Motherwell v Hearts Sunday 25/08/2024

[Yodo]

Good team performance and some good decisions from SK . Still need 2 midfield players to help us push on 

[AllyMax]

52 minutes ago, parko66 said:

On his showing so far, i think we could do a lot worse than try and extend Maswanhise's January contract till the summer. Would give us a little security knowing he'd be with us till the summer and someone wont just take him at the end of his short term deal. 
He's been pivotal in linking us and gives us an "out ball" and add pace - take that away and we're lacking. 

100% agree but I kinda get the feeling, that given his background, he'll be kinda Beireth-like in his financial expectations, given that he was at LC for years, got a debut with them (albeit not in the EPL) but he was with them through their glory/money years, he'll really be in a financial bracket that we can't even consider. 

Having said that, maybe a wee sustained period of regular first team football and the press and exposure that goes with it might suit him at this point in his career. You can be 100% sure he'll be linked with big money move to Celtic or Rangers the week before we play them.

[FirParkCornerExile]

9 minutes ago, MJC said:

Well that was a welcome surprise today. I know we usually manage to record at least one win against Hearts every season but that was a lot more comfortable than anyone could seriously have expected beforehand. We actually looked like we could do damage as an attacking force today and we did. And we’ve gone from zero goals scored by our players in 90 minutes so far this season to three different scorers in one game. That’s quite a leap.

And if it hasn’t been for Craig Gordon it might well have been a far higher winning margin!

No surprise to me 😜Hearts were the shite I said they were. I take nothing away from us today though. Our work rate was outstanding. The defence were solid only wee blip when we stood off them for 15 mins. Had it not been for Craig Gordon we'd have pumped them 5 or 6 - 1. Halliday had an excellent first half and Stephen O'Donnell put in some shift for a man of his age. Wilson was outstanding. No failures anywhere in what was probably the best footballing performance we've put in months. 

[stv]

3 hours ago, steelboy said:

Looking at that line up makes me think Kettlewell's not got long left. 

 

Thank fuk your no the manager then.  Anyone for a big slice of humble pie ?

[wellfan]

Still a work in progress but we won today because every single player worked their socks off for the team. Hearts were poor but they also couldn’t handle our work rate today. A good game to watch, finally. 

I know a few folk have mentioned this and I heard similar rumblings in the stand today, and that’s the concern that Kettlewell is doing his best to ruin Miller and devalue him by wasting him in an advanced and/or wide role. He’s a deep lying playmaker and needs to be played in his best position to let him continue to flourish.

I should also say well done to Halliday who worked hard today and special mention to Wilson for continuing to improve and grow into the first team. 

[StAndrew7]

Maswanhise has a club controlled option in his contract already, so no worries there:

 

 

[couttsy]

Don’t think even the most optimistic amongst us saw that coming! Most I’ve enjoyed a home game in quite some time.

As others have said, without Gordon making some cracking saves we could have been 3 or 4 up.

Not a single failure in the team but huge credit to O’Donnell, Davor and Halliday who all had their best performances in a Motherwell shirt. I also thought Gordon was solid at the back. 

[twistandshout1983]

Great 3 points , Happy Sunday Everyone 

Stuart Kettlewell has his doubters as every Well manager does but for me we are a harder team to beat now than we have been for a good number of years . Dominated that game

2 happy Sundays in a row now 

[Mootherwell86]

On 8/18/2024 at 6:24 PM, Mootherwell86 said:

3-0 Motherwell as we pick up our first win of the season.

Almost 😆

[AllyMax]

1 minute ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Great 3 points , Happy Sunday Everyone 

Stuart Kettlewell has his doubters as every Well manager does but for me we are a harder team to beat now than we have been for a good number of years . Dominated that game

2 happy Sundays in a row now 

When you look back to when Kettlewell took over, we had a back three of McGinn, Butcher & Casey and in that period we didn't really ship a lot of goals and kept clean sheets. The injury to Butcher kyboshed that and when he came back, he wasn't the same player. Last season the defence was generally shambolic and prone to regular change. Having someone strong and dominant in the middle again (i.e. not Bevis) will hopefully tighten things up a bit and stop us losing the silly goals like we did last season. Imagine where we could have been last season if all these comeback draws had been wins cause we hadn't shipped silly weak goals. I'm hoping the addition of Liam Gordon will take us back to where we were the season before last, denfensively speaking.

[wellwell91]

Also looks like we’ve finally learned how to defend corners 

[well_said]

21 minutes ago, wellwell91 said:

Also looks like we’ve finally learned how to defend corners 

It makes a difference with a competent goalie.

[Big Stall]

We still need to see more of the Ox but hes made a solid start. It does make you scratch your head that he never got a chance last year when kelly was throwing them in every few weeks

[steelboy]

21 minutes ago, well_said said:

It makes a difference with a competent goalie.

That's the biggest difference.

The fact that he was involved with Scotland seemed to blind a lot of people to the fact that Kelly was the worst goalie in the league by a fair distance last season. Some of the stuff he was doing was absolutely mental and teams were aware of how much of a liability he was and targeted him. Big Aston should have been given a chance much earlier.

[Happy Dosser]

The Ox and Liam Gordon are a big improvement and I think our defence of   last year would have drawn or even lost that game today once Hearts pushed  for  their equaliser.

Having said that, I worrried that removing Robinson and bringing on Seddon and Sparrow would remove any goalscoring threat but it shows you how much I know.

Steve Clarke was in the stand behind the Hearts contingent today and i wondered whom he was watching.

Or maybe he just likes chicken chasni pies.

[grizzlyg]

Brilliant performance and to the well Bois, ye missed a great game today.  And to those that said Hearts were honking.....yes they were but lets focus on us and laugh at irritating character Naismith.

I thought application and attitude today was immense,  had wee wobble at 2-1 but apart from that a great team effort.   There is far too much negativity after a loss so when we win it deserves praise.  SOD and Halliday are whipping boys but with excellent today as were all the lads. 

This is why we love being well fans 

[grumpy]

That was a very enjoyable day today, arguably our best home performance for more than a year.

I could make a case for several to be MOTM but we had no failures at all. As someone else said, Oxborough and Gordon have given us a spine to build a solid looking defence round and the addition of Maswanhise, combined with the emergence of Wilson, and SOD's new lease of life has given us some attacking impetus. Halliday looks like he is faster than a couple of weeks ago and Davor, who I thought we should have taken off when Sparrow and Seddon came on, was everywhere when Hearts tried to up the tempo.

I was worried that we were going to revert to last season's tactic of trying to hold on to what we have rather than keep doing what we were doing well, but after our 15 minute wobble, we finished strongly and in the end, 3-1 flattered Hearts. Our work rate for the last 15 minutes was very impressive and I thought we managed the game well at the end.

Mostly though, I just love beating Hearts. 🍺😁🍺

 

 

[weeyin]

54 minutes ago, steelboy said:

That's the biggest difference.

The fact that he was involved with Scotland seemed to blind a lot of people to the fact that Kelly was the worst goalie in the league by a fair distance last season. Some of the stuff he was doing was absolutely mental and teams were aware of how much of a liability he was and targeted him. Big Aston should have been given a chance much earlier.

He might have had his faults, but Kelly wasn't responsible fot Butcher, Blaney, Casey and Mugabi losing their man multiple times per game.

 

Also no coincidence it was a poor header from Casey that gave Spittal his chance in the first half. 

 

[grizzlyg]

6 minutes ago, weeyin said:

He might have had his faults, but Kelly wasn't responsible fot Butcher, Blaney, Casey and Mugabi losing their man multiple times per game.

 

Also no coincidence it was a poor header from Casey that gave Spittal his chance in the first half. 

 

I agree.....Kelly wasn't great last season but certainly not the worst. Anyway we move on and Ox done nowt wrong so far

[steelboy]

7 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

I agree.....Kelly wasn't great last season but certainly not the worst. Anyway we move on and Ox done nowt wrong so far

He was literally the worst. Second lowest save percentage and a complete disaster at set pieces.

[stv]

1 hour ago, Big Stall said:

We still need to see more of the Ox but hes made a solid start. It does make you scratch your head that he never got a chance last year when kelly was throwing them in every few weeks

Because Kelly was the highest paid in the squad and captain so was undroppable . When you think about it his exploits with crosses last season were it was embarrassing. Hope he plays a good few games in the first team for his new club.

[Big Wispy Flossy]

Great performance and no failures. I’ve been critical of Halliday recently but he was excellent for the time he was on the park.  
Ewan Wilson was my man of the match today, gets better each game.

[Ya Bezzer!]

Just from watching the highlights there......Tom Sparrow could have sat on his heels and we don't get that crucial third goal.

I think he's done really well to follow up that mistake from Salazar cos a lot of players wouldn't have bothered and nothing comes out of it.

That's a good example of the kind of things that you need to do in a game to get three points.

Hopefully we can show that commitment more often.

 

[MFCL84]

That was a hugely enjoyable game today. There were no failures in a Motherwell Jersey, with SOD and Wilson both being excellent. The defence looked very comfortable for most of the game. Our set pieces were very dangerous thanks to Miller's  first class deliveries. On the whole a thoroughly deserved 3 points.

I thought that we started very slowly, allowing Hearts far too much time and space, but after the initial 15 minutes we seemed to up the tempo, create a few things and gain the confidence that allowed the team to drive on to a deserved first half lead.

A great, high energy start to the second half earned us a very much deserved 2-0 lead. At this point, we could have gone on and seriously damaged Hearts, but we lost a bit of discipline and shape. The team seemed to get caught up in the emotion and excitement being generated in the stands. I think that is what led to the loss of the goal as players chased the opposition in areas of the park that they should not have been dragged into.

The loss of the goal led to a bit of a wobble, but I felt that we had settled again just as SK decided to take Robinson and Maswanhise off for Seddon and Sparrow. I felt that this was too negative a change that was intended to shore up the midfield and defence to try to see out the game at 2-1. A tactic that hasn't worked well for us in the past.

However, thanks to Salazar, we'll never know whether we would have held out as Tom Sparow did very well to get on to his short backpass and make the game safe at 3-1.

A thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon. 

 

 

[MFCL84]

2 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

he's done really well to follow that mistake from Salazar cos a lot of players wouldn't have bothered and nothing comes out of it.

Yes, Sparrow was fully committed in the lead up to it also.