captainkev

Delighted to have been wrong with my concerns. Sounds like McMullan had one of his better games and it's good to see a goal come from somebody other than Clark or Safranko. There's still a lot of ground to be made up on County so we can't get too carried away with this result, but at least it leaves us with a slim hope of catching them rather than our chances dead in the water. Hopefully we can use this a springboard to string a couple of wins together so by the time we play County again we've a chance to close the gap to really uncomfortable margins for them.

I'm finding it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for our chances with that line up tbh. Some bizarre choices from Neilson there. Hope to have my concerns prove unjustified, but can't say I'm optimistic.

Very much entering into well trodden territory here, but I still argue selling GMS on deadline day alone wouldn't have been a terrible decision. Sure we'd all have been a bit disgruntled about losing him to our future cup final opponents, but he was going to them eventually. Once the summer window shut he looked completely uninterested, with the only exception of the derby at Dens which was probably more in reaction to the amount of stick the Dees typically used to give him. The difference in his performances once the transfer window reopened was like night and day. I highly doubt he would have turned up in the final had we kept him given how desperate he was to ingratiate himself with the Celtic hordes when he did go. Getting money for him would have been a disappointing but pragmatic decision. We'd likely have coped enough to avoid the toxic atmosphere that ultimately developed at Tannadice after both were sold. Armstrong on his day was always the more effective player and had been gradually getting back into top form in his last couple of months with us. He and Ciftci were combining really well in December particularly, and we suffered for breaking that up. Also judging by his antics in the season's second half, Ciftci's nose was put out of joint by not getting to go with the pair of them in January. Had only GMS gone it might not have been such an issue. Then again it's hard to ever reliably guess how Ciftci will behave, mad numpty that he is.

Tbf a play-off humiliation at the hands of Dundee would probably be enough to make me retrospectively view the past 3 seasons as also part of our banter years, as they'll have led up to another instance of us making ourselves complete laughing stocks in Scottish football. On another note, in the past week or so I've been thinking that while Neilson is getting deserved criticism in the wake of our performances since the January window splurge, our goal scoring problems in the past month or so is hardly a ringing endorsement of our strikers coach's work either. I understand it can sometimes take time for coaching ideas and methods to bed in or develop; plus McCulloch did only arrive in late January. It's not like we were scoring barrel loads for the majority of this season either in fairness. Still, since McCulloch's come in the goals have gradually dried up to the point that - the past 2 or 3 games particularly - we're almost counting on getting penalties to have a chance of taking anything from matches. I think we had 9 corners on Saturday against the team that were bottom of the league at kick off, yet couldn't profit from any of them. Perhaps I'm being a bit unreasonable here, but is anyone else a little bemused/concerned on this front?

I'd say our banter period began with selling Armstrong on deadline day January 2015, carrying on through to the end of our relegation season. Some might argue that we're still in it, given how morale sappingly crap we continue to be. But while we've frequently embarrassed ourselves since dropping down a division, the 2015/16 hasn't been surpassed in terms of colossal failure across almost all levels of the club. Having your relegation confirmed by your rivals at their own ground should only be gutting. When it also feels like an entirely appropriate ending for the shambles that preceded it, then you've fucked up to a hilariously bad degree.

I'm more surprised that promotion thread from Ralphies_chip hasn't been bumped back up to the first page tbh.

I don't know about that tbh. At the start of the season the only team in the league that still could come close to competing with us on a budgetary level would have been County. We took way too long to get rid of Laszlo, but we also spent big in January (relative to the league we're in) thanks to the new owner's cash input. Despite these advantages, our title chances are dead in the water by March. Again. Our two games against County still ahead are now must wins just to hold onto 2nd place. After finishing behind Livi last season, we're now only three points ahead of another newly promoted team; and they've been off-form for a while. I'm just really struggling to view potentially reaching the play-off finals as an achievement.

At this point, wherever we may finish in the play off spots we should just ask if we can be excused to avoid inevitably making an arse of ourselves yet again. I have a horrible feeling that we'll wind up scraping through to the play off final - likely because Ayr/Pars/ICT blow it rather than any particular quality on our part - only to get an absolute hounding at the hands of a pish Dundee team. We can then start yet another season with a cloud of negativity hanging over us. Have a look at the two championship teams that have come up through the play offs. When Accies got up, they had run Dundee right down to the wire and were fired up by sticking 10 past Morton in the last league game. Last year St. Mirren obviously won the league at a canter, but Livi had momentum from massively exceeding expectations. There's a particular type of mentality required by teams approaching these games and it really doesn't look like we have it given how persistently insipid we've been throughout this season.

I think he did pretty well for them in his year in the Championship, but as many people pointed out on deadline day, his injury record in the past few years is honking so this was a signing with a obvious risk factor.

Ah United, always finding a way to disappoint.

1-1, Clark from a free kick. According to the BBC's stats, that's our first shot on target.

Wonder when the referee will give us our pity penalty.

I was anticipating this scenario as soon as it was announced he'd signed for you tbh.

True, but McDonald used to love a goal against us for Motherwell and Celtic in days gone by. After the shambles last season I expect him to be especially fired up to give us a GIRUY moment today. It would be pretty typical of the past few years for us if our top scorer from last season now helps kill off what remains of our title hopes, or prevents us getting further ahead in 2nd place. Just have to hope to be pleasantly surprised today then.

Pretty amusing that the past couple of days have seen reports that we're keen to take Safranko on a permanent deal, only for Neilson to drop him in the very next game. In fairness, I was keen to freshen up the attack at the start of the week, it's just that it would have been Clark I would have dropped, harsh as that might have been. If Sow's going to be an asset for the remainder of the season then he needs game time, and a little rest for Safranko might not be the worst thing either. I still expect us to bottle this after Ayr's result last night though. I'm completely resigned to McDonald scoring at some point today too.