welldaft

As I said I think Israel away will be tough but worth bearing in mind the FIFA rankings. Of the 4 sides Slovakia are actually ranked highest at 32 whilst we r at 45 and Czech R are 46. Israel are down in 84 place ! The rankings are a bit flawed imho but 52 places between Slovakia and Israel should be quite telling. So although Slovakia are away in Czech Republic they stand as much of a chance of beating or drawing as we do in Israel which may help us this midweek.

Israel will still be pissed off we beat them in the semis of the play offs. The Czechs will win tonight and probably win on Wednesday. So suddenly we need to win on Wed night at a difficult venue. Clarke has done a very good job but I think we should have gone ALL out to win today. I get you cannot play all the players across 3 games. That plus we were unlucky today. Deserved at least a point. At least it makes for an interesting evening....

Very kind of you. Edit to add. Reading your post again. If Israel win tonight then we win the group.......

Nonsense. The Czechs are at home to Slovakia on Wed night which means they will be favourites for another 3 points. That would mean we have to win in Israel which will be far from easy. If we only needed a point I reckon we would go all out for 3 and if we only get 1 then fine. But to need to get all 3 is a much tougher proposition by far.

This. We have been seeded 3 years in a row and each time have drawn arguably the toughest non seeds. Fucking monotonous. Ayr, Alloa, Arbroath, Falkirk or Dunfermline. In fact I would happily have lost to those teams just to get a different draw. I knew we would draw St Johnstone. Only surprise is it is not away. Could not give less of a f**k about this draw/ cup. I will look up the result at some point after FT. YAWN...... Borrowed from a tweet: Motherwell draws since 2016. Celtic (Prem) • Ross County (Prem) • Aberdeen (Prem) • Rangers (Prem) • Celtic (Prem) • Livingston (Prem) • Hearts (Prem) • Hearts (Prem) • St Johnstone (Prem)

Seeing the goal back it actually looks as if the Ref blocks McGinn at the vital moment. In rugby that would have been a penalty for Scotland. Not saying McGinn would have stopped the shot but he would have had a chance to get closer to yon Vodka man.

Would love it if McBurnie morphed into a scoring sensation. I like an underdog and he fits the bill. To be fair he was unlucky in the games at Hampden and took his penalty well on Thursday. I agree though this is his chance as he won’t get too many more. And so far he should have done better with 2 good chances. Actually playing some decent football and creating good chances.

The Corinthia

I would start our strongest team to try and get the job done. If we win then I would play a B side as such v Israel to give most players at least 90 minutes. Clarke May choose to rest players but the likes of Gallacher will want to play. He has 7 caps and will not be saying to Clarke he wants a rest. I am pretty sure of that. Most players want to get as many caps as possible. I would start Griffiths over McBurnie for Dykes.

For once it would be nice if we did not Scotland it. Why is it even a surprise

No way r we going to win this 1-0. Just does not happen to Scotland.

Me toooooooo

We lack the quality to make a difference. Simple as. We have been in many good positions and lack the skill and nous to do anything with it. As a Well fan O Donnell is OK but too many poor passes when in a good position.

100% this. He pings in 30 yarders v us in finals but I do not see it in the Scotland squad. Seems a waste of a jersey and has largely been anonymous and I think Armstrong is a better player for this type of game. I would love to be proved wrong.

I am keeping calm and trying to go down the road of if it happens it happens....wont last for long. Serbia all told are a better side but not by a big margin. That they are at home is an advantage but less so without the crowd. They have had some fairly average results over last year or so. I guess it depends whether they are stronger or weaker as a result of the pressure. I just do no want glorious failure. Would rather lose comfortably than 1-o from a dodgy penalty in 119 minutes. I do think it will be a long night and we will need a fair bit of luck to go our way. But Clarke has a habit of shitfesting his way to results so more of the same would be just perfect.

What is going wrong is they are not playing Motherwell every week. If they were they would qualify for Europe ! Not bitter u understand.

You may well be proved right Desp and the evidence of the past would point to your comments above being fairly accurate. However there are a number of circumstances that may well differ this time around. For one he is back home and fairly settled in his life. Two he seems to be enjoying his football and the company of his teammates. Seems like a close knit squad for the most part. Three Robinson has proven in the past he can get players to play better than they have at other clubs. Four even he must know that at 26 he needs to play consistently well to stay in the team and actually look back on his career with some consistency of success. Playing in Europe and having he potential to do so again may keep him motivated. If you are right then there would be nobody at all surprised. But I am willing him on (I know you are also) and hoping that he will be an important player for us over the next year and a half.

Good analysis as always Capt. What I remember most about the Thunderdome era with Robinson (apart from getting to 2 finals) is how most of the fans, myself included thought the football was eye bleedingly awful to watch. That was the constant theme from a lot of posters back then. It is fair to say that changing to a more positive footballing side means that we are able to match up and often beat all the other sides in the league but that as you point out that does not wash when the Old Firm come to town. It is annoying constantly losing to the gruesome twosome but I would rather we had a better product on the park in terms of footballing ability and more pleasing on the eye. Which is what we have right now. Beating St J, Aberdeen, Livi and Ross C without conceding a goal is in my opinion better for us than scraping a draw or narrow win v Old Firm and losing more games to teams around about us. It is unfortunate for us we only had 2 winnable games before playing Celtic instead of the 4 we were due to have. Had we won both of those or taken 3 or 4 points we would be in 5th place. As much as I would like 2 x 3-0 wins awarded I suspect the SPFL will not go down that road. Those games are more than likely to be re-scheduled but it has not helped with our momentum. Hopefully we will find out this week as I believe the disciplinary meetings take place tomorrow or Wednesday ?

If you cannot take it don’t dish it out ya fuckin walloper.

At least we had a go after HT. Hard to be harsh on the players after that. They were clinical with 4 goals from 6 on target. Felt the big goalie could have done better for 1st and 3rd goals. But I guess there is a reason why he was available on a free. Would give Archer a go v St Johnstone. See who is better of the two whilst we wait for Carson to return in the New Year.

Give it time.... I will just be glad when the two of you self combust when Rangers stop u winning 10 IAR. Don’t want those chunts to win either but you two are annoying me more today. PS - Celtic gave us a our record transfer fee for a player that cannot even get on the pitch. Has anyone actually mentioned the massive gulf in resources yet. If not they should do.

This. Choosing same team and formation as we did v RossC and Livi was a huge mistake. Celtic have the freedom of ML1 on either side. We should have dropped a striker for a midfielder. Celtic would probably still win but we would have made it tougher for them.

Just listened to the customary 20 minutes on Celtic current situation On BBC Sportsound and the one time they mentioned Motherwell was when they mentioned the game tomorrow. I would love Motherwell to win if only so I can get angry at the post match analysis which will consist of 59 minutes on the crisis at Celtic before they say “ we must not forget about Motherwell...oh that is time up for today...thanks for listening. I get the Old Firm are the two biggest sides by some distance, but they really take the proverbial pish with their coverage. Should call it Glasgow Sportsound.

The most surprising stat for me is that Maurice Malpish has a higher win % than any other Manager. I demand a recount. On to the game tomorrow. Would dearly love for us to win or even come away with a point. But history tends to show that when there is any expectation or hope that we can cause an upset then it dissolves fairly quickly after KO. In many ways there is no pressure on us - it is all on Celtic. That can be a good or a bad thing. We need to start well as I expect an onslaught and Celtic to try and go on the front foot from KO. We need to be composed enough and have belief as a team we can take something from the game. As always we will need luck. Giving away soft penalties or a soft goal early on will set the tone. As for the team line up and formation. I would be tempted to go 4-5-1. Goalie and Defence as last game. Watt up front. I expect Grimshaw will be added to midfield to give us a bit of bite and energy. Rest of midfield would be Campbell, Polworth, Maguire and Lang. I have seen this movie too many times before and usually leaves me crying. Every now and then you get to see a happy ending. Fingers crossed for one tomorrow come 2pm.

Basically this...... Worst result for us tonight I am afraid. Celtic are there for the taking but I think they will try sooooooooo much harder to get a result than before. I can picture all Well fans excited come 12 noon on Sunday only for the ref to give a soft as f**k penalty within a few minutes. followed by our dreams crumbling. I am a realist and this was bad ju ju for us tonight. I hope I am wrong but this will be like Groundhog Day,