Swello

We're the 3rd top scorers in the league.

I've been at every Motherwell game at Tynecastle for years (breaking that run tomorrow though) - and I'm not convinced that cheap option has ever actually existed as something we can actually buy with real money. Maybe 10 years ago..

We've got a top 3 attack and a bottom 3 defence - so it feels easy to predict another high scoring draw. In reality, Hearts will have too much for us - if I was betting, I'd go for 3-1 here. It honestly doesn't feel like shuffling the defenders is going to change too much - the level of panic when an inswinger comes in from the first corner is going to be there regardless. At this point, the idea of keeping it tight for an hour and getting the home crowd annoyed which is the standard away game plan in our league is just a fantasy - so f**k it, gung-ho attacking for 90 minutes it is.

"So Pat, we'd like you to review some VAR decisions" "Well, the big number 3 on the other team was definitively offside for me. Decision should have been: Penalty Awarded to Celtic" "The incident in question was in a Livingston-Dundee match but we'll record your decision. Now on to you "Biscuits"....."

He's certainly great at non-sequiturs and pish That drivel makes me almost as angry as VAR does.

We've had a number of high league places and euro qualifications that were more or less based on taking advantage of other club's problems (Hearts, Hibs and Utd going for multiple tours in the lower leagues, Rangers ceasing to exist, etc) - and at the moment, it's the same thing but we're obviously not in a position to take advantage as we've been on a dip of our own for the past couple of years.. One thing that is good about our league is that the Top 6 (and europe qualification) practically never works out the way it's meant to.

Aye, you're quite right - i forgot the linesman gave it too.

Such a shite decision - sums up how Var is steadily ruining things. Offside was never meant to do this.

I think this is important. Morton showed a few days ago exactly what you do (grim as it is). In any case, we're not allowed nice things this season - it's the rules.

We're the 3rd top scoring team in the league - being led by Theo Bair who's one of the top scorers in the league. Imagine our defending was even acceptable

And the one player who isn't covered by the Luke Watt paradox.

We're 7th in the league. 7th. I don't understand what's going on.

Not too much

I think I'm in the same boat as Busta here - Kelly has made some number of bad mistakes but has also not been stopping efforts that our better keepers simply would have. Woods made some high profile mistakes but also suffered as he wasn't Sieb Dykstra and the support never took to him. Kelly has had way more patience from the support. To me, Kelly and Woods are on a par overall but Kelly's levels have dropped hugely since he joined and going with him next season pretty much guarantees more of what we're seeing now and I'm really not up for that.

I get the Luke Watt paradox and we’ve seen it plenty of times over the years but my only note of caution is any assumption that Kettlewells judgement on players is infallible runs into the rocks as soon as you think of Connor Wilkinson playing in midfield while Davor was sitting with skelfs in his arse.

This has been exactly my position so far - the risk of using your other keeper is that the level of performance would drop considerably, the defence would panic and he'd likely ending up conceding soft goals. Hmmm At this point - I'm not seeing that there is a great deal of risk involved in giving Oxbourough a game at Pittodrie in front of a tiny 'Well support. Kelly isn't commanding his box, he looks nervous (which is clearly transmitting to the defence), his distribution is *fucking honking* and (the normal get out clause for struggling keepers) he is simply not a good shot stopper - he's at the point where he's scarcely waving his hands at shots. What are we gaining by keeping him in place, never mind as captain? Oxbourough might be no better, or he might be an upgrade on current model Kelly - but it's surely worth seeing what he's made of?

Well done Morton last night - totally in control and a well deserved win. Don't take this the wrong way - but can we agree that we'll give it a few years off and maybe arrange a league cup meeting sometime in the late 2040's?

I've slept on it but a nightmare about getting Morton in the playoffs woke me up early and I'm still pissed off with the state of us last night. Kelly fumbling a single passback-speed shot about 3 times before we conceded should have been warning enough. Never mind reduced terms, surely we should be parting ways in the summer (he seems genuinely un-droppable, so I won't bother going there). When you think about the better keepers we've had, you felt that they won you points at key times in games. I can think of only one game this season - where he saved a penalty and played well against the team I'm not going to mention in case it summons even more of their supporters onto here - where he's done that. So - thanks and goodbye. Keeper aside, last night felt like a failure of management to me. We knew Morton were going well (and to be fair, they looked well coached and totally comfortable against us) but there just seemed to be a lack of any kind of shape or game plan - it looked like lower half of the Championship style. A lot of the gains recently seemed to go out the window and we were back in Dingwall in December. I don't think there are many precedents for managers just leaving at the end of their contracts in the way that players do - but that option needs to remain on the table dependant on how it goes between now and the end of the season - any extension before then would be silly. I said earlier in the week that the cup game could go a long way to defining how we view the season and it's certainly done that. Staying ahead of Ross County is our only (fairly dispiriting) goal for the rest of the season. For lots of reasons, 23/24 is likely to go down as one of the worst seasons in our stint in the top flight - it's felt like an endless boot in the baws and I'm looking forward to May TBH.

It's quite interesting to see that the idea of people moving under cover is seen as a safety issue now. It's giving me nostalgia for when I was young in the pre-1991 Fir Park. It was common for the entire terracing crowd to squeeze into the covered terracing when it was raining and I would think in those days, the terracing overall had a capacity and no-one actually cared where they all stood. This game illustrates the point well..

Feels like a proper cup tie, which is a good thing as the early rounds of the cup are the best bit of the season for me. The feeling I'm getting is that we're giving Morton the respect they are due at this point - so I don't think there is any chance of us taking this lightly. Given we were well beaten by Raith Rovers at this stage last year - there isn't a single Motherwell supporter that thinks we are clear favourites here but we are in a much better place than we were then (or autumn into winter this season) - so I think Morton will know they're in a game as much as we will.

I *wish" they had announced this 10 mins after the transfer window closed when we were all raging.

If what is implied in this statement is true - ie, that Celtic alone were given the chance to give input, it shows tragically poor judgement on the SPFL side if nothing else. What did they think was going to happen when that nugget got out? I mean if they let both cheeks in on it and no-one else, it wouldn't even be a story.

I think Friday is pretty crucial on how the season is viewed overall. If we can escape Cappielow still in the cup, then we'd be going into Tuesday in very decent form and maybe with a bit of confidence for the first time in months.... We've got a history of being better in the 2nd half of the season and there are some signs that we are ready to do that yet again - but it's early days and a loss on Friday could kill the whole thing.

I never got over the fucking cheek of him going and sitting on the front steps with his head in his hands so that he could get photographed doing it - there was 13,500 seats going spare if he wanted to get out of the boardroom.

You're spot on about 1923 though - and his Darts book is brilliant too (even if you're not into that). ETA - this is Ned Boulting that wrote these, not Pat Nevin, who's a wee w**k.