crazylegsjoe_mfc

I'm pleased that Alexander has signed Crawford and Foley only until the end of the season. Both strike me as the type Robinson would've chucked an 18-month contract at, then tried to get rid in the summer.

I think when fit he has done reasonably well in our team. Obviously very technically limited and reliant on his pace, but for the most part he's done what we've needed him to do reasonably well. I wouldn't keep him long-term as his first season with us seems to be the only season in recent times where he's not spent months out with pelvic/groin problems, which certainly suggests he'll continue to be well acquainted with the treatment table throughout his career. If it was a broken leg or another kind of impact injury he was recovering from, he'd probably have been better off, but these problems seem deep rooted, which is a shame for the guy. A fully-fit Dunne is definitely far better option than what we have currently, but a fully-fit Dunne is something that in the future will probably be sporadic at best.

I’m glad common sense has prevailed and I don’t need to go and protest.

I still think it's absolutely madness that people have judged him on literally five minutes

As long as I find out he's not number 9 we're all good then

Lewis Irons beside him doesn't help matters either. I switched to Ross County TV commentary (which had Crags on it) after Irons described a corner Barry Maguire hit as "great" which missed absolutely everyone and went out for a shy. Every other club have a former (or current injured) player on co-comms and it's just a bit better to listen to. There's also seems to be either half time analysis, or a feature on most clubs' channels. Our operation seems quite shoddy in comparison. We're absolutely great at four word cliches to describe the game on an instagram post though...

The #numberpolis in me is terrified of us signing Sam Foley and him taking the number 9 shirt.

I would always have played Maguire over Crawford. Crawford is neat and tidy on the ball, but he's not too physical in battle. Maguire, being a former centre-half has a bit more in that regard and is just as good on the ball as Crawford for me. Add to that, I always think we should try and use our own player who might have potential to kick on, over a loanee who's probably already hit his ceiling.

I'd probably say as a relegated-league two centre-half who we signed in an emergency, because he didn't have a club, Mugabi has probably slightly over-performed, despite the fact I do remain unconvinced by him at times. Gallagher, the captain, a Scottish international, who has aspirations of playing at a higher level next season, has massively underperformed. However, I still think it would be a stretch to say Mugabi has been better than Gallagher. First half was pretty poor last night, but there were positives from the second half, Cole scoring his 3rd in 4 games since Alexander took over. Watt also ran himself into the ground. The slight tweak of putting him out left and putting Cole through the middle seems to have helped both. Long didn't seem to contribute much, aside from his part in the goal, which was disappointing. Be good to see Lawless come in on the right in time. I thought Carroll was good again too. If it looks like Foley is signing, I hope it's not at the expense of Barry Maguire, who I thought was decent last night. However, we didn't have a centre mid on the bench last night among nine subs, so I recognise we maybe do need a bit of cover. I do hope for a 34 year old it's a 6 month deal and not an 18 month one though.

Salmon and noodles for dinner. Toasted the victory with a twirl and a packet of flamin hot monster munch.

If it's a case of Crawford out, Foley in, then I could live with it. As below, he's been over the course down south a fair bit. If he's seen as an enhancement on our current options, then I would be slightly worried. However, January is lean at the best of times, never mind during COVID, so I really don't think there will be much movement. I don't think we'll get the centre half and creative midfielder that I am after.

The first time I went I got a carbonara which had a bit of plastic which suspiciously looked like a microwaveable film in it. Was never too keen after that.

I had a pizza with chips on it in Toni Macaroni when it first opened in Motherwell and like everything else in that particular establishment, it was rather underwhelming.

Last season, Hylton took a while to come up to speed, but I thought he had really come on to a game by the time the season shut down. Like @Swello says he wasn't absolutely outstanding, but of our wingers he was the most productive. I imagine we let him go mainly due to the fact our squad was far too bloated in the forward areas and someone was actually interested in him, unlike the others. I'd take him over Seedorf or Hastie in a heartbeat at the moment.

He did, around the same time that Curtis Main compared himself to Olivier Giroud (France's second all time top goalscorer) due to leading the line well without scoring goals.

You really don't blame him for signing that deal at Rangers, because he's clearly never going to make that money again. I knew his spell in early 2019 was a purple patch, but I didn't expect him to be quite this ineffectual. Can see Rangers trying to pay him up in the summer to get him off their books. No harm to the lad, but scoring 1 goal in 21 for Alloa, or 2 in 30 odd for Airdrie was probably more indicative of his long-term career than February 2019 was.

I was beginning to think we might be ok in the middle, but yesterday has changed my mind on that I think. Another indifferent performance from Campbell, Crawford is a tidy passer of the ball but gets bullied physically and Polworth, well, I thought he was getting back on track a bit, but as far as I’m concerned I would gladly not see him play for us again. Not sure how long O’Hara is out for but again, he’s a centre half for me. Hopefully we get Donnelly back soon. Would it be too Football Manager of me to suggest a loan for Stevie Mallan? Didn’t make the Hibs squad yesterday now they’ve signed Jackson Irvine and Scott Allan is back fit.

There wasn’t much to smile about for ‘well fans yesterday, but I did enjoy a chuckle at him describing someone as a “fresh of breath air”.

Smith looks like a far better fit in the big lump up top role and Kelly kept the score down. Those are two positives we can at least take.

Aye, Polworth can get himself so far to f**k after that today. Not entertaining that in a relegation battle. He should really have been sent off in the first half, there was about three incidents in that coming together I’ve seen people sent off for individually. It wasn’t even that bad a challenge on him. Plastic hard man. Also think there has to be question marks over why Alexander didn’t sub him at half time if he was still in that daft mood.

In November/December, we certainly looked like we needed an influx of players. However, when you think about it Carroll has been like a new signing. I'm not saying he's been amazing or revolutionary, but he's just been a natural left back, playing in position, relatively competently. That's a big upgrade on what we've had the rest of the season. Hopefully, Donnelly will be fit soon enough and similarly have a fresh feel to his play. As much as I still lament their attitudes and performances so far, I'm hopeful that Alexander will get more out of Long and Polworth between now and the end of the season. There's already evidence in the past couple of weeks of more fire in Polworth's belly. I'm not sure when we'll see Long back, but there is the potential for four players we already have making a difference and hopefully in Lawless we've already brought in some creativity out wide. I still think we could do with bringing in a centre-half, MOTM or not on Sunday, one swallow doesn't make a summer for Mugabi. Lamie speaks for himself and although I don't think McGinley has been catastrophic, his place in the pecking order for three different men in charge probably speaks for itself now.

Yeah, that's right, it was in a 1-1 draw under Baraclough, the only point we gained in a run of 8 games. On the talk of 3.5 year deals at that time, I just had to google Luke Watt to see where he was now. Unsurprised to see it's Linlithgow Rose.

I liked Long last season, mainly for his pace and work rate on a good day. However the shift in his attitude this season has been brutal. I’m not sure he’s that great a finisher - I think he actually got lucky last season in that I don’t think I’ve ever seen one player benefit from so many goalkeeping howlers in one season. I still think he could add value if Alexander gave him a boot up the arse, but equally would be non-plussed were he to go. I can’t see who’d be queueing up to sign him right enough. He’s in a worse position now than when he came back with his tail between his legs in the summer.

If Grant Hanley is playing and captaining Norwich every week who are top of the Championship and Gallagher downs tools at a team who haven't won a league game in eleven, then it's pretty much a straight swap for Clarke. There's no doubt Gallagher's performances in September/October have built up a bit of leeway, but not that much leeway. The thing that annoys me most about the whole scenario is that the auto-extension was probably agreed with it being viewed upon as a good deal for Gallagher. He had only played one season in the top flight, finishing 9th, since his "career break" as Transfermarkt calls it, so at 27 the job security of a potential three-year deal in the circumstances probably appealed to him. Motherwell shouldn't be punished by the fact he's become an international player in this time. His reputation may have improved since then, but he chose to sign those terms.

The bit that I don't get is this - he's currently got less than six months left on his deal, so he can negotiate with other clubs. He's played 22 league games, so he's 3 away from the auto-extension. What happens if he signs a pre-contract, today for arguments sake, then goes on to play our next three games to trigger the extension. Is the pre-contract he signed still legally binding? Have been trying to get my head round that scenario for a couple of weeks.