Stenhousemuir v Motherwell 19/07/2025 🏆

[MFCL84]

I thought that the sweeper keeper thing worked well today. Matt didn't seem quite so far up the pitch, but did intercept a couple of direct plays when it looked like Stenny might get a break. 

[star sail]

6 hours ago, weeyin said:

Dundee 0 - 0 at half time

St Johnstone 0 - 0 at half time

Livi 1 - 0 up at home to Brora Rangers

It's almost like this is still mid preseason for the Premiership teams.

This is a discussion that comes up most years at this time. I remember after a mediocre pre season game against Gateshead a few years back this was a topic of conversation.

I don't agree with your view on this. It's pre-season is not an excuse with which to whitewash over the mediocrity of the professional teams in this country.

FC Twente showed what a real difference in quality is pre-season or not.

The fact is that Motherwell have had the luxury of a week's summer camp in the Netherlands. They have professional players that can rest, prepare, plan for each game. They have Sports Scientists looking after their preparation.

The teams that Motherwell, Dundee, St Johnstone are struggling to beat are full of journeymen, part time players, trialists trying to juggle football with other jobs. 

Motherwell should be beating these teams in the way FC Twente beat us, pre-season or not. What the results above tell us is that St Johnstone, Livi and Dundee are very average professional sides. 

We seem to find every reason possible in Scotland for accepting mediocrity and managing expectation. 

St Mirren showed what should be happening in these games.

[joewarkfanclub]

Decent enough first half without being spectacular. Controlled the game, limited them to virtually nothing, had a few chances and scored the goal we required.

Second half the tempo was very poor and allowed Stenny to have way too much of the ball and improve territorally as a result. The fact they didnt take adavntage was maybe more good fortune than anything.

We did create one or two decent chances and should have put the  game to bed, but we didnt so hey ho.

Good wee away day. Nice wee bar, friendly locals and a win so cant be too sniffy about it.

Sterner tests to come so will need to improve......

[wellgirl]

14 minutes ago, star sail said:

This is a discussion that comes up most years at this time. I remember after a mediocre pre season game against Gateshead a few years back this was a topic of conversation.

I don't agree with your view on this. It's pre-season is not an excuse with which to whitewash over the mediocrity of the professional teams in this country.

FC Twente showed what a real difference in quality is pre-season or not.

The fact is that Motherwell have had the luxury of a week's summer camp in the Netherlands. They have professional players that can rest, prepare, plan for each game. They have Sports Scientists looking after their preparation.

The teams that Motherwell, Dundee, St Johnstone are struggling to beat are full of journeymen, part time players, trialists trying to juggle football with other jobs. 

Motherwell should be beating these teams in the way FC Twente beat us, pre-season or not. What the results above tell us is that St Johnstone, Livi and Dundee are very average professional sides. 

We seem to find every reason possible in Scotland for accepting mediocrity and managing expectation. 

St Mirren showed what should be happening in these games.

St mirren weren't playing on a plastic pitch - I completely get your point but I think if we had been playing on grass we wouldn't have struggled quite as much 

I also think that was a bit of an outlier for St Mirren. When was the last time they scored 8

[stv]

1 hour ago, wellgirl said:

My clothes still have this got soaked drying out horrible damp smell - Christ, can't remember rain like that in a long time 

Met office usually give a clue to the weather and then dress accordingly. Or just use persil

[wellgirl]

We absolutely do need to improve but it's three games into JBA being manager. We need more new faces. I personally think we need a striker before anything else 

[wellgirl]

7 minutes ago, stv said:

Met office usually give a clue to the weather and then dress accordingly. Or just use persil

There were people who were far better equipped for the game than I was today - who still ended up soaked through - my post wasn't intended to be that serious. I've changed my clothes and they and I will live to see another day 

[wellgirl]

30 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Decent enough first half without being spectacular. Controlled the game, limited them to virtually nothing, had a few chances and scored the goal we required.

Second half the tempo was very poor and allowed Stenny to have way too much of the ball and improve territorally as a result. The fact they didnt take adavntage was maybe more good fortune than anything.

We did create one or two decent chances and should have put the  game to bed, but we didnt so hey ho.

Good wee away day. Nice wee bar, friendly locals and a win so cant be too sniffy about it.

Sterner tests to come so will need to improve......

The wee bar was brilliant wasn't it? When I went in there was only about ten Motherwell fans in there but the home fans and the staff were really nice 

[Kmcalpin]

The game panned out pretty much as I expected. We won the 3 points and kept a clean sheet end of. 

It gave JBA the chance to rest a few of his favoured players and test out others. Changing line ups and numerous substitutions don't help continuity. Still, not an impressive performance though. We had perhaps 4 good chances and converted one. A stuffy Stenhousemuir rode their luck at times. No real blunders at the back but still a few hairy moments. 

I'm not against this modern possession based football but its not a great watch it has to be said.

I agree with many previous posters. We had loads of possession, made pass after pass but lacked inciseveness and speed of passing. Totally toothless up front and we need reinforcements there as well as at the back.  We also lacked physicality and were bullied at times by a makeshift Warriors side. Orinoco rightly points out that Stenny's big lad up front beat Balmer time and again in the air. There will be much more of that in league games to come. 

I didn't think that Sule and Ap Stam looked much of a threat, although their service was poor it has to be said. Ewan Wilson has regressed for whatever reason and I don't recall him beating his opponent at all - back pass after back pass.  Matty Connelly didn't have much to do but his distribution was excellent. Victim of a shocking foul late on. 

Onto Morton now and I hope our perfomance improves. They will have been watching us with interest. 

[wellgirl]

19 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

The game panned out pretty much as I expected. We won the 3 points and kept a clean sheet end of. 

It gave JBA the chance to rest a few of his favoured players and test out others. Changing line ups and numerous substitutions don't help continuity. Still, not an impressive performance though. We had perhaps 4 good chances and converted one. A stuffy Stenhousemuir rode their luck at times. No real blunders at the back but still a few hairy moments. 

I'm not against this modern possession based football but its not a great watch it has to be said.

I agree with many previous posters. We had loads of possession, made pass after pass but lacked inciseveness and speed of passing. Totally toothless up front and we need reinforcements there as well as at the back.  Not a great watch it has to be said. We also lacked physicality and were bullied at times by a makeshift Warriors side. Orinoco rightly points out that Stenny's big lad up front beat Balmer time and again in the air. There will be much more of that in league games to come. 

I didn't think that Sule and Ap Stam looked much of a threat, although their service was poor it has to be said. Ewan Wilson has regressed for whatever reason and I don't recall him beating his opponent at all - back pass after back pass.  Matty Connelly didn't have much to do but his distribution was excellent. Victim of a shocking foul late on. 

Onto Morton now and I hope our perfomance improves. They will have been watching us with interest. 

To be fair to JBA I think he has to experiment with the starting 11 until he sees the ones that he wants to stick with 

Although I think Wilson should have been hooked as he's struggling badly 

Also - if Balmer is struggling - he needs dropping. I personally cannot be arsed with managers playing players who are consistently under performing - we've had enough of that with the last three managers. I'll caveat that by saying JBA is just in the door but if someone isn't cutting it - bench them

From where I was standing today Balmer didn't have that much to do. He's probably not good enough but the entire defence are struggling just now as most people are aware 

I personally think we need a striker before any other positions are filled 

[Kmcalpin]

40 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I personally think we need a striker before any other positions are filled 

We do need another striker badly but also need to bolster the defence. A fair number of corners (poorly taken) and crosses today but no-one with the physicality to get on the end of them. Thats a skillset we're missing right now. 

[wellgirl]

3 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

We do need another striker badly but also need to bolster the defence. A fair number of corners (poorly taken) and crosses today but no-one with the physicality to get on the end of them. Thats a skillset we're missing right now. 

Of course but personally I think we need to get a striker in first - we really need to have someone who is going to batter in 25 plus goals a season -and we don't have that. Anyway here's hoping we get that striker (or close to) and a couple of defenders before the start of the season 

[weeyin]

5 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

We do need another striker badly but also need to bolster the defence. A fair number of corners (poorly taken) and crosses today but no-one with the physicality to get on the end of them. Thats a skillset we're missing right now. 

Agreed. We're missing a Tom Aldred or Shaun Hutchinson type figure in the defence.

[MelvinBragg]

2 hours ago, star sail said:

St Mirren showed what should be happening in these games.

This the St Mirren who lost to Arbroath on penalties in the opening game and only beat Forfar by the same scoreline we beat Peterhead by? The 8-2 was very much an outlier...

I agree with your general point that we should be winning these games but this has happened in cup games for as long as I can remember. Smaller teams raise their game. Liverpool got knocked out of the FA cup by Plymouth last season...

[SteelmaninOZ]

3 hours ago, wellgirl said:

My clothes still have this got soaked drying out horrible damp smell - Christ, can't remember rain like that in a long time 

Wow1 you got wet ..on the outside? 😇

[Benson]

2 hours ago, wellgirl said:

Of course but personally I think we need to get a striker in first - we really need to have someone who is going to batter in 25 plus goals a season -and we don't have that. Anyway here's hoping we get that striker (or close to) and a couple of defenders before the start of the season 

25 plus goals a season, yeah plenty of them going about,ready to sign for the mighty well.

[El Grew]

The manager is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. He has inherited a poor squad of players and is trying to get them to play in a way which the majority are inherently incapable of.

Its going to be a long hard slog of a season!

[wellgirl]

6 hours ago, Benson said:

25 plus goals a season, yeah plenty of them going about,ready to sign for the mighty well.

Van Veen did it 

[wellfan]

11 hours ago, star sail said:

This is a discussion that comes up most years at this time. I remember after a mediocre pre season game against Gateshead a few years back this was a topic of conversation.

I don't agree with your view on this. It's pre-season is not an excuse with which to whitewash over the mediocrity of the professional teams in this country.

FC Twente showed what a real difference in quality is pre-season or not.

The fact is that Motherwell have had the luxury of a week's summer camp in the Netherlands. They have professional players that can rest, prepare, plan for each game. They have Sports Scientists looking after their preparation.

The teams that Motherwell, Dundee, St Johnstone are struggling to beat are full of journeymen, part time players, trialists trying to juggle football with other jobs. 

Motherwell should be beating these teams in the way FC Twente beat us, pre-season or not. What the results above tell us is that St Johnstone, Livi and Dundee are very average professional sides. 

We seem to find every reason possible in Scotland for accepting mediocrity and managing expectation. 

St Mirren showed what should be happening in these games.

I completely agree. You can throw in the usual excuses too: plastic pitches, it being too hot or too wet. As if the opposition aren’t dealing with the exact same conditions.