Kmcalpin

The first half was woeful and I had to remind myself that GA had left. A few players, especially Morris, who is not a striker, did not seem to understand their role. If we play a 4-3-3 formation then we have to play Efford, Van Veen and Shields up front because they're the only 3 strikers we have. No point in shoehorning others in. A toothless attack and poor defence are not Hammell's fault. However, his starting midfield appeared to me beforehand to be too lightweight and unbalanced. No idea why he started with that line up. The midfield and defence looked totally disorganised and gave St Johnstone far too much room and space. No leadership, energy or fight at all in the first 45. Hammell realised his error and made changes at half time, but by that time we were 1-0 down with 45 minutes to go. The second half looked to be a bit better, although we were still fragile in defence and toothless up front, and I was pleased to see Cornelius come on. Tierney should have been brought on earlier. I thought the officials were shocking and failed to stamp out St Johnstone's playacting and timewasting. I expected at least 8 minutes , and possibly 10 added on but we only got 6. I doubt if that will be reported (at least the Well Bois highlighted it). I didn't expect Stevie Hammell to completely reorganise the team and transform it given the scale of the mess that GA left but he made several management errors that indicated to me he isn't the man for the job, for now anyway. He is better employed in his Academy role and thats no slight on him. The team needs several additions - a striker, winger, experienced midfielder, left back and 2 central defenders. Its hard to judge the players just now - we do have some decent ones but they're not punching their weight due to being not played to their strengths. That needs sorted and quickly.

Absolutely. If we've learnt a valuable lesson today its that he should stay put.

Not a normal post and not one I really want to make. 57 year old Well fan from Lundin Links in Fife, Andy Bonnes, has gone missing. He was last seen on Tuesday morning and his family and friends are worried. He was driving a black Ford Focus registration number DF13ONC. If anyone sees him please contact the Police or message me. Some of you will know Andy. If you read this Andy, please contact Kirsty or Gordon.

At the very least he's admitted that pre season preparation and confidence are issues, but yes, it could be taken as veiled criticism of GA.

They should be, given the money they've splashed out but don't have. Their fans, and a compliant media, should be asking serious questions of their board. How much cash are they going to fork out to finish 3rd?

Robbie Crawford, released by Partick is now on trial at Dunfermline.

He's perfectly free to apply if he's interested.

Thats it for me. Last season was what it was. He achieved the results, albeit with a very poor second half to the season. The football on offer wasn't very attractive but I could live with it. I always had the impression that he wasn' getting the best from the palyers he had at his disposal for whatever reason. The Sligo games changed it for me. I was looking for some indication, however modest, that he was changing things, but that just didn't happen. The rest is history.

Absolutely Greg. Whilst driving his Ferrari he didn't drive it that well, but had no crashes or driving convictions. Can he change a tyre on 10 year old Corsa though?

We simply don't know if Lambert is in the running at all, but it intrigues me that some posters keep bringing up his name. As I don't follow English football, I thought I'd try to find out why he seems to be favoured by a few; what his track record is. In 16 years he's managed 9 teams, 8 of which were in England. His average stay has been 16 months. At 5 clubs he lasted less than a year. In all that time, he was probably only a success at one, Norwich City, where he guided them to 2 successive promotions. Apart from that, he kept 2 clubs, Norwich and Aston Villa in the Premier League for a combined total of 3 seasons. Thats about it. He hasn't managed a club for 18 months. I just don't get why he'd be a serious candidate for our vacancy. OK he's managed at a reasonably high level in England, but hasn't really managed them well. Just because you've done a job for years doesn't mean you've done it well. He just doesn't seem to be the kind of candidate we'd go for.

Interesting article in the Daily Express. https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/sport/football/kevin-thomson-considered-motherwell-job-27631926 If you ignore the Kevin Thomson element, the timeline is interesting.

As others have said, our fans are no worse or better than most. I've heard some pretty vitriolic stuff being chanted at a good few other grounds - Tannadice and Falkirk being but two examples. Given the size of our club, our fans are an easy target and the red tops can print what they want about them without upsetting their readership to any extent. Their judgement call was that Liam Kelly's status was more important to them than that of our fans. Would they have printed those comments about the grueseome twosome's fans - absolutely not. Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts fans - probably not. A lot will also depend on Graham Alexander's reputation within the game. I have no idea what that is. What will Stephen O'Donnell's contacts within the game make of it?

Thats it in a nutshell for me. Job done by Hammy & Kerr to steady the ship at short notice. Quite a few players were well short of match fitness and Slattery was instructed not to play. Good too to see young Speirs get a chance although maybe not the game you'd choose for him to make his debut. Before KO my concern was the midfield which looked very lightweight - the wrong mix but choices would have been limited. An away win on the opening day of the league season isn't to be sniffed at. Hopefully positive changes to come in the next month with a new manager and 2 or 3 new players?

A strange time to be changing manager but it had to be done for various reasons. We are where we are. In recent times, the club has taken its time to make appointments but on this occasion we can't afford to take too long as it will be important to give the new man time to sign a couple of players before the window closes on 1 September. I would say then a couple weeks. Apart from new faces especially up front I think the new manager will have to get more out of the squad than GA did. I think we do have some decent players at the club but they have to be played in the right way. None of the names mentioned so far excite me and I've never been one to think because someone has been in a coaching role at a big English club automatically means they'd be a great catch. However, you never can tell. At our level, appointments are a gamble. Our club has a reputation for appointing someone unexpected.

Now now Yorky. While that might be true to an extent, the same goes for many public sector organisations like the NHS, teaching, Police and indeed many private sector businesses. In any large organisation there are workers who are excellent, good, ok, poor and very poor. Thats life! Anyway, I suppose football is a bit different.

How do you know that? There are rumours, unsubstantiated certainly, that the Directors were unhappy late last season. At the end of last season many fans were happy with his achievements but were looking for some sign of improvement this season, which didn't come. The Directors would not have been happy with the performances and results against Sligo. In addition there are rumours, again unsubtantiated certainly, of an embarassing dressing rooom bust up last Thursday post match. Finally and most tellingly, there was widespread post match fan outrage on Thursday evening and Friday morning. GA left on Friday morning. The league season has not yet started.

I'm intrigued by Duncan Ferguson's name being mentioned by some. What is his managerial track record? Likewise Paul Lambert - ok he's managed top English teams but what is his actual record with them?

Pretty much my view Greg. No obvious candidates at the moment.

Had we not been fan owned we would have ended up in administration again. Thats the bottom line.

My concern is that if GA is still in charge, or even if someone else is in the hotseat, and wants to shake things up, any other players coming in will have had even less gametime than the starting 11(s) who played against Sligo. What gametime has the likes of Dean Cornelius, Sean Goss, Sondre Solheim, and Stephen O'Donnell had?

Safe journey home Allan. I feel for you and all our travelling fans.

Until this evening I was on the fence but wavering. I didn't even think that a loss tonight would lead to his ousting, but I've now changed my mind. Perhaps last week would be a one off? Tonight has shown that it wasn't; anything but in fact. Little changed between the first and second legs. I looked at the team selection and wondered where the goals were going to come from. All our eggs in one unfit "basket". GA showed faith in a poor defence and picked them again. In all my years of supporting our club I've rarely seen the support so united and brassed off with a manager - maybe the power of social media ha swhipped up the frenzy? The manner of our exit has now meant that his departure in the near future is inevitable. I had thought he'd be given perhaps 2 months but I now very doubt that. The Board will ignore the fans' outrage, for thats what it is, at its peril and I don't think they'll do that. I have no inside information but I think he'll be gone by Sunday or Monday at the latest. Dragging matters on will benefit no-one and could lead to an undesirable atmosphere at the St Johnstone game. Time for change and now.

Well at least some more players got more time in their legs tonight.

Good to see Tierney get his chance but we can't rely on him too much. Same defence?? Serious lack of firepower up front - if Van Veen is injured/isn't fit/ off form? Come on the Well.

Too early to tell, as quite a few important signings could yet be made by clubs before the window closes. You obviously think Livingston and Ross County will fare ok. I simply don't know enough about their 2022-23 squads to form an opinion. A curious comment about Kilmarnock. I really haven't seen many comments at all about them not faring well. For some reason, most pundits and fans expressing views on them seem to think they'll do well. I don't know what this optimistic (from a Killie point of view) assessment is based on. Again, I don't know much about their current squad.