Second Quarter

[Poet of the Macabre]

With everyone in the league now having played at least 18 games, thought it would be an idea to get a summary of how the second quarter of the season has gone for each side.

For the Pars, we managed two wins, three draws and four defeats, including a truly dreadful 5-2 loss at home to Queen of the South. Nine points from nine games is pretty much relegation form, with some fans starting to think AJ's time at the club should be coming to an end. A title challenge was always unlikely to be sustained but it's disappointing how quickly and feebly we fell out of the running.

We definitely need some changes this month if we're to reach our target of finishing in the top four but AJ deserves the chance to sort things out. We've started 2018 well with a derby win and hopefully we can kick on now and get some more points on the board. A lot of doubt over whether AJ will still be Pars boss next season regardless of what happens on the pitch (he's yet to agree a new deal) so could be an interesting few months.

[Shandon Par]

Apart from just how well St Mirren have done and just how much entertainment Falkirk have given everyone by being terrible there's probably not much surprising about the league table. For us, AJ has taken logical steps to address the slide recently in terms of how we shape up and we should have the budget to recruit without having to move folk on. 4th has to be the target but there's not much to suggest we'd be more likely than any of the other teams clustered around 3rd-7th to finish in the top 4. 

 

 

[andylivi1]

My target was 12 points from the 2nd quarter before it started and that’s exactly what we got, and actually it’s far better considering due to postponements we actually played 6 games away from home and only 3 at home.

Trips to St Mirren, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd ended with 0 points which wasn’t that surprising.

We also had journeys to Dumbarton, Inverness and QoS which resulted in a very good 7 points. 

Our home games came against Inverness, Falkirk and Brechin and we got 5 from those 3 games. 

The 3rd quarter could be a big one for us, likelyhood is we will have 2 rearranged home games aswell as our original 5 meaning a possibility of 7 games at home depending on scheduling. 

Problem being our thin squad, we only had 5 on the bench at the weekend, 1 being a goalkeeper, and with James Penrice heading back to Partick Thistle after this weekend, Steven Boyd apparently out with a fractured shoulder and no sign of Jack McMillan, recruitment is going to be needed to keep up with the heavy schedule we are likely to have, considering we have already lost out on Nathan Austin it’s going to be difficult to recruit the players we need.

Having said all that I have faith in Hoppy to go and get the right players and push on in the 2nd half of the season.

Regardless if we finish top 4 or not I’ve been very pleased with how our season has gone up to now. 

[LIVIFOREVER]

Yep 2nd quarter has dipped from the 1st but everyone else around us has had much the same experience so we're doing well in 3rd place. Seems to be St Mirren and Utd in a 2 horse race with about 5 other teams fighting it out for the other 2 top four spots. Delighted on how our season is going to date.

[Nikos K]

The second half of the season has the potential to be as exciting as hell. I feel all the clubs at the top will take points off each other and it will go right to the wire.

[ICTChris]

our first quarter

P 9 W 1 D 3 L 5 F 10 A 16 Pts 6

Our second quarter

P 9 W 5 D 2 L 2 F 11 A 5 Pts 17

Obviously a big improvement defensively between the first and second quarters - this actually began towards the end of the first round of games, we had clean sheets against Queens and Falkirk in our 8th and 9th games.  You can track this back to us building a solid back four with Coll Donaldson coming in and establishing himself.  David Raven leaves this week and it remains to be seen how big an impact on our defence that will be.

Goal scoring is the biggest concern at the moment - we've scored 22 goals this season and half of them have come in the three games against Brechin.  We've obviously tried to address this by signing Nathan Austin and giving George Oakley some more playing time.  We've also got Aaron Doran coming back.  He's had terrible injury problems but can be an influential player.

[Granny Danger]

9 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

our first quarter

P 9 W 1 D 3 L 5 F 10 A 16 Pts 6

Our second quarter

P 9 W 5 D 2 L 2 F 11 A 5 Pts 17

Obviously a big improvement defensively between the first and second quarters - this actually began towards the end of the first round of games, we had clean sheets against Queens and Falkirk in our 8th and 9th games.  You can track this back to us building a solid back four with Coll Donaldson coming in and establishing himself.  David Raven leaves this week and it remains to be seen how big an impact on our defence that will be.

Goal scoring is the biggest concern at the moment - we've scored 22 goals this season and half of them have come in the three games against Brechin.  We've obviously tried to address this by signing Nathan Austin and giving George Oakley some more playing time.  We've also got Aaron Doran coming back.  He's had terrible injury problems but can be an influential player.

Like every other Arab I was delighted to see the back of Donaldson but am glad the lad is doing well and wonder how much of his disastrous time at United was down to poor coaching/management. 

[Buddist Monk]

Before the start of the season I had tipped United to win the league and for St Mirren to be in the chasing pack along with Inverness and Falkirk. Now while it's both hilarious and/or timely that Falkirk and Inverness have had their failings, I'd still stick with the prediction albeit swapping out those two with perhaps Livi and Dunfermline - although it has to be said if both Falkirk and Inverness make a concerted effort I can't see any reason why they can't make the playoffs.

In term of this quarter, it's going to be all about consistency for us. Morgan's away-back-again deal might be done but things like that always effect the team dynamic. I am guessing in terms of bodies in, there will be a couple but I doubt Ross will gamble on Premiership and throw every financial resource into the transfer window now. In general we have a fairly balanced squad. Could do with cover for McGinn/McShane (or Magennis out on the right if he was to move in to cover). Although I have a suspicion that Buchanan could do that role and considering he's out of favour in defence it might be a better idea to shift him up the field (a little, not much). At most I could see a couple of loan deals but other than that there doesn't seem any reason to mess with the squad as is, Hilson and Duffy will go (or in Hilson's case I believe 'gone') but loanees and youth players I can see taking up their slot(s).

Ultimately we keep an even keel I can see United's patchy season continue and we will take advantage of that. They are continuing to burst the bank with far better players than the standard of this division, but that only goes to show the desperation coming from Tannadice and I see that as an opportunity to see their bottle crash in the same way it did at Greenhill Road just a week back or so.

No, this quarter is all about consolidation for us. The least grief possible and let all those around us mess up.

 

 

[Guest Flash]

14 points for us in the second quarter. Started off great with 9 points from 3 games, but followed this with 5 points from the next 6, not helped by injuries to 2 of the back 4 plus the main defensive midfielder, although 2 of the injuries were near the end of the quarter. Although the goalkeeper improved from his almost stationary first quarter (when he was playing with an injury) he still loves standing on his line awaiting developments.

McFadden is now away with Kane and Kerr to follow next week afaik. And with seemingly serious injuries to Marshall and Jacobs, we need 5 players just to get the squad back to where it was. 4 of the 5 were almost certain first choice players too. We’ve brought 1 in, so need another 4 at least just to get back to where we were.

[madton]

for us,

14 points 1st quarter- 4W 2D 3L

13 points this quarter- 3W 4D 2L.

Very similar quarters so far.

The second quarter only had 2 losses and 1 was away at Tannadice but the home loss to QOTS after being 1 up was poor. The  only dropped points was prob at home to Dumbarton, drawing 1-1

In order to make the playoffs, we prob need a min 30 points so two 15 point quarters should give us a good chance. Think 4th will require a  higher points total than previous years.

 

 

 

 

[AyrshireTon]

7 hours ago, madton said:

for us,

14 points 1st quarter- 4W 2D 3L

13 points this quarter- 3W 4D 2L.

Very similar quarters so far.

The second quarter only had 2 losses and 1 was away at Tannadice but the home loss to QOTS after being 1 up was poor. The  only dropped points was prob at home to Dumbarton, drawing 1-1

In order to make the playoffs, we prob need a min 30 points so two 15 point quarters should give us a good chance. Think 4th will require a  higher points total than previous years.

 

 

 

 

Tannadice defeat was in the 1st quarter - our other defeat in the 2nd quarter was at home to Dundee United a couple of weeks ago.

[madton]

2 hours ago, AyrshireTon said:

Tannadice defeat was in the 1st quarter - our other defeat in the 2nd quarter was at home to Dundee United a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah don't know why I wrote that. Of course it was Cappielow.