Jamie_Beatson

Just avoid a pumping and injuries plz.

Absolutely agree with this. Phillips and MacPherson have to start every game they’re available now and if it continues to work we need to build round that. Hallberg works far better in that advanced role than anywhere else and it all has a nice balance to it. Why it’s taken so long to realise some of this is beyond me.

I thought Dundee United were a reasonable looking team who lacked a real cutting edge when they beat us last month. They had orders of magnitude more about them than Motherwell did last night. Aberdeen are surely too far ahead and have too many good players to be dragged into even a fight for the playoff spot. There's too many teams below them who will do well to get past 35 points. Aberdeen probably only need two wins and two draws to be safe, which they'll get easily. Especially if we have to travel to Pittodrie again. Fairly crap set of fixtures for the bottom four this weekend - if any of them manage a win that'll be massive. Hopefully none do, giving Saints a free hit at Celtic on the Sunday.

Dan Phillips is going to stroll to being our player of the year having started about six games by February. He needs a new contract now. I haven’t watched a game this season where I thought Saints were streets ahead of anybody, but that wasn’t even close. Motherwell didn’t create a single worthwhile opportunity themselves in 90 minutes in a critical game. They’re in big trouble.

What the absolute f**k? Two and a half games in the new formation and it looked to be doing something for us. And now an important game and we go back to the thing that absolutely did not work. FFS.

Wanks

Surely you look at that Aberdeen now as the prime example of what not to do. Up against a team in horrible form and we just decided not to take part in the game, didn’t attempt to win it then not surprisingly lost. Thats not an option here. Win this and we separate ourselves from the bottom spots by a wide margin. Lose and we’re right in amongst it. The only option is to go out and try to win it. Matthews Brown Mitchell Considine Montgomery Wright Phillips MacPherson Wotherspoon May Clark

Even Callum can’t, surely, surely to f**k, go out and be that negative again.

Multiple trophies and top six finishes for a diddy club like St Johnstone seems to cover it for most of them.

That’s not a legitimate thing to do though, is it? If a ref doesn’t give an on field decision for a red card and VAR think it is a red the ref has to go and look at it, unless it’s a factual thing like whether a foul was inside/outside the box affecting whether double jeopardy comes in to play. Saints need to make a noise about this.

Theoretically but there are several issues with that, mostly around the fact Collum never looked at the monitor and if he had there would be no possible way to think anything about it was reckless. You could make a reckless argument if he’d flown in at speed on the run or he’d actually connected at knee height, but he’s literally falling backwards, having taken one step from being at a standstill and doesn’t make contact at all with the leg that’s off the ground.

Having seen this back on Sportscene… was it a VAR red or not? Collum doesn’t go to the monitor? So how does the red come about? Also sportscene had a far better angle than the clips posted above from pretty much straight on that shows Clark’s left leg - the one that looks high from side on - doesn’t actually connect with Jack, it’s his much lower right knee that collided with Jack’s left shin, which explains why Jack appeared to be holding the “wrong” leg as alluded to by other posters in the aftermath of the tackle. That is an absolute nonsense of a red.

I’d be appealing that just to free him up for Wednesday. If he subsequently misses the Celtic game then no big deal.

Having seen it back I can actually live with Jack’s challenge not being a red card. However, it is clearly a more dangerous tackle than Clark’s, so if one is a red the other has to be. Clark plays the ball, is not moving at any speed given he was static then falling backwards as he makes the tackle and is pulling out of it when the contact is made. Jack is late, running at full pelt and catches Montgomery full on the ankle at pace. It is a far worse tackle. This game is not being refereed the same way for both teams here.

What angles did VAR look at? Having seen it again a) the head flick is from a range of no more than two feet and b) how high up his arm does it hit? The check was over in seconds.

So Clark is actually fouled there by the defender behind him who pulls him back, then turns and plays the ball before Jack even comes into the frame, then catches him as his foot comes back down from its highest position. Just a nonsense that that's a red card. Absolutely on a hiding to nothing in this game. Penalty for Rangers and a red card against for those two incidents? As if they need a helping hand.

It looked to me like it hits the defender on the upper arm, but only after it takes a flick off a head about two feet in front of him. The VAR check was very quick. Surely an argument it hit at the t-shirt line we hear so much about in these situations? Replay we got was only from one angle which didn't really show all that much helpful.

Bring back Denny Johnstone for this one. Just a reminder of our line up for the game in which he scored and we won 3-1 at Ibrox... Clark Foster, Shaughnessy, Anderson, Tanser Alston, Scougall, Paton, Millar, Craig Johnstone Subs who came on were Spoony, Cummins and Kyle McClean. It was hardly a classic Rangers team but how that midfield and forward line in particular managed that I'll never know.

If they have been forced into changing it then it's just a signal that someone in the background genuinely doesn't have a clue what they're doing job wise. Between that and the clusterfuck email sent out relating to the Rangers tickets containing all kinds of falsehoods, you have to wonder if the person making these decisions has even the slightest idea what the framework is they're supposed to be working within. This is all stuff that anyone who has paid to watch Scottish football knows, so if your job is within a club setting ticket prices you surely have to be well on top of it?

Most likely, and that's the annoying thing - we're trying something new in two matches against Rangers. We should have been doing this against Dundee United or Aberdeen earlier in the month instead of playing the most timid, negative setup you've ever seen that was doomed to failure before the game even began.

All aboard that thread Anyone who is not all aboard can ignore the following for @TxRover - according to Manchester’s published AIP entry all departing aircraft would require ATC clearance from ground movement control in the tower to move off stand. I’d imagine if you’re parking as soon as you cross the line off the taxiway and on to the apron you’d be someone else’s problem, such is the book definition of movement/manoeuvring areas, but even then ground should be giving you taxi instructions to a stand number. Local roolz for local airports though… For those interested in an exciting career in ATC you can expect to spend many months learning definitions of words and phrases that sound very similar but that are very different…

Ramp control and uncontrolled ramps separate from ATC is very much an American thing. And apparently a recipe for f**k ups if you watch ATC YouTube. American ATC is weird all in. In the UK you’ll need clearance to push back and start up from the tower controller (ground movement control) then take off clearance from the tower (air) controller. That may be the same person depending on the airport/time of day.

Max surely needs to either be playing at Saints or out on loan. Sticking him on the bench or in the stands while talking relentlessly about how good he is is a total waste of time. Stevie May's development was the model we should be following here. Early promise fulfilled with loans at the right level then getting him straight in the team when he's ready.

I'd get rid of MOH, Crawford and Gilmour with no hesitation. Phillips appearance stats are a scandal given what he's shown the last few weeks. Davidson is a tricky one for the end of the season, I'd hate to see him leave but will he ever stay fit for an extended period again? Ballantyne's time might be up now and you can probably jettison one of Booth and Gallacher at this stage as well.

More pressingly, is there any hint of us offloading any of the dead wood in the squad or getting anyone else in?