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The balance of our squad is an absolute mess. We've brought in too many old players who are just here for their last payday, we don't bring through any of our own young players, we're overloaded in the attacking midfield area, we've signed wingers for a system that doesn't use wingers, we've wasted money by chucking transfer fees at players who don't or can't play, and the manager has done nothing to address the three areas (goalkeeper, CDM and centre forward) that are absolutely critical to us making any sort of improvement. On top of that we've chucked long term contracts at guys like Considine, Bair and Crawford, and sent a promising striker out on loan for the whole season (why??). For the squad to be in this state when our manager has been with us for over two years is just completely unacceptable. Our success as a club has been built on having a consistent spine of players who understand the club, want to be here, are in it for the long term and only need to be supplemented with a small number of transfers each year to keep things fresh. Davidson has completely destroyed that ethos and turned us into a collection of journeymen, has-beens, crocks and other fringe players who are nowhere near good enough for the level we're playing at. The damage Davidson has done to what previous managers had built here could take years to fix, and he needs to be removed immediately before he makes things even worse.

Sat here in tears watchin us lift the cup, lost my wife of 40 years in June always wanted me to go up the road to see the boys when she was I'll, then lost the brother and his mate who were big Saintees smiling down on us, love to think they helped us win it.

COYS Tuktoyaktuk Saints supporters club are shouting for you

What I find absolutely infuriating is that, before the World Cup, Davidson had actually managed to get us playing. Whether by luck or design he'd found a system that got the best out of Stevie May, worked with a relatively settled team and used players largely playing in their best positions. It was nothing fancy but it was working, the players seemed to have got a bit of confidence back and we were starting to look a bit more like old Saints again. He has now completely destroyed that by reverting to a system that he surely must know doesn't work. We're leaving players on the bench who should be playing, picking guys who are off form, playing players out of position and we've gone back to forcing Stevie May to chug hopelessly around on his own up front again. And then there's the baffling stuff like suddenly starting Gallacher after not even picking him on the bench for weeks, and leaving Spoony on the bench despite being comfortably our best creative midfielder. I just find it impossible to see any logic in any of it. This is exactly why I wasn't buying into any of the "Davidson's turned it around and proven us all wrong" stuff. This was always around the corner and the next thing looming for us is another relegation battle. He should have gone after the Kelty game. When that didn't happen he should have left after the play-off win. We desperately, desperately needed a change for this season but instead we have an even more bloated, imbalanced squad that's going to be a massive job for someone to fix and he cannot be allowed to make even more mess during the current transfer window. He must go now.

Yep, last thing we want in our squad is a young striker with a bit of raw talent who's played for Finland U-21s and looked interested in at least trying to bring some flair and creativity to our painful, predictable, hopeless, goal-less approach. I can understand people thinking Eetu didn't do enough when he was here, but what I can't understand is people not thinking it might have been a good idea to try to develop and encourage and get the best out of this player, instead of chucking him in the bin. It's just absolutely bizarre to me that the club invested so much time, money and resource in getting him here, but don't seem to have been willing to invest anything in him at all once he was actually our player. They practically spent longer trying to get his work permit sorted than they did actually giving him a chance to play. It's an absolute embarrassment the way we've treated this guy.

If and when Callum Davidson does leave the club all the facts you have stated about his management, coaching and playing career with us will always be there. Whilst recent times have been far from brilliant, his place in the history of our club will always be remembered due to his significant involvement in the club winning three major trophies. It seems to me though that a number of our supporters feel that these achievements mean that he can not be criticised on the merits of his current work. Over the weekend I have read a number of our supporters on social media come away with "what do you expect from Callum, he won us the double". He did and that was an amazing time for us all and one that I struggle to see being repeated by a club outside the big two in Glasgow anytime soon, but surely anyone looking rationally at the evidence over the past 18 months cannot make a case to say he is doing a good job. Last season I was not as critical as some as I still had an element of goodwill towards him after the double season and tried to take into account the impact that losing Kerr and McCann on the last day of the transfer window had on the team as a whole as well as losing key figures such as Wotherspoon and Kane to injury. Despite concerns over his recruitment in the summer, I was willing to give Davidson a fresh start going into this season as I could see not logic in not getting behind and the club going into a new campaign, but as each week has gone by my concerns have grown about the direction that he is taking the club in. Our home form has been atrocious, he is tactically inflexible, his team selections defy logic at times and the general performance levels have been dire. Add into the mix concerns over the way he seems to isolate players for no obvious reason, his often bizarre pre and post match press conference and his unwillingness to give youth players an opportunity are all reasons that have led to me strongly believing that that the longer he is our manager then then more damage he will be doing to the club we all love. Can anybody offer an defence of Davidson from a footballing perspective? Do anyone enjoy watching us? Can anyone offer a defence of why he seems obsessively stuck to the same rigid formation? I note that most defences of him over the weekend were along the lines of "we should be happy, we have no divine right to be in the Premiership" and "think yourself lucky, it was worse in the 80's". I'm yet to see anyone come up with a logical argument in support of Davidson tactics, team selections or general style of play. The only side of the club that seems to have any ambition is the youth teams under Alistair Stevenson. The rest of the club from the Chairman, board, Head of Operations and Head of Football Operations seem to be lacking in any sort of vision or ambition. Its really not an enjoyable time to be a Saints fan at the moment.

Unless you've seen the guy play, I find this sort of view absolutely baffling. As long as the club have done their homework and actually watched him (like I suspect they didn't do with Bair), then I don't see what the problem is. For comparison, he's playing at the same level in the English pyramid that Dipo Akinyemi had spent much of his career at before signing for Ayr United. When Akinyemi started banging in goals for Ayr, there were a lot of people on here suggesting we try to sign him, and also asking why it is that Saints never seem able to find/attract players like that. Now we're doing exactly that and people are already flying off the handle about how bad the player apparently is. I'm really struggling to understand how people can form such strong opinions about guys they've presumably never seen play or even heard of. Surely we've all been following football for long enough to understand that there are gems to be found at lower levels.

This comes up so often that I feel it deserves a thread of its own. I'm just baffled by our manager's insistence on sticking with our current system and I'd love for someone to offer up an argument against any of these points and reassure me that I'm actually wrong. Our persistence with a back three, consisting of players who are reasonably solid defensively but possess limited ability to get forward and contribute to an attack, means that we're often outnumbered when we try to create, and end up passing the ball sideways or backwards. The task given to our wing-backs is virtually impossible. They're asked to cover an entire side of the pitch on their own, acting as both defenders and attackers. I believe a wing-back system very rarely works, unless you have exceptionally fit, athletic and talented players for those positions. It worked for us when Rooney first broke into the team, but Rooney was a one-off. Other than that, as far as I can tell, our wing-backs have worked hard and done their best but consistently struggled to provide any attacking threat or service to our forwards. So why use wing-backs at all? We still seem to have no holding midfielder. Phillips may hopefully come onto a game but based on his first few games I'm not sure he's that kind of player. Last season we often used Murray Davidson as our sitting midfielder but, while good at breaking up play, he contributes little when it comes to looking for the ball and playing it on. Crawford doesn't play that role. MacPherson doesn't play that role. Hallberg doesn't play that role. So when our back three have the ball, no one comes to look for it from them, and the ball has nowhere to go. I'm starting to think we'd have been better off if we'd given Butterfield another year, and that's really saying something. Despite Hallberg showing last season that he can make a big difference in an attacking role, we've reverted to a system in which he doesn't fit, and he's now forced to sit back. We've effectively nullified the threat of arguably our own best player. Surely that's madness? Carey and Murphy both seem to be talented footballers but are we really getting the best out of them and is there really room for both of them in the same starting line-up? I'd have thought we need to either stick one on either side and use them as out-and-out wingers (but do they have the pace for that?), or play just one of them behind a couple of strikers (but we lack the strikers for that, and besides, we already had Hallberg for that role if we were going to play that system). I'm just struggling to see how signing both of these players was the best use of our budget, when we're so lacking in other areas. The system relies on having an out-and-out centre-forward who is able to make an impact through the middle on his own, and yet we don't have a player like that in the squad. So why are we playing it? Both Bair and May would probably be helped by having a strike partner, but for some reason we've gone into the season with no other strikers so we rotate endlessly between the two of them, with each one looking as ineffective as the other. It's not working, so why are we still doing it? In pre-season Davidson said he wanted his squad to be more flexible this season and we'd be less wedded to a particular system. Other than occasional enforced changes which have been made at times when we've been chasing games, I've seen very little evidence of this flexibility in action, and yet we continue to lose games. When a team keeps losing games, is it not the manager's job to try doing things differently, instead of doing the same things week after week after week? Please, someone, tear all this apart and tell me Callum Davidson's masterplan involves any sort of plan at all, and that things are suddenly, miraculously, just going to click into place and come good on their own?

I have the total fear we are heading to the play off position again the way we are going. What seems to be the common ground at the minute is an older fan, either on here,Banter page or Pie and Bovril, coming in total support of manager and club in everything they do because they were at the 3-3 Rangers game in the 80s or the Dundee game in 60s which I just don’t get. I m an older lad myself, started going mid to late 80s, first real success I remember was being on the pitch after beating Arbroath 4-0 and the players in main stand throwing champagne about, singing “ Ayr Ayr **** yer Ayr “ despite the fact we’d finished second to them, it was promotion from Scotlands bottom league at the time. Right now though is the most unconnected with the club I ve ever felt. I think Callum’s a bit unlucky in that I probably don’t give him enough credit for the cup double, mainly cos I wasn’t there. Over last 30 odd years I ve probably missed less that 10 home games over that time and been at double figures away games every year too. I actually almost resent the double cup win, I ve been to Hampden so many times and still never seen us win there. I don’t understand how anyone can be happy right now, a clueless manager who should have been gone by the time I got back to Perth after the Kelty game. Football on the pitch that is eye watering bad, I don’t mind us getting beat but at least have a plan that you look like you have set up to try and win. Zander must have been so low in confidence having not played in months at the Hearts game yet we gave him nothing to do early on. A squad that is so big, biggest I can ever remember yet we have no idea our strongest team. Then add in the Rangers cup game shitfest, even “ off the ball “ on radio where Stuart Cosgrove is normally the boards saviour was so damming of the situation. Some people may have been told the true reasons in a pub, it appears some contact was made with however they communicate with the young lads in FCU, what about just the normal fans though, we get to hear nothing. I was briefly enjoying this season before the World Cup as we were ok to watch for a while, it’s back to the rubbish tactics of last year though and if we achieve 10th place it will be seen as success. I hate the fact that, I live 10 mins walk from ground, will be free the night of Rangers game and can afford £30 but right now, won’t be there, will be first time ever I miss a game where I’m in the house and can hear the crowd noise. This obviously happened during Covid but no crowd. How have we managed to get to such a crappy place with how I feel about my club ?

Saints did the right thing, I've worked for enough shitty employers who don't give a toss about their staff to appreciate those that do. Opportunistic by Shamrock Rovers, but good bit of business for them. Cleary would have been nuts to turn them down. He's a ****ing human being with a good reason to be back home, and he always gave 100% in a Saints shirt. The club is a disgrace just now for many reasons, but let's not criticise them for treating a human being with the respect and common decency he deserves.

That was my first St Johnstone match last night it was amazing told granda he has to take me to the next one

Think there's a bit of a danger at the moment of a lot of people starting to panic and that's really not going to help matters. Have already seen a lot of the usual suspects on social media calling for the manager's head and just find it almost laughable that that is some people's solution to absolutely everything (we used to get the same types calling for Tommy Wright's head any time we had a bad run of results, which seems even crazier now than it did then). This is why the idea of fan ownership worries me: we'd be starting from fresh with a new manager every couple of weeks if some of our fans had their way. I had a lot of reservations about appointing MacLean but he's in the job now and I think the club has a responsibility to stand by him, and the fans should unite as much as possible in getting behind him and not turning on the players during matches. It's just way too early in the season, and in Macca's reign, to do anything else. He clearly knows that what we're seeing right now isn't good enough, he's trying to implement a long term plan, he's trying to bring in the right kind of player and he wants to get us playing in a different way. Clearly at the moment it's not happening but did anyone actually expect an overnight turn-around? This is a huge job and even an experienced manager would have found it a major challenge. Obviously this can't be allowed to go on for months and months, and if it starts to look like we're being cut adrift at the bottom of the table then there's going to have to be a big change. But for now I just think the best thing anyone can do - players, fans, coaches, everyone on and off the pitch - is pull in the same direction and make sure the team is supported.

Completely fed up of watching the same negative, pedestrian, one-dimensional, predictable rubbish every week. Every single team in the league knows that all they need to do is hold tight and wait for their chance to score one goal and then we're finished. Our clueless manager sticks to the same system whether we're playing Annan Athletic or playing the Old Firm, and the laughable thing is that it's equally ineffective against either one. I just cannot understand the decision to completely nullify Hallberg by playing him in a role he's so clearly stifled in. Callum Davidson was here last season. He signed Hallberg. He must have seen how influential he can be when played in an attacking role. So why change that? To be this far into the season with no new striker recruited is just downright negligent and it's reaching the point where it's becoming painful watching Theo Bair struggle along on his own up front when he's so clearly miles out of his depth. He's one of several players who should be nowhere near our team but we're stuck with them because our manager has tied them to lengthy, expensive contracts. Our squad is absolutely massive and yet we have only two strikers (neither of whom are suited to the system we're playing) and we don't have a single player on the bench who can come on and make an impact or make any sort of difference. Callum Davidson has pissed his transfer budget up against a wall and completely destroyed everything his predecessor built at the club. We're heading towards an even more calamitous season than last year and it's beyond unforgiveable. When is our board going to wake up and do something about this? And, maybe more to the point, when are we as fans going to start making our voices heard?

We have had a staggering 41 players play or appear on the bench for us this season. Four have never got on from the bench, one of those a Davidson signing: Ross Sinclair unused sub 9 Jordan Northcott unused sub 9 Sam Denham unused sub 4 Jahmal Hector-Ingram unused 4 Of the 41 players Davidson has signed 21: John Mahon, Theo Bair, Melker Hallberg, Nadic Ciftci, James Brown, Dan Cleary, Ali Crawford, Cammy MacPherson, Tony Gallacher, Eetu Vertainen, Glenn Middleton, Tom Sang, Hayden Muller, Lars Dendoncker, Reece Devine, Jacob Butterfield, Viv Solomon-Otabor, Efe Ambrose, Jahmal Hector-Ingram, Craig Bryson, Charlie Gilmour. How can you possibly, unless you are on the wind up, say that Davidson is " doing the best with a bad bunch" he has bought the majority of players who are at the club today. He created this bad bunch - he is responsible. Tommy Wright never once had a squad the size of the one this season, I am hard stretched to think of any Saints manager having so many players at his disposal. Any using up of the player budget was done by Davidson - not by anyone else.

Anyone else have a weird feeling of not knowing what to do last night? Still, can't wait for the open-top bus tour in the summer. It's going to be a belter. I hope the club is ready with plenty of season ticket forms to hand out. Seriously, I think it's hard to put into words how special this era is. Always gives me goosebumps to think of all the thousands of Saints fans, staff, officials and players going right back to 1885 who experienced little or no success, the fans who'd have lived and died hoping to see their team lift a trophy but never did. And then our generation comes along and gets two trophies and multiple trips to Europe. And it's not just the success, but the way we've done it. Barely spent a penny on transfers, no sugar-daddy owner, no crowing about a "fairytale". Every single bit of success has come about through sheer hard work and good decision-making, and that goes all the way back through multiple managers who have all contributed in pushing us on and building upon their predecessor's work. It really should be a far bigger story than it is, but I think the fact that we fly forever under the radar is in itself a part of that success. We're still underestimated, and always will be.

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 .....

Honestly, the negativity around everything we do is laughable. I'm delighted that the team are going away for some training and team bonding - we rarely do this so it's nice to see us taking a proffessional appraoch for a change instead of srapping about in the highlands or Ireland. There is still a lot of work to do and some new faces to come on board. It's the start of a new season, please lets at least begin with some ambition for a better season.

I personally feel that much of the abuse, vitriol and attempts to undermine both Callum Davidson and the club have been out of order recently, particularly since the weekend. Yes this season has been far from perfect. There are a number of factors that have contributed towards that, the sale of our best two players, numerous injuries to key players, poor recruitment, lack of investment from the club and a fixation with a particular system, however none of that merits some of the recent criticism towards a St Johnstone legend. Callum was an exceptional player for us, is the player we received our highest transfer for and less than a year ago led us to a historic cup double. I don't see the logic in sacking him at this moment. Yes, Saturday was embarrassing, but bigger clubs than us have been on the end of worse results in Glasgow. This was a Celtic side that many of their support are saying are even better to watch than the team under Brendan Rodgers and who are relentless in pursuit of winning the league. What is he supposed to say to the media after the game? That some players are not good enough? That some players heads are elsewhere? All that would do is have a negative impact on an already fragile group of players. Look at some of Robinsons comments at St Mirren recently, they seemed to have worked well..... In terms of players not playing for Davidson, I dont buy that either. Word usually gets out if that is the case, but as far as I am aware, all the players enjoy playing under him, and he has a good bond with the senior players such as Zander, Liam Gordon and Murray Davidson. Results since January dont back up that argument either. Yes, the wins against Motherwell and Livi were not great entertainment, but given our position, all that matters to me is getting the results on board. The time for reflection is in the summer, the club have already made steps to fix some of the errors that have led to our current situation and I am sure that more will be made. Nothing to be gained from turning on the manager and players at the moment. We as supporters just need to get behind the club as much as possible over the next five games and hope that the players/management do enough to keep us up.

Hi Guys, A Disabled Motherwell Fan Here, Congratulations On The Win! I hope those 3 points will come in handy in keeping you guys up come the end of the season! I was invited to Mcdiarmid Park By St Johnstone Senior Liason Officer Bev Mayer (Who Is An Absolute Star) & I (Stephen Reside) Also Featured In The Matchday Program Regarding Cafe's Week Of Action. As Part Of My Vlog I Rated The Disabled Facilities Which Are Second To None & Probably The Best In The League, Everyone At St Johnstone Were So Friendly & Welcoming. I Seriously Hope St Johnstone Stay Up, I Hope You Don't Mind Me Sharing My Vlog With Me Rating The Disabled Facilities & My Trip. I Thought St Johnstone Played Some Great Stuff At Times, All The Best For The Rest Of The Season Guys & I'm Sure You'll Enjoy My Occasional Meltdowns!! LINK TO VLOG HERE

Looking ominous for Saints, reminds me of when Utd went down. We sold GMS, Armstrong, Shifty, in a quick succession this was compounded by letting go: Fojut, Gardyne, Erskine players who might not be the same class as the A list, but still seasoned top flight performers. Similarly losing Kane an Spoony has been a huge blow, at the worst moment. All is not lost, it’s only half time and if anyone deserves a shot at correcting this it’s CD. Couple of decent signings in Jan and this team can get back to the well drilled performances the coaches instilled so effectively last season. I think the winter break arrived at the right moment for Saints (and United!). so let’s raise a glass (half full) and enjoy New Year! All the best my WAP friends, I hope you and yours are blessed in the coming year! Xxx

Hello. I live in Turkey and I'm a Galatasaray fan. I read your chat and saw that you were looking for the broadcast of the match. I signed up to help you. If you can't find the broadcast in your language, there are some credible broadcasts (used by almost 70% of Turkish football fans) that are used by those who do not buy Spor Smart and BeinSports in Turkey. There are websites. But these are streams with Turkish comments. I wanted to rank the safest for you. These are some of them; https://www.selcuksportshd26.com/ (If you cannot access the site during the match or before the match, type selcuksports on google and click on the results.)(The owners of the site is Fenerbahce supporters. Therefore, if Saint Johnstone scores a goal, he can put an image mocking Galatasaray on the screen.If this bothers you, don't use this site. But it's still the best quality streaming site.) http://wvw.viagrars.com/ (name is weird but you know its illegal) (If you cannot access the site during the match or before the match, type Taraftarium on google and click on the results.) http://www.kralbozguncu15.net/ (If you cannot access the site during the match or before the match, type kralbozguncu on google and click on the results.) https://jokerbettv72.com/ (If you cannot access the site during the match or before the match, type jokerbet on google and click on the results.) http://www.dlovatofans.com/ (If you cannot access the site during the match or before the match, type selcuksports on google and click on the results.) These sites are completely safe and are used by many Turkish football fans. In fact, they are used so much that we can say that BeinSports, the broadcaster of the Turkish Super League, has declared war on these illegal stream sites. Sorry for my bad english. I can say that I used google translate completely while writing these.

Let's face it: MacLean should never, ever have been given the job in the first place, let alone been given a three-year deal. There were worrying signs even during his few games as caretaker manager, and handing him a long-term deal off the back of those games was a lazy, short-sighted, unimaginative, cheapskate decision. Once he got the job I was happy to get behind him and give him a chance. I really liked a lot of the things he said, and I think some of his signings were pretty good (Mitov is our best signing in years; Sprangler looks a cracking find; even Smith and Jephcott looked great signings on paper but are obviously yet to deliver). But once the injury crisis ended and he had his own players in place he really needed to prove he could turn his positive words into positive performances and I think Saturday probably confirmed that was never going to happen (despite a slight improvement in the games before that). We desperately needed to make a clean break from the Davidson regime at the end of last season. By not doing that we've wasted more time, wasted more money, blown an absolutely pivotal transfer window, and put ourselves in a position at the bottom of the league table that might not be recoverable. These decisions aren't Macca's fault. They're the club's fault. And I know people will say it's a different board in charge now but I struggle to believe there was no overlap or conversation at the time that would have involved Harris and co. And all of this has been overseen by the same owner. The fact is the various people running the club over the last three or four years have lurched from one bad decision to another and they've let us all down. I know I've said this on here multiple times but this all stems back to not doing enough to keep our best ever manager happy. If Tommy Wright had felt supported and happy in his job, and been given the structure and set-up he was asking for, he'd still be our manager now and we'd probably still be a comfortable mid-table Premiership club enjoying the occasional good Cup run and European qualification. Losing Tommy Wright, and then allowing Callum Davidson to completely dismantle everything Wright took years to build, has completely killed what this club was.

Don’t post very often……but needs must . Pains me to say it but McLean and coaching staff need removed now. He was dealt a bad hand but was presumably integral to the squad overhaul despite the fact he had no managerial experience. McLean talk a good game but has simply failed to deliver -whether its recruitment or coaching he has failed. We are almost a third of the way through the season - not even looking like we can win and of course the League Cup was a disaster. Pointless him criticising and threatening players ( that in itself show an serious lack of man management skills given that he cannot change personnel until we are half way through the season), everything points to either they don’t want to play for him, tactics and team selection are wrong or the squad is simply not good enough. My guess is it’s a combination of all of this. At the end of the day the manger and coaches are responsible and to give any hope of avoiding relegation, changes need to happen NOW. What we need is for Geoff Brown preferably or whoever controls the Club to make a clear communication on how the Club plans to resolve the current situation and the timeline for action. As a season ticket holder ( along with my family) it is simply unacceptable that underperformance on so many fronts has persisted for so long. If WAPers agree or otherwise please respond as appropriate. I suppose this is the start of a campaign to give our Club at least a chance to get back to where it can be.

The more I've thought about this as a marketing exercise the more irritating it gets for me. I spoke to Matt Gallagher at the PA the other day and kind of mentioned it to him, but this was really an opportunity to try something different and put the current disastrous league form to the side for one weekend and try to rally the fans. My profession til a few years ago was in media and PR - it really wouldn't have taken a great deal of imagination to do something along the lines of: - Emphasise the fact that Saints have won more trophies than Rangers over the past decade. Some tongue in cheek stuff (but absolutely factual) about the fact that Rangers are trying to chase our record down. - Market it as "We Want More" - we've won three cups in the last nine years, and we want another. Again - a bit tongue in cheek - but really hit the fact that we've done it before and we want to do it again, this time in person. - Again, hit the fact that we missed out last time because it was all behind closed doors. "Don't miss it this time" or something along those lines. - Pitch it as a one-off game - forget the league form, forget everything else, this matters more for one weekend. - Just flood social media with constant videos of James Brown/Nicky Clark's goals earlier this season against Rangers along with Zander's header on to Chris Kane at Ibrox during the 2021 cup run, along with the shoot out. And obviously the cup final goals/trophy lifts. Get the excitement going - we've done it before, we'll do it again. - Combine all of the above - if at all possible - with cutting Rangers back to <3000 tickets in the North/Main stands and ticket prices at £20 adults, £15 students/OAPS, £10 12-18 and £5 for U-12s. I'd like to think that having half the number of Rangers fans would see a drop in the costs in terms of policing etc, but that's really not something that's public knowledge. We might not sell out, but we'd surely at least get a home crowd that outnumbers the Rangers support on the day. 4000 home fans and 2800 away at least? Back ourselves, give ourselves a chance, try *something* instead of... this...

Well I said i'd be back at McDiarmid Park before long! As a neutral I felt really welcome from start to finish. Again thanks to Bev Mayer, The best SLO/Disability Officer in Scotland for her hospitality & for looking after me and to Mark Guidi for sorting me the tickets. This time I rated the home disabled facilities because before I was in the away end. I'm a Motherwell fan but really developing a soft spot for St Johnstone and everyone involved with the club. A big shout out has to go to FCU (Fair City Unity) for creating an intimidating atmosphere for any club to visit. I said it back when Motherwell played St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park that I hoped St. Johnstone stayed up and im glad they have done so! If anyone is interested in seeing some Highlights, Fan reaction, Disabled Facility & Atmosphere ratings of the Game v Inverness, Check out my vlog on Youtube where I captures some incredible stuff on the night! Hopefully not too long before I'm back, I love it In Perth! Thanks to all St. Johnstone fans for embracing me and welcoming me as a neutral, I'll be forever greatful... Just an all round great club! How are you guys feeling about keeping the manager? I spoke to a lot of fans around the ground and they had mixed thoughts on it. LINK:

New signings or no new signings, for me the Dundee game is Davidson's last chance. We must win that game. If we don't, we'll be even deeper in the sh*t than we are now, but there will still be a slim chance of saving ourselves and the only way of doing that will be to hope for the possible bounce that a new manager might give us. Completely understand that sacking a manager after winning two trophies and signing a new contract is a difficult thing to do - both emotionally and financially. Also understand that our situation is not entirely Davidson's fault. But we're running out of time and the club quite simply has to do whatever it takes to at least try to get us out of this mess. If some of that "rainy day fund" has to be spent on paying off Davidson and getting someone else in, then so be it. It's a colossal waste as we should never, ever have been in this position - but it's where we are and we need to deal with it. The sheer speed at which this collapse has happened is absolutely heartbreaking. More than a decade of hard work from McInnes, Lomas and Wright, building us into a club who not only survived in the Premier but punched well above our weight, winning trophies, finishing Top 6 and playing in Europe season after season after season. Players like Anderson, Millar, Davidson and Mackay wanting to spend their careers here because this was the place to be. And just a few months ago we stood on the verge of stepping up to a completely new level of prestige, excitement and financial wealth. Everything is just being pissed down the drain.

Up until the Motherwell games, I was confident that we would turn things around, however the performances in the past two games have sucked all enthusiasm out of me and its now clear that we are in deep trouble. Given his achievements last season and the fact that changing a manager so close to such a crucial transfer window could be disruptive, I think we should stick with Davidson just now. History has proven over the past few years that clubs who were in a similar position to us just now, who did change their management team, found no real upturn in their fortunes. in fact for many of them it got worse after a change was made. Butcher at Hibs, Mixu at Dundee United and McIntyre at Dundee all examples of that. Last season proved that Callum is a manager that can set up and coach a team well. He needs to become less stubborn and be more flexible with his tactics, but he hasn't just become a poor manager in the space of a few months. I really hope that the club can get players in early in the January window and preferably players on permanent contracts rather than loans. There can be no excuses. I have my concerns about the fact there are four individuals involved in the recruitment process (Callum, Brown, Grieve and Boyd) and given comments on social media there already seems to be grievances between some of the individuals already, but hopefully the individuals can put these aside for the greater good. The big issue we will have is that clubs and agents will know that we are desperate and we will likely have to pay considerably more for any targets that we do have. I dont think the blame for our current situation can be put down to one single person. There has been a number of factors that have led us to where we currently are. Our recruitment should have been better and done far earlier in the summer. We were and still are crying out for better options in an attacking sense. I note that many are pointing the finger at Steve Brown for the way that Kerr and McCann were let go and given the benefit of hindsight I would be interested to hear if he would now change the way he handled that situation. In regards to Kerr, I think it was a no brainer. Given he could have signed a pre contract 6 months later, the deal we got at the time was good. In regards to McCann, we found ourselves in a situation where both the player and agent were pushing the deal, which was understandable given the life changing amounts of money he was being offered. Perhaps we could have stood our ground, but then you are left with an unhappy player and run the risk of a similar situation occurring as did with Danny Griffin who turned down Derby and then got injured and was never the same player again. Throw in the above and the fact that we have a number of players coming to the end of their contracts who look like they would rather be elsewhere, players on short term loans and one or two players whose best day are behind them, then the perfect storm has been created. I actually think the COVID shutdown may benefit us. I had very little confidence that we would take anything out of the three scheduled games and we could well have found ourselves even more detached at the bottom. Hopefully the break allows us to get players in and gives the whole club a chance to reflect on what is going wrong and try to address the issue's. Interesting few weeks ahead.....

I'll try to make it easy for you: if you can't stop dragging this rubbish into every thread, you're going to get banned.

...why? Because they look after their fans thats why! I had posted on the saints twitter post 'whos excited' with 'not me, I didnt get a ticket' thats all I said, I didnt piss and moan and complain, and i wasn't feeling at all excited about having to watch it on tv - seconds later... i get a message from sam porter, asking my full name, so i give him it, and then within a minute... my mobile rang, and it was bev!! and now... I have a ticket!! After a total of 15 hours trying to get through on the phone, not losing my rag and remaining patient, all it took was one tweet reply, and im at the game tomorrow!!! I cant be more excited than I am right now

Hello guys. I thought i would provide an update since this thread was fairly recent. Harry is my uncle. He has obviously been retired a long time now. Since then hes done odd jobs such as the taxis and the likes. Hes currently labouring for a building firm and enjoying it. He talks fondly of his time in perth with the saints and he was a source of pride for me and my brother as young kids having a pro footballer in the family. The one time we went to perth to watch him the game was called of for weather i remember. I remember watching him play for Partick thistle in the inter toto cup in 1992 i think it was. They were beaten 2-1 and my uncle got the goal. That midfield goal threat as some have previously commented. Thistle in europe still makes me laugh. He loved his football. Even though wages for players at his level were not the best. I remember him telling me he would actually be out of pocket playing for some clubs. He put a lot into his football and is still a very fit guy. Even if he likes a few more beers these days. So yeh thats oor Harry still football daft and a good laugh. All the best to the saints.

Still waiting on yer evidence rather than your keyboard attacks on a member of the staff at SJFC. That's what I'm no liking. As mentioned before is it in the same evidence bag as The Rangers SPFL evidence? Yer going on and on and on , on various threads. What has Kirsten done? That's all we want you to tell us. And then we can make our minds up. But for you to constantly keep this going with...…..(it appears) nothing...….. I just don't get it. Tommy left because of KR.....come on ???????????? I know nothing and maybe he didn't see eye to eye with her but still...….leave his job....that's no the Tommy we know is it? What he said in his interview is good enough for me. And he's gone but never forgotten. We stick together as one. SJFC

The lowest home attendance in nearly 40 years will tell its own story. The closer it gets to the game, the more angry I become about the way the club are treating us (the supporters). If they had contacted season ticket holders and others weeks ago and said that due to an increase in Policing costs etc they were considering moving us from the East Stand, but then went on to say that they would not do that if the home supporters turned out in numbers, then I think most people would have got behind the club. We could have marketed it as a big occasion under the lights at McDiarmid. They could be using social media to build up the game by using brilliant memories of Scottish Cup runs from before like the Stevie May game against Aberdeen at Ibrox and the Spoony chop against Hibs in the 20/21 final, yet here we are, a few days before the game and despite less than 300 tickets being sold to home supporters, we have still heard nothing from the club. One of the main reasons that I have always felt proud to support Saints is the family connection that the club has had and the feeling that as a supporter we are not just a number. The past few weeks have soured that completely. To not even acknowledge that they have made a mistake or try to make amends is unbelievable. That the club feel they are doing nothing wrong by handing over our traditional stand to them and effectively making a one off cup tie a home game for them is disgusting. I am delighted that the majority of our support seem to have recognised the fact that the club are treating us with such contempt and will not attend on Saturday.

I would love to hear a journalist ask Davidson what his actual plan is, because there just doesn't seem to be one, in terms of either our approach to trying to score goals, or get results, or sign players. After today's match he spoke about how well the defence did, under the circumstances, because they're a completely new back three and had barely even trained together before. That's fine, but it was his decision to play that back three. He has John Mahon, who he signed and paid a transfer fee for, who everyone thought was a good, young, promising defender brought in on a long-term deal to replace the outgoing McCart. And yet he is again leaving Mahon on the bench, in favour of playing Considine (35 years old, two year contract - why?), Ryan McGowan (32 years old, two year contract - why?) and Mitchell (a short-term fix, here on loan, who only arrived a couple of days ago). He also has James Brown, who he signed, and generally puts in a decent-if-unspectacular shift, but who always gets dropped as soon as someone else becomes available, no matter how he plays. These guys must seriously be wondering why they are here. Just what is the strategy here? He's signed a load of players whose performance level is only going to drop as they get older, and are going to have no sell-on value. He's playing them in a system that we know from previous experience does not produce enough goals. And he's started the season with just two strikers who we know from previous experience are not good enough (Davidson himself chose not to start them for most of last season - has he forgotten that?). I'm really struggling to understand how someone with Callum Davidson's experience of the game can be so naive as to think that we were entering this season with a squad that was anywhere near good enough, or possessed any sort of "attacking threat".

Understand what people are saying above about memories of playing in the lower leagues, but personally I really, really don't want us to go down and the idea of having to go back to playing against Ayr and Morton, after everything we've experienced over this past decade, is something I just find hugely depressing. We've built so much since the last time we were in the lower leagues and what we should be right now is an established Premiership club that challenges for Top 6 every season and occasionally gets to Europe or a cup final. With a bit of foresight and sensible planning that should have been comfortably sustainable for this club. Although lower league football does bring its occasional moments of joy, for the most part my memories of our last spell in the First Division are pretty grim. It was all Billy Stark's folded arms, Mark Reilly's sideways passing, and year after year of piss-poor crowds and turgid football. Yes it got better towards the end under Coyle and McInnes, but it took us seven years to get out of that division and there's a real looming danger that we could end up stuck down there again. It really is a disgrace that this is on the verge of happening and I really don't think that as fans we should be romanticising what is, in fact, a gigantic shit-show.

The problem Callum Davidson faces is that when you start weighing it up, there are so many facets of his management that you can pour scrutiny on, whereas the defence is limited to past achievements that don't really provide much source for optimism in our current situation. He turned it round last season - by luck or design - with the introduction of a couple of new players into his system but the big difference was that despite not getting results, all the indicators pointed to a change of form. Basically we created a lot and gave little away. That brings us to the first aspect of his management, tactics: The system he developed last season was good and became even better when you added the predatory instincts of Melamed and everything that Rooney offered. Wide diagonals were effective with the aerial prowess of the latter and Tanser, McCann would snap in and win the balls off those contacts. Wotherspoon understood and thrived in the inside forward position behind a main striker. Kerr advanced up the field to give the extra man you need when pressing in games but operating with a back three. It wasn't perfect - we didn't score enough goals - but it worked. It looked a system that the manager had developed to suit his squad, which is always encouraging, and he received plaudits for his ability as a coach. It was understandable that he wouldn't change much going into this season in that sense but as the team changed, so did the results. We no longer had the ability to win the first or second contact on the diagonals, nobody to pick up the ball in the pockets of space in attacking midfield and nobody to step out from defence. Yet he has persevered with the same system for now four months with no upturn in form, results or performances. Quite the opposite and it's drained the belief and confidence from the squad of players it is his job to manage. At some point (in my opinion about a month ago) he had to realise this wasn't working and try something different. I think the players would have relished it as much as the fans. It might not have worked straight away but it would have shown an acknowledgement and willingness to rectify a worsening situation. We now don't know if he can come up with something different tactically when assessing where to go from here. The morale of the players looks at rock bottom and that's part of his remit, to manage a group of individuals and the unit. He said yesterday that they hadn't done what he asked of them in the first 40 minutes. The problem with that is that we were so well-drilled last season and the system has hardly changed. So why aren't they doing what he says? It's hard to believe they don't understand what is being asked of them given where we were previously. Have they stopped playing for him? The reaction to going a goal behind in the defence of your trophy was as limp as it could be. Is the bigger picture that he can't inspire players in the way some of his predecessors could? Saints have always lost their better players to clubs with greater resources but have largely avoided seeing the sort of defection witnessed with Scott Tanser's switch to St Mirren. The list of players not interested in signing a new contract under the manager is far longer than the list of those that are. Maybe that's purely financial and you can't judge him overly on that but you can on his business, or lack of, in the transfer market and his failure to evolve the squad he inherited. There is a defence, the uncertainty of the pandemic, the timing of his own arrival and most certainly the timing of the August departures of Kerr and McCann. But there is also a pretty damning case for the prosecution: Despite the success of the team last season, at just 0.47 goals per game, Saints recorded the lowest goals per game at home of ANY club in ANY division in the HISTORY of the Scottish league... AND we lost Guy Melamed. Yet this summer the manager made no proven additions to his striking options that he was clearly going to be happy with. How did he think that was going to work out? Tanser was replaced with a young loanee with no experience and the potential sale of Kerr was prepared for in the same manner. Loans have been the order of the day until this month, when it's potentially too late in any case. The advantages of Saints making a change now are you hope it lifts the players, we see something different tactically to surprise the opposition and you have a few days left to recruit some reinforcements with a lot of scouting having been done on potential players by others at the club. Sad to say but what are the potential disadvantages? I think when you get to the stage where you ask yourself if it can get any worse, you probably already know the answer to both that and whether the manager should remain in his role...

NEW ARTICLE: Cup double is vindication for everything St Johnstone have done in the last 20 years https://www.weareperth.co.uk/2021/03/09/cup-double-is-vindication-for-everything-st-johnstone-have-done-in-the-last-20-years/

The ones that were there in the stands were the ones no longer with us. Lost Dad last month and I know he was watching over us....yes I'm drunk and emotional

You always get the attention seekers that have to be OUTRAGED about absolutely everything but for the sane section of our support that are even countenancing this, give yourselves a shake. The man is 9 games into a managerial career. Unprecedented times with the pandemic, added to working under a structure where money is more of a concern than success. His team have been on the wrong end of some tight swings. Get behind the man and offer him the support that makes his job that bit easier and doesn't pile unnecessary pressure on him and his players. Thankfully, for his faults, Steve Brown won't wet the bed and will give Callum Davidson the time he needs but more importantly, certainly deserves.

I normally avoid this place immediately after games but just feeling the need to vent. That was an awful performance today, the worst I've seen under Levein (with the caveat that I missed the Airdrie game). I suppose it's at least saying something that we can be that bad and still not lose, but seriously, what does it say about the overall standard? Derek Adams got it in the neck for taking a pop at the current standard of the league but from what I'm seeing most Saturdays he got it bang on. Combine that with the constant VAR delays and it's all making going to games feel like a massive chore at the moment. In the first half we had three central defenders playing against Theo Bair on his own and yet there were still none of them anywhere near him when he scored. And we're not talking about a good centre-forward here. We're talking about Theo Bair. Second half we were just so painfully static and lacking in energy. I don't know if it's about fitness or effort or coaching or instruction, but we just weren't working hard enough. We ran around when Motherwell had the ball, but as soon as we had possession everyone just stood still. There were points of that game where we were trying to mount attacks and had six or seven players in our own half just wandering up the pitch instead of running forward and looking to get into space. What made it even worse was the manager trying to break the world record for number of central midfielders on the pitch at one time, then fiddling about with their roles every few minutes. The whole lot of them just looked completely confused about where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing. Then there's that starting line-up. Why drop Sprangler? Why put Max back in the team when he has so little impact (today I often found myself forgetting he was even on the pitch, the game was passing him by so much). Kimpioka looks like he might actually be useful coming on as a sub to stretch tired defences, but based on today he's nowhere near ready to start matches leading the line on his own. Are him and DJ seriously better than Stevie May? I certainly know who'd I'd be choosing to partner Nicky Clark, personally. Levein needs to do so much better than this. I'm fine with being defensive but we need to be organised, find some sort of settled system, and make sure players know their roles and can do them effectively. Stop playing favourites and play our best players in their best positions. He's been allowed to sign players and we have the squad here to be producing far better performances than this.

Afternoon all, Today I've attempted to upgrade the forum software to the newest version. Unfortunately it failed - there appears to be some deep error that's occurred somewhere and I'm awaiting help from the software makers to resolve it - and its resulted in me having to restore the database that the forum runs off of to this morning's back up. As such all posts between 9am and 3pm on November 30 have been lost. Apologies for that. You may also see some instability over the next two or three days as I try to get to the bottom of this. Jamie

I think this is spot on. I think every man and their dog who has a connection with Saints knows the last 2/3 years have been a disaster on and off the pitch for a variety of reasons and it's left us in a really poor position on the pitch to say the least. The running of the club does appear to be improving, based on the outputs, media, etc. as well as the feedback from the open meetings. What we need to collectively do is essentially move past the Davidson/Flaherty era and try and push the team on the pitch on as far as we can (with the caveat that there is still lingering players who will be around for a while. I'm not yet convinced by MacLean's managerial ability or tactical nous yet, far from it. What I can get behind is his transfer strategy (even if has been forced upon him), as well as his willingness to use younger players (again forced and maybe their not good enough). One thing that saints fans do and did even throughout Davidson's worst spells was back the team and show support. It's difficult for sure when you see what's going on, on the pitch, but ultimately the only way we get out this slump and mess that we've created is to try and be positive as a fanbase, as a club and hopefully that transfers onto the pitch in the form of some fight and spirit, as there seems to be a massive negative cloud over the whole stadium right now. That cloud is probably entirely fair as well, it's been self inflicted, but come Saturday, first game of the league season you're going to have 3500 Hearts fans making a lot of noise, it won't do the Saints team any good to get a tepid and lukewarm reception, despite it being warranted. It's frustrating that the fans once again need to get the players going and get a reaction, when it's about time they do the opposite. Quite frankly there are a large number in our squad who owe the fans big time.

The more I have thought about Macca being made manager- the more I have warmed to it. Previously I would of liked someone like Jody Morris, in the hope he had great contacts down south and could use his links with friends, etc. But as we can see from his short-time with Swindon, he is also a newbie that would be a risk. Ultimately there is a ton of change coming at the club. It could well be that we wont see the likes of Muzz, Booth, Kane, MOH and in my opinion our most successful ever Saints player Spoony next season. We have a new board in place, which we have no idea about how long will be in place and when/if we will get new owners. Callum has left us with an inflated squad- full of players that quite simply aren't good enough or are nearing the end of their careers. I don't know if Macca and Liam have the ability/contacts to bring in the right players for a major rebuild. What they do know is what has worked for the club over the past decade. They know the type of team mates that brought success to the club and the standards that were set on the pitch. I also believe they care for the club and will give everything they have to make it work At a time with so much change I want to know we have a coaching team that drills into the new players/youngsters stepping up, just how important it is that a team representing St Johnstone will give it 100% as a minimum. I can accept some poor displays and mistakes from an inexperienced management team, as long as there is clear effort and a desire to improve. Any management appointment is likely to be a gamble just now, so why not gamble on guys that have given so much to the club over the past decade. These lads have given so much joy to me as a fan in recent years, so why not back them and get fully behind them now the opportunity has arisen for them to further their careers.

Said it at the time, and stand by it now. He should have walked after the Kelty game. Seen nothing since to change my mind on that.

Callum should rightly be lauded for being our highest ever sale, a very decent player for us and a capable coach. He then somehow, miraculously pulls off a double, Brilliant. What has followed has been a complete shitshow of arrogance, incompetence and downright stupidity. Time to go was 18 months ago.

Excellent post. He was backed heavily again the summer, allowed to try and rectify a mess of his own making. It was therefore imperative that, to continue in his role, he demonstrated that we wouldn't return to the sort of situation we found ourselves in last season. Yet here we are... Of the 10 outfield players on the pitch today, how many were being played in a position/role that will bring out the best in them? Sometimes that has to be the case with teams but Davidson has a squad of over 30 players and he's still fielding a team filled with square pegs. And it's the speed at which we've regressed from what looked like a fairly stable position 3 weeks ago that is most alarming. He's managed to destroy it all so quickly. What he's also brought to the table this season though is a new brand of idiot football. We were rubbish last season but just that. This season we are actually playing the most moronic brand of football I can remember and were back at it today... Short goal kick to Gordon, who is six yards from goal, with Aberdeen pushed right up. Long ball right onto the head of Stewart or Scales. Returned with us camped level with the penalty spot. You could show that to someone who has never watched a game of football in their life and they'd tell you it was moronic tactics. Davidson out.

Last night's team selection is exactly why Callum is still a worry. I understand he's still learning but we all looked at that midfield 3 and knew it was missing something. Why can Callum not see that? That cost us the game, almost immediately.

Juvenille pathetic post. The Royal family did not decree the postponement of last week's games but left it to the respective authorities. If 'Queen' Nicola popped her clogs I would shed not a tear but would respect any public ceremonies Seems like I may be in the minority on this forum though!

I don't care about refereeing performances. I care that we're absolutely rubbish and we've completely wasted the time and budget of pre-season on signing inadequate players and drilling them to play in a system that just does not work. A pretty average Hibs team passed through us time and time again and it was only their poor final ball and decision-making that saved us from a walloping. We're outnumbered every time we try to get forward because of our insistence on playing a back three. We have no attacking width because of our insistence on using wing-backs who are forced to spend their time defending. We have no ball player in midfield because we got rid of all our ball-playing midfielders and haven't thought to replace them. We have no attacking threat because for some reason we've started the season with just two strikers, only one of whom is ever allowed on the pitch at a time, and neither of whom ever scores any goals. And even if we had a top class striker up front they'd very likely struggle because they'd be forced to spend 90 minutes huffing and puffing from side to side with no through balls, no crosses and no support. Of our starting XI today, only three were with us last season (and one of those three hardly played). That might seem like a good thing given our finishing position last season, but Davidson has somehow managed to downgrade us in every single area of the park. Really never thought I'd find myself pining for last season's squad but even they would comfortably beat what we have now. Davidson is absolutely clueless, and is not going to change, and this is not going to get better. When will our Incredible Vanishing Board come out of hiding and do what they should have done months and months ago?