fizoxy

Shame we don't have var for every other foul Iacovitti is getting away with.

Casey definitely got a touch on the ball for their penalty claim. Their center backs are all over obika and van Veen, and we aren't getting a sniff of anything from the ref. Obika got booked for a stray arm, then a minute later white elbowed Casey, (just as much an "accident" as obikas), and nothing. It has been fairly even, with county at least getting shots away in the box. Obika should have got that header on target at least, and I thought Max made a mistake of first timing that shot at the end of the half, had time to take a touch. Might want to rethink passing it back to their keeper from corners.

Looks like he's taking the spot that Clarkson left. I didn't personally have anyone in mind for this role, so I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to worry myself about someone getting in trouble for voicing their opinion three years ago. From what I remember, a lot of people were into that at the time. Hopefully SK will appoint his assistant soon so that Clarkson can get back to his real job. It's going to be a fun few weeks with all the appointments that are pending. Hopefully we're still picking up points so that all we have to complain about is a job title or whether someone was a bad boy once.

County are as bad as the rest of us at the bottom. They horsed a Utd side that had downed tools last week, I expect this game to be closer than that one.

I'm a bit nervous, with Dundee Utd now trying to put out their bin fire, three points on Saturday would be huge for mitigating any bounce they get. I guess if comes down to how long it takes their players to appoint a new manager.

We aren't the only team losing young players, and it looks like our league has become a decent hunting ground for English and European teams. As said above, we can't force people to sign contracts.

Whatever Casey and butcher did in the second half to nullify doidge and Robinson worked a treat. They were anonymous after the break.

I don't see us just releasing shields at the end of the season, especially if he does well. We are also going to be back down to just KVV in the summer, so he might have a chance to fight for a place. Either way, we should be in no rush to make a decision. However, whether he was played out wide or through the middle, he had multiple chances right in front of goal that he made a complete arse of. If those were confidence related, then this spell at Queens park might help bring some of that back.

Bin our top scorer? Only 3 players have scored more than him in the league this year. Should we replace him with one of those well rounded goal machines that are ten a penny thesedays?

We hit shots right at their keeper. Then killie announce him as many of the match, and the free kick happened. We weren't great but deserved the point. They were dangerous for a short spell, bit we're poor with their final ball. They fell away completely after we got to grips with doidge, who was anonymous in the second half. What frustrated me was that killie were woeful at the back outside of heading high balls, and we didn't make the most of it. Still, good point and nice to turn it around on them.

Nice for slats to mention he can take free kicks. Did no one ask him until now? :-) Have no complaints at getting a point out of that, will gladly take the same next week too. That pitch is an abomination.

The academy can also produce players that will be decent for us, and perform well at our level without being superstars. Not everyone that comes through needs to be the next Turnbull. Even producing players that can give us 50+ appearances of 6/10 performances would save us on bringing in lower league joirneyment from England. As for playing the younger players, just because there's interest from elsewhere doesn't mean they are good enough to play in our first team yet. The clubs that are taking these young players have no intention of putting them in their first team any time soon, and are instead adding them to their academies. Even at that, us telling them they can play in actual games can only go so far in encouraging them to stay. When the option of increasing their income by a silly amount, as well as joining a bigger academy with facilities that are way better than ours, getting a few run outs at fir park probably won't move the needle.

That's usually the way it goes, a journo gets wind of the decision (sometimes deliberately from the club) and puts out the exclusive before the official announcement.

Don't see us moving from the back three, with it being a big part of our success in the last two games. We've been playing a 3-4-1-2 (which is really just a 352 anyway) with Spittall as the 1, and he has been good in that role, so should keep it. Unless there's injuries, or if SK wants to set up differently away from home, I'm sure we will stick with the same starting XI.

Kettlewell will have to bring in his own assistant, and potentially additional coaching staff, which will probably be negotiated as part of him taking the role. We will then need to replace him as head of development. Clarkson will go back the job he just started as academy director. We will have a pay scale for manager, so whoever comes in is going to be on that, whether it's SK or someone else, and if they manage to negotiate higher it won't be significant. If we were going to make kettlewell manager, Clarkson assistant, and not replace them in their old roles, I'd call that the cheap option, but as it stands, giving SK the job isn't much cheaper than the alternatives. He has experience of keeping county up as well, no? Plenty of teams fail at getting out of the championship despite their finances (we were a factor in one of those, against one of our best former managers too). He has the advantage of having won two games for us, so we know he can get something out of the squad. There is no guarantee we will get that from anyone else coming in, or that SK can sustain it. Good thing I'm not involved in the decision, it's a tricky one.

We had great performances against hearts and Dundee united earlier in the season, and got one point for it. Our home gate has barely changed in over a decade, and I doubt playing like prime Barcelona will move the needle much either, as our fan base is what it is, so it's always going to be a case of playing the way that keeps us in the league. We've seen managers come into other clubs and try to change the style to a more attractive one, and they've fallen flat. I think the Scottish game should just lean into it and market the thunderdome style.

Which now justifies us doing it for the next 40 years.

Who's supplying the clean pee for their drug tests? Maybe our Perma-crocks are doing their bit for the cause after all.

https://twitter.com/chan2yan/status/1627264315563581441?t=Vy1McLACvL4ZWf8m09cFiQ&s=19

I'll be honest, as soon as we brought in Slattery I knew we had it. With his foul winning ability and shit housing tendencies you know we're in a good place for game management, but that tackle at the end was fantastic. I thought we nullified hearts main threats well, and left them all doing their best Liam Grimshaw impressions and running sideways most of the time. I don't doubt that you get an extra bit of effort with the right motivation, but I feel like it was more a lack of confidence than lack of effort in most games this season. You have to give Casey and butcher a fair bit of credit too, they are driving things and have added a bit of bite. Spittal was excellent once again, and I thought obikas hold up play was exactly what we have been missing. With the former, it looks like he's playing behind the front two, instead of out wide, and that has made up for his lack of pace. I wouldn't grudge kettlewell the job, at least until the end of the season. He has found a way to play to our squads strengths, and is putting players in a position to succeed. That should be a given, but we've seen with hammell that managers can over think things.

McCann has had cliff Byrne as his assistant in every job he's had. I like the idea of keeping kettlewell in his original role, then having him be our designated createker, since we're probably going to go through a bunch of managers like every other club. We're so short of coaches right now, we could really do with an additional coach coming in with the new manager and assistant.

I need to try being vegan, I would never have been as diplomatic as him if I got the abuse he did. Not much wrong with the summary (no one forced him to sign Morris) and overall he did more than what was asked of him. I'm assuming he took the injury prevention program with him when he left. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12813868/motherwells-new-manager-search-graham-alexander-reflects-on-his-time-at-club-and-challenges-that-await-new-boss

Nothing to say that we haven't been trying to sign him to a longer contract. Nothing to say we have either, so anything we say is pure speculation. He was playing regularly on loan before we brought him back, and he's been in the team more often that not since returning. His time on the bench could be just a case of managing his time, protecting him, or injury. Either way, we can't force him to sign a contract. Even if we went out of our budget with an offer, it still doesn't match what he would get in England.

Ross would have been my preferred candidate out of all the names that have been going about. With him apparently out, I'd prefer McCann from of the other two, as from the look of it hes had a decent record over 350 games in management, and at a level we try to pluck players from. Holloway has great experience but is a total gobshite. Id prefer someone who understood our game a bit more, as there is a difference, and we don't have the time for someone to find their feet. However, it's been about 40 years since we brought in a manager with top flight management experience in Scotland (not counting McGhee's second go), and only Craig Brown with any Scottish experience going back to McClean, so it's not something we tend to put much stock in as a club, and that pre-dates our current board. I like kettlewell, and I wouldn't have a problem if he got it. But he will still be on our coaching staff either way.

St mirren are having a good season by their standards, but you'd think they were legit challenging for third with some of the coverage they get. The reality is the teams from 4th to 12th are about the same, with the teams at the top end one or two injuries or bad decisions away from freefall. Goss and Spittal were excellent today, which is nice, as they have been nowhere near as bad as folk like to make out.