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Motherwell Vs Hibernian Discussion Thread


David
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Feel for the lads tonight, thought they put in a shift, mostly, Lasley was much improved after a jittery start, as was Humphrey- it seems if he beats a man the first time he takes him on, he'll try and keep doing it, fail and he'll have a poor game. Higdon put in a belter of a shift, a goal and an assist and was doing the work of 3 men up front, superb.

 

Murphy was VERY poor, has not been playing well since..... pretty much the Hearts game, needs a spell on the sidelines and told to buck up his ideas.

 

Interesting point that was mentioned to me from someone listening on the radio- Hibs have NEVER lost a penalty shootout.

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I was convinced McHugh was onside but to be honest we were the architects of our own downfall again tonight. Three minutes to go and we give away yet another cheap goal. The game was stretched for a lot of the second half, ball spent so little time in the midfield it was unbelievable.

 

First, the negatives. Murphy and Jennings both need benched. I'd be tempted to start with Daley and Humphrey on the wings on Saturday with Law and Lasley in the middle (assuming Humphrey is fit). At centre back, I reckon Clancy and Craigan individually are decent but clearly are a bombscare as a partnership. Time for Page to be given a shot in place of one of them?

 

Positives? Higdon should surely have shut some people up tonight. Immense performance. And we looked pretty dangerous when McHugh partnered him. Having been given half an hour rather than his usual 10 minutes, I think McHugh did himself no harm at all tonight. I think the fact that the introduction of McHugh for Jennings also worked because it pushed Law into the middle where he was a lot more involved. And Lasley and Humphrey looked more like the players we know they can be.

 

It amused me (and pleased me, to be honest) that the boo boys usual targets all stuck away their penalties with aplomb. Higdon, McHugh and Forbes hit cracking penalties. Hats off particularly to Forbes who had only had one touch of the ball prior to taking his penalty. Talk about coming to it cold.

 

If Humphrey is not fit for Saturday, I'd play him alongside Lasley and Law in a tight midfield three and give Daley a free role behind Higdon and McHugh,,,

 

But, as much as it was a sickener at the end, it was at least a cracking game of football to watch. Not if you're a lover of good defending though obviously...

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We'll it was exciting if nothing else, at times we were rank rotten and at other times we were excellent, much better than Saturday anyway. Took Lasley IMHO to get them moving after a very worrying first 20 mins.

 

Could have been 7 - 6 in normal time, thank fuck that Randolph was in top form saved our, or more directly our woeful central defence arses. Lost count of how many one on ones that he had to contend with when he was left exposed time after time. Defensively we are an absolute shambles at times.

 

Oh and agree with others, honest to fuck get off of Higdons back, he won lots in the air, held the ball up well and had some great touches despite getting fouled to fuck most of the game, having no support and getting loads of poor poor high balls pumped up to him.

 

Now Murphy and Jennings what the fuck are they both all about at the moment.

 

Feel that other teams have sussed us out a bit after our excellent start to the season.

 

McHugh was onsite, by the way.

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Really enjoyed the game despite the result, we looked a completely different team but still lots to improve on, Clancy is not a first team regular he is ok for cover but surely Page must be given a chance.

Craggs is sill getting pelters from the east stand but he is at the moment our best centre back by a mile, what would happen if he got injured.

Surely there is a free agent out there who could do a job for us at centre half

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Find it strange that so many criticise Murphy/Clancy and call for them to be dropped yet when you dare suggest that about Humphrey or Craigan you get shot down in flames. Guess it's all about opinions tho!

 

If Murphy is played through the middle he is our most dangerous player - when played left mid he is completely wasted. Clancy didn't make any individual errors tonight that ultimately cost us the match, others did!

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Despite McHugh having his detractors(haven't seen enough of him myself to make a fair judgement) did no one else find it funny that for 90 mins we had countless crosses flashed across the box with no takers. Yet when Bob came on he got in the right position and his goal should have stood, getting in the 6 yard box to finish. He was also free when Law was through and could have scored if Law had squared it. Same thing that happenned against Killie. He was making the right runs into the box and looking to get on the end of things. He also had a couple of good touches and one mazy dribble to set up a good chance for Lasley. He also took his pen well.

 

I know I will get shot down by some for saying this but I'd start him against Aberdeen. Give him a chance and give Higdon someone to play off and someone to try and get on the end of countless crosses we put across the face of goal. Let's face it he couldn't do any less than Murph has in the last two games.

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I know I will get shot down by some for saying this but I'd start him against Aberdeen. Give him a chance and give Higdon someone to play off and someone to try and get on the end of countless crosses we put across the face of goal. Let's face it he couldn't do any less than Murph has in the last two games.

 

Good shout mate, some of the crosses that Humphrey & Daley were putting in were crying out for someone at the back post to tap them in.

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Find it strange that so many criticise Murphy/Clancy and call for them to be dropped yet when you dare suggest that about Humphrey or Craigan you get shot down in flames. Guess it's all about opinions tho!

 

If Murphy is played through the middle he is our most dangerous player - when played left mid he is completely wasted. Clancy didn't make any individual errors tonight that ultimately cost us the match, others did!

 

Agreed. Thought Clancy after a shaky start had a pretty solid game and in fact mopped up a couple of messes if we're being honest.

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Disappointed as we all are Hibs was as tough a tie at home as we could have got from the draw. They may have been having a hard time of it, but with O'Connor and Griffiths they have as decent strikers as any team outside the Old Firm.

 

It was an exciting and enteraining game, but a strange one as well. After going 2-1 up we could and should have been out of sight by half time. Yet thanks to 3 great saves from Randolph in the second half we were still in the lead somehow.

 

A draw was fair at FT, but disappointing if not entirely surprising it came from a cock up from Craigan :wallbash:

 

I thought Higdon, Law, Lasley, Randolph and Humphrey were excellent. For once every cross Humphrey put in was going into the box into a dangerous area.

 

Daley came on and looked quite decent as did McHugh to be fair and p1ssed off to learn that his goal was not offside.

 

As for the penalties. You gotta hand it to Hibs, they did not hit 1 bad penalty, even the one Randolph saved was going in the corner. Sadly I had a feeling Murphy would miss. He has been poor of late and his inability to hit the ball harder than a 6 year old girl came back to haunt us :dash2: He is capable of great skill at times, but nothing seems to be coming off for him at the moment.

 

Disappointed for the players and the fans, but on the whole a much better performance than Saturday. Hopefully we can emulate East Fife :nod:

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Find it strange that so many criticise Murphy/Clancy and call for them to be dropped yet when you dare suggest that about Humphrey or Craigan you get shot down in flames. Guess it's all about opinions tho!

 

If Murphy is played through the middle he is our most dangerous player - when played left mid he is completely wasted. Clancy didn't make any individual errors tonight that ultimately cost us the match, others did!

I'd agree with you on Craigan/Clancy. It'd be a coin toss for me as to who to replace with Page but as a partnership, they're not working. But on tonight's showing, Humphrey would be in my team well ahead of Jamie Murphy. It's all very well saying he was playing left midfield but with Law drifting out there, there was plenty of scope for Murphy to move inside closer to Higdon. But he rarely did..

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Agree to disagree about Murphy and Humphrey. Wouldn't have Humphrey anywhere near my team but that's just my opinion. Murphy will get goals, although I'll admit they have been hard to find recently. I also think Murphy gives more to the team and has more chance of producing a game changing bit of skill. Whilst Humphrey was better tonight, he was average at best and some touches or attempted bits of control were comical. He continually leaves our right side badly exposed and Hately has 2 players running at him. Needs to learn to track back and put work in for the team.

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Enjoyed the game but the bottom line is that we lost the match, McCall put faith in the same players that played on Saturday and although it was a better display it was still a bad defeat to a team bottom of the league .

 

Thats the bottom line Jim and we can dress it it up all we like but Stuart McCall's decision to stick with the same 11 simply did not work.

 

In some respects an improved performance compared with last Saturday. Pleased that Darren Randolph pulled off save after save but disappointed he had to do it at all. Defence was an absolute shambles with Craigan and Hammell having games they'd like to forget. Hibs weren't long in sussing out that our left side was weak defensively. Central midfield was bit better than last Saturday but Jennings looks to be off form and whilst Lasley was slightly better he was slow and caught in possession too often for my liking. In the critical second part of the second half our central midfield went missing and that cost us big time.

 

Jamie Murphy was again played out of position and totally non-effective. Chris Humphrey played well when given decent service but I counted 5 shocking passes to him before he finally received his first decent one on the 31 minute mark. Thought Michael Higdon played well but again without any support.

 

Another bad day at the office for Mr McCall. POD Stand punters were none too impressed when he delayed in hooking a clearly injured Humphrey and a clearly knackered Murphy.

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And i hope all this fun and excitement doesn't mask the fact that this was another piss poor result. Someone said on firparkcorner that this is what you get when you reward failure.The only people that like losing are losers.

 

Right again Jim...this is becoming like a mutual admiration club.

 

What is especially galling to me is that we are displaying the same weaknesses week in week out and our manager seems unwilling or unable to do anything to rectify them.

 

Poor off the field decision making is also costing us - a just too thin squad and a decision to renew Stephen Craigan's contract during the close season being but two examples.

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Gutted not to have won!

 

Craigan is an absolute bombscare and has been for ages, just doesn't ever look comfortable kicking a football!! We are basically going to have to make to with him and clancy at CB till hutchy and saunders are fit. Our defence is a shambles.

 

Thought Law was excellent tonight and agree with wot everyone is saying about murphy, doesn't seem to be offering much and didn't look confident taking his penalty and what shite penalty it was.

 

Still think we should beat aberdeen. Would be tempted to rest Humphrey and play McHugh. Daley and Humphrey on as subs to rip aberdeen apart in the last 30mins!

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Great game, shit result. Should've finished them in 90 minutes and again in 120. Murphy has nosedived in form, going missing for far too long far too often.

 

Was impressed with Higdon tonight and even more so with McHugh's running off him. The boy surely deserves a start on Saturday. Not been too keen on him starting previously but Murphy's not done enough to retain his starting place. Penalty tonight was poor too, can he not shoot properly?

 

Hopefully we can pummel Aberdeen at the weekend and get Brown sacked.

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