Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Swello]

22 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Lest we forget...

 

Is that a camera round McManus's neck  #Thehardworkstartshere #notaholiday

[capt_oats]

Just now, Swello said:

Is that a camera round McManus's neck  #Thehardworkstartshere #notaholiday

Looks like a GoPro.

Which is how they'd be able to capture this sizzling #content.

 

[MJC]

6 hours ago, crazylegsjoe said:

Woods was with us for nine seasons and in that time managed to lose his place to Scott Howie, Mikko Kaven, Andy Goram, Mark Brown and Francois Dubourdeau at different points. Says a lot about his time with us that he managed to lose the number one to five different keepers. 

Just when you thought you'd seen the last of him in a Motherwell jersey he turned up again like a bad penny. In my time following Motherwell there have been goalkeepers that were probably poorer than Stevie Woods was, with Samson, Meldrum and Kaven being the obvious examples but they came and went in a relatively short space of time, whereas Woods was here for the best part of a decade and made countless errors that cost us big time. I don't know if he had a concentration or a confidence issue but his judgement was utterly appalling and although he was actually a fairly decent shot stopper (albeit with shots hit right at him) you knew that a blunder was never far away. The infamous Rangers cup tie where he actually played well throughout before selling the jerseys with that ridiculous clearance to Gordon Durie should have seen him chased out of Fir Park but he hung around for another five years after that. Without doubt he was and is the worst Motherwell goalkeeper I have ever seen.

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by MJC

[capt_oats]

9 hours ago, Desp said:

Is it definitely the Roberto Carlos?  I mean, there's at least two Brazilian footballers called Fred so as far as I'm concerned, all bets are off when it comes to names from that country.

Dug out the programme when I got in. Doesn't seem to have been a Roberto Carlos in their squad. The Roberto Carlos is Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (apparently).

Edited February 13, 2019 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Dug out the programme when I got in. Doesn't seem to have been a Roberto Carlos in their squad. The Roberto Carlos is Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (apparently).

Wikipedia/ my inability to read has ripped the piss out of me here.

[Busta Nut]

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

 

[well fan for life]

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

He was shite but I can think of about 4 who were definitely worse.

[Busta Nut]

Following on from Motherwell securing their fifth successive league win, Sparra, Busta and Jay  look back on the win at St Mirren, look to our next league fixture against Hearts, discuss interest for other club’s in Jake Hastie, Motherwell’s women’s side and much more.

 

https://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2018-19-episode-29/

[thisGRAEME]

54 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

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

 

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

[Al B]

I'd put money on Gobstopper68 being Buxe (Yabba's Turd on S.O.). mainly as he's got more Motherwell footage than probably even the BBC.

He's an absolute top man, if anyone is that curious...send him a PM on there and he'll tell you if it's him.

[Swello]

6 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Dug out the programme when I got in. Doesn't seem to have been a Roberto Carlos in their squad. The Roberto Carlos is Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (apparently).

I remember Ghana's Willie Brown going down a storm at Fir Park

 

[steelmen]

I didn’t mind Stevie woods, fair share of howlers but certainly not our worst.

remember that time he got a call up for Scotland... I’m sure that happened or was it just Scott howie?

[Desp]

8 hours ago, steelmen said:

I didn’t mind Stevie woods, fair share of howlers but certainly not our worst.

remember that time he got a call up for Scotland... I’m sure that happened or was it just Scott howie?

Woods definitely was in a Scotland squad at one point.  May have only been the one time, but was in as no.3 goalie. 

As an aside, I remember having a Twitter discussion around the best/worst Motherwell goalkeepers since Ally Maxwell.  My 'Top 20' was as follows, based on their ability & contribution during their time at Fir Park;

FYI - there's some utter fucking dross from 10 downwards... Also, I'll fight anyone who says Colin Meldrum wasn't the worst goalkeeper we've seen at Fir Park in the last 30 years.

1. Sieb Dijkstra

2. Darren Randolph

3. Ally Maxwell

4. John Ruddy

5. Gordon Marshall

6. Andy Goram

7. Graeme Smith

8. Scott Howie

9. Connor Ripley

10. Stevie Woods

11. George Long

12. Mark Brown

13. Francois Dubordeaux

14. Lee Hollis

15. Gunnar Nielsen

16. Michael Fraser

17. Miko Kaven

18. Dan Twardzik

19. Craig Samson

20. Colin Meldrum

[thisGRAEME]

Smith particularly is a weird one. He was dreadful but had some huge 'moments' in his Motherwell career, which probably bumps him up.

Difficult to pick when you get lower, Fraser, Samson and Neilsen were fucking appalling. Kaven I don't really remember and my weirdly positive memory of Meldrum is him making an astonishing save at Dundee United on the final day of the Malpas season. Neilsen might even shade it for me, his ability to bat balls down onto centre-forward's toes was incredible.

[well fan for life]

31 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Smith particularly is a weird one. He was dreadful but had some huge 'moments' in his Motherwell career, which probably bumps him up.

Difficult to pick when you get lower, Fraser, Samson and Neilsen were fucking appalling. Kaven I don't really remember and my weirdly positive memory of Meldrum is him making an astonishing save at Dundee United on the final day of the Malpas season. Neilsen might even shade it for me, his ability to bat balls down onto centre-forward's toes was incredible.

I'm, quite frankly, still reeling from the revelation that Lee Hollis wore two different boots. 

The lower end of that list of keepers is the stuff of nightmares. I'll give Dubordeaux a pass for his one ridiculous performance against Rangers but Hollis, Neilsen, Fraser, Samson and Meldrum were absolutely stinking. 

I'd put Dean Brill in as an honorary mention despite never playing for us. He rocked up to Fir Park about 4 stone overweight. 

[capt_oats]

Billy Thomson missing from Desp's list. Was quite surprised to see that he made 52 appearances for us. Not passing comment on his performances but he always seemed overshadowed by Dijkstra.

Also, Goram's 57 appearances is more than I expected.

Edited February 14, 2019 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe]

It's a good point of debate anyway. 

I missed Maxwell and Dijkstra, when I first start going Scott Howie was the number one keeper.  Looking at @Desp's list, I think all the good keepers (the list until Woods) we would probably find ourselves agreeing with, but it seems the bottom half is where everyone has a different least favourite.

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.

Woods certainly wasn't a great keeper for us, but I guess the blunders we remember from him were stagerred due to his long service. It's not talked about that often, but I remember another episode like the Durie one, against Kilmarnock in late 2000, where he hit a quick free kick off Scott Leitch's heel when Leitch wasn't looking and it put Kilmarnock through on goal. I also remember an absolute shitshow against Livingston the day they beat us 5-1.

I would also rate Nielsen as the worst of the Nielsen/Hollis/Twardzik trio. Hollis was competent at the basics of goalkeeping but any shot of any skill would beat him, whereas Nielsen had a wonder save in him but was horrific at the basics. Twardzik I think actually had a good few attributes, was crazy how many one-on-ones he stopped, but physically wasn't there to be a keeper. The fact we are talking about Nielsen up there in a team that finished second is quite something. My lasting memory is of him doing that thing keepers do where they swing on the bar when they think a shot is going miles away at Tynecastle, on for him to realise it was going in, to have to quickly jump back down from the bar and hit it away.

Meldrum was never a name that particular sprung to mind as being the worst 'Well keeper, but a quick browse of his Wiki shows he only ever played 114 league games in his career. The Scottish Stuart Taylor.

 

[nsr]

My favourite Stevie Woods moment was against (I think) Dundee when he deflected away a shot then turned to stroll casually back to his line, thinking it was going out for a corner. Unfortunately the Dundee player got to the ball before it went out and tapped it into the net while Woods still had his back to him.

[thisGRAEME]

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.

[crazylegsjoe]

2 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.

I think people do just that to be fair. He was brutal in that game and the Rangers game at Fir Park directly after, but equally he was great in the semi-final against Hearts and on Skippy Sunday.

Most of the time I had very little to complain about with Marshall.