Saints v Hearts.19/12/15. 3pm K-O

[RandomGuy]

We shall have to agree to disagree on Fishers performance today. As for "backing the boys"  you are correct up to a point. Sometime though, you see a player and your opinion is that he is not very good or not good enough to  merit a place in the team at that time. That's where I see Fisher right now ( and also Sutton  while I am at it) Oh and although it makes no difference one way or another to how I rate him, he is not a player on our books. He is a Celtic player who is loaned to us. I try not to be negative  but  not everything and everyone is great. The world needs ditch diggers as well laddie.

Fishers contracts out this Summer, for all you know he'll sign for us in January and he'll be our player. The fact hes on loan shouldnt have any effect.

FWIW I agree that Joe should be starting ahead of him, hes done absolutely nothing wrong and Fishers never outperformed him. Same with Sutton, hes never ever going to work in our set up, especially as a pairing with Macca. Doesnt change the fact your miles of the mark saying Fisher was a waste of a jersey today who should be punted

[LennyFaeStenny]

So my thoughts on today's game, yet again just like last week we weren't clinical enough, Yes they defended well and the keeper made a few good saves but he never should have been in the position to save any of them. They should have been lashed home instead we were very very timid in front of goal, I presume Fisher may have been played because Tommy perhaps feels he's slightly more offensive than Joe? I wouldn't go as far as saying he was as bad as some are suggesting, I feel a lot of people are just jumping on his back because he's not one of our boys. I feel Sutton actually did okay when we played to his strengths and didnt expect him to run the channels. Maccas penalty was absolutely shocking and after United away and Liam converting one away at caley I feel Liam should have taken it. Thought Kane done okay when brought on, I know a lot of people on here are big Macca fans but I'd like to see Sutton possibly getting another chance with Kane alongside him trying to feed off anything Sutton manages to win, I really don't think Sutton has had the best chance to prove his worth and feel he's in the same situation as Brad, I doubt what I've mentioned will actually happen because I think Sutton will be gone come January but you never know, Hearts time wasting tactics were beyond embarrassing, They rode their luck and managed to go home with a point and I think we only have ourselves to blame for that. Poor finishing has cost us again this week. However there are bonuses to be taken, We created plenty of chances and I personally feel Mannus was slightly more commanding of his area this week, At least we come away with a point next up a very in form Partick will be a tough game but we'll see how it goes.

[Honest Saints Fan]

Yeah Fisher was fine. Unspectacular but can't remember many times Hearts getting in behind him. Defended fine but obviously tired near the end.

[sjfc99]

Being in the main stand I was paying more attention to Fisher in second half and thought he was pretty poor. He never tried to take the ball beyond a man - as soon as he got it then he didnt even take so much as a pace before passing it. Shaughnessy, when he came on actually ran with the ball and looked to take on players. 

 

Thought O'Halloran tried too often to take on a man or two when whipping in a cross wouldve been the betrer option. 

I've said this before but Craig's biggest fault is that he continues to drift so far into the middle of the park he leaves a huge gap on the wing which, means Easton has to do more running and drags Maclean or someone up top out left, amd of course in turn means the opposition get a good run at us.

 

Maclean should have chosen a different time to redeem himself for his Tannadice miss. 

Sutton being moaned at around where we were sat, but like McFadden, he is a player who needs the ball to his head or feet as he can't do the running in the same way as Kane or Cummins can. I thought he wasn't too bad on the whole today.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2015 by sjfc99

[No 3]

Tommy Wright is an excellent manager but it is beggars belief he still lets Steven McLean take penalties.

 McKay, Easton, Murray, Craig would be on the list before him , in many ways we should have won this game on determination alone, but having a penalty and missing it is beyond a joke.

I also thought spoons needs to go to spec savers I don't know how many times Easton was free on the wing going forward and he choose to send  the ball  into an area filled with maroon shirts..This sums up the day

' Now McLean just sought to impress 

with the spot kick he thought he'd address

it sailed high and wide 

causing fans to deride

his incompetence and lack of finesse ! '

 

 

 

[LennyFaeStenny]

Also a couple of points I missed, O'Halloran needs to learn that an early delivery into the box can work, Rather than running up a blind alley with two players doubling up against him and trying to force a cross through a small gap. Also we are absolutely crying out for a left sided winger who can have a go at a player, Liam puts in a shift out there and does have a good ball on him but he doesn't have the ability to beat a man and he gets sucked inside far too easily leaving Easton very exposed at times.

[Broon]

Really should have won that today. Maclean has missed loads of penalties for Saints...its actually ridiculous he's even allowed near them.  4 misses? Awful. It's nice he has self belief but nobody else the stadium thought he'd score. Craig was OK on them but we've struggled with pens since the Wizard. 

Hearts were brutal but I don't expect anything else from them.  Filthy and long ball all day.

Don't like to criticise the ref but he bottled two other pens on Fisher. One was absolutely blatant. Not that we'd have scored it...the fecking new nets behind the goal wouldn't stop Macleans penalties. 

[wee john]

I thought fisher was gash, as was Sutton, we won't miss him when he goes back to Celtic and Sutton can go to anyone that wants him if it was up to me.

Hearts play not to lose rather than playing to win, not good to watch, they are 3rd in the league but on that performance and a few I've seen on tv, they are lucky to be there, 3rd place is up for grabs.

 

[RandomGuy]

I have Liam scoring 12 out of 16 penalties, with MacLean scoring 3 out of 6, obviously excluding penalty shoot outs where I think Maccas missed one and scored one?

[Jiangsu Sainty]

The idea Fisher was anything like as bad as some here are saying is laughable.

Old erses sat behind me kept seeing everything in polar terms, if a clever through ball got intercepted they'd  scream "shite ball" and the opposite when a simple pass got there. 

Football exists beyond just amazing and shite and that applies to Fisher today too.

He made a few poor balls, looked exhausted fairly early on (although I think he took a knock to the knee when he was in the centre of the park) and should have been taken off far far earlier (probably as a result). I also agree there is no reason why he is playing so much  ahead of Joe, but he played perfectly OK today and often does and is a thoroughly decent saints level player. 

Maclean's touch was phenomenal at that times on that honking pitch, he's easily my all time favourite player. Rotten penalty though. 

In addition to our finishing, Tommy contributed to us not winning by not acting earlier. Sutton was ineffective and Fisher was exhausted and they both should have been off sooner. Sutton tried hard but the pitch slowed him down even more which leaves him almost stuck in place. 

 

This contributed to use being a little one sided at times as Craig stayed central a bit too much so there were times we had Easton trying to play it down left wing for Sutton to chase which just isn't going to work. 

McLean aside there was no quality on show in those conditions but an enjoyable day oot

[HOODLUM65]

In place of who?

Joe the throw 

[HOODLUM65]

Seems like everyone wants to put the boot in to the guys that played today, just cause we did not win.

I'm as disappointed as the rest of the support that CHANCES have been created in the last two games, yet we have drawn blanks. Some team are gonna get hit for five when we find our shooting boots again.

For what it's worth, thought we played well as a team and deserved to win.

It is difficult to play against 10 men, as Saints opponents this season will admit when Saints have had 10 men,

Chin up, move on, Hearts league position is up for grabs.

[Havana Saint]

No more Macca pens 

[slf]

Young team were Braw the day.

[Baldy Marc]

I think the pitch played a significant part in our failure to win the game today and it'll cost us more points this season.  A few players seemed reluctant to run with the ball at the feet at time and Mikey struggled at time. 

[Oldermoresensiblepack]

I honestly do not know why we did not win today (apart from the obvious, obviously) chances galore again and not a goal to show for it. Maybe at Thistle ???

[SlickDT]

We really should of picked up the three points today. Plenty of hard work from the lads today. I thought Spoony stuck to his position and regularly moved into intelligent positions to retain possession. Very hard to play in a central two- when your partner isn't particularly good at looking for the ball/ helping out at times when in possession, but he was always willing to help out his team mates.

Ive no idea what Joe did to be dropped today- he's a superior player to Fischer, who had an average game at best and doesn't support attacks as well as we are used to Captain Dave doing in the past.

A point ain't too bad a result. 

[Oldmuirton]

When Maclean skyed his penalty against United, the decision to keep him as our penalty taker was taken. Management are entitled to make that call, but surely it should include intensive practice  at taking penalties.  If that took place, (and I have my doubts) surely it would be impossible for him to miss so badly with an exact replica of his miss against United.

We missed lots of chances today, so it's not all down to Steven Maclean, but that's the miss that's ruining my weekend and got me boiling with frustration.

[PauloPerth]

I thought we played okay for most of that game, just could not score. You felt if we got one we'd have gone on to score a few. Maclean had a great game apart from another shocking penalty.. Missed the last one by skying it, the one thing you'd make sure of this time would be hitting the target! He's got to be off them now. Wondered if Sutton was picked partly to help with defending corners after the celtic game, and given that hearts are 'a big, physical side'.

I thought we were fairly patient against a team that sat in; rather than lumping hopeful balls in we tried to pick the right pass. Fairly obvious thing to say but all we missed was the finishing touch. Murray's first half miss when he kicked it the way he was facing with his right foot instead of using his left summed up our finishing today.

Didn't rate Hearts when with 11 or 10, though they obviously battled hard for what is a good point for them. I thought their centre back no. 4 (Augustyn?) was excellent. 

Definitely points dropped against a team we should have beaten at home. Still, a couple of winnable away games coming up to try to get back on a roll. 

[Markinch Saint]

I thought we played okay for most of that game, just could not score. You felt if we got one we'd have gone on to score a few. Maclean had a great game apart from another shocking penalty.. Missed the last one by skying it, the one thing you'd make sure of this time would be hitting the target! He's got to be off them now. Wondered if Sutton was picked partly to help with defending corners after the celtic game, and given that hearts are 'a big, physical side'.

I thought we were fairly patient against a team that sat in; rather than lumping hopeful balls in we tried to pick the right pass. Fairly obvious thing to say but all we missed was the finishing touch. Murray's first half miss when he kicked it the way he was facing with his right foot instead of using his left summed up our finishing today.

Didn't rate Hearts when with 11 or 10, though they obviously battled hard for what is a good point for them. I thought their centre back no. 4 (Augustyn?) was excellent. 

Definitely points dropped against a team we should have beaten at home. Still, a couple of winnable away games coming up to try to get back on a roll. 

Just had a feeling yesterday that no matter what saints did we weren't going to score. As for the winnable 2 away games, the jags are the inform team having won their last 4 and Motherwell seem to be on the up, getting a result against a Celtic team at Parkhead, when saints couldn't get anything against them in Perth. I wouldn't be all that surprised if we picked up zero points from the next 3 games, given Aberdeen's resurgence in form also.

[Nelly78]

Yeah Fisher was fine. Unspectacular but can't remember many times Hearts getting in behind him. Defended fine but obviously tired near the end.

That's how I saw it as well. There were people behind us screaming at him to "go through him" or "make a f**king tackle". Yeah good idea, give away a pointless foul or over commit yourself and leave a huge gap in the defence........ My only complaint was he didn't make enough of the space he was given going forward. Defensively he was fine.   

[Dave H]

A classic! We hammered them 0-0. 

Red card helped, idiot of a lad. Totally dominated how it remained nil nil is a mystery.   A shut out is the only big positive, and the next positive is we still creating loads if chances... Some one is going to get a real thumping of us soon.... 

[Cagey]

That's how I saw it as well. There were people behind us screaming at him to "go through him" or "make a f**king tackle". Yeah good idea, give away a pointless foul or over commit yourself and leave a huge gap in the defence........ My only complaint was he didn't make enough of the space he was given going forward. Defensively he was fine.   

He didnt have to defend after they went down to 10. They only attacking they did was long balls through the middle. Mikey was never in the game til Joe came on & then went on a few runs & had a fee shots at goal.

Anyway will have to watch Alba tonight to see what some folk saw that I didnt.

[R.B.B:- Adz]

Is it just me or did we always used to have a designated penalty taker(perceived expert) over the years.

I was sure that currently that man was Liam Craig... He was on the pitch yesterday when it was awarded

[slf]

The conduct of some of the so called adults hanging around with literal children.  down the front of the East stand is nothing short of embarrassing, including some I've seen representing the fan base in newspaper interviews etc. 

 

Get a ****ing life

nothing like getting yer knickers in a twist when ye don't know the full facts dude.

Back on topic ,great atmosphere coming face that area.during the match