Jamie_Beatson

And a routine win for Celtic that was on live TV two hours earlier the second game. Saints v Hearts highlights pathetic as well. That was a great game with lots of incident and chances and talking points and it was reduced to basically the goals and a couple of other chances and that was it. Saints hit the bar in the first half in bizarre circumstances, I think Hearts hit the post early on as well - neither in there. May had three good chances in that late flurry in the first half, only one shown. Much more besides but all cut out to make way for more tedious Celtic and Rangers chat, just in case anyone missed it on Sportsound.

There remains frustration about games like last night’s, where the manager’s decision to start the team he did - so clearly dubious before we even kicked off - was the reason we found ourselves two down in 20 minutes. We were then forced into a change that got us into a better situation - probably into the team I’d have started with at that stage - and unsurprisingly we got better. That was an opportunity missed last night and the blame lies solely at the manager’s door. On the plus side, he does have us playing much better football this season and we’ve just gone toe to toe with a side I fully expect to finish third, and probably should have got something from the game which is a vast improvement on last season.

Seems a strange one to me on a night where the conditions may dictate a bit of a midfield battle.

Is Mitchell carrying a knock or something? First name on the team sheet for me so can't understand why we'd bench him when he's available. Phillips can probably feel a bit aggrieved to have been left out in favour of Crawford.

How's the weather looking in Perth? It's utterly miserable down the river in Dundee just now. There's always once game a season that the pitch gets absolutely fucked so I suspect this will be it.

John McVeigh is a tit. vandetta. I typed neither of the above phrases/words. If you know you know.

I think that would’ve my team as well - I think you could play Hallberg for Wotherspoon potentially but I’d prefer Spoony. If we play Brown on the left or bring in Crawford/MacPherson/McLennan then we’re weakening ourselves IMO. Big game. Hearts weakened by the injuries at the weekend and playing an unfamiliar back line with a new keeper. Important that we try to play the game in Hearts’ half as much as we can. Big prize on offer as well if one of the mid table glob can put a run together.

There has been some tremendous nonsense down the years. I could spend days in the Gold Forum reading wild old threads. Eg Scotzine getting solidly bodied. HibeeJibee’s retirement thread. Aberdeen Fan Accidentally Set on Fire (you weren’t there man…) Duff Man getting taken for a ride over a 42” tv for £50. TRS’s holiday in Strathclyde. Fast Action lumping on Northern Rock as they went bust. Xbl (I think) posting highly regrettable stuff about some girl who patched him. Glorious.

I think the defence certainly did him no favours at the point he was bottom of the stat charts as RG mentioned above. We went months of every other shot being a free hit from six yards out. It was little wonder his save percentage was so low - he was left helpless constantly. He cut out the mental stuff in his last 18 months and, for me, was the main reason we weren’t automatically relegated last season and was absolutely integral in the cup double. His performances in all the Hampden games were faultless including some exceptional saves. Very much capable of absolute heroics (see the very late save he made away at Galatasaray to secure a draw there) and did that more often than not over his time as Saints number one.

In his HD ready house. Classic stuff. January 2004 I registered having lurked about from right at the very start. At that point I was half way through first year at university. Literally half a life time ago.

I mean I’m sure there was no intent… but still,I’m not entirely sure what he did think he was doing here?

The idea that it was irrational or unfair to call for Davidson's head is a nonsense really. Bear in mind the situation we had got in to by, say, the end of July or even the end of August this year. By that point we had: - Been knocked out of the Scottish Cup - as holders - by a fairly poor League Two side. - Finished 11th in the league after a season in which we averaged just over half a goal a game. - Avoided relegation via the playoffs - comfortably in the end but having chucked a two goal advantage in the first leg. - Been knocked out of the League Cup having failed to progress from a really, really mediocre group (Annan, Elgin, QOTS and Ayr). - Taken only three points from our first five games - those coming with a 94th minute winner in a game where we looked to have thrown away the points in injury time. In the two games we'd played at home we managed just two shots on target across 180 minutes and lost both. - We had lost what you would easily consider our best players - Clark, Rooney, Hendry, McCart - and replaced them with guys who all had question marks over their abilities/age/suitability when they came in. Now from that point onwards there has obviously been a turnaround. We've only lost three times since then - all narrowly, one involving a really unfortunate injury time winner for Celtic - though the other two (Killie and Livi away) were absolutely criminal performances. There is evidently a bit more about the team this season and some of the players who have come in have been a level or two above what was expected. You're even starting to get a tune now out of guys like Dan Phillips who looked like it wasn't going to work for him at the start of this term. Bair is another one who doesn't necessarily look like he's cut out for this level but has started to contribute to at least some degree off the bench. The question is whether the current run is this team's actual level or are we just running hot at the moment in the same way that we ran very, very cold for a long stretch last year. Time will tell. Points on the board at this stage is massive and it's great that we have that because it could still, easily, go the other way.

We don’t really take a huge support to County at the best of times but this will be lucky to get in to three figures. Crap weather, a week before Christmas, no trains and - most importantly tbh - a ridiculous £28 ticket price to sit in a crap stand with crap facilities and a fairly crap view. Just a wild pricing decision. Anyway, a win would be nice. Hope we’ve got a full squad to pick from.

I’m all for Ryan Reynolds selling Wrexham and buying Saints because he loves Spoony tbh.

I've played Drumoig and the Fairmont (Kittocks) previously. Like them both a lot. Particularly Drumoig - I go to the range there pretty regularly, nipping over from Dundee after work if I can. I definitely wouldn't class St Mikes as horrific anyway, the big thing was that the ground was pretty solid despite all the rain recently so you were getting a good run out on drives instead of it stopping dead where it pitched. I mostly play on parkland courses a bit further inland where I live and right now basically your carry distance is your total. I'd like to give it another go in the summer when the full tees are in operation. Nice wee clubhouse and the members I ran into were very friendly and helpful. Last time I played at Drumoig it was absolutely dead, but it does have some lovely holes. Fairmont was obviously a cut above again. Particularly good because I got it on a freebie.

Played St Michaels the other day (£18 for 18 holes and a coffee) - great condition for the time of year with no mats required on fairway and full greens in operation. Course playing short due to winter tees in operation but was great to get out on a course where there was still a lot of bounce on the fairways. At my home course any time after November as soon as the ball hits the deck out of the air it craters into the ground and stops... Nice wee clubhouse and joined a three ball I caught up with for the back nine which was nice. Got round in a net two under though how much that's worth I'm not sure given how short it was playing.

Can I just say that your hypothetical is my exact situation. I have about £850 credit in my account. The majority of that has accumulated over the last three months as my usage has been drastically lower than their estimates. I had a hot tub running last summer which is, for obvious reasons, now very much off. I’ve also replaced a fucked old boiler that was probably about 40% efficient when it went with a brand new condensing boiler that’s 90% efficient. I’ve also cut usage in various other ways eg adjusting boiler temps, adjusting the thermostat timings/temperatures and just in general using less power. The problem is your power company won’t let you knock the DD down until they actually see that effect hitting in the meter readings, which is only really kicking in now. They’ve let me drop my direct debits by about 20% in the last two months but I fully expect it to come down even further next month. If I leave the £850 with them I could probably pay nothing til February and not go into debt with them but that’s not an option.

My wife is also a teacher. I made the point that if they want to really get attention they should work to rule rather than strike. They won’t do that though, because it would completely f**k the education of the children they teach far more than any single day’s strike.

spent an hour at the range this morning and seem to have managed to centre it a bit more again. Slowed the swing down and went back to basics and got to moving at least half way in the right direction again…

Crawford is such a weird player. For me he is often the place where our attacks break down - he passes it to an opponent or runs into trouble or whatever. Then out of nowhere he’ll score a late winner or set up a goal. I guess that tells you he does try stuff on a regular basis and it obviously wont always come off - if it did he wouldn’t be a bench warmer at Saints. I’d personally rather see Max getting that slot.

Played a nice round in the fog yesterday... only lost one ball despite the fact visibilty for the first 14 holes was about 150 yards tops. Hitting everything with the driver and three wood out of the toe though and just can't seem to stop it.

I hadn’t appreciated that the goal yesterday started with him ghosting past someone in our own half then playing the initial pass. The chop in the box was a classic, just a shame the shot was saved. Greatest player in St Johnstone history now? Not many with a better claim.

I thought we were pretty decent in the first half. We are playing the ball on the deck a lot more now and getting through/behind teams regularly. The deflected free kick right on half time was a nightmare, completely undeserved and seemed to give Motherwell a bit of belief after the break. Second half was far more even although lacking in many clear chances at either end. Very stop start. Our triple sub made us far worse. I didn’t mind taking off Montgomery as he was rattled after his booking but a Crawford/Brown combination down the left was never going to work. Far too often in the second period Carey was the one getting the ball on the right wing with little support and an inability to get a cross in without checking back. Bir frustrating but you can’t argue with ten points from the last five games.

That free kick at the end…. Shambles.

That’s a stick on tbf.