St Mirren vs Dunfermline - League Cup 2nd Round - Tuesday 26th August

[Coventry Saint]

Cracks me up that Saints fans are complaining that we played badly but won, given that we've (apparently - I wasn't there) played well vs Dundee and Motherwell and lost.

I know which I'd rather have.

[Stevie88]

Cracks me up that Saints fans are complaining that we played badly but won, given that we've (apparently - I wasn't there) played well vs Dundee and Motherwell and lost.

I know which I'd rather have.

I think if you had been there you may have felt the same.

It's good we're through to the next round but we were hopeless for long spells against a team two leagues below us. Any saints fans venting their frustration at this is more than entitled to after sitting watching it for 90mins.

As you have said it's a win, hopefully that kick starts our season.

[flyingscot]

I couldn't be bothered paying £15 for it. Not the only one it seems- must be our lowest crowd in that ground?

Heard from those there that it was an awful performance and we were fortunate.

[Coventry Saint]

I think if you had been there you may have felt the same.

It's good we're through to the next round but we were hopeless for long spells against a team two leagues below us. Any saints fans venting their frustration at this is more than entitled to after sitting watching it for 90mins.

As you have said it's a win, hopefully that kick starts our season.

Yeah, fair enough. Certainly, the description of the midfield's performance is worrying, to say the least.

I think our strikers will start scoring eventually. I'm convinced Ball will get there, and from what I saw of Caldwell pre-season, he has quality too. We need to forget about the return of Thommo now - he's clearly out for a while - and find ways to get the best out of what we have.

[Billy Jean King]

I couldn't be bothered paying £15 for it. Not the only one it seems- must be our lowest crowd in that ground?

Heard from those there that it was an awful performance and we were fortunate.

I actually thought it was a decent open game to watch although that says more about our perfomance I suppose given the opposition were 2 leagues below. We might not have played great but it made for an evenly matched attractive enough (2nd half more so) game and on that basis (plus seeing us win and score) it wasn't the worst vfm in the world.

[parsforlife]

Its good to see us coming away with a good performance and opposition fans picking out our players for those performances, but the important thing is to carry that into our league matches.

[DAFC]

The ginger boy for Dunfermline was very good.

Rated by everyone apart from Jefferies.

[parsforlife]

Rated by everyone apart from Jefferies.

That's simply not true.

[parfecto]

We played well last night, so I wasn't too downhearted when we eventually lost out. Spence is fast becoming a cracking wee player, good passing range and he's tenacious as hell. He's showing Byrne how to seize a first team opportunity. I worried about Falky after he got the yellow but he handled it really well, never flew into any challenges and made some cracking tackles. The whole team can be pretty satisfied with their performance tbh.

[Stevie88]

Yeah, fair enough. Certainly, the description of the midfield's performance is worrying, to say the least.

I think our strikers will start scoring eventually. I'm convinced Ball will get there, and from what I saw of Caldwell pre-season, he has quality too. We need to forget about the return of Thommo now - he's clearly out for a while - and find ways to get the best out of what we have.

Yeah agreed the midfield were non existent at times, I think in the two poorer performances (Hamilton& Dunfermline) it shows we miss Goodwin badly in his role and is a lot more important than some may think.

Ball was looked decent and would agree, I think he may do a job when he gets a goal or two for some confidence. Same with Caldwell, hopefully he can go from strength to strength now he's managed to get a couple of goals.

[Billy Jean King]

Its good to see us coming away with a good performance and opposition fans picking out our players for those performances, but the important thing is to carry that into our league matches.

Your right back was excellent. Not so sure about those corner routines though ! I remember Aberdeen trying that for a season a while back and it never worked once. I have always thought the whole idea in the "tasmanian devil" routine was for those guys to draw markers then a guy gets in round the back unmarked however you seemed to deliver the ball right into the mixer where your guys were more concerned on spinning than getting on the end of the cross. All very odd.

[parsforlife]

Your right back was excellent. Not so sure about those corner routines though ! I remember Aberdeen trying that for a season a while back and it never worked once. I have always thought the whole idea in the "tasmanian devil" routine was for those guys to draw markers then a guy gets in round the back unmarked however you seemed to deliver the ball right into the mixer where your guys were more concerned on spinning than getting on the end of the cross. All very odd.

First half or second half?

In terms of the corners the routine worked against annan and against brechin it should of earned a penalty, but i think at the moment we are using that one routine too often, we could do with using a couple of different ones to keep opponents guessing, however we were utterly useless at scoring from set pieces last season, so its good to see something different being tried.

[FTOF]

First half or second half?

Both, if it's the tall, lanky guy.

In the first half he defended really well against Wylde's pace and in the second he was bombing forward and only Plummer's strength stopped him from putting in some decent crosses.

[Smeato]

Bloody hell, that was terrifying to watch. The classic saints pattern of giving opposition teams as many corners as they like when we're holding onto a lead.

I thought Dunfermline played pretty well, Number 10 and the tall lanky right back had some excellent spells against us in the first half where they seemed to completely dominate us. That petered out, thankfully, in the second half when we found our confidence but credit where it's due and all that.

Glad to be over the first hurdle this season at least!

[Larbert_Par]

Despite the defeat, I was really pleased with how we played last night. Obviously scoring early gave us something to hold on to, but we looked comfortable and confident in possession for the majority of the game. Obviously we got away with it when Drury hit the bar, but Scully's save at the end of the half from Wylde apart, they never really threatened our goal. However the mere presence of Ugwu and Moffat seemed to unsettle Saints' defenders - characterised when McAusland (I think?) got into an awful mess with Kello while Moff was chasing the ball down from a Gozie flick.

If I was to be disappointed with anything, it'd be that we probably could've defended the goals better. But Buchanan was unlucky in trying to block the first one. After the equaliser, the game really opened up - Scully had to make a couple of really good saves but we had chances too. Ugwu should've done better than hit the ball at Kello's legs when put through by Thomson, while Josh was desperately unlucky with his turn and shot that went inches past. Credit to the team, they kept at it even after we went behind even though you could see some tired legs in there.

No failures in our team but I especially thought Falkingham, Thomson and Spence were terrific in midfield. Kenny McLean didn't really get into the game much in an attacking sense and that's great credit to our players. Ryan Williamson also did well up against Gregg Wylde.

A shame we didn't take it to extra time, which I felt we deserved but them's the breaks. If we can play to that standard in the league, then I'm sure we'll be fine. As for Saints, it seems that although they have some decent players, they look nervy at the back and maybe were lacking a little bit of confidence. Maybe a win will help them with that but I expected a higher tempo to their play as we faced when we were last in the Premier League.

But at least Tommy Craig from their point of view made the two changes at half-time, recognising they needed to do something, and in the end it won them the game. It became a really open and enjoyable cup-tie in the second half but I just felt our players deserved a wee bit more for their effort.

Good luck in the next round and for the season Saints.

[DAFC]

That's simply not true.

I don't think he's ever had a run in the team in midfield despite not doing anything wrong.

Falkingham and Geggan can be rank for months and are first pick.

Same goes for Millen.

There's clearly favourites, no big deal.

[DAFC.]

Haven't seen Geggan as anonymous since he came to The Pars. Quite worrying. He's been pulling the strings for the most part. Falky was absolute piss for long spells last season and Thomson wasn't given a chance. Food for thought for Jefferies after doing well last night methinks. We definitely need someone in midfield with a bit of muscle against the likes of Stranraer, Forfar etc.

Have to keep carrying this form into the league now and start dominating the it for a while, we're already playing catch up for Christ sake.

[parsforlife]

Both, if it's the tall, lanky guy.

In the first half he defended really well against Wylde's pace and in the second he was bombing forward and only Plummer's strength stopped him from putting in some decent crosses.

I thought our full backs had swapped sides at HT, appologies if ive got that wrong. I wasn't at the game. It will be williamson you are mentioning then, his runs forward are exciting and what makes him stand out, but its rather good to here him putting in a strong defencive display, all to often it has been his downfall but if he can at least become semi-decent defencivly. To go with his attacking play we won't be keeping him for very long. He has been called up to scotland squads for training camps but has just missed out on game time.

I don't think he's ever had a run in the team in midfield despite not doing anything wrong.

Falkingham and Geggan can be rank for months and are first pick.

Same goes for Millen.

There's clearly favourites, no big deal.

I was actually refering to the everybody rates him part, you have clearly forgotten/ignored a fair number being shocked at him being kept on in the summer(albeit that turned out that for some resson he was on a longer contract that wasn't punicly known)

I can't recall geggan having long spells playing poorly, the games this sesson has probably been his longest and he maybe could do with a few games out. Falkingham did go a couple of spells bellow stadard but IMO thats becouse he has set high standards before) thomson has been given chances before and not taken them, it appears he has taken his chance yesterday and perhaps he will kick on.

You talk about favourites but those accusations can easily be sent your way and other fans as well.

[glenburn bud]

I thought Dunfermline were excellent for long spells in the first half, and as others have said they caused us real problems with their front pairing. The boy playing right back had a very impressive performance up against Wylde, who he more than matched until TC switched Wylde to the right.

We were slightly better second half and managed to score a couple of decent goals, but overall it was a really poor and uninspired performance. Must improve and quickly.