Motherwell v Hearts 25/10/2026

[Prestwickwell]

1 hour ago, star sail said:

It is nice to hear at least one like minded voice. Agree with what you say. I just hope the building negative momentum does not overwhelm the players and the manager. A result will make a huge difference to this squad.

Not likeminded 

like everyone else he’s saying if we don’t pick up decent points from the next 2 he’s got to go 

[wellsince75]

7 minutes ago, MFCL84 said:

Maswanhise is hiding in games. He runs about in spaces where he is not expecting to influence the game in any way. He needs to be dropped.

He's been brutal - I thought today when Kanga and Thor (who was awful) came on they'd take Maswanhise off and put Seb more to the right as at least he was working them.   

Sad to see his absolute decline which lets be honest has been for all of 2026 - he for me wouldn't start again for several weeks and even as sub I'd want to see an impact.    

 

[Prestwickwell]

Just now, MFCL84 said:

I think that the thought might have been that Sparrow keeps going backwards while O'Donnell pushes the team forward with his passing. That would have given us a threat from the right, as well as the Kanga, Longelo threat from the left. It seemed like a positive move to me.

Unfortunately, it didn't work due to an error that led to the game being over.

I’ve not bought into Kanga at all, too lightweight for the league 

but today thought he added a bit 

hibs for example getting beat off celtic, Hanlon up front ( now that could be seen as ridiculous but at least u can see the thought process )

us?

 

 

[MFCL84]

10 minutes ago, wellsince75 said:

thought today when Kanga and Thor (who was awful) came on they'd take Maswanhise off and put Seb more to the right as at least he was working them.   

Agreed. I didn't agree with the subs at the time. Maswanhise had to be hooked. However, Kanga working on the left did make a huge difference.

[grizzlyg]

10 minutes ago, MFCL84 said:

Agreed. I didn't agree with the subs at the time. Maswanhise had to be hooked. However, Kanga working on the left did make a huge difference.

Sooner Maswanhise goes the better,  hindsight a great thing but should have punted him in January 

[wellsince75]

29 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

I’ve not bought into Kanga at all, too lightweight for the league 

but today thought he added a bit 

hibs for example getting beat off celtic, Hanlon up front ( now that could be seen as ridiculous but at least u can see the thought process )

us?

Kanga  was excellent when he came on -  it enabled Longelo, Hodge and Kanga all to cause issues - which we should have scored from. 

It needs 3 of them the wingback, midfield and attack and with the talent of Kanga and Longelo really promising.   This is something that we should leverage in coming game.s 

On the right we need something similar - it should really be JK, Fadinger and Said. 

 

[Stuwell2]

I said at the start of the season that AJ should get at least the first round of games before any discussion about his future should start and we’re now at that point so I’ll give my initial thoughts 

The European games went well on paper and folk can argue that we went toe to toe with Fieberg until the sending offs but in reality we were out played and were only in the games due to excellent defensive work and luck -  especially in the second game where we only equalised thanks to their keepers howler. 

League cup - enough said 

League - Poor performance after poor performance sprinkled with moments of optimism.

Some of the things that have happened are outwith the managers control, blunders and injuries  - the loss of Priestman and Koutroumbis downgrades the team  so far this season (the loss of Lowery and Fadinger today) means he hasn’t had a full squad to pick from yet - and players loss of form. Other things are within his control, selection, set up and substitutes all of which have been suspect at times. 

Would a change now be the correct way forward? I’m not convinced so I’m prepared to wait another 6 games or possibly until the end of the year after midweek before pulling the plug on his tenure.
 

In the meantime the board should be looking around for a plan B. 

[twistandshout1983]

I wouldn't consider myself a happy clapper etc , no wish to be negative or paint doom and gloom either

At times today I thought we would have deserved a draw at least , so many chances but at the same time can only miss so many . Have seen much worse than this

I do have my doubts though that things are improving anytime soon results wise as there is definete tough games coming up

 

[grizzlyg]

Get off your phone and get us a large cruzcampo............said Mrs grizzly 🤣🤣

[Welly Machine]

There were definitely signs of improvement performance wise today and with a bit more composure I think we would have taken something from the game.

Two good finishes from Hearts but nobody tracks Braga and a poor clearance from O'Donnell, albeit I think a bit unlucky it lands straight at Miller's feet.

In the next week we desperately need a couple of 90 minutes performances with minimum mistakes and conversion of chances or even something to fall for us.

[Spiderpig]

2 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

Sooner Maswanhise goes the better,  hindsight a great thing but should have punted him in January 

Aye rejecting the alleged £2 million bid from Anderlecht seems like a big error now if it was true.

Given how we cashed in on our previous one season wonders like Higdon, and Bair, for me the board dropped the ball with TJ.

[FirParkCornerExile]

6 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Aye rejecting the alleged £2 million bid from Anderlecht seems like a big error now if it was true.

Given how we cashed in on our previous one season wonders like Higdon, and Bair, for me the board dropped the ball with TJ.

My mate and I were saying in January we should have punted him. Even during his hot streak there were questions for us about  his game but anytime anything was said about selling him in January was met with howls of derision. Next to no Motherwell fan wanted him punted in January so its kinda hard to now say the board dropped the ball. 

[2/6 tae get in]

4 hours ago, MFCL84 said:

Maswanhise is hiding in games. He runs about in spaces where he is not expecting to influence the game in any way. He needs to be dropped.

All season long he's been doing it.

[wellfan]

This is one of the poorest-coached teams I’ve seen in years. I honestly don’t even know where to start with the analysis and criticism anymore. A home win was absolutely necessary today, and this is what we got.

[SteelmaninOZ]

3 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

Get off your phone and get us a large cruzcampo............said Mrs grizzly 🤣🤣

Telt 

[Mccus28]

12 hours ago, MFCL84 said:

I think that Hodge was one of our best players today. He was effective at disrupting Hearts play and was tidy on the ball too.

We disagree then

[johnstone]

I thought there was signs of improvement today. We looked far better when Kanga came on. 

My concern is that Alfred seems to be unable to change formation or tactic so managers can work us out easily.

Not really sure what the answer is to be honest, feel that I don’t want us to go down the manger merry go round again. 

He needs to get the balance of the squad right. Something he seems unable to do. 

Also I feel we need to drop Tawanda and play Lowery in his position. 

 

[Onthefringes]

15 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

I actually think the players are every bit as culpable as the manager and the recruitment team.

We have spent £2million on players that couldn't lace the boots of the ones we've lost. The recruitment for me has been poor. Who the fuck looked at Girdwood-Reich and Mooreman and thought there is a mobile pairing for the centre of a defence that wants to play a high pressing game.. I think the manager wants to play the style we played last year but we've recruited players who can't do it. Everything we do is slow and laboured and most of them want to play it safe and play it back . The movement off the ball going forward is also suspect as is the final ball . The quicker we get Preistman and McGinn back in the team the better

That said I did see an improvement today, albeit with our customary gifts. Longello and Said were very good esp 2nd half. McGhee looked solid and could potentially be a very good asset along side Preistman. What Maswanhise has done to get back into the team is fucking baffling. However whilst I see improvement I'm prepared to give AJ the benefit of the doubt for the time being.  However improvement has got to deliver results and if they don't come in the next 3 games there is only one outcome.

I'm not even sure a new manager would get a tune out of a few of those players we have,  too many flatter to deceive. The defence is a fucking shambles and we will need to recruit AGAIN in January as sure as night follows day.

A crowd of 9912 but I think many season ticket holders stayed away but were counted cos no way did that crowd look a baw hair off 10,000

Just out of curiosity, could you quantify that? I’d wager club accounts won’t show anywhere near that figure.

[joewarkfanclub]

I was pretty encouraged by our performance yesterday. 

We seemed much better organised at the back, kept the ball better, pressed better, created better chances and the work rate certainly didnt look like the performance of a team that had downed tools on the manager.

Was it perfect? No, far from it. But Ive been looking for small improvements, and yesterday, I thought there were many.

On the balance of play, I thought we deserved something from the game. We created better & more chances than Hearts and had we taken some of them, I dont think they could have complained too much if we had won the game.

Problem is we didnt.

Eythor misses 2 guilt edged chances. I get he is rusty, but to not even make clean contact with the ball on 2 occasions is pretty poor. 

Not sure what the reasoning was for changing Seb out. He didnt look out of running to me and looks far more likely in front of goal. He was unlucky in the first half with his volley.

Similarly, the much maligned Sparrow had a very good game against McPake, who was supposed to pull his pants down, but didnt. He looked like he was still full of running and I wouldnt have subbed him out either. SOD then makes the mistake for the 3rd game in a row, making that substitution also look silly.

You could argue those 2 changes were on the manager and cost us any chance of getting back in the game, but looking at the bench its hard to see what else he could have done at that point to freshen things up.

He did bring on Kanga, and that partnership with Manny looked very promising. Id like to see more of that.

Overall, really dispiriting to goes 6 losses on the bounce. We are definitely in trouble re our league position, but it looks far from terminal at this point.

We do desperately need to get a result from somewhere though, before we end up bottom and detached from the rest. Teams rarely recover from those situations.