Saints v Hibs, Saturday 22 April 2023

[The Kinross Saint]

Going down. Probably via the play off but maybe in 12th. How can nobody work out high balls to Stevie May don’t work..

Hallberg again didn’t look interested.

Tough few weeks for the club coming up.

[Cagey]

Why any manager looking at that would still allow McPherson to take the set pieces.

[Cagey]

Can't put the ball in the net 3 or 4 shoots parried by Marshall but no one there to take advantage.

We need a striker. May works his socks off but usually outside the box.

[blueheaven]

Mixed feelings after that today. Felt we showed a lot more positivity than we have of late, and loads of passion and energy. Clearly Macca had the players right up for it and you can see from the post-match stats that we were really pushing forward a lot more than we normally do. In fact it felt like Hibs barely managed to get the ball out of their own half in that second half.

Incredible shifts from Drey Wright and Stevie May, but May on his own up front just doesn't work and we desperately needed Macca to chuck another striker on against a Hibs team who were down to 10 men and on the ropes. I'm not a huge Rudden fan but I really felt his physical presence in the box could have made a difference. Instead we brought on Carey who was yet another player to put the ball into the box, but not someone who's going to get on the end of it.

We were practising crossing in the warm-up (which I don't think we normally do?) so clearly that was the game plan and we certainly threw loads of crosses into the box in that second half, but it really wasn't working and I'm disappointed Macca didn't really try to change that. Lack of flexibility or a Plan B was one of the things that ultimately killed Davidson and for me Macca demonstrated that same flaw today.

It was a promising performance in so many ways but we're right in that relegation mire now and we might need the guy in the dug-out to show a bit more bravery if we're going to pick up the points we'll need to get ourselves out of it.

[RandomGuy]

Sounds like MacLean has been given until the end of the season, going by his interview.

Today worried me in that regard. An improvement on what we've seen, in some aspects, but it all felt naive. 

McInnes, Goodwin, or MacLean, who would you rather have guiding you through a 5 game shoot out to avoid relegation? I think we're finishing 11th.

[blueheaven]

28 minutes ago, Cagey said:

Why any manager looking at that would still allow McPherson to take the set pieces.

100% this. Love MacPherson's confidence in always wanting to take them but his free-kicks are consistently awful. How is it even possible that there's no one else in that team who could have a better go at taking them instead?

[Cagey]

McLean , continuity Davidson by the looks of it.

That was a poor Hibs team who went down to 10 just after half time and were content with a draw that saw them in the top 6 so wouldn't get too excited at getting a draw with Hibs.

Why didn't he throw on another striker when they went down to ,10.

[templeofsaints]

21 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

100% this. Love MacPherson's confidence in always wanting to take them but his free-kicks are consistently awful. How is it even possible that there's no one else in that team who could have a better go at taking them instead?

I thought Spoony might have tried in the first half or Hallberg late on. Freekicks apart Macpherson had a decent game today - linked up well with the front guys and rarely misplaced a pass.

[Saint Stevo]

I felt we were better in a few areas today. Pressing was improved and we created a good few more chances than we have done recently. Felt Wright did well further up the field and Murphy was direct when he came on. 

I was surprised that we didn't bring Rudden on and go two up top. His physicality and the fact he is decent in the air could have worked well. 

With United and Killie winning it's going to be squeaky bum time after the split. Get 3pts early on and fingers crossed we're ok. 

[HOODLUM65]

Some of the posters on here are in cloud cuckoo land if they thought the players who played last week would miraculously turn into "Brazilians* with the appointment of Macca.

What I will say is the effort and intensity put in was much improved. Also the number of times the ball was put into the opposition box was probably more than we've managed all season.

Disappointed that chances were not converted.  Should have won by 2 clear goals.

 

[RandomGuy]

19 minutes ago, HOODLUM65 said:

Some of the posters on here are in cloud cuckoo land if they thought the players who played last week would miraculously turn into "Brazilians* with the appointment of Macca.

What I will say is the effort and intensity put in was much improved. Also the number of times the ball was put into the opposition box was probably more than we've managed all season.

Disappointed that chances were not converted.  Should have won by 2 clear goals.

Did we get lots of balls into the box, and have a few half chances, because of the tactics, or because Hibs played a half with 10 men while also knowing a draw was enough for them to make top 6?

[HOODLUM65]

Seems like the Hibs players were in the Refs face after every contentious decision .

No surprise as I thought the same when we played at Easter Road. 

Thought the ruling was the Captain was allowed to approach the Ref?

[PSJ.84]

1 hour ago, Cagey said:

McLean , continuity Davidson by the looks of it.

That was a poor Hibs team who went down to 10 just after half time and were content with a draw that saw them in the top 6 so wouldn't get too excited at getting a draw with Hibs.

Why didn't he throw on another striker when they went down to ,10.

Think you’re being slightly hasty there. Agree that Rudden should’ve come on, but even that’s not really like Davidson - he’d have just thrown every attacking player we had on the bench on in the hope something would work. Thought we set the right traps and pressed really well at times and had clearly identified where we could hurt Hibs, unlike previously where it was just paste and repeat in attack. There was far more intent today imo and I don’t think you could question the heart/desire of the players - something that you could under Davidson.
 

Baby steps - although we don’t really have time for them. Time will tell whether or not things actually come off but I think it’s unfair to say it’s a continuation of Callum this early. 

[crieffsaintandy]

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

100% this. Love MacPherson's confidence in always wanting to take them but his free-kicks are consistently awful. How is it even possible that there's no one else in that team who could have a better go at taking them instead?

Problem is he thinks he’s a player, has good moments but the bad outweigh the good, thought him and Phillips were to slow moving the ball when there space down the flanks, Murphy did more in 20 minutes than McLennan the whole game.

Bit more fight and more positives, but Hibs were poor even with eleven.

Subs were poor and needed another attacker on, small margins and all that but killie and United are scoring we are laboured, think regardless of managers the players are what we have and the mindset is what Davidson has ingrained and you can still see they are still trying to be cautious even in the last ten at times the speed was slow when should have been battering Hibs as they were playing for the draw.

But onwards and upwards and fingers crossed going to be a rollercoaster over the next few weeks, the board have buried their heads and let it get to this stage when we were comfortable and should have punted him earlier but allowed Davidson to continue out of sentiment and this is the result!

[andrew]

20 minutes ago, crieffsaintandy said:

But onwards and upwards and fingers crossed going to be a rollercoaster over the next few weeks, the board have buried their heads and let it get to this stage when we were comfortable and should have punted him earlier but allowed Davidson to continue out of sentiment and this is the result!

I wonder if perhaps the board waited two weeks too long to remove the manager in the end. I hope not.

[Havana Saint]

4 hours ago, andrew said:

I wonder if perhaps the board waited two weeks too long to remove the manager in the end. I hope not.

Could prove costly. It's been a combination of terrible management and atrocious signings/contracts.   The pitch is an utter disgrace.  Running with the ball on that surface is nigh impossible.

[pezza70]

6 hours ago, Havana Saint said:

Could prove costly. It's been a combination of terrible management and atrocious signings/contracts.   The pitch is an utter disgrace.  Running with the ball on that surface is nigh impossible.

I’m sure the consortium that they are in negotiations with will be hoping we stay up, getting out first time is a hard thing especially with a clean out to cull wages 

[Ali91]

There were elements I liked yesterday, the way we limited their chances being the main one. We looked much more solid with four at the back and Drey further forward, although they did get a lot of joy down our right side before going down to 10 men. James Brown can feel hard done to, he’s been thrown to the wolves at left wing back and left of a back three for most of the season, and then doesn’t get the nod when we play a back four. Don’t think McGowan there particularly worked. 

I left the ground disappointed yesterday though, and I’m surprised to see the level of positivity on social media. If we’d failed to win against a 10 man Hibs side whilst effectively having Mayzo up front with minimal support for the whole game, the judgement of the performance if we hadn’t changed managers would be very different I imagine. The first twenty minutes after the red card were poor, and if we’d been as cohesive then as we had for the last twenty we’d have won the game. 

It should also be noted that we turned two games around this season when the opposition went down to 10 men at similar times, so the idea of a big step forward seems premature for me.

The above probably reads overly negative, and I do appreciate Maclean can’t be expected to turn around the issues and form of a squad devoid of confidence and ideas in five days, but yesterday didn’t make me more confident we can avoid the play offs, especially with the results elsewhere. 

[Cagey]

13 hours ago, andrew said:

I wonder if perhaps the board waited two weeks too long to remove the manager in the end. I hope not.

Definitely, should have been sacked at lest 2 weeks earlier. The set up he ut out at Livi summed up him losing the plot.

Those 2 weeks of inaction by the board has probably cost us our years of membership in the premiership.

[Ali91]

Also not having the Macpherson slander, he was one of our better performers yesterday (set pieces aside) as he has been all season in my opinion. Phillips had a bit of a shocker next to him yesterday, but I think we’re just going to have to accept him having games like that from time to time just now, he’s still young and his style of play means he’s going to throw in games like that on occasion.  

[PSJ.84]

4 minutes ago, Ali91 said:

Also not having the Macpherson slander, he was one of our better performers yesterday (set pieces aside) as he has been all season in my opinion. Phillips had a bit of a shocker next to him yesterday, but I think we’re just going to have to accept him having games like that from time to time just now, he’s still young and his style of play means he’s going to throw in games like that on occasion.  

Folk in front of me yesterday thought different. According to them he’s one of our worst players and only gets in the team as his dad is head of football operations.
 

I wouldn’t say he was sparkling, but far from the worst yesterday and indeed the entire season. 

[Ali91]

2 minutes ago, PSJ.84 said:

Folk in front of me yesterday thought different. According to them he’s one of our worst players and only gets in the team as his dad is head of football operations.
 

I wouldn’t say he was sparkling, but far from the worst yesterday and indeed the entire season. 

Dearie me, conspiracy theory up there with the glaiket looking man with the covid hoax banners outside the East yesterday! 

Cammy is one of the few players in our squad who has the confidence to take the ball in tight spaces and try and play forward in to good positions.  
 

i wasn’t keen for large parts of last season and didn’t understand paying money for him, but I think in hindsight it’s about the only purchase we got right last year. 

[RandomGuy]

MacPherson was our best CM yesterday and it wasnt even close.

[HOODLUM65]

14 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

Did we get lots of balls into the box, and have a few half chances, because of the tactics, or because Hibs played a half with 10 men while also knowing a draw was enough for them to make top 6?

Answers on a postcard.😄

[PSJ.84]

1 hour ago, Ali91 said:

Dearie me, conspiracy theory up there with the glaiket looking man with the covid hoax banners outside the East yesterday! 

Cammy is one of the few players in our squad who has the confidence to take the ball in tight spaces and try and play forward in to good positions.  
 

i wasn’t keen for large parts of last season and didn’t understand paying money for him, but I think in hindsight it’s about the only purchase we got right last year. 

Aye it was doing my head in to the point I ended up moving seats. Fairly sure Gus isn’t his old man either