welldaft

I have every expectation that he will get at least until the Livi home game regardless what happens over the next couple of weeks. Livi have lost every game since they beat you know who. And in saying that it was against a 10 man Motherwell. If Livi continue to lose games up until the 30th Dec and then come to Fir Park and beat us. That would be it for me. Unless we do the unlikely thing and pick up a win beforehand. Davor was ok yesterday. Nothing great but imho Paton has gone backwards the past few games. But still expect Paton to get the nod for more physical St Mirren game if he is available ? The bigger Q for me is whether Kettlewell will ever drop Kelly. Oxborough must not be showing anything in training. I get Kelly is the Captain, but any other player would probably have been dropped based on form. His nonsense in his interview about Kelly making the choice to come for the ball to try and help us or whatever is blatant pish. I know he has to come out and say it. But if he genuinely thinks it then that is a huge concern.

I actually thought we were OK today. We battled well and had the better of the chances before Kelly threw in his usual clanger. Dropping Kelly is imho a bigger need than changing the Manager. The team are playing for him. That much is clear. You simply don’t score as many late goals if they are not. Again this is a long way away from the last few Hammell performances. St J did not look any better than us and have a new Manager. I think we will finish above them defending on what happens in the Jan transfer window. Them and Livi. Finish 10th or higher and regroup. Definitely doable even with the mess we have got ourselves in.

The only mistake Kettlewell is making at the moment is not taking the decision to relieve Kelly of the captaincy. It is affecting his performances. If it is not that he needs dropped. He needed dropped weeks ago and a decent performance v Celtic does not change my mind. I thought we were OK today. Not very good but better than I thought. St Johnstone even with a new Manager did not look up to much at all. We need to finish 10th or above. With Livi in the league that may come down to us and St J. 50/50 imho before the transfer window opens. I would not sack the Manager. The team even with its limitations are clearly playing for him. I have never known us to score so many last minute goals.

Live football tickets. Largest dedicated UK based online football ticket platform. They have their sources. Not without problems if you read Trust Pilot but 80% 5 star review and only 6% 1 star. No doubt I will end up being the 6% . They do offer 100% money back guarantee + 50% credit towards tickets on their site if they fail to deliver. Hopefully it does not come to that. Last I looked Category 3 tickets were £260 + £70 odd booking fee. Expensive especially as I paid slightly more .

I have paid over the odds for Switzerland tickets. Like 7x the price. 1. Because with 9 points I knew I had F all chance of getting a ticket via the SFA. 2. Because the chances of getting tickets via UEFA ballot will be less than 20% most probably. 3. Because the last time I was travelled to a major finals was in 1998. We hopefully will not have to wait as long again but I have probably 15 (will hit 70s)years before travelling becomes a chore…assuming I even live that long. 4. I doubt I will go to my grave with less than £400. 5. To me Cologne and the Switzerland game are the most attractive for numerous reasons. Am I pissed off I have had to pay that rate. Sure. But I want to be at one game. Paying 400 Euros+ for the x 3 games is a no no however. The £400 paid is also less than tartan army members with 13+ points would have paid to go to Norway, Cyprus, Spain etc. So again at peace with that… It won’t be long before tickets for Switzerland and Hungary games are going for 500 Euros + on secondary market. They already are that price and more for the Germany game in Munich.

Which is why I chose the Switzerland game. They are neutral are they not. So no fighting. I like my face the way it is . Plus the real reason is that game two will still be meaningful even if we lose to Germany. Imagine beating Hungary in the last game to knock them out. for the Tartan Army.

Live football tickets. Bought tickets before from them a couple of times and no problems. I had noticed that the price of tickets often comes down in the run up to games based on demand. Already the Category 3 tickets are £50 less than I paid per ticket . But still £265 plus booking fee. Currently they say they have over 600 available. When I booked it was around 400. I suspect once the SFA ticket sale is concluded the prices will go up again. Don’t ask me where they get the tickets from. And yes I still worry if it is all going to work out .

I went to Paris with 3 pals and none of us had tickets. I did meet Joanna Lumley at Waterloo on the way across and got my photo taken with her and the lion rampant flag. That made the trip worthwhile regardless of everything else. Ended up watching the game in a basement bar with Iranian football fans… Been a Tartan army member for over 25 years. Rarely miss a home game but only have 9 points due to getting a freebie ticket for Ukraine game and not travelling abroad. Do not expect to get any tickets so 3 of us decided to go to the Switzerland game. Less Germans and mad Hungarian fans. Paid well over the odds for category 3 tickets. Well over the odds ! So will be surprised and disappointed if there actually are any left come Sunday. All that said at one point I was considering paying 1800 Euros for hospitality. Now we have the whole trip plus tickets for less than that. Is what it is.

I said it a few weeks ago. Any opposing team Manager team talk should consist of nothing more than "cross the ball into the Motherwell box at every opportunity". Even during half time if possible. What will then transpire is a combination of woeful marking / defending and a goalie that is useless at defending cross balls even when they are literally on top of him. The fact we will be lucky to have 11 fit players will also point to another miserable afternoon.

Our 1st defeat to County in the last 7 games I believe. That is sackable in its own right .

Now you are just rubbing our noses in it. I would suggest swapping Laidlaw for Kelly. Seems reasonable. After all you would get an International Squad goalkeeper. What say you……deal ?

Hopefully they will ban plastic pitches in the top flight next season .

If he can stay sober and not fight with everyone that might not be a bad shout

Agreed. The whole CEO thing has been utterly farcical. The Board should give some clarity on what the f**k is happening in that respect. Is Derek Weir taking it on FT, for 3 days a week or for 2 minutes a day A shambles right enough.

Ricky Foster to be given caretaker role. He wins every game in December and we finish a comfortable 8th at the end of the season. He starts next season well u til we go on a run of 10 games without a win. Like Groundhog Day. Rinse and repeat.

We did have nearly 60% possession and as many shots at goal as County. Clearly things are on the up* * kidding of course. After tonight I am now at the stage I was with Hammell after St Johnstone at home. He should have been binned after that. Instead we gave him another league game or two and the cup game v Raith. It remains to be seen whether he survives this and gets the game on Saturday. I am not convinced he should. Even after making a defence of him earlier in the day. Tonight just served up the fact he simply does not know what to to do. The formation and tactics looked off before KO and within 2 minutes were shown to be so. He seems to have run out of ideas….time is up.

He should have had a chance long before now. Celtic game apart Kelly has been one of our poorest performers in this woeful run.

Merlin would have a hard job getting this squad to stay up

It is essentially the same squad. We were lucky to beat Hearts for sure. But the performances in those initial half a dozen games to now is night and day. We looked a decent team. Defended reasonably well. The fall from them to now is huge. Losing obviously knocks the confidence but you would have thought all that those late comebacks would galvanise the team. Quite the opposite it would appear. With each passing game we appear easier to score against. Something needs to change. Probably (now) the Manager and also much needed resources in January.

I suspect he will get Saturday at home to St Johnstone. But failure to gain 3 points then should see him gone. Not even a draw would be acceptable if as I suspect we end up losing tonight. We have been conceding goals at will. All any of us hoped for or expected is to try and make the team harder to beat or score against. Playing 3 forwards will not genuinely achieve that. But to concede on the 1st corner inside 2 minutes is inexcusable. I want him to succeed as I said before but lose tonight and he really should only get this weekend if that to save his job. Lose that game and we will be in the bottom 2 without doubt.

Make it 2-0 I am starting to think his tea is oot as the saying goes. He gets Saturday and if we don’t win he should be gone !

Me too. Busy farting about on the IPad and see on Sky sports news we are 1 down. Did not even realise the game had kicked off . Ah well the hope that we could defend better lasted less than 2 minutes. I have watched since then and the County keeper had a good double save, but our passing is just woeful even when not under any pressure. Keep passing to County players.

You are right that he did a phenomenal job last season, which is why I think it is a little disingenuous to dismiss his stats from last season when making any comparison. Plus I am not overly bothered about how he did at Ross County. Back then he was a novice Manager and you would hope he learned from that time and makes less mistakes this time around. He will leave us at some point. This season, the next, the one after….. I think at our club 1 season is a failure, 2 seasons acceptable and anything more than 3 seasons then whoever it is has done a very good job. In my own opinion you judge the Manager on: 1. His performances this season = I would say not a pass but not a failure just yet. That could change the next 3 weeks. 2. His performance since he joined = pass mainly for his ability to take us from relegation to comfortable mid table with a win record bettered by very few if any teams inc Celtic. (I accept we were playing bottom 6 teams). 3. His performances based on the budget at this disposal. This is key to me. If the budget was cut by say 25/35% then you ought to take that into consideration. From the outside looking in it appears as if he was given less budget / resources than say the Killie Manager or Dundee even. 4. His performance in the transfer window. As point 3. If he was given less to work with it might explain why we have Oli Shaw and not Steven Fletcher for example. You can only piss with the etc etc. No offence to Oli Shaw as he did very well for our equaliser at the weekend. I also think the board will take in points 2 and 3 as much as points 1 and 4 when reaching a decision. I want him to turn it around. I am sure the Board do. I am also sure most of our fans do. But these next 5 games in Dec will ultimately decide his fate.

I believe Casey is suspended for tonight so we probably will see a return to defence for Butcher. Depends on whether McGinn is fit enough to start which I doubt. Butcher has looked a bit ponderous in midfield. Maybe he is better suited to staying back and just concentrating on defending. I have been largely impressed by Spencer. He is young so he will be inconsistent but I thought he was excellent against Celtic in the defensive role. As for Gent. He does seem better going forwards than defending. When he came on (on Saturday) I noticed how relatively easy it was for the opposition to get past him. Probably why he is not starting . I agree that it would be worth a try to start both Spencer and Gent as suggested as it is not like we have been defensively sound in any case.

Have said it before. Would like Pep G and Ketts to be asked the same questions and a timer . Pep would be 2m42s and Ketts 24m20s. It is his personality. And to be fair he generally talks sense, he just takes quite a bit of time saying it. What I don’t get is he often gives away his thinking / tactics / approach to the games. Don’t suppose it is giving too much away but that is the point at which I wish he would button it . As for tomorrow’s game. Will any of us be surprised to see us concede at least 2 avoidable goals and be chasing the game once again. That 1st goal against on Saturday gets worse and worse every time I see it. We simply don’t seem capable of not doing that in most games these days - bar maybe Parkhead and to be fair Yang and Oriley missed two gilt edge free headers they should have buried. Anyways here’s hoping something strange happens and we defend well