Falkirk v Motherwell 02/05/2026

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, Orinoco said:

Lissah has been watching Slattery to much and has out mastered the master!

Surprise surprise. Credit whre its due though he is good at it unlike Slattery. Won them a penalty at Fir Park as well. 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, thewelllfan said:

I'm in the same boat as long as Celtic beat Hibs we should be fine for 4th but I don't see us winning any of the final 3 games. We might draw 1 but we looked on the beach.

Today was always going to be a huge mountain to climb for us and the result shouldn't have surprised anyone. Once again McGlynn has got the the better of JBA. It was possibly the hardest of our remaining 4 games. 

I think we're on the beach for several reasons and its up to Hibs now how much they want that 4th spot. If we can avoid hammerings in our next 2 games, I'll happily go Easter Road for the final game 3 points ahead of Hibs and not care about the result.   

[thewelllfan]

17 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Today was always going to be a huge mountain to climb for us and the result shouldn't have surprised anyone. Once again McGlynn has got the the better of JBA. It was possibly the hardest of our remaining 4 games. 

I think we're on the beach for several reasons and its up to Hibs now how much they want that 4th spot. If we can avoid hammerings in our next 2 games, I'll happily go Easter Road for the final game 3 points ahead of Hibs and not care about the result.   

To be fair I can't imagine any player is particularly motivated while playing for 4th and being out the cups. Falkirk are desperate to get into Europe and quite clearly wanted it more than us. I think unless Hibs beat one of the OF they won't pick up the 7 points they need to overtake us.

[grizzlyg]

22 minutes ago, thewelllfan said:

To be fair I can't imagine any player is particularly motivated while playing for 4th and being out the cups. Falkirk are desperate to get into Europe and quite clearly wanted it more than us. I think unless Hibs beat one of the OF they won't pick up the 7 points they need to overtake us.

We are safe, hibs are getting hee haw tomorrow 

[bobbybingo]

Sick of the sight of Falkirk, but they're out the road now and we live to fight another day. A fair few clubs have had a worse weekend than us. Hopefully, Hibs join that list tomorrow.

[Kmcalpin]

41 minutes ago, thewelllfan said:

To be fair I can't imagine any player is particularly motivated while playing for 4th and being out the cups. Falkirk are desperate to get into Europe and quite clearly wanted it more than us. I think unless Hibs beat one of the OF they won't pick up the 7 points they need to overtake us.

If Hibs beat Falkirk and us and take one point off the gruesome twosome that would be enough. In the short term, they'll want to preserve their Euro spot by burying Falkirk. 

[Stuwell2]

Watching the game I thought that we had a decent shout - by the standards that have been set against us by the referees and VAR - for a penalty against SOD but it wasn’t even show, never mind discussed on Sportscene. 

[stv]

11 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

If Hibs beat Falkirk and us and take one point off the gruesome twosome that would be enough. In the short term, they'll want to preserve their Euro spot by burying Falkirk. 

Aye but if we take ponts from hearts and celik or even a win then its all academic. To put it simply its all in our hands and at this stage of season you can't ask for much more than that.

Do hibs not have two players suspended for Celtic game as well.

[Kmcalpin]

19 minutes ago, stv said:

Aye but if we take ponts from hearts and celik or even a win then its all academic. To put it simply its all in our hands and at this stage of season you can't ask for much more than that.

Do hibs not have two players suspended for Celtic game as well.

It might seem odd, but I think our next 2 games will be the easiest of our post split fixtures. 

Yes, Hibs have indeed got 2 players suspended for the Celtic game. The result of that fixture will go a long way to determine the final pecking order. 

I'd like to think that the players will be up for our final 2 home games, but we'll see. As we found out again, pre match talk is no substitute for matchday attitude. 

[star sail]

32 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

It might seem odd, but I think our next 2 games will be the easiest of our post split fixtures. 

Yes, Hibs have indeed got 2 players suspended for the Celtic game. The result of that fixture will go a long way to determine the final pecking order. 

I'd like to think that the players will be up for our final 2 home games, but we'll see. As we found out again, pre match talk is no substitute for matchday attitude. 

Agreed. It is difficult not to be motivated by a full Firpark when the title chasers are in town. Next Saturday eve is box office. 

I think we will see a more motivated Well side to beat Hearts and I think we will.

Having said that, I was expecting more from today. I would have thought the team would have been motivated. I think it is naive to think that the season is over for us. If Hibs win tomorrow ( which is very possible) they are only 3 points behind.

Today was disappointing on a few levels.

[SteelmaninOZ]

The gaffer 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

Thought we struggled to play our normal game on a sticky pitch.

First half was pretty even, albeit Falkirk had the best 2 chances.

Second half, I thought we kept at it, but our delivery was poor. After they scored we started to take risks and could have easily conceded more.

Not our best day at the office, but if the chance at the end goes in we all go home happy.

Still not sure how Hendry missed that. Not sure it was going in, but he did seem to clear it off the line!

 

[Kmcalpin]

8 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Thought we struggled to play our normal game on a sticky pitch.

Presumably, Falkirk went to great lengths to ensure that the surface was kept madeira cake dry for days beforehand? 

[wellfan]

These plastic pitches have no place in the top flight. I’ve said it before: if you can’t grow and maintain grass in Scotland, you’ve no business running a professional football club.

[joewarkfanclub]

1 hour ago, wellfan said:

These plastic pitches have no place in the top flight. I’ve said it before: if you can’t grow and maintain grass in Scotland, you’ve no business running a professional football club.

I guess the argument against that is the state of Aberdeen & Dundee United's pitches this winter.

Im generally in agreement with grass being a requirement. But Id rather play on yesterdays pitch than the Pittodrie tattie field we got in the cup.

Even ours wasnt great midwinter, albeit it played ok and there were mitigating factors.

Edit: to add, Falkirk played very good football yesterday. But I guess they are used to the speed of the pitch.

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

But Id rather play on yesterdays pitch than the Pittodrie tattie field we got in the cup.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. As I’ve said, if you can’t grow or maintain grass, you’ve no business in the top league. That applies to us as well. We’ve had to spend heavily to fix past mistakes, and others should be expected to do the same. It’s not fair that some clubs effectively gain a bigger playing budget because maintaining a plastic pitch is significantly cheaper than grass or hybrid surfaces. And if you underinvest in your grass surface and ignore drainage issues, leaving tattie fields, there should be penalties to discourage it. This is a spectator sport. We wouldn’t accept a pockmarked cinema screen, so why accept substandard pitches? There should be a level playing field in the top flight for all. Pun intended.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Edit: to add, Falkirk played very good football yesterday. But I guess they are used to the speed of the pitch.

Could be down to several factors Joe, as you hint. The pitch was certainly one. 

I think Falkirk are a better all round team than us and have the playing squad to mix things up and vary tactics.  We, on the other hand are a better pure footballing side, if that makes sense.   

We have deficiencies in the squad which have come to the fore of late. For example, no cover for left back and a lack of strikers. I know Thor is still is still realtively untested and injured to boot. With quite a few players leaving in the summer Nicholson, Halliday, Gordon etc. it will allow us to address outstanding lacunas.    

[grizzlyg]

Think we should be fine for 4th, hibs fans not exactly out in numbers today and players look flat.   Bizarre as Falkirk 2pts behind them and home to hibs next week

[mio]

McGrath sent off now for them too. Happy days, down to 10men with 70mins to play.

[Spiderpig]

4 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Think we should be fine for 4th, hibs fans not exactly out in numbers today and players look flat.   Bizarre as Falkirk 2pts behind them and home to hibs next week

Hibs down to 10 men after 20 mins a wild challenge by McGrath, their 4th red card in 3 games ffs.

[Kmcalpin]

Celtic now scored. 

[bobbybingo]

VAR keeping up their usual standards. You couldn't trust them to check the time