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Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread


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On 18/03/2021 at 14:18, realmadrid said:

There will be the usual moans next week about the split as with the seeding at the start it always assumes the top 6 will remain the top six etc

However looking at the fixtures even if this was the case they gave Celtic 4 home games against the seeded sides in the 3rd round of games meaning they have an imbalance in games post split

The breakdown to get to 19 home and 19 away should be 

Rangers 3 home 2 away

Celtic 2 home 3 away

Hibs 3 home 2 away

Aberdeen 2 home 3 away

Livingston 2 home 3 away

St Mirren 2 home 3 away

St Johnstone 3 home 2 away

Dundee United 2 home 3 away

Motherwell 3 home 2 away

Ross County 2 home 3 away

Hamilton 3 home 2 away

Kilmarnock 3 home 2 away

If St Mirren claim 6th on Saturday there will be an imbalance in both the top and bottom six with teams being asked to play 20-18 or 18-20 , not so important this year with no fans . If St Johnstone claim 6th then its a balance with everyone playing 19 home and 19 away. Even then the bottom six is going to have a few fixture swaps to make it work.

For the top 6 there are some quirks

  • Rangers should have 3 home games but Celtic , Aberdeen , Hibs and Livingston have only gone to Ibrox once, so one of them (It won't be Celtic by past fixtures will get a 3rd home game with Rangers
  • Celtic will be at home to who ever claims 6th but one of Aberdeen or Hibs will need to return to Celtic Park for a 3rd time
  • Hibs should play at home to Celtic , Livingston and who ever finishes 6th , but I can see them being the team asked to swap Rangers and Celtic games
  • Aberdeen should play at home to Celtic and Hibs but if St Johnstone make the top 6 could have a 3rd trip to Perth
  • If St Johnstone make 6th they should play Livingston and Rangers at home and a third visit Aberdeen

Removed the outcomes about the bottom half/St Mirren finishing top 6, for obvious reasons.

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2 hours ago, tree house tam said:

Folk congratulating saying it's a great season making top 6? Nope. That's a given, we should be about 4th but for our crap finishing. Winning the first and last trophy as well as qualifying for Europe will make up for it though.

Given = by goal difference over St Mirren?  

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2 minutes ago, TonyFerrino said:

Given = by goal difference over St Mirren?  

Hibs fans should know that we don't even need to get more points than teams to beat them to the top 6...

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I always felt we were a good team this season and have rallied against a lot of criticism/negativity. 

It probably took until the first St Mirren game to understand how we were trying to play but after that I enjoyed the football and really did believe we were just on the end of some bad breaks. 

That little run before Xmas was a wobble where I kind of got ground down by a lot of panicking but I said to @Kyle even then, I fancied us to finish closer to fifth than last.

The introduction of Melamed clearly has helped a lot so there will be an argument that things might not have turned without that but I never believed that the manager was just doing the same thing over and over again with the same results. You could see tweaks along the way, for example when he asked Conway and Wotherspoon to play more centrally. 

People get fixated on the league table far too early on, when it's akin to a big group of runners in the early laps of a long distance race. I'm not naive enough to think that'll change and if we lose the opening two games of next season it'll be panic stations in some quarters again but as Tommy Wright always said, judge the manager and judge the team come the business end of the season. 

And we have a manager that has delivered. 

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Definitely no excuse for not pushing on with renewals now. I think the manager will know both who he wants to keep and they will likely have indications from most players on whether they are willing to extend.

That allows the focus to turn to new additions but there will also need to be half an eye on allowing for players being sold. If McCann has a big week, surely there is no way we hold onto him beyond the summer? Mark Guidi yesterday said that Kerr had been linked to clubs down south this week too. He's the one something needs to happen with this summer, he can't lose a player you've invested so much in for nothing come the end of next season. 

Imagine it'll be the usual policy of trying to keep a consistency in the squad and who can argue with that. Think Stevie May showed yesterday why he still has a role to play too. 

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I'm enjoying reading other clubs forum and seeing we're "shite and lucky".

Apparently St Mirren were robbed by refereeing decisions all season and we got all the luck (ignoring Kerrs ridiculous red card v them/ Killies keeper taking the ball over his line v St Mirren/ ridiculous penalty decisions against us all season), while Dundee United were "far better" and shouldve won both home games against us, and it was just "luck" we got 2pts from them (ignoring Shankland equalising from the halfway line).

Feels like the good old days again.

 

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I don’t think anyone will ever say Stevie May doesn’t have a role to play at saints. He’s a very good player but he’s not a goal scorer any more. The issue is we can’t afford to have our highest earner sitting on the bench as his overall play doesn’t warrant starting. I’d happily keep Stevie around the squad, but it’ll need to be on massively reduced terms otherwise it’s simply not worth it. 
 

For me, O’Halloran, Parish, Bryson, Tanser all go. I suspect Brown goes back to Millwall too without a deal. I’d like to see what Middleton can do between now and the end of the season, but on the face of it, I’d offer him a loan extension if possible. Conway, Craig and Davidson have earned another year for me, you don’t want wholesale changes and their experience is crucial. 
 

Then there’s the great Guy Melamed debate. He’s been pretty ineffectual recently, but still showed some excellent touches and passes yesterday. He’s clearly a good player at this level who’ll score goals. Will he stay, I don’t know but I’d be really surprised if he wasn’t offered a 2 year deal. Just up to him what he wants to do. 

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We knew what we had to do and shat it basically.

We didn’t miss out on top 6 just based on yesterday - we also dropped points at home to Hamilton last month; got battered 4-0 at home to a rank Celtic side; lost to you lot back in January; had a couple of draws with a shit Aberdeen side - those are the types of results that cost us.

We’ve been unable to beat Hamilton twice in the last month or so - we didn’t deserve top 6 for that alone.

Congratulations have to go to St Johnstone, they have strung together a brilliant streak of results in the last month to pip us. Fair play to them.

I quite like Davidson. It has been quite enjoyable to see two young managers slug it out in the push for top 6. It’s been quite entertaining up until now. Bring on our 5 meaningless post-split fixtures.

Well done to St Johnstone.

Edited by Shuggie_Murray7
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Trying to look at this while removing all emotion...

Yeah May is fine but not as one of our highest earners, zero issue if he stays on a reduced wage. I still think he's a better "fit" beside Melamed than Kane but can't argue with Kane starting every week/ how him and Melamed have played together. Maybe see more of May after the split. If he asks for a big wage then you let him go though.

I wouldn't even mind MOH staying as back up RWB but he'd have to take a massive hit to wages which I doubt he'll take. He's not got a role beyond back up there, so no harm if he leaves.

Kane is interesting as he's got a new agent and might push for the wage of someone who'll be starting every week next season, he's clearly been much better this season but he's stopped scoring again, and you wonder if he just a purple patch. One to ponder.

Would like a 2nd GK to actually challenge Clark, clear that will never be Parish. But if there's nothing there/they'll eat too much of the budget, Parish is better than nothing.

I'm not as hard on Middleton as others, and we won't be signing him permanently so not sure on him yet. Need to see more than a couple of decent 10 minutes.

Dunno what you do with Bryson/Conway. Clearly you naturally see folk that age and think you punt them and bring in some 20yo wonderkids, but as back up they're really good options and probably give you lots off the pitch. I know they both get hate but they're still up to this level and have roles to play.

Craig obviously gets a new deal, Davidson too despite my reservations. He's unique and I think he's vital against certain teams.

Melamed has bad games where he disappears a bit, but he's got that magic where he can just pop up with a goal, or pull off a ridiculous pass, and that's priceless. He has to be the priority of those out of contract.

Booth v Tanser was always a one or the other type situation to me, and Tanser has sort of made the decision for us there.

Always the unknowns with youth players too, no idea how close some of them are to the first team.

Edited by RandomGuy.
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I agree with Radford that there was an incredible amount of negativity from some people throughout the season. I always thought we looked like a well coached team and actually got the results when the chances were taken.

From not being the biggest fan of McCart early on (thought his passing was dreadful), I am very excited about our three centre halves. I think they said on commentary last night that McCart is 23, Kerr 24 and Gordon 25 - all very young for that position and a load of potential. Our defending has been excellent especially in the second half of the season...exemplified in the final when I was never worried they would score. Still not convinced by Zander and every cross gives me the fear but he is a decent shot-stoppper.

Davidson is clearly an intelligent guy and I trust him to make the correct choices in the summer. We are a good team to watch and, personally, it has been huge with Saints TV being able to watch more of us this season than for many years.

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Congratulations to the Perth Saints. Obviously sticks in my craw to say it but in the head to head games I thought yous looked a better team than us, even our 3-2 win in Paisley.

Your on an incredible run whilst we stumbled our way to the finish line. We couldn't hold the lead twice against Hamilton so we really got what we deserved.

You don't get trophies for finishing top 6 but yous have one of them this season anyway, fair play to Davidson. He couldn't have dreamt a better first season in charge , if yous get European football next season as well he should be giving the keys to Perth.

Just shows managers need time to bed their own ideas into a team, some really are worth sticking by.

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Aye absolutely no complaints from me. Combined with a bit of a bottle job from us, you've been on quite a sickeningly amazing run since we were a bit fortuitous beating you in the game Kerr got sent off. Never thought you were that bad even when some of your own fans were knicker wetting early on.

Of course Gerrard will get it but Davidson should be right up there in the Manager of the Year conversation IMO.

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