St Johnstone V Kilmarnock 18Th Oct 2014


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Not as depressed as I thought I would be about recent results.

The likes of McFadden, Davidson, Lappin and Graham have not had a run of games for a while, so confident that they will all improve the more games they play, which should hopefully result in us picking up a few more points.

Feel many are being harsh on Frazer Wright. I still think he is more than capable of doing a job at this level. Gary Miller is not good enough and feel we are missing MacKay at right back. Longer term though, the management team should be identifying a strong centre half and a versatile defender with a view to bringing them in, if not in January, certainly next summer, if Steve Brown allows them to!

Slightly worrying thing about the recent defeats is that we are not being outplayed, however we do seem to be getting outfought. Our recent successes were built on being hard working, organised and all working for each other, however in the recent games against Dundee, Killie and St Mirren they have all seem to want it more than us.

I'm not going to dwell too much on the failures of Steve Brown, but it's all very well him saying that he doesn't want players to be sitting in the stand picking up wages for nothing, but you only have to look at the bench yesterday to see we are light on numbers. I looked at the bench yesterday and the only player I thought would be capable of changing the game was O'Halloran. Some of our players must realise that they are almost guaranteed to be picked every week, so what motivation is there for them? Steve Brown and Tommy Wright spoke about how they were going to run with a small squad and use the younger players more, but it's obvious Wright either doesn't rate or trust the young players. Dylan Easton scored and created an assist for the U20's during the week, yet wasn't even on the bench yesterday.

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Saving a fortune on Sunday papers these days! It's pretty miserable leaving mcdiarmid listening to the chants of supporters whose teams have been bang average, yet still have enough to beat us!

If you look at squads like Hamiltons I would argue there is very little difference in the quality of player but the gulf in aptitude, work rate and endeavour is huge. I genuinely feel sorry for Wright, he played a team that probably 90% of fans would have chose but the familiar pattern of a good starting 10 minutes or so was followed by that s&@t. How can you account for professional players being so poor at delivering a ball! Very few positives today and a heap of negatives. Can someone tell miller he can't charge forward cut inside and leave us totally exposed, did he not learn from the st mirren game? Can mannus and his defence speak to each other so we don't give away needless corners and please can we spend the week working on delivering a ball that doesn't hit the first man or alternatively hit row Z, starting with 10yards first. For the last ten minutes we played like we were seeing out a draw, Killie must wonder how on earth we put them out of the cup.

Really worried about our upcoming game against 'the the', could be very embarrassing if we don't buck up our ideas soon.

And my wife calls me pathetic on a Sunday as I don't buy Sunday papers if saints get beat # saving money too
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Hope we can turn this around because the fact that only once this season I think we have scored more than one goal the way I see it we will finish in last place. We must score more goals.

We must keep the faith. It was always going to be tough without Stevie May and Steven McLean.

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For me, the next 5 matches could very easily determine how our season will go. These matches are all extremely winnable ones. If we are still in a similar position in the league table by mid-December, I will start to worry. On the other hand, only a few positive results in these matches could change the complexion of our season in a really positive way. There's still plenty of time to go and, in my opinion, there is plenty of potential in this team. However, we are extremely lacking in confidence and morale. That much is evidence. Unless Tommy can get these players performing to their full capabilities as soon as possible, we could be in a very tricky situation.

 

We started the game very well yesterday, leading me to the foolish belief that we were about to turn a corner. We looked the hungrier side and we were passing the ball around nicely. We were very fortunate with our first goal, but our early play merited that reward. Then our defence totally crumbled, static and terrible at marking opposition players (namely Magennis), something which is very uncharacteristic of our stolid defensive record from last season. As soon as that Killie's first goal went in, we deflated and became a shadow of the side which had started the game. Kilmarnock were suddenly the hungrier side by far, our passing was shambolic at times, our anticipation and awareness were sorely lacking. The team performance was epitomised by Lee Croft who started very promisingly before totally falling out of the game.

 

I never like picking on individual players, but Gary Miller has been a weak link in that defence throughout this entire season so far. Next week must see the return of Wright in the centre with Anderson, with Mackay back on the right.

I don't actually think that McFadden was as poor as some people have been suggesting. He showed more than he did in his substitute appearance against St. Mirren. He played a huge part in our goal, he played a huge part in our disallowed goal and he hit a rocket of a shot near the end of the match which I reckon would have gone into the net if a Killie defender hadn't blocked it. As someone said earlier, quite rightly, the quality is still there but his body isn't quite at the same level as his mind yet. I am confident that this will improve quickly and he will prove himself to be a much more successful acquisition than Beattie or Riordan.

 

Anyway, as I've said, I'm not worried yet. Not about the prospect of relegation anyway. I am definitely worried that we are dropping points which could very easily prevent us from achieving another top 6 finish. I hope that the players and manager are in this frame of mind as well. 

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Killie looked decent. They look much better than seasons of late. Pitty we are no where near the team we could be. Injured key players not helping matters. Thought we were out fought in all departments. Every time we are attacked I fear that the opposition will get a shot away. Every attack against us seems dangerous at the moment while we are struggling to create loads of chances. Last season I always felt some team would get it and indeed we scored 3s and 4s. I'd be happy for a shut out in our current form. Having a rivals 3rd choice striker to score goals for us tells a simple story if the blue tinted specs are removed.

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Also when it came to a throw in especially near the end McFadden was wanting to take them as he has a long throw in him yet he was waved away by Garry Miller, who then stood and looked for someone to throw to, and stood and stood. surely the way things had been going a long throw into the area for Graham, Davidson to get a knock on any thing can happen. It was quite obvious we were never going to get a cross into the danger area by that time.   

 

 

 

What worried me most & sums up where we are at moment was that at almost every throw in there was no one within 15 yards of thrower.
Nobody wants to take resposibility. Hefully Midge will be back soon.

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Yet we scored and had one disallowed from then. Sorry if I don't trust your opinions from now on.

 

So, you thought the quality of crossing was good?? You must be the only one

 

Anyway, Muzz's pretty much looked like it wasn't a goal (he fluffed his shot - should have been driven in) and as for the goal that was chalked off....pretty sure that that was a shot from Faddie that he just didn't get the bend on and it just happened to find BG at the back post

 

So, for all I don't care whether you value my opinion or not, it would appear that you are also capable of posting some guff

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its going to be very difficult to replace stevie may before stevie was playing in the first team we got through something like 20 strikers over a 5 year period and only one  f.sandaza could score more than 10 goals a season...to many cut backs and quality players leaving over the summer 

Well it took around 30 years to replace Johnny Brogan with Stevie May so maybe we should just concentrate around that issue now SM has gone. It might be another 30 years. 

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Easton put in a couple of fantastic crosses in the second half on Saturday. It was about the only thing giving me hope we might equalise. Sadly nobody got near them in the middle. Lee Croft tried to get onto them at the back post but probably just fell over, I forget. Great lad is Crofty.

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Easton put in a couple of fantastic crosses in the second half on Saturday. It was about the only thing giving me hope we might equalise. Sadly nobody got near them in the middle. Lee Croft tried to get onto them at the back post but probably just fell over, I forget. Great lad is Crofty.

 

Indeed. Lappin and Easton were linking up well yesterday and offering a real outlet on the left. Bringing on O'Halloran, who links with absolutely no one, completely killed any momentum we might've had.

 

It's good to have two players on the left with such good football brains and delivery. The less said about the right hand side on Saturday the better.

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Indeed. Lappin and Easton were linking up well yesterday and offering a real outlet on the left. Bringing on O'Halloran, who links with absolutely no one, completely killed any momentum we might've had.

 

It's good to have two players on the left with such good football brains and delivery. The less said about the right hand side on Saturday the better.

 

Lappin and Easton could turn into a really strong LHS for us. I have to say that, at the moment, I am still a wee bit disappointed with Lappin....only because I was expecting him to really stand out. That will hopefully come though as he defo has it in him. Might be a bit of match fitness or something, but he seems to be playing the ball a lot from a 'standing still' position....maybe not all down to him of course....balls played to him not allowing him to run onto them etc etc

 

I previously posted some time ago that I felt once Lappin got in the starting xi he would pretty much become a nail on every week. Not quite there yet.

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I think that has a lot to do with a lack of match time and understanding with his team mates. He was signed about a week before the end of the window and, whilst he trained with Norwich pre-season, he didn't actually play any matches.

 

We'll hopefully see the best of him shortly. He looks solid at the moment, but not exactly irreplaceable.

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Still feeling pretty dejected from the game. I don't understand why every time we attack we insist on passing out wide and trying to get in behind their fullbacks to cross the ball in the box. It slows the play right down and we don't have/play pacey wingers who can get behind their defence to cross the ball in. We should be mixing it up more, some attacks down the wing, some through balls, some over the top. When Wotherspoon came on he was at least willing to attack with the ball from a centre position and got a few shots away.

 

Looking at the goals we conceded, Mannus stayed on his line on both occasions. He should be commanding his box and coming out and at least punching the ball clear. The Killie keeper in the 2nd half came and punched a cross at about the penalty spot, eliminating all danger. Is it a confidence thing or an inability? That was the Killie keepers first start of the season I believe? We should have been firing in shots and crosses to test him at every opportunity.

 

I also don't understand the booing during the game. When Lappin got subbed off for O'Halloran there were boo's. I don't any midfielder deserved to play 90 mins except maybe Davidson who was attempting to put pressure on the ball when the opposition were in possession. 

 

Gary Miller seems clueless when in possession of the ball, either booting it out of play or putting his bisy between the ball and the man and hoping he gets fouled. He also failed to challenge at their 1st goal. Not good enough. 

 

Plus points were that McFadden and Graham had a couple of opportunities and with a couple of more games together will gain a better understanding and hopefully start banging them in. Thought Easton was a threat going forward to with a couple of the crosses nearly finding their target.

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