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Motherwell 13/12/17


Auld Jag
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As a former kitchen porter in the old Black Bull Hotel in Mingavie (remember that?), I never regarded myself as a KP. I thought that name was reserved for nuts and Kevin Pietersen, not to mention the King's Pawn in chess.

 

Same place I started my career, behind the bar. What a place that was. Still haven't made it to the premier league though!

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The physicality of Motherwell could have caused one of their goals to be stroked off, and if Bowman had been unlucky he could have seen red instead of yellow. After watching the game on BBC Alba after seeing it in the flesh, I felt that the team looked more assured towards the end than I felt at the time. Perhaps we tend to feed off each others' moods in the crowd.

 

Well done to Archie for sorting out the midfield and striking problems, but Woods should have been replaced by Fräser at the break, before he started to feel the effects of a long break from playing.

 

Certainly don't think it helps when the fans get on top of players for nervous panicky play. That's not a go at those who do. They are also likely to be amongst the most vocal getting behind the team as well.

 

Think the Woods/Fraser thingy maybe a bit of a Catch 22 in so much that Fraser may not have been deemed as match fit as Woods. Got the impression Gary was always going to replace Woods as the first planned substitution and that was fairly imminent.

 

The worry is our defence we have shipped 7 in our last two games and have the worst record in the league ......unlesss that’s fixed relegation will be on the agenda ....the number of goals we lose at cross balls is terrible.....either get Barton back there or recruit in January

 

Thought our lumped balls and clear anywhere performance in the 2nd half just invited far more pressure (at times constant) on the back line/goalie. We should under normal circumstances have reverted to our more accustomed possession game. But being caught in possession and sloppy/slow build up play has been our downfall of late so I can understand why it didn't happen.

 

Agree entirely the defence is a worry but feel it's more than partly down to a lack of leadership in midfield. Individually the back line were often very impressive winning most of the aerial threat, blocking attackers etc and clean tackling (Turnbull's one coming over to right back in the first half was exceptional). Collectively far less impressive but I do feel midfield don't offer nearly enough assistance in defence.

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Thought our lumped balls and clear anywhere performance in the 2nd half just invited far more pressure (at times constant) on the back line/goalie. We should under normal circumstances have reverted to our more accustomed possession game. But being caught in possession and sloppy/slow build up play has been our downfall of late so I can understand why it didn't happen.

 

Nail and head.

 

For all the nerves the team did manage to "see it out" which has been a massive problem last season and again this year.

 

John Hansen pointed out in his '25 years since '71' interview that Alan would want to pass the ball to him when he had 3 players around him but his own preference was to "boot it into the stand; no-one has EVER scored from row Z!", he said. Not pretty but extremely effective. While it does allow the opposition to 'come again' it also allows the defence time to regroup.

 

I don't think we can be over critical about defending too deep but I'm sure Archie will be working on that and we certainly got the result we asked for and a platform to work from.

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Regarding Barton being back in the defence for cross balls, it was his man that scored the first. The chance at the death for motherwell with the header, im sure that put the Frear into everyone in the NS. Watching the game back on Alba, we got some lucky bounces in our own box through some at times desperate defending and in the end were fortunate to see it out. When you invite pressure like we do then its only a matter of time before you concede. Big improvement needed if we are to tae anything on Saturday

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I agree the defence looked shaky.

 

But we won because we put 3 in the onion bag. I would far rather have a great game like last night than a dour 1-0(which usually turns into a 1-1 before the end).

 

More of this please although our nerves would be shattered. Call this extreme naivety but I like it!

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Regarding Barton being back in the defence for cross balls, it was his man that scored the first. The chance at the death for motherwell with the header, im sure that put the Frear into everyone in the NS.

 

In fairness Barton did win a good share of defensive headers but you'd expect that given his height. To me the only selling point of putting him in a back three is he's better equipped to take the ball forward to play in the wingbacks or attacking midfielders. I don't quite follow the reasoning of some that want him in a back three simply because he gets caught in possession in midfield. He's still going to be attempting to play the ball in defence only this time in his own box. Anyway that's largely academic till we get at least one genuine wingback available.

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Stupid q but what was the formation?

5-3-2 with Spitall at LWB?

Thought Woods was a big improvement as Barton and Edwards in a midfield 3 with a more attacking number 10 does not work. No idea why but it just does not.

Lawless and Erskine but a bit off form so deserved to be subbed and the physical nature of Motherwell meant Storey and Sammon was a good choice.

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Regarding Barton being back in the defence for cross balls, it was his man that scored the first. The chance at the death for motherwell with the header, im sure that put the Frear into everyone in the NS. Watching the game back on Alba, we got some lucky bounces in our own box through some at times desperate defending and in the end were fortunate to see it out. When you invite pressure like we do then its only a matter of time before you concede. Big improvement needed if we are to tae anything on Saturday

 

It is about time some fortune goes our way. It really does have a big say on results. Even on Sat, if Keown header didn’t bounce off Devine, they wouldn’t have scored that goal.

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Great 'time management' by our goalie.If the opposition had done it we would not be happy.

I think Tam was cute enough last night to not be too blatant. I don’t think the ref even chased him up much. This has happened to us many times. St Johnstone last season and of course our favourite Stranraer keeper in League Cup were the most blatant cases I’ve seen in a long time.

Edited by jaggy
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Same place I started my career, behind the bar. What a place that was. Still haven't made it to the premier league though!

 

Summer job between school and university in 1977 after the Jags had romped the old First Division. Main memory was how the waiters changed personality when they burst through the double doors between the restaurant and the kitchen, Suave, polite and elegant on one side, then a fusillade of swear words on the other. Quite an eye opener!

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Not so sure about that Jaggernaut. Aren't linesman supposed to run towards the half-way line to signify it's a goal? He didn't, so he must have seen something. He may have flagged for off-side but the ALBA pictures don't show him until the ref goes over so it's not conclusive if he raised his flag initially (if at all). He could have kept his flag raised vertically to draw the ref's attention but nowadays they are all wired up anyway. I agree he got the decision right but how he went about it was indecisive. The ref could just as easily have waved away Cerny's protests (or even booked him!)

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Summer job between school and university in 1977 after the Jags had romped the old First Division. Main memory was how the waiters changed personality when they burst through the double doors between the restaurant and the kitchen, Suave, polite and elegant on one side, then a fusillade of swear words on the other. Quite an eye opener!

 

Hospitality is definitely an interesting industry! At least in the Courtyard bar, everyone was speaking the same language.

 

 

Back to the football, let's hope Woods is ok for another hour at least tomorrow. Having a midfield anchor makes a load of difference to our team. Protects the defence, and frees up the midfield to push further forward. That last point is important when we choose to go a bit more direct, like we did in the first half on Weds.

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Got to give credit to the linesman; for once one of them did his job right, and he was absolutely correct to call offside for that Motherwell (non)goal.

 

Yeah he got there in the end. But I'm sure he never raised his flag which caused a lot of unnecessary confusion. It was a straightforward decision to give. Perhaps someone closer saw it differently.

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Yeah he got there in the end. But I'm sure he never raised his flag which caused a lot of unnecessary confusion. It was a straightforward decision to give. Perhaps someone closer saw it differently.

 

My guess is that the assistant ref was unsure if Dunne got a touch on the ball and didnt want to flag as it would have been a goal if he didn't. He would then alert the ref via his mic of the fact that he has some doubt about the validity of the goal and wanted a chat. They would then discuss whether Dunne did get a touch and the ref would confirm that he did so it was then it became offside.

 

 

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Not so sure about that Jaggernaut. Aren't linesman supposed to run towards the half-way line to signify it's a goal? He didn't, so he must have seen something. He may have flagged for off-side but the ALBA pictures don't show him until the ref goes over so it's not conclusive if he raised his flag initially (if at all). He could have kept his flag raised vertically to draw the ref's attention but nowadays they are all wired up anyway. I agree he got the decision right but how he went about it was indecisive. The ref could just as easily have waved away Cerny's protests (or even booked him!)

 

Great idea having officials all wired up. Craig Thomson and John Beaton wired to the national grid would be most pleasing.

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Summer job between school and university in 1977 after the Jags had romped the old First Division. Main memory was how the waiters changed personality when they burst through the double doors between the restaurant and the kitchen, Suave, polite and elegant on one side, then a fusillade of swear words on the other. Quite an eye opener!

Yep. It took a certain type of customer to endure that.
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Not so sure about that Jaggernaut. Aren't linesman supposed to run towards the half-way line to signify it's a goal? He didn't, so he must have seen something. He may have flagged for off-side but the ALBA pictures don't show him until the ref goes over so it's not conclusive if he raised his flag initially (if at all). He could have kept his flag raised vertically to draw the ref's attention but nowadays they are all wired up anyway. I agree he got the decision right but how he went about it was indecisive. The ref could just as easily have waved away Cerny's protests (or even booked him!)

I'm sure that the linesman definitely gave the goal at first- he started running towards halfway with the flag down. The referee then questioned the linesman and disallowed it. I can only assume that the linesman thought that the initial header went in directly (without the final touch) and that the offside player was not interfering- The referee (having seen the final touch) went to the linesman to confirm this and that the player was actually offside.

 

ETA - I've just seen michael m's post above which I see suggests the same thing- don't know why I missed it first time round!

Edited by Duke Gekantawa
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