Valentino Bolognese

Mitov to me has Manus-esqe qualities. Looks solid enough at crosses, great reaction shot-stopper, intense focus, acceptable beard. Zander only ticked one of those boxes for me. Anyway I'm just about drunk enough to be very confident about tomorrow. 0-0

But with o/side there are the lines that can be drawn to make it a VAR and not ref decision. I don't believe such lines exist for over the goal-line calls? Not disagreeing that the rules are that a ball over line decision is VAR only, I don't know enough about the implementation to say one way or the other. I'd be interested in what cameras etc they use to decide that though, especially if as you say they have the final decision and not the ref.

AFAIK that's the second kid injured just at McDairmid in the last couple of seasons (Celtic gamelast year). Also the debate about the disallowed goal. Maybe I've missed something obvious here but all the focus has been on whether it was a foul which resulted in the ball going over the line. From where I was sitting it looked like the ball had crossed the line in the keeper's hands before the supposed foul, and I assumed that's what the check was for. Of course having VAR instead of goal-line technology means it still comes down to someone's interpretation.

I think what this thread demonstrates is that the average fan sentiment towards clubs resembles, on average, a crudely rendered cock and balls viewed side-on with the bigot teams being everyone's right testicle, perhaps with a local rival as an additional swelling. Left ball smaller, being the club one supports. I'm not bothered or surprised that we form part of the shaft.

Think you might be right about C Smith and Max, but can't see a situation where neither M Smith or either of the two new strikers play, particularly Sidibeh. I think it's more likely we'll see Keltjens into Sprangler's holding position. Mitov McGowan - Gordon - Robinson - Gallacher M. Smith - Keltjens - Phillips Clark - +1 - Carey Not so sure he won't stick with Considine at LCB and Robinson at LFB, depends what you could consider less risky. Might depend on the opposition of course. But can easily see a situation where one of or possibly both midfielders are dropped to make way for the golden boys as I tend to agree that's next year's plan. I'd rather he wasn't trying to work out next year's team in the midst of a relegation fight though. Without giving Callum Davidson too much credit for his moaning, I think this year again we're seeing our garbage pitch cost us points. Being optimistic here, but while accpeting our basic passing has been absolutely honking lately I think the home surface has forced a type of play that the team and manager really don't want to play. It's an absolute disgrace of a pitch and not even in a way that gives us any advantage. IMO we do tend to play a wee bit better away from home on better (grass) surfaces. Its's small margins though, we're still pish.

Struggling to think of a worse game live or not. Even the 38or so minutes the ball was in play most of that it was 30 foot in the air. That's why I'm struggling to be too down on the (saints) players tbh.

Not a lot to add really. We were poor but I'm struggling to blame the players, or even the manager, entirely. Hard to know what you can do when it seems you're playing a team whose entire philosophy seems to be sign players that are as big as possible that can shitfest a game and just keep the ball in the air so the opposition can't win second balls. It's like under-16s pish where all the big lads make up the teams. First to admit we didn't help ourselves as we didn't seem to have the quality on that surface today to play with the ball on the ground. Thank f**k we've hardly any games in the next month.

Sidibeh is a genuine worry, unless it's just ultra caution (which would be fair). Even if he's fine and it was just, say, exhaustion, I'd be shitting it going back into a game. Hope it's nothing serious / underlying. As for the game agree with everyone else. Same team and same approach as Aberdeen. Any other opposition manager I'd be worried that it's far to predictable and set up against it, but Davey will twist himself in knots overthinking it. Should be an absolute stroll for Saints. 0-0

Don't knock it till you've tried it Tam

Also the outside of the foot through ball from DJ. Great technique and vision. As I said upthread I've been reasonable impressed with him in an underperforming team, more so than others seem to have been. Not sure if he has massive improvement in him but he might, and it seems he's out of favour at Charlton and not sure he'll be offered a contract by them. I'd not be upset if we gave him a year if he's affordable.

I'll be honest, I've quite liked DJ when I've seen him other than he looks slow. Suspect he was maybe unfit when he joined though, looks a lot leaner now.

I actually think it's more a 4-3-1-2 type of thing with Clark sitting a bit deeper. He's not above moving Clarke to midfield either. Not sure I'll be 'watching' or 'rubbernecking' this one but that lineup gives me the tiniest glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, we might try to score a goal. It's the hope etc etc

Oddly enough when Smith (M) joined I'm fairly sure I remember him getting fairly stuck into tackles, but he seems much softer now. Same with Dan Phillips but that's possibly a good thing. Although he still picks up a card a game. Can we please, please play a back 4 tomorrow for the love of god. If nothting else just to see us getting beat in a slightly different way.

For the record, this includes the Stevie May bit.

Thing is though, he doesn't. Much like our manager. Win lose or draw, nobody is getting sacked and fans on both sides are probably past caring given the way our respective seasons have panned out. No real sense of jeopardy. We're at the stage where we're looking at other team's results before our own.

If we play wingers I'd have Carey on the left and DJ on the right, personally. On his debut against St Mirren DJ looked pretty good as a winger, where he's played most of his career apparently. Despite being so slow. Adama not a bad shout either. Thing is, no matter what we do we still need full backs that can get up and down or we just leave space behind the wingers for opposition to run into, as we don't have pace anywhere except the new strikers.

Agree with both points. The strength of the operational team will have been a major part of the selling offer. Having a highly experienced, high profile ex-national manager at the club is as much about our valuation and viability as the football IMO. Whether it's back 3, 4, 5 or even 6 as we've looked close to at times makes no difference if you have no players capable of playing wide with pace that can over/underlap, beat a man, cut inside or cross. Just look at Killie for how you can build a team to play that way in this division that works without breaking the bank.

So, can anyone recommend any good tattoo removal clinics? Asking for a friend.

He's not joking by the way

You know what - I really, really hate bigots and the way they poision or game and indeed society. This is a wild take and in any case you'll be very well aware that St Johnstone fans aren't the target, and they won't get a 'reaction' - home fans just stay away and our lowered gate reciepts are just collateral damage in the ongoing tedium of these ghouls giving their existence meaning by hating folk for reasons that have zero relevance to their lives. 'Just shut up about it and it might go away' is apologist shite. To talk about the football ... routine 2 or 3-goal away win unless we can shitfest a 1-1 (can't see us preventing at least one goal so will have to score to get a draw). I'd be staggered if we start with 2 strikers like last week, and I'd think Max will be back in as a starter.

User name checks out. Linesman flags offside. VAR checks it. Confirms it was (marginally) offside. Of all the VAR nonsense we put up with, this one is straightforward. Decent game to watch last night and probably the best result from a Saints point of view.

For the 11-a-side team or the fives?

For all but the top 6 in the Premiership it would mean compulsory promotion or relegation every year, rollercoaster stuff as teams would go down and up constantly and with a few execeptions you'd end up playing a variety of teams over the years. Fun for fans, does nothing to solve the duopoly though.

How about 6 relegation / promotion places? Would be absolute carnage, and cascade it down the divisions / pyramid for maximum team churn. As it's the internet I feel compelled to point out this isn't really serious. Might be fun though.

Shhhh or Jordan White's dad will hear you