Motherwell vs St Mirren, 3pm, 04/05/19

[BIG BEN]

In the end a draw was probably the right result. 
A well taken goal from Turnbull put us ahead and I think the wrong decision to hook him for Semple when we did. By the look of his body language as he went off, I think Turnbull thought the same. The equaliser was  very poorly defended by us and well taken by them, but we're in the fortunate position where dropping points doesn't really matter in the bigger picture.
On a side note, if Ariyibi had a bit more physicality about him we would have some player on our hands.

He looks decent but I thought paul McGinn played him well today

[Swami]

At the game I didn’t think that Frear’s sclaff at the end was quite as bad as everyone was making out, but it really was. There was 5 on 2 at one point. 

[Munoz]

1 hour ago, BIG BEN said:

14 hours ago, MJC said:

In the end a draw was probably the right result. 
A well taken goal from Turnbull put us ahead and I think the wrong decision to hook him for Semple when we did. By the look of his body language as he went off, I think Turnbull thought the same. The equaliser was  very poorly defended by us and well taken by them, but we're in the fortunate position where dropping points doesn't really matter in the bigger picture.
On a side note, if Ariyibi had a bit more physicality about him we would have some player on our hands.

He looks decent but I thought paul McGinn played him well today

I thought he should have been booked for diving. Good player,  but went down far too easily for me.  

A decent point yesterday which could still have some bearing on avoiding the playoff. 

[Yorky]

23 minutes ago, Munoz said:

I thought he should have been booked for diving. Good player,  but went down far too easily for me.  

A decent point yesterday which could still have some bearing on avoiding the playoff. 

Really ? I think that’s a terrible point for St Mirren. On a day that Accies were always going to get a result St Mirren showed absolutely no ambition for the majority of the game. Don’t agree with the comments on diving, a particular St Mirren player was far worse yesterday.

[Munoz]

3 minutes ago, Yorky said:

Really ? I think that’s a terrible point for St Mirren. On a day that Accies were always going to get a result St Mirren showed absolutely no ambition for the majority of the game. Don’t agree with the comments on diving, a particular St Mirren player was far worse yesterday.

It's a good point as in , we didn't play as well as we have been but still didn't lose. Definitely not a terrible point- if we be beat Hamilton  next week we are a point behind them.  On the final day we have the easier of games imo. 

[buddie06smfc]

Really ? I think that’s a terrible point for St Mirren. On a day that Accies were always going to get a result St Mirren showed absolutely no ambition for the majority of the game. Don’t agree with the comments on diving, a particular St Mirren player was far worse yesterday.

Your man on the left wing had a terrible tendency to throw himself to the ground in the first half any time he got near the box. Strange decisions given he had the run of the left wing in the first half.
I presume you are talking about Mullen, he does enjoy a tumble every now & then but he got a rough time from Dunne yesterday. Indeed he should have had a penalty second half when Dunne threw him to the ground for no reason off the ball. The linesman ought to have seen it. I watched Dunne a bit in the second half, he was at it with anyone that came near him. Sooner or later an official will see it happen and he is going to cost the team. There’s no real need for it as well as he’s got good pace on him, I don’t envisage him getting caught out too happen. Suppose if the striker has been chucked to the ground then there’s even less chance of it.
Mullen shouldn’t have been subbed, Jackson should’ve been off. Mullen however doesn’t do himself any favours by heading straight up the tunnel after being subbed.

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

13 hours ago, well fan for life said:

Thought McHugh was very good today. 

Apart from that we were much of a muchness. Scott's definitely not ready to play in the first team and probably bringing Main on for the chaos factor would have seen us hang on.

Elliot Frear's passback was fucking abysmal.

Passback........very much sums up his attempt.....game should have been put to bed

 

Fair play to the traveling support..........Accies can't even get those numbers at home games

Good luck next week against them.......hopefully you can take it to the final day before playoff  place is decided 

 

[Yorky]

38 minutes ago, buddie06smfc said:

Your man on the left wing had a terrible tendency to throw himself to the ground in the first half any time he got near the box. Strange decisions given he had the run of the left wing in the first half.
I presume you are talking about Mullen, he does enjoy a tumble every now & then but he got a rough time from Dunne yesterday. Indeed he should have had a penalty second half when Dunne threw him to the ground for no reason off the ball. The linesman ought to have seen it. I watched Dunne a bit in the second half, he was at it with anyone that came near him. Sooner or later an official will see it happen and he is going to cost the team. There’s no real need for it as well as he’s got good pace on him, I don’t envisage him getting caught out too happen. Suppose if the striker has been chucked to the ground then there’s even less chance of it.
Mullen shouldn’t have been subbed, Jackson should’ve been off. Mullen however doesn’t do himself any favours by heading straight up the tunnel after being subbed.

Ariyibi does seem to be a thorn in the oppositions side quite often simply because of his turn of pace. Yes he can go down easily but he took some amount of stick yesterday. At one point in the second half he was taken out three times in the space of what seemed like five minutes, trust me that was right in front of me and they gave him a right whack between them which resulted in a booking and no complaints from the St Mirren players involved. I would actually agree regarding Dunn who I personally thought got away with some rash stuff and was lucky, my fellow Motherwell fans seem to disagree on that one though. 

[Casagolda]

Glad to see McHugh have a very good game on what might well be his last appearance at Fir Park. Probably right time for both parties to move on now but always felt some of the stick he gets is unwarranted, a good player who’s been a good servant to Motherwell over the last few years.

Think with Hastie and Main in the front 3, we would have won that. We had plenty of the ball but were sadly lacking in the final third. Understandable why Scott is getting the gamtime and I’m fully on board with it, however I think these last 3 games have shown on the whole he’s simply not ready yet.

Without Hastie’s pace and movement off the ball, I feel we often look a little predictable in the final third and spend a lot of time playing in front of teams. Understand the reasons for not playing him as well, however I do find it strange that he’s clearly not the only who’s told the club he’s leaving this summer but he does seem to be the only one getting punished for it. 

Without him, we’re basically relying solely on Turnbull for goals. He had a fairly poor game by his standards yet it was telling that he was still the only one capable of producing any sort of quality in the final third- he’s now scored over 40% of our goals in 2019. 

Robinson’s last two subs also felt a bit forced to me and we seemed to lose our way in the last 10 mins or so. Livingstone getting 5 mins at the end of the game at left wing for example seemed absolutely pointless. It isn’t going to do a lot of good for him in the long run and certainly didn’t help the team yesterday. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

12 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Glad to see McHugh have a very good game on what might well be his last appearance at Fir Park. Probably right time for both parties to move on now but always felt some of the stick he gets is unwarranted, a good player who’s been a good servant to Motherwell over the last few years.

Quite surprised he didn't score the winner, then get sent off - for a 50/50 where both players get stretchered off with concussions - just to sum up the Carl McHugh Experience in a 90 minute microcosm. 

Edited May 5, 2019 by YassinMoutaouakil

[Munoz]

Good support yesterday. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Not sure about numbers, but atmosphere wise that was probably the best away crowd we've had this season outwith the OF.

[Yorky]

12 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Not sure about numbers, but atmosphere wise that was probably the best away crowd we've had this season outwith the OF.

Around 1600 was stated, I guessed around 1500 in advance with so much to play for. St Mirren seem to be a bit like Motherwell with a good percentage of away support in comparison to home attendances, Thistle being another example.

[fraser_smfc]

Another really poor performance ending up with an inexplicable late equaliser. Felt we robbed Motherwell in all honesty who are just a better football team than us. We struggled to cope with their movement in the first half in particular and they seemed to get behind the defence all too regularly. 0-0 at HT was a relief.

We missed Flynn’s ability to grab games by the balls and drive the midfield forward when he went off. Excellent finish from Magennis and keeps something of a momentum going, and perhaps instils a confidence of “no matter how shite were playing we can still get something”. Mullen shouldn’t have been taken off but his attitude at being subbed was disgraceful. Not what you need when you’re in the predicament we are.

My pre-split prediction that we’ll finish 11th looks about right, Hamilton are doing us no favours but you just never know. The January window came just a few weeks too late for us but it’s still not over.

Just one other thing, have I missed something to explain the rather large police presence yesterday? I’ve never seen horses at a game that wasn’t a derby, cup final or game v the old firm. Is that common for games at Fir Park? It just struck me as very odd and a tad OTT for the occasion.

[Gianfranco]

The police presence outside the away end when we visit Paisley is always way over the top as well. There must have been trouble at some point in the past.

[capt_oats]

4 hours ago, Casagolda said:

Glad to see McHugh have a very good game on what might well be his last appearance at Fir Park. Probably right time for both parties to move on now but always felt some of the stick he gets is unwarranted, a good player who’s been a good servant to Motherwell over the last few years.

Think with Hastie and Main in the front 3, we would have won that. We had plenty of the ball but were sadly lacking in the final third. Understandable why Scott is getting the gamtime and I’m fully on board with it, however I think these last 3 games have shown on the whole he’s simply not ready yet.

Without Hastie’s pace and movement off the ball, I feel we often look a little predictable in the final third and spend a lot of time playing in front of teams. Understand the reasons for not playing him as well, however I do find it strange that he’s clearly not the only who’s told the club he’s leaving this summer but he does seem to be the only one getting punished for it. 

Without him, we’re basically relying solely on Turnbull for goals. He had a fairly poor game by his standards yet it was telling that he was still the only one capable of producing any sort of quality in the final third- he’s now scored over 40% of our goals in 2019. 

Robinson’s last two subs also felt a bit forced to me and we seemed to lose our way in the last 10 mins or so. Livingstone getting 5 mins at the end of the game at left wing for example seemed absolutely pointless. It isn’t going to do a lot of good for him in the long run and certainly didn’t help the team yesterday. 

Agree with loads of that. I think if we'd actually been that bothered about the result we'd have chucked Main or Sammon on or alternatively started one of them and given Scott 15 mins at the end. It was definitely a tough shift for Scott but having said that we were 1-0 up with a minute to go so...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The subs looked like they'd already been agreed prior to the game tbh. Robinson pretty much said pre-match that Semple would be involved and by all accounts Livingstone has been promised minutes one way or another.

re: Hastie, I'm not even sure it's a case of punishing him. Maybe it is but it feels to me possibly more a case that the others who may have told the club they're moving on play in areas of the park where we don't have replacements. In Hastie's case Cadden's back from a long term injury and needs games and he's been able to drop into that position at Hastie's expense. If we're wanting to give Semple some time then I guess something has to give somewhere in terms of bodies and the boy who's very publicly fucking off to Ibrox seems like the obvious place to start.

McHugh and Gorrin may well have said they're leaving but there aren't really other alternatives in their position and Scott's now started the last 3 in favour of Main (who's obviously still around the squad).

I was having a look at our goals for column and our top scorers recently as I'd been thinking roughly the same about Turnbull and our apparent reliance on him.

We're currently sitting on 43 goals for, which is the same as last season where we had Moult in the first half of the season and Main's purple patch in the 2nd along with Bowman and Tanner chipping in along the way. The main outliers are the outrageous Higdon and Sutton seasons under McCall.

Looking back over recent seasons Div's contribution is comparable with Moult, which is quite remarkable given his age and the fact he's centre mid tbh.

18/19 (TBC) - GF: 43 (Turnbull: 13 = 30%)
17/18 (7th) - GF: 43 (Moult: 8  = 19%)
16/17 (9th) - GF: 46 (Moult: 15 = 33%)
15/16 (5th) - GF: 47 (Moult: 15 = 32%)
14/15 (11th) - GF: 38 (Sutton: 12 = 32%)
13/14 (2nd) - GF: 64 (Sutton: 22 = 34%)
12/13 (2nd) - GF: 67 (Higdon: 26 = 39%)
11/12 (3rd) - GF: 49 (Higdon: 14 = 29%)

I think it's probably fair to say Hastie would probably have chipped in with more if he hadn't been launched but without him and us giving Scott game time (which I'm 100% for) the reliance on Turnbull recently is increasingly noticeable.

Edited May 5, 2019 by capt_oats

[flyingscot]

1 hour ago, fraser_smfc said:

Just one other thing, have I missed something to explain the rather large police presence yesterday? I’ve never seen horses at a game that wasn’t a derby, cup final or game v the old firm. Is that common for games at Fir Park? It just struck me as very odd and a tad OTT for the occasion.

Think I've got through airports with less grilling than Fir Park.  Nice to see Lanarkshire is so safe these days Police Scotland have zero issues outside Fir Park. That said we are the "5th most difficult away support" apparently....

1 hour ago, Gianfranco said:

The police presence outside the away end when we visit Paisley is always way over the top as well. There must have been trouble at some point in the past.

Can't really think of much, there was flares a good few years back in Paisley, I think.  

[djchapsticks]

2 hours ago, Yorky said:

Ariyibi does seem to be a thorn in the oppositions side quite often simply because of his turn of pace. Yes he can go down easily but he took some amount of stick yesterday. At one point in the second half he was taken out three times in the space of what seemed like five minutes, trust me that was right in front of me and they gave him a right whack between them which resulted in a booking and no complaints from the St Mirren players involved. I would actually agree regarding Dunn who I personally thought got away with some rash stuff and was lucky, my fellow Motherwell fans seem to disagree on that one though. 

Tell you what, I'd love to see that one back from early on in second half where he handballed the ball over the top and the ref gave a foul to Motherwell for it.

I thought the ref absolutely bottled that big time, the main stand side linesman also had a shocking time of it by not flagging the off the ball one on Mullen either, was as clear a penalty as you'll see.

We definitely rode our luck yesterday, thought Motherwell were excellent in tyhe first half and cutting us open at will, just struggled to get the shots away. The one obvious chance was in the second minute where they missed an absolute sitter, so all things considered, I'll cut and run with that point. What we lack in ability, we do make up for in effort though and no one can say we chuck it or the heads go down easily. There is the basis of a good team there with 5 or 6 decent players, mostly defensive players. We just need to stay up though and rebuild ourselves in terms of viable attacking threat.

[capt_oats]

4 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Tell you what, I'd love to see that one back from early on in second half where he handballed the ball over the top and the ref gave a foul to Motherwell for it.

I thought the ref absolutely bottled that big time, the main stand side linesman also had a shocking time of it by not flagging the off the ball one on Mullen either, was as clear a penalty as you'll see.

Was that not Aldred?

Edit: your point still stands obviously.

Edited May 5, 2019 by capt_oats

[djchapsticks]

Just now, capt_oats said:

Was that not Aldred?

It was yeah, sorry.