Motherwell v Dundee United 29/10/2023

[SteelmaninOZ]

Mid week game under the lights on our green green grass of home will we win two in a row? 
Will VAR decide who will win?

COYW 

[MFCL84]

Yes, we will win.

[MJC]

We’ll need to play a lot better than today if we’re going to win this one. 
 

Looking forward to it mind you.

[MFCL84]

2 hours ago, MJC said:

We’ll need to play a lot better than today if we’re going to win this one. 

Yes, we certainly will, but I expect that we will on a good grass surface. That pitch today was very slow. Every time the ball bounced it died. Terrible surface.

[joewarkfanclub]

The win today should take a bit of the pressure off and being back on the grass should allow us to be a bit more free flowing again.

Hopefully Longelo is ok, although I would be just as happy to rest him for the semi final if required.

Everyone else should be fitter and sharper as a result of todays run out.

Im not convinced United are all they are cracked up to be. Decent, yes. Beatable, certainly.

Id take a draw, but 3 points would be magnificent for the teams  confidence ahead of Saturday.

[FirParkCornerExile]

4 hours ago, MJC said:

We’ll need to play a lot better than today if we’re going to win this one. 
 

Looking forward to it mind you.

We will but from what I saw today Utd we're far from convincing against St Mirren and lucked out with the refs decisions. 

It will be a hard hard game but if we have any aspirations we need to win games like this.

The return of Slattery is a major bonus. If we play like we can and do it over 90 mins there's no reason why we can't win. 

[FirParkCornerExile]

2 hours ago, MFCL84 said:

Yes, we certainly will, but I expect that we will on a good grass surface. That pitch today was very slow. Every time the ball bounced it died. Terrible surface.

Correct the pace on that pitch today was ridiculously slow. Whilst not to blame for every intercepted pass it certainly played a part. 

[wellsince75]

A clean sheet would be ideal, tightening up and not being so able to cut through to create a bit more steel aread of the semi. 

3 points though would put us ahead of UTD and they're certainly beatable. 

[mio]

I would accept a draw right now and a clean bill of health for all the players for Saturday. 
id have slattery on the bench too and give him 30/40mins in the second half in prep for the semi final.

[joewarkfanclub]

10 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Correct the pace on that pitch today was ridiculously slow. Whilst not to blame for every intercepted pass it certainly played a part. 

It also took Longelo, Said and Maswanhise out the game as it was nigh impossible to dribble on effectively.

Given that they are our "chaos agents" thats a big part of our game nullified before we start.

[texanwellfan]

3 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

It also took Longelo, Said and Maswanhise out the game as it was nigh impossible to dribble on effectively.

Given that they are our "chaos agents" thats a big part of our game nullified before we start.

I hope they have Said doing extra practise on finishing. If he can retain a wee bit composure close to goal he could be worth a good few goals. 
I love watching Said and Just on the ball. Their foot skills are terrific

[Orinoco]

A strong referee will be needed for this. Far to many games recently have seen our players tripped or blocked off with little repercussions. They call it professional fouls, I call it cheating.

[Kmcalpin]

35 minutes ago, Orinoco said:

A strong referee will be needed for this. Far to many games recently have seen our players tripped or blocked off with little repercussions. They call it professional fouls, I call it cheating.

I'm with you on that. Media pundits need to call it out for what it is. 

[weeyin]

4 hours ago, Orinoco said:

A strong referee will be needed for this. Far to many games recently have seen our players tripped or blocked off with little repercussions. They call it professional fouls, I call it cheating.

I'd love to see a rule change where instead of an automatic yellow, a straight red is given to players who "tactically" foul a breakaway player in the middle of the park.

One of my pet hates that has crept more and more into the modern game.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

I'd love to see a rule change where instead of an automatic yellow, a straight red is given to players who "tactically" foul a breakaway player in the middle of the park.

One of my pet hates that has crept more and more into the modern game.

Or, as the MSM  call it "taking one for the team". 

[joewarkfanclub]

Am I mis-remembering, or was the "professional foul" not punishable by a red card back in the day (70's).

And if so, why did it change?

I have vague recollections of Motherwell players being hauled down on the half way line and red cards being shown.

Could have been a pre cursor to the last man / clear goalscoring opportunity rule, but I kinda feel that it was a thing.......

[texanwellfan]

30 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Am I mis-remembering, or was the "professional foul" not punishable by a red card back in the day (70's).

And if so, why did it change?

I have vague recollections of Motherwell players being hauled down on the half way line and red cards being shown.

Could have been a pre cursor to the last man / clear goalscoring opportunity rule, but I kinda feel that it was a thing.......

I think it was tackle from behind. Not sure why or when it was stopped. When you watch some of those old 70’s games you can see why they had to try something to tame it down a bit. 

[weeyin]

2 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Am I mis-remembering, or was the "professional foul" not punishable by a red card back in the day (70's).

And if so, why did it change?

I have vague recollections of Motherwell players being hauled down on the half way line and red cards being shown.

Could have been a pre cursor to the last man / clear goalscoring opportunity rule, but I kinda feel that it was a thing.......

I think that was superseded by the red card for the "obvious goal scoring opportunity" and its various criteria.

I can't remember the exact wording for the (relatively new) yellow card "tactical" foul, but it's something to do with stopping an attack rather than a goal.

EDIT: found the IFAB Law 12 wording about the yellow card

commits any other offence which interferes with or stops a promising attack

 

[dennyc]

18 hours ago, weeyin said:

I'd love to see a rule change where instead of an automatic yellow, a straight red is given to players who "tactically" foul a breakaway player in the middle of the park.

One of my pet hates that has crept more and more into the modern game.

Cannot remember the game but pretty sure we had a player sent off for stopping a breakaway even though the tackle was in our half. Away to St Mirren, St J or Dundee maybe. And not that many seasons ago.

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, dennyc said:

Cannot remember the game but pretty sure we had a player sent off for stopping a breakaway even though the tackle was in our half. Away to St Mirren, St J or Dundee maybe. And not that many seasons ago.

Would love to see it reinstated. It wouldn't take long to eradicate that tactic.

[FirParkCornerExile]

On 10/25/2025 at 8:06 PM, SteelmaninOZ said:

Mid week game under the lights on our green green grass of home will we win two in a row? 
Will VAR decide who will win?

COYW 

If our defence and keeper are not on their toes no, United are pretty decent in and around the box and score goals but defensively they concede as many as we do. This is one I think could go either way. Truth be told I'd just be happy not to into the semi on the back of 3 defeats out of 4. So I'll take a win or a draw.

[mfc88]

2 hours ago, dennyc said:

Cannot remember the game but pretty sure we had a player sent off for stopping a breakaway even though the tackle was in our half. Away to St Mirren, St J or Dundee maybe. And not that many seasons ago.

I'm sure the game you're talking about was RC away, start of the season behind closed doors and the game was on sky sports. We lost and Liam Donnelly missed a pen.

Don't know how or why I remember that so well 😂

Had to google the last bit and it was Calum Lang who got sent off that day.

[dennyc]

21 minutes ago, mfc88 said:

I'm sure the game you're talking about was RC away, start of the season behind closed doors and the game was on sky sports. We lost and Liam Donnelly missed a pen.

Don't know how or why I remember that so well 😂

Had to google the last bit and it was Calum Lang who got sent off that day.

Thanks. Spot on. That's the one I was thinking of.