Stenhousemuir v Motherwell 16/08/2026🏆SLC

[FirParkCornerExile]

1 minute ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

A million gor not even getting into league phase of conference ain't to be sniffed at

If we'd got fuck all from Europe this season it would have made bugger all difference to our squad and infrastructure plans , that is covered by our operating model and player dealings as it should be cos Europe is a periodic bonus. 

 

Lets just call it quits Id rather we won a cup that appear a few rounds in Europe, you think otherwise. You wont change my mind and I wont change yours.

[FirParkCornerExile]

2 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

It's not often we are going to produce a lennon Miller or eli just,  could be a good few years in fact

and it could be 10 years before we are back in Europe. Our transfer dealing have sustained us for years without Europe and that will continue to be the case. Otherwise the club would abandon that operating model. 

[Great Balls of Shire]

1 hour ago, MFCL84 said:

Yes, I'm sure we will.

I'm raging right now, but I'll be right behind the team and manager on Thursday.

I understand why the team today was what it was. I still believe in the system and the project. AJ is human. He misjudged the opposition and our own player's quality. We lost, we'll get over it, we lose every year. It is just a bitter pill to swallow right now. Especially when AJ fed us the importance of cup competitions to us in his pre-match presser.

I dont know if he misjudged the opposition, but maybe didn't appreciate how bad the surface was, I dont think it helped any of the young players with lack of physique. 

[Great Balls of Shire]

10 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

If we'd got fuck all from Europe this season it would have made bugger all difference to our squad and infrastructure plans , that is covered by our operating model and player dealings as it should be cos Europe is a periodic bonus. 

 

Lets just call it quits Id rather we won a cup that appear a few rounds in Europe, you think otherwise. You wont change my mind and I wont change yours.

Fair dues

[MJC]

9 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Lets just call it quits Id rather we won a cup that appear a few rounds in Europe, you think otherwise. You wont change my mind and I wont change yours.

I’ll be forever grateful that 1991 happened in my lifetime because I just don’t see us ever winning silverware ever again.

[Richie]

We've ~1m in the bank from Europe this season anyway.

Stenhousemuir was an eminently winnable tie.

Freiburg is in essence a bonus tie which, taking off C&A specs, is practically insurmountable over 2 legs.

Obviously we all hope for the best, but you need to be realistic.

Its akin to Hearts beating Benfica over 2 legs.

[Great Balls of Shire]

8 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

and it could be 10 years before we are back in Europe. Our transfer dealing have sustained us for years without Europe and that will continue to be the case. Otherwise the club would abandon that operating model. 

Every club is a selling club but the players have to be good enough..no way we could've held onto just , watt or slattery they were too good. However we need money to tempt these guys in first place. This Euro run will get us a few bodies in, im sure.

Anyway here's hoping for better run in Scottish Cup, might not be as congested a period in January and players back

[Great Balls of Shire]

2 minutes ago, MJC said:

I’ll be forever grateful that 1991 happened in my lifetime because I just don’t see us ever winning silverware ever again.

Yep, me too but lets be honest,  that came out of nowhere a bit too, so you never know.

That was back when it was 11 Scots v 11 Scots mostly , the Glasgow crowd have got it so sewn up now.

Maybe last year was our chance , you've got me agreeing with you now but Jens didn't do much wrong.

Swings and roundabouts innit.?

[johnstone]

Today highlighted how thin the squad is. For me this should have been addressed sooner so we could rotate better. But it can be hard to sign the right players quickly.

As for the Europe versus League Cup. Eh Euro run every day of the week for me. They only come along once in a while. So best to savour it.

One thing from the game.  Why as Luca Ross kept on. He was nursing a hamstring injury and spewed twice yet played on. Seemed an odd decision. 
 

Finslly well done Stenny, thought they were superb today. 

[grizzlyg]

8 minutes ago, MJC said:

I’ll be forever grateful that 1991 happened in my lifetime because I just don’t see us ever winning silverware ever again.

Well judging by your match predictions we were never winning the league cup anyway 🤪🤪

[Lobey_Dosser]

I have no qualms over the starting lineup today. With Williams, Sparrow and now Oscar on the injury list, we need to tread carefully. l

The bigger concern for me is how far we are away from last season’s approach. The performance against Helsinki was outstanding and everyone played really well. However, i didn’t quite buy into the narrative that we are playing total football. We are pragmatic and often direct. I don’t necessarily mind that, particularly if there is quality in the final third,  but the surreal days of us controlling the majority of games were a 2025/26 phenomenon. 

[twistandshout1983]

I do not believe at all there is any bad reaction at all to todays result . Everyone who is supporting Alfred and all the players still will be on Thursday night , that is guaranteed

My personal take I wanted to see us get to Hampden , and win any cup . Other fans will say it is more important to win and get through in Europe

Nobody is right or wrong ,  I want to win every game me personally , don't believe any genuine Well fan doesn't 💯 

[wunderwell]

Much of this debate is about either or. It's both - if we beat freiburg over two legs we would recognise this as one of the best results in our history. 

Now to do both, he should have played the best players from the start and tried to put the game to bed. 
Many had to play 45 mins anyway in one form or another. So it's not worked in any shape or form.
The way we play we need a lot of legs and forward thinking from our full backs as standard. Strikers need supply and we were never going to get that today. It's way to early for Booth, he's neat but creates little impact. 
I'm really disappointed in RCC overall. I think I am done, waiting on the transformation.

[Kmcalpin]

Some good points being on here and on P &B. I understand the problems the manager is facing and expected a degree of squad rotation but today was just too extreme.  When I saw the starting line up I expected a very difficult tie on a poor surface. In short AJ, and his management team, took a huge gamble and it backfired. We treated Stenny with disrespect and it cost us. 

Now AJ and his management team may have learnt some lessons today, but I have to ask did his assistant manager and coaches, who knew our youngsters very well, not advise him beforehand? The likes of Mikey Booth is clearly not ready for first team football and thats been apparent this season already. He's been hung out to dry. Luca Ross and Ewan Wilson are probably League One or Two standard and are not going to make it. Again who has been advising AJ? Most on here could have told him that weeks ago.  In short we may have a strong starting 11, almost, but the fringe players are just not cutting it for various reasons. Hopefully a few will leave, either permanently or on loan, as soon as Freiburg knock us out of the Conference League.  

Hopefully AJ has learnt a hard lesson that domestic Cups are important to Scots fans and he won't repeat today's mistakes. 

[Prestwickwell]

You pick a team to win a game

 

we’ve got no divine right to beat stenhousemuir & results like that can happen….it’s the way it happened though 

 

we offered absolutely zero for 120 minutes & that’s the issue….people are looking it as a league cup or Europe….we should have been good enough regardless to cause them problems 

[Kmcalpin]

14 minutes ago, johnstone said:

Today highlighted how thin the squad is. For me this should have been addressed sooner so we could rotate better. But it can be hard to sign the right players quickly.

Very true. Despite assurances from the top to the contrary, JBA's departure caused huge disruption and that has hit us very hard. 

I should have it said it before but congratulations to Stenny. It was their cup final and they wanted and very badly to win it. It was their day in the sun and good luck to them. Its unlikely they will repeat it. 

[MJC]

3 hours ago, robsterwood said:

Hearts hibs and Celtic through and rangers winning so unlikely we would have got further on this form. 

But Rangers and Celtic drew each other so one of them won’t be in the semis. Hibs have to go to Ross County and Hearts have Stenhousemuir on that awful pitch. Both of them will probably progress but you never know. And Killie and Aberdeen drew each other so one of them will be gone too.

Us winning the competition was always a long shot but to whimper out in the last 16 against a lower league side is a real sore one.

[Hillbill1987]

I havent seen the highlights and personally i dont want to.

My point might erk a few people lol. But to knocked out today yeah its a bitter pill to take but i dont care for this cup you get 400k for winning the trophy. We can expected 1.2 mill euros for playing 2 games against frieburg 3 times the amount of money for winning that cup.. In all we should be easily id said 2 million pound for 6 games in europe. Which again is 5 times the money of that cup.

 

We could have put out the under 19s today my focus is on thursday and next thursday can we upset the apple cart who knows but if we do we can count some good hard cash in the club

[Kmcalpin]

I watched today's highlights and taken together with the Helsinki game last Thursday, I'm concerned that we seem to be very vulnerable down the 2 flanks. 

[grizzlyg]

28 minutes ago, MJC said:

But Rangers and Celtic drew each other so one of them won’t be in the semis. Hibs have to go to Ross County and Hearts have Stenhousemuir on that awful pitch. Both of them will probably progress but you never know. And Killie and Aberdeen drew each other so one of them will be gone too.

Us winning the competition was always a long shot but to whimper out in the last 16 against a lower league side is a real sore one.

So you are raging we are put out have also said hearts could struggle on that awful pitch?    I think pitch had big impact today.  If grass we would have won

[Prestwickwell]

Pitch chats awful

 

its a shit park, it is what it is but it’s not the reason we got beat today 

 

will give credit to the boy Ross, not the level but at the end he signed a couple of kids tops etc ( I think ) 

 

& tbf to the fans nobody really took abuse for performance levels during the game ( more than fair to question it after it )

[MJC]

12 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

So you are raging we are put but have also said hearts could struggle on that awful pitch?    I think pitch had big impact today.  If grass we would have won

Yes I am raging we got put out.

And Hearts could also struggle on that awful pitch.

But I would expect Hearts to treat the tie with more respect and field their strongest side or at least not drop eight first team starters.

Plus they have better players than we do.

It’s all academic now for us. Yet again we have let ourselves down in a winnable domestic cup tie.

[grizzlyg]

6 minutes ago, MJC said:

Yes I am raging we got put out.

And Hearts could also struggle on that awful pitch.

But I would expect Hearts to treat the tie with more respect and field their strongest side or at least not drop eight first team starters.

Plus they have better players than we do.

It’s all academic now for us. Yet again we have let ourselves down in a winnable domestic cup tie.

I am raging also we are out but can fully understand where AJ was coming from.

Plus hearts don't have 7 players out injured