Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Desp]

23 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

I've just clocked Marshall at 5 on Desp's list as well. f**k off Marshall. 

I know it's unfair to judge him, but that day at Hampden... f**k me.

Marshall did indeed have a shocker that day, but so did about eight of the outfield players.  As Joe said, his performances against Hearts in the Semi, to actually get us to said final, and against Celtic in 2005 make up for a bad day at the office.  I felt he was a very solid 'keeper during his time with us.

Colin Meldrum throwing goals in against St. Mirren late in the Malpas season, when we chucked away a two goal lead, was the pinnacle for me.  Absolute dug meat.

I didn't realise Billy Thomson played that many games.  I was still young at that point, and Sieb took all the headlines in my book.  Sadly no place in the list either for stalwarts like Luke Daniels, Scott Thomson or Barry John Corr.

[Desp]

3 minutes ago, Swello said:

We've done overly well on forwards in the same period (that would be some top 20)

Oh ya fucker!!  If you've got time, please proceed...

[well fan for life]

24 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe said:

For me, Craig Samson was the worst. A culmination of several factors going into that. The fact that before he came to us he must've played a good 300 professional games, but had an absolutely massive goal to blunder ratio was brutal. I remember from a young age, keepers in my boys club were told that if they couldn't catch, palm the ball to side. The number of times Samson parried the ball back into the danger zone was incredible. The fact he lost his place to a loanee brought in as second choice, who all things told wasn't very good himself, speaks volumes.

I agree with this. Samson must have only played 30-40 games for us across his time and I can think of a frightening number of blunders that cost us games. There were occasions where I started to wonder if he actually had hands in those gloves or were they, in fact, lettuce leaves.

[thisGRAEME]

14 minutes ago, Desp said:

Oh ya fucker!!  If you've got time, please proceed...

This could tear the relative calm of this place apart, tbqhwy.

[crazylegsjoe]

9 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

I agree with this. Samson must have only played 30-40 games for us across his time and I can think of a frightening number of blunders that cost us games. There were occasions where I started to wonder if he actually had hands in those gloves or were they, in fact, lettuce leaves.

Between him, Meldrum and Woods, our bad goalkeepers are certainly advocates of the "those who can't do, teach" phrase.

17 minutes ago, Desp said:

Oh ya fucker!!  If you've got time, please proceed...

Is this proper centre forwards? Or are guys like Murphy, McFadden, Elliott etc allowed to feature?

[Swello]

 

2 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe said:

Between him, Meldrum and Woods, our bad goalkeepers are certainly advocates of the "those who can't do, teach" phrase.

Is this proper centre forwards? Or are guys like Murphy, McFadden, Elliott etc allowed to feature?

Yes they were attackers, get them in!

[Ron Aldo]

Best centre forwards of the last 20 years -

1. Michael Higdon.

End of list.

[Busta Nut]

The Goalie chat is amazing. The chat a few of us had on twitter about it was interesting too.

12 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Can I say he was the worst for the longest period of time?

I think that is a good shout.

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, Ron Aldo said:

Best centre forwards of the last 20 years -

1. Michael Higdon.

End of list.

You're talking about in world football, right?

[Busta Nut]

1 minute ago, Ron Aldo said:

Best centre forwards of the last 20 years -

1. Michael Higdon.

End of list.

I love folk trying to argue that Higdon and Sutton were poor players. There is a few folk oot there who did argue that tae

[MJC]

13 hours ago, Busta Nut said:

Any one who says Stevie Woods is the worst Motherwell goalie ever is at it.

 

There were definitely others who were individually worse than Stevie Woods but the length of time he was with us and the decade of blunders he made puts him top of my list for worse Motherwell goalkeeper. The other duds came and went in a short space of time but Woods hung around like a bad smell whilst losing his place to five different goalkeepers and repeatedly made the same basic errors throughout his time at Fir Park.

[Swello]

Hmmm - this might get me killed as I've probably missed someone blindingly obvious or put Higdon too low

1. Davie Cooper

2. Tommy Coyne

3. Dougie Arnott

4. Scott McDonald

5. Michael Higdon

6. Louis Moult

7. John Sutton

8. James McFadden

9. Chris Porter

10. Ross McCormack

11.  Jamie Murphy

12. Henrik Ojammaa

13. Lucas Jutciewicz

14. Lionel Ainsworth

15. Marvin Johnson

16. Davie Clarkson

17. Owen Coyle

18. Chris Humphrey

19. Richie Foran

20. Nick Blackman

ETA: I was following the same timescale as @Desp's keeper list

Edited February 14, 2019 by Swello

[MJC]

Without a doubt, Michael Higdon is our best striker of the past twenty years. A proper No.9 who scored goals, got stuck in about defenders and spearheaded a very good attacking line for us at the time.

[Ron Aldo]

1 minute ago, MJC said:

Without a doubt, Michael Higdon is our best striker of the past twenty years. A proper No.9 who scored goals, got stuck in about defenders and spearheaded a very good attacking line for us at the time.

The best performance I think I've seen from a Motherwell centre forward is when Celtic played Victor Wanyama at centre half and big Higdon flung him about like a wet trackie. Glorious.

Lets not forget when he got lifted at the player of the year awards.

[Busta Nut]

I think the "Forward" is too varied to put them in an order that would settle in my mind.

I'd be too caught up in the shite wans tae.

[MJC]

6 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

The best performance I think I've seen from a Motherwell centre forward is when Celtic played Victor Wanyama at centre half and big Higdon flung him about like a wet trackie. Glorious.

Lets not forget when he got lifted at the player of the year awards.

And had Neil Lennon choking on his chewing tobacco after his nomination and no Celtic player was nominated. They were good times indeed.

[Desp]

It's all personal choice of course, but I wouldn't include Cooper, Johnson or Ainsworth in my list.  They were wingers for me, which I'd have included in the midfield area and can't ever recall them having a spell through the middle for us.  No issues with anyone who wants to fire them in, though.

For me, in my time supporting the 'Well (I hope I've not forgotten anyone obvious!);

1. Tommy Coyne

2. Michael Higdon

3. Dougie Arnott

4. Scott McDonald

5. James McFadden

6. Louis Moult

7. John Sutton

8. Chris Porter

9. Owen Coyle

10. David Clarkson

11. John Spencer

12. Ross McCormack

13. Lukas Jutkiewicz

14. Henrik Ojamaa

15. Lee McCulloch

16. Stuart Elliott

17. Jamie Murphy

18. Dirk Lehmann

19. Richie Foran

20. Willie Falconer 

 

[Archie McSquackle]

I'm still thinking about goalies and you've started on forwards! Samson's experience and subsequent disastrous form overshadows the other poor keepers with relatively low appearances for me.

Dubordeau was probably slightly above average for me but with that blinder against Rangers. The moment that sticks in my craw though is a crappy midweek game petering out to a goalless draw at Kilmarnock and he caught the ball then elbowed the oncoming forward. Completely unnecessary. Red card, penalty and 1nil defeat - just like that.

[MJC]

3 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I think the "Forward" is too varied to put them in an order that would settle in my mind.

I'd be too caught up in the shite wans tae.

It would be hard to top Alex Burns for the worst forward I think. 

Hopeless in his first spell then scored against us for Partick Thistle in every game one season then we re-sign him that summer and he looked as hopeless as he was in his previous spell with us.

[Mr. Brightside]

Gerry Britton and everyone's favourite Belgian-Spaniard...