St.Johnstone V Ross County - Saturday 11th November

[akuram]

We are now very much back in the mix.

Well done Saints.

Never write us off.

[Cagey]

Huge 3 points.

Looked like Levein was playing for a 0-0 in first half and I didn't think the players were happy with the formation in contrast to the last game and a half where they looked like they were playing with freedom.

3 central defenders were immense, McGowan in particular whose emission over the first part of the season is mystifying.

Off the bottom for 2 weeks and fans singing at the end. Can't ask for more than that.

[Cleveland-Saint]

2 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

Tommy Wright era-esque that today. Eye-bleeding at times, a moment of quality, gritty defending and ground out a boring 1-0…

 

Ill take that every single week.

agree, was thinking the same.... probably just what we need right now to be honest. I seemed to explode more than usual on the goal today, from eye bleeding grind to sublime magic 

[pezza70]

Let’s hope Clark’s injury isn’t serious enough where he is out again for an extended period of time.

Three games undefeated who would of thought that and taking 7 out of 9 points was possible for us a month ago.

We have given teams a good head start but we are now back in the mix of the other teams in the pack.

Gee the upcoming window is going to be huge for us now moving forward.

[Saints11]

Really hope Clark’s injury isn’t as bad as it seems and I know he walked off the pitch but the physios signalled quickly for a change & he looked pretty despondent as he walked off 🙏

[Cagey]

VAR free football ,bliss

I am sure there were things to be looked at like Smiths hand ball and a few elbows from White but  never once "VAR are looking at !!!!!!!"

[MySpazz]

MON THE PENNY DAINTEES!

[Havana Saint]

First half was total Industrial hoofball from two sides devoid of knowledge of the beautiful game.

For thr first 10 minutes of the second half we were a lot better, with a focus on keeping the ball on the deck. 

Clark and Phillips were brilliant. Workrate and intelligent passes were key. 

Liam Gordon continues to give me the absolute FEAR. 

We deserved the win today.  A massive psychological boost ahead of a tough December. We were not at our best, but with Avril's astute knowledge and wisdom, I cannot now see us being 12th come the end of the season.  A decent appointment.

Thought the fans were absolutely fantastic today.

For all the part-timers out there (plenty) ...please come home...we need you and you need us.

 

COYS!

[Cagey]

There are probably 6 teams in the  Championship that are better than 6 teams in Premierxhip.

[john.w]

18 minutes ago, Cagey said:

There are probably 6 teams in the  Championship that are better than 6 teams in Premierxhip.

That’s it Cagey we’re feeling pretty good you bring us crashing back to earth. 😂

[john.w]

I just read the BEEB report on the game they have Mitov in goal for County. muppets

[PSJ.84]

5 hours ago, Havana Saint said:

Liam Gordon continues to give me the absolute FEAR. 

I thought he was excellent again yesterday and has been since St. Mirren. I was actually quite impressed with his reading of the game in some situations and it’s not something I’ve really noticed from him before. Aside from one (maybe two) slices out the park, I can’t think of much he got wrong. 
 

Not just Gordon but Considine and - particularly -  McGowan were brilliant too. We’ve really struggled with Ross County, or more specifically White + A.N. other, recently but felt we dealt really well with them yesterday. The last 15 minutes was a lesson in how you should defend a 1-0 lead. 

[garydavidson]

6 hours ago, john.w said:

I just read the BEEB report on the game they have Mitov in goal for County. muppets

What an incredibly awful report. They have him as a County player twice as well as saying "Victory means that Saints move level with a blunt County on points, while leapfrogging Livingston on goal difference." Their league table has us a point above both.

[SlickDT]

Very good three points.

I thought the team showed some real battling spirit and a goal of real quality.

Two things caught my attention yesterday.

In the first half Kirk/Levein asked Smith to move positionally further over to the right, closer to the wing-back. Within about two minutes he was part of our first real chance being created, by getting the ball in that area and having a little space to carry the ball before making the pass.

Then in the second half, with it at 0-0. He pushes Carey and Smith forward and quite wide leaving Philips a bit isolated, but giving the wing-backs more opportunity to link up with them, aswell as more support for the strikers when their backs were to goal. It was quite risky, but he obviously thought the game was there for the taking. Positive thinking.

I was desperate for Macca to succeed, but when you see McGowans performance levels since coming back into the team, you wonder where his decision making was with that one. I think Robinson is getting better by the week, very good performance. Smith is starting to show his quality. Looks like Macca has brought in some good quality in the market to be fair to him. It also feels to me like Gordon has simplified his game in recent weeks to improve performance. No risks, just sticking to the basics.

Main negatives for me was Mitovs kicking wasn't great again and the referee's poor performance. A couple of his decisions were very poor, as well as being a bit card happy at some points and then letting other things off.

[pezza70]

I think it shows the character of McGowan to come straight back into the team and instead of dragging his knuckles he has put in some great shifts.

The lead up to the ball that put May through was great.

Hearing the crowd when the ref blew for full time was awesome, our fans are special to keep turning up, hopefully the fans who have been lost to the club this season might decide to come back for the odd games and support the team.

[Saline Saint]

Mitov’s distribution can be a bit suspect but there’s no doubting his goal celebration yesterday,cult hero in the making?

[Cagey]

Minutes silence well respected by all fans but did it have to continue for 47 minutes.

[The Kinross Saint]

2 hours ago, Cagey said:

Minutes silence well respected by all fans but did it have to continue for 47 minutes.

At least they had a working microphone this year.

[john.w]

9 hours ago, garydavidson said:

What an incredibly awful report. They have him as a County player twice as well as saying "Victory means that Saints move level with a blunt County on points, while leapfrogging Livingston on goal difference." Their league table has us a point above both.

I noticed the bit about being level wie County, heads up their rectums comes to mind

[Oldmuirton]

Thought both Smith and Phillips were immense today.

[john.w]

Just watched our young lad throwing the County boy over his shoulder priceless😂

Edited November 12, 2023 by john.w

[Quarterback]

Looking at the game, some real positives. The main thing is sticking to a system that doesn't change much so that everybody knows their job and the subs can float in effortlessly. Xmas will be the time to pick up more points and we will need the peripheral players to slot in. A tweak here and there in the system with the youngsters will be good and the senior players will have to step up and help the younger players. I get the feeling that there was probably a bit of a divide with the old school feeling left out after flopping in the cup games during the summer and the arrival of the newbies. This couldn't be great for grinding out results when their is internal strife. Change is not easy and when you are a young manager needing to win games you might look for results rather than man management. I think CL will bring order to the team and trust for everyone to play for each other.

[Saintdunc]

If the injury news on Clark is not good, then it will be time for Jephcott to step up to the plate. 

 

[Gekko]

2 hours ago, Saintdunc said:

If the injury news on Clark is not good, then it will be time for Jephcott to step up to the plate. 

 

He's already been stepping up to far too many plates by the look of him.

I'll get my coat...

[blueheaven]

What a massive result that was for us. If we'd lost that one I think it would have been a serious confidence blow that would have been very difficult to recover from. Instead, we feel like we have a bit of momentum now and as things stand I can't really think of any reason why we shouldn't be absolutely fine this season. I think we have the spine of a pretty strong squad at the moment with guys like Smith, Sprangler, Clark, Mitov etc. We do still look a bit fragile at times and some attacking pace in the wide positions would really help us, but of course we still have Wright, Costelloe and Jaiyesimi all to come back so might just need to be a bit patient and grind out results with what we have for now.

I did feel we missed Sprangler in the middle on Saturday though, and hope he was just rested, rather than Levein maybe not fancying him for some reason. I felt not having his ability to pick the ball up and quickly move it on to a team mate meant we lost some of the slicker passing we'd shown in the previous game. Phillips is brilliant at disrupting play and chasing the opposition down when they have the ball, but I don't feel he has Sprangler's composure or passing ability when the possession's with us. I wonder if Levein might try to play all three of Smith, Sprangler and Phillips in central midfield at Tynecastle, at the expense of playing two strikers. I can see him going with Kane on his own up front with a packed midfield behind him.