Falkirk v St Mirren

[Paul Cicero]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

In the end really disappointed not to win that. From 25 minutes on we dominated that and the second half in particular we were the better team by miles.

Really pleasing to see the style starting to shift towards presumably what Hartley wants. He got his subs right IMO today and how good is it to see an academy player who hasnt even been on the bench before make his debut and actually look dangerous.

Special mention to the defence and fullbacks in particular who werent in the least bit troubled by Morgan or anyone else.

Really positive stuff but ultimately should have won.

Are you for real? ?  Big teams looked happy with a point and Jack Baird and Buchanan dealt with everything Falkirk had to offer we had the best chance to win game at the end through smith and should have won as Falkirk were there for the taking.

[Mordecai]

At no point today did I feel as though we were in danger of conceding. Even when Falkirk players had the ball in our box and had turned their marker, it was obvious they were going to play it out wide or back the way - a serious lack of confidence on show.

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, Paul Cicero said:

Are you for real? ?  Big teams looked happy with a point and Jack Baird and Buchanan dealt with everything Falkirk had to offer we had the best chance to win game at the end through smith and should have won as Falkirk were there for the taking.

Smiths chance was no better than the two sitters Austin missed.  All in all the two teams were pretty evenly matched and we are improving slowly although still a long way to go.

[Paul Cicero]

1 minute ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Smiths chance was no better than the two sitters Austin missed.  All in all the two teams were pretty evenly matched and we are improving slowly although still a long way to go.

You are miles off the standard mate and will be lucky to finish top 6 honest opinion and absolutely toothless upfront.

[Reggie Perrin]

Are you for real? ?  Big teams looked happy with a point and Jack Baird and Buchanan dealt with everything Falkirk had to offer we had the best chance to win game at the end through smith and should have won as Falkirk were there for the taking.

You have posted some slavering nonsense on this thread but this one is a class apart in the gibberish stakes.

[MrDust]

7 minutes ago, Paul Cicero said:

Are you for real? ?  Big teams looked happy with a point and Jack Baird and Buchanan dealt with everything Falkirk had to offer we had the best chance to win game at the end through smith and should have won as Falkirk were there for the taking.

Big teams play to win and no kill time 20 mins in....

[ShaggerG]

Thought we did ok without really looking like scoring. Can definitely see Hartley's influence starting to come through though.

Was surprised to see young Dunne on the bench as I would have thought that both Langton & Stowe would have been further up the pecking order; Hartley obviously sees something in him however.  TBH I didn't think he did much better than Harris as I can't remember him beating a man and he did lose the ball a lot, however, he did look much more up for it, something that Harris can't be accused of!

Don't think he should have taken Austin off as he was giving their defence a hard time of it and was looking our most likely source of scoring. I thought Kerr was quite poor, often getting caught in possession and miscuing a few passes. With TT out however, it was the correct decision to pick him I think.

The defence was much better than last week; Balatoni strolled it without treating us to any bizarre moments, with the rest looking quite solid.

Obviously looking for further improvement next week and I think that, once we get our first Hartley win, things will look a lot rosier. 

[Shadwell Dog]

6 minutes ago, Paul Cicero said:

You are miles off the standard mate and will be lucky to finish top 6 honest opinion and absolutely toothless upfront.

That doesn't say much for your chances then as you were no better than us. Still a lot of work to do but we're improving slowly and the return of sibbald and Loy who are big players at this level will make a big difference.

[GAD]

I think Falkirk have a good chance of avoiding automatic relegation this season.

[ShaggerG]

1 minute ago, GAD said:

I think Falkirk have a good chance of avoiding automatic relegation this season.

Me too.

[shull]

Everybody happy.

Bring on the Morton

[Billy Jean King]

I think today confirmed that it's not going to take anything brilliant to win the league this season which makes our poor form of far this season all the more galling. We've played the two top teams in the past 3 games and both are a million miles away from the standard of side we've competed with at the top over the last two seasons. Unfortunately by the time Hartley gets us up to full steam , sibbald gets fit and Loy returns from narnia we'll have too much to do although I wouldn't rule out sneaking into the playoffs. Typical Falkirk though when our team of two seasons ago would've scooshed this league and I would have fancied last years team to perhaps sneak

must admit it was refreshing to see the young lad dune make his debut and get stuck in. Far better than that imposter Harris. Also puts to bed any worries that Hartley won't play with width.

Pretty much agree with this, think this league will be won with a lower than average points total. That said that is because it's far more level standard wise and Falkirks demise is part of that problem. The old adage that you can only beat what's in front of you remains and name wise Falkirk, Utd and ICT means this shouldn't be a soft division to win. Credit where it's due JRs turnaround at Saints is remarkable and for what it's worth Hartley should be able to haul you into the play offs in what is a refreshingly open division

 

[Shadwell Dog]

8 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

A fit Loy or Sibbald would have unpicked the defence enough times for us to get the goal today. The biggest and most important thing I seen today was our ability to get a grip of the midfield. St Mirrens midfield is where their strength is, and regardless of who had the better chances, we took over the game. We were the ones in control. Defence looks to have been sorted, midfield is showing signs of moving away from the plodding sideways shite. Our midfielders were in their faces today and taking the ball off them, playing the pass then looking to go forawrd rather than standing their awaiting the sideways return pass. Thats all positive stuff. 

Hopefully we won't ever see Taiwo and Kerr in the same midfield again. One or the other from now on please.

[houston_bud]

Falkirk had a lot of pressure and were the better side, but I could have been in goals for St. Mirren and we would have kept a clean sheet.

I thought the boy Austin was absolutely brutal but he's been getting some credit on here.

We needed to get Morgan running more, although the Falkirk defence dealt with him quite well. Reilly ran about without being overly effective, had one chance and put it straight at Thomson, and Sutton did nothing when he came on.

I noticed an ice pack on McGinn's knee at the end. We need to keep him fit. Thought Magennis has a good game for the 50mins he played.

[Bobby_F]

Despite Samson not really having a difficult save to make, you couldn’t have grudged Falkirk a win there.

We did something though that we’ve managed to do rarely - restrict the opposition to many clear cut chances, and keep a clean sheet.

Having said that, both teams missed two absolute sitters.

Falkirk did bully us all over the pitch, and a couple of the early ‘markers’ on Morgan were not unexpected.

I really did fear for us when we replaced McGinn (injured I assume) with the 12 year old (looking) McPherson and at the same time Falkirk brought on wily old warhorse Miller.

We held out though, and positives other than the clean sheet were Magennis getting another 50 minutes under his belt, and Cammy Smith who I thought had an excellent game, and almost nicked it twice in the last 5 minutes.

On the ref, Falkirk fans seemed to think the ref (west coast bias and all that) had it in for them.  However do you not think Hippolyte was extremely lucky to escape a second yellow when he fouled a rampaging Smith?  Clear as day yellow card if someone not already on a yellow had done it.

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, Bobby_F said:

Despite Samson not really having a difficult save to make, you couldn’t have grudged Falkirk a win there.

We did something though that we’ve managed to do rarely - restrict the opposition to many clear cut chances, and keep a clean sheet.

Having said that, both teams missed two absolute sitters.

Falkirk did bully us all over the pitch, and a couple of the early ‘markers’ on Morgan were not unexpected.

I really did fear for us when we replaced McGinn (injured I assume) with the 12 year old (looking) McPherson and at the same time Falkirk brought on wily old warhorse Miller.

We held out though, and positives other than the clean sheet were Magennis getting another 50 minutes under his belt, and Cammy Smith who I thought had an excellent game, and almost nicked it twice in the last 5 minutes.

On the ref, Falkirk fans seemed to think the ref (west coast bias and all that) had it in for them.  However do you not think Hippolyte was extremely lucky to escape a second yellow when he fouled a rampaging Smith?  Clear as day yellow card if someone not already on a yellow had done it.

Thought the ref was poor in a general sense but didn't favour either side. The smith foul was never a yellow especially as Austin got pulled back by the neck earlier in the half and didn't even get a foul. In fact there wasn't a bad tackle in the entire match I can think of .

[houston_bud]

Austin caused plenty of problems with his pace and physicality. Much better than he has been this season and to me it looks like Hartley must have told him to stay on his feet and do what he is good at. He had no one off him though really. This is why I reckon a fit Loy could have been the difference. 

 

It took him until half an hour to get past his man, then he hit a pathetic shot into the side netting. 'Could have hit it harder with my bunnet' my Granda would have said. He then missed the target with a header from three yards out.

 

He beat Buchanan a couple of times in the game, but he didnt get the better of Baird all day.

 

Lucky for us Loy wasn't playing.

 

[NorthBank]

Really poor performance from our midfield today. Surprised Magennis started as he hasn't played all season due to injury and has just returned to training and McGinn was supposedly not fit to start but started.  Sammy hardly had a save to make but a point Away after a poor display is ok.

[Young gun]

2 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I feel like a broken record when I say this, but for me I couldn't point to too many specifically noteworthy incidents, I just thought the ref showed an increasingly common air of brutal inconsistency and general incompetence. Reilly leading with his arm and backing in happened 4 or 5 in the same way before it was punished, Austin was getting manhandled fairly regularly, and like you say, you could make a case for Hippo getting a second yellow. There will be others that different people remember I am sure, but it's the consistently shite standard over the course of 90 minutes that annoys me

Reilly using the elbow and backing in?

when Miller came on he was at it every time.,he gives me the fear, he is masterly at cheating 

At least that wee shite Baird wasn’t there 

[Bobby_F]

3 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I feel like a broken record when I say this, but for me I couldn't point to too many specifically noteworthy incidents, I just thought the ref showed an increasingly common air of brutal inconsistency and general incompetence. Reilly leading with his arm and backing in happened 4 or 5 times in the same way before it was punished, Austin was getting manhandled fairly regularly, and like you say, you could make a case for Hippo getting a second yellow. There will be others that different people remember I am sure, but it's the consistently shite standard over the course of 90 minutes that annoys me

If Reilly played against us I’d hate him.

He seems to play right on the edge when it comes to tussles with much bigger defenders and gets the benefit of the doubt most times.

Yet Sutton when he came on, despite looking like he was getting fouled constantly, never got a decision in his favour in all the time he was on the pitch.

I actually thought all three of our subs today weakened us, and probably contributed to Falkirk looking the better team for most of the half.