What happened there? We won three points. But what the Hell happened?
Once we got the second goal today it was as if everything stopped dead.
The team lost focus.
They stopped playing. I
t’s obvious enough what went wrong, I think; the chronic unfitness of this team almost came back to haunt us again.
In that second half our pace dropped by a full gear.
We had spent the first 45 minutes running after every ball. That kind of pace can’t be sustained by this team. In the end, Motherwell finished the better side and were very unlucky not to snatch the draw.
Had that happened, the clamour for Lennon to go would have reached a crescendo.
Nobody should think he is safe on the back of a second half display like that; he was a hair from another weekend waiting for the axe to fall.
I think it still should.
There were bright spots today, and in particular the performance of Welsh. He and the rest of the defence were flapping by the end, but I thought he had a very good game.
Knowing Lennon, he’ll probably be dropped on Wednesday night.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager with poor game management skills than Lennon.
From the moment Motherwell scored it was clear they were going to push for the equalising goal.
There were players on that pitch who were dead on their feet; it has to be the first time, for example, that I’ve seen Rogic get a full match. We could easily have subbed him off and then we wouldn’t have been so desperate looking at the end.
The obvious change would have been to leave on Brown and team him up with Soro … building a wall in front of the defence. This, apparently, never dawned on the manager at all.
Like-for-like changes shows no tactical imagination whatsoever. We’ve all watched this for way too long now. Lennon really does not have a clue. I cannot wait until this guy is no longer at the club. His decision making is appalling.
We’ve scored at the start of the first half and at the start of the second.
In the first ten minutes of the game we could have been comfortably out of sight. Ajeti struggled badly today; there was no sign of the player we saw against Kilmarnock. He needs to up his game fast.
That said, Griffiths didn’t do much better when he came on.
I thought other than Welsh that Taylor was excellent today.
Kenny also gives us something on that right side.
He might lack Frimpong’s trickery, but he’s definitely a more solid defender overall and he can cross a ball as well.
We really need a solution for that position.
And in a week where we’ve had more refereeing nonsense, and the media clamouring for one Celtic player to be cited whilst another was, I hope to God there is going to be some sort of justice for our players after two brutal challenges near the end.
We, as a club, have not done nearly enough to protect our footballers.
That needs to change.