Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Ludo*1]

To be honest, you can slate your defence and tactics as much as you like, I don't think there's a team in the top flight that'd swap their keeper for Samson.

Motherwell have always had shite keepers. You had an exceptional couple of years when you had Ruddy on loan and replaced him with Randolph but in my lifetime I remember the Graeme Smith's, the past it Stevie Woods, the past it Andy Goram, Dan Twardzik etc.

I'm surprised Brill hasn't displaced Samson as of yet as I always thought he was decent.

[Del_Superwell]

I actually thought Graeme Smith was a decent keeper, miles better than the likes of Woods and Samson that's for sure.  Throw in Gordon Marshall who wasn't the best but again better than Samson and Woods for me.

[Mr Hahn]

Smith was a quality shot stopper but his distribution, kicking especially, was rank and coming for crosses was not a strong point of his. 

[MJC]

34 minutes ago, Del_Superwell said:

I actually thought Graeme Smith was a decent keeper, miles better than the likes of Woods and Samson that's for sure.  Throw in Gordon Marshall who wasn't the best but again better than Samson and Woods for me.

His 2005 Cup Final nightmare apart, I thought Gordon Marshall was pretty solid for us. He commanded the box well and the defence had a huge amount of confidence in him. His 'pep talk' at the end of 90 minutes in the League Cup Semi at Easter Road was crucial to the team recovering from the setback of losing a 2-0 lead late on, that's from a number of players from that time.

Goram was past it by the time he was with us and his fitness and application were woeful. That he was made club captain at that time still beggars belief.

Woods was an utter bombscare who was unable to make the No.1 jersey his own in nearly ten years at the club and played second fiddle to five different goalkeepers in that same time...and each time he got his chance he showed just why he couldn't hold down the spot for himself. Him selling the jerseys against Rangers in the Cup when 2-1 up and comfortable just summed him up.

Graeme 'Buzz' Smith was murder, as was Frankie Doubourdeau - Boxing Day 02 v Rangers apart - and was prone to some crazy errors.

The best goalkeepers we've had in my time have been Dijkstra, Scott Howie, Ruddy and Randolph by some distance.

[capt_oats]

In my time watching Motherwell we've gone through peaks and troughs as far as Goalkeepers are concerned. Some have been excellent, some decent and some utterly useless.

Maxwell, Dijkstra/Thomson followed by Howie/Woods, Goram/Woods, Woods/Dubourdeau, Marshall/Corr, Smith/Meldrum, Ruddy/Fraser, Randolph/Hollis, Hollis/Nielsen, Twadzik/Neilsen/Long, Ripley/Twardzik/Samson, Samson/Brill.

I've mentioned before but I really don't understand why Samson was even signed unless Baraclough was *that* terrified by the prospect of maybe having to play Twardzik. When he signed we already had Ripley and Twardzik, the fairly flimsy excuse was that Ripley *might* go back to Boro in January. Instead, we actively sought to extend Ripley's loan rather than play Samson. An excellent decision IMO, but surely it also suggested that we didn't see Samson as a viable first choice.

This season the gist seemed to be that Samson would get the opportunity to establish himself as #1 because he had shown a bit of patience. Even then McGhee's phrasing was Samson would "start" the season #1, Brill said himself that he had signed because he wanted the opportunity to play. You'd have thought we'd be looking at form and make a decision based on that.

thisGRAEME's right in what he says about Brill, he looks overweight so who knows maybe the preference is just to stick with Samson for now regardless but given McGhee didn't hesitate to bench the likes of Kennedy, Laing, Ainsworth etc after mistakes the fact that Brill still hasn't had a look in even after Samson selling the jersey against St Johnstone and the fact that the back 4 look to have zero confidence in him is just weird.

[MJC]

Samson looks totally out of depth at this level, both in his ability and also his confidence. His tendency to parry rather than catch/smother is his biggest undoing, and he seems to struggle to communicate properly with the defence.

I don't know much about Brill other than a few highlights of him playing for ICT, but God knows how bad he must be if he can't get in that team ahead of Samson.

[Hawkeye the Gnu]

I'm afraid you are only now seeing what Killie fans saw for years.

Decent shot stopper but utter shite at crosses which cost us dearly in his last season with us.

Smashing big fella, but defo. out of his depth \t this level.

[thisGRAEME]

17 hours ago, MJC said:

Graeme 'Buzz' Smith was murder

Correct. 

Gave us some terrific moments but was ultimately a poor goalkeeper. Saved a penalty in Nancy and cost us two in the home leg, classic 'Buzz'.

[MJC]

He was utterly hopeless at cross balls and if he ever cleanly caught a high ball whilst under pressure from an opponent, or even one of his own defenders, then I'm buggered if I can remember it. 

We've had an abundance of goalkeepers down the years who couldn't deal with crosses for the life of them, even Ally Maxwell was pretty hopeless at them. Stevie Woods still tops any list of mine due to the length of time he was here though.

Guys like Dubourdeau, Smith, Hollis, Meldrum (who's performance v.St.Mirren in the 2-3 game at the end of the Malpas season still gives me nightmares) weren't around long enough to knock Woods of his perch as worst Motherwell goalkeeper of my time.

[Desp]

I always thought Graeme Smith was an "awright" 'keeper at Motherwell. Then I saw him at Hibs and realised that wasn't the case, when I had the C&A specs off.  His performance at Fir Park in the 6-6 game was fucking hilarious.  His girly squeal, when shouting at the defence, done my tits in for years as well.  

A point made further up re Samson, that not one other club in the Premiership would swap their goalkeeper for him, is absolutely bang on.  I think we're now at the point (probably have been for a good while too) that nobody in the stands has any confidence in him, and fully expect him to throw one in each game.  Never a good position to be in.  

[MJC]

14 minutes ago, Desp said:

I always thought Graeme Smith was an "awright" 'keeper at Motherwell. Then I saw him at Hibs and realised that wasn't the case, when I had the C&A specs off.  His performance at Fir Park in the 6-6 game was fucking hilarious.  His girly squeal, when shouting at the defence, done my tits in for years as well.  

A point made further up re Samson, that not one other club in the Premiership would swap their goalkeeper for him, is absolutely bang on.  I think we're now at the point (probably have been for a good while too) that nobody in the stands has any confidence in him, and fully expect him to throw one in each game.  Never a good position to be in.  

He did save a penalty in the 6-6 game, just minutes before Juke's stunner, but as said above that was typical of him. Have an absolute nightmare and yet save a penalty kick.

[thisGRAEME]

Don't know if was mentioned elsewhere, but Burrows mentioned Carl McHugh was back training, Moore too.

[capt_oats]

3 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Don't know if was mentioned elsewhere, but Burrows mentioned Carl McHugh was back training, Moore too.

Just saw the tweet when you mentioned it. Sounds pretty positive for both.

[Desp]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

He did save a penalty in the 6-6 game, just minutes before Juke's stunner, but as said above that was typical of him. Have an absolute nightmare and yet save a penalty kick.

He did, aye.  It was also him who gave the penalty away!  Very much a Graeme Smith 5 minute spell.  

[Ludo*1]

McGhee's shining moment for me was his utter arrogance when we put you out the cup back in 07ish I think it was. The keeper hadn't taken to the field and the ref was going to proceed with the game. McGhee was getting interviewed as he walked to the dugout and said to the reporter 'I don't mind if the ref starts the game we don't need a keeper to win this game'. Obviously said in jest but it's always stuck in my mind as an example of his arrogance.

[capt_oats]

Spent far longer than I probably should have doing Motherwell's supporter survey last night.

Given how vague the questions seemed (e.g.: how exactly do you qualify feeling "valued" as a fan?) I'd be interested to see what they're actually able to implement/action off the back of it.

Hopefully they get the sort of response they can use and it doesn't end up a fairly token "we're listening" gesture. Given they've employed someone to head up and implement this sort of thing and Flow seems genuinely keen to improve that area of the club then it'll be interesting to see how they address things and also what sort of results are published.

[Desp]

It'll be interested to hear what people think makes them feel 'valued'.

It's not something I've ever really thought about.  I like going to Motherwell games, I like Motherwell F.C so I pay my money every season to go and watch the games at Fir Park.  I'm not really sure what else the club can do to make my "experience" any better, other than win more fucking games.

I don't expect a birthday card from the club, a phone call from Keith Lasley to see how I'm doing etc etc.  

Yes it would be great if we could drag another 3000 home fans through the gates every Saturday, but I can't see that anytime soon.  

Fair play on getting this survey out there, though.  I'll be very interested to see what the results are and what they plan to implement on the back of it.  

[thisGRAEME]

I miss the supporters' liaison group, who's grand plan was to replace Claret and Amber with a knockoff iron-man mascot with a screen to advertise stuff in the chest.

What a time to be alive it was.

Edited November 18, 2016 by thisGRAEME

[ONeils40yarder]

On 11/17/2016 at 09:13, Desp said:

It'll be interested to hear what people think makes them feel 'valued'.

It's not something I've ever really thought about.  I like going to Motherwell games, I like Motherwell F.C so I pay my money every season to go and watch the games at Fir Park.  I'm not really sure what else the club can do to make my "experience" any better, other than win more fucking games.

I don't expect a birthday card from the club, a phone call from Keith Lasley to see how I'm doing etc etc.  

Yes it would be great if we could drag another 3000 home fans through the gates every Saturday, but I can't see that anytime soon.  

Fair play on getting this survey out there, though.  I'll be very interested to see what the results are and what they plan to implement on the back of it.  

Pretty much my thoughts as well...really struggled to answer one or two of the questions, as 'fan experience' as we've started to call it, doesnt mean that much to me. I go to the game because I want to, its what I've always done. The atmosphere could improve a bit, but the best way to do that is by improving the product on the pitch

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, ONeils40yarder said:

Pretty much my thoughts as well...really struggled to answer one or two of the questions, as 'fan experience' as we've started to call it, doesnt mean that much to me. I go to the game because I want to, its what I've always done. The atmosphere could improve a bit, but the best way to do that is by improving the product on the pitch

Same here.

When it comes down to it I'm a fairly low maintenance sort of fan. My "fan experience" amounts to turning up 10mins before kick off, paying in, taking a seat, watching the game and leaving. That's all I really expect from a game of football. Having said that, I suppose my "fan experience" will be very different to someone taking their kids along to a game or even one of the Bois in the East stand or someone who takes in a game in hospitality. So if the club are getting a broad range of responses then I suppose that's "a good thing", exactly how they'll action anything off the back of that I don't know. Given the inherent apathy that seems to surround a lot of our support then the fact that the club are actively making an effort to understand their fanbase deserves credit.

The question I had most difficulty with was the notion of feeling "valued" purely because I've never really given a second thought to whether or not I feel like I'm valued by the club. Paying to get in and the club having a team out on the park is really the main criteria in that respect and as I'm not a season ticket holder, I don't book hospitality or anything like that and I have next to no reason to contact or deal with the club on a personal basis so I'm unlikely to feel overlooked or unappreciated by the club.

Having given it a bit of thought though, the club delegating the Sevco vote and also the pro-active stance with the play-off ticketing, regardless of whether they directly applied to me, were the two instances where I could honestly say I had a feeling the club actually valued the fanbase and were looking out for their interests. Equally the "bam net" from last season was very much an example of things going the other way.