St Johnstone v Celtic Betfred Cup QF 26/09


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5 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

We weren't "expansive" at Ibrox because the team was far too open and never had a chance to build attacks. The routine was Get ball - have nobody to pass too - lose ball - full backs/wingers/cms all caught wrong side of the ball - two centre halves left against four attackers - goal.

Precisely because we were set up to contain when we got the ball there was no one advanced to pass it to and we still have nobody who can hold onto the ball long enough to allow players time to get into those positions. Hence we loose it and players trying to attack get caught out.

Other teams have shown and we have shown in the past you must harry these teams give them no time and maybe just maybe you get a result.

Standing off keeping shape is only delaying the inevitable and if you are lucky you only loose by one. 

Its negative anti football that for us may be acceptable in the league where you might get a draw bit in a cup game its criminal.

Tommy has said as much before and after that the game plan was basically not to loose by to much 

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If you would of asked me before the game if I would of walked away happy from a game with the negative tactics we used, I would of said no and yet I was very impressed by our lads tonight.

The players were fantastic in closing space, shutting down superior players and putting their bodies on the line for my club. I thought the middle three in particular worked their socks off.

I was a little annoyed to see Spoony get a start and yet he was very, very good at doing his defensive duties.

Sure I'd like to see us go guns blazing against Celtic, but I think Tommy's plan to steal a result tonight was more realistic.

Onwards and Upwards, with the players we have we will get to see plenty of attacking football and goals.

Glad to see Kane get some playing time (I prefer him to McMillan in the supporting striker role if we are to accept Scougalls time here is done). Joe and Kerr looked solid. Fosters good form continued. Callaghan looks a good addition. Times are good. 

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 Not a bad game tonight and a performance with far more positives than negatives. 

Yes we set our stall out to deny them space and to stifle the game. Anyone that watched the Celtic matches on tv in recent weeks will have expected that. Those that want and think saints should have went at Celtic and tried to play them at their own game are naive to say the least. 

Maybe just maybe some of the usual culprits will give the management team a wee bit of credit for getting their tactics right. 

Onwards to Saturday. 

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25 minutes ago, Shaggy Jenkins said:

 

Other teams have shown and we have shown in the past you must harry these teams give them no time and maybe just maybe you get a result.

Like Kilmarnock who beat them 2-1 on Sunday?

We had more shots tonight than Kilmarnock did in that game.

Your speaking as if Saints just camped ten men on the edge of the box and blootered balls to nobody for ninety minutes. Pressing was done with intelligence, not just aimlessly chasing folk twenty yards from their own goal.

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10 minutes ago, mainstand said:

 Not a bad game tonight and a performance with far more positives than negatives. 

Yes we set our stall out to deny them space and to stifle the game. Anyone that watched the Celtic matches on tv in recent weeks will have expected that. Those that want and think saints should have went at Celtic and tried to play them at their own game are naive to say the least. 

Maybe just maybe some of the usual culprits will give the management team a wee bit of credit for getting their tactics right. 

Onwards to Saturday. 

Great tactics. They got us beat.

I can't get excited by a 1_0 defeat when aside from 4or 5 good saves by Zander Celtic missed at least 4 easy chances so it could have been worse than the Ibrox defeat.

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Thought we were pretty good and tactics nearly worked, credit to the team for a decent hard working display. Impressed especially with Foster, Wright and Alston and Spoony had one of his best games for a while.

 

Thought we were gonna get a doing tonight but pleased to be proved wrong. Agree with a previous post that Watt is not a great lone striker, we looked better with Kane up top as he held the ball up better. 

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I thought we did ok there. Defended very well under heavy pressure. Going forward we lacked a bit of quality but created 4 or 5 good shooting opportunities from distance. 

Hard to disagree with the way Tommy lined up. It's easy to say put attacking players in but good sides can punish you if you open up too much (like Sunday). 

Foster and Spoony were excellent. Kerr did well. Clark was inspired. Alston and Callachan pushed well in middle and Wright was excellent in bursts. Some positives for sure.

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Sitting in London, watching it on my phone. Sorry, but that was an awful game of football.

Played for pens, but didnt get there.

No embarrassing scoreline, but embarrassing ultra defence.  

We had pace in Wright, but rarely used it. Swanson comes on and never gets the ball.  Thought Kane was much better than Watt, who didnt look match fit.

And to think that was for a semi final spot... 

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7 hours ago, Cagey said:

Great tactics. They got us beat.

I can't get excited by a 1_0 defeat when aside from 4or 5 good saves by Zander Celtic missed at least 4 easy chances so it could have been worse than the Ibrox defeat.

Cagey you do love your moan!!

To sit there and say we lost the match due to tactics is absolute bollocks.

We lost cause we were against a team of players who are and were better than us.  Yes we could have gone out there and went with a 3 in midfield and 3 up front, and let Celtic dominate the midfield. Then you would be the first person on here moaning about the tactics and the fact that we were short in midfield lost us the game.

As for celtic missing 4 or 5 easy chances we were obviously watching a different game as I saw Saints denying celtic some clear chances through good defending and goalkeeping there is a big difference.

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I think Tommy had to adopt those tactics last night on the back of the drubbing from Sevco.  I thought the players worked their socks off and were very close to getting the win.  Delighted for Wotherspoon who has had an indifferent start to the season and has taken some very unfair stick on here from the usual suspects who always need to have a whipping boy.  It's not him who picks the team, but if he's in the starting line-up he should receive the same support as the rest of the players.  He played well last night and will have a part to play this season.

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A decent effort from us defensively. Although having said that, Celtic really should have scored more than the one goal. Clark had a very good game.

I can understand why Tommy went with the defensive tactics, but came away disappointed we didn't have more of a 'go' at them and see what happens. Ok we might lose 0-4, 1-5 whatever, but we are still out regardless.

I didn't see us scoring last night, Watt was isolated in the first half, Wright looked our best attacking option in the second...and came off.

No doubt we will go with the same tactics in the league in a couple of weeks time and I have no problem with that given goal difference might come into play. Just feel last night we could have gone into it with a little more belief in our own attacking potential.

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1 hour ago, garydavidson said:

Some would say you would have been happy no matter which team won ;)

usual crap from the usual suspects. Yeah of course iam a massive celtic fan that is why I follow Saints for 50 years, go every week home and away oh and also watch training whenever I can and run a  team with saints in their name.

GET A LIFE!!!!:roll:

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2 minutes ago, mainstand said:

usual crap from the usual suspects. Yeah of course iam a massive celtic fan that is why I follow Saints for 50 years, go every week home and away oh and also watch training whenever I can and run a  team with saints in their name.

GET A LIFE!!!!:roll:

Wow that's a lot of effort to put in just to cover your true allegiance.You are some Bhoy Mainstand :lol:

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Happy for a number of the players last night. Clark was inspired and really hope he kicks on from that performance which should fill him with confidence. Wotherspoon likewise should take a big boost from his best showing of the season. Alston, who I don't think unfairly had been written off a bit, is showing signs of growing into his new role. Having a central midfielder who registers shots on goal in every match is a new dimension for Saints.

Shaughnessy and Kerr hopefully demonstrated that Sunday was a blip. I think any defence can look poor if left exposed, which is why it was important that we shored up last night.

Always believe everyone is entitled to their views on how the game should be played but can't shake the feeling there is naivety in this idea we could have just gone toe-to-toe with Celtic; thought TW got it spot on tactically. You have to stay in the game.

Think the players should be going to Tynecastle in good spirits.

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2 minutes ago, Radford 72 said:

Happy for a number of the players last night. Clark was inspired and really hope he kicks on from that performance which should fill him with confidence. Wotherspoon likewise should take a big boost from his best showing of the season. Alston, who I don't think unfairly had been written off a bit, is showing signs of growing into his new role. Having a central midfielder who registers shots on goal in every match is a new dimension for Saints.

Shaughnessy and Kerr hopefully demonstrated that Sunday was a blip. I think any defence can look poor if left exposed, which is why it was important that we shored up last night.

Always believe everyone is entitled to their views on how the game should be played but can't shake the feeling there is naivety in this idea we could have just gone toe-to-toe with Celtic; thought TW got it spot on tactically. You have to stay in the game.

Think the players should be going to Tynecastle in good spirits.

Thought Liam did okay in the middle beside Blair last night but suspect he might be on the bench for Saturday. 

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I was disappointed with how we set up last night to be honest. Wright seems to be in a habit of picking favourites over form - Wotherspoon shouldn't have started on the basis that his form hasn't been great recently - he was good which will hopefully help build his confidence back up again, but surely when we have a squad the size we do it needs to be both a meritocracy and horses for courses. Wotherspoon is probably that in a game against the likes of Rangers and Celtic, but he's the only one of the 4 'wingers' who started and saw out both games. I thought we imposed ourselves more as an attacking threat with the introduction of McMillan and I'm disappointed he only got 6 minutes in the two games over the last few days. I don't agree with but understand the starting 11 and sticking with it for an hour or so, but we had our own attacking players who could have given us a bit more in an attacking sense against a tiring and poor by Celtic's standards defence. You don't get a point for a draw in a knock out cup match after all, and Kilmarnock showed the damage that can be done if you have ambition to play on the attack against this Celtic team. We're probably not as good as they are but we do have players that have the ability to hurt them.

In terms of the game itself, we played well but ultimately we didn't really deserve anything other than a defeat. Celtic (Griffiths in particular) missed several chances that they would normally have put away. Clark was superb and it started to look like he just wouldn't be beaten on the day, but realistically anything other than a Celtic win would've been a bit of a smash and grab. I thought there were some excellent individual performers - I can't really fault the back 4 who were under almost constant pressure. They gave up some chances, but that will inevitably happen when we let Celtic come onto us so far up the park without much pressure. Alston was the stand out in midfield again, although I thought Callachan did well and Wright continues to show how good a player he is, particularly in the first half. He does the defensive side of the game very well but I'm looking forward to seeing him unleashed in an attacking sense again after the last couple of games. The aforementioned Wotherspoon kept Tierney quiet and supported Foster well. Watt was completely isolated and didn't really get into the game before his half time sub - hope he's alright for Saturday.

Having said all that, there's more to be positive about after last night's game than there was on Sunday. 

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Thought we did really well as I expected another big defeat however we had no failures and some really good play when we could get the ball.

Thought Celtic looked nervous and if we had scored they would not have got back.

The saints support was really low and surely tickets should be available up to kick off.

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30 minutes ago, mainstand said:

usual crap from the usual suspects. Yeah of course iam a massive celtic fan that is why I follow Saints for 50 years, go every week home and away oh and also watch training whenever I can and run a  team with saints in their name.

GET A LIFE!!!!:roll:

haha jeeezo you seem a bit sensitive. The wink was there for a reason - it was sarcasm.

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I haven't seen much of us this season but I'm not overly disappointed with last night - I'm a bit surprised by the reaction from some on here. If you set out to attack Celtic it may work, but there's also a very good chance of being left open at the back and ending up conceding 3 or 4 goals. As unattractive as it may be, I think our best chance by far of beating Celtic comes from keeping things as tight as possible at the back, working our arses off to block whatever they try, and hoping to either catch them on the break or land some good attacking set-pieces. I think we largely did that last night and weren't that far from pulling it off. But in the end we were beaten by a side with vastly more resources than us. Can we really have a lot of complaints about that?

I've seen Spoony getting it in the neck yet again and I'm not his biggest fan but I honestly thought he was excellent last night. He put in a pile of work, he was constantly looking for the ball, and he was pretty unlucky not to score a really good goal. I'm not sure what else people think he should have done?

 

 

 

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There were at least 3 occasions when Celtic players took the legs from our player & never got booked. I think it was in last 5 mins before anyone got booked for their many fouls. Was expecting us to get a booking for a soft foul but given the fact we only commuted 3 fouls then he didn't have the opportunity.

The other moan about was why was there only 2 minutes injury time when in the last minute Lustic spent ages lying on ground claiming he had a leg injury after he got a foul when it was him that impeded Kane. One of the 3 fouls we committed. Can't remember tho other 2.

He also watched & warned Bain about time wasting & blew his whistle after he eventually took the kick.

Celtic fans think Beatson has it in for them. If that is the case then can't wait til he has it in for us.

Edited by Cagey
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