[Ye Olde Hamiltonian]

Interesting how the programme and team sheet did not mention that Referee Eddie Smith is a Hamilton resident.
Copper Eddie- who went to Holy Cross,Hamilton- is a fan of the plastic paddies rather than his home town team.
Looked bad enough for both teams.His younger brother is, however, one of those guys who would support Accies against Celtic.Not many in my school were like that unfortunately.
West Of Scotland curse.

[Todd_is_God]

Ye Olde Hamiltonian, on Sep 30 2007, 04:21, said:

Interesting how the programme and team sheet did not mention that Referee Eddie Smith is a Hamilton resident.

The tend not to do this anymore. Used to always tell you where the referee was from IIRC

[academical]

Interesting reads from barringtonwomble and codfish. Clearly not our day, although I'm curious to get to the bottom of this "St Johnstone are our bogey team" line - atm, I lean more towards the Radford analysis that, tactically, Coyle has the measure of our man.

Disappointed that some Accies fans are still responding to Savo - come on, guys, he's a blatant wind-up merchant, so why rise to his bait? Time for a collective ignore.

As for SaintSam, my immediate reaction was that her gloating was OTT, but on reading the thread this morning I'm inclined to let her have her day in the sun. After all, this will probably be the highlight of St Johnstone's season. Okay, it was a bad day for us, or at least a bad 45 minutes, but all saintees achieved was a bit of catch-up that still leaves them 8 points adrift of us - and one or two are celebrating like they've won the league?! Time for a sense of proportion from both sides.

We were bound to get beaten sooner or later. It's disappointing that it's by such a margin, but if that shows Billy Reid that Elebert shouldn't be dropped then that's a positive. At this stage, I don't know if he was injured or it was tactical, but as FastAction has observed, the lad is now one of our key players. (We must have missed Elebert and Neil, but St Johnstone wee missing more players, so I'm not using that as an excuse, before anyone pounces.)

Finally, Acciesbhoy, the pic in your avatar shows the most homoerotic-looking Accies celebration I've seen - it's an embarrassment. Heat of the moment stuff for the players, I'm sure, but you choose to immortalise it in your sig?!

[billyg]

stepek 4 tellys, on Sep 29 2007, 18:02, said:

Ah sam, you've been awful quite lately but 4 posts out the ten so far show you are a fairweather poster. Must be a bit damp underfoot where you're sitting!

Nauseating , isn't it ? St Mirren fans were subjected to the same nonsense 2 seasons ago after we lost at home to Ross County and St Johnsrtone narrowed the gap to 8 points , suddenly they were the greatest team in the world and " had us in their sights". Bide your time , St Johnstone's inconsistency away from home will prove their undoing AGAIN this season !

[SaintSam]

Hamilton fans who were still in the stadium cheered, en mass, when the news filtered through that Gretna had scored to win the title in Dingwall. Yesterday went some way to easing the pain of that.

[Reynard]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 10:23, said:

Yesterday went some way to easing the pain of that.

It didn`t really

[vikingTON]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 10:23, said:

Hamilton fans who were still in the stadium cheered, en mass, when the news filtered through that Gretna had scored to win the title in Dingwall. Yesterday went some way to easing the pain of that.

Aw, does another team dislike the Perth tinks?

[SaintSam]

codfish, on Sep 30 2007, 01:22, said:

The two highlights of the match though had to be involving "Shouty Man" in the home end. First, his shout of "wake up, McManus" got a response of "shut up ya p***k" from the Saintees centre half, then in the second half he had Bryn Halliwell offering him a meeting in the car park post-match.Wish I could shout that loud!

He's called Foghorn. Cut down to Foggy by Radford.

[Shotts56]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 10:23, said:

Hamilton fans who were still in the stadium cheered, en mass, when the news filtered through that Gretna had scored to win the title in Dingwall. Yesterday went some way to easing the pain of that.

I was still in the stadium, I didn't cheer. No one around me did. Everyone I knew would have rather you went up that Gretna. Makes a good story though.

As for yesterday, as we suspected, any sort of injuries left us way short of what was required. Take David Elebert out of that defence and all of a sudden we were far from solid. Take Alex Neil out of the middle of the park and we had no shape at all. St Johnstone hammered us, and at one stage I thought it was going to be five or six. It would have been fully justified, based on the probably the most one-sided second half I have ever seen.

Cant believe that was only St Johnstone's second win of the season. What have you been doing all season ? You're certainly much much better than that.

[Radford]

Shotts56, on Sep 30 2007, 10:35, said:

What have you been doing all season ?

Everything has come together since Deuchar arrived and as things stand, I fear we'll be pretty screwed again when he leaves in December, especially with another good signing Rocco Quinn likely to leave in January.

As we showed yesterday we can pass the ball about well and the second goal was a great move but the key thing is we have variation and can go long to Deuchar if needed, as the final goal proved. A long ball forward, flick on by the big man and the wee man gets in behind. Halliwell made Jackson's choice simply though by coming so far off his line.

Our record over 90 minutes in all competitions this season isn't too bad, we've played twelve games now and only lost one, the big worry was which side of the fine line were we going to fall on when we were getting all the draws, were we riding our luck and gonna start losing games or were we just missing a little something and were gonna start turning them into wins. Luckily it looks like the latter option and that little something was Kenny Deuchar. Andy Jackson has always looked a good prospect but I don't think anyone expected him to be capable of coming into the first team and scoring five goals in five starts, a lot of that has been down to Deuchar, who has proved he can score goals at a lower level and is now hopefully showing he's capable of doing so in this league.

Yesterday will mean nothing if we don't win next week though, as something has to give in the Accies vs Dundee game. I'd expect Accies to win that on what I've seen from both teams but would love a draw.

[SaintSam]

Shotts56, on Sep 30 2007, 10:35, said:

As for yesterday, as we suspected, any sort of injuries left us way short of what was required. Take David Elebert out of that defence and all of a sudden we were far from solid. Take Alex Neil out of the middle of the park and we had no shape at all. St Johnstone hammered us, and at one stage I thought it was going to be five or six. It would have been fully justified, based on the probably the most one-sided second half I have ever seen.

Cant believe that was only St Johnstone's second win of the season. What have you been doing all season ? You're certainly much much better than that.

Saints have had to contend with injuries to the very core of our team all season, in every match. It's only now, eight games in, that we're starting to look settled and that is still without the likes of Milne, James and Hardie. Take the likes of Neil, McLaughlin, Gilhaney and Offiong out of Accies and where would they be? In a pretty similar position to ourselves, I'd imagine. We've also had to contend with players like Rutkiewicz, Stanic, MacDonald and Weatherston ducking in and out with minor injuries. It has meant we've had to really dig into our squad and also change formations for different games.

I feel we have decent depth to our squad, but there's only so far even that can go when experiencing injuries as frequent as this. I think yesterday marked a turning point though in that Quinn looked like an able replacement for Hardie in terms of sheer skill if not heart and that's a huge relief as Hardie can now be afforded the time to recover from his injury, where as last season he played with it for a while. Irvine looks solid in at right back and the two centre halves are leaps and bounds from what we had to endure last season - Airdrie 4-3 win at home springs to mind, chucking away a 3 goal lead.

Jackson and Deuchar up front appear to be the solution to all of our problems with a staggering return from both in their games so far. Livingston had the measure of Saints last season but I think the dynamic of our team has changed massively. Instead of Scotland, we now have Kenny Deuchar who is near on impossible to defend against in the air, and the lightning quick Jackson running in behind. These players have shown that they're a handful to deal with, whereas Scotland was our main threat up front last season, and if he could be marked effectively, we'd struggle. Livi will be facing a completely different side but because of just how well they played us last season, I'm not going to predict the outcome on Saturday. I always predicted wins last season, and we always dropped points.

[Skyline Drifter]

Radford, on Sep 30 2007, 10:45, said:

Everything has come together since Deuchar arrived and as things stand,

Now there's a line I didn't ever expect to hear someone in the first division ever say.!

[vikingTON]

FFS every side has injuries to contend with.
Mebbe Morton should be winning the league considering we've had up to 7 first team regulars out for all of our games so far.

[SaintSam]

Skyline Drifter, on Sep 30 2007, 11:17, said:

Now there's a line I didn't ever expect to hear someone in the first division ever say.!

There's a line I didn't ever expect to hear Radford say. He was virtually suicidal when the signing was announced as Kenny Deuchar and not some proven world beater to replace Scotland.

[Radford]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 11:19, said:

There's a line I didn't ever expect to hear Radford say. He was virtually suicidal when the signing was announced as Kenny Deuchar and not some proven world beater to replace Scotland.

It was nothing to do with Jason.

I didn't rate Kenny Deuchar one little bit but he's been superb.

[academical]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 10:23, said:

Hamilton fans who were still in the stadium cheered, en mass, when the news filtered through that Gretna had scored to win the title in Dingwall.

That's just nonsense. Akin to us accusing all St Johnstone fans of gloating in this thread, when it's really just you.

My friends and I stood around debating whether to wait for the helicopter to arrive to witness your title win, then decided it would take too long, so left. I was just outside the ground when the news came through that Gretna had scored - I did hear some cheers, but most Accies fans probably didn't give a toss either way. Those who cheered would have doing the typical football fans' contrarian thing of winding up the opposition.

[academical]

Peter Henry Davidson, on Sep 30 2007, 11:39, said:

I know your top of the league so this might be a silly question, but are Hamilton happy with the tactics Reid uses? I wouldn't want to watch my team play 4-5-1 week in week out.

Also who was your right-back?

Our usual right-back is Tom Parratt - I think it was him yesterday - who is very effective getting forward, but perhaps the weakest link in our first-choice back four.

Yes, I'm happy with Billy Reid's tactics. I'm also happy with his formations (not the same thing), which are more flexible than you suggest. When Gilhaney pushes forward with Offiong, it's 4-4-2; with Winters (or McCarthy) and Gilhaney getting forward, it can be 4-3-3; with Neil and McArthur sitting, allowing the rest of the midfield forward, it can be 4-2-3-1 or even 4-2-4.

I suspect we spent too long yesterday on the defensive after we scored (i.e., most of the game) and that can't have looked pretty, nor was it remotely effective. I wasn't happy with yesterday's result, but I doubt there'll be many like that this season.

[SaintSam]

academical, on Sep 30 2007, 11:39, said:

That's just nonsense. Akin to us accusing all St Johnstone fans of gloating in this thread, when it's really just you.

Every Saints fan that's had to endure the nonsense spouted about our team so far this season will be smug about that victory yesterday. I'm very smug, gloating is necessary. That doesn't mean though that I think our season has turned around and we will suddenly start challenging for the league, and beat you to it because we are so much better than you. I don't. I think our start will hamper the rest of our season, but I now appreciate that it was beyond the reasonable control of Owen Coyle, who had to face an extensive injury list for most of the games to date. No team would cope with missing that many players in games. I'm glad we won yesterday, and I've enjoyed gloating endlessly about it, but as Radford says, it will mean nothing unless we can reproduce it next week. I'm not going to predict the outcome of the game, as we've been pretty unpredictable all season.

[vikingTON]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 11:50, said:

Every Saints fan that's had to endure the nonsense spouted about our team so far this season will be smug about that victory yesterday. I'm very smug, gloating is necessary. That doesn't mean though that I think our season has turned around and we will suddenly start challenging for the league, and beat you to it because we are so much better than you. I don't. I think our start will hamper the rest of our season, but I now appreciate that it was beyond the reasonable control of Owen Coyle, who had to face an extensive injury list for most of the games to date. No team would cope with missing that many players in games. I'm glad we won yesterday, and I've enjoyed gloating endlessly about it, but as Radford says, it will mean nothing unless we can reproduce it next week. I'm not going to predict the outcome of the game, as we've been pretty unpredictable all season.

No shit Sherlock.

[academical]

SaintSam, on Sep 30 2007, 11:15, said:

Take the likes of Neil, McLaughlin, Gilhaney and Offiong out of Accies and where would they be? In a pretty similar position to ourselves, I'd imagine.

That's exactly wherre we were for most of last season, when Accies fans who insisted we were much better when we could field our best XI were ridiculed. We were told we were in our rightful place, and shouldn't expect to compete with the likes of the mighty St Johnstone. Now the boot's on the other foot, but I don't see any Accies fans claiming St Johnstone are rubbish (even before yesterday).

The thing is, some of our youngsters got a full season last year, and are now ready to compete with the best in this division - the likes of Elebert, Easton and McArthur. So we don't lack depth as we did last year.

On Tuesday we had four first team regulars missing - McLaughlin, Easton, Neil and Taylor - and still cuffed Kilmarnock. Yesterday we had two missing - Elebert and Neil - had a miserbale second half, and got cuffed ourselves. I don't think yesterday was about squad depth. St Johnstone, as we did last year, will have to learn to compete with half a team missing. On yesterday's evidence, they already have.

[cdisaaccie]

Ach well, had to lose at some point, no surprise to me that it came at McDiarmid, that'll be 2 points from 12 at the 4 games I've now seen Accies in Perth, and both losses were hammerings; the record previous is awful as well.

Not that those statistics are an excuse for our 2nd half performance; the better side won on the day and the loss to our side of Alex Neil and David Elebert was crucial as far as I'm concerned.
Without Elebert, our defence is more exposed to play both at pace and on the floor, Marko had his worst game for absolute ages and it was no surprise to me that Swailes struggled, in the air he's fine, but run at him and his 37 year old body simply cannot compete.
St.Johnstone did well all game to make sure that Parratt and Easton didn't have much chance to go forward and after H/T, our midfield was completely overrun, unable to either keep the ball or get us out of our half for longer than a couple of minutes.
So the inevitable happened.

Just means that BR will have to lift the team in training during the week, and get them right up for the game against Dundee, where we must not lose to keep the young player's confidence up.
Elebert must come back in, and hopefully Neil's injury isn't too bad as we need him to help the young guys through when the game is tough.

[H_B]

academical, on Sep 30 2007, 11:39, said:

Those who cheered would have doing the typical football fans' contrarian thing of winding up the opposition.

Exactly. You would be a disgrace of a football fan if you ignored the opportunity to noise up the St Johnstone fans in such a situation. It would have been magic comedy Apart from your own team winning, seeing opposition fans taken from ecstasy to despair in 90 seconds would be an amazing experience!!

Quote

Every Saints fan that's had to endure the nonsense spouted about our team so far this season will be smug about that victory yesterday. I'm very smug, gloating is necessary.

Absolutely. The Hamilton fans were super smug after their start to the season, and after yesterday's walloping, it was your duty to gloat.