig Brown was an excellent appointment? I don't disagree that he was the right man at the time to steady the ship but from memory we were 5th when he started and 5th when he left. I remember a good few thumping at the hands of Celtic on the way through as well and his brand of football was never scintillating (6-6 v Hibs apart) and I don't remember him having a forward thinking vision. Was it not Gannon that signed the players that Craig Brown worked with? He was a steady pair of hands. Maybe that alone made him an excellent appointment at the time? What interests me about the comment is that Scottish managers just seem to get a fairer, more measured evaluation from our support generally without much more to show for their efforts. I am never a fan of the clamour for ex players but I did feel we missed the boat on Van der Gaag at the time Baraclough was appointed. He may not even look in our direction but would be the kind of appointment that would spark my enthusiasm once more and he has had success in Holland and Portugal. That apart, a Brownesque appointment like Tommy Wright might be the safe option that could keep us in the league. Pragmatic if not ultimately hugely inspiring.

Much of what you have said is not unreasonable but I think you look too negatively on what might happen and use that has a basis of fact. You seem convinced that Motherwell would not have finished 3rd last season if it was played to a close yet you simply don't know what would have happened. None of us do. I don't remember anybody complaining about the quality of the squad in August. In fact many were excited by the apparent strength of the team. I think a few of the players will come good in the coming weeks. Long, Lang, Polworth, Gallagher are all good players who will find there stride and become the influencial players like a few you mentioned from recent seasons. Who is to say we will lose Campbell this window? You just never know. Give it a month and let's see from there. The reality might be better than you think. Remember the Hibs and Aberdeen performances. That is how it could be. Keep the faith.

LOL. It is like Groundhog Day. We keep going round and round in circles making the same points. I am as guilty as anyone. I love the manager chat. I remember arguing with Steelboy in 2008? about Jim Gannon. 12years later and I am still saying the same things for managers, he is still saying the same things against them. Keeps our mind off worrying about a pandemic.

When you see his achievements summarised like this it seems all the more unbelievable that we have the Robinson out chat as often as we do. He has done a really good job as your summary shows. You have to wonder just what would make some of the supporters happy given that Cup Finals and third place finishes don't cut it. For some reason Robinson's face does not fit with sections of our support and no amount of success will change their view. My gut feeling is that were he Scottish, he would be given more respect than he is currently afforded. I have always felt that the Scottish managers (Brown, McGhee, McCall) have been afforded a benefit of doubt than the non Scottish managers (Gannon, Baraclough, Robinson) have not, despite managerial records at Motherwell that are broadly similar. My own opinion is that all the above mentioned managers have made a significant contribution to keeping Motherwell in the top flight despite us having no divine right whatsoever to be there. The exception to this in recent times is ofcourse Maurice Malpas. You can't defend the indefensible.

Ruddy Kipre Hutchinson Carroll Cadden (cheating by putting him at RB) Turnbull Campbell Vigurs (when on form) Johnston Murphy Moult

Today was always going to be tough. 4 games in 10 days (three of which, a fair distance away) was always going to leave the team a little leggy today. The opponents could not have been worse but maybe in a fixture we never win anyway this was the the best possible team to play today. The 18 year league record does grate. Interestingly the only managers to break the monotony have been the much maligned Baraclough and Robinson himself. You could argue that their victories came against a weakened Rangers but anybody that watched McCall's team put in a subservient display in a League Cup display at Ibrox against a Championship Rangers will know that the Scottish managers record in the last 18 years have been dire. That said if financial doping applies to Man City against top European sides then by ratio of revenue (if not legal definition) Rangers and Celtic have been getting a doping advantage over every other team in Scotland for a long time. As it is we sit 9th approaching the end of the first quarter. We matched Aberdeen and Hibs for performance and in Europe we beat the teams ranked below us and lost to the team ranked above us. Not scintillating by any means but no Armageddon either. I think we will find a consistency in the second quarter that will take the team up the table rather than down.

Madden was the ref when we beat Rangers 3-1 in the play-off. We played really well so beat them. Our poor start to the game has cost us so far today.

Despite history telling me otherwise, there is always that what if? thought comes into my head on game day. Our record in almost supernaturally poor against Rangers but the sun is shining and miracles do happen. It is the hope that kills us!!!

I think you are doing the Israelis a disservice comparing them to Killie, Hearts or St Johnstone. They beat us comfortably last night without having to play well themselves. I can buy the idea that a team can be unlucky in a one of game but Scottish teams both at club level and at International level have made an art form of gallant defeats over the last 30-40 years. We read and listen to the hard luck story over and over again. If only....... The truth is that HBS scored three goals last night because they have the technical ability to turn it on when it matters. Sadly Gallachers performance last night is a snap shot in minature of performance after performance we have had to enduree from Scottish players in recent decades. It is no coincidence that we struggle to beat part time teams and it is no coincidence that a team like HBS beat us without getting out of first gear. Scottish football is a long, long way off the pace. Progress has been made in recent years. The professionalism has improved as has the fitness thanks to managers like Robinson. Sadly however we have years of neglect to make up for. We may never catch up but at least we are taking steps in the right direction.

I am almost NEVER right so I am going to take this opportunity to pretend I know what I am talking about. I am also going to take the opportunity of a great result to make a couple of points about some negative comments over this last month. 1. 'We are favourites to be relegated' We were no more favourites to be relegated in 12 place after 7 games than we are to favourites to finish 8th now after 8 games. We should try looking at the bigger picture. 2. 'Robinson should be sacked now because after Hibs and Aberdeen beat us we will only have 4pts.' Let's try to make statements about sacking managers based on the facts of what has happened, rather than negative speculation of what might. 3. 'Motherwell were not really 3rd last season because Aberdeen would have finished 3rd' Can we be absolutely certain about that based on today's result? They might have but like point 2, I would rather base judgement on the fact that Motherwell did finish third, rather than that Aberdeen may have in some mythical end to the season. Great result today. Let's give our team the benifits of the doubt and give them some proper backing.

I think we will win this. We have a good record against Aberdeen. Aberdeen have had a good start to the season but they are not thumping teams. I was reading in the transfer thread that we have no quality in the side. At the start of the season, I think we all felt that we did. Nothing had really changed (loss of Turnbull apart which was inevitable) so for me it is a lack of confidence rather than a lack of quality. Our best performance by some way was against Hibs. I think we may do the same again. 0-1 Motherwell and our season kicking on from there.

I get that. I would have preferred anybody else too (except Rangers) but the decision is made now. Sadly I suspect he will play well against us and on those days any goodwill will go out the window.

The £10 million is a direct result of the quality on the park so you must be delighted.

Congratulations to DT. He has the makings of a great player and I don't think it will be long before he is outperforming some of the Celtic first team regulars. Celtic have a bargain but this is not to say that I think the club could have held out for more. I will be following his career with interest and I hope he does really well at Celtic (except when they play us) and moves on to bigger things sooner rather than later. If he ends up anything like the player Gary McAllister was he has a bright future ahead.

A Cup Final is success for every team in Scotland except the OF and maybe Aberdeen. Nobody in Scotland has been able to get close to Celtic for several seasons now. If Celtic were to lose in a Champions League Final to Barcelona would that been seen in Celtics history as success or failure? You mention the lucky cup run. Others mention the lucky 3rd place. Why is it that when teams allow us to dominate and hit us with the sucker punch, they are streetwise/ have us sussed, but when we do it to other teams we are lucky? I do not understand the determination to undermine our clubs success?

Neither am I so it interesting to read about this particular formation. Being someone who knows little about formation it is maybe naive to suggest that Turnbull and Polworth play in the same team but this is what I would like to see. They are our two most creative players. It would take someone more knowledge than me to know how to build a team around the two of them. Did England not have that problem (with better players) in Lampard and Gerrard?

I liked Dave McCabe!!! You are absolutely right in what you say however. People forget the rougher spells under Tommy McLean. The cup final victory and a third place finish are the headlines (and great headlines they are) but not every performance under Tommy McLean was a cup winning performance. The same can be said for every manager we have had spanning the last 5 decades, some good, some bad (that we have been in the top flight since the 80's in itself is a minor miracle). It is a very dangerous game as a Motherwell fan not to enjoy the rarity of two cup finals in one year or a third place finish. Anybody undermining those achievements, or not getting joy from these achievements, may need to consider if Motherwell is really the team for them. Bigger clubs than ours in Scotland have not enjoyed this kind of success in recent times. Fans of Hearts, Hibs, Dundee Utd to name just a few, would love to have had the success Motherwell have enjoyed during Robinsons time at the club. The start to the season has been very disappointing. The performance against Hibs last week matched pre-season expectation and we need to hold onto the positives of that game for now. Like a few others have said, a few minor adjustments and a favourable wind may just be enough to ignite the season. I still believe this is a good squad of players and I very much believe that Robinson is a good manager. I would be hugely disappointed if we lost to Glentorran and maybe if we did my resolve would waver a little but teams like Stjarnan and Albion Rovers remind us that these kind of results are in our DNA . I believe it will come good but not before a difficult and possibly painful trip to Celtic Park.

The goals will come. It has been a slow (and disappointing) start to the season no doubt but it is a good squad of players that matched a Hibs side on form. I wonder if Robinson maybe slightly misjudged pre-season but I think match fitness is returning and the strikers will benefit as the games go on. Let's just enjoy an improved performance for now. I still have high hopes for the coming season.

Motherwell victory to get the season back on track. I think it is going to be a 'where did that performance come from' kind of a night. 0-3 Well.