Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[hamicle]

Would agree that Parish doesn't deserve the stick, and I thought he did a decent job today.

First half was broadly promising, though Ayr may have shown Saints a little too much respect - was surprise more pressure wasn't being put on the back three when they were passing it between themselves. We got the ball forward, a few inviting balls into the box, sadly just no-one connecting with them.

Second half definitely not as good. Ayr clearly had us figured out. We gave them plenty of time to get into a solid defensive shape so by the time anyone moved forward they really didn't have any options. I've felt for a while now we often look light in numbers in midfield due to playing up the wings. Davidson commented post match comment about the midfielders going too deep for the ball...but if the back three are just going to pass it between themselves without really moving forward what are the midfield to do? 

[RandomGuy.]

Todays goal at 1:48 here.

Not great but the club arent arsed with highlights so its all we'll likely get.

Edited July 23, 2022 by RandomGuy.

[Valentino Bolognese]

17 minutes ago, hamicle said:

Second half definitely not as good. Ayr clearly had us figured out. We gave them plenty of time to get into a solid defensive shape so by the time anyone moved forward they really didn't have any options. I've felt for a while now we often look light in numbers in midfield due to playing up the wings. Davidson commented post match comment about the midfielders going too deep for the ball...but if the back three are just going to pass it between themselves without really moving forward what are the midfield to do? 

I got the feeling the half time team orders were to sit in, avoid getting injured or booked rather than chase goals. 

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

Listened to Clums after match speech. Oh dearie me.

Thank you.

[hamicle]

5 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

I got the feeling the half time team orders were to sit in, avoid getting injured or booked rather than chase goals. 

That's not the impression I got from the post-match...but then again wouldn't be the first time anyone's been thrown under a bus.

[TheRealNumber5]

It’s probably been forgotten about with the turgid football we’re serving up, but I’ve just been reading an article about kit delays and Macron are featured heavily in delays for English lower league teams. Seems the Chinese long term lockdown has affected supply massively and some down south won’t see their new kits til August. Points out that these teams are already putting their kit designs in for 2023/24 because it seems like they have to work that far ahead. 
Not defending the club, just wondering if there’s mitigating circumstances. 
Also, we need a keeper and a striker and possibly a defensive midfielder. 
 

And probably a new manager

[The Marly]

14 hours ago, Kyle said:

Is there a 14 day cooling off period on new signings? Very shaky cameo from McGowan in the middle of the back 3. Hopefully just needs games and he’ll pick up but that was a concerning start. Considine did look sharper today though so maybe a similar story with McGowan. 
 

Team getting booed off after a win days a lot. Absolutely no desire to put that game away in the second half, and that defence looks like it has mistakes in it as well. 

I don't think we should be booing the team off after a game. Particularly when the were quite a few youngsters on the pitch at the end.  The anger needs to be much more at the manager. 

[The Marly]

12 hours ago, Bankfoot Saints said:

Not wanting to defend Callum too much but the last 20 mins he was screaming at the team to get the ball forward was was going nuts at brown and McPherson for passing backwards, but special mention to MOH that man should never be near a saints strip again looked totally disinterested and lost for confidence and the few times he did run at the Ayr defence never looked like beating a man 

Except O'Halloran did beat his man twice.  Once the defender's blocked the cross with his arm and we should have had a penalty,  but the linesman gave a corner.  The other his cross was collected by the keeper under absolutely no pressure because we didn't have anyone near the six yard box.  But you're right, MOH is done.

I wouldn't defend Davidson though.  If he had sent the team out with the right mentality (get forward as often as possible lads, we need at least three goals today)he wouldn't have needed to be screaming at them with twenty minutes to go. He brought Muzz on for the last five minutes,  why not Ballantyne who is clearly a more forward thinking player? We didn't even throw one of the centre backs forward in the last five minutes to try to unsettle their defence. 

The second half was fucking pathetic and the blame all lies with Davidson IMO. 

[monkfish]

 

15 minutes ago, The Marly said:

I don't think we should be booing the team off after a game. Particularly when the were quite a few youngsters on the pitch at the end.  The anger needs to be much more at the manager. 

I'd think the big majority of the boos were indeed directed at the manager. I don't particularly like it either, but how else are people supposed to get the message across that it's unacceptable?

One plus in the first half was Carey dropping back to let Hallberg push forward (before both disappeared for the second half). Carey looked good in that deeper playmaker role...but a central midfield of him and McPherson isn't robust enough for the league...back to still needing another centre mid.

[RandomGuy.]

We've needed a CM since TW left, IMO.

Presumably his plan was to bring Butcher and Holt in permanently that Summer to replace Craig and Davidson. Which wouldve been perfect really. He'd tried with Goss and Callachan to replace both aswell, i think. 

Not a clue what Davidsons plan for replacing either was/is, by most accounts both Gilmour and MacPherson were to try and replace McCann as the box to box type. Its why i get frustrated with his persistence of signing over 30s, we end with Bryson/Butterfield types who maybe do a short term job but without backing that up with a younger player who can step up youre just treading water as everyone gets a year older.

[Radford]

Of course I knew he wasn't going to be sacked this week but apathy has probably turned to anger now. 

If we'd at least had a go at scoring again late on yesterday it would have been something. It's this weird thing where I can see he wants standards to be better but at the same time he's the very reason they aren't. He did what he always does and settled for what we had yesterday as actions speak louder than any screaming from the touchline.

Whether it's the discipline, the sort of standards that saw us lose the two late goals midweek or the players phoning it in for the second half yesterday, this is his group of players, he's their leader and the buck stops with him. 

Why can't those above him see where this is headed?

[tree house tam]

15 minutes ago, Radford said:

Why can't those above him see where this is headed?

They can but have invested so much they need to see it through. Whatever that brings.

[RandomGuy.]

44 minutes ago, The Marly said:

I don't think we should be booing the team off after a game. Particularly when the were quite a few youngsters on the pitch at the end. 

If the manager is going to pile the blame onto the players, as hes done after every single match so far, then of course fans are going to show frustration towards the players when things go wrong.

We all know his character by now. Hiding at the Kelty game while his players got absolutely fucking hounded by fans and one almost gets physical, then refusing to go near the East Stand all season then slinking around behind Zander Clark after ICT knowing fine well nobody will hurl abuse when its Clarks last game for us. Theres no chance hes ever putting himself in the firing line to protect his players, so the abuse they get will sadly only get worse if we struggle this season.

[Valentino Bolognese]

28 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

They can but have invested so much they need to see it through. Whatever that brings.

Ah, the old sunk cost fallacy. 

My toilet's absolutely knackered and won't even flush. It's a really expensive one though, solid gold designer one, and it was brilliant when I first got it. I can't possibly scrap it and get one that works, because that would just be throwing money away.

Guess I'll just have to shit in the garden then. 

 

[tree house tam]

49 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Guess I'll just have to shit in the garden then. 

 

And that's why your lawn will always look better than Mcdiarmid. 

[Empty It]

On 23/07/2022 at 08:39, Fifespud said:

Fucking hell. Is someone deliberately trying to f**k the Sainties up? This will take a decade to recover from. 
If I hadn’t seen this sort of farrago repeatedly at Dens over the last 40 years I struggle to accept it’s possible to sign such a collection of utter dross, and still you have Parish as your starting keeper. He is the second worse keeper we have ever had, only topped by Jack Hamilton. If you sign him, the mind boggles. 
 

Good shout actually,  Saints are looking for a keeper, Hamilton and McGowan played at Hearts together so there is already chemistry there, you know what you need to do Saints get flapjack on board.

[strawman]

It’s Davidson s “ qualifying from the group was always going to be a tall order” pish that really annoys me.

How was it a tall order, with around 15 mins left it became evident that we need to score  2 more goals to give us a chance, even one as always the chance Elgin might have scored.

I kept asking people around me and checking my phone as thought by way we were playing I must have this wrong.

I m in the East Stand but those in Main said Callum was shouting players on but it made no difference if that’s true, it didn’t look or feel like we were desperate for that extra goal.

If Ayr had scored because we were throwing everything forward, I d actually have preferred that, at least we would have exited the cup while trying.

Yesterday annoyed me just as much as Dundee away when at 1-1 we settled and didn’t go for the win, giving away the chance to stay up automatically.

[SJFCtheTeamForMe]

Positives... 

The first half has signs of good stuff. Midfield 3 worked I thought. It allows Halberg to be more involved higher up the park. I can accept as Saints team not be brilliant on the eye and play magical football but thought most of that first half was in the right manner.

Tried playing on the foot, attempted to dominate possession and tried working it into good areas rather than it being pumped into the box at the first opportunity like they were guilty of during the early part of Davidson's first season.

Convinced the players thought they were out though which is probably caused by the tone come that's out the manager.

Drey Wrights delivery was of a good standard. As others have said though, who's going to score them?

Cammy Macpherson's best performance for Saints I thought.

Appreciate the first half performance won't come so easily against Hibs due to Ayr being not very good but if we can reproduce that first half performance on Saturday Hibs will find it hard to come away with 3 points. 

I could rant all day about the lack of fight to get into the next round etc but really don't see the point. Everyone else has pretty much covered that subject. It'll just get frustrated again

[Flybhoy]

Saints fans, what's your thoughts/opinions on Calum Booth?

[PSJ.84]

23 minutes ago, Flybhoy said:

Saints fans, what's your thoughts/opinions on Calum Booth?

Just can’t get him out of my head. He’s all I think about