Motherwell v Peterhead 15/07/2025 🏆

[SteelmaninOZ]

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

7 hours ago, weeyin said:

Maswanhise was definitely more effective on Saturday. Although, tbf, Peterhead kept a good defensive shape that kept space behind to a minimum.

When he came on he raised our tempo x 2.  

At the sluggish pace we were playing before he came on we probably had another penalty shoot out on our hands.

[stv]

Everything going to plan I suspect.

Manager sussing out his team in competitive games . Also how we will play without Miller. Bonus is we have not lost in this process.  It's preseason stuff really and a chance to get players match fit and ready.

No need to get too excited about things the now.

[steelman1991]

5 hours ago, texanwellfan said:

I only saw part of the first half but I like the look of Just

Agreed he looked very composed and prepared to move the ball quickly.

[grizzlyg]

10 hours ago, wellfan said:

Just home and not entirely sure what to make of that, so I’ll stick to the positives and negatives.

Positives

Watt and Fadinger look like tidy additions to the midfield.

Connelly looked fairly comfortable on his first start — barely tested, but not at fault for their goal.

Manny could be moulded into a diamond with time.

Just is a tricky wee player who I reckon will be useful in certain games.

Slattery’s cross for the goal. 

Negatives

The defence. Again. Jesus Christ.

Wilson — what on earth has happened to him?

I’m not sure how Sparrow fits into this team now.

Stama is either crap or not being used to his strengths. 

The rain.

 

Who is Manny?

[Kmcalpin]

14 hours ago, MJC said:

Great to see Matty Connelly getting his first start for the first team. Hopefully a clean sheet to go with it for him.

We were never going to achieve a clean sheet, but that wasn't down to him. .  I didn't think Matty had much, if anything, to do to be fair. his distributiuon was generally very good although he did cause a couple of heartstopping moments. How would he cope against the hulking 6-4 central defenders and strikers he'd meet in the Premiership though? 

[Spiderpig]

3 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Who is Manny?

Emanuell Longelo the goal scorer

[Kmcalpin]

13 hours ago, robsterwood said:

Craigan  on saying team is small in stature and lacks physicality. He's obviously not watched Barcelona 2005 to 2010. 

Yes, this is something we picked up on last night. To be fair McGinn is never a central defender in a back 2. The midfield looks talented and pacy but soft and Ap Stam looked tiny and lightweight last night. We don't need to be a team of hammer throwers but we do require more physicality as we struggled to compete in 50/50s in much of the match last night.  

[Kmcalpin]

11 hours ago, weeyin said:

Conceding the early goal has given them something to hang on to. They are sitting deeper and deeper now, but we need some penetration.

Very much so. We played some nice stuff in short spells, but didn't really use our pace to much effect. A lot of possession but little to no penetration until late on when Peterheed tired.  A few flashes down the left early on with Manny though.  Poor movement off the ball. We looked pretty toothless up front, but in fairness Sule was left isolated in the first half. I thought Just looked impressive but sat too deep. 

All that said, Peterheed made it difficult for us by putting 11 men behind the ball.  They were always going to do that though. 

[grizzlyg]

53 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Emanuell Longelo the goal scorer

Aha!!!!,  cheers pal

[wellfan]

Aside from the defence being shite — which most seem to agree on — some other issues last night were our tendency to overplay and the consistently poor final ball. Sorting the defence has to be the priority, but I reckon the other two will sort themselves out in time. I should add that Slattery’s cross for our second goal was great. 

[Spit_It_Out]

I think we need to give more minutes to AP he needs a goal badly just give himself a confidence boost we need to get him firing pretty pronto hope he gets more minutes vs Stenhousemuir at the weekend.

[Spiderpig]

7 minutes ago, Spit_It_Out said:

I think we need to give more minutes to AP he needs a goal badly just give himself a confidence boost we need to get him firing pretty pronto hope he gets more minutes vs Stenhousemuir at the weekend.

I have to say that in all the time AP has been at Fir park,  albeit limited by injury I have seen nothing to convince me there's a player in their.

Maybe if he get a regular run in the team that impression will change, but until then he is contributing nothing tbh.

[wellfan]

43 minutes ago, Spit_It_Out said:

I think we need to give more minutes to AP he needs a goal badly just give himself a confidence boost we need to get him firing pretty pronto hope he gets more minutes vs Stenhousemuir at the weekend.

31 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

I have to say that in all the time AP has been at Fir park,  albeit limited by injury I have seen nothing to convince me there's a player in their.

Maybe if he get a regular run in the team that impression will change, but until then he is contributing nothing tbh.

If Stama can stay injury-free—which is a big if—I’d say he has until winter to prove his worth. Otherwise, it might be best for both player and club to explore options for moving him on.

[grizzlyg]

16 minutes ago, wellfan said:

If Stama can stay injury-free—which is a big if—I’d say he has until winter to prove his worth. Otherwise, it might be best for both player and club to explore options for moving him on.

I think there is a player but he needs to be played as a penalty box striker.   He's not the kind that can run the channels.

[grizzlyg]

12 hours ago, stv said:

The maths bit was a lot more humorous than most of your jokes tho .

Think I dodged one but happy for wellgirl to take the blame 🤣🤣

[joewarkfanclub]

My take away from last night not having been at the Clyde game.

Its early days but the signs are promising.

The football is already more easy on the eye. We wanted to move away from eye bleeding football and be more progressive so the club have gone out and got a (second) manager to do that.

We have an obvious style, structure and pattern of play.

The team/squad already looks more balanced than its been in a few seasons with the manager saying there is still more business to be done in key areas.

The manager has a clear plan and is able to  communicate that in interviews. His analysis of the game and explanation of why we played the way we did was spot on and should embarass some of the roasters in our support who were on the players backs straight from the off (it wont).

I am quietly encouraged that we have some decent footballers in the door and the makings of a decent team once the problem areas are addressed.

Its still pre season. We started the game last night with 7 players who have barely played together. It will take time for them to gel. 

Shame Lennon is leaving. He would thrive in this brave new world!

 

[Kmcalpin]

13 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

You'll probably know that I'm not Slattery's biggest fan but he came back last season and was pretty good.

These two games this season, garbage.  Watt wasn't very good either and when you add that to our central defensive issues that's a big hole right down the middle of the pitch. Plus there is the centre forward position, again didn't see anything convincing from the guys that played there tonight.

You aren't going to do anything at any level of football unless you sort out the spine of the team.

JBA is clearly trying out players and assessing them and trying to mould them into his way of thinking. This will naturally take time. 

A fair take on things and I now understand your comment from Saturday about our midfield. Most of us agree about defensive deficiences, so no need for me to bang on about them. A raw looking Longero impressed though and his pace will be a real asset. We tried to play patient, ground based football last night and that was encouraging but the tempo was way too slow and some players overelaborated. I don't think Watt and Slattery played well together. Not quite sure yet where Watt fits into the team and Slattery is being played far too deeply. Probably the wrong combination as well. Poor Tom Sparrow looked lost. Just looks the part but again played too deeply. Fadinger really impressed me. We need to beef up the midfield and add a bit of defensive aggression to beef up the back line. See Ya Beezer's comments above. Jordan McGhee anyone? 

I wasn't convinced by Sule or Ap Stam. To be fair, Sule wasn't given much service and for much of the time was left to fend for himself, despite all our possession. As Weeyin says, Ap Stam is a penalty box striker but looks lightweight and failed to make an impression last night.  

Encouraging signs and we did win...eventually. The players will need to adjust to a new system and that will take time and perseverance.  Likewise JBA will need to learn the strengths and weaknesses of his charges and play them to suit their individual abilities and skills. 

Last night's game could have been played by AI. It was so predictable. To be fair, its very hard to judge us given the way Peterhead played and their early goal. Not many teams will come to Fir Park and play like that.  Early days of course, but we seem to be shaping up as more of a counterattacking side. 

It'll be interesting to see which type of player comes in during this window and who leaves to balance squad numbers.   

 

[stv]

13 hours ago, wellgirl said:

It's not me that cracks the jokes to be fair..... 

Was ment for thon wee joker Grizzlyg

[MJC]

Massive relief to get that last gasp winner last night. And a really good move it was too with the cross from Slattery and the bullet header from Fadinger. 
 

We won and that was the main thing, but that performance was dismal yet again and the alarm bells have moved up a decibel or two having watched that. Defensive disaster show yet again and we need more up front. 
 

We’ll be lucky to reach the last 16 if we don’t up our game considerably in the next two.

[andalg]

22 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

JBA is clearly trying out players and assessing them and trying to mould them into his way of thinking. This will naturally take time. 

A fair take on things and I now understand your comment from Saturday about our midfield. Most of us agree about defensive deficiences, so no need for me to bang on about them. A raw looking Longero impressed though and his pace will be a real asset. We tried to play patient, ground based football last night and that was encouraging but the tempo was way too slow and some players overelaborated. I don't think Watt and Slattery played well together. Not quite sure yet where Watt fits into the team and Slattery is being played far too deeply. Probably the wrong combination as well. Poor Tom Sparrow looked lost. Just looks the part but again played too deeply. Fadinger really impressed me. We need to beef up the midfield and add a bit of defensive aggression to beef up the back line. See Ya Beezer's comments above. Jordan McGhee anyone? 

I wasn't convinced by Sule or Ap Stam. To be fair, Sule wasn't given much service and for much of the time was left to fend for himself, despite all our possession. As Weeyin says, Ap Stam is a penalty box striker but looks lightweight and failed to make an impression last night.  

Encouraging signs and we did win...eventually. The players will need to adjust to a new system and that will take time and perseverance.  Likewise JBA will need to learn the strengths and weaknesses of his charges and play them to suit their individual abilities and skills. 

Last night's game could have been played by AI. It was so predictable. To be fair, its very hard to judge us given the way Peterhead played and their early goal. Not many teams will come to Fir Park and play like that.  Early days of course, but we seem to be shaping up as more of a counterattacking side. 

It'll be interesting to see which type of player comes in during this window and who leaves to balance squad numbers.   

 

Maybe we should try Sule and Ap Stam together in next game

[weeyin]

23 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Last night's game could have been played by AI. It was so predictable. To be fair, its very hard to judge us given the way Peterhead played and their early goal. Not many teams will come to Fir Park and play like that.  Early days of course, but we seem to be shaping up as more of a counterattacking side. 

Not sure about being a counterattacking side. JBA seems to want a high press, which is the opposite of sitting back and hitting on the break.

[grizzlyg]

2 hours ago, stv said:

Was ment for thon wee joker Grizzlyg

You got wee part correct, the joker part is up for debate 🤣🤣

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, weeyin said:

Not sure about being a counterattacking side. JBA seems to want a high press, which is the opposite of sitting back and hitting on the break.

In the early stages of the game last night I was expecting more of a high press but we didn't seem to do that.  Sule was left isolated with little support. I looked the look of Just, but he was sitting too deep to really hurt their defence.  Watt and Slattery also sat deep. once Peterhead scored, of course, the game changed and they were happy to sit back with 11 men behind the ball and waste every second they could with the tacit approval of the ref.  

[Jonesy]

7 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

... and they were happy to sit back with 11 men behind the ball and waste every second they could with the tacit approval of the ref.  

Don't knock it, it was our game plan for the bulk of the last 5 years. Give it another month or so (being generous) and there will already be idiots shouting for it to return.