Saints v Buddies 21/12/19

[PauloPerth]

Big game for both sides, and an opportunity to get a bit of daylight from the automatic relegation spot with Accies playing Hearts.

Both teams showing slight improvements in form since the last meeting. St Mirren have won on the road, scored a few goals, whilst Saints have got a few wins under our belts, and moved off the bottom.

We were the better team in Paisley for the first 25 minutes or so, without creating too many clear cut chances. After the goal, and throughout the second half st Mirren were well worth the win, as our inexperienced defence and fragile confidence was evident.

Interesting to read a few buddies appearing fairly confident that they'd get the win next Saturday.

Actually could be a decent even match, with a lot at stake.  If we keep all our players fit and don't pick up any silly injuries to key players in training this week, then I think we'll take the 3 points, as we are a better team than them.

And superior human beings as well.

[RandomGuy.]

3 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Both teams showing slight improvements in form since the last meeting.

Since then we've picked up 11 points from 7 games, while St Mirren have 7 points from 9 games, we've also narrowed the GD by 5 goals.

Massive game, can't really call it, but are St Mirren not having some defensive crisis just now?

A win will be a win, no matter how it comes. The players owe us some fight after the second half "display" in Paisley though.

[Radford]

That second half in Paisley was arguably the low point of the season, when constantly losing the first goal, often after playing well as we had for the opening period of that game, finally took its toll and the team looked shot of confidence. 

Hopefully we're better equipped again now to deal with those sort of setbacks but I think it'd be naive to assume that fragility is totally banished. 

Whoever the striker is, we need to get players in support of him.

[NorthBank]

Just now, PauloPerth said:

Big game for both sides, and an opportunity to get a bit of daylight from the automatic relegation spot with Accies playing Hearts.

Both teams showing slight improvements in form since the last meeting. St Mirren have won on the road, scored a few goals, whilst Saints have got a few wins under our belts, and moved off the bottom.

We were the better team in Paisley for the first 25 minutes or so, without creating too many clear cut chances. After the goal, and throughout the second half st Mirren were well worth the win, as our inexperienced defence and fragile confidence was evident.

Interesting to read a few buddies appearing fairly confident that they'd get the win next Saturday.

Actually could be a decent even match, with a lot at stake.  If we keep all our players fit and don't pick up any silly injuries to key players in training this week, then I think we'll take the 3 points, as we are a better team than them.

And superior human beings as well.

Thought I was reading some Xmas humility and objectivity but thank goodness you brought it back to the usual standard in the last two sentences.

Our back four yesterday was a winger at right back, one fit centre back, an academy player making his debut never even being in the first team squad, and a loanee left back. Next week does not look much better but Paul McGinn should be back and although a full back has been deputising at centre half during the crisis.

Our recent tactic is to defend by using all out attack to keep the opposition pinned back as we are good in midfield, out wide and thru the middle.

If the Fakes' defence is as fragile as usual then only an away win can be the outcome. The fermers are fecked.

[RandomGuy.]

17 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

If the Fakes' defence is as fragile as usual then only an away win can be the outcome. The fermers are fecked.

All going well, it won't be. Wallace Duffy should be in the sea still, and without him we're only conceding a goal a game on average. Only Rangers and Hibs have scored more than once past Kerr/Gordon, and nobody has scored past Ralston/Kerr/Gordon/Booth.

[PauloPerth]

19 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

Thought I was reading some Xmas humility and objectivity but thank goodness you brought it back to the usual standard in the last two sentences.

Can't break with tradition, especially at this time of year!

All joking aside, I'd like to wish all our fellow football fans from Paisley and their families a very merry Christmas.

 

Spoiler

May your foodbank hampers be full to the brim 

 

[NorthBank]

31 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Can't break with tradition, especially at this time of year!

All joking aside, I'd like to wish all our fellow football fans from Paisley and their families a very merry Christmas.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

May your foodbank hampers be full to the brim 

 

And a very very Christmas to the real football fans in Perth. May yer tractors keep you safe during the winter snows.

[djchapsticks]

Too close to call, this one.

Perth is rarely a happy hunting ground for us. St. Johnstone rarely give us an easy game in general (previous meeting aside).

A win for either side would be massive, I'm guessing most Buddies though, would cut and run with a point just now and (quite literally) limp through to the transfer window in 2 weeks, given we're absolutely patchwork at the back.

[christinanade]

I think we will probably line up very attacking again, which probably suits us with the defensive crisis. Can see us shipping a goal or two but hopefully score a couple as well.

[Munoz]

Since our defensive crisis has kicked in we've managed to pick up 4 points. Can see us getting no worse than a draw in this one, now that are forwards are regularly finding the net. 

[Kyle]

Very attacking line up probably suits our attackers as they love having space to run into. Kennedy and O'Halloran in particular are very good at exploiting that space and playing on the counter

We've improved a lot over the last little while - or the results certainly suggest that we have - so hopefully we see some of this new found resillience at home.

I'd probably start Kane ahead of May in this one and save both him and Hendry for potential super sub roles later on. Kane suits the lone front man more than May and Hendry seems to fdo well against tired defences. The rest of the team just about picking itself - the defence looks much more solid, it seems we've finally found a balance in midfield, using our 3 best centre mids and I wouldn't drop MOH or Kennedy right now either.

A win in this game would be massive. It could potentially give us 6 point cushion with 2 games in hand against some of the sides around us, albeit those games are likely to yield precisely zero points. It might be the catalyst for us to start looking up the table rather than us just hoping that teams around us aren't picking up points.

[Widge]

I was reflecting on Saturday and there was times where I thought O’Halloran was poor. Then I did a bit more thinking and despite missing that chance, he got in and caused chaos. He then did the exact same to set up Hendrys sitter, so on reflection he actually played alright. The outball he gives when facing towards the oppositions goal is excellent, I’ll always worry when he tries to play football in our own half, he just can’t do it. But get him running straight at the fullback and he’s a menace.

There’s a part of me that thinks Drey Wright might be a solution to our right back issue, since I don’t think anyone is convinced by Ralston. Not that we’re going to change a defence that has halt consecutive clean sheets. Booths height and experience has improved us as well, he stood up well to walker on Saturday and even when Ikpeazu peeled out towards him he stood his ground.

I look at our bench now and there are players who can change a game, which is a positive. Where Danny Swanson is, is anyone’s guess. Suspect he’ll be off in January if Tommy gets his way. I think age has caught up, amongst other things. The brains there but not the physical side.

Anyway I annoyingly can’t make the game now and every time that has happened in the last, we win 4-0! I’m thinking numerous Hamilton games and a County game from years ago. So yeah let’s go with that for the hell of it. Or 0-0 one of the two.

[Valentino Bolognese]

19 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Very attacking line up probably suits our attackers as they love having space to run into. Kennedy and O'Halloran in particular are very good at exploiting that space and playing on the counter

We've improved a lot over the last little while - or the results certainly suggest that we have - so hopefully we see some of this new found resillience at home.

I'd probably start Kane ahead of May in this one and save both him and Hendry for potential super sub roles later on. Kane suits the lone front man more than May and Hendry seems to fdo well against tired defences. The rest of the team just about picking itself - the defence looks much more solid, it seems we've finally found a balance in midfield, using our 3 best centre mids and I wouldn't drop MOH or Kennedy right now either.

A win in this game would be massive. It could potentially give us 6 point cushion with 2 games in hand against some of the sides around us, albeit those games are likely to yield precisely zero points. It might be the catalyst for us to start looking up the table rather than us just hoping that teams around us aren't picking up points.

Our performance at St Mirren earlier this year was, hands down, the worst I've seen us play all year and that includes the performance at Fir Park. Therefore I'm hopefully writing it off as an outlier. The last couple of performances and some of the early season form have been much more 'us'. 

Yes, defence 2.0 seems to be working but we're not exaclty scoring many goals. For that reason I do wonder if we'd want to have a couple up front for a home match against a team that seem to have injury issues at the back. On reflection though I agree with your analysis that we should stick with the same team as Hearts but with Kane up front in the role of being an energetic pest and a hold-up forward, with the goals to come from midfield. 

Obika is a concern but Kerr/Gordon seem to have clicked so should be a good tussle. Biggest worry for me would be Ralston up against Foley if he plays and/or Danny Mullen who seems tricky to deal with. 

Looking forward to this one, hope the weather holds and would expect to see a pretty strong travelling support, hopefully matched by a decent home turnout. 

[Valentino Bolognese]

14 minutes ago, Widge said:

I was reflecting on Saturday and there was times where I thought O’Halloran was poor. Then I did a bit more thinking and despite missing that chance, he got in and caused chaos. He then did the exact same to set up Hendrys sitter, so on reflection he actually played alright. The outball he gives when facing towards the oppositions goal is excellent, I’ll always worry when he tries to play football in our own half, he just can’t do it. But get him running straight at the fullback and he’s a menace.

There’s a part of me that thinks Drey Wright might be a solution to our right back issue, since I don’t think anyone is convinced by Ralston. Not that we’re going to change a defence that has halt consecutive clean sheets. Booths height and experience has improved us as well, he stood up well to walker on Saturday and even when Ikpeazu peeled out towards him he stood his ground.

I look at our bench now and there are players who can change a game, which is a positive. Where Danny Swanson is, is anyone’s guess. Suspect he’ll be off in January if Tommy gets his way. I think age has caught up, amongst other things. The brains there but not the physical side.

Anyway I annoyingly can’t make the game now and every time that has happened in the last, we win 4-0! I’m thinking numerous Hamilton games and a County game from years ago. So yeah let’s go with that for the hell of it. Or 0-0 one of the two.

Biggest frustration I have with MOH is that he's not great in front of goal (despite being officially listed as a striker). It's something endemic to Saints, with the possible exception of Matty Kennedy and it looks very much like our most clinical striker is Hendry. I do think though that Matty/Davidson/McCann/Holt/MOH is our best midfield right now and could turn out to be really effective with some more game time. 

I also agree about Drey Wright. There was some suggestion that he's played RB before in the English leauges but it would be pretty high risk for us. I would think that his vision and self discipline would be better than Ralston, probably speed too, but could he be trusted to be physical enough? No idea. Seem to remember that he came on as RB against Livingston when we were chasing the game and he was really good, but only for the last 15 or so minutes. 

For all the talk of a CB being the January priority, if Kerr and Gordon can stay fit and keep their form I would say that a striker and a RB would be higher up the list but if we can recycle Wright to be effective in that postion it would save a wage. I'd certainly rather see him there than Wallace Duffy. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Valentino Bolognese

[jamamafegan]

With this game a few days before Christmas -
Money being tight - and people likely to spend the Saturday Christmas shopping, I think Saints should have really considered reducing the price for entry to this game to try and get a bigger crowd in for what is a pretty important match. Long gone are the days of “blue and white days”, seems that just because we are in the Premiership the club aren’t bothered about initiatives like that anymore.

[Trackdaybob]

17 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

and people likely to spend the Saturday Christmas shopping,

f**k that pish. 

I'll be at the match

 

[Jamie_B]

I’d start Hendry personally. He’s earned the right to start the next game. I’d quite like to see him play up front with May at some stage just to see how it works but this may not be the game for it. Back four probably pick itself though Ralston always looks like he’s just waiting to make an error.

[RandomGuy.]

51 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

Long gone are the days of “blue and white days”, seems that just because we are in the Premiership the club aren’t bothered about initiatives like that anymore.

If your on about the away game to Dunfermline,  the club had nothing to do with that did they? 

[jamamafegan]

8 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

If your on about the away game to Dunfermline,  the club had nothing to do with that did they? 

Yeah, that and the home game against dunfermline as well. Fair enough though if the club had nothing to do with it but nothing wrong with having the initiative. Seems mental days like that could be pulled off during the days of Bebo yet nobody seems to bother their arse when we now have more social media platforms than ever before.

[Radford]

If folk are tight for cash or shopping, then I don't think the price will make a difference. Not sure Steve Brown has reduced prices once since he took over, so it's obviously just not his thing. Not that I wouldn't welcome him trying it. 

Picking a striker for this one is hard but I think it does need to be one as you want Holt, McCann and Davidson playing. Just as you'd look at using Liam Craig in a tough away match, Kane is your go-to guy for those games IMO. At home to St Mirren though? I'm not sure and equally, Hendry has never had the same impact when he's started a game. We obviously need to work towards getting him to a level where he can start games though. I'm going to surprise myself and suggest we stick with May.