St Johnstone hand Motherwell a goal scoring lesson

[Footymad]

Motherwell suffered their biggest home defeat of the season when St Johnstone handed out a 5-1 drubbing. We were three down at the break and never looked like recovering. - External Link

[LawSteelman]

Dead rubber or not, that was completely unacceptable.

We saw in 2011 how a dreadful run of results ahead of a Cup Final does you no favours and so we need a massive improvement, plus positive results from our final two league matches.

[Handsome_Devil]

Only positive from that is it wasn't two weeks from now.

The other, if you're clutching at straws, is it's a hell of a lesson for Maguire and how he reacts and develops (or not) will either make or break him.

If we'd got a result today I'd have happily played the kids and on Tuesday and chucked Thistle the points...but we need to be taking it seriously now.

[LawSteelman]

If we play anything like that two weeks from today then the 2005 League Cup Final humiliation will look mild by comparison.

I fully get that we are 'holding a bit back' ahead of the 19th, indeed I wouldn't expect or want anything different, but we need to retain some degree of professionalism and competitiveness and we saw neither today.

[Handsome_Devil]

Aye. Trouble with that - and what gives Robbo such a hard job in the week ahead - is there's no stick or carrot available, our cup final team is basically 11 from 12 folk (if Rose is fit) and everyone knows it. He can hardly threaten any regulars with being dropped because it's patently ridiculous and if he tells, say, Ross McLean, go to earn a place in the final he'll look equally daft.

The players, at least, have usually shown some character if nothing else and their own sense of pride is the only hope for Tuesday.

[LawSteelman]

We absolutely do need to restore some professional pride in our last two games and I am hopeful that SR will be able to instill that in the players. As you say it is tough because anymore injuries, especially to key players like Main, Carson, Kipre and Campbell ahead of the final will be disastrous for us and will effectively kill our chances before a ball is kicked. However we only need look back at our own disastrous run to the 2011 SCF where we sufferee a spate of heavy defeats to know that that is not in any way a good preparation for such a big game.

[jwok]

Anyone know why Kipre was missing?

[Handsome_Devil]

Him and Tait were rested, reportedly.

[texaco cup]

It looks like if we want to do ourselves a favour we may have to in the end to our near neighbours Accies a favour as well.If we beat Thistle and Accies beat St. Johnstone then Accies are safe and our last league takes on less significance even though it’s a derby.It would allow us the luxury of resting some players without worrying about needless injuries. Obviously if we and Accies both lose in midweek then they are certainly not going to hold back in the game on Saturday and the likelihood of injuries surely increases.
J