Edstar101

Cant believe that some are calling for the "fringe" players to come in.....This is a tie we have to win to progress to the next round......IF Del goes with them and god forbid we are beat....what will you all say then....Best team available and get wired in from the off.

Correct...plus some parts of the 1st team still need to gel and need all the games they can get.

Doesnt mean that there shouldn't be some changes though - never mind the enforced ones - but the players coming in aren't necessarily what I would term as fringe!!

top quality pish mate hope del is picking this up.

i nominate doobs and rusty upfront cause they know how they might be tackled so they'll skin the opposition.

would win more headers than Parkin:razz:

Oh dear diddums - carry on moaning then.

Too tired

bbc highlights were terrible. I have no idea why they didn't show the incident with hartley - unbelievable

Because Hardly is the golden boy and saviour of Scottish football at the moment, and any criticism or showing of him in a bad light means instant death to the purveyor of the news. Didnt show the Grainger incident last week either

Possibly, but if we'd been two up at the time it wouldn't have mattered. Having observed many comments on here I now make one of my own. If you ask any player to play in a position that is totally alien to him you can't complain when he has a poor game.

I cant stand all this 'not his position', 'not his good foot' stuff. All they do is PLAY AND PRACTICE FOOTBALL!! If you are a forward and are asked to play in defence....surely when up against the opposition forward, you should know what he might do. I could moan on and on about this for ever....

Could we perhaps chop off away supporters legs as they enter the ground?

I'd like to thanks Jings for his invaluable contribution. Articulate, witty and objective are just three of the words I wouldn't use to describe his rant.

With the exception of BlueJ's idiocy, this has been a very good read since Calloway 262s post about Parkin. Lot's of of informed and reasoned input. I do find myself wondering about the Scottish mentality, though. I suspect that those that don't rate Parkin are the same sort as those that wouldn't have Boyd in a team because, "all he does is score goals!"

I note that nobody has seriously doubted his ability to score goals. I reemind you that the aim of football is to score more goals than the opposition.

Your last para has hit on a good point. There has been talk about how Del has made our defence more solid this season and likely to let in less goals. However, what I feel has changed from last season to the beginning of this is that last year we seemed to have the attitude of, yes, you may score, but we will score more. That led to some great games for the spectator, being the fourth highest scoring team in the league and a healthy 8th place.

Am I the only one that feels if we lose a goal this season, we are going to struggle to get more than a point? I know we have only played two competitive games, so this really is just an early gut feeling

Just doing their job at the end of the day!! I find it bizare why people at Tynecastle and Hibs are allowed to stand yet not at other grounds

Difficult to sit down with needles in their pockets

I'd love for us to go to Ibrox and go 4-4-2 with Parkin and another, and really give Weir and Bougherra something to think about. It won't happen though.

If we do play 2 up front, they need to be pacey imo. Sammy has showed in the past how pace can expose Weir. Two up front makes sense, cause you need to keep Boug at the back as much as poss...one up front allows him to come forward whenever he feels like it.

I'd like to see Parkin and Sammy paired together, I think their playing styles could compliment each other well. It'd be a tad harsh on Haber, but his fresh legs coming off the bench would cause all sorts of problems to tiring defences.

Depending on the opposition, Haber could play as well! Also, Ibrox, if we are going to play with one up front, I would play Haber, maybe with Sammy just behind him if we are being a little adventurous

Trouble with a big target man is that it encourages the team to play the high ball....take away that option and we are forced to play on the ground - and that is when we are often at our best....we would still have the height for set pieces and the late runs of Muzz into the box for crosses.

Of course, Dobie needs to be considered too......didn't really get much opportunity to see what he could do today

The problem for Parkin is he's a big centre forward. And in recent years big centre-forwards haven't been particularly appreciated by a worryingly large number of Saints fans. Deuchar was getting dogs abuse on here in the first part of last season, and Derek Holmes made an excellent, yet largely unappreciated, contribution to our promotion winning season.

You can't expect a player like Parkin/Deuchar/Holmes to run around all day, be brilliant with the ball at their feet and show some pace. If they had all the attributes they'd be a hell of a lot higher up the league ladder than St. Johnstone.

I thought Parkin did fine today, won more than 50/50 in the air, and was a handful at times for Diamond and Ifil. Just a shame there wasn't much support for him a lot of the time today.

I hope Parkin does come good....my only concern is that he doesnt hold the ball up well and lay it off. Homer had an exceptional touch in my opinion and his partnership with Savo paid dividends. Maybe if Parkin and Sammy had a chance to play closer together it might work

complete over reaction from 101 . give it a rest mate from what i saw on Alba the guys are not far away from gettin it right some good performances today. get behind the team FFS.... If you are as clever as you think you are you would be some sort of legendary manager or something....

If you cut out the sensationalism, 101 does make some good points, but obviously likes looking for reactions by taking things that wee bit far. Makes good reading though....nothing wrong with it in my opinion as long as we all realise that we have our own thoughts and opinions and, ultimately, all want the best for our team

they could have one 'stand' where people who wanted to could...erm....sit

I have a radical idea, remove seats from football grounds and allow fans to stand. Not sure if this has been done before

Oops, misread the title of the thread. Ignore

I've not had any of them...

good 1st game.....you can see he is an intelligent player. He's not Dave at his best though

could have done without going to the bear pit next

Hartley should have walked...one booking for the challenge on Muzz, the second for the cheating by holding his own head (for about the next 10 minutes)

All the radio pundits, including Sandy 'took a good team and ruined it' Clark saying that the Dons penalty claim was a stone-waller and that there was no reason for their 'goal' to be disallowed.

Not one mention of the Hartley challenge....just how fantastic he is...erm!!

Looked kinda like 4 3 3 with Davidson,Morris & Millar getting in each others way in midfield.

More like 4, 4, 1 with Parkin standing around too

Parkin, Haber and Taylor are not good enough at the moment. Parkin did not win a ball all day and Haber/Taylor just don't look up to the standard required.

We have no width in the team and the full backs only option is a long ball. Hopefully Del can get it sorted over the next few weeks.

Haber, I think, has the potential. Actually thought Taylor was going to have a good game today at one point, but...no! Parkin.....forget it, cant win headers, can't run and ball doesnt stick with him to enable lay offs.

Rusty for me, followed closely by Miller and then probably Murray

4-1 Saints

Rooks

2110

I need to get over not wanting to give either of the gruesome twosome one single penny of my hard earned!!

Assuming Craig is gonna have to play at left back this weekend, we are gonna be short in midfield, with no real options on the bench but the front guys that can do a job out there.

Enckelman

Maybury - Duberry - Rutkewicz - Craig

Millar - Davidson - Morris - Taylor

Haber - Parkin

Subbies: Smith, Gartland, Caddis, May, Samuel, Jackson, Dobie.

Why is Dobie not starting? Shame if Craig does have to cover at left back. He seems really fit and keen and (although his final ball isn't always brilliant) we need him to deliver crosses into the box. If he doesn't get the chance to overlap from full back then we lose that. If Taylor is in front of him, we are weak for covering back from midfield, a la Morais!

I suppose Taylor can put the crosses in, but yet to be convinced he can do it regularly. We lose Mackay's overlaps with Millar, where Dave can cross the ball better than Chris too.

Concerned as Parkin seems to need crosses, anything else he doesnt look dangerous enough.

Still think we will do it though...as long as we don't give away penalties!