Brian Potter

Win a game he’s a hero. Lose a couple of games people want him sacked. Just the way it is these days. 

Win a game he’s a hero. Lose a couple of games people want him sacked. Just the way it is these days. 

We have two exciting, pacey strikers who can finish! What a time to be alive.
 Great win today. Onwards and upwards. 

Win a game he’s a hero. Lose a couple of games people want him sacked. Just the way it is these days. 

We have two exciting, pacey strikers who can finish! What a time to be alive.
 Great win today. Onwards and upwards. 

I think that is easy forgotten by those that are clearly not CL fans. We would of been dead and buried by now, had we not changed manager. As it stands, he is doing what he has been brought in to do. Get us out of the bottom two and stay in the top league. The transfer window has also seen us sign an absolute gem, that could well be the difference between us staying up or not.
I don't agree with all of the managers decisions, but we are certainly in a better place now and the previous window has been a success to me.
Great 3 points today. A draw next weekend as a minimum (on top of a County defeat) and we are in a strong position come the split.

The result was always going to be the most important thing today, and we got it.
Huge win!
Especially at an away venue against a team who were supposedly on the rise, and with nobody expecting us to get anything.
Sidibeh is some boy. I think he makes the whole team better because now they know that they have a teammate on the park who has pace, is a threat and can score.
Mitov, back to his excellent self.
In fact, the whole side did their jobs well and that's all you can ask at a time like this.
It's been a while since I cheered a goal like I did our second.
Anyway, we won. So for now, that'll do.
It's nice to feel good on a Saturday night again.

Tony Gallagher. First name on team sheet for me .

Feels like a big point given how poor we were. 

Feels like a big point given how poor we were. 

It really is a chore going to watch us at the moment. Very little entertainment, the spontaneity of a game removed by VAR and the ever increasing costs involved in watching football at this level all contribute to making watching football less and less enjoyable.
I don't like talking down Scottish football, but the standard in the Premiership has been dire this season. Fair play to Hearts, they have secured third place and have a quality striker in Shankland, but in years gone by there is no way they would be in the position they are now. Our 2013/14 team under Tommy Wright would have comfortably beaten that Hearts team last night. I cant remember coming away from a game this season thinking an opposition team really impressed me. 
I am not sure if it is fitness, lack of confidence or instructions from the manager, but we just seem to lack any ability to demonstrate any type of aggressive attacking football. I dont want to be too harsh on Franczak or Olunfunwa as they are both young players, but we had numerous opportunities in the first half last night to attack them, but both just seemed to lack the belief to take their man on or do anything creative.  Interestingly I watched Andy Kirk going absolutely mental in the dugout when we were passing the ball backwards so often, so it cant be an instruction from the coaching team.
We all want Max to do well, but it just isn't working for him and the longer Levein persists in playing him, the the more damage it is likely to do to him. Fans are starting to get on his back, he needs a spell on the bench for a few games. Phillips and Matty Smith were a big miss last night. Phillips gives us physicality in the middle of the pitch and both are able to dictate the play and retain possession better than Max, Connor Smith or Fran.
Kimpioka reminds me of Tade. Technically he is not the greatest, but his pace, power and unpredictable nature will cause defences problems. I would like to see him upfront with Clark or Sidibeh or Sunday. I still think that May or Kane have something to offer us as well. Would have preferred to have seen one of them come on ahead of DJ last night.
A win on Sunday and we could be sitting in the top 6 ahead of big spending Aberdeen, Dundee and Hibs which is probably a reflection on how poor the league actually is this season.

We're just incredibly frustrating to watch. I think we have the potential to be a decent team but we show our opponents so much respect and fear that it's damaging our chances of getting anything out of games. I get that Hearts are third in the league but they're not exactly world-beaters and I think we all saw last night that with a bit more ambition we could have taken something from them, just as we have many times in the past.
Yet again we didn't really try to have a go until the last 15-20 minutes and when we did we were actually pretty good at it. We created chances, we got the ball into their box and we forced the Hearts defence into making mistakes. But surely we need to be ambitious enough to try that earlier in the game? I get that defence is going to be a priority under Levein but there still needs to be some sort of plan to actually win games.
When Hearts had the ball they played it in our half, and when they didn't they pressed us so we couldn't get forward. When we had the ball we kept it around our own half, and when we didn't have it we barely pressed them at all. Whatever happened to the high pressing game we used in the second half of our Double-winning season to such great effect? Why are we not capable of doing that any more? Is it a fitness issue?
What I did like last night was seeing Carey getting onto his teammates several times for continually passing the ball backwards and not being positive enough. He was being used in a very weird position, but he was at least trying to move the team forward and get us onto the front foot. Sprangler made a difference when he came on and needs to be starting. I thought Kimpioka had a pretty good game with a difficult task, and Clark and Sidibeh both looked lively when they came on too. We're so, so weak in wide areas though, and at the moment I'm not seeing much from Max or Connor Smith to suggest they should be starting games. Frankly, if Cammy MacPherson was fit I'd be playing him ahead of either of them. The sooner we get Phillips and Matt Smith back, the better.
What I find kind of hilarious after the last two or three years is that there were actually people on here who used to complain about Tommy Wright's football being negative or bad to watch. What I wouldn't give right now to go back to the intelligent, adaptable and effective football Wright had us playing. He was just miles ahead of any of the managers we've had since.

Gave Hearts far too respect, they were far from impressive, but got far too much time and space, playing Max  and Tony didn’t work, Smith in at cb, Robbo is a better wing back, but need two up top 

If Max was John Smith from Arbroath, there’s no way he’d have been fast tracked into the first team like this. It’s rare for us to have such a young foreign talent, and the club are clearly desperate for him to make it.
Nothing against the lad, but I’m concerned about his development. He’s not influencing a game like he should be in his position. 

How can so many of our fans be noticing the same thing and be in agreement but not a single journalist will ask Levein or Kirk why Sprangler is being used so sparingly.
Sprangler was one of the only shining lights during Macca’s reign and was replaced by Max when Levein arrived.
The midfield looked very astute against Aberdeen with Sprangler, Phillips and Smith all comfon the ball, hardworking off it and tough in the tackle - but today they drop him for Max.
DJ has his best game in a St.Johnstone jersey, dropped!!
Why are Eric Nicholson, Robert Thompson, our in-house media team etc not asking questions of the team selection.

Max needs to be loaned out to a Championship team. Loads of potential but physically he’s miles off it. Hope we’re not harming his development by rushing him into the first team. 

Max needs to be loaned out to a Championship team. Loads of potential but physically he’s miles off it. Hope we’re not harming his development by rushing him into the first team. 

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.
 
 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is. 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Dan Phillips is.