capt_oats

He's still listed on our Out on Loan page on the OS. It was a bit weird we didn't announce Connelly was away even it it was only short term. We've announced everyone else, including Sam Muir who's away to Gretna. I'd imagine he will come back though, we only have 2 goalkeepers at the club just now and I'd imagine having a 3rd around the place would be useful. It'd drop Connelly into our first team group as well. Morrison staying with you guys makes far more sense given his age and the fact he needs games or to at least be competing for a first team spot. There are another half dozen of our Reserves group who could easily go out on loan just now. Although having said that, Johnson was on the bench at the weekend. From the general chat around the club the gist seems to be we're keen to get as many of those players out on loan as possible.

There they are.

I'd imagine we'll see Archer at some point. Reading between the lines the Pieman has been brought in as a short term cover eg: filling in on Saturday. If Carson's injury had seen him out for a month or something then we'd probably just have run with Chapman and pulled Connelly onto the bench or gone for a mystery box signing like Xenodochof. Based on his CV alone Archer seems much more a first choice sort of signing with Carson out for a while. Also, non-GK related I see O'Hara's been in the local press talking about playing centre half.

Across those 3 games we averaged 62.66% possession and had a total of 50 shots on goal - we scored 0 but conceded 3 from 8 shots on target (including 1 penalty). The results, 3x 1-0 losses have kind of become misrepresented as poor performances. If we'd had the front 3 of Cole, Watt and Lang available and in the shape/form they were at the weekend we'd have won against County, United and Accies. That is absolutely a hill I'm willing to die on.

I mean, that would be fair warning if this was a long term gig but the hand we've been dealt is that we've one fit goalkeeper at the club outside of the transfer window so we really are in beggars can't be choosers territory. As it is we've brought in a guy with 166 games for Millwall and was largely competent in his handful of games with Oxford according to their fans. He's signed on a short term deal until the January window opens at which point we'll probably reassess things depending on how Carson's rehab is going. Granted the "international keeper" tag is pushing it but equally there's no lie there. He's got a cap and Motherwell's media team aren't going to miss that sort of tap in.

There he is...

I don't think O'Hara takes his legs, if he had I'd have thought he/County would be claiming for it given the way they reacted to our stonewaller. With Stewart's chance I thought it was O'Donnell's man. Taking it in isolation he just stands watching Stewart run off him.

Depends on how many new injuries we have between now and Saturday (and whether we bring in a new 'keeper by then). Assuming no change and us miraculously being able to go a few days without someone else falling victim to the ML1 Thunderdome the only change I can see is Lang coming in for Long. Chapman O'Donnell O'Hara Gallagher McGinley Campbell Maguire Polworth Lang Watt Cole Not that he'd have started but Crawford won't be eligible to play in this one either.

another +1 on really enjoying the Culture pods. I'm wary of coming across like a complete ingrate; it's a free podcast that people are giving up their time to produce and no one's forcing me to listen etc but the first section of Monday's pod is the first I've swerved like that - either way a single hour of a single podcast from hundreds published is a pretty good ratio all told. The Patreon content this year has been great value even before you factor in everything having shut down so cheers for that as well.

Carson's knee knack confirmed.

I think you're safe on that one. The chat seems to be that we're looking to bring another 'keeper in. Jordan Archer was the name Nixon mentioned yesterday.

Aye, I mean I'm aware of Heart and Hand/ibroxrocks from their Twitter feed popping up when I search for 'Motherwell' (well aware enough to nearly get the name of the podcast right) so I was able to make the call that it clearly wasn't for me inside a couple of minutes and just skip it. Admittedly I still raised an eyebrow when I saw that Thom's section didn't start until a full hour into the pod. In fairness to Tony hosting with a guest whose normal output is as obviously partisan is going to be a tough shift. Fwiw, I don't dislike Tony's stuff on The Terrace I just find him a bit more of a difficult listen than a lot of the others. We all have our favourites I guess.

NGL I had pretty much the same reaction - except I just skipped the entire section and went to Thom's chat about the Motherwell game and Craig's closing part. Having a Rangers fan on to talk about Celtic seemed a bit of a misstep to begin with but finding out he and Tony (who doesn't fall in my 'most listenable' category at the best of times anyway) ended up talking for over an hour was just massive amounts of "f**k.that". Obviously that's a lot less of a disappointment for me because it wasn't my club that was getting the Hand on Heart treatment (or whatever his thing's called) but still, as you say given the usual balanced coverage the pod usually brings it was pretty tough.

He doesn't say emergency loan. He says emergency deal. It's an emergency because we only have one fit first team goalkeeper at the club.

It is. Capped once and fucked it. 166 games for Millwall over 4 seasons - 2 in League 1, 2 in the Championship. Last games he played were for Oxford on a short term deal. Fulham brought him in as cover in January - didn't play a game though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Archer

Nixon rumour.

Looking at our form in all competitions since Turnbull left we've lost 3 games out of 8: Celtic (a), Hapoel (a) and Rangers (h). 27/08/20 - (H) Glentoran 5-1 (W) 30/08/20 - (A) Celtic 3-0 (L) 12/09/20 - (H) St Johnstone 1-0 (W) 17/09/20 - (A) Coleraine 2-2 (X) - Motherwell win 0-3 on penalties 20/09/20 - (A) Aberdeen 0-3 (W) 24/09/20 - (A) Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3-0 (L) 27/09/20 - (H) Rangers 1-5 (L) 24/10/20 - (H) Ross County 4-0 (W) I mean, it's disingenuous to look at that and go down the "we were a worse side this season with Turnbull in it" route in fact it's probably just plain wrong as there were a number of factors at play when it came to our early (lack of) form but it's fair to say that we've had a softer landing after he's left than we might have.

I expected it to be a weird season on account of the 'rona (duh) and the reduced budgets, players having not kicked a ball for 6 months and no crowds. I've found fans in general who seem to be treating this season as normal in their expectations pretty fucking weird tbh. Having said that I didn't really expect the sort of season we're having generally. Depending on what happens with Carson we could be looking at signing our 3rd goalkeeper of the season. We had two players pick up serious injuries after the first game of the season. As it stands we've currently got 7 (SEVEN) defenders out injured or unavailable, there have been points where we've literally not had a left back available. We started off the season playing 433, switched to 352 because that wasn't working, have now switched back to 433. Our chief executive had a warrant issued for his arrest. I mean, it's a LOL and was sorted out but still...fucking hell. We've just come back from a month's hiatus before the first round of fixtures were even complete (with 2 of our defenders having started 3 games in a week for Scotland (and kept 3 clean sheets)). On top of that there's been the predictable stuff that everyone saw coming like Robinson interviewing for the NI job, Turnbull to Celtic. It's just felt like we've been fighting fires of various sizes. Relentlessly. Every day.

Dull post but given there were a few headlines after the opening matches along the lines of "worst start to a season in 20 years" or whatever, I was quite curious as to how things look after 10 games played compared with Robinson's previous seasons. 17/18 - P 10 -19 pts (3rd) (Final Position = 7th) 18/19 - P 10 - 5 pts (10th) (FP = 8th) 19/20 - P 10 - 16 pts (4th) (FP = 3rd*) 20/21 - P 10 - 11 pts (8th) The fact that we're 5 points off where we were last season after the same number of games was a surprise (albeit with Killie and St Mirren still outstanding from the first round of fixtures). Those 5 points you can attribute to the losses in opening game against County, United and Accies - a win and a couple of draws from those (which was entirely possible, we weren't outplayed in any of the 3) and we'd be pretty much on par with last season. As far as I can tell if the season was to be ended now in the same way as last season we'd be 6th on PPG. Incidentally seeing as Michael Stewart referenced McCall's final season in that BBC article - after 10 games in 14/15 we were 11th sitting on 7 points.

From the way Robinson was talking I'd guess that's what we're going to be forced to do. The suggestion was that depending on Carson's scan results we may have a decision to make about whether we need to bring in another 'keeper. If it looks like we need to bring in another body as GK cover then I'd imagine we'd just have to run with what we have outfield and ask O'Hara to be OK with being a CB - it's only one game but I wonder if there are Carl McHugh vibes with him where he sees himself as a midfielder but his tools are better suited to centre back. By my count at the moment we've the following potentially out/unavailable for various reasons: Carson Fox Grimshaw Carroll Lamie Dunne Mugabi Also, I only clocked that Seedorf didn't make the squad yesterday when I caught that he's Mr October on the MFC calendar earlier today.

There's a quote from The Times yesterday that seems a decent indication we'll stick with it (it's paywalled so I've not read the rest of the article). Tbh, I'd imagine that Cole being back helps with making the 433 work.

Watching it back Watt's goal is hugely satisfying. Like a proper goal other teams score. 7 touches in all (4 from Polworth, 2 from McGinley and 1 from Watt) and 2 passes from the middle of our half to the County goal.

Cheers both.