El Grew

Must have been a belter of a half-time team talk!!

He’s changed some of the personnnel but hasn’t changed the formation. Nuts. He seems welded to 4-3-3 and that will be his downfall because he’s got Slattery and Goss in the 3 again and we know they are useless!

Dodged a bullet there then!

Our home league record against St. Johnstone: P81 W45 D15 L21 GF158 GA91 Win 56%; Draw 18%; Lose 26% Likely outcome = ???

Went for Crankshaw. He only came on in the 56th minute but showed more appetite and creativity than the rest of them put together. Begs the question why he didn’t start!!

Comments from the Herald on our performance against St Mirren. “Did Motherwell play badly? In truth not really but it was just all so meh. Goss and Slattery struggled to get to grips with Erhahon and O’Hara in the middle. They also lacked variety in their play, too often falling back to pelting the ball vaguely in the direction of van Veen or McKinstry hoping one of them could magic it into a goal.” It’s been like that for a long time as Goss and Slattery have served up the same insipid, weak performances since the season began and Hammell continues to play them. In truth, we have no midfield, and this has a twofold effect on the side: 1. When we don’t have the ball, they provide absolutely no protection to the defence. 2. When we have the ball, they provide absolutely no support or service to the strikers. Hammell sees this every week but fails to take action to sort it out. Under normal circumstances it would be foolish to say the club won’t sack him given he’s been allowed to bring in new players, however they allowed Alexander to do the same thing and then sacked him before our season had begun. At present the club appears rudderless and lacking in direction or leadership. I feel they are in stasis at present perhaps exacerbated by the CE’s resignation, a £1M loss and the current state of the team. A statement in the recent financial accounts is quite telling: “While the Club’s financial position is healthy in the short term the Club is acutely aware of the challenges it faces both in terms of operating in the current economic climate and running as a fan-owned club in an increasingly competitive and owner financed top flight. The main uncertainties to the future wellbeing of the club remain as; first team performance, broadcast income and match day attendance.” If they don’t get the playing side sorted out fast, these uncertainties will all hit and pretty damn hard.

We’re utterly hopeless but the sad fact is St. Mirren are not really much better. Don’t want to be a doom monger but I’m afraid the club had better begin to prepare for Championship football next season.

Found this on Twitter: “Jim McMahon and Alan Burrows went on to advise and discuss that this year's £1m loss would be higher next year barring a long Cup run or player sale and that we are at a crossroads as regards plugging this size of shortfall in the coming years. The plan to resolve this is by going to a wider audience to promote our club values ethics and ideology in the hope of attracting a company or individual either local or worldwide who buys into our ethos and would be willing to inject regular cash to cover shortfalls” Mmm!

Sad to hear that another one of our former players, Benny Cairney has passed at the age of 77. I can remember seeing Benny playing I think about 1965/66. Thoughts and prayers are with Benny’s family. RIP.

Our record away to St. Mirren: P104; W31; L45; D28; GF120; GA162 St Mirren Win 43% Motherwell Win 30% Draw 27%

I assume you meant that WE would pay cash to get rid of him!

Rumours are that Hibs are after him as a replacement for Ryan Porteous.

Well if that’s the case he shouldn’t even be on the bench.

Einstein once said that the definition of madness was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Well Stevie Hammell fits that definition because he has yet again named a midfield 3 of Goss, Slattery & Spittal!

Well football’s all about opinions isn’t it? However I think you (and a couple of other posters) have missed my point here. I was making the point that from what I’ve seen of Dean Cornelius, he is not a creative or flair player but more of a (old fashioned term coming up) wing-half. Although he’s only played a handful of games, I believe he’s played his best football when played between our penalty box and halfway where he’s able to break-up opposition attacks as Brown and Lennon did for Celtic. He has the capability and the engine for that role. Going to show my age now - Nobby Stiles did this job for Man Utd and was told that when he won the ball back, to pass it to the creative midfielders in the side. I really think if Dean Cornelius was employed in that type of role that he’d be a real asset. All teams need their worker bees - the late great Bill Shankly one said “A football team is like a piano. You need 8 men to carry it and 3 men who can play the damned thing.”

I’ve watched Dean Cornelius since he broke into the first team and I firmly believe he is one of the best prospects we’ve got. However I don’t think the management team are of that view. They’ve had him into the side on a few occasions but they don’t seem to know what his best position is. Personally, I believe his best role is in midfield breaking up opposition moves - similar to the way Lennon and Brown did for Celtic. The other problem is that he needs a run in the team to enable him to settle and establish himself. This playing him in one game, out the next, used as a sub, not used as a sub is counter-productive for a young player. Define his role in the side, show belief and confidence in him and give him a decent run in the team to allow him to develop. How many people didn’t fancy Alan Campbell for a while? But he got all of the above and developed into a really good young player so much so he’s a mainstay in a team sitting just outside the play-off spots in the English Championship.

Spot on. Our top priority must be the league and staying up and those harping on about Arbroath being a must win need to remember that.

He’s in the boardroom with Kerr collecting their P45s. All joking aside, there’s still 17 games left to play which is almost half the season left. I think it’s now time to act and get a new manager in to give him the time to try and steady things and save our season.

FFS somebody voted for Blair Spital!? Must have been Blair Spital. Lol.

Fed up saying it but it’s playing the likes of Solhem, Lamie, Goss, Spital , Slattery et all that will get us relegated!

Cheerio Stevie!

Absolutely torpid! And yet again when it’s not working no changes either in formation and personnel. Surely must be Hammell and Kerr’s swan song!

Even allowing for the dreadful weather this is f*cking worse than last week. All we’ve done is punt long balls up in the middle of a gale. I fear this won’t end well for us.

Unsurprised by a few of the banger comments on my post. However since you have posed a sensible question, here a just a couple of examples for you: Aberdeen have 21-year old midfielder Leighton Clarkson on loan from Liverpool. St Johnstone have 20-year old left-back Adam Montgomery on loan from Celtic. I know our “scouts” can’t be everywhere but surely we should be looking at these kind of players. And why have we not tried to “partner-up” with an English Premiership club with a view to accessing some of their promising young players on loan?

I know there will be those who will have a go at me for this post but I couldn’t care. If Stevie Hammell seriously thinks our situation will be improved by players like this, even on loan, then I’m afraid we will be playing in the Championship next season! Two wingers. Really! We’ve already got one on loan - James McKinstry. No disrespect to these two guys, but one by his own admission can’t get a start in a team that plays in what is really the old English 3rd division and the other is a 21-year old rookie with only 7 games under his belt. Utterly bewildering!!