Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[MJC]

1 hour ago, Busta Nut said:

Harsh on Karl Ready, He was a decent big lump of wid, David Kelly was also decent-ish I thought.

He was slower than a week in jail if I remember correctly. 'Big lump of wood' pretty much describes him accurately. Kelly was absolutely done by the time he was with us. I can only remember him scoring the odd penalty here and there, always struck low to the bottom left hand corner.

45 minutes ago, Swello said:

My abiding memory of the entire Davies "era" and all the stuff after it wasn't the overspending as such - it was the fucking *awful* value we got for the money we overspent. Almost finished the club for absolutely f**k-all in return - we were (apart from the few occasions that the TV cameras were in town), shite.

The season we finished 4th and just missed out on Europe had some absolutely awful matches and our big earners regularly failed to turn up. 

Dundee pumped us 2-0, 3-0 and 4-1, Kilmarnock came to Fir Park around February time having not won in months and beat us 4-0, then a few days later Ayr Utd beat us 4-3 at FP in the Scottish Cup when Neil Tarrant(forgot about him, he was another Davies summer '01 signing) ripped us to shreds. I remember Dundee United also beating us 3-1 at home after they hadn't won in God knows how long and of course the infamous 6-5 loss to Aberdeen. We always seemed to turn up for live SKY games that season though. 

We were spending a fortune, in our terms anyway, on the likes of Goram, Spencer and McCulloch and getting very little in return. That was also the season that McCulloch was linked with a £1M  move to Hearts. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by MJC

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, nsr said:

Is Karl Ready still playing at an amateur level in order to claim his 30 pieces of silver* from us?

*15p in the 30 Pieces of Silver.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

ATS signs for Livi.

[Swello]

3 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

ATS signs for Livi.

Bet he looks delighted about it in the publicity shot.

[MP_MFC]

Aye, if I recall Kelly was having a go at Eric Black and it ended up with Terry overhearing it and asking him to repeat it to him.

Allegedly it ended with Kelly pinned against the door of the dressing room getting a right going over.

[crazylegsjoe]

2 hours ago, MJC said:

Ayr Utd beat us 4-3 at FP in the Scottish Cup when Neil Tarrant(forgot about him, he was another Davies summer '01 signing)

My abiding memory of this game is that their keeper went off for treatment and we didn't manage to score into them when they had ten men, one of whom was an outfield player in goals.

[Cptn Hooch]

ATS signs for Livi.

What's he like?

[boozyBJ]

Injured?

[Ron Aldo]

6 minutes ago, Cptn Hooch said:

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

ATS signs for Livi.

What's he like?

Not very good.

[crazylegsjoe]

Had a hilarious dive that somehow won a penalty, looked particularly glum in pictures and completed 90 minutes twice in the league. That about sums up his time with us I think.

[MJC]

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe said:

My abiding memory of this game is that their keeper went off for treatment and we didn't manage to score into them when they had ten men, one of whom was an outfield player in goals.

That's right, Craig Nelson it was. He was off for a good ten minutes and we couldn't take advantage of it but ironically did score almost as soon as he came back on. That was a farce of a performance from us, as we led 2-1 then 3-2 before losing. That game was just after Shaun Teale left the club under a cloud and Greig Denham, who'd come into the side to replace him had an absolute nightmare.

[MP_MFC]

Here, where's Mark O Hara?

[AndyRoss]

Was carrying an injury ahead of the Aberdeen game, though I sure as to why he’s still not back.

[RandomGuy.]

5 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

Was carrying an injury ahead of the Aberdeen game, though I sure as to why he’s still not back.

It's likely because hes fairly shite.

[Archie McSquackle]

I forgot we signed him!

[capt_oats]

50 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

Was carrying an injury ahead of the Aberdeen game, though I sure as to why he’s still not back.

The last minutes O'Hara got were for the Reserves in the 2-2 draw against St Mirren on October 7th. He had been on the bench on the Saturday previous.

As it stands - and this is true of Sloth as well - our midfield pretty much picks itself. Even if both were fit it's doubtful either would be starting.

You've got Maguire as the back-up for the holding role so if either O'Hara or Sloth are going to get a look in it'll be down to suspension, injury or dip in form for either Polworth or Campbell. Having said that you've also got Jamie Semple pinging them in on a regular basis as an #8 for the Reserves (I think he has something like 5 goals in 7 appearances so far).

You look at our bench in the last couple of games and it's Carson, Tait, Seedorf, Maguire, Ilic, Scott and Mugabi so 1 GK, 2 defenders, 1 midfielder and 3 forwards which is a fairly reasonable balance. If everyone was fit then you'd probably say that Ilic's spot on the bench is probably the only one that's obviously up for grabs IMO.
 

[Swello]

After all the 12-18 chat last season that became a stick to beat Robinson with, we seem to have got that part properly right this time - by Motherwell standards, we've got a decently balanced squad this year in that there are very few positions where an injury would kill us. When you add to that the fact that Dunne and DT aside, we've not been hit by  the kind of injuries we've suffered from the last few years  (yet) - it means a lot of frustrated players sitting in a trackie looking bored on match days. Like @Archie McSquackle, I had genuinely forgotten that we'd signed O'Hara.

I still find the Sloth one weird though - I can't imagine if all was well that there would be no place on the bench for him at least given his pedigree, regardless of how well the midfield have been doing. For example,  I think it makes sense to have a Campbell replacement on the bench in games when he's been away with U21's...

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

I still find the Sloth one weird though - I can't imagine if all was well that there would be no place on the bench for him at least given his pedigree, regardless of how well the midfield have been doing. For example,  I think it makes sense to have a Campbell replacement on the bench in games when he's been away with U21's...

Aye. It's a bit weird, no doubt.

Looking at the pre-season games he started against Crusaders, Linfield, Gretna and was on the bench against Darlington. In the LC groups he missed the QoS and Morton games, was on the bench for Dumbarton and got some minutes against Annan. Given the fact he hadn't played in since September '18 when we signed him and Robinson's "earn the right to play football" approach you can understand introducing him gradually (to a point).

Since then...it's only been Reserves appearances he's started the following games (4 of 8 Reserve League & Cup fixtures):

• 02/09/19 2-0 vs Morton
• 16/09/19 2-2 vs Accies (scored)
• 23/09/19 2-0 vs Dunfermline
• 07/10/19 2-2 vs St Mirren

Again, all that seems fair enough and is actually more games/minutes than I thought. I don't imagine the sporadic nature of the Reserves fixtures lend themselves to building up any sort of fitness. There was almost a full month between the St Mirren game on 7th October and the Killie game on 4th November. I mean, that's just an absolute shambles (I know we had a couple of bounce games in between but still...Thistle beat us 1-0 in one). 

Lasley mentioned in his interview with @AndyRoss that Sloth had a couple of knocks and IIRC it had been mentioned earlier in the season that he'd been given some personal time but it's hard to shake the feeling that he's dropped off the face of the earth a bit.

Fwiw: I was at the Dunfermline game and he was fine - good even...certainly no Luka Belic. I've mentioned it before but he was far more dynamic than I had expected. He got about the park well and slotted in alongside Maguire and O'Hara in the first half and O'Hara and Semple in the 2nd.

Edited November 7, 2019 by capt_oats

[Casagolda]

Robinson being linked with the N.Ireland job now as well this morning. 

No idea if he’ll actually get offered the job but that’s the one I don’t think he’d be able to turn down. 

[capt_oats]

15 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Robinson being linked with the N.Ireland job now as well this morning. 

No idea if he’ll actually get offered the job but that’s the one I don’t think he’d be able to turn down. 

Presumably this is direct from his agent but apparently he's the "leading candidate", Craigan will be his assistant and interestingly it seems O'Neill will be involved in appointing his successor and also asked Robinson to be involved at Stoke as his assistant but he kb'd that option.

That's quite a lot of detail.

Tbh, with Baraclough looking after their u21s and the fact Robinson's family are still based over there all the pieces fit. The only question is whether they offer him the job or not.

Edited November 8, 2019 by capt_oats