Mr Hahn

Wondering this more and more as the weeks go on. Get that it’s difficult to drop the captain but Oxborough gives me way more confidence.

Would add Paul McGinn to that list too. Thought he was excellent and barely ever makes a mistake.

Absolutely buzzing, Fir Park was bouncing at the end. Thought it was a good cup tie. Utd slightly edged the first half IMO but found themselves behind after a belter from Robinson. He certainly enjoyed it too, was celebrating right in front of us in the PoD. Second half I thought we were the better team by a far bit bar a 10 minute spell when Moult and Dalby caused us a fair few problems and tbf Oxborough makes a great save from Dalby before Moult scored. Had to be him didn't it. Was the far end of the pitch from us for the penalty so didn't have a great view but couldn't believe a defender was going to ground like that in the box in injury time, absolutely madness. Miller deserved his goal though and think everyone knew the pen was going in as soon as he picked up the ball. He's absolute class and has such incredible composure for his age. Miller was stand out but would also give good marks for Robinson who lead the line well and took his goal superbly and Paul McGinn who I thought was absolutely excellent.

f**king Yasssss! That's the best night we've had at Fir Park in a long time. Place was absolutely bouncing at the end. Think I've f**ked my voice at the end but will happily spend my weekend a bit hoarse for that. A really good cup tie and so happy for Miller. That pen was in as soon as he picked up the ball, boy's f**king class.

Find that VAR piece somewhat interesting. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to experience a game without it for a change but where does the £16,000 come from? Perhaps a question that's already been poured over in this forums but isn't the infrastructure for it pretty much a sunk cost? Or does it cost us £16,000 per game in the Premiership for this? Also find it interesting that on the rare occasion that it's an option not to use it for us (and the other three clubs opting against using it), we take it. I'm really buzzing for the game tonight and fair play to the Society for the effort they've been putting in. Even saw on twitter they were getting the word out in my old stomping grounds in Strathaven. Feel what they've done for this game is really encouraging for the direction of the Society and hope we reap the rewards with a big turnout tonight.

Agree with all of this. Think Kettlewell deserves a bit of praise for Wilson. I wasn't totally convinced he had it at our level despite having the physical attributes and it would have been quite easy for Ketts to fall back on the experience of Seddon now he's fit. In the league cup Wilson looked fine against smaller teams without excelling and I thought he just looked a bit hesitant and nervous. That was a cracking performance today though. Time will tell if he can become a consistent Premiership player but today was a good sign. Halliday was great for the 50 minutes he was on the park. Looked so hungry and just seemed to have an extra yard from when he's played previously. I think some of the criticism he's gotten has been warranted. He's of often too slow to play the ball on and I don't know if it's just me, but for an experienced pro I think he still gets caught ballwatching sometimes when we don't have it and midfielders run off him to easily. But that performance was much better and hopefully we'll get more of that assuming his knock isn't a bad one. Robinson played a bit of a thankless shift today I think, held the ball up well, won some niggly fouls and was a pain for the Hearts CBs without ever feeling like he was much of a threat. I think for me, Robinson clearly has great feet and uses his body well but sometimes takes too many touches. Where a Van Veen or a Bair might have knocked a ball on first time, he'll often take an extra couple of touches and we lose a chance. Maswanhise looks like a super find. I feel like it's been a while since we've had a player like him. Can cut in on his right or go down the line, makes him a scary prospect for defenders if he can keep up this form. Miller is so good with the ball at his feet, just so enjoyable to watch. My highlight of the game was his nutmeg on Shankland which drew a foul. Was right in front of me in the PoD stand and was chef's kiss stuff. Absolutely brilliant game from us and hopefully more of the same to come. Would share other's sentiments that the bois were a miss today, particularly at the start of the game but it was nice to hear some of the more classic chants coming from the East Stand towards the end. I haven't followed the reasoning for the under 14s getting turned away from the game but can only say that I think that's f**king sad. I might not have been as avid a follower of Motherwell if I couldn't get into games at that age without my dad. I hope there's a good reason they're doing it or otherwise get it resolved, no way we can afford to be turning away fans of that age group.

I’ll be honest, thought Paton was one of the better players on the pitch today. Agree the mid 3 maybe wasn’t the best combo but thought he was the one continually finding space more than others. His (any most others) touch was a bit pre-season, but otherwise I thought he played nicely. Agree on Robinson comments, he looked very sharp when he came on and similarly didn’t realise he was only 22. Excited to watch him this season. Stuparevic also had some nice touches. Balmer looked very solid and composed. Not too sure what to make of the young lads given the level of opposition but Wilson’s set up for the 3rd was excellent and Wells had a few good touches. Think he’ll get a bit braver on the ball as he gets more games but that’ll come and a decent start.

This might not be far off. I've been an on/off season ticket holder for 20 years but never been a member of the society. Will almost certainly sign up if this proposal is rejected as the current direction feels like something worth getting behind. Seems from Kettlewell's post match yesterday that we're not completely done with signings which is rather wild considering we've brought in how many? 9? Most of us will get our first glimpses of some of the new boys this weekend but have been encouraged with what we've come up with so far, at least on paper. Would still very much love for us to bring in more of a Spittal replacement. Nicholson looked decent last year and glad he's signed but feel he might not quite be as consistent as Spittal and a slightly different kind of player. Obviously difficult to replace someone who was so integral as Spittal but if we could get one more in in that mould I'd feel much more comfortable going into this campaign. If/when Bair goes, the signings we've made seem decent enough in that position but reckon if Miller was to go this summer we'd need to try and get someone else in for that position. Davor is decent and Halliday is alright but without both Miller and Spittal, feel we'd really be missing a bit of class in the middle.

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or not of those who watch us regularly but I've liked Kettlewell since he got the job and am more than content for him to be our manager for the foreseeable. Some of the criticisms of him are reasonable and not trying to pretend he's perfect but honestly, I don't know if there's much better out there for us. He doesn't have much of a plan B outside of his system and the defence has been an ongoing issue this year, most notably from set pieces. But the team is also pretty fun to watch in my opinion especially given our budget level. We score a load of goals and our attacking play is entertaining. He's improved / got the best out of several players in his time. The obvious one being Bair, but Spittal, Gent, Furlong, Johnston, Goss, Van Veen, O'Donnell (from a low baseline under previous two managers) all looked like better players under Kettlewell. His team also has fight in it. We've taken draws / wins from some very unlikely positions this season. Can certainly argue it's taken some poor play to get us into some of the positions in the first place, but a team that doesn't give up and can fight back when taking something looks unlikely is something that comes from the leadership and management. It's possible my baseline level of expectation is low after watching Alexander and Hammell's teams. Especially Alexander's side made me consider whether I wanted to attend football matches anymore for the first time in my life. When we were winning, it was shite, when we drew, it was shite and when we lost, it was really shite. Some of the football his team served up made me embarrassed to be a Motherwell fan. So now, to have an entertaining team that isn't perfect but comfortably stays out of trouble, leaves me happy enough. Kettlewell's poor run this season wasn't great but I'm glad we stuck with him and always felt to me that he'd get out of it eventually for whatever reason. That differs from Alexander and Hammell's poor runs where I honestly couldn't see us winning a game again. Tl:dr - I'm happy enough with Kettlewell, he's considerably better than what we had before.

Quite an enjoyable game yesterday, in a slightly weird position of thinking 4-1 was a bit harsh on Livi without actually flattering us, not sure that makes sense. Livi started the better and had some good chances which, had they taken one, might have changed the game by giving them something to defend. On the decisions. I sit in the far end of the PoD so didn't really have a view on the penalty however the longer the VAR check was taking, it felt inevitable that a penalty was coming. Because I couldn't see it, I assumed it was another of those VAR / shite-handball-rule incidents however having seen it on Sportscene, I think that's a penalty. I hate VAR and wish we could get it in the bin but I think it got that right. The foul for the disallowed goal happened right in front of me and it looked a foul all day to me. When the ball went in, I fully expected it to be pulled back and wasn't at all surprised. Having seen it again, I'm less convinced but still think it's a foul, even if slightly soft. Super goal from Nicholson who I've quite liked any time he's played, would be quite happy if we could sign him up for next season. Bair continues to impress and his header was a beauty from a terrific cross from Gent. Miller is such a satisfying player to watch, his passing technique is lovely and he played some real beauties today. I really can't wait to see how his game evolves as he develops. He can get caught on the ball at times but think that awareness will come with experience. MotM Georgie Gent, hope we can get him back next season, doubt we can. Still don't understand why we barely saw him earlier in the season but maybe we just have to trust Kettlewell's judgement on that as he's absolutely getting the best out of him now.

Agree that those comments about "coaching players differently" is ridiculous. The annoying thing for me from this press conference would be if this is the takeaway as he actually made some good and helpful comments around VAR imo which I'd rather was the main story. He's the first manager I've heard (admittedly don't listen to every manager's every word) that's come out and said how poor VAR is for the paying fan's enjoyment of the game and it'd be a shame if that comment was lost behind the nonsense on coaching.

FWIW, that's an excellent letter. Like you say, shame the fans were consulted so late in the day and essentially in a box ticking exercise.

Roos made some decent saves but nothing you wouldn't expect him to make IMO. Defensively Aberdeen looked very solid yesterday, McDonald and Gartenmann were clearer MotM for me. Barron also had a good game in midfield and contributed a lot to Aberdeen looking tidy in possession in midfield.

Here is my issue with that, and trying to remove as much of my obvious Motherwell bias as possible. Theo's arm is in a natural position for someone jumping to try and contest a ball. Shinnie's is in a natural position for someone standing waiting to react to a ball. Neither have deliberately tried to hit it unnaturally, neither have really gained an advantage from it hitting their arm. There's no blocking it with the hand, there's barely a deflection on the ball in either incident. Same as Mackenzie the other night. His arm is in a natural place for someone jumping for a ball, he's not gained an advantage, he's not blocked anything. Football is a game where the ball is in the air some of the time (a lot of time in our case at times) so we can't be punishing players who often need to jump for a ball. Both players have their arms in natural positions for the actions they're currently doing. From the angles we've been provided, it cannot even be conclusively determined where on the arm it hits Theo, it looks like it's around the shoulder. Is that even a handball if you deliberately shoulder it?! Therefore if we can't even say where it hit him, how can we say that's a clear and obvious error? From the angle's shown, it is however clear that the ball hits Shinnie at a point on his arm that would be considered handball. Again, I stress, I don't think Shinnie's is handball either. But in my view, it's more of a handball than Bair's and if you give one, you must give the other. The handball rule is a total mess but we need to at least apply a bad rule consistently for both teams.

That yesterday just proved what a shambles VAR has been in Scotland since its introduction. IMO, the biggest detriment to the paying fan's experience since I've been attending games. Scotland's clubs rely heavily on gate receipts for their income and we are making attending fan's experience infinitely worse. When that goal is scored yesterday, no-one sees a handball. No opposition players claiming for it, none of the 1,000+ away fans behind the goal claiming for it, on-field referee saw nothing. When they were first checking the VAR, it's anyone's guess what they're actually checking for, I assumed some kind of offside at the time. When the stadium announcer says "possible handball" it's so not "clear and obvious" that no-one in the ground has any idea who's supposed to have committed the offence or even at what point in the play it occurred. Having now seen the replay on Sportscene, how that goal can be ruled out as a "clear and obvious" error in beyond me. From the angles available, it's not even clear where it hits Bair. From one of the angles they showed, it looks like it hits his shoulder and it skiffs it if anything. However, given as handball, move on. Then the Shinnie "handball" at the end of the game. To my mind, not a handball either. He doesn't really move his arm towards the ball, it's a complete accident but it does hit him around the elbow. Unlike the disallowed goal, many players claiming for it, the fans in that corner of the ground claiming for it, so at least something has been seen. If you give the Bair incident as handball, for me there is no excuses for not giving the Shinnie one as handball. In my opinion neither are handball, but we need something resembling consistency throughout the game. Collum wasn't even directed to the monitor for that one! And this isn't a Motherwell v Aberdeen thing per se, I'm not saying we "deserved" a draw, it was a remarkably even game reflected fairly accurately in the match stats and I'm fully aware that Aberdeen had a VAR shocker given against them in midweek. But I can't say I've seen a more egregious example of incompetent VAR officiating than this, both for the disallowing of the goal and the failure to apply any kind of consistency in the same fucking match, let alone across a season. VAR has been nothing but a detriment to Scottish football, with the paying fan being burdened with the overwhelming majority of the detriment. The technology might be ok but the people operating it are as incompetent as they were before it was introduced. Didn't think there was a way we could make Scottish refereeing even more incompetent than it was before but here we are. GET VAR IN THE FUCKING BIN before we ruin the matchday experience even more for those we're trying to attract to go to games.

Big Theo is quickly becoming one of my favourite players in recent years and undoubtedly his back story with St Johnstone has a bit to do with that. But agree with other posts that the whole wording and direction we’re coming from with this is getting on my nerves. I mean “zero to hero”?! The whole thing comes across to me as us saying “You were nothing Theo! Literally nothing! Wow! I mean seriously, you were so shite and now look!” Then putting fans negative tweets up on the screen? Just don’t really get why we’re continuing with this narrative. We brought in a project, he’s been smashing so far, do we really need to keep highlighting the fact that he wasn’t great before and had a few doubters? Like @capt_oatssaid, something more along the lines on “having the best season of his career” resonates far better IMO. Otherwise, doing a piece on how he’s improved using video analysis is actually quite interesting so fair play for that.

This. The shite decisions that have come from it weirdly don't bother me as much as we've always had shite decisions in the Scottish game. To me, we now just get a different "type" of bad decision for lack of the better word. Soft fouls are getting pulled up when they weren't before. The main impact has been a total spit of the face of the paying fans who go to games, who are literally the lifeblood of most clubs in the league. As a league, our clubs are more reliant than other leagues on gate receipts for clubs to make up their income. Yet this nonsense has made the experience for that paying fan so much worse. Waiting ages for decisions to be made, not being able to properly celebrate a goal for fear it's going to be chalked off. It just sucks all the enjoyment out of it. Get it to f**k now, give us the weird incompetence of Scottish officials back and let us celebrate a fucking goal again.

That could have been 10-0 tonight with some of the chances we missed. Glad Thelonius got a goal with the penalty after missing some golden chances. Spittal, Bair, Paton, Gent absolutely superb but Ross County were all over the place. Plenty of possession but just looked utterly toothless with it. Certainly don't miss watching Jordan White.

This would be my take as well. Wouldn't be pointing fingers at any of the staff but would absolutely expect someone to be looking twice at this situation and wondering if there's something more/different we should be doing here. If there isn't anything and it genuinely does seem to be bad luck, fine. But definitely feels like something worth further investigation. I know it wasn't universally popular but one of the reasons I was always in favour of the winter break was I felt it was a bit of leveller for the clubs our size. As you mention the gap between seasons becoming shorter, players being asked to play with increased intensity, pitches are better so the game is faster (plastic abominations aside although they present their own injury risk). The bigger budget clubs with considerably larger squads of first team players are better prepared to cope with game after game whereas we've looked pretty ragged as the injuries have grown. Always felt the winter break was an opportunity for us to get some of our players rested and get some of the injured ones back (good chance Miller will be available for games he might not have for example) that the bigger clubs maybe didn't need.

Yeh this for me as well. I've now watched it twice (I know I know) and I don't think it's as bad the second time viewing it. There is some reasonable stuff in there and the middle part of the video is actually alright. Highlighting the community benefit is a real selling point for the club and I do believe it's a big thing for potential investors in the current climate to be seen to be doing good in communities. However the Taylor Swift thing at the end... No disrespect to the wee lad and I hate to pick on a part that has a kid saying it but whatever adult thought that was a good line at the end, Jesus Christ. I get the video is supposed to be relatively light hearted (I'd rather it was less so but whatever) but that just brings the whole thing down tbh. I could almost make my peace with the rest and brush it off but tbh that line really kills it.

Oh f**k, bluff called.

Jesus fucking Christ....

This is exactly it. And surely we don't even need to look that far for precedent as to why this is the case. Furlong last year looked like a pretty nervous kid when we first started him but I think a lot of us realised 5-3-2 was an ideal set up to get him bedded in. It gave cover for if he messed up defensively and allowed him to get comfortable, playing on his natural side, to find his feet in first team football. Surely the same applies to Gent in that if he's not great defensively, or makes a few mistakes, 5-3-2 should provide decent cover for him. He's proved (in his laughably short time on the park) that he's decent enough in an attacking sense so why not try him from the start and see how it goes. It can't be any worse and surely goes without saying that if we're worried it'll make us weak defensively, we're already there. We're conceding goals for fun and at least having a natural player on the left side and freeing up Spencer to be on his natural side is trying something different that might work. Obviously preaching to the choir on this thread but I don't really understand how Kettlewell doesn't see it as we pretty much had the same situation when he arrived last season.

Likewise Holloway. He seems to have previous with Van Veen and can just see the scenario where he comes in, they have a fall out, and the outrageous run Kev went on never happens. Butterfly effect stuff but shows how knife edge our season was considering both him and Goodwin seemed to be considered at the time.

I'd agree with this. FWIW, I've actually thought Aitchison looked quite good when I've seen him, especially on Saturday. Seemed combative, went on a couple of nice runs and, like has been said, he's better than Shields for me. I'm not massively familiar with who we've got coming through unless they've turned out for the first team but Miller seems to be real prospect based on his limited appearances (given his age) and the fact he's regularly featuring for the national side in his age group. We can't afford to do the same with him as we've done with Johnston where our next highly sellable asset is stuck behind two others, particularly as O'Donnell had severely lost form for the best part of 2 years and Max didn't seem to be getting a look in. On that basis, if Miller is a #6 or even an #8, does that not pretty much decide Maguire's fate for us? I'd be looking to keep Goss and Cornelius of those OOC in CM and be trying to phase Miller into the team as he gets older and matures. Spittal is an essential player for us these days and obviously is a keep and Slattery is fine to keep for another year if no takers in the summer. For CM, if we can keep those 4 plus Miller and other youths who play there, I'd say we thank Paton and Maguire but part come season end.