Killie V St Johnstone - Meh Derby to kickoff season 17/18

[andrewh]

8 hours ago, Dindeleux said:

To be fair if you foul him and then the free kick ends up going in then you're the bad guy anyway. Probably hard for any player to make that split second decision due to the way MOH was ghosting past people. I actually think Broadfoot tried to take him out but just couldn't get near him.

 

On the whole though I was pretty pleased with our defence today. For a change I don't think we'll lose many physical battles this year.

True enough, but if the free kick doesn't go in and a yellow results it's a gain. As you say, someone has to get near enough though.

As for buying fouls from the ref, that was nonsense. As good as you feel your defence was, and physical, we were especially robust at times, and the level of our fouling at times shows how far you have to go

[deej]

I've seen us concede like that and it's infuriating. You just wonder why, as you say, someone doesn't tackle or foul.

Reminded me of (I think) Jamie Murphy's goal against us at hampden for Motherwell in 2010. Coasts across the pitch with no hint of a challenge then sticks it in the net.

[Jamie_B]

Great start yesterday and good to get the goal during that spell-something we quite often fail to do (see the Trakai home game second half as a prime example). Nice play for the first with Cummins showing good touch and awareness to feed Wotherspoon. If Spoony can play like that on a more consistent basis he'll be a major asset this season.

Game evened out towards the end of the first half but aside from Foster trying his best to set them up on one occasion Killie really didn't have a clear chance before the equaliser. Great strike from Boyd but I think Mannus got the wall all wrong. One man too few in it and lined up too far to the side. Generally you'd set up a wall there with one man outside the line of the post to prevent a curling effort from out to in-but given only Boyd was lining up that was never happening.

There then followed a spell when Erwin came on and between him and both teams changing shape Killie had a ten minute spell of looking really dangerous. The last ten we looked more likely though and it was a superb winner from MOH. His close control at pace is exceptional and, goal aside, a couple of other times he made similar runs and caused havoc just by drawing defenders to him and away from runners like Alston and Kane. That's going to be dangerous over the next few months. Felt Kane and Cummins both showed more than they did in the Euro/pre season games too which was good-though Macca is obviously still going to be the main man depending on the arrival of another striker/"jewel".

I think Killie's recruitment looks pretty decent. Greer and Thomas were both excellent and Erwin looks a good signing too. I can't believe Boyd is a professional athlete though. I know he's not asked to do any running and he still poses some danger but between his size, his clear lack of fitness and his constant bumming of Rangers in the media I'd be pretty hacked off if he was a regular starter for us.

[C4mmy31]

True enough, but if the free kick doesn't go in and a yellow results it's a gain. As you say, someone has to get near enough though.

As for buying fouls from the ref, that was nonsense. As good as you feel your defence was, and physical, we were especially robust at times, and the level of our fouling at times shows how far you have to go [emoji4]

Agree, we are not streetwise enough, SOH should have had the feet whipped from him as he was running across the 18 yrd line outside the box, synical or not, if that was a Killie player running at the Saints defence he would have been brought to an abrupt halt.....

 

[Mr Heliums]

3 minutes ago, C4mmy31 said:

Agree, we are not streetwise enough, SOH should have had the feet whipped from him as he was running across the 18 yrd line outside the box, synical or not, if that was a Killie player running at the Saints defence he would have been brought to an abrupt halt.....

Thing is, we've seen O'Halloran run like that across the pitch a hundred times before. More often than not he's run out of options by the time he's halfway across. This time he just put in a peach of a finish.

[tree house tam]

5 minutes ago, C4mmy31 said:

Agree, we are not streetwise enough, SOH should have had the feet whipped from him as he was running across the 18 yrd line outside the box, synical or not, if that was a Killie player running at the Saints defence he would have been brought to an abrupt halt.....

 

Schmeichel O Halloran?

[PauloPerth]

Great start to the season. 3 great goals.

Saints were excellent for the first half hour, playing some great stuff, and deserved to be ahead.  We played a 4-2-3-1 which brought the best out of Spoony, he was outstanding in that first half.  Mostly Spoony central, but there was a bit of swapping between him, ScougZ and Alston.

The second half we didn't get started and let killie grow in confidence, then when they brought on Erwin they dominated. Killie seemed to be opening us up at will, and some excellent stops by (Mac)Mannus kept us in it.  At 1-1 a few of us said we'd be happy with a point the way things were going.

Thought our sub was long overdue, as Scougall is great on the ball, but he's very easily beaten and the killie wide player wasgetting a lot of joy against him. (Thomas first half, not sure second as Scougall was playing right side when he got subbed).

Thought Tommy got it wrong tactically initially when O'Halloran came on, as we'd lost the midfield, yet when MOH came on for ScougZ he went up front with Cummins in a 4-4-2 and we still struggled. We changed formation when Kane came on and MOH went wide and got back on top, with Muzz and Paton getting back into it.

I hope when we see highlights of that winning goal they show it from the start, with Kane driving up the right hand side from inside his own half, passing it inside before another pass or two and the ball ending up on the left for a few passes between Craig and Easton before MOH took over... 

Cummins had a good game, and Alston was decent throughout. Hopefully the level of competition will force guys like these to perform consistently, and I thought they certainly did well today. Our full-backs had a tough time of it against decent wide players.  Mannus was very good, possibly the free kick aside, need to see that back. He comes for crosses a lot more and is far more commanding than prior to Clark taking his place.

Was Chris Millar injured, or being saved for Tuesday night?

Killie will do okay this season I expect, hope you's destroy that shower this midweek.

 

[Mr Heliums]

12 hours ago, saint john said:

Just goes to prove O'Halleran made a big mistake going to Rangers. He's going to run riot for the next 4 months and get a transfer to a decent team.

Doesn't really prove anything yet. Remember that O'Halloran did nothing in his last two months at Saints – and then scored on his full Rangers debut.

[Hawkeye the Gnu]

OK, our defending at the winning goal was poor, but hacking him down as he runs along the 18 yard line?

Come on, isn't that what he was expecting and looking for.

He must have been as surprised as everybody else when he got through Scott free.

Great goal tho'.

Saints defenders 'stopping' our players in their tracks happened well away from goal and could be argued 'good' bookings and taking one for the team.

They knew exactly what they were doing, and where they were doing it, good defending IMO.

It took a thunderbolt from Boydie to get some justice.

I was again impressed by Saints and feel O'Halloran will be a fantastic signing.

Just goes to show how Sevco continually manage to ruin players and he'll feel he now has to prove how good he is all over again. 

Good luck to him.

[craigkillie]

I think both of Saints' goals came from us not being streetwise enough to just take a foul and move on.  All 4 of Saints' bookings came from good "professional" fouls, while our midfield and full-backs let Wotherspoon and O'Halloran ghost past them.  You always run a risk of conceding a goal from the free-kick, as Saints did when Boyd rattled it in, but they're even more likely to score if you just escort them towards the goal.

All in all, though, I think we showed enough to suggest that we'll be fine this year.  Greer will be a fantastic addition - he strolled through the game and his distribution was great.  Thomas and Erwin both also looked great, and although Jones had a quiet game yesterday, that duel threat of him and Thomas on the wings should be potent.  I think we're pretty lightweight in midfield with Frizzell and McKenzie - I'd be much happier putting Wilson (and eventually Dicker) in there.

[The Saintee]

“It was a great finish (by Wotherspoon) on his left foot but, had it been one of our players running at the St Johnstone back four, there would probably have been a foul,” (Boyd) said.

[Radford]

Boyd is right, although I didn't agree with his manager about us buying fouls on Saturday. Despite the rhetoric, I don't think we are like that every week but we did have a few very cynical challenges, notably Scougall's from which they scored. Every team does it at times though and the reaction from the Killie fans has been very measured in that regard. Aberdeen fans would be crying about it for weeks afterwards.

[Widge]

My favourite one was Paul Paton basically kicking Jones in the first half, but missed or didn't connect properly, which the referee missed. It was a full on swipe as well. [emoji23]

[7-2]

Lets be honest, when it comes to being a dirty, cheating, cynical b*****d streetwise few know more about it than McCulloch. We should bow to his knowledge.

[RandomGuy.]

Scougall dragging Jones down was tremendous, nice to see he's got into our style of play so quickly tbh. Shame he didn't save it until Tuesday night though, thread would be hilarious.

[killienick]

3 hours ago, Radford said:

Boyd is right, although I didn't agree with his manager about us buying fouls on Saturday. Despite the rhetoric, I don't think we are like that every week but we did have a few very cynical challenges, notably Scougall's from which they scored. Every team does it at times though and the reaction from the Killie fans has been very measured in that regard. Aberdeen fans would be crying about it for weeks afterwards.

The reaction from Killie fans on our media has been one of praise in terms of St Johnstone's tactics. If only Killie players had fouled when necessary then your two goals were entirely avoidable.

I thought Foster was hilarious though, after punting someone 6 feet in the air he's telling the ref it's his first foul as if that's a thing any more and you are allowed one.

Well done Saintees.

[The Marly]

The reaction from Killie fans on our media has been one of praise in terms of St Johnstone's tactics. If only Killie players had fouled when necessary then your two goals were entirely avoidable.
I thought Foster was hilarious though, after punting someone 6 feet in the air he's telling the ref it's his first foul as if that's a thing any more and you are allowed one.
Well done Saintees.

He has a right to feel hard done by. He got sent off for his first kick at Swanson last season

[Kyle]

24 minutes ago, The Marly said:

He has a right to feel hard done by. He got sent off for his first kick at Swanson last season

It was Swanson who kicked Foster in the puss, but only after Foster had swung at him and fallen on his arse.  

[The Marly]

It was Swanson who kicked Foster in the puss, but only after Foster had swung at him and fallen on his arse.  

Och well.

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

8 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Scougall dragging Jones down was tremendous, nice to see he's got into our style of play so quickly tbh. Shame he didn't save it until Tuesday night though, thread would be hilarious.

The Thistle fans cannot help themselves. "Cloggers" etc etc every time we beat them. It angers me!! For me its just bitter excuses. 

Bitter is something the Killie fans are evidently not.