Motherwell v Kilmarnock 30/08/2025

[joewarkfanclub]

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, Mad Dog said:

I thought that there was contact but Ward should be stronger in situations like that. Definitely seen freekicks given, though.

The Sportscene highlights were pretty clear no contact whatsoever,  for me he jumped to early and ended up slightly ahead of the ball, but that said it was a simple catch and he made an arse of it.

[Kmcalpin]

3 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

If a manager only convinces fans when everything is right they will never be convinced by any manager we have. No manager is right about everything all the time. The perception of managers in football is one of the most fluid assessments you will ever find because every one of them loses their shine at some point in their career. There are too many variables that impact what they achieve. 

I will just enjoy what I'm watching until the shine wears off it or he leaves, one or both of which will almost certainly happen at some point...

The only factor unknown about Askou is how long it will take for his shine to fade or he leaves , so lets enjoy not watching eye bleeding shite for the first time in ages and not read too much into it all.

I'm enjoying the new brand of football too; the best I've seen in years and I'm not Generation X or even W. I'm also on board with the Board's direction of travel on managerial appointments and JBA's philosophy. 

No manager will achieve 100% success, be it in terms of results or transfer dealings; nothing like it in fact.  However for some, maybe even many, fans, its important that we convert good football and high possession percentages into actual goals and stop conceding soft goals. As far as JBA is concerned I fully back him and his methods. At some point though he's going to have to prove he can do that. So, there is a an element of uncertainty as to how successful he'll be. Time will tell.   

[star sail]

33 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

The Sportscene highlights were pretty clear no contact whatsoever,  for me he jumped to early and ended up slightly ahead of the ball, but that said it was a simple catch and he made an arse of it.

This is what I find really strange at times about the Motherwell support. Where as most supporters tend to be biased in favour of their own team, particularly regarding refereeing decisions, we seem to find weird and wonderful ways to argue against our own team 

If you want to say that Ward could have done better, that's fine or that it was not a foul, fine, or that he was ahead of the ball, fine, or that he jumped early, fine.

To say that there was no contact whatsoever however is made up fantasy. Ward gets a nudge in the lower back by the forearm of the incoming Killie attacker. That is what is clear from the Sportscene highlights.

Why make things up just to argue against the team you support?

[wellon]

12 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Today was the first I've seen us play for a few weeks and I have to say its the best I've seen us play for many a year. A good crowd today but I thought our fans were a bit flat. More games like this though and they'll come back in even bigger numbers. It was encouraging to hear the applause and cheers at full time and smiling faces talking about the quality of football. 

The game itself panned out pretty much as I expected and both sides could have won it. We were the better team  and dominated possession but weaknesses at both ends of the pitch cost us. There's no doubt we missed Callum Slattery badly and hopefully he'll be back well before Christmas. I thought Killie tested us rigorously with their long ball approach and hopefully that lesson will feed into our recruitment. We did seem a bit vulnerable on the flanks.  

Some good performances from the likes of Just, Watt and Said. I remain unconvinced about Ap Stam though. He seemed very lightweight against a big intimidating defence. 

For me though this weekend was never going to be about today's game; rather about our transfer dealings. 

A final word on Callum Ward. I was 100% against dropping him after last Saturday, as every keeper can have an off day. However, 2 games on the trot? Its rare that a keeper makes not one but two glaring errors in conceding a goal. Time to bring the Ox back.  

Get what you're saying and maybe ox should come back but he had a few errors in him too...word for sod too, I've been a critic but thought he's been pretty decent past few games.

[Spiderpig]

41 minutes ago, star sail said:

 

To say that there was no contact whatsoever however is made up fantasy. Ward gets a nudge in the lower back by the forearm of the incoming Killie attacker. That is what is clear from the Sportscene highlights.

Why make things up just to argue against the team you support?

I watched it from the POD and never got any impression of a nudge, neither did the referee, lino's or the VAR team who no doubt had close up views, freeze frame etc. The Kille fans in the south stand had the best view, so maybe you were sitting with them.

Nobody is making anything up, the only Motherwell player who seemed bothered  was ward when he realised he'd made an arse of it so no fantasy.

[FirParkCornerExile]

1 hour ago, mfc88 said:

100% behind JBA. The style of football is a joy to watch.

For any doubters, last season our first home game vs Killie (under kettlewell) was also a draw... irrespective of how it was achieved, which draw would you rather watch us play out? It's a no brainer man.

Room for improvement? Absolutely, but it's still early days. Play like we did and we win games like yesterday more often than not.

A Killie fan phoned sportsound  phone in last night and said Motherwell and Kilmarnock have both had 4 draws to start the season and he knows what kind of draws he'd prefer to watch and its Motherwells. 😂

[MJC]

11 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

I'm a 70/30 supporter of JBA but its early in his reign and he's got a few issues to sort out. Its how he deals with those that will determine his legacy. Yes, we're playing the best football we've seen for many years. A huge tick. However, we're weak at both ends of the pitch and those deficiencies need addressing, possibly using different methods. Attractive football is all good and well but it has to be accompanied by good results.  Yes we're unbeaten in 4 but we've also not won in 4.  

60/40 for me so far. I’ve mostly liked what I’ve seen in that we have shown that we are capable of playing some really attractive football, something we haven’t seen for years and that is very refreshing. 
 

The flip side of that though is that we haven’t yet shown that we are capable of actually winning football matches and until we break that duck it’s a bit in vain. The last two fixtures have been maximum points thrown away, mostly because of bad goalkeeping but also because of poor game management and a lack of bite up front.

And looking at the upcoming run of fixtures it is difficult to see where a win will come from, though I do have a hunch that we will finally get it when we play Aberdeen at home at the end of next month, after they have knocked us out of the league cup the week before.

[fizoxy]

The replay at the time showed there was clear contact on Ward, but to me it was pretty soft, the kind of stuff keepers have to deal with all the time. At worst it was a distraction, but he should still have caught it.

As the manager said, had the ref blown for a foul, theres no way VAR would have overturned it. 

 

[star sail]

23 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

I watched it from the POD and never got any impression of a nudge, neither did the referee, lino's or the VAR team who no doubt had close up views, freeze frame etc. The Kille fans in the south stand had the best view, so maybe you were sitting with them.

Nobody is making anything up, the only Motherwell player who seemed bothered  was ward when he realised he'd made an arse of it so no fantasy.

The referee, linesman and VAR decided it was not a foul, not that there was no contact. Football is not a non contact sport. The Killie player has actually been really cute by unbalancing Ward without giving away the foul.

I am not sure the point you are trying to make about me being in the Killie end when I am the one trying to give the benefit of the doubt to our player. 

[Kmcalpin]

4 hours ago, wellon said:

Get what you're saying and maybe ox should come back but he had a few errors in him too...word for sod too, I've been a critic but thought he's been pretty decent past few games.

Agreed. Ox has his faults too but I can't see JBA bringing in another keeper now. January maybe but more likely next summer.

SOD has been playing well and we cheered him off the pitch yesterday in recognition of that.

[star sail]

6 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Agreed. Ox has his faults too but I can't seeJBA bringing in another keeper now. January maybe but more likely next summer.

SOD has been playing well and we cheered him off the pitch yesterday in recognition of that.

I am really pleased for SOD. He has taken some unfair criticism and deserves the praise when it comes his way. 

 

[wellgirl]

4 minutes ago, star sail said:

I am really pleased for SOD. He has taken some unfair criticism and deserves the praise when it comes his way. 

 

He does 

[wellfan]

Total crap! 

https://x.com/SteelmenNews/status/1962117073930269122
 

[Stuwell2]

6 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

CAME IN BE WALL. (Whoops....apologies for grammar and spelling) 🤣🤣🤣

What you do on your holidays is your business but no need to share here thanks

[texanwellfan]

3 hours ago, mfc88 said:

100% behind JBA. The style of football is a joy to watch.

For any doubters, last season our first home game vs Killie (under kettlewell) was also a draw... irrespective of how it was achieved, which draw would you rather watch us play out? It's a no brainer man.

Room for improvement? Absolutely, but it's still early days. Play like we did and we win games like yesterday more often than not.

I liked an earlier post about the Killie supporter’s comment, “we’ve got 4 draws and they’ve got 4 draws. I’d much rather be watching their 4 draws”. 

[weeyin]

4 games in, it's night and day compared to most of what we watched last season.

Of course there is frustration that we haven't closed out the last couple of games, but I'd rather be frustrated that we're playing well and missing the finishing touch, than playing poorly.

We knew it was going to be a process, and if anything, I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how quickly the players have adapted to the new approach.

Still need a central defender or two, so here's hoping we see a deadline announcement.

[wellon]

1 hour ago, star sail said:

I am really pleased for SOD. He has taken some unfair criticism and deserves the praise when it comes his way. 

 

Don't think I've been unfair , anyway I think he's been good lately

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, wellfan said:

Total crap! 

https://x.com/SteelmenNews/status/1962117073930269122
 

I saw nothing wrong with the challenge from my perch in the POD, next to Spiderpig, but having seen the highlights there's a definite nudge in the back and not an accidental one either. Still, very poor goalkeeping.  

[Orinoco]

AP you can't fault his work rate. He contributed but to me he seems to lack abit of sharpness in the box. He also needs to work on his runs beyond the opposition defence. Far to many careless offsides. Maybe once the team gels it will click. 

As for O'Donnell, he has played well recently, but now like Ward you wonder when the defensive mistake will happen. I rather have Johnny at right back as he is more mobile.

I thought they were looking at players pushing opponents when they are in the air and making no attempt to go for ball. I'm sure it was Kettlewell, funny enough, who constently highlighted the dangers of inbalancing an opponent. The contact on Ward was slight but enough to gain an advantage.  Goalies are over protected anyhow, but consistency would be nice. Ward needs to be stronger, but would also ask where was our center backs? 

Still early days but although mistakes have stopped us winning, it has been entertaining and that's what we all wanted. Long may it continue and with abit of luck and improvements that will happen we will win.

[texanwellfan]

3 hours ago, star sail said:

This is what I find really strange at times about the Motherwell support. Where as most supporters tend to be biased in favour of their own team, particularly regarding refereeing decisions, we seem to find weird and wonderful ways to argue against our own team 

If you want to say that Ward could have done better, that's fine or that it was not a foul, fine, or that he was ahead of the ball, fine, or that he jumped early, fine.

To say that there was no contact whatsoever however is made up fantasy. Ward gets a nudge in the lower back by the forearm of the incoming Killie attacker. That is what is clear from the Sportscene highlights.

Why make things up just to argue against the team you support?

I really thought he didn’t get pushed but after watching it over and over there probably was some contact. So I don’t think people are making things up. I’m still not 100% sure but any contact there was is very slight and I’d have expected him to still have held the ball. Or perhaps a better choice would have been to knock it out for a corner. Either way we will continue with what JBA decides.
Im surprised though, to see some apprehension regarding the manager. What a breath of fresh air and such a difference in such a short space of time. 100% on board with JBA. I may not agree with everything he does and there is still room for improvement

[Kmcalpin]

33 minutes ago, Orinoco said:

 The contact on Ward was slight but enough to gain an advantage.  Goalies are over protected anyhow, but consistency would be nice. Ward needs to be stronger, but would also ask where was our center backs? 

This 100%.

Not a clumsy challenge but a deliberate foul nonetheless. Where is VAR when you need it? Good point about centre backs. Both were posted missing when they should have been protecting Ward. 

Overall, I thought the referee was poor. Very weak and inconsistent as shown by his booking of Gordon. Why wasn't the Killie player carded for a very similar foul on Said earlier?

[mfc]

There was minimal contact but ward should be catching that every day of the week,that's definitely a worry going forward he can't claim a simple cross under very little pressure cause he will be getting them fired at him every game.

[weeyin]

Agree about Ward. It was a foul, but keepers get away with GBH when they jump for a ball he and needed to be bullying the Killie players out the way.

[Richie]

Having watched the highlights was probably a bit harsh on Ap Stam.

Great play from him for our equaliser.

He's quite frustrating at times.

O'Donnell had another perfectly good game.

If we could combine the JBA play with the Wimmer press we'd be formidable.

One thing that is slightly getting to me is that we're a yeard off the press at times and allowing crosses in.

Another good performance tbough and infinity more watchable.

Just need to be a bit sharper in final third and cut out the needless errors.