Hamilton Away

[Rob]

This defending for most of the game and patient build up is not working. We cant defend for 90 mins, we lose late goals and only then look like we want to score. We need to push teams harder in the early stages and be hungry for the first goal. At the moment the goals are only coming from players that score now and then, no consistent goal scorer in the team. Are team are working hard but our attacking tactics aren't right at the moment. Goss looks like a decent signing. The corners I saw tonight made it past the front post which is something.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Rob

[andrew]

MOH contributed nothing to the game tonight. The team were too slow and laborious. Not sure I like this passing it about the back. St Mirren famously did that and were relegated for it. Disappointed with that result. Where is all this pace, flair and creativity we’re supposed to have? We had it before the break. What’s happened?

[Rob]

From the BBC - St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "Poor result and poor goals we've given away, which have cost us. We should deal with both goals a lot better."

Poor goals given away is an issue but not as big as not scoring in the first half. If we score a couple of goals in the first half, take control of the game, it makes it hard for the opposition. 

Last 4 games 0-0 at half time, losing goals between 50-80 mins.

 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Rob

[Saline Saint]

Thought O’Halloran’s contribution tonight was a reflection of his previous stints with us made a couple of hopeful runs early on then disappeared from the game.

Kennedey a few weeks ago was unplayable but seems to have lost his way a bit.Goss does appear to have a bit about him and I think he will hold down a starting birth as others falter.

Im not one for the long biuld up as has been mentioned,the back four can pass the ball back and forth across the field all night but with the attacking options we have we really should be terrorising teams like Hamilton.

[RandomGuy]

Hamilton did to us what we've done for years, packed their own defence, denied attackers any space, then countered with intent. We have no God given right to "terrorise" them, they're more than likely going to finish just two or three places below us.

Set up was mental from the manager, O'Halloran central worked once at Ibrox yet he's wedged into midfield. Callachan and Craig given roles to cover the centre of the park, while also protecting the full backs, no surprise both goals came from out wide. Shaughnessy caught ball watching twice, as their striker made the exact same run off him twice, and scored the same goal twice, performances like that make you wonder about him.

Watt same as MacLean, spends the whole game getting crosses delivered 19 yards away from him, gets frustrated, and ends up trying to create chances himself, pointless when you're the only striker. Kane made a huge difference when he came on.

Wish the manager would return to the successful formation. All he has to do is bring in O'Halloran on the right instead of Wright, and swap Craig and Goss depending on the opposition. We had this exact issue last year when he just randomly changed it halfway through the season and it took months to recover form.

[saintee in exile]

Seems crazy...why change a winning formation?

[Valentino Bolognese]

I'll be honest, I quite liked the look of the team other than Craig out wide. Thought it was easily enough to get a result. 

However we were simply poor all over the park. 

I disagree that we should not be expecting to 'terrorise' them. We have (on paper) better players in every part of the field and excellent, stable infrastructure. They've got a 'manager' that's been in charge for a couple of weeks that's had no senior experience, a squad of journeymen, including players that would look unfit in the juniors on a Sunday morning. They play in a dump with a plastic pitch. 

I am pretty raging about last night. As I thought last week Foster is not firing at all and is making terrible decisions with poor execution, Tanser's slipped, Watt seems terrified of goals blah blah blah ... we looked disorganised last night with no sign of fight until the last 10 minutes. I honestly forgot that MOH was playing for a lot of the game. 

All that said, I like the look of Goss. Glad he's on corners.

Tommy needs to sort this out or we can wave goodbye to top 6 this year, which would be criminal given our position coming off the break. 

[Johnny B]

Apart from the result I thought we did ok. Having now watched a few games live on TV (which does not make an expert) I have come to two conclusions, we are missing a cutting edge in the final 1/3 and we make to many errors at the back which cost us goals. I admit 2 of those games were against Celtic. Last night's game was winnable and we failed. Next run games are going to hard Celtic (cup) Rangers Aberdeen and Hibs. If we are still in sixth or thereabouts I will happy. 

[garydavidson]

Joe looked very flat footed at the goals, especially the first where he was leaning back whilst his man ran across him. 

[crieffsaintandy]

35 minutes ago, garydavidson said:

Joe looked very flat footed at the goals, especially the first where he was leaning back whilst his man ran across him. 

A bit like Sunday, we all know tanser makes a hash of it but before that Joe just lets the Celtic guy get his cross in, at the moment not too bothered if he moves, decent enough but replaceable 

[ex-montrosesaintee]

Foster's touch deserted him all night, offering nothing down the right at all.  I don't understand playing someone with O'Halloran's pace in the middle of a packed defence/midfield, when all the space is out wide.  Bizarre setup, and inevitable result.

 

Disappointing.  All will be forgiven if we win at the weekend though.

[Wendy Saints]

We have turned in to ‘Saints’ again. I agree think we have had too many changes, that aside I don’t think the plastic pitch helped. Foster looked like he was playing with his baffies on! Apart from being instrumental in our goal, it was one of his poorer games. No one got pass marks from... but hey it is Saints we are talking about so anything can happen. 

COYS :-)

[Valentino Bolognese]

2 hours ago, Wendy Saints said:

We have turned in to ‘Saints’ again. I agree think we have had too many changes, that aside I don’t think the plastic pitch helped. Foster looked like he was playing with his baffies on! Apart from being instrumental in our goal, it was one of his poorer games. No one got pass marks from... but hey it is Saints we are talking about so anything can happen. 

COYS :-)

I'd give Goss a pass, and the goal's weren't Zander's fault. Can't remember much about Kerr's performance. I also think Matty is trying hard but for whatever reason things just aren't coming off for him, it may well be that this deep into the league teams have learned how to neutralise him. 

The Joe situation is interesting, possibly just a blip but it comes at the same time as all his contract discussion and last night he seemed in a particularly good mood, lots of smiling and chatting from what I saw. Maybe not fully in the game because he's already half out the door - but that said he's always come across as nothing other than professional so willing to think it's a blip. 

I think the most disappointing things are firstly that we looked much more like the pre-break team on Sunday, only to slip back again against a team we've beaten 2-0 and 4-0 in the last couple of months, and secondly the lack of attacking commitment. In the pre-match Tommy said again that he wanted to make it difficult for the opposition. I agree with others that we've slipped back into the old mentality of being hard to play against. We didn't like being sexy for some reason. 

It's also frustrating that other results went our way last night and there's the nagging sensation that we threw a lot away last night. Let's hope it's because the boys are going to chuck it all into Sunday and Tommy just wanted to reassure himself that he really does know his best 11 and best formation, and last night was the final experiment. 

[SaintJet]

It was a pretty lame performance all round last night but lets be honest it's been coming for a while and sometimes we need a good kick up the arse to get us going again. Defending was criminal last night but we have been water tight in games before the Hearts game so hopefully this is just wee hiccup. 

If I have one serious criticism about the manager just now it is that we seem to be setting up the differently every time we go out nowadays and with the wealth of options at his disposal it's not surprising. Lets get back to a settled side and formation and try and stick to minimum changes.

 

[Dr Christmas Jones]

5 hours ago, montrosesaintee said:

Foster's touch deserted him all night, offering nothing down the right at all.  I don't understand playing someone with O'Halloran's pace in the middle of a packed defence/midfield, when all the space is out wide.  Bizarre setup, and inevitable result.

 

Disappointing.  All will be forgiven if we win at the weekend though.

We couldn’t pass wind last night . Tanser and Foster were as bad in the last third as I’ve seen them 

[MySpazz]

 

Two years ago I was kitman at the club where the Hamilton scorer was struggling to get in the team!

Oh and Watt is gash

#saysitall