capt_oats

It absolutely feels like a game that Alexander's using to assess the squad. Which is understandable as he's only just in the door and while we've brought in Kelly and Lawless the main concerns (the defence and forwards) are still there. There's no one in attack that would back themselves to score and as dodgy a pen as St Mirren got last week it was still rash and we'd coughed up a number of chances through the game. I know everyone's banging on about the 5-5-0 but I'm curious to see who gets the nod tomorrow and what shape we go with especially with a view to how Alexander sees the squad (ie: are McGinley and Crawford still on the bench?) Hastie's started the last two games but won't be available. I'm presuming Long's still absent as well. Kelly O'Donnell O'Hara Mugabi Gallagher Carroll Cole Campbell Polworth Lawless Watt Honestly get this fixture so far to f**k.

I've always said that expanding the league is something that should be given serious consideration.

Not a fucking chance we take anything out this game. Best outcome is we take some bodies and break some of their noses.

I'm still wildly sceptical about the Rooney thing largely because the tweet I saw mentioning it seemed to be coming from an absolute Walter Mitty character. But to play the game... We've been crying out for an actual striker rather than another forward who can play across the front three. If nothing else he's an experienced #9, albeit an ageing one. Do I think a 32 year old Adam Rooney would have contributed more to us this season than Chris Long and Jordan White combined? Ultimately he's still been scoring fairly regularly at a level we've oftentimes recruited from.

I broadly agree though less so about St Mirren being unlucky with their dose of the 'rona - they fucked it. Killie had a stronger argument but St Mirren were at it. It's an unanswerable question as to whether we'd have won the games at the time but hot garbage or not it's the one point in the season where our form was actually alright. Compared to St Mirren around the same period. Killie's form was far better but as I say, it's an unanswerable question. Would we have won? Possibly. Would we have lost? Possibly. Strongly agree that it's about mentality and getting back to being good at the fitba' if we win the games then it goes some way to sorting ourselves out.

It's Tony in all competitions (6). League is a joint effort between O'Hara, Lang and Watt (3) I'd wonder how they'll cope with all the crosses shanked out of play tbh.

See, I'd much rather the re-arranged games were scheduled for a point at which we've brought in our new bodies and our injured players (*looks at Trevor Carson*) are fit again.

Alexander's pre-match was interesting today in terms of his plans. So, from that we're planning on bringing players in and ultimately looking to nudge players who aren't going to be playing towards the door.

That Twiitter account seems to be a bit of a Walter Mitty affair. He's posting 'exclusives' that aren't actually published anywhere and other than that he's just RTing and QTing legit accounts with confirmed transfers. Amusingly the only mutual account of mine that follows it is P&B. So yeah, file under 'sceptical'.

It was also the game where McGhee subbed off Moult and tried playing Johnson as a centre forward.

In fairness, it's more the fall out after that game that sticks in the mind than the finish. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lionel-ainsworth-left-tears-after-7307456

Motherwell IN: Steven Lawless (permanent, from Burton Albion)

Some laugh when we've assembled our squad with Declan as some sort of Danny Ocean character and he fucks off to Celtic.

Agree with this. Obviously circumstances are very different in this window but a quick check over Robinsons January windows: 17/18 IN Curtis Main Nadir Ciftci (Loan) Tom Aldred (Loan) Peter Hartley (loan made permanent) Stephen Hendrie (Loan) OUT Louis Moult (Preston) Jack McMillan (Livingston) Alex Fisher (Yeovil) Adam Livingston (Loan) (East Fife) 18/19 IN Ross McCormack (Loan) Gboly Ariyibi (Loan) OUT Andy Rose (Vancouver Whitecaps) Ryan Bowman (Exeter City) Ross MacLean (Falkirk) Gael Bigirimana (Hibs) Barry Maguire (QotS) (Loan) Aaron Taylor Sinclair (Crewe Alexandra) (Loan) Broque Watson (East Fife) (Loan) George Newell (Albion Rovers) (Loan) 19/20 IN Mikael Ndjoli (Loan) Rolando Aarons (Loan) Tony Watt OUT Devante Cole (Wigan - loan expired) James Scott (Hull City) David Devine (QotS) (Loan) Adam Livingstone (Clyde) (Loan) Casper Sloth (released) Generally speaking the players we've brought in have been loans and in their mid-20s. McCormack is really the only outlier on that front.

Any excuse...

Is it bad that this is the shitshow I remember him for?

Cheers...I thought it was a really fucking weird deal if it was just til the end of this season. That'll teach me just to skim.

And it's OFFICIAL... Permanent deal until the end of NEXT season.

Cheers, it'd still leave us short of a body in the centre of midfield like. I suppose it's worth remembering that we're already a body down from the first half of the season with Lang having been recalled. I noticed that as well. Him talking about committing to the job seemed like a v.positive thing. Tbh, my unexpected takeaway from the episode - aside from all the manager stuff and it being clear that the "Lasley to get 4 games to prove himself" was absolute nonsense from the start - was Charlie Dunne on the pitch, kicking a baw. That was nice to see.

Sorry, you'll need to show your working on this one. Lawless is a winger/wing-back, Crawford is a holding mid/centre mid. Lawless is a Burton Albion player, Crawford's at Livi. I'm not sure where Lawless signing intersects with Crawford on that particular venn diagram. Also Lawless apparently scored 11 in all competitions, our top scorer (in all competitions) is on 6 - which, don't get me wrong, isn't anything to crow about but like for like and all that with comparisons. He scored 8 in the league, our top scorer(s) are on 3 in that respect - fair comment for sure.

Strongly agree. I'm rarely on Twitter these days but he was bad for that pish when he was at Thistle IIRC. Sceptical about that account but for the sake of argument: Would I want 32 year old Adam Rooney as a first choice #9 at Motherwell?: Absolutely not. Would I take 32 year old Adam Rooney as an 'option off the bench' ahead of Jordan White?: Absolutely

Fwiw, my take on Lawless isn't exactly ground breaking: Is Steven Lawless a sexy signing? Absolutely not. Is Steven Lawless likely to offer more than someone like Sherwin Seedorf? Absolutely I'm hesitant to keep citing Robinson because he's no longer our manager but one of the things he was talking about before he resigned was that with transfers in this window one of the problems we have is that players from down south are reluctant to come up here because they'll simply be sat in a flat on their own on account of *all this*. In that respect we're probably fishing in an even more shallow pool than usual. However, a natural extension of that point is that players who may be more open to coming up the road are the ones whose families are based up here. So there's a fair chance that it's going to be guys like that who we'll have a better chance of getting in the door.

"A lot of irons in the fire" no less. That seems...more than usual?

Was v.interested to see this one.

H2H.