League Cup Semi Motherwell v St Mirren 1/11/2025

[robsterwood]

8 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

Said it last week following Livingston

 

if we can get a physical centre forward in January we’ll have a good end to the season 

 

lot of nice play but zero danger a large portion of games 

 

St mirren got their tactics rights & just to street wise for us today 

Referee also let them away with borderline thuggery and time wasting. They are adept at dark arts. Mostly hammer throwers.

[FirParkCornerExile]

34 minutes ago, Welly Machine said:

Really disappointing. Weren't good enough at both ends while having the best of possession.

Thought they just seemed more up for it than us and made less mistakes.

4-1 still flattered them a bit, just seemed they took near enough every chance that came thier way.

A bit, more than a bit, we were garbage but St Mirren were an average team that played to their strengths. They were still the better team and were clinical and defended well. That's the killer, we wouldn't need to have been top notch to take them, semi competent would have been enough. They had 4 shots a goal and scored all 4 we had 4 shots at goal and got 1. They took the gifts we presented to them. That's not a hard gig in football. 

[FirParkCornerExile]

12 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

Said it last week following Livingston

 

if we can get a physical centre forward in January we’ll have a good end to the season 

 

lot of nice play but zero danger a large portion of games 

 

St mirren got their tactics rights & just to street wise for us today 

That's why I think we should have tried to keep Armstrong. 

[Kmcalpin]

A typical Hampden performance from us. Oh how I hate the place. 

The seeds of that disgrace were sown before kick off with an odd line up. No Welsh or Slattery. Presumably  the latter was being kept fresh to come on later and help us defend a one or two goal lead? 

We were outhought, outfought and outplayed, although 4-1 flattered Saints. Robinson had our gameplan well and truly sussed. Not one of JBA's best days. 

Only passmarks go to Hendry and Slattery. That game ranks alongside semi final defeats to Airdrie, and will remain in the memory of many for years to come. 

 

[stv]

25 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

That's why I think we should have tried to keep Armstrong. 

Absolutely this.

[robsterwood]

4 minutes ago, stv said:

Absolutely this.

Is it possible to get him back?

[robsterwood]

11 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

A typical Hampden performance from us. Oh how I hate the place. 

The seeds of that disgrace were sown before kick off with an odd line up. No Welsh or Slattery. Presumably  the later was being kept fresh to come on later and help us defend a one or two goal lead? 

We were outhought, outfought and outplayed, although 4-1 flattered Saints. Robinson had our gameplan well and truly sussed. Not one of JBA's best days. 

Only passmarks go to Hendry and Slattery. That game ranks alongside semi final defeats to Airdrie, and will remain in the memory of many for years to come. 

 

Agree Welsh and slats should have started however we would still be outfought and toothless up front. On this showing Hendry should start. Please off load stama

[robsterwood]

Hampdens place of so many bad memories now when we get stage fright but today we were not competing enough and lacked guile in last 3rd. 

Paid a lot of money to get to this and left deflated. Badly need CB RB goalie and CF

Defence and goalie at 3rd goal looked like a scene from keystone cops.

[joewarkfanclub]

One positive from today, a crowd of 21,377 is a great effort from 2 supposed diddy teams.

Shame we couldnt put on a show to encourage more of our lot to come back.

[robsterwood]

That's last 4 visits to Hampden for me we been beaten easy. Beginning to be boring now. What's point of getting there if we can't compete?

[Kmcalpin]

8 minutes ago, robsterwood said:

Hampdens place of so many bad memories now when we get stage fright but today we were not competing enough and lacked guile in last 3rd. 

Paid a lot of money to get to this and left deflated. Badly need CB RB goalie and CF

Defence and goalie at 3rd goal looked like a scene from keystone cops.

Good post. Apart from poor passing and being lightweight, our build up was laboured, slow and predictable. It seemed to me that we were pacing ourselves in the first half for a full 90 minutes or extra time. Someone forgot to tell St Mirren. 

Agree that we need a RB, CB, goalie and striker in January. Other managers will have learnt from St Mirren's tactics today. 

[Lobey_Dosser]

23 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

One positive from today, a crowd of 21,377 is a great effort from 2 supposed diddy teams.

Shame we couldnt put on a show to encourage more of our lot to come back.

An excellent turnout but it didn’t feel like it from where I was sitting. If I was ever in doubt, I’d now fully support moving these games to Easter Road or Tynecastle. 

[grizzlyg]

Well what an anti climax that was.  1st goal shouldn't have stood but apart from that no excuses.   I am huge Askou fan but he got starting line-up wrong,  Welsh and slatts should have started.

No point having loads of possession and doing hee haw with it.  Our full ba cks terrible today and I have defended Stama loads but Hendry needs a run.

It's disappointing but this is still a work in progress and as long as Askou learns from it then I am sure we can have a good season

[star sail]

If Slattery was fully fit he would have started today. We have to remember that was his 3 rd game in a week after a return from injury. The manager has to manage those situations carefully.

The game is won and lost on fine margins. The first, the referee helped to tee the corner up for Saints. The second, Just was unlucky that the ball hit off him and landed as it did. It was a great finish none the less. The 3rd could just as easily have been a great save but the ball looped into the back of the net 

For me the first goal set the tone and St Mirren managed the game very well from that point onwards.

When I take a step back from the obvious disappointment of the evening, I would still rather be watching our brand of football than St Mirrens and I believe by seasons end we will still finish above them.

 

 

[Hope Springs]

I believe our starting lineup reflected an intention to get in behind St Mirren on either flank - hence Said and Maswanhise and not Slattery. But neither Said nor Maswanhise offered anything like what they should have and this was compounded by Koutrumbus and Longelo being far too tentative and lacking in any menace. So Stamatulopoulos had little or no chance of being effective. I’m with mio - I despise St Mirren and their ethos of robust directness. They are ugly to watch, graceless in victory and were given, rather than created, three of their goals. It wasn’t their tactics or their style that beat us - although to listen to their self analysis that is what they are claiming. They broke up play by going down at almost every contact, they stole yards after every dead ball and slowed the game down as often as they could. A weak referee and our failure to stay firm at the back were our undoing, not a Robinson masterclass. I am sorry that such a remarkable turnout if our fans were so sadly disappointed - they deserved better - but I doubt we were beaten by the better team

[Kmcalpin]

I didn't like St Mirren's style of playing but it was effective. Strip out the cynicism, playacting and fouling and you are left with a sound gameplan that succeeded. They bottled up the wings and were quite content to let us knock the ball about nicely in areas of the pitch that didn't matter. Sit back, test us and wait for the mistakes. It worked a treat. 

I'm still not 100% sold on our brand of football. Call me a dinosaur if you want. Yes, I like attratctive flowing football, but it has to have some purpose, some end product.  There has to be a solid defence and an attack thats lethal. As it is, we knock the ball about nicely but too often in an aimless way. 

If, and its a big if, St Mirren win the League Cup Final how many of our fans will stick to their principles and say that they'd rather be knocked out 4-1 in the semi trying to play modern football than win it playing ugly. Our experiment still has a way to go and that must involve personnel changes in January, but I'm still not totally convinced we can pull off our switch to modern possession based football. I hope I'm wrong. 

[StirlingDosser]

Real flatness after this. It seems that every year the Glasgow pair are either playing mince or knocked out we screw it up against a beatable side. Some business is needed in January if we are going to make the most of the strengths we have seen so far this season.

Regardless of anyone's thoughts on the style of play, Robinson has sent his team out and done the job. He done it for us and to be fair hats off to him as hes done the job here. Finishing is the core issue. In the box we just seemed to lack confidence to have a real go. Can't grudge St Mirren their win. As much as I dont have a high opinion of them I hope they go on and win the thing. 

On another note I was surprised to see what looked like a higher attendance for St Mirren. Their end looked a bit fuller than ours. No rows of empty seats down the front. Much can be made of the Hampden spectacle but I think a match like that played in a smaller venue would be a fan better day out. 

 

[FirParkCornerExile]

8 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

One positive from today, a crowd of 21,377 is a great effort from 2 supposed diddy teams.

Shame we couldnt put on a show to encourage more of our lot to come back.

I found the attendance a strange one. We sold 9000 tickets and St Mirren sold similar so where did the other 3337 come from?

[FirParkCornerExile]

34 minutes ago, StirlingDosser said:

Real flatness after this. It seems that every year the Glasgow pair are either playing mince or knocked out we screw it up against a beatable side. Some business is needed in January if we are going to make the most of the strengths we have seen so far this season.

Regardless of anyone's thoughts on the style of play, Robinson has sent his team out and done the job. He done it for us and to be fair hats off to him as hes done the job here. Finishing is the core issue. In the box we just seemed to lack confidence to have a real go. Can't grudge St Mirren their win. As much as I dont have a high opinion of them I hope they go on and win the thing. 

On another note I was surprised to see what looked like a higher attendance for St Mirren. Their end looked a bit fuller than ours. No rows of empty seats down the front. Much can be made of the Hampden spectacle but I think a match like that played in a smaller venue would be a fan better day out. 

 

But there is no stadium other than Hampden , Ibrox and Celtic Park could have accommodated that attendance yesterday. Mind you if we get to another semi final our ticket sales might not be so good. I'm sure some fans are starting to question why they bother at semi finals, the die hards will be there but persuading the floating supporter will be harder based on our recent piss poor efforts.

Right at this moment, I myself, question why I bother and couldn't care less if I never saw them again I'm so annoyed at yesterdays garbage against a very beatable team. However I do know that wont last. I'm glad our next game is away at Aberdeen cos I'm not interested in going. Be interesting to see what carry over this has to our improved attendances for the next home game. I think it will have some effect. 

[Mccus28]

I honestly think its wild some of the comments on here.

Yes, yesterday was terrible but some of the over the top comments regards the manager and players are just silly.

The manager came in early to mid june, has changed a full system, has had only 1 transfer window to right the horror show that was Kettleball and for me has done a tremendous job.

There will be ups and downs and the players probably still arent what or where the manager wants.

If the players/mnager were all top notch and consistant they wouldnt be playing for/managing  Motherwell so have a look at yourselves.

We are all gutted and we all dreamt of a cup final but some need to get a grip.

[Mad Dog]

10 hours ago, robsterwood said:

Badly need CB RB goalie and CF

Defence and goalie at 3rd goal looked like a scene from keystone cops.

I thought Ward had a good game and was unfortunate for the third goal. He was left totally exposed by defensive dithering in front of him and did well to make the save initially.

Regarding the need for reinforcements, I wasn't too impressed by Robinson during SK's tenure but could he be a better fit with our current style of play?

[wellon]

13 hours ago, BigManTam said:

Let's no go over the top here gents. A disappointing performance no doubt, but their first 2 goals - what can you say really?

First one awful defending - thats nothing to do with our style. Second one they get a break and their forward scores probably his best goal of the season.

After we got our goal back, St. Mirren did dominate and we crumbled at the back - but we were chasing the game and desperate at that point.

What needs to change for us?

It's been said a million times but Ap Stam won't cut the mustard. Hopefully Hendry can fill that gap but it's 50/50 right now whether he can, although I personally think he's much better than Ap at least.

Crossing diabolical and what's even the point when we have nobody with any real threat from headers?

JBA will be aware of this - we've made great progress so far this season but don't forget JBA has been here less than 6 months. He will need some windows to identify weaknesses and plug gaps. Robinson has been with St. Mirren and good while and has optimised his team (and they're still shite). 

A perhaps necessary lesson today.

Agree with most of what you say bar st mirren are shite, they're good at what they do...liked robbo at fp but watching his interview after game, he's got a big chip on his shoulder,  hopefully we get them in Scottish Cup. 

[wellon]

13 hours ago, MJC said:

I like him and you can see what he’s trying to do but it’s something that many before him have tried and failed to do. He won’t be here next season indeed I’ll be surprised if he lasts 

Yawn

[wellfan]

Just watched the highlights back. The manager and a number of the players should be embarrassed. We were second best all over the park. St Mirren were the better side on the day and fully deserved the win. I don’t want to dismiss all the good JBA has implemented so far, but he now has the challenge of showing he can learn from being outfought and outthought by making the changes required where and when possible. Yesterday was pathetic.

[wellon]

12 hours ago, MJC said:

My mistake sorry. Yes we have won three league games. 
 

But that doesn’t change that both I mentioned were last gasp and one was down to a goalkeeper blunder.

In this league to be in any way successful you have to be able to combine a degree of skill with an even bigger degree of physicality. Unfortunately for us we have a little bit of skill in the middle of the park and absolutely zero physicality so therefore we are an ineffective team.

Yep,  agree to a degree re physicality but you're allowed to score any time any way in a game , so all goals count.