Mother nil v Living one

That's my prediction.

See yer still full of the festive spirit L/F.Was a must win on Wednesday and we blew it,so what does that make this.Last chance saloon, surely no‍�.Utter shitfest of a game in prospect which our woes will get deeper with any luck going against us,thats a givin at Fir Park.Suspect by 4 50pm il have no more straws to clutch and SPL survival just about extinguished.Lol.

Just fed up of all this woe is me match thread narrative, there'll be enough of that post match if this goes tits up. For now, pre match, the season turns for us going into the new year, we're winning this. Mon the Lions

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Sorry L/F couldn't resist.Ma bottle is just about empty..

It's been a season of 'what ifs'. What if St Mirren hadn't equalised in injury time earlier in the season. What if Brucey had scored that penalty. What if Devlin had kicked a straight ball into the net on Wednesday night. What if we hadn't drawn so many games this season. But we are where we are and the bottom team are anxious so play without confidence.
BUT we are due a break. May the fates give it to us tomorrow. I don't care if I chew my fingers for 90 soul destroying minutes if we can sclaff an injury time winner off Obileye's bum.
Cos the alternative is grim.

Anyone else notice that Devlin failed to hit the target the other night actually from the penalty spot?

Makes you wonder if we practice pens with the portable goals to the side of the real ones.

Motherwell have been largely in as bad form as us, so this is the proverbial 6 pointer. There will be no way back if we lose. We can win this, we have to…

2-0 after 20 minutes, what a shambles.

Season over before the turn of the year. Absolutely no chance of selling any half-season tickets now.
2023 has been nothing short of a disaster on the field.

It’s been a great ride while it lasted, sadly gravity applies to football teams just as much as it does to other things, what goes up must come down.

Pittman pulls one back 2-1 after 25 mins

3-1 after 35 mins

Shows how bad St J were that we kept a clean sheet the other night.

All results went against us today and yet, amazingly, we are only 6 points adrift. Two wins in a row could turn our season around, the problem is there is just no sign of that happening.

Utter shite.The must win games have gone..Other results went against us.Anybody think we've a chance of staying up FFS.The fight and desire not to mention the quality has totally deserted us
Going back down where arguably we belong.Suspect as much as I'm trying to wish all supporters of our wee club the very best for 2024.Hopefully see you all on the other side.Il be here regardless. .

Troy wrote:Utter shite.The must win games have gone..Other results went against us.Anybody think we've a chance of staying up FFS.The fight and desire not to mention the quality has totally deserted us
Going back down where arguably we belong.Suspect as much as I'm trying to wish all supporters of our wee club the very best for 2024.Hopefully see you all on the other side.Il be here regardless. .

Yep, that stands out from last season, we needed to get rid of a few players that stopped giving their all, big Noubs being the main culprit, and he's carried it into this season.

Problem has intensified on this showing today, Martindale's post match interview is throwing the players under the bus, that's a sign he's lost the dressing room. He looks completely pissed off, and putting it 100% on the players individual errors, and not being good enough, so where does that leave him now, how can he get the players back onside.

He's only got 2 options, step down and let another manager come in, with a clean slate with the players, and try to rescue the club from relegation, or soldier on and take us down. The 2nd option can only be turned round if he gets the players back onside, may be too late for that now though.

If we do survive and stay up, there needs to be a big clear out next season, too many players are comfortable not giving a monkeys, stealing a wage. We could do with off loading 7 or 8 out the door in January and bringing fresh blood in, but Martindale is saying at least 5 of them are happy seeing out their contracts picking up a wage for doing nothing. May have to get brutal with some and just stick them out on loan or/and pay some of their contracts off, just to get them to feck.

He also said there are some who think they should be playing and as they aren’t they’d rather be elsewhere…maybe that changes if they get picked, maybe getting picked will get them playing for him.

The question is who are they? Bradley? Brandon? Mackay? Kelly? All are getting in the squad but maybe not getting used enough? And what is the latest with Teto? Will he be granted a work permit? If not, have we been paying his wage? If he isn’t getting a WP and we are paying him, then that has been a waste of money that could have been put to better use.

MacKay was injured and away back to Hibs till he recovers.

Teto is being paid by his club till he is allowed to play for us, we'd have been paying his travelling and digs though.

Aye St Kelly, Bradley and Brandon should be getting more game time. Nouble needs binned for a start, then St Kelly, Brandon, or Bradley could get starts, he's been playing in all their positions, and been shite. What must they be thinking seeing Nouble, Shinnie, and Se Kelly getting games ahead of them, can't blame them if they're wanting away. de Lucas wont be happy either, not getting games when he sees Devlin ahead of him, he's as slow as a week in jail and been making a lot of mistakes.

Saw the highlights on twitter, in the name of feck all 3 goals were farcical defending.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1741199981783203934

Nouble takes a heavy touch giving it away just outside our box, causing the first goal, Shamal should be stopping the 2nd and 3rd. He's 6ft 7 and gets fecking chipped from a tight angle, because he goes low and loses his balance, same with the other one, Penrice lost it on the halfway line and Motherwell boot it up the pitch to a runner, Shamal comes out to block it and makes a shite attempt at doing so.

Just bin him and Nouble, both have been mince.

Aye,have to agree.Just watched the highlights back.Didnt think we could plumb to the depths we have,but we have.Shocking shambolic defending was utterly criminal at times.Players standing around scratching their proverbial arses was absolutely galling to watch at best.He wont turn this around and deep down he knows it.Our term in the SPL has come to a whimpering end imo opinion, were simply just not good enough and yesterday just about closed the door.Dreading Tuesday but il be there..

I agree our defending had looked a lot more solid these past few games, till yesterday, and it was our attack that needed improving, he went with a more attacking set up yesterday though, and it all fell to bits defensively, plus we weren't getting service up the other end to Anderson either.

The problem he has is motivating a group of players that are mostly out of contract at the end of the season, and don't really give a shit if we're relegated, because they wont still be here. That has been a big mistake on his part, allowing that to happen, should've either got them on extended contracts or moved them on before the season started, or at least not had so many coming to an end of their contracts.

Yeah there are a few he tried to shift, but they refused to go, as they'd be taking a drop in wages going down divisions, because they're not good enough to attract bigger clubs, and we had to pay off Goncalves contract to get rid of him, Bitsindou and Bahamboula are sitting being paid seeing out their contracts too.

Nouble and Anderson had offers, Nouble was priced out a move by Livi asking too much though, and Anderson knocked back the offer we got for him, in hindsight we should've bit the hand off any offer we got for Nouble, i say hindsight, i'd have done that anyway after seeing how far his form dropped last season.

It's a giant mess now, and some of those players are in for a rude awakening too, because they wont find clubs paying what they're getting with us, not at the level they'll end up playing, there are only a handful anyone would want. Penrice is the only one i'd say has a chance of moving to a bigger club at this level, and get into their first team.

It's something a manager has to deal with though, and try not to allow happen, he's got himself into a position where he has next to no power, influencing players, if he can't shift the trouble makers in January, it'll spread throughout the squad, if it hasn't already done so, his demeanor in the post match interview isn't good at all, looks like he's at a loss how to turn things around.

He looks like a broken man and has been for months.Also I suspect if any of our players go in January we won't see a penny invested in an otherwise squad bereft of quality and moral.Got to accept where we are and even this early plan for next season in the Championship. 2023 can do one and hopefully 2024 can give us some hope for the future. A guid new year to you all when it comes.Lol.T.🥳.

He’s been at a loss to turn it around since the form began dropping off after last season’s winter break. Watch all his post match interviews and they are almost verbatim the same stuff. They are accurate, he analyses games in a very similar way to the way we do but it’s the same things that are highlighted, too passive, nothing in the game, missed chances and acceptance that it’s his responsibility to sort that… well, unfortunately he hasn’t been able to do so.

Last season we brought in Berra to the coaching staff and he didn’t seem to have any positive impact before leaving at the end of last season; this season we’ve brought in Rice and nothing has improved. So you have to wonder what they have brought to the table.

They should both have been strong enough to provide alternatives to DM’s ideas and to persuade him to get back to basics.

We started playing a high line in defence after Berra came in, and continually got caught for pace with balls over the top. We still lack pace from our CB's, Obileye and Devlin were really shown up for one of Motherwell's goals. We aren't playing such a high line now though, but still a weakness in defence whenwe get caught having to chase a ball played down the channels, really need the FB's protecting the CB's lack of pace.

Up front we've been absolutely dreadful, having no goal threat at all, hopefully new signing in Jan will give us something different, we need to be scoring goals to have a hope of taking pts. The big fella looks promising, but we'd need Martindale to get his formation right, from what i've read, he's more a striker that gives assists than scores goals, so we'd need to pair him up with Anderson. Certainly looks an upgrade on Guthrie, and will score the odd goal too.

Donnellan looks like a Montano type WB, likes bringing it out from the back and driving forward to get down the wing, and put the ball into the box. All very positive looking, and we're meant to be bringing in 2 or 3 more.