bpdon

I'm mostly with BucksburnDandy on last night. I chalk that up as another underwhelming effort. OK, there was some marginal improvements here and there relative to Paisley - we actually managed to squeeze a few shots on target for a change plus we scored a good goal. But for the most part I thought it was another trademark pedestrian and predictable performance. I felt like I was watching a re-run of just about any of our games during that grim run Sept-Nov last year.

Yup. Agreed. My pants are p1shed. It has been a very poor window when the squad badly needed a rebalance and some different options. We are an injury or two away from being a complete shambles. Surely the club hierarchy recognise that too. The fixture list doesn't make for comforting reading either. Away to County, away to Livi, Celtic at home followed by two trips to Fir Park. I doubt anyone will be surprised to see us going into March out of the cup and in the bottom 4 or 5.

Regarding the Porteous moment: it was one of those incidents where if the ref he sees it clearly, he might have an opportunity to reach for the red (see Butcher). I'm not sure how much he saw or if the replay was too convincing either way. That aside, I totally agree with your post. It was a dreary but even game between two bang average teams. As per normal this season, our defensive lapses are usually so bad that they gift cheap goals - last night was no different. Meanwhile, further up the pitch, we played pedestrian and intricate little triangles with our backs to goal and waited patiently until Hibs were condensed into banks across the edge of their box. The lack of directness, penetration, width, bravery made it a frustrating watch and a predictable outcome.

Watkins header? Marley couldn’t have made it any easier for him to save that.

Yup, shades of our early season form shining back through. We could play until the turkey comes out the oven and still not make the Hibs keeper break sweat.

I find it baffling that we are in this twisted place where refs are pushed to robotically apply the letter of the law devoid of discretion or any sense of contextual judgement (any sensible soul would have treated Ojo like Tavernier was treated) Yet in every single game I watch I see/hear several players swearing at the officials. But it’s ignored despite “using offensive, insulting or abusive language” being a red card offence. This discretion seems to be broadly accepted.

I appreciate you are trying to shine a FIFA law light on this but it just doesn’t stack up across the 2 incidents. Ojo took 2 steps forward to roughly the point where he stood when the fan shoved him - he didn’t run up to confront the fan. Tavernier also went after the fan, who was off the pitch at this point, and gave the fan a good shove and a verbal tirade. Nobody was screaming for Tavernier to be booked.

Surprised I haven’t noticed in the thread todays incident being compared to the Hibs fanny getting physical with Tavernier at Easter road in 2019. Fan jumps advertising and takes swipe at player. Player responds in kind and has a nibble back at the fan. Cops immediately step in and escort the fan oot the door. Everyone checks if the player is ok and ref keeps his cards in his pocket. Play on. Sensible outcome despite the player being far more aggressive in his response than Ojo was today.

Quite remarkable that Madden saw that from 40 yards away with Ojo facing away from him. Isn’t spitting a straight red anyway?

Just when you think you have seen it all. The decision to send off Ojo was wild. Everyone in the stadium could see he had been shoved pretty firmly by some Arab roaster before standing his ground to the baying mob. He did nothing wrong. Said roaster was still in his seat as the players left the pitch for HT. Incredible that he wasn’t immediately lifted or turfed out.

I’m struggling to think of a decent save Kelly made today other than pawing away Ferguson’s header at the second attempt. Bates would have missed from a yard out anyway. We crafted some nice moves and had good variety to our play in the first half but I don’t recall anything that was more than a half chance and relatively routine for Kelly. The decline in our performance from half time, followed by zero answers to change it up, was concerning.

Despite the Data Dons having something to celebrate tonight, I didn’t think we were that good in the first half. First 45 there was lots of endearing passages of play and a few half chances but we didn’t ask much of Kelly. Second 45 was a microcosm of our season thus far. Abject, predictable, and bereft of quality going forward. Loads of harmless possession recycled around the middle of the pitch. Shipping cheap goals under negligible pressure. Bates looks and plays like a miserable sad sack sulk. Did Watkins or Ramirez have a meaningful touch of the ball in the second half?

Never a fitba player. Spends the 90mins looking like the confused bedraggled odd-ball you see hanging around every local bus station.

I am genuinely struggling to see us in the top six. I was, and am, willing to give the Glass experiment the benefit of the doubt. But this really isn't going well. 0 wins and 2 draws in 7. The second half against Hearts aside, we rarely looked capable of scoring in any of those games. That October fixture list is the stuff of nightmares in this form.

Canna complain about losing here. We have offered up Saints several decent shooting opportunities from < 25 yards and it was inevitable one of them would test Lewis. Nice work from May. Thought Lewis was a bit slow to get down.

F*ckin' hell. That was horrific. The only redeeming feature of that first half was Bobby Maddens whistle ending it.

Over quarter of the game gone and zero attempts at goal from either team. Terrible viewing so far.

Looking for Glass to be chased already is very premature. I had hoped the international break would see us return today with some fresh vigour. But it just felt like a re-run of the Ross County game - vulnerable defensively, shipping cheap goals, and relying on keeper howlers to grind a goal. I think it’s a stretch to say we played well.

Apart from not being able to do the basics in defence (again) and not being able to ask any serious questions of the opposition keeper (again), I suppose we played alright.

So much pretty soccer between the 18 yard zones though. We canna defend anything that arrives in our own box, and, any chance we do create in Motherwells box gets toe bashed straight at the keeper.

As per pretty much every game this season, we are incredibly brittle in defence - gifting clear cut chances often through slack play in front of the back line under a press . A few nice moments from Samuels and Ramsay aside, we have been poor. Far too slow and the final ball has been floaty fodder or hit and hope.

Yup. They are a very decent team who are clearly a lot better than us. Sadly we have also just folded like a cheap suitcase (that we no longer need for trips abroad).

The Qarabag midfield are absolutely strolling this. Jenks and Ferguson are lost. If we dont change something I will be amazed if they don't score again given how open we are and how much we are happy to back off. We need 3 goals and we haven't registered a single shot on target after 40mins. Big ask of the JET second half take-off now.

The pitch is rotten and an obvious excuse but we have been incredibly poor against a very average outfit. JET starting this match is lunacy.

We have endured some dross this season, but that has to be up their with the worst of it. Unsurprisingly our season ends in embarrassment. Other than Kennedy’s shot in the first few mins, we never laid a glove on Utd. Empty shirts all over the pitch. Pedestrian and predictable in possession. I didn’t feel much love for the activity from the side lines either. Massive reset required.