Leaderboard

You hit the nail on the head "Sadly football culture seems to attract idiots" If you PM me your address or a paypal account i'd like to cover the cost or send a new scarf for your laddie - many of us on this forum and 99.9% of those in the stands at home games are football folk, not the idiots who come and go .....

100% this. It seriously annoyed me the way winning a relegation play-off was suddenly treated as something we should all be celebrating, instead of recognised as the massive failure that it was. We'd gone from winning two cups and matching Galatasaray on their own pitch, to relegation candidates in less than a year. Davidson should have been firmly embarrassed by that, not running around in front of the fans like he thought he was some sort of hero. To me it's one of the cringiest things I've ever witnessed in my years watching Saints. Davidson also should have looked upon that moment as his opportunity to walk away and let someone else have a go at the job, instead of clinging on and actively making us even worse (which we're still trying to recover from two years later).

I'm just completely baffled as to what Levein is actually doing. Week after week he sends us out with square pegs in round holes all over the pitch. Gallacher is barely good enough for his actual position, let alone being started each week in the wrong position. Matt Smith and Kucheriavyi seem eternally confused about which one of them is playing on the right and which one of them is playing in the middle. Why move Smith out of the middle of the park to accommodate Kucheriavyi anyway, when Max has struggled so much to make an impact? And why do we keep playing Nicky Clark so far back in midfield when it's so obviously nullifying his impact and depriving us of the things he's actually good at? And then there's the substitutions. Week after week we see Sidibeh staggering around absolutely knackered by the hour-mark, and Levein doing nothing about it until it's way too late. He brought May and Kimpioka on in the 88th minute when we'd needed that change almost half an hour earlier. Why not give these guys a chance to settle into the game, get on the end of a few chances and maybe make a difference? That's on top of last week when he bafflingly brought May on in the 93rd minute while we were trying to defend a corner. Absolute madness. I'm so bored of seeing opposition managers encourage their teams and talk to their players and make proactive substitutions and adapt their in-game tactics, while Levein and Kirk stand there chatting to each other and changing nothing. And at the end of it all he does yet another interview where he talks as if he has no idea why his plan hasn't worked, when everyone else in the stadium can see exactly why it hasn't worked. I know the squad is poor at the moment but I'm absolutely certain a good manager would be able to get us doing better than this. We just look so poorly organised, so badly coached, so unmotivated and lacking in fight, and a lot of our players don't even look fit. That's nowhere near good enough. Some of these things are just basic starting points that Levein and Kirk have just completely failed to establish. This guy has been managing football teams at all sorts of levels for over 25 years. He was the f*cking Scotland manager for three years. Is this seriously all he's picked up in that time? He really can't come up with a better plan than this? He seriously can't even just put some footballers into their best positions? It's horrific. Just horrific. Please, please, please get this guy out of our club and give us a manager who is actually hungry for the job and has some ideas and has some ambitions beyond giving management another go in-between media or "upstairs" jobs.

Thanks a lot for this offer, really kind of you, but honestly no need. We absolutely understand that yesterday wasn’t representative of your support. And the messages we’ve received since posting have underlined this. Sincerely hope your post split games are successful and we get the chance to do battle again next season.

As a saints fan I don’t give a flying fuq.

Apologies. Thats not the kind of club we are. Think i talk for 99% of the supporters here that if any of the older lads seen something like that happen they would have grab the little shit who done that. Hope your son is ok.

Don't be silly, it would do us no good to go down. We have a realistic chance to punt 15 or more players at the end of this season without relegation. The soon to be new owners have seemingly said Premiership status is a must for any sale to go through. Do folk seriously think relegation is a good thing?

I hardly think we won comfortably, given for 135 minutes of the play offs we were still level. The difference then to now is that you had Rooney, Hendry and other senior players digging in and coming up with the goods and essentially dragging us to safety. We don't have that quality or drive from this squads of shitebag players and we cant score goals so any of the lower league teams will see us as a huge chance to beat.

100% this. McInnes has always been a manager who does his homework and puts a lot of thought into everything. That's why his teams tend to do very well. Kilmarnock aren't anything special on paper, but they have a very good manager who recruits well and is thorough in his preparation and gets the very best out of his players. We, on the other hand, don't. If only we'd gone for McInnes when he was still available, that would probably be us in fourth place right now.

00/01 was my favourite.

Wow....County showing what you can achieve when you don't just play for a point.

I think we're in the same situation as we've been for years, in that the manager thinks we need to play a back 5, a midfield 4, and a front 2, as he doesn't trust the team to defend without 3 CBs or 4 midfielders. Lately we've tried Gallacher at LM as he can cover as a LWB if/when we defend and that makes your back 5, and Clark drops into midfield to make the midfield 4. So defensively its 5-4-1 with the diamond midfield shape McInnes talked about. That leaves us exposed out wide, but our midfield is so soft it doesn't stop teams there either. In attack its meant to become a 4-4-2 with Gallacher and Clark pushing up, and either Smith or Kucheriavyi going right. But that falls apart as we just hoof it and lose it so nobody can get into the shape, and then if we do keep the ball everything moves so slowly that teams are back into shape before we are and with nobody capable of beating a man it's easy to defend against. It would be less of an issue shape wise if anything other than a hoof to Sidibeh was done quickly, but Levein won't encourage that play as it's risky and would mean we lose the ball without having a shape, which leads to us being open as all over the park we have players who can't track runners. So we're constantly fluxing between 2 different shapes, while players are told to prioritise safety against counters, which leads to random spurts of some gambling and others not which leads to a shambles as we play neither shape most of the time. He's not going to encourage more risks in the position we're in, until it gets too much pressure wise like before Aberdeen, so we just have to hope it works out. His previous career suggests that's just who he is too, the United squad he built is a long way ago and it's like experience has made him more cautious.

Two very cheap goals. The worst moment for me in the first half (there were several incidents to be fair) was when Robinson and Gallacher doubled up on Armstrong and the Killie winger was easily able to swing in a perfect cross. The lack of intensity in getting in the faces of the opposition was really sad. It seems a culture of defeatism across the team, something which was evident in the teams since 2021. Not good enough all over the pitch. Sad, really sad. It's been rotten football for far too long.

There is no one in that squad that are not signed that I would want to see next season. I would also hope that emotionless mumbling Levein is gone as well. I don't want to see anti football again next season.

We have our fair share of arseholes unfortunately. They are shitebags who don't like a fair fight.

Is it just me, or has nicky clark been somewhat invisible last couple of games

I'd also like Kimpioka and Sidibeh to start, both have youth, energy and pace. Couple that with a strategy of getting at the opposition from the off and I would imagine that could catch them off guard, so should work well. After an hour or so of giving their all, the younger forwards could be replaced by the older, experienced and proven pairing of Clark and May. They'd be fresh and have more than enough in the tank to get them through to full time. The added benefit to this being by that time in the game, we might need experienced heads on the park to see us to the finish line. This way in my opinion, everybody plays in their correct position, are played appropriately to their physical strengths and makes full use of their experience. I realise it rarely ends up as simple as that, but I think it would be a good base to build from.

Whoever said that is a moron.

And I'll give you the same response that I gave you when you said it before. I know it's conjecture. I'm not claiming otherwise. I'm giving my opinion based on what I'm seeing, which is the whole point of the forum. I'm not claiming to be a news source. I literally caveated what I said in my post with "I have no idea what kind of work he's putting in behind the scenes so this may be unfair of me, but my impression of Levein from the outside looking in ..."

It's safe to say that Killie are managed by someone who still gives a **** and not someone who was just getting a bit bored in their "retirement".

We were comfortable for two halves against ICT, no more IMO. The tie was very much in the balance at half time of the second leg and ICT had missed a decent chance in the first half. But aye, with that group of player we were always likely to drag something out of it. I'll never forget seeing Davidson screaming at Rooney to stay back while he charged forward for the 4th goal though, that kind of player mindset is what we lack just now. Nobody out there who just thinks "**** it, I'll do it myself". I'd be worried about this side going away midweek against a side full of confidence, and how Levein would have us approaching the second leg.

People were saying the same thing last time we were in the play-offs and we ended up beating ICT pretty comfortably. Those teams have scored their goals at a significantly lower level than the one we're playing at. Since the play-offs began, they've only been won three times by the Championship club. All the others have been won by the Premiership club. I wouldn't exactly call myself confident about going into a play-off but we'd definitely be favourites and I think our chances would be decent.

Obviously football doesn’t work like this but Inverness scored 59 in 21/22. We are quite reactionary on here (I include myself in this). Although likely having three away games is an advantage, I think we’ll end up in 11th. I still think we’d have enough in the play offs but it doesn’t mean I’d be confident, nor would I have faith in the mentality of this team to get us over the line. We won’t finish bottom though and that has to be seen as a positive from where we were.

You got that right, there has been various degrees of WTF during my long saint supporting days. But the last three years have been major WTF’s culminating in this shitshow.

I was on holiday in Lanzarote the game taking place during my return flight home. I was wearing my Saints top to travel walking down the aisle to my seat I felt someone grab me as I passed, it was Saints legend Paul Kane he suggested that I must be feeling awful I agreed and we had a nice chat for a wee while. Just as we landed in Edinburgh PK received a text turned round to me and shouted up the plane to me about 10 rows further back "they've f****n done it". I did get back to my home in Peebles in time to join the returning "Peebles Saints" fans in The Crown for a celebratory drink where we were joined by Stevie MacLean.

A performance lacking in any redeeming quality. Dreadful. Killie barely needed to get out of second gear to take the points very very comfortably. Too many in that side lack quality and responsibility on the field. How many times did the defenders have the ball with no options available to them...so they play the ball between themselves and quite often struggle to do that. The left hand side with Robinson and Gallagher was just awful. Says it all when around 80 mins in Gallagher got the ball...he was that anonymous I forgot he was actually on the park. I hope CL doesn't blame the conditions for that performance.

Could be a book in it

I think he just needs to look through this forum for the line up We do have to be the most predictable team i've watched. if we get a goal, the play that led to it becomes the blue print until it runs out of steam.

"We'll never catch Hamilton." A great man once said on here.

Why would it be good for Ross County to pick up a point? I'd much rather see them lose. Livi aren't going to catch us. Even if Livi beat County and Hibs beat us, Livi are going to be 10 points behind us with four games left, so they'd effectively have to win every game and we'd have to lose every game for them to catch us. Realistically that's not going to happen.

Bottled it big time

Now that clown of a manager is comparing his team to Man City, saying City have bad games 🙄

try some prep H

I don’t recall a solo lap of honour from Davidson. I recall him waiting for Zander Clark and then staying glued to him like a velcro puppy while he did his lap of honour.

Our first game against Hibs is massive. County will be looking to win at Livingstone after the result against Rangers. We will quickly find out if this group have the bottle to come through this. I have my doubts.

Not fair on County giving them a midweek game but I suppose it's closest apart from maybe Aberdeen,.

This really annoys me - computer should just produce the fixtures randomly (maybe with restrictions like no two teams from same city playing at home on the same day) and we'll see what we get. Having to change or adapt the fixtures on the basis of anticipated crowd trouble or size of TV audience interferes with sporting integrity IMO.

Our recent result against Dundee and Ross County's against Rangers have been real bummers for me. However, we are where we are and we'll all have views on why. I really do hope we put angst aside and get behind the team during these next five games. The recovery of a patient on a sick bed is unlikely to be enhanced if his visitors tell him he looks awful and on his last legs!

BH, I've said this before - you don't know if any of this is accurate. It's pure conjecture on your part. I agree completley with you and others that some of the decisons are indeed baffling but we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. With respect, one thing that Levein was always renowned for was having very fit and physical teams. I'm not believeing for a minute that our team are not prepared and I don't buy that Levein can't be arsed becasue he's not flying about in the technical area.

Wee example of the show:

I find the reluctance to introduce Kimpioka earlier in games just baffling. He's practically a like-for-like replacement for Sidibeh so even if Levein didn't want to change our system he could make that swap and have another fast striker in the team without us skipping a beat. Surely he must see that Sidibeh is always dead on his feet after an hour? I have no idea what kind of work he's putting in behind the scenes so this may be unfair of me, but my impression of Levein from the outside looking in is that he's a bit lazy. His teams seem unprepared, his tactics poorly thought through with very little adaptation to our opponent, he doesn't want to take training, and his players don't look fit enough which suggests they're not being worked hard enough during the week. At least Macca cared. And his results weren't all that much worse, either.

A relegation and multi-year rebuild under someone like Rhys McCabe genuinely wouldn't be the worst outcome. Just something that offers a passage out of this misery of managers thinking we're not allowed to be aggressive.

Not only did McInnes know about our midfield shape but he said to the media days before the game he knew how we would play and also mentioned the players he was dropping for the game to deal with it! Just insane we just carried on into it. The manager assessment of the team, is that a damming report of all those that were on the bench? If he didn't want to replace those playing poorly then he must think the subs are even worse.

Very sorry to hear that. I would contact the club as well. Sadly the younger culture at the moment is to steal items from the opposition (drums, flags etc). I know of similarities happening to our own support over the years, Rugby Park included. I hope the incident will not impact on your son following his team and enjoying the beautiful game. Hopefully see you back here next season.

That money's long gone. Frittered away on transfer fees and wages for the many, many players Callum Davidson signed and then decided he didn't actually want. Think it's a serious stretch to try to say he was working on a shoestring. Can't agree with that at all. Dodds was a cracking player for us at the time, and his transfer fee doubled when he left after just a few months. Missing one sitter didn't put us down. If it hadn't been for league reconstruction we'd have comfortably stayed up that season. Just take a look at the league table from that year. We finished 9 points clear of 11th place, and we were on the same points as the team who finished 8th and just two points behind the team that finished sixth. Ever since then it's been unheard of for a club to go down from that sort of position, and it'll probably never happen again. Don't think it was a surprise to anyone that just a few years after that Dodds became a regular for Rangers and Scotland.

Yeah

Olafoe, an Hendry on target.

"Rangers have accused Dundee of "negligence and unprofessionalism" after the sides' Scottish Premiership match was postponed for a second time because of a waterlogged pitch." 😁 Two birds with one stone, excellent work rain.

Chris Kane wins and scores a pen to win a point against Partick.