Hibernian V St.Johnstone - Saturday 29th March

[sane_tee]

The writing was on the wall as soon as we kicked off today. Griffith passed the ball from the centre spot right back to Fisher. WTAF 

[Saints17]

9 minutes ago, slf said:

Did anybody notice the saints grounds man today .

I know the saints grounds man likes hibs and wears there socks. So why is he working on the pitch at Easter road with a saints top and a pitch prodder.

is that a freebie .

 

bizarre 

 

 

He was wearing a hibs top underneath his St Johnstone top which he revealed after the final whistle went, showing it off to the rest of the stand. A total idiot who is useless at his job and completely unprofessional. 

[Strawman]

1 minute ago, Saints17 said:

He was wearing a hibs top underneath his St Johnstone top which he revealed after the final whistle went, showing it off to the rest of the stand. A total idiot who is useless at his job and completely unprofessional. 

I’ve heard rumour he is due to retire at end of this season which may explain why he was allowed/ did this.

If the rumour isn’t true though, please someone sack the prick as soon as possible.

[slf]

12 minutes ago, Saints17 said:

He was wearing a hibs top underneath his St Johnstone top which he revealed after the final whistle went, showing it off to the rest of the stand. A total idiot who is useless at his job and completely unprofessional. 

Stick the pitch prodder up where the sun don’t shine 

 

[RandomGuy]

1 hour ago, Strawman said:

I’ve heard rumour he is due to retire at end of this season which may explain why he was allowed/ did this.

If the rumour isn’t true though, please someone sack the prick as soon as possible.

Its embarrassing.

In the last months we've had a stadium name change announced on LinkedIn, a move of season ticket holders agreed without consultation of them or any emails/letters sent to them letting them know (if theres any fans who have a season ticket and dont use Twitter or Facebook then they'll literally have no idea they have to buy a ticket for the game unless someones told them), semi final tickets not been up for sale yet while the 3 other clubs have them up for sale and almost sold out, forgetting to advertise tickets for a league game until the CEO is tagged in a twitter post, and now our groundsman dancing and parading about on an oppositions pitch celebrating as they beat us and push us closer to relegation.

Mind that time the new owners told us things would be more professional?

We're turning into a joke. A massive ****ing scoreboard that'll do **** all while we wallow in the 2nd tier with 2000 fans because the club have driven a wedge between us and them yet again by forgetting we're a professional football club.

[Willie Peat]

7 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Its embarrassing.

In the last months we've had a stadium name change announced on LinkedIn, a move of season ticket holders agreed without consultation of them or any emails/letters sent to them letting them know (if theres any fans who have a season ticket and dont use Twitter or Facebook then they'll literally have no idea they have to buy a ticket for the game unless someones told them), semi final tickets not been up for sale yet while the 3 other clubs have them up for sale and almost sold out, forgetting to advertise tickets for a league game until the CEO is tagged in a twitter post, and now our groundsman dancing and parading about on an oppositions pitch celebrating as they beat us and push us closer to relegation.

Mind that time the new owners told us things would be more professional?

We're turning into a joke. A massive ****ing scoreboard that'll do **** all while we wallow in the 2nd tier with 2000 fans because the club have driven a wedge between us and them yet again by forgetting we're a professional football club.

The new owners have gone strangely quiet since they returned to Trumpland.

[Tattie-bogle]

Don't see what they have done wrong really apart from what looks like, and please god let me be wrong, taken in by an absolute snake oil salesman for a manager 

[Havana Saint]

4 hours ago, Saints17 said:

He was wearing a hibs top underneath his St Johnstone top which he revealed after the final whistle went, showing it off to the rest of the stand. A total idiot who is useless at his job and completely unprofessional. 

If that is true that is utterly embarrassing for everyone. Out pitch is an absolute disgrace and then this carry on, when we are struggling to stay in the league. If true, what utter contempt and disrespect for St Johnstone of the highest order.

[Saints17]

3 hours ago, Havana Saint said:

If that is true that is utterly embarrassing for everyone. Out pitch is an absolute disgrace and then this carry on, when we are struggling to stay in the league. If true, what utter contempt and disrespect for St Johnstone of the highest order.

It’s true. Probably wouldn’t get overly worked up about it if it was an isolated incident but so much of what happens at Saints appears so unprofessional. It’s indicative of the bad attitude that has run through the club for too long now and is why we’re facing relegation and fans are continuing to be treated poorly. 

[pezza70]

Least Bev is professional imagine a club full of people like Bev, off the field we would be in a better place right now 

[saintee in exile]

9 hours ago, Havana Saint said:

If that is true that is utterly embarrassing for everyone. Out pitch is an absolute disgrace and then this carry on, when we are struggling to stay in the league. If true, what utter contempt and disrespect for St Johnstone of the highest order.

If true GHTF.

 

[Cagey]

Valakri says we have to own this performance and learn from it. I hope he learns that passing the ball about at the back is costing us games not winning them. We gifted Hibs all 3 goals.

Hibs are on great run and probably we shouldn't have expected to take much from the game at Easter road with 17,000 fans behind them but it is the manner of the performance that's the worry, along with Valakari unwilling to change formation.

[Cagey]

1 minute ago, saintee in exile said:

If true GHTF.

 

Yeah hopefully he is leaving at the end of the season. Let's not wait til then. GHTF and let some of the youth team ride the sitty on lawn mower.

[RandomGuy]

The groundsman stuff is true to the point he was definitely on the pitch. A Hibs fan sent me the photo of him before kick off saying he was joking about and flashing his Hibs top under his jacket to everyone.

Assume it's true he's retiring soon and this was his only chance to work on the Easter Road pitch since he supports them.

Its nice to a point but the way the clubs acted over the past month will mean it gets more anger directed at it than it should.

[blueheaven]

3 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

The groundsman stuff is true to the point he was definitely on the pitch. A Hibs fan sent me the photo of him before kick off saying he was joking about and flashing his Hibs top under his jacket to everyone.

Assume it's true he's retiring soon and this was his only chance to work on the Easter Road pitch since he supports them.

Its nice to a point but the way the clubs acted over the past month will mean it gets more anger directed at it than it should.

Perhaps fine if it was a pre-retirement one-off but this guy has been wearing Hibs stuff while on duty for Saints for as long as I can remember and someone should have had a word in his ear about it years ago. It's just totally unacceptable.

[sixties saintee]

Just watched the highlights, wished I hadn't,  abysmal disnae cover it.

Two goals were a cluster feck, pratting about, just clear it, had they even played the gether. 

And get that groundsman tae feck.

[blueheaven]

Personally I don't really care if our approach to games is seen as negative or defensive or boring or whatever - I only really care about getting the result, and clearly yesterday we were nowhere even close to getting a result. What I find really disappointing is that it honestly seemed like we were gradually becoming more solid at the back and becoming more difficult to beat, which you could see from our last few results before yesterday. We obviously hadn't been playing fantastically well but I felt we were slowly creating a platform from which our results could improve and we could start to sort out the attacking side of things. But yesterday just makes it feel like we're right back at square one and that's a massive psychological blow.

Just like Kilmarnock last month, Hibs had spotted that if they play a high line against us, and press and pressure us in front of our own goal, we're liable to make mistakes as we just don't have the quality of player needed to quickly and accurately pass the ball around at the back under that sort of pressure. The players should know by now when they can do that with the ball and when they can't, but yesterday suggested they have no understanding of that at all. And what also disappoints me is that teams press us when we have the ball but we never seem to press them when it's the other way around.

No doubting for me that Simo got his team line-up wrong yesterday, too. Svedberg may well come good and I'd be happy to see what he can do after some more settling-in time and a pre-season, but right now he's done nothing to warrant a starting place and we just can't afford a passenger like that in the situation we're in. Kirk's way off form too and is never going to work when he's played through the middle on his own like that. I totally get giving Kimpioka a fresh chance, but for me he hasn't taken it. He's showing no hunger and to just come on and wander around half-heartedly in the way he did yesterday is unacceptable. I'd have him back out of the squad from this point on.

Incidentally, what has happened to Franczak? He hasn't been in the squad for several weeks now and I'm sure he'd offer us a second option at right wing-back, particularly as Curtis is having such a rough time at the moment. I'm also still really questioning the logic of sending Raymond out on loan when we're so lacking in left-sided defenders/wing-backs and clearly Douglas has fitness issues. There were no defenders on the bench at all yesterday - would it not make more sense to have Essel there than Matt Smith? Or even Olufunwa, if he's even still at the club?

Clearly we have a lot of players who are either temporary stop-gaps, are waiting to leave or are just completely frozen out, and they're all issues that need to be sorted out in the summer. I still feel positive about what Simo can do when given a full pre-season and summer transfer window to make the team his own ... it's just a pity that in the situation we're in, we just don't have the luxury of holding out until then.

 

 

[Cagey]

35 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Personally I don't really care if our approach to games is seen as negative or defensive or boring or whatever - I only really care about getting the result, and clearly yesterday we were nowhere even close to getting a result. What I find really disappointing is that it honestly seemed like we were gradually becoming more solid at the back and becoming more difficult to beat, which you could see from our last few results before yesterday. We obviously hadn't been playing fantastically well but I felt we were slowly creating a platform from which our results could improve and we could start to sort out the attacking side of things. But yesterday just makes it feel like we're right back at square one and that's a massive psychological blow.

Just like Kilmarnock last month, Hibs had spotted that if they play a high line against us, and press and pressure us in front of our own goal, we're liable to make mistakes as we just don't have the quality of player needed to quickly and accurately pass the ball around at the back under that sort of pressure. The players should know by now when they can do that with the ball and when they can't, but yesterday suggested they have no understanding of that at all. And what also disappoints me is that teams press us when we have the ball but we never seem to press them when it's the other way around.

No doubting for me that Simo got his team line-up wrong yesterday, too. Svedberg may well come good and I'd be happy to see what he can do after some more settling-in time and a pre-season, but right now he's done nothing to warrant a starting place and we just can't afford a passenger like that in the situation we're in. Kirk's way off form too and is never going to work when he's played through the middle on his own like that. I totally get giving Kimpioka a fresh chance, but for me he hasn't taken it. He's showing no hunger and to just come on and wander around half-heartedly in the way he did yesterday is unacceptable. I'd have him back out of the squad from this point on.

Incidentally, what has happened to Franczak? He hasn't been in the squad for several weeks now and I'm sure he'd offer us a second option at right wing-back, particularly as Curtis is having such a rough time at the moment. I'm also still really questioning the logic of sending Raymond out on loan when we're so lacking in left-sided defenders/wing-backs and clearly Douglas has fitness issues. There were no defenders on the bench at all yesterday - would it not make more sense to have Essel there than Matt Smith? Or even Olufunwa, if he's even still at the club?

Clearly we have a lot of players who are either temporary stop-gaps, are waiting to leave or are just completely frozen out, and they're all issues that need to be sorted out in the summer. I still feel positive about what Simo can do when given a full pre-season and summer transfer window to make the team his own ... it's just a pity that in the situation we're in, we just don't have the luxury of holding out until then.

 

 

Agree with all of that.

Another few bookings yesterday and we are coming into the split with no defensive back up.

Olufunwa and Essel seem to have vanished. It may be they have been tried in bounce games and found wanting but for them not to be in the squad when we do not have defensive cover is weird as is the fact that Franczak isn't in the squad. He can cover so many positions and at least can score and see a pass. I fear he will end up like Max

[Kat71]

55 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Personally I don't really care if our approach to games is seen as negative or defensive or boring or whatever - I only really care about getting the result, and clearly yesterday we were nowhere even close to getting a result. What I find really disappointing is that it honestly seemed like we were gradually becoming more solid at the back and becoming more difficult to beat, which you could see from our last few results before yesterday. We obviously hadn't been playing fantastically well but I felt we were slowly creating a platform from which our results could improve and we could start to sort out the attacking side of things. But yesterday just makes it feel like we're right back at square one and that's a massive psychological blow.

Just like Kilmarnock last month, Hibs had spotted that if they play a high line against us, and press and pressure us in front of our own goal, we're liable to make mistakes as we just don't have the quality of player needed to quickly and accurately pass the ball around at the back under that sort of pressure. The players should know by now when they can do that with the ball and when they can't, but yesterday suggested they have no understanding of that at all. And what also disappoints me is that teams press us when we have the ball but we never seem to press them when it's the other way around.

No doubting for me that Simo got his team line-up wrong yesterday, too. Svedberg may well come good and I'd be happy to see what he can do after some more settling-in time and a pre-season, but right now he's done nothing to warrant a starting place and we just can't afford a passenger like that in the situation we're in. Kirk's way off form too and is never going to work when he's played through the middle on his own like that. I totally get giving Kimpioka a fresh chance, but for me he hasn't taken it. He's showing no hunger and to just come on and wander around half-heartedly in the way he did yesterday is unacceptable. I'd have him back out of the squad from this point on.

Incidentally, what has happened to Franczak? He hasn't been in the squad for several weeks now and I'm sure he'd offer us a second option at right wing-back, particularly as Curtis is having such a rough time at the moment. I'm also still really questioning the logic of sending Raymond out on loan when we're so lacking in left-sided defenders/wing-backs and clearly Douglas has fitness issues. There were no defenders on the bench at all yesterday - would it not make more sense to have Essel there than Matt Smith? Or even Olufunwa, if he's even still at the club?

Clearly we have a lot of players who are either temporary stop-gaps, are waiting to leave or are just completely frozen out, and they're all issues that need to be sorted out in the summer. I still feel positive about what Simo can do when given a full pre-season and summer transfer window to make the team his own ... it's just a pity that in the situation we're in, we just don't have the luxury of holding out until then.

 

 

The team is his own.

[blueheaven]

17 minutes ago, Kat71 said:

The team is his own.

I disagree. He has numerous unwanted players hanging around draining his budget. He has a number of stop-gap signings only signed on short-term loans to get us through the season. He's spent pretty much his whole time here trying to put out fires and deal with inherited issues, and has barely had any time at all to actually build for the future.

There are currently only four players in the entire squad who he has signed as part of a long-term plan: Balodis, Mikulic, Svedberg and Griffith.

I think it's not only unfair but also pretty naive to suggest that in one mid-season transfer window that opened only a couple of months after his arrival he's suddenly transformed the squad into the one he fully wants.

[Cagey]

23 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

I disagree. He has numerous unwanted players hanging around draining his budget. He has a number of stop-gap signings only signed on short-term loans to get us through the season. He's spent pretty much his whole time here trying to put out fires and deal with inherited issues, and has barely had any time at all to actually build for the future.

There are currently only four players in the entire squad who he has signed as part of a long-term plan: Balodis, Mikulic, Svedberg and Griffith.

I think it's not only unfair but also pretty naive to suggest that in one mid-season transfer window that opened only a couple of months after his arrival he's suddenly transformed the squad into the one he fully wants.

Curtis Watt Boladis and more I think.

[blueheaven]

Just now, Cagey said:

Curtis Watt Boladis and more I think.

Balodis was one of the four I mentioned, and Curtis and Watt are just stop-gap loans here until the end of the season.

[Saline Saint]

If the groundsman carry on was pre-arranged by the clubs did the Saints hierarchy not read the room as to how we would feel were we to get pumped,if he did it off his own bat then he’d be summoned to a meeting  first thing tomorrow where there would be no tea and biscuits only a P45 with his name on it,play silly games win silly prizes,retiring or not.

[Cagey]

13 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Balodis was one of the four I mentioned, and Curtis and Watt are just stop-gap loans here until the end of the season.

They may be loans but along with Douglas , the goalie and Duke they have been brought in by the manager so it is probably fair to say it's his team.

If you look at the 9 on the bench and add Fran and Max we probably could have put a half decent team on the pitch. Not saying they would have done better and there is no out and out defenders but not sure it is the personnel at fault as much as the tactics.

When Simo came in I was happy with the play,nice triangles and moving up the wings. That's all gone. It's now walking pace , TRY to keep possession which going by stats they do each week but it will not get us goals.

It's also criminal that Benji was preferred to Sidibeh.

Hibs looked relegation favourite at one time and they brought in Hoylett and Gayle who some would say we're past it and they are now favourites for third.

[Kat71]

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

I disagree. He has numerous unwanted players hanging around draining his budget. He has a number of stop-gap signings only signed on short-term loans to get us through the season. He's spent pretty much his whole time here trying to put out fires and deal with inherited issues, and has barely had any time at all to actually build for the future.

There are currently only four players in the entire squad who he has signed as part of a long-term plan: Balodis, Mikulic, Svedberg and Griffith.

I think it's not only unfair but also pretty naive to suggest that in one mid-season transfer window that opened only a couple of months after his arrival he's suddenly transformed the squad into the one he fully wants.

Purely my opinion, stop gaps or not, he signed these players to do a job.