NYD1997

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think he has been good this year, certain things like the insistence on playing Carey and Bair (although if Kane was fit I don’t think the latter would be an issue), the 3 at the back (although we could play 4 at the back and have the same mentality) the treatment of a couple of players this season (D, Gallagher and Murphy are the 3 for me for that - whilst giving others more than ample chances) as well as playing players out of position so he didn’t have to be flexible. However, I also think that this season has been the creating of a base again. I suspect it’s a case of once bitten, twice shy, with him this year. He doesn’t want to get burnt like last year so he would rather grind out 1-0 wins, with experienced heads who will ‘do a job’ than open up, try a different type of player and get hammered - the only issues with that is it gives no wiggle room if it’s not right for that game. My point is that people are making it out that it’s as bad as last season, it’s not, it’s not great but for me it’s a step back towards setting a standard again instead of trying to set it straight away and another last season happening

Some perspective here Has this season been poor and brutal to watch? Yes Has it been a damn sight better than last year? Also yes Last season we were truly broken (some will blame the manager for that, some will blame other influences inside the club) this season from the outset, you can see the plan is to build stability. Which we are doing. Yes the 3/5 at the back wouldn’t be my choice and no how we are playing isn’t great. But also this year we have got ourselves back on our feet and can look to blood the younger bodies soon

You obviously didn’t see St Mirren, or Motherwell, or Ross county, or Kilmarnock (bear in mind they have scored less than us this year). Yeah the football hasn’t been great but if we open up we are likely to get our arses handed to us, badly (see livi at home)

My big issue is not being able to move players to development squad for Saints - have a squad including youth which is too big - can move them in England though

Even before abeid you have to go back to the likes of Dasovic, Miguel and Lowndes (outside of Goalies)

On this point - who was the last player we have brought from down south or out with that has been what can be classed as a success who had no ties to Scotland at all? Last one I can think of is Abeid (I’m sure someone will remind me of someone else) but we have had players such as Isaiah Jones come up and look like they have never kicked a ball then go back and be a superstar down south

So what you are saying is he had to go rush to get a player as the failure experiment that was the head of recruitment had not identified a player to come in? And has taken the recommendation of someone who appears to have a good standing in the game (gets jobs at decent clubs a lot down south) Ambrose was a rushed signing when we were down to untested players - mueller came up here with a good reputation from down south and had been looked at to play with milwall this year (similar to McNamara) There is no doubt this season hasn’t been good enough but placing the blame fully on the manager when he has had hands tied behind his back by a waste of space is unfair at best

Callum booth was arguably our most consistent performer last year so that’s rubbish. Brown is steady but nothing else - we have signed a defender who is poor defensively and one to replace our captain who is going to be about for years.

We have brought in Hallberg who is a big improvement on who we had in there. Crawford has been able to play his game the way he has shown flashes off. Maybe Bair was the answer but Hendry has came back on fire and you don’t drop a player playing like that.

Did forget to give a special mention to the pitch again - somehow with 2 weeks of nice weather since the last game the gleneagles binman has still made it worse - it’s going to cost us points - I’d have to see it from a different angle but the cleary hand ball looked like he may have slipped to cause him to go down, along with multiple times Rooney running with the ball and it just bouncing without a touch when it had been on the ground

Seeing livi fans crying about the ref is hysterical considering they should have been down to 8 (possibly 7 if Pittman had been booked for every 5 fouls…) maybe it was a hand ball but the worst decision was to let penrice off with what even back in the 70’s was a red. Crawford outstanding as was Murray and Rooney. Hallberg ok in flashes but disappeared at points. Callum Hendry is like a new player from what we had at the start of the year. Ciftci better but still miles off good enough! As for Walter white in the away dugout - he has a team like he is - indisciplined and dangerous

Unfortunately it appears to be emptying the bins and not doing the greens…

That is never a pen in a month of Sundays - brother madden strikes again

Ah good to see the zombies acting like the scum that a majority of their support are