Half a truth

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/...mson_doctrine/

A somewhat stingy view of our progress.

A para from that article.....

"Motherwell’s crime on Sunday, if indeed it was one, was playing a brand of football which – to paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, was nasty, brutish and long. High balls to the brawny Ryan Bowman were the order of the day, with Louis Moult foraging to excellent effect from the scraps. The other hallmarks of their play were defensive organisation, hard work, defenders unafraid to clear their lines, and a directive to use their aerial presence from set pieces."

I was going to categorise the article as grudging praise but it really isn't praise at all. It seems there's one law for Rangers and Celtic and one for the rest of Scottish football as far as the media is concerned. No wonder newspapers' circualtion figures are dropping fast.

The overall tone of the piece is certainly grudging but there's obviously praise there. Everyone would rather win playing like Barcelona, but there's a reason virtually no one does.

That said, it would have been fairer had he acknowledged:

1) playing with the discipline and organisation we seem to bring to big games is incredibly difficult. If you just had to kick people and boot the ball aimlessly to succeed everyone would manage it...it may seem simple, it clearly isn't.

2) we have some folk who can genuinely play football. In particular Moult, who would strengthen any starting XI in Scotland outside Celtic, but he's not the only one who can look forward to bigger/better things.

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Originally Posted by Handsome_Devil

The overall tone of the piece is certainly grudging but there's obviously praise there. Everyone would rather win playing like Barcelona, but there's a reason virtually no one does.

That said, it would have been fairer had he acknowledged:

1) playing with the discipline and organisation we seem to bring to big games is incredibly difficult. If you just had to kick people and boot the ball aimlessly to succeed everyone would manage it...it may seem simple, it clearly isn't.

2) we have some folk who can genuinely play football. In particular Moult, who would strengthen any starting XI in Scotland outside Celtic, but he's not the only one who can look forward to bigger/better things.

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We've played more than a dozen games now, and our physical approach has been commented upon, but without complaint. It's only now, when we've spoiled an OF party, that it's been subjected to such a wide, deep and unfair level of scrutiny. Rangers had decent opportunities to score on Sunday; they didnae take them; nothing to do with our 'physicality'. 3 - 0 against the second - placed team and 2 - 0 against the third - placed team suggests a lot more than kick and rush. Example; Cedric had a difficult day on Sunday, but on a good day his long balls on to Elliot Frear's instep are a lot more than hoofs up the park. We play some good stuff!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dazlhigh

We've played more than a dozen games now, and our physical approach has been commented upon, but without complaint. It's only now, when we've spoiled an OF party, that it's been subjected to such a wide, deep and unfair level of scrutiny. Rangers had decent opportunities to score on Sunday; they didnae take them; nothing to do with our 'physicality'. 3 - 0 against the second - placed team and 2 - 0 against the third - placed team suggests a lot more than kick and rush. Example; Cedric had a difficult day on Sunday, but on a good day his long balls on to Elliot Frear's instep are a lot more than hoofs up the park. We play some good stuff!

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I've just been looking at a 'Gers forum. We're quoted as the team 'with the worst disciplinary record'. On the table I looked up we weren't. We were admittedly seven disciplinary points worse off than Rangers - 31 to 24. However, three of our points accrued to our goalie at McDiarmid; a technical, rather than life - threatening infringement. The individual player with the worst record is somebody called Ryan Jack........

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dazlhigh

I've just been looking at a 'Gers forum. We're quoted as the team 'with the worst disciplinary record'. On the table I looked up we weren't. We were admittedly seven disciplinary points worse off than Rangers - 31 to 24. However, three of our points accrued to our goalie at McDiarmid; a technical, rather than life - threatening infringement. The individual player with the worst record is somebody called Ryan Jack........

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Guys, guys ... we're now at the stage where we're spoiling the media luvvies party. How dare a small provincial club get their act together and actually grow a pair of baws!? Another cracking away win tonight, and we climb above 'Rangers International' into 3rd spot. This ain't no fluke, and there's no way there's a 'bubble bursting' scenario going to happen. We're solid, we're up for it, we're together, we're on the up. I ***kin love it. O:)