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Motherwell V Aberdeen Sat 19 Mar 15:00


Yabba's Turd
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The only issue I have with their article is the photo showing 5 minutes on the scoreboard and the caption reading "fans during the applause" with the applause being in the 16th minute, a little artistic licensing there.

 

Kudos for reporting it though.

 

 

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An important win for us today and a real team effort, given our injury and illness absentees. Ripley was my man of the match closely followed by Louis Moult. I thought that Kennedy, McManus and Johnson were also just above the rest. Both full backs struggled a bit at times especially in the early and late stages, as did our central midfield. Still we mustn't complain too much given that we were playing Scotland's second best side. Truth be told we could have finished them off earlier although it was a tight game. A real shame Cadden had to go off the worse for wear.

 

I thought we sat too deep in the first half and in the dying stages but fortunately our central defenders were rock solid. The ref didn't give us much and let us down badly by not blowing up for a blatant foul on Johnson just before the penalty. I don't know what Robson was thinking about with his double assault on Gomis and MacDonald but he got what he deserved.

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I thought we defended effectively today. Given how well some of their offensive players have been playing this season, we did really well to keep them so quiet. I don't think Hammell and Law did much brilliant but they both kept one of Scotland's form players living on scraps which suggests their performance was much more effective than it looked to the naked eye.

 

Strange game in that the goals never really felt like they were coming. I'd concur with Mark McGhee that Aberdeen were the better team in the first half but for all that we defended stoutly and they didn't get in that often. I'd agree that most referees would have given the foul on Marvin Johnston. All afternoon Don Robertson attempted to not give free kicks and allow the two teams to play on and for the mostpart both teams responded to that and it made for a better game. So I'd find it a bit hypocritical to be too critical of him waving play on (especially having seen it back). As for the penalty, in the East Stand I thought it was a perfect tackle. Would like another look of that one.

 

In the second half, Cadden being forced off forced our hand a bit and I felt the shape we then had created more space in the Aberdeen back 45 yards. And Aberdeen receded big style. For all they looked comfortable at 0-1 they never put us away and as time lapsed you could see the belief risen. Two intuitive goals and a great three points for us.

 

Barry Robson has always been a bell-end but that today sealed a muppetry certificate. If I was McInnes he wouldn't be getting paid for a fortnight after that.

 

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I'd agree that most referees would have given the foul on Marvin Johnston. All afternoon Don Robertson attempted to not give free kicks and allow the two teams to play on and for the mostpart both teams responded to that and it made for a better game. So I'd find it a bit hypocritical to be too critical of him waving play on (especially having seen it back). As for the penalty, in the East Stand I thought it was a perfect tackle. Would like another look of that one.

 

In general I agree that referees shouldn't be overly fussy and pernickety but when one doesn't blow up for a blatant foul, possibly deserving of a yellow card, which gives one side an important and unfair advantage you have to question his approach, especially if he then goes on to award a soft penalty (I've not seen it yet so can't comment either way). As Tam Cowan mentioned post match, the foul on Marvin Johnson took place a few feet away from the 4th official - ludicrous that he doesn't help the referee in such circumstances. Other than that he was conned a few times by Ash Taylor in awarding Aberdeen fouls. Overall though we've seen worse referees this season although he did make a few errors.

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In general I agree that referees shouldn't be overly fussy and pernickety but when one doesn't blow up for a blatant foul, possibly deserving of a yellow card, which gives one side an important and unfair advantage you have to question his approach, especially if he then goes on to award a soft penalty (I've not seen it yet so can't comment either way). As Tam Cowan mentioned post match, the foul on Marvin Johnson took place a few feet away from the 4th official - ludicrous that he doesn't help the referee in such circumstances. Other than that he was conned a few times by Ash Taylor in awarding Aberdeen fouls. Overall though we've seen worse referees this season although he did make a few errors.

Just watched the highlights Dave, the pen was a stonewaller, probably lucky not to be a red card as well, so we got out of jail there, I actually thought the Ref was not too bad conned a few times by the Aberdeen players just falling down and winning free kicks but he handled the game well, no hesitation with the red card for Robsons assault on skippy, not the best we have seen but by no means the worst.

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In general I agree that referees shouldn't be overly fussy and pernickety but when one doesn't blow up for a blatant foul, possibly deserving of a yellow card, which gives one side an important and unfair advantage you have to question his approach, especially if he then goes on to award a soft penalty (I've not seen it yet so can't comment either way). As Tam Cowan mentioned post match, the foul on Marvin Johnson took place a few feet away from the 4th official - ludicrous that he doesn't help the referee in such circumstances. Other than that he was conned a few times by Ash Taylor in awarding Aberdeen fouls. Overall though we've seen worse referees this season although he did make a few errors.

 

Like you, at the time, I thought the 'foul' on Johnston should have had the game stopped but having watched the highlights it is just a bit of a nothing one and certainly nothing sinister. It is a contact sport and if the referee makes a bar during a game and then sticks to it for the 90 minutes, as long as he isn't allowing GBH a la Crawford Allan, I'll stick up for him. He allowed Gomis away with several tackles similar to that one throughout and in my view the referee was excellent. Again, like you, I thought the penalty was never a penalty at the time but having seen it back he clearly played through the man to get the ball and as Spiderpig said we can count ourselves fortunate he didn't deem it to be 'DOGSO' - I think that is something you could argue reasonably either way and again I would always credit a referee for, where possible, making the decision to keep 11 players on the park.

 

Anyway I will try and find this out later when I have a bit more time, but when was the last time we came back from 1-0 down to win twice in a row in general or twice in a row at Fir Park. We don't do it often ever so twice in eight days is fantastic and shows that we have built a much more resilient streak. Last year we only won from behind once all season and when we conceded first we tended to fold like a pack of cards so you can see McGhee has got this team believing.

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Anyway I will try and find this out later when I have a bit more time, but when was the last time we came back from 1-0 down to win twice in a row in general or twice in a row at Fir Park. We don't do it often ever so twice in eight days is fantastic and shows that we have built a much more resilient streak. Last year we only won from behind once all season and when we conceded first we tended to fold like a pack of cards so you can see McGhee has got this team believing.

Good challenge. Not sure if the most recent but I seen you mention the 3-2 McHugh game at Easter Road on Facebook. The week before Rocco Quinn put Ross County ahead at Fir Park before we went on to win 3-2.

 

Doesn't quite match the criteria of your question but a couple of comebacks that immediately spring to mind.

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See when Skippy scored, he was getting it right up the Aberdeen fans.

Did I miss something? Either at the game, or in the past, why he was so keen to get it up them?

 

Don't get me wrong, I liked it. I liked the passion and the fight that has, perhaps, been lacking in recent times.

Was just wondering.

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That was a good game and performance. We got the reward for working hard when we were second best and won the game well in the final 20 minutes.

 

Moult was outstanding, I thought Hammell was our best player in the first half and everyone gave 100%. Jack Leitch and Kennedy might not be here next season but they both made good contributions.

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When Wes came on I was willing the boy to score. I reckon if he can get one he has the potential to go on a Moult style run, however, he really needs a confidence boosting goal. He had a gilt edge chance in the second half and instead of slotting it away in the far corner he hit it directly at the keeper. If he takes one, I think more often than not these failed attempts will turn into goals.

 

dy9agy.jpg

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Moult was outstanding, I thought Hammell was our best player in the first half and everyone gave 100%.

Agree that Moult was outstanding but not sure about Hammell. He had an ok game and as usual his suspect defending was masked by decent offensive work. Gave 100% as always. He got caught out of position a few times when we were under pressure and his tackling could have been better but overall by no means his worst game.

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When Wes came on I was willing the boy to score. I reckon if he can get one he has the potential to go on a Moult style run, however, he really needs a confidence boosting goal. He had a gilt edge chance in the second half and instead of slotting it away in the far corner he hit it directly at the keeper. If he takes one, I think more often than not these failed attempts will turn into goals.

 

dy9agy.jpg

If he could stay fit I'm very confident he could score goals at this level no bother.

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Agree that Moult was outstanding but not sure about Hammell. He had an ok game and as usual his suspect defending was masked by decent offensive work. Gave 100% as always. He got caught out of position a few times when we were under pressure and his tackling could have been better but overall by no means his worst game.

 

Just his 500th odd poor performance then?

 

His back post headed clearance in the first half was worth a goal, he was superb under the high ball on a day when everyone else struggled with it and Aberdeen got very little joy down his wing. As someone else said McGinn and Hayes are the biggest threat we will come up against all season and we kept them relatively quiet so credit to Hammell and Law.

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Just his 500th odd poor performance then?

 

 

I doubt very much if that statistic had any bearing on Aberdeen's approach to the game or their performance. Just to reiterate I just don't think Hammell was our best player in the first half - thats my point.

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If he could stay fit I'm very confident he could score goals at this level no bother.

 

Yep. Like Moult, he looks like he's got a good bit of pace and plays with energy (his sliding tackle to close down Brown was great to see), and he's shown he can be in the right place at the right time. He's lacking that killer instinct that Moult has just now though.

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Just had my usual look at the Aberdeen forum, which I do when we pump them :-)

 

Got to love Aberdeen fans. A defeat and McInnes is holding them back, a couple of wins and they bypass league chat and go straight to 'European glory nights'. Nothing better than pumping these wankers :crazy:

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I think Fletcher was unlucky in that he was just on, the cut-back was slighly behind him and it was a decent save. You'd expect him to score from there though.

As others have said, a goal ar run of games/sub appearances could see him kick on.

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