couttsy

Though Fadinger was great today, get him an Oscar back in the midfield and we’ll be fine.

Not far off what I’d go with! McGhee at right back is a good shout. I’m still not sure if JKL is a better option than JGR but maybe with more game time he can prove it! Without Lowery and Preistman that front 6 should be a given in my opinion.

And that proves he’s more than capable of scoring goals are our level. I agree his form hasn’t been great, however hes still young, this first professional club and he’s going to come in and out of form. I think we need to support him and look at how we best set the team up to get him in the box more often.

Since his first season in the Scottish Premiership in 2024-25, only Daizen Maeda (30), Lawrence Shankland (27) and Martin Boyle (26) have scored more goals than Motherwell's Tawanda Maswanhise (25)

2-1 win. Alfred IN 😉

I’ve rarely felt this misaligned with what the vocal majority on here are saying. Taking last night in isolation, I thought we played pretty well in spells and can definitely see patterns of play from a team that are coached. I thought the two changes AJ made at half-time worked a treat for the first 20–25 minutes of the second half. We should have put the game to bed in that spell and been 3 or 4-1 up. We never really looked in much trouble until the goal at the end, which was an absolute shitshow defensively. Manny diving in, Hodge & Sparrow not tracking their men, SOD picking the wrong man out of the two he had to cover, and then not attacking the ball, and finally Paulsen not managing to push it out or over. That’s not to say there weren’t things we could have done better, but I’m struggling to see the disaster that others seem to have watched. There were plenty of positives to take from the performance, and I think there’s more evidence of progress than some are willing to acknowledge.

Surely there’s a bit of irony in folk proposing Simo. He struggled badly at first at Saints and actually went down! But they stood by him and he’s come good. Fingers crossed we don't get to that point, but sticking behind AJ might just be what helps turns things around.

I thought today was a big improvement on what we’ve seeing of late, and had we shown a bit more composure in front of goal we’d have taken the 3 points never mind 1. Completely out played Hearts for long periods, particularly in the 2nd half. Yes, I’m worried we could be sliding towards a relegation battle unless we can find someone to consistently hit the back of the net (similar to what Maswanhise did last season), but still far too early to be talking about changing the manager given the injury list we’ve had to deal with, not to mention the personnel changes over the summer. Although I do except the next 2 are huge. Confident we’ll pick up at least 4 points!

What a frustrating afternoon, we saw the good the bad and the ugly (downright shambolic) from this team. I seem to be in the minority now, but I feel for AJ given the crazy individual errors we’re making in nearly every game at the moment. Like a few of us I thought we played reasonably well for most of the 1st half and should have been ahead at the break, despite Paulson madness at the start. 2nd half we take the lead then immediately invite them on to us. O’Donnell horrific for Killies 2nd and 3rd and Sparrow just as bad for the winner. The leagues very tight and we’ve yet to complete the first round of games. I don’t think it’s gone yet, but the next 3 are massive, need 4 points minimum. At least if nothing else O’Donnell will surely take his seat back on the bench for the rest of the season.

Yeh, thought it might be a bit too early for him, back soon hopefully! Results with and without him this seasons are pretty stark (European games apart). I think JKL looks more suited to a full back role than JGR, but I suppose time will tell!

For the weekend I’d go with: Paulsen JKL, JGR, Moorman, Longelo Preistman, Fadinger, Lowery Maswanhise, Palmer-Houlden, Said Hodge for Preistman if he’s not fit enough yet.

Completely and utterly relieved to get out at 2-0, should have been far far more. My god we were so passive. To only commit 3 fouls at home against a team with 66% possession is a disgrace. McGregor could have played with his slippers on apart from 1 tackle that Hodge was carded for. We had to get closer and put some physical pressure on them. Playing through us with easy. Vogts can’t be seen again and we should not be starting games with SOD at centre half again. Next week we need to go back to basics and get our best players in their best position on the pitch. Would be great to see Priestman back, we’ve missed him massively. I fear if we lose next week Alfred will lose the majority of the support and we’ll be heading into a relegation battle.

So both pundits on Sportscene agree it’s a foul in the lead up to the 1st St Mirren goal. Both pundits agree the missed penalty should have been retaken. The fact that Clancy needed to see the handball on a tv despite having a great view in real time sums up how bad he was. The standard of officiating is at an all time low in Scotland but as usual it’ll be swept under the carpet as it’s not against Rangers or Celtic.

I think it might come down to how much rotation we see from AJ. Too many and I fear we’ll see another Stenny type performance which will likely result in defeat. Go full strength and I think we’ll have too much for them. Suspect it’ll be somewhere in between, particularly given we have another game on Wednesday night! Without Preistman I hope Faddy is fit enough for another 90 mins, I think he’s the key man.

Fantastic result! 2nd half performance a little bit disappointing but the winning goal was a thing of beauty! Considering the important players that have left and the amount we have out injured at the moment it makes the result even better! Let’s hope we have a midfielder or two in the building soon, we are asking a huge amount of Priestman and Fadinger, wouldn’t like to see how we’d cope without 1 or both of them! Minor irritation but how hell did Preistman get a yellow card for giving away the penalty when Mulligan didn’t for a much more reckless challenge?!

In terms of fit first team players are we saying: Paulsen Connelly Sparrow Moorman Girdwood-Reich Williams Wilson Priestman Fadinger Whyte Ross Said Vogt With injuries to: Mcginn Odonnell Longelo JK Mcghee Cook Eythor Stama Hendry The more I look at that the more concerned I get about tonight! 😞

Fadinger?! Please tell me he’s not out tomorrow! 🙏🏻

Would think it’ll be O’Donnell and Koutrombis! Maybe worried Gordon too slow to play up against Maeda!

No Centre Half’s! What could go wrong?! This could be the greatest tactical master class we’ve ever seen!

Might be seen as too risky given he’s only played 15 mins or so since coming back from injury.

Assume we’re expecting a line up of Ward, Sparrow, Longelo, SOD & Gordon. Watt, Fadinger, Slattery, Just, Said and Maswanhise. I’d consider going with Cook or Priestman rather than Said, thought he was very poor on Saturday. A bit worried about how our central defence will cope with Maeda.

Stuart McKinstry scoring a bizarre but spectacular goal for Accies in the play off v Clyde!

Yeh, sadly my dad did similar, went on early afternoon today and they were already sold out! If anyone has a spare concession ticket please let me know!

Would have had Priestman in for SOD or Sparrow. Wonder if we going to play 3 at the back?! Better hope Tawanda doesn’t get a knock! Only striker we have!

First of all what Slattery did wasn’t too clever, let’s be honest. But as others have said, if the referee and/or VAR were in any way competent then he’d have had a yellow card, because they weren’t he ends up with a 2 game ban, absolutely bizarre. Ridiculously inconsistent and you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be waiting a long time (if ever) before an old firm player gets a retrospective ban like this at the business end of the season.