PauloPerth

That’s the bother when you don’t get wins. Is that something like 3 wins between the bottom six clubs in the last 7 matches?! You can kid yourself you’re not in imminent danger as there is what seems like a big gap to far worse teams below, but when/if they find a bit of form then it’s a case of everyone suddenly starting to panic. Livi had taken 3 points from 17 matches yet they’re only 3 behind County and 8 behind Saints and still to play both twice. Saints, like others, have sleepwalked ourselves right back into this. Played Rangers, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Aberdeen, Motherwell, Ross County, Hearts and Dundee since mid-December and taken 6 points in total.

Wonder if he means in terms of how difficult it was to bring decent players in on the budget he was set.

Bigger than I thought it was going to be’ - Former Hearts striker opens up on managerial sacking Former Hearts striker Steven MacLean was sacked as manager of St Johnstone after a poor start to the season. Former Hearts striker Steven MacLean has opened up about his time as St Johnstone head coach in his first interview since his departure in October. The 41-year-old opened up about the challenges he faced during his five-month stint at McDiarmid Park and claimed that the summer rebuild proved to be a much bigger task than he had originally expected. The former Scottish Cup winner replaced Callum Davidson as Saints boss in April and signed a three year contract with the club. He helped steer the Perth club to safety in his first few weeks in senior management. During an interview with The Courier he reflected on the work that had to be done in the close-season against a backdrop of a big budget cut to address a seven-figure financial loss. MacLean explained: “Keeping the club up was a great achievement for us and we then turned a lot of players round. I think 17 players left the club. “It was a big job – probably bigger than I thought it was going to be. But it was a great opportunity for me and I probably wouldn’t change much apart from a couple of things.” St Johnstone started the season in disastrous fashion with just four points from their opening nine games. They were beaten 2-0 by both Hearts and Hibs in the early part of the season. The Saints were bottom of the table and without a league win at the time of MacLean’s departure. However, he remains optimistic that the club has enough to survive in the division. “I think we were actually starting to progress in the right way. We had a lot of injuries in the first part of the season and we couldn’t build any momentum but I feel like I left them with a squad that’s capable of staying up in the league. “Unfortunately it didn’t end well but I’ve learned a lot from that. I’ve looked back and studied some of the mistakes I made but also things I did well. “I’ve got a lot of fond memories and whatever I do next, I feel I’ll be a better coach or manager for that spell. But hopefully I can get back in soon and make an impact.” The 41-year-old enjoyed an 18-year career which saw him represent the likes of Rangers, Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Hearts and Raith Rovers. He notably scored in the Scottish Cup final for St Johnstone against Dundee during a 2-0 victory in 2014 - marking the club’s first ever major trophy at the time. He was included in the starting lineup for Hearts in the 2019 Scottish Cup final, but was unable to repeat the feat in a 2-1 loss to Celtic. MacLean describes the last few months as his first real break from football in 25 years. He is enjoying time with his family but is still keen to be involved in football in the future.

The summer is also likely to be the first time we don’t have a 2014 Scottish Cup winner on our books. 10 years.

Isn’t football a bit weird? If this was sitting at 0-0, both sets of fans would be fairly calm about the performance and just hoping they nicked a goal. As it is, Aberdeen fans are raging about how badly they started the match whilst Motherwell fans are apoplectic about how it’s now going. I mean goals and excitement is surely what we go to matches for?! As the fan of a team who have mostly served up low scoring turgid pish over the last 2-3 years, I know.

Thank f**k bbc sport are providing commentary on rangers v Ross county, that well known classic fixture of Scottish football. Seriously, who the f**k would want to listen to an evenly matched six goal thriller?

What makes you think I was talking about your club?? And, just for clarification, 8th is classed as being within the top ten in many parts of Scotland. I don’t think clubs who yo yo between divisions, or clubs that have gone bust a couple of times, can really be classed as being ‘big’.

Agree this seems a bit bonkers. I mean, you’re seriously going to say a team that hasn’t won a major honour in 50 (fifty) years are in the 10 biggest in the country?

Still, at least we’re in the top 10 biggest clubs in Scotland according to the BBC:

Agree it is often 2v1, probably because we play with no width in midfield. The thing about Sunday that frustrates is all Dundee’s strengths are in attack. They aren’t good defensively so you want to still offer a threat in attack as that’s the best option to get success against them. I think by removing much of our attacking threat we played into their hands by inviting them onto us. We didn’t deserve much out of the game, but still think we were maybe a bit unlucky at key moments as well; Considine hitting the bar at 1-0, a debatable VAR penalty decision when it felt like we were defending reasonably okay, and then a couple of fingertip saves from Carson.

Reading the points from earlier about how many goals from crosses we concede, it does make you wonder what the f**k our wing backs are there for?! If they were marauding forward like Beck and supplying assists, then you could forgive a few defensive lapses. But not providing anything in attack as well as failing to stop crosses or dispossessing opposition wide players, in a formation where wing backs should be key, is not a great combination. Obviously the centre backs need to defend them better as well. When you think back to Mackay, Foster, Easton, Rooney etc then you look at the offerings of the wing backs this season, its heartbreaking!

I don’t think that’s the point though. If the ref had given it initially then fair enough, but he didn’t so you carry on. Levein was right when he discussed it; if you sit and analyse every penalty box at a set piece you’ll be able to pick out a foul 90% of the time through a shirt tug or a nudge etc. Gordon was clumsy, but he’s clearly putting his arm out to go up for the header and caught the lad accidentally. That’s not a clear error by the referee.

Absolutely spot on. And just to emphasise your point, this is why we’re stuck with it. But there’s always hope…

Considine would be the one of the first I’d look to extend by a season if he’ll take it, unless we unearth a couple of top class centre backs from nowhere over the next couple of months. I get the concerns over his age, but he’s one of the few players in our squad who turns in consistent performances. He’s our best centre back signing since McCart. And including loans there’s been a few.. Dendoncker, Muller, Cleary, Mahon, McClelland, Ambrose and probably a few more.

All aboard!!

@Radford you were right about Robinson, though I do think he was better before the break. He’s shite, offers nothing on the ball and slices half his clearances out the park. I’d like to see it back, but he got caught under the free kick and made an absolute mess for their winner. Kerr Smith for over £1m aye? He looks cumbersome and slow for a potential English premier league centre back, though early days I guess.

Was thinking exactly this as well. Our style of play, along with var have made going to matches a real chore. And that today was us creating more than we have done in every other match this season! I’m just about prepared to suffer more of this negative shiteball until the end of the season given we’re in a relegation scrap. But I’d like to know if we survive then is the intention to continue along these lines? If it is then I agree, just pull the plug and relegate us so we can start afresh. I was actually watching wondering what the difference between this and Davidson post-double was in the first half; pack the team with defenders, let the opposition dominate midfield due to our complete lack of numbers in there, and have our strikers feeding off scraps.

It was nowhere near our biggest support through there even in the past 4 years and well you know it. But that’s by the by, the more positive team won today. Enjoy.

You’re trying too hard lalo, just enjoy your 3 points and pipe down, there’s a good lad.

As usual we choose to stop going forward and concede goals. Soft penalty for the first but we probably had it coming. Might have been different if considine’s header onto the bar had gone in. That ref needs disciplined for that at the end. Your main concern is the safety of the players and he plays on through a serious head knock. Hope the Dundee lad - Mellon? is okay.

Sidibeh has won just about every header he’s challenged for and been a constant threat to your back line. Was also heavily involved in the build up to our goal. He’s looked more dangerous than any Dundee striker so far, though Dundee’s midfield looks a lot better than ours. It hasn’t come off for him yet when trying to break, but he’s a handful. Owen Beck has done well to stop him a few times.

Folk generally only think of Dundee winning the league and relegating us at Muirton in the early sixties. On our side when the two sides were first and second in the old first division in 1997(?) and Saints pumped the dees 7-2 in the new year game, or McDiarmid’s record attendance on the last match of the season in 1999 between the teams when Saints were trying to clinch third in the premier league. But do any fans from either side remember the 1980-81 season? I was just a wee boy at primary school so can’t remember anything about it other than someone having a panini sticker of the Dundee team group, it must have been the Monday after they pipped Saints to promotion on goal difference. The sticker got grabbed off the boy and everyone in the playground took turns to cough up a greener and gob on it. I seem to remember East Stirling were involved.. maybe Dundee beat them in their last game of the season? Ally McCoist of Saints was top scorer in the league that season. Must be other big matches/ seasons over the years when we’ve been up against each other?? ETA: Can’t believe there’s footage of it. It was East Stirling away that the coags clinched promotion. For balance, from the 7-2 match:

If you think the strips are bad, have a butcher’s at their warm up tops. Looks like they picked a job lot of them up from a 1980’s Eastern bloc sports outlet.