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Everything posted by Kmcalpin
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Not wholly true. Yes he wanted to try something different by taking off a defensive central midfielder but he could have taken off either Campbell or Grimshaw but chose not to. Instead he substituted his captain. That speaks volumes.
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Stephen Robinson quoted in the Evening Times as saying he wants to strengthen 3/4 areas of the team. He wants more pace, energy and "ownership in the midle of the park". So it would seem he's not entirely happy with our central midfield, and of course he quite right. Just a thought....if we can improve our ball winning skills in the middle yet further it makes it easier for creative players to do their thing there. Celtic proved on Saturday that we still have a bit to go yet to match the top sides in midfield in terms of energy, physicality and ball winning ability. Bottom line is that a minor / fine tuning exercise is turning into something a bit more and rightly so.
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For next season...finish in top 6 and semi & quarter final appearances.
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Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
Fair comment Allan. I'm in no way political with a capital P but the MSP for Motherwell, whoever that is, and if they have any backbone, needs to take this issue up with Police Scotland. I'm waiting..... -
Good thought provoking post. I don't know if everything will pan out the way you suggest but its a fair shout and we have to take on board lessons learnt from this season. Worth noting as well that Aldred's lack of pace was compensated for by Kipre's speed.
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I can see McHugh and Frear move on and Robbo can be ruthless in that regard as we know. There's a reason Bigi hasn't played but I've no idea what it is. He too could move on.
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Its not impossible that some players under contract could be shipped out to clear some space.
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Left wing back and strikers are a priority. To me, Main and Bowman are too alike in terms of their type of player. A big question mark too over Carl McHugh. Our captain being hooked after 55 minutes in a cup final???? (Didn't think he picked up a knock).
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Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
It was always going to be a tall order to be beat Celtic and so it proved. They were the better team and deserved to win. I did expect that to be honest but I didn't expect the game to turn out the way it did. Lets be clear though the players tried their best and I've no gripe with that. What did surprise me though was that Celtic worked harder and won the physical battles. Thats despite all the pre match hype. That did disappoint me and shows that we've got work to do on the physical side of our game for next season. In the first half the players looked like rabbits caught in the headlights and I just didn't expect that given that most of them had already played 3 times at Hampden this season. They were clearly nervous and allowed Celtic far too much space and time. Our game plan too was a bit out and we suffered roastings most of the game down the wings as we played very narrowly. I won't dwell on individual perfomances but thought that our midfield had a poor game and struggled to compete with, not outplay Celtic. As a result, Main and Bowman struggled on poor service. Plenty of food for thought for next season not least of which was the sight of our captain being substituted after 55 minutes or so. Plenty of questions too for our Police but I've little hope of them being answered. Policing and the criminal justice sytem have to be fair and be seen to be fair. To finish on apositive note the final will have boosted our bank balance considerably. -
A few disappointing performances today but rather than dwell on that I'm voting for Bigi. He achieved more as a sub than others did in the entire match. Unlucky not to score.
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Where did you see this?
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Absolutely. We can't compete with the city clubs in terms of budget and hence the calibre of player they can attract. We have to concentrate on organisation and hard work and being able to compete with them physically. Any real talent in our squad will come, in the main, from young players breaking through not from expensive transfers. I'm glad that Rose & Grimshaw have signed on for another year. Our squad now looks more settled and that will bring consistency. Its also a relativley young squad which will have acquired more experience since this season about to end. However that will simply not be enough. Every club needs to bring in fresh blood perhaps 2/3/4 new faces every year and whatever we do our rivals will not stand still. Teams like Dundee, Partick and St Johnstone will all be looking to strengthen their squads. We have to do the same. We have to bring a bit more creativity and pace to the side. So, its more a case of quality rather than quantity. Assuming that no-one moves on, which is most unlikely, I'd expect us to be on the hunt for a left sided wing back, a centre back (not if Aldred signs on permanently), a creative central midfielder and perhaps 2 strikers (Robbo has already hinted he likes 4 first team strikers). All that said, Robbo and Keef will know exactly where they intend to strengthen and strengthen they will.
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Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
I know of two who are going to "support their local team". Both decent guys. -
This is the first season that I can recall for many many years that we have had a solid reliable and dependable team that has worked hard, been energetic and well organised. These qualities are reflected in our record number of clean sheets. Next season we should be even more so as the players now know each other better and aware of each others' strengths and weaknesses. I suspect we may lose one or two though like Cedric. This is a great platform on which to build. We've also got a batch of talented youngsters breaking through. So, as others have said, its maybe a case of more fine tuning now. What we do need to do though is to bring a bot more creativity and perhaps pace to the team. We're a bit light up front. As things stand we may ned to strengthen central defence (if Cedric goes and Aldred doesn't stay on) get some cover for left wing back and maybe bring in a couple of strikers. So we're maybe looking at 4 players, more if others like Rose and Ciftci move on. Not a wholesale rebuilding like last season though!
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Scottish Premiership Game 38 :Hamilton Accies (H) 12/05/18 14:15
Kmcalpin replied to Yabba's Turd's topic in Club Chat
I like Frear but suspect that he just doesn't fit our system. -
Scottish Premiership Game 38 :Hamilton Accies (H) 12/05/18 14:15
Kmcalpin replied to Yabba's Turd's topic in Club Chat
A great end to the league season and I'm happy to admit I was wrong about finishing in 7th position. After a dire result last Saturday we picked ourselves up and produced 2 wins and 2 shut outs. Today was particularly pleasing as we rightly rested a good few players and gave some gametime to youngsters. Accies, as Ithought they would, chose to field a fairly expereinced side but despite that our inexperienced team produced the goods and impressed. Grimshaw, Aldred, Tait, Bigi and Ciftci all looked good and I was disappoined that the latter didn't score his hat trick with that wonderful shot that shook the crossbar. However it was the youngsters that caught the eye with commendable performances from the likes of Turnbull, Maguire, and MacLean. Good to see Liam Brown emerge as well. We really do have a conveyor belt of talent coming through just now and I'd like to see them develop next year along with the unfortunate James Scott. It was a crying shame that he missed out today. The only player who didn't really shine today was Elliot Frear, a player that I normally like. Today was an absolutley huge test for Barry Maguire who had to recover from his St Johnstone nightmare and he passed this test with flying colours. We played a different tyope of football today; possibly more suited to Ciftci's talents and he impressed with an array of twists turns and tricks. A special word too for Liam Grimshaw. After an unremarkable season he's begun to impress of late and again today he turned in an energetic performance. Only downside for me was the non appearance of Peter Hartley but probably he just wasn't fit enough to make the bench. -
A close run thing between Grimshaw and Ciftci for me but I'll plump for the former.
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A summing up. Early doors I'd like to see Grimshaw and Aldred sign permanent deals. Some promising youngsters now coming through too but we need to add creativity to the midfield and some more striking options.
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Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
The problem is that some customers of small local shops expect their businesses to support the local community. Many of these small businesses also expect the local population to support them. -
Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
Its a difficullt situation for local businesses isn't it Ally? They're damned if they do and damned if they don't but if they they want to trade as local businesses they have to take some kind of position. If I lived in Motherwell & Wishaw and saw a shop displaying our cup final opponents' shirt in their window I'd be inclined to take my custom elsewhere. Likewise if they weren't prepared to display anything claret and amber I'd also feel perfectly justified in taking my custom elsewhere. These are very dark and difficult days for retailing as you'll know every bit as much as me and I think small businesses need to trade on and promote their local identity. I'm afraid in this situation they're going to upset some of their customers irrespective of what they do or what they don't do. -
Its included and clubs will need to wait several months for it. Possibly August?
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Scottish Premiership Game 38 :Hamilton Accies (H) 12/05/18 14:15
Kmcalpin replied to Yabba's Turd's topic in Club Chat
Turnbull, Bigi, Ciftci, Hendrie, MacLean, Maguire and even Peter Hartley could all be in with a shout of at least some game time. The following might be a decent line up: Carson Maguire Aldred Dunne Cadden Campbell Bigi Turnbull Frear Ciftci Bowman Yet another option, albeit short term, would be to play a back three of Aldred, Dunne and Hendrie. -
A fair chance that he might get some game time especially if Cedric doesn't make it. We have to remember though that he hasn't played for months.
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Scottish Cup Final v Celtic (Hampden) 19/05/18 15:00
Kmcalpin replied to something else's topic in Club Chat
I thought I'd seen a comment on facebook (Wellfans 11) to the effect that some extra tickets were available. Don't see any reason why the 2 additional sections couldn't be split. It might be that the club thought we could fill one section but no more. Agree the more C & A the better.