Rangers v Motherwell 02/03/2024

[Clackscat]

47 minutes ago, twistandshout1983 said:

One thing I slightly wasn’t happy with yesterday was our own Stephen Craigan , got the feeling he was suggesting we stole an undeserved victory but maybe just me

Faddy more than made up for it though 

Looking forward to Sportscene tonight moving forward 

I thought he was obviously delighted, and well as we played, we did ride our luck at times which was fair enough to point out.

I have thought recently he had gone a bit neutral in his comments in recent times (which is fair enough), but I felt you could hear how happy he was, in fact I commented on it at home.

 

[MJC]

54 minutes ago, David said:

I'll have a look later. There's a few of them from yesterday reassuring Rangers fans that they'd do their best to peg back Celtic for them and so on. The actual accounts are all pretty similar in the pish they post on the regular.

I know you have a weird hard-on for Hearts, so I'm wary of going down this rabbit hole too much with you, but as another poster mentioned, there are definitely shades of the Celtic/Rangers bigotry aspect when you look at Hearts and Hibs, so it's perfectly natural that an element of Hearts fans would look up to their "big brothers" in Glasgow. 

And it's not just Hearts. Hibs are just as bad. It's quite pathetic, really.

It reminds me a little of how Rangers fans view Chelsea. 

Anyway, we won. That's the main thing. I couldn't actually care less who won between Hearts and Celtic. Unless we're chasing Hearts for third place, their results have little bearing on me. Neither does who wins the title. I have good mates on both sides of the divide, so whoever wins, I know I'm guaranteed a few free beers when they're out pissed up and celebrating on that weekend.

Of course, this result over the weekend will be tainted somewhat if we don't keep this form up into the next few games.

We have a real chance of snatching a late top six finish if we play our cards right.

I’ll look forward to seeing those posts then. I don’t think it’ll be representative of the whole Hearts support but it’ll be interesting to see posts like that nonetheless.

I don’t have any kind of ‘hard-on’ for Hearts or any other club other than Motherwell. As I’ve said before, I respect Hearts as a club and admire their support and their fans loyalty to their club. There’s not many, if any, clubs in Scotland have as passionate and loyal support as Hearts do.

 

We won, that is the main thing and you’re right about that. And each to their own. For me though, while winning at Ibrox at last was special and nothing else that happened this weekend could top that, Celtic and Rodgers losing to Hearts and thereby squandering their chance to go back to the top of the league is an extra and we’ll appreciated bonus. 👍

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, Richie said:

As an aside, have the beer fear for the first time ages. Excessive celebration, but some buzz yesterday.

😴🤢🤕🤮

I imagine many of us are hanging out our arses today. I know I am. 

[Yabba's Turd]

52 minutes ago, MJC said:

I don’t have any kind of ‘hard-on’ for Hearts or any other club other than Motherwell. As I’ve said before, I respect Hearts as a club and admire their support and their fans loyalty to their club. There’s not many, if any, clubs in Scotland have as passionate and loyal support as Hearts do.

Nobody cares.
But you do seem to get off lauding them at any opportunity. (You also know their victory song)

[dennyc]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

There’s not many, if any, clubs in Scotland have as passionate and loyal support as Hearts do.

 

 

Sorry that is just not true. EVERY football club in Scotland has passionate and loyal supporters. Hearts being from a large City and being fairly successful just have more of them than say Partick, Kilmarnock, Motherwell etc etc etc. In the same way that the Old Firm have more fans than Hearts. Even that pair have passionate and loyal fans amongst their numbers.

And that will be the same Hearts fans that were booing the team and Naismith all match long not that long ago. And in no small numbers.

 

 

[santheman]

And their fans are forever complementing the Bois for their noisy support and wishing their fans were as enthusiastic as ours.

[AllyMax]

1 hour ago, Yabba's Turd said:

Nobody cares.
But you do seem to get off lauding them at any opportunity. (You also know their victory song)

Loves Hearts, wants Rangers to win the league, talks down Motherwell at every opportunity. Burn the witch !!

[yosemite sam]

I reckon MJC (his new name) is just a troll who tries to wind up everyone on here.

Best thing to do is just ignore his posts, and don't respond to them. I certainly do. 

[Big Tosh]

Growing up as a 'Well fan in Cumbernauld was the same. My Faither told me when they ask what school you go to, just say when I was wee, I went to the wee school, then when I was big, I went to the big school

[bobbybingo]

When it comes to the online representatives of the uglies, the question often is, which school did you not go to?

[Kmcalpin]

An ex work colleague of mine from Fife caused some angst and confusion when he applied for a job with a Local Authority in the west of Scotland. Before deciding which colour of application form to send him they asked him the obligatory question of which school he attended. His reply was St Andrews High School (which is in Kirkcaldy).

Hilarious!

Not really football related, although he did play for East Fife, but funny nonetheless.

[wellfan]

This short highlight video demonstrates how much he's improved his technical game and learned to use his strength against tough defenders. He'll be getting called up again by Canada if he continues on this path.

As a critic of him getting a 2-year deal, which I would say was justified criticism back then, I'm delighted to be proven wrong. With the odd blip here and there, he is continually improving, and it looks set to continue.

We should extend and enhance his deal now to maximise any potential fee we may get for him and as a reward for all his hard work because I imagine he's probably one of the lowest earners at the club.

🐻

Edited March 4, 2024 by wellfan
Changed to called up 'again' by Canada.

[grizzlyg]

16 minutes ago, wellfan said:

This short highlight video demonstrates how much he's improved his technical game and learned to use his strength against tough defenders. He'll be getting called up by Canada if he continues on this path.

As a critic of him getting a 2-year deal, which I would say was justified criticism back then, I'm delighted to be proven wrong. With the odd blip here and there, he is continually improving, and it looks set to continue.

We should extend and enhance his deal now to maximise any potential fee we may get for him and as a reward for all his hard work because I imagine he's probably one of the lowest earners at the club.

🐻

Weren't many folk that were happy with the signing and the 2yr deal (myself included) but by jeez the Bair has proved us all wrong and he is such a popular figure with the fans .  Workrate was never in question, was the end product.  Fair play to SK for obviously noticing potential.

Yup it's strange as now probably best to extend contract as I would expect English championship clubs maybe to be interested.  £2,000,000 offer could really force our hand

[weeyin]

Fans are becoming more and more impatient when comes to giving time for players to develop (and coaches to develop them).

Watching players develop over the course of a season is one of my favourite parts of supporting a team like ours. I shouldn't be surprised when fans complain about a new recruit after 2 or 3 games, but sometimes it feels like they have no idea about the game - even though we have countless examples of players that turned out to be good (or great) after months of good coaching and first team exposure.

There's always lots of chat about how we need to give youngsters a chance, yet guys like Bair and Slattery who were 22 and 23 when they joined us are expected to be at their peak, despite accepting Motherwell level wages.

Of course, there are times when it doesn't work out. Even players with bags of skill and potential can fail; especially when they aren't prepared to learn (looking at you Dom Thomas), but there's needs to be a bit more realism when it comes to recruitment.

It's different when we are signing a 27 year old, but when we are signing players with only a season (or less) behind them it's never going to be about instant success.

And having written all that, I know nothing will change and 2 or 3 of our summer recruits will be written off as useless by September.

[FirParkCornerExile]

22 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Weren't many folk that were happy with the signing and the 2yr deal (myself included) but by jeez the Bair has proved us all wrong and he is such a popular figure with the fans .  Workrate was never in question, was the end product.  Fair play to SK for obviously noticing potential.

Yup it's strange as now probably best to extend contract as I would expect English championship clubs maybe to be interested.  £2,000,000 offer could really force our hand

Fans basically know fuck all about football. Supporting a team is 95% emotion 5% rational constructive thought.  Wherever there is emotion there is irrational thought . It was the same when Vale signed, fans couldn't wait to put his Wiki stats up and moan like fuck that he was useless.

 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

33 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Weren't many folk that were happy with the signing and the 2yr deal (myself included) but by jeez the Bair has proved us all wrong and he is such a popular figure with the fans .  Workrate was never in question, was the end product.  Fair play to SK for obviously noticing potential.

Yup it's strange as now probably best to extend contract as I would expect English championship clubs maybe to be interested.  £2,000,000 offer could really force our hand

Some of that close contact stuff is pretty impressive. I love the bit where Lundstram tries to tackle him and just bounces off! Brilliant.

No doubt Theo has worked hard with the manager to develop himself over the course of the season and its paying dividends for all concerned. I still think he has room to develop further and if he does what a player we will have on our hands.

I think the concerns at the start of the season were probably justified. For me it was more the length of contract given rather than whether he would be any good or not. 2 years seemed like a bit of a risk on someone who hadnt really shown anything at this level.

Glad to be proved wrong though and I would have no issues extending him on improved terms to protect our asset. 

Hopefully a push for top 6 and the guaranteed revenue that comes with it can come our way and allow us to start planning early for next season.

 

[joewarkfanclub]

20 minutes ago, weeyin said:

Fans are becoming more and more impatient when comes to giving time for players to develop (and coaches to develop them).

Watching players develop over the course of a season is one of my favourite parts of supporting a team like ours. I shouldn't be surprised when fans complain about a new recruit after 2 or 3 games, but sometimes it feels like they have no idea about the game - even though we have countless examples of players that turned out to be good (or great) after months of good coaching and first team exposure.

There's always lots of chat about how we need to give youngsters a chance, yet guys like Bair and Slattery who were 22 and 23 when they joined us are expected to be at their peak, despite accepting Motherwell level wages.

Of course, there are times when it doesn't work out. Even players with bags of skill and potential can fail; especially when they aren't prepared to learn (looking at you Dom Thomas), but there's needs to be a bit more realism when it comes to recruitment.

It's different when we are signing a 27 year old, but when we are signing players with only a season (or less) behind them it's never going to be about instant success.

And having written all that, I know nothing will change and 2 or 3 of our summer recruits will be written off as useless by September.

Good post.

[Wishielad]

11 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Fans basically know fuck all about football. Supporting a team is 95% emotion 5% rational constructive thought.  Wherever there is emotion there is irrational thought . It was the same when Vale signed, fans couldn't wait to put his Wiki stats up and moan like fuck that he was useless.

 

 

Yep! One of the most important stats that seemed to have been ignored by many was that he's represented Wales at U16, U17, U19, and U21 levels, and the performance of the Welsh national team over the last decade demonstrated that he'd have something to offer.

[Kmcalpin]

53 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Yup it's strange as now probably best to extend contract as I would expect English championship clubs maybe to be interested.  £2,000,000 offer could really force our hand

Yes, I'd offer him an extra year. I doubt if he'd accept 2. No doubt the predators have already been alerted. My kind of player. Skillful, fast but physical enough to hold his own against big defenders. Not in any way dirty. He's certainly won over the fans and rightly so. 

[Benson]

1 hour ago, wellfan said:

This short highlight video demonstrates how much he's improved his technical game and learned to use his strength against tough defenders. He'll be getting called up by Canada if he continues on this path.

As a critic of him getting a 2-year deal, which I would say was justified criticism back then, I'm delighted to be proven wrong. With the odd blip here and there, he is continually improving, and it looks set to continue.

We should extend and enhance his deal now to maximise any potential fee we may get for him and as a reward for all his hard work because I imagine he's probably one of the lowest earners at the club.

🐻

You can see the amount of one to one coaching that's been applied,credit to the player and coaching staff.

[texanwellfan]

Certainly most improved player by a mile and I’m betting, still not the finished article. Already looking forward to seeing him play next season. We are also using home well too. For a long time we played hoof ball under several managers. Now we are playing thru balls behind the defence for Bair to run onto. 

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Some of that close contact stuff is pretty impressive. I love the bit where Lundstram tries to tackle him and just bounces off! Brilliant.

Yes, the likes of Lundtram, Goldson and Souttar will still be having nightmares about being bodied so easily this weekend.

6 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

For a long time we played hoof ball under several managers. Now we are playing thru balls behind the defence for Bair to run onto. 

I always said that his best game is when he's running onto the ball because it kept it simple and allowed his power to dominate, but it also looks like he's improving his technical hold-up play, which is another positive. It's also clear that he thrives with Vale and/or Spittal (or An Other) playing the attacking role alongside him.

[AllyMax]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I think the concerns at the start of the season were probably justified. For me it was more the length of contract given rather than whether he would be any good or not. 2 years seemed like a bit of a risk on someone who hadnt really shown anything at this level.

 

Could you imagine what the forum would be like now if we'd signed him on a one year deal ? 😁

The usual suspects would be giving it large about kettlewell, The interim CEO and the groundman being out of their depth, clueless and being unable to spot potential in players 😄

 

[Fergie79]

It's crazy to think that when he signed we r now thinking where would we b without him! The injuries to the other strikers have been a blessing in disguise because he has had that drive to improve knowing he can put it in action during game time.

Been some season attacking wise having 3 decent young strikers to watch considering we only had KVV previously. Vale has been a great and clever replacement for Biereth as similar in work rate and style that suits Bair.

Bair deserves a new contract and hopefully an extended one to also protect our investment. KVV had a one off wonder season where as Bair is young and should only keep getting better which is exciting in itself.

 

[Mad Dog]

2 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Some of that close contact stuff is pretty impressive. I love the bit where Lundstram tries to tackle him and just bounces off! Brilliant.

That was the clip that stood out for me too. Lundstram is a big unit himself and a strong, honest player so to see Bair bouncing him was great.

No chance Bair has any Scottish blood is there?