HertsAgain

Well in the hunt for the play off again this season. Amazing accomplishment from the management and players.

Completely agree. I've always believed a huge part of our success over the past decade came from the fact that players were largely happy and settled at the club. They might not have earned huge wages here, but they had a relative level of job security that's unusual in football, and they knew they'd be treated well and fairly. That's why we've had so many guys like Ando, Craig, Mackay, Davidson, Millar etc who have all played hundreds of matches and had testimonials around the same time. It's also why we've seen guys like May, MOH, Swanson, Craig etc keen to return here after trying their luck elsewhere.
That whole vibe around the club just feels dead now and instead we have this conveyor belt of players who come in, barely play and get spat out. For how long does this go on before the club starts to acknowledge that it's not normal, and question Davidson's role in all this?
What's the betting we replace Mahon (a 22-year-old six figure signing on a long-term contract) with either a loanee or an over-30? There just seems to be no long term vision at all.

I am in no way defending Davidson here, far from it, but he was blameless in the Cleary situation. 

I knew that Mahon was to be released in January a few months back, absolutely baffling all the crap I have since read in the papers the last few weeks about a desire to get him out on loan etc.  The man is a pathological liar unfortunately.  The decision on Mahon was made at least 2 months ago.  Pathetic. 

This is it for me. Since being manager here he's fallen out with players, lied, walked out of interviews, wasted money, blamed players. He's just not the sort of person you want running a club.
 

On the back of a really bad run of form a win in any way would release some of the pressure building up on the team and the manager.
We welcome Livingston to McD on Saturday and they are on their usual highly impressive run and looking a banker to be top six again. Livi employ a high workrate closing down game and absorb pressure all day long patiently waiting on the opportunity to spring an attack and they take their chances well when they arrive. This is one game where you don't want o go behind early or it will be a long afternoon.
I'll be in the minority I guess but I like Martindale - he always gets the best out of his journeymen players and I find his assement after the game always refreshing as he tells like it is.
Might there be changes to our starting eleven? Who knows but a good home performance is well over due.

I'm assuming there's some sort of hope that Max might be worth a bit of money to us in the future, especially given the recent contract extension. Only flaw in that masterplan is that for anyone to want to buy him they'd probably have to see him actually play football at some stage.

What in the name of hell was I thinking ….

Last three matches:
 
- First time Hearts have beat us at McDiarmid Park since 2010 (12 f***ing year run of success halted)
- First away win of the entire season for Dundee United, where does it come, against us at McDiarmid
- Aberdeen on a shocking winless run, who obliges and gives them their first win for five matches(haven’t won a football match since 12th November), Callum Davidson and his bonkers team selections and tactics
 
We have become so easy to play against and so easy to beat. Teams have absolutely no fears about playing us and probably look forward to it.

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.

Will Spoony get some game time tomorrow night against Belgium? Let's hope so. Tough game and tough group.

Luckily the other 3 teams only picked up a point but we are 1 point off the bottom after the first round of games.
Lose a goal and we lose the game.
How long is Brown/ Flattly ? going to allow this clown to manage our club ?.

In a democracy everyone is entitled to voice their opinion but I would strongly appeal to those with anti-monarchy sympathies to keep quiet on Saturday and respect the solemnity of the occasion. Any protesting or bad behaviour displayed will only reflect badly on our club. I was at Saints cup-tie with Queen of the South which was played at Muirton Park only three days after King George VI died in 1952. There was a two minute silence, all the players on both sides wore black arm bands and the pipe band played the hymn "Abide With Me" (not the National Anthem).  Perhaps something similar  on Saturday would be appropriate.

You and your thoughts may well be in the minority on here,I can assure you your not on your own,unfortunately at times like this some folk can’t help but show themselves for the fuds they are.

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! 

Dude, this won't happen again. This was our longest reigning monarch. Let's just chill for a few days, then go back to the football.
We could easily have a President or Chancellor - they will be no different to the Queen and Royal family, and for sure won't last 70 years. 
We have this weird, undemocratic, yet functioning head of state role.
Cancelling the football is a small mark of respect... go and visit that family member you haven't seen in a while.

He probably is a excellent athlete. Just shite at football.

Same old boring shite 
Same old result
Probably won't even bother keeping an eye in the score
Go **** yourself Callum
 

I'm a little curious to hear what you think now that these four games are out of the way. Have those four games really taught us anything we didn't know after the Hibs game?

Wait till he discovers that the place is full of miners.

I'm  afraid he's had his 4 games. They were against Annan, QOS, Elgin and Ayr in a league Cup group that we should have walked through. Two of these teams are from league 2, so a great opportunity to play some good attacking football, rack up a few goals and show that last season's mistakes have been learned from? Nah. Same old crap. We finished third in that group, that should have been the end for the management team, not a platform to give them yet another four games to make up for it.

Motherwell 2 - Saints 0
 
Davidson to see the positive that it got minutes into a returning Ali Crawford.

Why has it taken so long to find one, bloody half the Australian A league seems to have signed for SPL clubs it seems this window, yet we can’t find a striker whether on loan or a signed contract?
 

On the point of people going to games just to "slag off" the team - if anything, I'd say the opposite is true and the Saints crowd as a whole has been patient, supportive and generous almost to the point of it being counter-productive. I was very surprised that there were no real signs of fan unrest after the Hibs game. I really thought that would have been considered the final straw by a lot of people and expected to hear some serious booing at the very least. Perhaps we were fortunate that Hibs had a fairly loud support as they drowned out whatever might have been coming from the home crowd.
Here on the forum I've seen a lot of criticism of the manager, but I've seen very little "slagging" going on.
I really think that if any other club in the division was in our position, there would have been fan protests and chanting for the manager to go by now.

I think this is a very generous view and if it wasn't for the existence of the transfer window I'd probably be inclined to go with you on giving him until the Aberdeen game. But by the time that game is out of the way there will be only a week left until the window closes and it's not going to be enough time for a new manager to assess the squad and target new players. It could also be a much less attractive job for new candidates if we're already rooted to the bottom of the table and there's no opportunity for making signings. That could impact on the quality of manager we get next.
I think there will always be a reason to give Davidson X number of more games to turn things around. But surely there has to come a point where it's recognised that things just aren't going to change. If we'd seen Davidson enter this season with a new way of playing, an obvious attempt at solving our goalscoring issues and some sign of building a squad for the future, then I'd agree that we should wait and see. But all indications from the games we've seen so far are that the same things are going wrong, and his budget is being wasted on players who are past their best, will not solve our attacking issues and cannot be sold on for a profit. We still need more players before the window closes, but to be honest I don't trust Callum Davidson to either identify or work with them.
 

Good God.
We didn't get out of a League Cup group we should have walked and have lost our first league game at home.  All with "the new team" and with "CD leading", and sorry to say, all horribly predictable.  Our better players have gone and as yet, have not been replaced, even though the club and manager have known for literally over a year that this situation would be the case.  The consensus is that the team is actually in a worse state than they were last season, if that's at all possible.
A number of us won't be back at a Saints game again until Davidson has gone - and don't DARE call me "not a real supporter" - I've stuck with Saints through more bad times over the decades than I care to remember.  How much is enough for you?