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I think some of the comments on here are incredibly harsh and unrealistic. Far better Saints teams than this one will take wallopings from the OF (I still think back to our fantastic 98/99 team losing 7-0 to Rangers). It's just one of those things that happens and yes we had players make mistakes but let's face it: those mistakes are the reason why they play for Saints at the moment. Mistakes like those are pretty normal. In our average game you can get away with making a few mistakes and not get punished for them, and the opposition will make a similar number of mistakes to allow us to get a result, but when you're playing against a Celtic team firing on all cylinders like that is there really much you can do? Celtic had a player not even start the game whose transfer fee cost many, many times more than our entire squad. The gap between us and them is frankly laughable and it's bloody impressive that we managed to beat them a couple of weeks ago. I actually thought we were doing pretty well to hold it at 0-0 for as long as we did and to me it was looking like we might be able to build towards sneaking something out of the game - but then of course they had a 10 minute period where they were deadly and that sent us into complete disarray and they had the ruthlessness to take advantage of it. No non-OF team would have punished us like that. The Motherwell game is far more important than this one so the players just need to forget about this and move on quickly.

Been trying hard not to get into this debate but I can’t help myself any longer,at no time going into or leaving the ground yesterday did I feel intimidated and yes I made my way through hordes of Celtic supporters and yes there were hundreds of them standing around the main stand entrances,that seems to be what knuckle dragging mouth breathers do, could be a lack of intelligence thing I don’t know but they’ve always done it and will always carry on doing it,to seriously suggest one of them might try and squeeze through the turnstiles with one of us is daft.While in the ground at no time did I get an inclination that anyone in my vicinity was anything other than a Saintee, as previously suggested were opposition supporters among us if they sit tight and shut up who cares.When heading back to the car outwith the ground it was all Celtic fans around me and I clearly could be seen to be a Saints supporter and you know what I didn’t even register with them,yes there reputation goes before them but they don’t all want to kick your head in,their just not interested.Tend to get the feeling a lot of folk are just desperate for new initiatives (3 stands) to fail so they can say I told you so and the I’m intimidated/scared to attend old firm matches at Mcdiarmid plays right into the perception of us being a diddy provincial club, Rant over,off to done my tin hat,pelters incoming,

Its embarrassing. In the last months we've had a stadium name change announced on LinkedIn, a move of season ticket holders agreed without consultation of them or any emails/letters sent to them letting them know (if theres any fans who have a season ticket and dont use Twitter or Facebook then they'll literally have no idea they have to buy a ticket for the game unless someones told them), semi final tickets not been up for sale yet while the 3 other clubs have them up for sale and almost sold out, forgetting to advertise tickets for a league game until the CEO is tagged in a twitter post, and now our groundsman dancing and parading about on an oppositions pitch celebrating as they beat us and push us closer to relegation. Mind that time the new owners told us things would be more professional? We're turning into a joke. A massive ****ing scoreboard that'll do **** all while we wallow in the 2nd tier with 2000 fans because the club have driven a wedge between us and them yet again by forgetting we're a professional football club.

Thoughts on yesterday. Picked my lad up at 8:30am from his place in Sheffield and got to The Church on the Hill just after 1pm. Great to be in a big gathering of fellow Saintees. Looking forward to game but with huge trepidation…and tbh we feared 5 or 6 nil…lad was going to put a bet on it but couldn’t - just couldn’t. We left for the ground walking with the FCU and yes it was fun…great enthusiasm from the young lads…mental with the fireworks…but as our visiting Celtic fan mentioned earlier - we were a happy, friendly bunch of all ages - and me and my lad felt and knew we were with our ‘football family’. In the ground our seats in the South Stand were fine…sat with three ladies of a certain age - it was great. But the gap between us and the area in the West was a great pity. During the game - even in the first 30mins there was little noise from our part of the support….which was a bit disappointing - whilst the West Stand support was great … really highlighted the issue of splitting us up. The game. Well…I feared an early goal and as it didn’t happen we felt ok. The the 12minutes. We just lost the plot…enough said. Simo and the players have to be honest with the themselves about what went so badly wrong and try and mitigate against it for the league games left. We aren’t going to be playing Celtic so maybe not get so ruthlessly punished…but don’t let that hide the faults and breed any thoughts of ‘we’ll be ok as we won’t be playing Celtic’. It was poor. Second half was better but felt Celtic were coasting. The ‘goal’ was brilliant and gave us something to cheer about…for a few moments anyway - but yes - seeing the replay later there was a shove…ho hum. And the ‘not penalty’…I too wondered why not booked but there you go. So all in all - very disappointed but not disheartened for the remaining league games, and score was bang on what we feared and rather expected, The Good…the FCU walk to the ground and their and others in the West for sticking in there with their passion and support for the club…that’s brilliant - though guys…the flares… not terribly clever. The Bad…the gap that split the support …but on the support…and here I might upset some on here but this is my honesty. Me and my lad agreed (though my lad much more forcefully than I)…what’s with this with fans leaving the match at half time and then throughout the second half. For Gods sake…the lads on the pitch didn’t want to make the mistakes they did and get hammered, We were at Hampden to SUPPORT our team against ALL the odds. We knew what could happen and what was likely to happen - and when the worse came to pass we surely had to hang in there with the team and the manager. At times during the second half my lad was on his feet encouraging the team, whilst everyone around us sat on their hands. And at the end we stayed to applaud the team surrounded by empty seats. You go to a match, the cup semi final at that, and can’t hang around for 45, 30, 10 or 5 minutes longer. Come On… Sorry…that’s a bit of a rant and I recognise that as a long distance supporter who never manages to get to games as I live in Surrey I might get pelters for saying it…but I expected better of us. Finally - and all that said. My lad,,,who is a mad Arsenal supporter as well as having us as his Scottish team, said he loved the day and was really proud to feel part of a support for a team that is so drowned out across the country by that of the OF. And as we drove back to Sheffield he was planning our next trip…the Dundee game. Yesterday made him love our team, and not just because they are his dad’s team. I’ll have to disappoint him on that as I’ve realised this morning that me and my Mrs are on holiday that day…but we are not away for the Ross County game…hopefully getting tickets for that will be easier that for yesterday. See you all there COYS.

This is the table since he got to sign a competent keeper. To me it seems about right? We're a mid-table side now, who can throw in good results and horrendous results alongside average-ness. It's pretty clear to me he's improved us from what Levein had built and deserves a chance to rebuild us. This Summer sees another tranche of massive earners finally offloaded.

Where exactly is the evidence for your comment regarding the owner? Since taking ownership, he has fired Levein after giving him some time to improve matters, indentified and appointed a new manager, made funds available to the new manager to bring players in and get rid of some of the dead wood - all in the most difficult transfer window. Started investing in the stadium, appointed a new CEO and new Board members. Has during this short period undergone treatment for cancer and is still recovering. Yes we would all have liked to see us in a better league position. We are in a cup semi final with the financial benefits that will bring. Have mistakes been made along the way ?- absolutely but for gods sake give the man some credit for what he has achieved in a short period of time notwithstanding his serious illness. He made it clear when he first arrived that his focus was on preserving premiership status though recognising it would be very difficult and to improve the commercial side of the business. If relegation happens I would far rather have the clubs future in his hands than Steve Brown’s Rather than making crass remarks how giving constructive criticism and suggested solutions.

Of the four teams remaining in the competition we're going to be the one that struggles most with semi-final ticket sales. In my eyes, that means we're the club that needs to be working hardest to promote the game and get the tickets on sale and make sure the fanbase feel galvanised into buying them. But what's actually happening is the opposite: the other three clubs are selling and promoting their game, while our club seems to be actively refusing to even mention it. I just can't get my head around the logic of that. If there are technical or logistical reasons preventing the tickets from going on sale yet, that's obviously not ideal, but why not keep the fans updated? Actually say that the tickets will be going on sale early next week (or whenever), and have some sort of build up to that happening to grow some excitement. When you add this to the bad feeling that has grown around the handling of the ticketing for the Celtic league game, it's really not good. I honestly feel the club's communication has improved a lot since the takeover, but they've seriously dropped the ball here and they need to learn from that quickly. What we need right now is for everyone to be pulling together and getting behind the team, and if we do go down what the club will need even more is for its own fans to stay on board and keep coming to games and being supportive. Saints need to stop worrying about the Old Firm and start focussing on growing and nurturing the St Johnstone fanbase. None of what we've seen over the last week or so is conducive to that at all and I really think the people involved in making these decisions need to give themselves a good shake and start rebuilding these bridges pretty much immediately.

If either Davidson or Levein has a month where they lost their starting defence through injury then they probably would get some slack, aye. Our last 5 games have all been against sides in the top 7. Mikulic, Mitchell, and Wright, have all been right up there as our best players this season outright, never mind just in defence, and he's lost all three. Add in Douglas becoming one you can't trust, and Balodis playing with a broken nose, and thats arguably an entire defence he's lost since the window shut.

Adam Webb on Sky Sports saying he's against the idea of a 10 team division. Not been able to watch the interview yet but article suggests he'd rather expand to 14, and then onto 16 after a period of time, than remove teams Genuinely great he's been bold enough to publicly say that and lead the charge against it. Scottish football fans in general been desperate for someone to do that for decades.

Huge gaps at Hampden today. Wish semi finals could be played at neutral grounds like the old days Hampden is a midden

And so it came to pass that on Passion Sunday something rather curious and very joyous happened close by the banks of the River Tay...a Fisher of men did miracles - and with the faith and believe that that has engendered, hope springs anew for Easter Sunday and a rising from the dead...of a sort.

Killie have to go to Celtic next weekend, Dundee to Hibs and Ross County to St Mirren. Three tough away games and you'd think we could be fairly hopeful that at least two of them will lose. Obviously we have a hard away game too but if we can win at Tannadice the picture could completely change going into the post-split games. Loads to play for. Already said as much on social media but I really feel today shows how much of an over-reaction there was from some fans to the Hibs game last week. Obviously it was a bad performance but for some people to use it as an immediate opportunity to call for yet another change of manager was frankly laughable. Remove that blip from our last six games and we've won three (including beating Celtic), drawn two and conceded just one goal along the way. Despite the views of the pundits, it's plainly evident that Simo has made us far stronger and harder to score against over the last few months.

Myself and a few other Highland Saints travelled from Inverness to see this one and we have been up and down the A9 supporting this team all season. We had a pact in advance that we would leave if it got to a five gap at whatever point to avoid the traffic carnage and the holiday A9 traffic. Not something we have ever done before. As it was we stayed until 10 to go and at least saw Iche kick a ball for Saints, something I never expected to see in my lifetime! I have no issues with fans leaving that game early for whatever reason.

United don't "cheat" they do what every competent top flight side does and we done the exact same for years. Fans of other clubs absolutely hated a lot of our heroes in the TW era because they could, and would, fight for literally every ball and every decision. It must've been a nightmare playing against some of them. Do you think opponents worry about playing against our side just now?

Football, eh?! Genuinely thought we were dead and buried at 5pm on Saturday night. We still have a long way to go, but that result yesterday has given everyone a massive boost. Fans don’t win teams matches, but they do help. Would be great if we could have a big support at Tannadice on Saturday and hopefully the club come up with a good deal for tickets for the three remaining home games. Whatever the future holds, I’m convinced that Simo is the right man to lead us forward. Speaks so well, has the players buying into his demands, recruited well in January and has shown he can be flexible tactically.

Congratulations! Love a weekend when they both lose!

At least the powers that be will be happy we are possibly going down! We’ve never been given the credit nor the respect we deserved after winning 3 cups in ten years and on a shoestring budget too! We barely rate a mention on match days, and on the rare occasion we do win it’s because the opposition have played so badly?! You’d think supporting Saints for 50 odd years you’d be immune to it all but sadly it still irks! So come on Saints dig in and at least go down fighting! COYS 😇

Steve Brown is also complicit.

I have heard back from Bev, please email Beverleymayer@perthsaints.co.uk with Henryhallsdanceband in the subject box. Name and anything else you can give her to show you are a saintee. Hope it works out.

I agree with others that the last thing we need is yet another managerial change. Saturday was bad, but overall, progress has been made. The table from the start of the year shows that. It was never going to be an overnight fix. In my view, Simo needs at least another couple of windows to find out if his ideas are working. That is unless, as Rik mentions, it's plainly obvious from early on next season that it's not working. I get the feeling that he's learning as he goes on, just as much as the players are. We all know that this season has been three, arguably four years in the making. Calum inherited a well balanced, youthful and skilful squad. It would have been interesting to find out what Valakari could have done with that team.

The thing is, how many times do you want us to keep sacking managers before we actually give someone a chance to properly rebuild? If the next one doesn't transform us immediately do you sack them after five or six months too? And the one after that? I think if we're all going to accept that our current problems have accumulated over several years, we also need to accept that they're not going to be fixed overnight. I'm not saying Simo should be free from criticism as clearly there are things he has gotten wrong. But do we seriously want to sack the manager and start from scratch every time we hit a bad patch? And can this even be considered a bad patch? You say he's coming out with excuses week after week, but before Saturday we were unbeaten for four games, conceding only one goal along the way. For me that's a pretty good run for a team in our position. In my view there have been enough positive signs from Simo for me to want to give him a fair chance to achieve what he wants to achieve. He doesn't get endless time but I do think it's reasonable to recognise that he needs a pre-season and summer window, at the very least, to give us a reset and to start building properly. I'm happy to support him through that process as I just don't think fans getting on the manager's back at this stage is going to do anything but make things worse.

It's because he's clearly not a disaster. It's just everything is now feeling too little and too late, and the bad performances haven't stopped popping up. The issues that have brought us here run far deeper than him and for dar longer than he's been here.

Levein was a disaster. There's some crazy calls on here 😆 Simo didn't get a functioning goalkeeper till January. Let's get a full pre-season under him in and then see. We'll learn pretty quickly if he's the man for a promotion challenge.

We were absolutely shipping goals under Levein, even Alloa hit 3 past us. Are folk being serious in suggesting he couldve kept us up?

I think it's about time, whoever the top team is in the FCU is, sorted out those who use pyros. Yesterday was unacceptable. Both the smoke on the pitch at the start and the throwing of them. It gives the club a bad name. To be honest, I'm fed up with them. The constant drumming does my nut in, and I'm not alone. Patience is running out for this lot. There was a good article in the Courier about this a while back. It was about the Dundee derby but is relevant to us as well. I'll link it here and despite it being behind a paywall, you should be able to read it as you get a few free reads a month. I agree with all of it. STEVE FINAN: Ultras ruin Dundee derby atmosphere

We were there to support the team, knowing full well the odds were 99.99% stacked against us. I don’t abandon a friend who is struggling with life just because it might be difficult, uncomfortable or disappointing for me - I stick in there with them. And as far as giving up a load of time and money…well that time and money is spent - getting 45mins or much less back doesn’t change anything substantively other than my own feelings - and they would be a load of self-pity. I left home at 7:45am to go to the game and I got home around midnight - having driven for over 9 hrs. Not for a second did we think of getting on our way earlier. We were at Hampden to support our team - and, like a marriage, that is in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer. We have had a good few years of health and richer…now is a period of sickness and poorer - the time when our team needs our support the most. Sorry..but that’s how me and my lad saw it…just as we saw the same blunders. But all being well be back up for Ross County game. Another v long day…so be it.

Celtic fan here. Congratulations to St. Johnstone today for your colourful and happy Corteo from Mount Florida to Hampden. Fans of all ages, family groups all smiling and enjoying the nice weather. My friends and I and other Celtic supporters got caught up in it. No problems whatsoever. I hope you stay up. Good luck.

Just a really poor day at the office and we got the result I was expecting. Hampden always seems a wide pitch and Celtic made sure they used it well and stretched us regularly, although it seemed far too easy for their midfield to simply walk through. I don't think it mattered what team was on the pitch today, the result would of been similar. To cap it off, a fine will be coming our way due to the pyro display and someone thinking its smart to throw it towards the stewards. Out of order when someone is simply doing their job and is put at risk for no reason at all. Not a good look for the club.

Will be picking my lad up from his place in Sheffield around 8am…four and half hours will see us in Mount Florida (where I spent my first 8yrs..so feels a bit of a home fae home). We know the likely outcome…but we can hope for the unlikely…cos that’s what we can and must do…COYS!

How long does it actually take to "look into" things? This facility has basically been requested since these events were first publicised🤷‍♀️ Especially if it is 1. At short notice and 2. If it concerns "the wider community" (online being a very big part of that community). Without wishing to go kicking and screaming about this, how difficult is this to actually do? Christ, you can see debates in Parliament, inside Courts, and even from war zones - it's beginning to sound like a secret society - WHY? 🤷‍♀️ The more you push back, decline to do it, and make excuses, the bigger an issue it will become. It's better if, in times such as these, we're all pulling together in the same direction, so INCLUDE THE ONLINE AND EXPAT COMMUNITY.

It all ifs, but and maybes, but I do think if he had been able to get either Eremenko or Jean-Paul Boetius signed in January we would be in a much better position. Team is crying out for an attacking midfielder who can take a player on and thread passes through to our strikers. Carey does offer some threat, but he cant do it every week.

Seriously, how could anyone not like the current league format? This is setting up a brilliant end to the season with some potentially big crowds right across the board. Bollocks to swapping this run-in for a bigger league full of nothingy mid-table matches.

A team that wins one in four over a season doesn’t suddenly go on a winning run, it’s over. Levein/Brown/Flaherty/Davidson hang your heads in shame.

One thing I think yesterday's game really proves is that you always have to keep fighting until whatever you're aiming for is mathematically impossible. Before yesterday's game I saw loads of people saying online that we should be playing fringe or youth players against Celtic, or only picking the ones who will definitely be here next season, and other stuff along those lines. I'm just incredibly glad that the manager doesn't think that way and that he was able to get the players up for this game and communicate the message that we're still in this fight. I think there's probably a lesson there for all of us to keep in mind in years to come.

****in yas man I’ll be enjoying the Celtic tears in work the morra COYS it’s not over 💙🤍

We are bottom because we deserve to be there, I am not getting too worked up about this season. It has been coming for a while. My goodness though, how fun has supporting this club been at points since our promotion. Seen things that I believed would never happen at this club.

It genuinely feels like you've only watched the Hibs match and decided to sign up here to troll folk.

This isn’t just a one window and the problems are resolved window far from it. This is a multiple window major surgery. We can’t just punt him now, we’ve been dodging relegation for years, and quite frankly this all goes back to multiple poor windows since the double,

Perhaps fine if it was a pre-retirement one-off but this guy has been wearing Hibs stuff while on duty for Saints for as long as I can remember and someone should have had a word in his ear about it years ago. It's just totally unacceptable.

Given our current position and need for the club as a whole to be unified, I am really loathe to criticise, but there is no way the club can escape their handling of the semi final and the Celtic home game. It’s been shambolic. What excuse can there be to not have had the semi final tickets on sale earlier? Hearts have nearly sold 20,000. We all know our numbers will be nowhere near that, but surely they could have been on sale earlier to capitalise on the feel good factor after the win against Livi. For many people, it payday today, so many would have been looking to buy a ticket, but they can’t. I don’t expect the club to keep us updated on every matter, but the lack of communication, barring one tweet in response to a supporter by our CEO regarding the semi final ticket sales is really disappointing. As for the Celtic home game, it would have been nice if the club to have been a bit more personal in their response. They will have most, if not all, season ticket holders email addresses. It would have been easy to send an email a few weeks ago setting out the clubs position and detailing the financial implications of giving Celtic three stands and then allowing season ticket holders the opportunity to vote on their preferred scenario, instead we get a brief statement. After they made the decision to give them three stands, it would have been more effective if the club emailed all season ticket holders directly to inform them if the process of “purchasing” a ticket for the game, instead yet again, it done via social media in an impersonal manner. The club could have softened the blow by offering a free ticket to a season ticket to bring a friend for one of our remaining home games (was they not mentioned at the start of the season?) or a discount code to purchase merchandise online or in the club shop. Instead it’s just been mistake after mistake. Its not been a good few weeks for our CEO.

Sven's a good shout, but I think I'll go for Drey Wright this year. His versatility and consistency has been invaluable.

I'd really like to see Nicky Clark start this one. I feel like our forward play has been lacking something over the last few games and I think his experience would be really beneficial in a game like this one. Hearing that he scored a hat-trick behind closed doors in midweek has only reinforced my thoughts on that. I don't really think playing Kirk so far wide on the right has been working and feel we need to try a different shape up front. I posted on the Aberdeen thread that I'd like us to try the following, and I still feel this would be our best team for tomorrow: ____________________Fisher ___________Balodis Mitchell Douglas Curtis ______Sprangler Holt ________Wright ___________________Griffith ________________Clark Sidibeh That would give us some excellent impact options to bring on from the bench, with Kirk, Carey, Duke-McKenna and Kimpioka all potentially capable of coming on and changing a game.

Btw…semi final tickets sorted courtesy of the lovely Bev - thanks Sixties and Ginger…👍

I was in Bridge of Allan the other day and saw Davidson sitting at a table outside a cafe with his back to the road. I wanted to kick the chair out from under him.

Well that’ll be that then eh! It’s been a great 16 years in the top flight. I just hope we bounce back straight away and we don’t languish for a couple of seasons and become an also-ran like Dunfermline, Raith, Partick, etc. F*** you Callum Davidson. F*** you Ian Flaherty. We had our chance and blew it!

I'm going for Ikepazu. He's made not a single error on the pitch this season

Non padded seats season ticket holders in GB stand total around 570. Non padded seats reserved for Celtic game just gone through 2,000. Thats 1,330 extra. Will be a combination of some of the 1,600 East Stand season ticket holders plus one off's from saints fans on the data base. With padded seats at around 170, hospatality at around 100 and 6764 Celtic fans, if all sold, crowd could top 9,000. If we put up a good showing and those that have booked turn up we will have a good support from the GB stand. Would love to silence the other 3 stands hear the saintees roaring in the GB stand.

If you really are serious then stick to the facts and put forward positive ideas / solutions. The so called slide to mediocrity happened under Steve Brown’s watch and the new owner has done as much as anyone could reasonably expected to turn things around in the short period he has had. Many of the “silent / sleepy” minority actually engage positively with club - far better that than empty cans throwing stones with nothing positive to add to the debate. I, and many others, would support commercial development on land that the Club own if it adds value financially, enables additional investment in the team and generally helps keep the club on a solid financial footing. The owner has backed Valakari despite January being a tough window, he has said that he intends investing in the team and has / is putting in place a business plan in place in the event relegation happens with the sole aim of rapid promotion. In my mind this is sound management. What precisely do you think could have been done differently or can be done by the owner that would that would have / will make a difference?

That was dreadful. No redeeming factors at all. And we have to be honest, it's all on the manager. I'm not piling on him, but he needs to look at himself. For crying out loud, give Kirk a rest. He's gone from playing at basically Jeanfield Swifts level, to being the main striker at a premiership club. He's done well. We're overworking him now. I am totally done with the passing from the back. It's fine if it's mixed up with a punt up the park when required. I feel like the players have been told to stick to this no matter what happens. I noticed that the Hibs goalie and defence had no problem booting it up field when necessary. The players should be trusted to make this decision, especially when you have a team like Hibs with an aggressive press. I remember Roberto Martinez's Wigan did exactly the same thing. In the year they won the F.A. Cup, and got relegated a few days later. He insisted that players like Gary Caldwell, a hoofball merchant if there ever was one, passed the ball out from the back. Then, inevitably, like today, the opposition would cut out the pass, and eventually scored. That stubborn thinking took them down, and they've never returned. It's fine if you're Man City, Liverpool, PSG, Real Madrid etc. You have a sweeper keeper and a £50 million centre back who can play that style. Our entire club was sold for a fifth of that. We need to win matches, and we had a whole bunch of attackers on the bench. Yes, Clark is getting on, but he is still a goalscorer. Sidibeh's a mad wee bam, but he might have ruffled a few feathers today. I can't ever remember a Saints V Hibs game when the two teams were so far apart. They won without even trying. It felt like, even if we had scored, they'd have just raised a gear and scored again. I could go on and on, but basically it's all down to stubbornly sticking with that passing out from the back, then losing possession. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over an over again expecting different a result. The management team can't stick their heads in the sand. That was poor, very poor. Things need to change. March has been a poor month for the club both on and off the pitch. Anyway, who do have next?... ETA: I remember that Klopp used to say at Dortmund, if you win the ball in your own box, you have seven seconds before you have to have a shot at goal. That's the kind of football I like.

Expect once folk on Twitter see celtic selling tickets they'll moan to Fran Smith on there, then ours will be on sale.