Perth Saints v Hamilton Academical

[Scotty Tunbridge]

 

1 win in 15 against a side fighting against relegation from the bottom tier? 0 wins in the league? Most goals conceded in the league? Rock bottom of the table?

 

Have no fear Perth Saints up steps the broken football team rehabilitation clinic, Hamilton Accies. This is the type of game accies love to completely shit the bed and give a bad team some hope. If Rice wins this he really is the messiah as Canning would lose this with a whimper.

 

3-1 Saints but on the plus side no Manager Da’s offering square goes this time.

 

[RandomGuy.]

Must win match for us, no doubt. 

We need 10 wins this season from the next 29 games, at home to Hamilton has to be seen as one of the winnable ones.

No confidence at all in this Saints side. Duffy and Kerr will be absolutely rag dolled by whoever Hamilton play up front, and if theyve any brains every set piece will be put right onto Clark who'll mispunch the ball more than anything else.

Would like to see O'Halloran, Wotherspoon and McCann all back into the team, with Wright, Swanson and Holt dropping out. Expect we'll see Craig come in.

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Come on Scotty, please go easy on the facts, we don’t need to read things like that on a Monday. 

Must win match for us, no doubt. 

We need 10 wins this season from the next 29 games, at home to Hamilton has to be seen as one of the winnable ones.

No confidence at all in this Saints side. Duffy and Kerr will be absolutely rag dolled by whoever Hamilton play up front, and if theyve any brains every set piece will be put right onto Clark who'll mispunch the ball more than anything else.

Would like to see O'Halloran, Wotherspoon and McCann all back into the team, with Wright, Swanson and Holt dropping out. Expect we'll see Craig come in.

 

Any chance of a bit of pressure or getting emptied for Wright if he somehow manages to lose this? Or does he have enough credit in the bank to get a bit more time before that happens?

[The Saintee]

31 minutes ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

 

 

Any chance of a bit of pressure or getting emptied for Wright if he somehow manages to lose this? Or does he have enough credit in the bank to get a bit more time before that happens?

Honestly it's difficult to say. Wright probably had enough credit in the bank with the fans to get more time or even the chance to bring us back up should we be relegated. 

The chairman may see it differently and it's him and him alone that will make the decision.  He's never been faced with a situation like this and it likely depends on if he thinks Wright has lost the belief of the players.

[PauloPerth]

For how long do we have to read opposition fans state that they are the ones guaranteed to give us our first win because we haven't won yet and this will inevitably be the game as it always happens to them etc etc. Nae c**t has delivered on this guarantee so far!!

Sadly, there's a reason we haven't won a game and are bottom of the league on 4 points with a quarter of the season gone.

Bit of experience, defender, left sided.... Has Callum Booth ever played centre back?  If not, half expect to see big Maddis come in for Duffy for a more physical presence at the back.

O'Halloran has to start ahead of Drey, would also start McCann ahead of Holt.

Think we'll see a more solid looking team with less ballers than the st Mirren game, to try to get a grip of the midfield.  I'd go something like:

                              Parish

            Ralston Kerr Vihmann Tanser

MOH  McCann  Davidson Craig  Wotherspoon

                         Kennedy

 

Keep it tight and grow into the game. 0-0 at HT is fine. Positive options to make an impact from the bench; Swanson, May, Hendry, Wright, and nick the 1-0 win, which would be a brilliant result for us right now.

Don't have any issue with Zander starting, just throwing Parish in there to change things about and mix it up a bit.

[john1962]

 
Any chance of a bit of pressure or getting emptied for Wright if he somehow manages to lose this? Or does he have enough credit in the bank to get a bit more time before that happens?

I would be amazed if the Chairman lets this go much further. Doubt he’ll let nostalgia override the financial implications of relegation. Changing manager may not make a difference but I don’t see him just allowing us to go down without as much as a whimper.

[The Saintee]

Realistically all Accies have to do is punt the ball into the box a few times and wait for a mistake.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Any chance of a bit of pressure or getting emptied for Wright if he somehow manages to lose this? Or does he have enough credit in the bank to get a bit more time before that happens?

Hard to know. Fans seem split on it, on one hand we're unlikely to hire a better manager, on the other TW has had us in relegation form for the past 10 months and built a weaker side than last seasons despite apparently getting a bigger budget.

No clue what Brown will be thinking. He'll be loathe to get rid of TW I reckon, and wont want to rush into anything, but he wont be happy that relegation is a real possibility after spending so much money on the squad.

If we get pumped by Hamilton and dont put up any fight then itll be the closest hes ever been to the sack, and him and Brown will have a decision to make.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Any chance of a bit of pressure or getting emptied for Wright if he somehow manages to lose this? Or does he have enough credit in the bank to get a bit more time before that happens?

The credit in the bank rapidly emptied with every passing minute on Saturday. Our performance at St Mirren was materially worse than anything we've seen so far this season at the very time we should have been stepping up, and TW wasn't able to turn it around at half time and in fact seemed to make things worse. 

He has the love of a lot of fans (I include myself) but his credit is very low indeed with me, and pretty close to going into overdraft. Our Chairman may have his faults but I don't see sentimentality as one of them and in all honesty I think if he has options in the pipeline the nail must be getting loose, if not shoogly yet.

A loss or draw on Saturday would see a lot of fans turning IMO, especially if the performance is comparable to Saturday. 

[cdhafc1874]

Our recent record at McDiarmid is atrocious & Murray Davidson always scores (normally a header) against us.

Dinnae panic Saintees this will be a home win.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, PauloPerth said:

Bit of experience, defender, left sided.... Has Callum Booth ever played centre back?  If not, half expect to see big Maddis come in for Duffy for a more physical presence at the back.

O'Halloran has to start ahead of Drey, would also start McCann ahead of Holt.

Think we'll see a more solid looking team with less ballers than the st Mirren game, to try to get a grip of the midfield.  I'd go something like:

                              Parish

            Ralston Kerr Vihmann Tanser

MOH  McCann  Davidson Craig  Wotherspoon

                         Kennedy

 

Keep it tight and grow into the game. 0-0 at HT is fine. Positive options to make an impact from the bench; Swanson, May, Hendry, Wright, and nick the 1-0 win, which would be a brilliant result for us right now.

Don't have any issue with Zander starting, just throwing Parish in there to change things about and mix it up a bit.

I'd drop Davidson rather than Holt. Apart from a couple of over-hit passes I think he was one of the better players in a terrible performance on Saturday and he was excellent 1st half against Aberdeen. Muzz gave away the foul that led to the second County goal and the foul for the 1st St Mirren goal on Saturday, and he's a guaranteed yellow card against Hamilton. 

Not sure that Kennedy would be any better as lone striker than Stevie to be honest, and our right with Ralston and MOH would be quite weak defensively I think. I know MOH tracks back but I think he misses a lot of challenges. Honestly think it's one of our many exploitable weaknesses. Still I don't have any better ideas. 

                                 Parish

              Ralston Kerr Vihmann Tanser

      MOH   McCann  Craig Wotherspoon

                        Kennedy  May

 

I'd probably be equally happy with 5 at the back, frankly I'm all over the place with this squad after Saturday.

                               

Edited October 21, 2019 by Valentino Bolognese
Weirdly it posted a half completed post

[FuzzyBear]

Realistically all Accies have to do is punt the ball into the box a few times and wait for a mistake.

Therein lies a problem. We dont get the ball in the box very often.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

I'd probably be equally happy with 5 at the back, frankly I'm all over the place with this squad after Saturday.                            

Same. I verge on thinking we stick with what we trust as far as we can. We know Davidson and Craig can slog it out in the middle and work together. We know Tanser and Wotherspoon can work well together going forward and back, so those partnerships are certain. Beyond that? Nothing is proven.

O'Halloran has been our best player this season, along with Kennedy, so shove them in. May has been awful but is still easily our best striker. Kerr is our best CB. Ralston the only right back. Parish doesn't inspire much confidence so Clark probably unfairly keeps his spot. Duffy has TWs nod over Vihmann, which must be for a reason.

Clark

Ralston - Duffy - Kerr - Tanser

MOH - Davidson - Craig - Wotherspoon

Kennedy

May

Makes the most sense to me, but I change my thoughts all the time about the middle of the park. Its a formation the players know, theres partnerhips in there that the players know, and it looks like it would offer a balance going forward and back. I'm completely against this idea we chance absolutely everything and try and get a bunch of players who've barely played together to try and learn about each other in yet another different set up. But thats just an opinion.

[Valentino Bolognese]

14 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Same. I verge on thinking we stick with what we trust as far as we can. We know Davidson and Craig can slog it out in the middle and work together. We know Tanser and Wotherspoon can work well together going forward and back, so those partnerships are certain. Beyond that? Nothing is proven.

O'Halloran has been our best player this season, along with Kennedy, so shove them in. May has been awful but is still easily our best striker. Kerr is our best CB. Ralston the only right back. Parish doesn't inspire much confidence so Clark probably unfairly keeps his spot. Duffy has TWs nod over Vihmann, which must be for a reason.

Clark

Ralston - Duffy - Kerr - Tanser

MOH - Davidson - Craig - Wotherspoon

Kennedy

May

Makes the most sense to me, but I change my thoughts all the time about the middle of the park. Its a formation the players know, theres partnerhips in there that the players know, and it looks like it would offer a balance going forward and back. I'm completely against this idea we chance absolutely everything and try and get a bunch of players who've barely played together to try and learn about each other in yet another different set up. But thats just an opinion.

TBH I go off 5 at the back idea every time I think of Vihmann. 

Saturday is more about the manager as it is about the players IMO. 

[RandomGuy.]

1 minute ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

TBH I go off 5 at the back idea every time I think of Vihmann. 

Saturday is more about the manager as it is about the players IMO. 

Aye. TW having a day or two with his family, away from things might be a good thing. He needs to get this right.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, FuzzyBear said:

Therein lies a problem. We dont get the ball in the box very often.

You wont need too. The Gods have decided this is our year, so expect us to miss 8 opens goals and a couple of penalties before Brian Easton scores from his own half.

Edited October 21, 2019 by RandomGuy.

[PauloPerth]

2 hours ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

I'd drop Davidson rather than Holt. Apart from a couple of over-hit passes I think he was one of the better players in a terrible performance on Saturday and he was excellent 1st half against Aberdeen. Muzz gave away the foul that led to the second County goal and the foul for the 1st St Mirren goal on Saturday, and he's a guaranteed yellow card against Hamilton. 

Not sure that Kennedy would be any better as lone striker than Stevie to be honest, and our right with Ralston and MOH would be quite weak defensively I think. I know MOH tracks back but I think he misses a lot of challenges. Honestly think it's one of our many exploitable weaknesses. Still I don't have any better ideas. 

                                 Parish

              Ralston Kerr Vihmann Tanser

      MOH   McCann  Craig Wotherspoon

                        Kennedy  May

 

I'd probably be equally happy with 5 at the back, frankly I'm all over the place with this squad after Saturday.

                               

Agree Holt is much better on the ball, but for me we have to keep Muzz in there purely for his aerial ability. Without him helping defend set pieces etc, I think we'd be asking for trouble as we don't have a lot of aerial strength other than Kerr just now.

Holt was tidy enough on the ball, but in his limited matches with us so far, I'm not convinced he's great defensively in terms of tracking runners and winning the ball back. As I say, very early days on that one so hopefully proved wrong over the next few months.  I think McCann and Liam Craig get stuck in more, and both are okay at retaining possession.

I think Kennedy might be far better suited to the lone striker role than May.  You just have to look at the game at home to Rangers last season up front on his own to see what a difficult time he gave them.  He's stronger, quicker, can run with the ball and beat players.  He plays with more intensity and is hungrier to get on the ball.  I struggle to think of any attributes of May's that he brings to a lone striker role, as harsh as that sounds. He's an intelligent player who works well with a partner, interpassing and making good runs off the ball. 

I don't think it's worked so far with Stevie up front on his own, so I'd be looking to change things in that department. Don't think Tommy will drop him though.

[SJFC2612]

Think it needs to be a 4-4-2. 

Would go with ;

 

Clark 

Ralston viehman Kerr Tanser

Wright Davidson McCann ohalloran 

May Kennedy 

[Dick Van Dyke]

1 minute ago, SJFC2612 said:

Think it needs to be a 4-4-2. 

Would go with ;

 

Clark 

Ralston viehman Kerr Tanser

Wright Davidson McCann ohalloran 

May Kennedy 

I like that team and I have a felling we will go 442 but with Kennedy on the left and either Kane or hendry up top 

[Jamie_B]

I’d like to see us play two up top here, as much as anything to see if we can get May playing his old game which was always more effective with a partner.

Losing isn’t an option here for TW. Getting on to must win territory this early in the season is worrying in the extreme.