Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[KirkySuperSub]

6 hours ago, ropy said:

I got to cuddle Stevie Kirk in hospitality 

Who'd want that, eh?

[Alanos]

This is a good result to show us that we still nee to cull and recruit for next season.

onwards friends.

[eliphas]

12 hours ago, fat_tony said:

Shite performance on the pitch but cracking day at hospitality. KVV himself said we were a bit arrogant and thought we could turn up and win. Pretty much spot on.

Just about to come on ans post the same. 

Seems a few of us here were giving it some in hospitality.

Particularly found it funny that Van Veen was still in his full kit and slip ons while Dean manages to get showered and changed. 

[Casagolda]

11 hours ago, CoF said:

Glad to see some more sensible posts in the last hour. I was surprised at the initial reaction - we weren't great today but that performance was still infinitely better than most others in the last 6 months. No matter how good we are it's going to happen now and then. 

I think it’s been that long that folk genuinely seem to have forgot what it’s like to lose. 

But aye even looking at the ‘stats’ alone yesterday we had twice as many shots, more shots on target, a far higher XG, completed more passes etc than we did against Livingston.  

Yet everyone was singing our praises about how well we played last week and how awful we were yesterday. When in reality, a couple of quick fire goals before half time last week killed at that point what was a fairly even game. 

This week at the start of the 2nd half Van Veen strays offside at the disallowed goal and then misses a 1 on 1, we take either of those chances and I’m sure we go on to win again. We don’t, United hit us with a quick fire double and folk get frustrated as we spend the last 20 mins struggling to break them down. 

It’s football, it happens sometimes. We were joint bottom with United when Kettlewell took over, looking at where both sides are just now I think we can let him have this one. Forget it and move on.   

[RandomGuy.]

Relegation battle narrative demanded a United win yesterday, you were just the unfortunate passengers in that journey.

I wouldnt overthink it.

[welldaft]

We still need another win to be safe and that is unlikely to come next weekend. I believe the three teams below are all playing teams vying for the top 6 so that should ensure that Hibs, St Mirren and Livingston apply themselves 100% whilst we more than likely pick up nada at Celtic Park.

Yesterday was only slightly annoying as top 6 had gone with Hibs result and any defeat especially at home is not great. But there was little in the game. Van Veen was unlucky not get a second goal. His offside goal was a lot closer than I thought. His 1st goal was a great finish on the rebound. 

Kelly did make a few good saves to be fair but when I see him charging out of goal in a close chase the outcome is generally the same. The opposing player shoots past him or goes around him and scores or like yesterday he gives away a penalty, possibly could have been two if Fletcher did not over accentuate his fall. Not a good part of his game at all and a reason why he has been overlooked for a Scotland cap sadly. 

Are we due more home games post split ? Anyone know or hazard a guess ? 

 

[Handsome_Devil]

52 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

But aye even looking at the ‘stats’ alone yesterday we had twice as many shots, more shots on target, a far higher XG, completed more passes etc than we did against Livingston.  

Yet everyone was singing our praises about how well we played last week and how awful we were yesterday. When in reality, a couple of quick fire goals before half time last week killed at that point what was a fairly even game. 

I didn't really see the Livingston game so not a direct comparison but for me what was disappointing was not the loss but the nature of it - we were way to passive, pressed much less, Mandron held very little so we had no out and ended up defending etc.

Most of our chances came from United's defence being a charity case. Essentially they're so rotten at the back that they tried to throw us the game even when we weren't playing well. Had kvv got another or furlong not had a rush of blood I agree we would have won but it would have been despite not because of our performance.

But I'm definitely not going ott, SK has delivered more than enough to excuse a rare stinker.

And less connected with the performance is the annoyance generated by the fixture list - there's nothing worse than entering a long break on a downer and we basically now have three weeks to ponder it.

[CoF]

46 minutes ago, welldaft said:

Are we due more home games post split ? Anyone know or hazard a guess ? 

 

We'll have played 16 home and 17 away at the split, so should be due more home games.

As an aside, we're currently 3rd in the away table, which is surprising. 

https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=scotland

[Handsome_Devil]

5 minutes ago, CoF said:

We'll have played 16 home and 17 away at the split, so should be due more home games.

As an aside, we're currently 3rd in the away table, which is surprising. 

https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=scotland

My United mate said they're due four home games from the five opponents they'll likely face post split - so giving them another trip to FP could solve a couple of issues there.

County are also in the 'wrong' half compared to last season though so it's probably more complicated than that.

[Al B]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

This week at the start of the 2nd half Van Veen strays offside at the disallowed goal

I'm behind the goal so it's harder to tell when you can't look across the line but it looked to me that actually timed that run absolutely perfectly, but for some reason Mandron delayed his ball when he didn't need to. He had the chance to play it and KVV clearly thought he was going to, but instead he took a moment to double check and then played it in. By that time KVV was well off.

[Phillips455]

With how celtic are playing today, I have so some fear of how next week's game will go....

 

In any case we just didn't see to be In it for most of the game. Defensively everyone was basically ball watching, getting into bad positions amd allowing too many chances. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to most of the squad  

[Quatermass]

County, Killie and Dun Utd are all three games behind us points wise with six games to go. We currently have a +27 better goal difference over Killie which is another excellent advantage. We are two games in front of St Johnstone points wise as well. It would need to be some set of freakish results to see us finish in 11th or 12th. We’d need to get pummelled every single week for the rest of the season and the other teams to share victories between each other with virtually no draws taking place. For me it’s County and Killie for 11th and 12th place. In what order I don’t know.

[ropy]

Easy to say in hindsight but I was shouting for Kelly to stand tall in the middle of the goal at the penalty.  If he had would it have been played to the corner?  Does a keeper ever hold the middle ground?

[Kapowzer]

20 minutes ago, ropy said:

Easy to say in hindsight but I was shouting for Kelly to stand tall in the middle of the goal at the penalty.  If he had would it have been played to the corner?  Does a keeper ever hold the middle ground?

Not often, even if you dive the wrong way you've been 'deceived' by the wiley penalty taker. You dive to the correct side there's a chance of glory. Stay put and the go anywhere other than down the middle you look like a lemon. I get why keepers do it.

[Handsome_Devil]

32 minutes ago, Kapowzer said:

Not often, even if you dive the wrong way you've been 'deceived' by the wiley penalty taker. You dive to the correct side there's a chance of glory. Stay put and the go anywhere other than down the middle you look like a lemon. I get why keepers do it.

So do I but given McGrath waits with all his penalties and passes it in I'd have been happy for Kelly to stand in the middle like an idiot and take his chances that way.

[Handsome_Devil]

2 hours ago, Quatermass said:

County, Killie and Dun Utd are all three games behind us points wise with six games to go. We currently have a +27 better goal difference over Killie which is another excellent advantage. We are two games in front of St Johnstone points wise as well. It would need to be some set of freakish results to see us finish in 11th or 12th. We’d need to get pummelled every single week for the rest of the season and the other teams to share victories between each other with virtually no draws taking place. For me it’s County and Killie for 11th and 12th place. In what order I don’t know.

For us to go down we're talking not just going winless in the last seven but losing at least six of them.

It's entirely possible even then we could lose all seven and still finish 10th, though that's a scenario I'm not eager to test.

If you assume we do get our three home games somehow to balance the season we really have no excuse for it even becoming close from this position.

[Kapowzer]

It was mathematical for us to get top 6 yesterday lunchtime but 90% of Well fans knew it was a forlorn hope weeks ago.

It's mathematical for us to go down or get a playoff too, zero chance of either happening in reality as well. But it will be a source of debate until there's X points left to play for and we're X points clear.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Kapowzer

[Kapowzer]

Bullfrog is emitting acrid smoke, seems that fitba team doesn't have any reason to object to our academy any more. Richard Forster doesn't f**k about, some boi.

['WellDel]

Yesterdays performance was just a bit flat and we weren't really at it. United wanted and needed it more, which clearly showed and I've no real complaints about the outcome. (pishy refereeing and decision making by Kelly aside).

Back to middle we were very slack, and up front hopefully Obika is back soon as he is a better foil for big Kev than Mandron.

A performance like that was always going to happen at some point and I can easily forgive it. It wasn't great, but the overall product is so much better since the change of manager, and I still had a lovely day out on the beers.

Get the game vs Celtic out the way, then I'm sure we'll comfortably gain the few points required to guarantee safety and look forward to how Kettlewell aims to shape us for next season.

Edited April 16, 2023 by 'WellDel

[rowsdower]

What's the chances that KVV introduces himself to connor shields at pre season training like he's a new person?