Motherwell v Livi

I'm hoping because everything points to Motherwell winning this game, our players will surprise us and get an unexpected win. Historically a very tough venue for us, and with them just gubbing Hibs at Easter rd and only losing one of their last six games (against Sevco), they're on a really good run of form.

On some positive note, they too lost away to St Mirren, the last time they suffered a defeat to a team outside the erse cheeks, some straw grasping by me there trying to find some kind of hope for us after losing to St Mirren going into this game.

Oh and Van Veen has just hit his 20th goal for Motherwell, so i fear Martindale doing a 'Martindale' again, coming up with some weird team selection and formation to try and stop Van Veen scoring against us, and Bruce will be on the bench again.

Actually i hate playing teams when we're heavy favourites and even the opposition fans, to a person, say we'll easily win the game, that's when we usually fall flat on our face.

Anyway, mon the Lions, go surprise us and take all 3pts.

Actually i'd rather be facing Hearts just now, with Zander Clark going off injured at the weekend, that means Ross Stewart will be in goals against St Mirren, i fear we may well need to win here just to stay in touch with St Mirren, or they could be 5pts ahead of us with 2 games to play before the spilt, and we'd have to hope Hibs slip up against Dundee Utd.

Yeah i know, i'm not helping any, in trying to keep some sort of hope alive for a top 6 spot. A big weekend coming up for us, where other games really need to go our way, as well as us getting a result in this game.

Ok let me say it…. We have blown our top 6 chances by being rank awful since half time against Kilmarnock. We couldn’t get ourselves into the top 6 even if St Mirren & Hibs lose their next 3 games because we’re not going to win any of our next 3. Apart from 3 minutes against Ross County we haven’t kicked a ball since going 3 up on Killie and we have no one to blame but ourselves for the inept management decisions and performances.

Yip, I have no confidence in getting anything out of this game. Every time I enter Fir Park I feel the life being sucked from me. Luckily I have COVID though so nae chance of me darkening that door. Instead I will be watching on my fire stick and will be relying on some of those well used phrases like ' it's always darkest before the dawn' and 'it's a long road that has no turning'
I kind of wish we had Ayo available for this one. I think he' might sort out Van Veen. Whatever, let's just go into it playing our normal game and hoping lady luck and the VAR man give us the breaks for once.

Might as well get this over and done with.Im expecting nothing whatsoever from this,seems to be the general consensus apparently so il jump on the bandwagon.Would genuinely be shocked if we did though.Im off to Newcastle tomorrow for my annual jamboree with the lads for 4 days.Sunderland v Hull City on Friday then hospitality at South Shields on Saturday v Nantwich Town.Mouth watering eh..Look forward to seeing your comments on the Well game when I get back.Anyway,see yous on the other side.Lol T
.Mon the Lions..

Could be doing with VAR going our way for a change, we're due Motherwell one after last season's 2-2 draw put us into the bottom 6, and them also getting a penalty for the ball hitting Montano's body in the last away game. Oh and that diving wee prick Goss getting Bahamboula sent off.

Motherwell are the most physical team we play, and they always get away with kicking lumps out of us. Just for once can we be the ones benefitting from dodgy ref/Var calls, or even the useless feckers just doing their jobs properly and giving us decisions we deserve.

Kettlewell has them playing well, he may have changed their style from hammer throwers to ball players. I guess we’ll find out this afternoon. They are probably the most in form team outside the gruesome twosome, that’s what worries me most.

I’m pretty sure if they win today they move to within 3 points of us; Hibs should beat United tomorrow, Hearts have gone off the boil and apparently have injury worries, so it’s not inconceivable that St Mirren could get something from them and with 2 games to play before the split, that would almost leave us needing snookers to have any chance of top 6.

I think we have to face reality, we got ourselves into pole position amongst the contenders for 6th place and have crashed on the first bend.

But there is always hope… if we win and other results go our way, we are right back in pole position behind the safety car.

Abject, abysmal, atrocious, amateurish.


It’s patently obvious that neither the management nor the players actually want to reach the top 6, the manager is making that obvious from his team selection and from the manner in which he is sending them out to “play” , no urgency, no aggression, no purpose. The players are making it obvious because they have downed tools since half time against Killie, as a team we have been rank ever since & if it wasn’t for the points in the bag we’d be in a relegation battle.

So to everyone at the club, stop talking about the top 6 and get yourselves sorted out, because if this garbage continues you’ll be in a relegation battle next season.


Now, with that off my chest, credit to Motherwell, they are organised, they move it quickly and they have a lethal striker; and as I suspected Kettlewell has them playing football again rather than the excessive physical stuff.

Deja vu from last week, yet again trying the same thing and expecting a different result, when it clearly doesn't work for us. I couldn't even get riled by Anderson's exclusion, and by the apathy shown in our support, i wasn't alone. That's the quietest i've ever heard our away support, not one song all game, everyone just sat watching that game in silence, bar for a few disgruntled shouts, even those disappeared in the 2nd half, all the passion has disappeared from the players and the fans.
The stats on the foul count says it all, Motherwell 16-6 Livingston, that's a shocking stat from a Livi team, who were renowned for our fight, passion, fitness, pressing and tackling opposition players, 6 fouls, absolutely no fight in the team just now.

The sooner Martindale ditches this nonsense set up and gets back to playing Anderson up front, and balances the team out the better, or both Motherwell and St Johnstone are going to finish above us, and we'll drop to 9th place. Only saving grace is the bottom 3 being so piss poor, i can't see any of them making up11 or 12 pts on us.

I almost want Hibs just to finish it off to dash our top 6 chances beyond any doubt, it would be the kindest thing for us just now. I've actually just accepted it now though, i usually look for any glimmer of hope, but no goals in 2 games and conceding 6, plus the players showing no fight, it's demoralising.

You know things are bad when even Liviforever sounds downbeat. I didn't have much hope of a result today but I was relying on those useless Jam Tarts to put paid to St Mirren.
It's no been a good week. Can Dundee United do us a wee favour tomorrow. It's too early for us to be missing out in the top 6. We usually get much further before blowing it. Mon the Arabs.

Liviforever wrote:The sooner Martindale ditches this nonsense set up and gets back to playing Anderson up front, and balances the team out the better, or both Motherwell and St Johnstone are going to finish above us, and we'll drop to 9th place. Only saving grace is the bottom 3 being so piss poor, i can't see any of them making up11 or 12 pts on us.

I almost want Hibs just to finish it off to dash our top 6 chances beyond any doubt, it would be the kindest thing for us just now. I've actually just accepted it now though, i usually look for any glimmer of hope, but no goals in 2 games and conceding 6, plus the players showing no fight, it's demoralising.

I’ve been saying what you’re now saying for a few weeks & I stand by what I’ve been saying, the rot set in at half time against Killie. The warning signs were there and then the flaws were cruelly exposed by an ordinary Caley Thistle side. With the exception of approx 5 mins against Ross County when we scored 2 goals in 2 mins we have been woeful.

Motherwell have a very good chance of overhauling us, I don’t think St Johnstone will but my opinion on that could change if they beat us next week.

Auld Nick wrote:

Liviforever wrote:The sooner Martindale ditches this nonsense set up and gets back to playing Anderson up front, and balances the team out the better, or both Motherwell and St Johnstone are going to finish above us, and we'll drop to 9th place. Only saving grace is the bottom 3 being so piss poor, i can't see any of them making up11 or 12 pts on us.

I almost want Hibs just to finish it off to dash our top 6 chances beyond any doubt, it would be the kindest thing for us just now. I've actually just accepted it now though, i usually look for any glimmer of hope, but no goals in 2 games and conceding 6, plus the players showing no fight, it's demoralising.

I’ve been saying what you’re now saying for a few weeks & I stand by what I’ve been saying, the rot set in at half time against Killie. The warning signs were there and then the flaws were cruelly exposed by an ordinary Caley Thistle side. With the exception of approx 5 mins against Ross County when we scored 2 goals in 2 mins we have been woeful.

Motherwell have a very good chance of overhauling us, I don’t think St Johnstone will but my opinion on that could change if they beat us next week.

Yeah i'm going on us losing in every game we're playing direct competition to us, Aberdeen, Hibs, St Mirren, and now Motherwell are onl 3pts off us. Will be the same if we lose to St Johnstone, they'll close the gap to 4pts. Only positive we've got for next week is there is no excuse for not putting out a 4-2-3-1, or a 4-3-3 against St Johnstone, and for us to stop fecking about with a back 3, because St Johnstone haven't got any prolific goal scorers to worry Martindale. If we go into a home game shitting ourselves about any of their players, and mess about leaving key players on the bench, he's going to get absolutely roasted all game from the fans behind the home dugout, it wont just be a few from across the pitch in our small away support.

orco wrote:You know things are bad when even Liviforever sounds downbeat. I didn't have much hope of a result today but I was relying on those useless Jam Tarts to put paid to St Mirren.
It's no been a good week. Can Dundee United do us a wee favour tomorrow. It's too early for us to be missing out in the top 6. We usually get much further before blowing it. Mon the Arabs.

Yeah it's the lack of goals just now, and waiting till the 70th min when we're 3 nil down before bringing on attacking players, i fully believe we could start winning games if Martindale would just start being more positive in his team selection, this 2 up front and hoofing the ball up to them just isn't how we play our best football. We need to get it down and play overlaps up the wings with Nouble and Bradley working with Devlin and Montano/Penrice, and Anderson playing in the middle.

We saw glimpses of it when Bahamboula came on with Anderson, and Bahamboula was working overlaps with Devlin to hit the bye line and get balls into the box. Nouble also worked his way from the bye line to shoot into the side netting, and Anderson was in the box waiting for the cut back for a tap in. Too little too late leaving it all to do when there is only 20 mins left to play and we're 3 goals behind though, that's what we should be doing from the start. We didn't get ourselves up to 4th place playing hoofball to Guthrie and Nouble, with no player running off them. Even a Motherwell fan on P&B spotted that flaw in Martindale's strategy, that we needed a mobile player feeding off the big front two when we were pumping balls up to them.

Yeah, when Bradley was on he hardly got a touch of the ball, he was regularly isolated one one one with his opponent with space in behind but we either hoofed it up to the front two or passed it into the central congestion and when we did give it to Bradley he was too deep and tightly marked to do anything other than pass it back to whoever passed to him.

Every single time Martindale singles out an opposition danger man and tries to nullify him we lose and the danger man shows us why he is a danger man.

Thank fech I'm still down here in Newcastle. Heading back up this afternoon after my trip.Seems from the little ive seen comments wise the general consensus being we were rank rotten.Not sure if I want to force myself to watch the highlights tonight when I get back up but probably will if only to see what all the fuss is about.I suspected a few days ago this would be a hard ask and unfortunately that assumption came to fruition. Though the defensive capitulation again has to be worrying for most if not all.Will comment later when I get back.Till then chins up laddies and lassies its only a game of football. Lol.T.‍�.

What has epitomised us since the last year in the championship has been our never say die attitude with our guys nipping at opposition players and never giving them a minute on the ball. The work ethic was never questioned and what our players lacked in skill they made up for in tenacity. With the exception of a couple of players we seem to have lost some of that.
We need to regroup and get back to being the team that was so hard to beat.

Troy wrote:Thank fech I'm still down here in Newcastle. Heading back up this afternoon after my trip.Seems from the little ive seen comments wise the general consensus being we were rank rotten.Not sure if I want to force myself to watch the highlights  tonight when I get back up but probably will if only to see what all the fuss is about.I suspected a few days ago this would be a hard ask and unfortunately that assumption came to fruition. Though the defensive capitulation again has to be worrying for most if not all.Will comment later when I get back.Till then chins up laddies and lassies its only a game of football. Lol.T.‍�.

Yep, lost the ball with a slack pass in midfield and they went straight up the pitch and scored. It's this high back line we keep playing, opposition player constantly get the ball in behind us and just beat us in a foot race up the pitch, with our defence all over the place it's eay for them to pick out players for a cut back. Tbf to Van Veen, it was some hit into the roof of our net, absolute howitzer. 2nd goal was Shamal's fault, beat at the near post going through his hand, Van Veen again, had no option from a tight angle than to just hit it as hard as he could and hope Shamal would have a howler, which he did. 3rd was flagged offside but as usual, VAR gave it to them. Though they got a 4th ruled offside by VAR, carbon copy of last week when St Mirren got a 4th ruled offside.

Opposition teams have us sussed with this high line, and constantly play balls over the top for their quick players to run onto, and if they beat the offside, they've a good start on us with them having forward momentum running through, to our defenders having a standing start chasing them.

orco wrote:You know things are bad when even Liviforever sounds downbeat. I didn't have much hope of a result today but I was relying on those useless Jam Tarts to put paid to St Mirren.
It's no been a good week. Can Dundee United do us a wee favour tomorrow. It's too early for us to be missing out in the top 6. We usually get much further before blowing it. Mon the Arabs.

Well you got your wish, 2-1 Utd, you must be a masochist Orco, wanting this to go to the last pre split game, though it would be some scenes up in Dundee if we did it. See, now you've got me thinking we might just do it again, and i'll end up heading to Dundee for the game.

First things first though, we need to beat St Johnstone now, and still need Hibs to Hibs' it, dropping points in one of their final 2 games. Normally i'd be quite optimistic of that happening against Hearts, but Hearts are dreadful just now, and they still have Ross Stewart in goal. Hopefully the derby will inspire them into having the game of their life.

Havent been able to comment on the game as I haven't even seen the highlights yet.Had to head to St John's as soon as I got back from Newcastle as my mum took very poorly while I was down there.Signs are not promising,so I've been by her bedside literally since I've been back.Forgive me guys,I'm coming off the forum for the time being.Will catch up soon.Lol Troy.x.

Sorry to hear that Troy; best wishes

Troy wrote:Havent been able to comment on the game as I haven't even seen the highlights yet.Had to head to St John's as soon as I got back from Newcastle as my mum took very poorly while I was down there.Signs are not promising,so I've been by her bedside literally since I've been back.Forgive me guys,I'm coming off the forum for the time being.Will catch up soon.Lol Troy.x.

I'll be thinking about you Peter. xx