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Walking Down The Halbeath Road


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Raith fans tried to tell us Nisbet is useless outside of the box... he did really well to nutmeg his man and run half the length of the field with the ball, to set up Andy Ryan for his goal today. More of that please.

Can’t really fault anyone’s performance yesterday. First competitive game, few scary moments, but a lot of positives for me. Dow and Coley were excellent and I prefer Beadling when he’s given more freedom to get forward.

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The soft centre thing. Yesterday in the second half our midfield disappeared and sat back off st mirren. They had space to run forward to our eighteen yard box unchallenged. Is this softness, bad organisation or a fitness issue?

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Congratulations on your win yesterday, as Goody said it was deserved. I thought your number 7, Dow, was excellent. He was really rated when younger so was surprised he ended up in the lower leagues. Maybe he's now realising this is his last chance at full time football.

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The soft centre thing. Yesterday in the second half our midfield disappeared and sat back off st mirren. They had space to run forward to our eighteen yard box unchallenged. Is this softness, bad organisation or a fitness issue?


A few players looked knackered after the 70 minute mark (Coley and Dow in particular). But then, we only managed 2 pre-season games, so that’s hardly a surprise. Crawford said himself we needed at least 1 more. Dumbarton cancelled on us last minute, that’s just unfortunate.

First half, we played a high press and the guys did a lot of running. That requires a lot of fitness and it may take the league cup campaign for the guys to get to the fitness levels required to last 90 mins. Would expect some rotation over Wednesday and Saturday.
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Dow was MOTM for me by a mile, first time i've seen him play and was impressed at the confidence of the boy who's obviously taken the step back up in his stride, Coley looks raw but talented and exciting

Ryan looks sharp and back to his best popping up all over the pitch and being a general nuisance to defenders 

We definitely tired in the 2nd half with Paton and Beadling sitting off rather than the high pressing tactics of the first half, potentially need another holding midfielder to replace Paton as surely we can't expect him to play in a high press midfield for 90min week in week out? Or he needs to sit in a bit more and conserve energy (was surprised to see a few 40 yard 'sprints' from him yesterday!

Edited by 80sPar
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22 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

The soft centre thing. Yesterday in the second half our midfield disappeared and sat back off st mirren. They had space to run forward to our eighteen yard box unchallenged. Is this softness, bad organisation or a fitness issue?

Sitting back was clearly a tactic but we ended up too deep and when we did get the ball it was given up far too easily. I'd imagine it's hard to do but we need to have the confidence to keep playing our stuff when the game gets tight or be a bit cuter with the defending.

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I was pleased with Nisbet. I thought he was just a finisher, but he was always looking to drop in and give the midfield or defence an outlet to feet.

Coley looks a good player, for someone who hasn't played a great deal of men's football he knows the wee tricks about when to slow down and invite contact to nick a foul here and there. Can see us playing counter often and relying on Coley's pace.

Scully looked a bit iffy here and there, early days though.

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1 hour ago, ShaggysBeard said:

Coley looks a good player, for someone who hasn't played a great deal of men's football he knows the wee tricks about when to slow down and invite contact to nick a foul here and there. Can see us playing counter often and relying on Coley's pace.

 

There was a point yesterday when we were under a bit of pressure, he got given the ball midway inside our half, touched the ball passed the defender, took 2/3 slow strides and hit the deck near the half-way line to loud cheers, it was utterly delightful bit of cynical play to give us time to catch our breath.   Also enjoyed seeing comrie and martin taking time over throws and getting themselves 10 yards ahead of where the ball when out,  silky football it isn't but its forever a frustration to opposition fans having full backs do that against you, its rather good to have our players doing it.

 

1 hour ago, 80sPar said:

 

We definitely tired in the 2nd half with Paton and Beadling sitting off rather than the high pressing tactics of the first half, potentially need another holding midfielder to replace Paton as surely we can't expect him to play in a high press midfield for 90min week in week out? Or he needs to sit in a bit more and conserve energy (was surprised to see a few 40 yard 'sprints' from him yesterday!

I wouldn't expect paton to be able to press for long periods,  but i wouldn't be surprised to see what happened yesterday become fairly common, bringing turner on and going with 5 in midfield later on to up the energy levels in there.   If behind later in the game paton is probably coming off anyway so it can work both ways.

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How did Comrie and Martin play?


I thought they both played well. Didn’t stand out as fantastic players or anything, but both did their job with minimal fuss. Comrie struggled a bit when Djorkaeff came on, but he looked quick and had a bit of skill. Both look like solid enough full backs for this season.
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2 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

How did Comrie and Martin play?

martin did pretty well,  not far off his excellent form at the tail end of 17/18.   Comrie i'm not 100% sure on. he did well enough but i can't see him being a stand out alot,  a more rounded version of williamson IMO,  better defensively, not as good at getting past his man. 

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6 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

I wouldn't expect paton to be able to press for long periods,  but i wouldn't be surprised to see what happened yesterday become fairly common, bringing turner on and going with 5 in midfield later on to up the energy levels in there.   If behind later in the game paton is probably coming off anyway so it can work both ways.

Yeh i wouldn't be surprised to see that either if yesterdays game is anything to go off, fast start and grab a goal or 2 then weather the storm in the 2nd half. 

Got to admit though, defending a lead and sitting back with potentially just 1 up front gives me the fear and will mean a few tense matches this season. If it gets the results then we can't complain but i always like trying to take the game to them and keeping them on the back foot rather than letting them dictate the play (especially with a young inexperienced team)

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29 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

martin did pretty well,  not far off his excellent form at the tail end of 17/18.   Comrie i'm not 100% sure on. he did well enough but i can't see him being a stand out alot,  a more rounded version of williamson IMO,  better defensively, not as good at getting past his man. 

Djorkaeff caused Comrie problems. I wonder how it feels to have had a really easy time of it for an hour or so and then being faced with someone with pace who'll suddenly test you, can't be overly easy to switch into that sort of the game halfway through the second half.

Edited by ShaggysBeard
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Ryan Dow was excellent but clearly not match fit as they were all blowing out their arse after 70 minutes.

Surely finish top now barring any stupid slip-ups. 

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But back to the point, I'm eager to see Martin get a good run in the team. He's been a good full back, much better than at centre half and he's got the build to cope strength wise and pace wise.

Also, I don't mind if he and Comrie don't spring past anyone further up, leave it for the attacking players and focus more on their defensive duties. More than fine with that.

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See Andy Ryan's traitorous wee son was the St Mirren mascot yesterday. His grandpa is Gus McPherson though so fair enough and he has a Pars strip too. He also described the squad as a group of "hungry young boys, bar Paul Paton". 

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