Mr Hahn

That was going to be my take as well. When Penney left it was looking pretty rough for us in that area (among many). Furlong came in to a shitshow, looked understandably a bit nervous with it being his first senior games but has really grown into his role. I think our system has served him well to give him a bit of support while he grows into senior games and he’s done that. Absolutely fair play to him. Penney was a tidier, more accomplished player with the ball, but defensively, I’m taking Furlong who I thinks proven himself to be a very decent defender. Agreed with Kettlewell’s assessment of the game. Would never scoff at 3 goals and a clean sheet but think we could have played with a bit more attacking intent in that second half. KVV was superb as was Spittal. As usual, delighted with Casey, Butcher and McGinn at the back who strolled it. Think Obika is a better player than Mandron so would be good to get him back but Mandron had an injury himself so maybe still has a bit of fitness to get back.

Seems to be a lot of "no brainer" chat going around in the media having listened to the radio after the game yesterday and watch Sportscene. This really isn't an easy appointment for the board though. It was never going to be given our position but it isn't much easier after a good couple of results imo. Assuming we're going for a long term appointment (appreciate we might have Kettlewell till the end of the season and then assess further), if we go for Kettlewell and it works, great. However we leave ourselves woefully understaffed in other areas of the club and recent appointments (or lack of) suggest we're finding positions difficult to fill. Managers tend to last 2-3 years at best in the current climate, also meaning we'd lose potentially a terrific asset to the club in Kettlewell, who seems to know how to coach, for the critical academy department of the club. If we go for Kettlewell and it doesn't work out, it'll give the impression that the board have made the same mistake they made with Hammell and they look like idiots. One worry for Kettlewell I have is that he might struggle similarly to Hammell in terms of recruitment. I'm not sure he'd have the contacts that previous managers have brought and worked well for us. I might be overplaying that but Hammell's recruitment seemed quite scattergun whereas a manger from down south or a more experienced manager up here would likely have several people he could pick up the phone to when we're looking for players. If we don't go for Kettlewell, I think we're taking a bigger risk in that we'd be appointing someone who doesn't know the Scottish game and would be disrupting a team who finally seem to have found something that works. If they choose someone other than Kettlewell and it doesn't work out, again the board look like idiots. Here's a guy who's finally got the team fighting and playing, got two cracking results and we've gone elsewhere. Kettlewell till the end of the season seems like the most obvious choice but 1. would he find those terms acceptable and 2. as others have said, the pool of available managers might not be as good in the summer. That was a bit of a brain dump but TLDR: I don't envy the board's position.

Think the same could have been said of Penney. He liked to attack and was pretty good at it, but defensively he wasn't very good. I, with many others, have been arguing for us to use a back three since the start of the season and I'm still at a bit of loss why we didn't try it sooner when it was Sol, Lamie and Penney. Sol and Lamie didn't have football brains, weren't great on the ball and combine that with a very attacking full back who didn't like to defend? Like, of course that was a fucking shambles, yet that was our default. Fast forward to now, Butcher and Casey were immense today and agree that they're upgrades on Sol and Lamie. I just wonder if we could have saved ourselves some trauma by trying the back three earlier. On today's game, we were immense. I love that kind of Motherwell team, great commitment, not letting the opponent breathe and actually playing some decent stuff at times too. In addition to Butcher and Casey, I thought Johnston, Goss, and Obika were superb but really could go through the whole team as they all had something to offer and played their role in the victory. I'm sure others are the same though in that I have so much scar tissue from this season that I was still sure we were going to f**k it up despite Hearts being murder and barely creating anything of note. I'm glad that didn't happen.

If true, I'm glad. Never fancied Ross. His managerial record seems good but, as others have said, the way things panned out at Utd gives me horrible vibes considering our squad's recent past. He seems like he knows the game well and might be a good coach, just don't think he's the right fit for us right now. Holloway is a no for me. Not too familiar with what he's been up to recently but just struggle to see why he'd give much of a f**k if he came here. I'd imagine he's a pretty wealthy guy by now and has only really managed in England. Why would he uproot, come up here for a relegation scrap with a club with not very much money to spend compared to what he'll be used to, and care if it didn't work out? Don't see it ending well for us. I was a no on Kettlewell, based nothing on the man himself, but purely because going down the same route as how Hammell got the job seems a mistake in the making. Having heard him speak and now knowing a bit more about his history, as well as having seen the team play under him last night, he should be firmly in the consider category imo. He seems to "get it" and I appreciate his honesty when he speaks. Agree McCann is probably most similar to our mould from recent appointments. I don't really know anything about him personally, but his history seems ok. Between him and Kettlewell if I was choosing.

Realise every player says this but Johnston was interviewed on Sportsound after the game and said he 100% was trying to shoot. Said he realised no-one was in the box and went for it. Tbf to him, he wouldn't have had a chance to see a replay before they asked him, so don't think he could know there was no-one in the box unless he thought it at the time. Doubt that corner of the goal was where he was aiming but inclined to believe it was an attempt on goal. Thought he was superb last night regardless.

Yeh, we're winning our first game in ages so what is going through folk's head to boo anyone, let alone a 2 minute cameo to waste a bit of time? (I know the answer is "not much" in the case of these folk) Plus the guy's confidence is obviously shattered and to me has looked a little broken physically too. Some folk really need to get a life. Just saw on Obika's twitter that that was his first 90 mins since August and tbf he looked like a player coming back to fitness. Was a few "pre-seasony" touches in there, particularly in the first 60 mins or so. Will retract my comment that he's mince and will give him the benefit of the doubt, that was a decent enough shift given his circumstances.

Pretty sure he said “psychologically”?

Shitfested that a bit but vast improvement in commitment and effort. Thought our young full backs, particularly Johnston, were excellent, as were the CBs. Goss also improved today, looked like he’d be instructed to shift the ball forward quicker. Not convinced by Obika, for such a big unit, he doesn’t win an awful lot. Also Tony Watt looks far short of the player that left us these days. During the latter days with us, he was involved in everything, fighting for every ball. Barely noticed he was on the pitch tonight other than the lead up to St Mirrens goal.

Who had us closing out for the victory when St Mirren scored? Was sure our arse would collapse but will absolutely take that. Agree that we looked pretty streetwise in that game, the time-wasting, the clever fouls, small things that have been absent. Thought the two young full backs were excellent and a very solid performance from the back three. We shitfested it a bit but who cares. Also Obika is mince.

Agree with this. Don't really know what I expected of him, don't really know much about him, but enjoyed listening to him there. We'll see how the next games go but I'm happier that he's in place having heard him speak. Think having put up with Alexander's bullshit wtf-are-you-even-watching kind of answers for 18 months, any kind of honesty immediately endears me to a potential manager.

Yeh, it’s a non starter. In an ideal world I wish we could rewind but parting ways is the only realistic way forward. Wasn’t there, was that our fans singing that? If so, those folk can GTF. We’ve done the right thing in parting ways but surely no-one wants this to end bitterly. Hammell will always be a legend from his time as a player.

Now that it’s happened I’m fucking gutted. I loved Hammell as a player and wanted him to succeed so badly. This is obviously the right decision, if a bit late, but he’s a good guy and I’ve loads of time for him. If we could find a way to keep him at the club in a similar role that he was in I’d probably be good with that but think that’d send out all the wrong messages and is probably a non-starter. Taking on this job was just too early for him if management is something he still wants to pursue. A lower league gig with less pressure and less of a mess when he first took over should have been his first step but this opportunity came up and he gave it a go, fair play. But he should have recognised when it wasn’t working and probably walked himself but thats easier said than done. No one likes giving up, especially people who’ve made a living in a highly competitive environment like professional football. Where to next? f**k knows. I dread to think the calibre of manager that would fancy taking over this shit show.

Get the zero ready for Saturday.....

I like that it has page numbers. Almost like they thought it wouldn't be taken seriously without good formatting.

I definitely get the desire to bin and replace those, believe me. However both Johnston and Furlong are young and relatively inexperienced, particularly in Furlong's case. We've also got a recent history of hanging our full backs out to dry with our style. As much as it pains me, I'd persist with Lamie and play a 5-3-2 with Casey, Blaney and Lamie as the 3 CBs (NOTE: ACTUAL CBs TO PLAY THIS FORMATION). Then Johnston and Furlong as the wing backs. Doesn't leave them as exposed with the back three and lets them get forward which I think is probably both of their strengths, admittedly I've barely seen Furlong. It's not great and it's certainly not what I'd like to put out, but nothing about this situation is good. I just see it as trying to cobble together a workable team until the end of the season and hopefully staying in the league.

See, there's been several times during the season where we could have gone with a 5-3-2. I think we've absolutely had the personnel to do that. Today was NOT that day. We had ONE fit available centre back, so we go for a back 5?! Agree with pretty much everything said on the thread so far so won't repeat, the time for a change is now.

This is spot on. I don't really go to away games anymore, decided a season ticket was enough to be spending on watching football and since 1 Jan 2022, I've seen us win 2 league games....(unfortunately missed the 2-1 Hearts game as was away with work). So can absolutely echo those sentiments. As you say, I'm sure that'll be the same for the majority of supporters and it's becoming increasingly difficult to have any kind of positivity towards the team as we almost literally never see them win. At the start of Hammell's reign there was the Inverness game, Dundee Utd game and Hearts game which were like a breath of fresh air post Alexander. At the time it seemed like we'd probably be one of those teams who gets the odd pumping but also dishes them out and at the very least entertains. What's materialised is that we don't really get pumped, we just gradually get worn down slowly by losing games by the odd goal to horrific individual errors which has lead to a team utterly devoid of belief and there doesn't seem to be any direction to address the slide.

Yeh, I'm the same. Was trying to refrain from posting last night to sleep on it but that was the worst performance I can remember from a Motherwell team. Admittedly there's some recency bias in there but good grief that was awful. Have just watched the highlights against my better judgement. The first goal is an absolute disgrace and it isn't the kind of individual errors we've been seeing all season. That's a fundamentally bad goal from a team perspective. Montgomery has a frightening amount of space on the left and time enough to take several touches before anyone gets out to him. His ball, given this space, isn't that good but of course we don't cut it out. Clark then has the time, unchallenged, to take some touches in the box and pick out a runner who, of course, isn't tracked. The second goal is more of what we've been seeing all season. Centre back (yeh but not really, it's McGinn) loses the ball in a dreadful area, is hopelessly out of position, no-one covers across and it's an easy goal. We've fallen so far in the last 12 months and it's going to end in relegation unless we do something more drastic and even then, given the personnel we have, I'm not sure that'll be enough. I try and be optimistic as a fan because defeatism gets you nowhere but realism is starting to kick in. We're not good enough, are poorly set up and don't have any fight or heart which is a recipe for relegation.

I hate being defeatist but that half is severely testing that. I can’t remember a worse half of football from us against one of our close peers.

All the more reason we need a lucky break.

For all that we're a shitshow at the moment, County's equaliser seemingly was direct from a corner tonight. Feels like we haven't had a break like that in forever.

Seems going by Twitter that Watt'll be going to St Mirren so can forget about that one if we ever really believed it was happening.

Me too the more I think about it. Was all in on the hype when we on this thread got him signed, loved him while he was here, was peeved when he left for Utd, enjoyed him getting sent off against us, would take him back and forgive all. Tony +1 CM and I think I'd be pretty pleased with our Jan business.

Surely won't happen with Watt. Last I saw he was being linked with clubs down south (Salford?) and Belgium. Would 100% take him back though, he was carrying a shite team before he left and if we could move Shields on as has been rumoured, he'd be a good replacement. Having said that, a proper tackling midfield player is the priority. If missing out on Watt means we could offer a bit more for a potential midfielder, wouldn't even think twice about it.

Pretty sure EK has a Glasgow postcode but is 100% still in South Lanarkshire.