Ya Bezzer!

I've not actually put in today's appearance yet so it's actually 22 (9) 11. I dunno if that strengthens your case slightly!

Stam's actual stats in a Motherwell shirt for league games are 21 (9) 11 Not really that bad. All his goals last season came from open play and penalties still need to be scored. He has missed chances but strikers will always miss chances. You'd like him to be scoring more, especially this season but I do think there is something in the style of play argument. And again 11 goals off 21 starts is really not that bad.

Created a lot of chances without really looking like adding to the score. Livingston have looked like they could nick something at times so we need to try and finish the game by getting another goal or two.

I know it’s an intensive period of the season but there has been too many personnel changes match to match. I feel like it’s affected our recent performances. Another 7 today. Let’s hope we can find some fluidity.

Hearts were a more aggressive and more physical side than Hibs were and because of that sometimes our passing wasn't as slick as it was on Tuesday but I thought over all it was another good performance and we probably deserved the 3 points. Two disallowed goals and their keeper has made 3 or 4 smart saves. Hearts didn't create much and when we were under pressure I thought we defended really well. Overall you'll take 4 points out of 6 against the teams sitting 1st and 3rd in the league but the performances have been excellent and we've been the better team both times.

I think that's three goal line clearances in a row now! 🤣

I think one of the important things going forward now is how other teams adapt to our style of play when we start playing them for the second or third time in the season. We've been a novelty up to now but usually it's harder to maintain a successful style over a full season when the opposition has experience against us and starts looking to negate our set up and tactics. I'd also say that we are heavily dependent on Maswanhise for goals and generally getting behind the defensive line.

Top notch. For me that was our best performance of the season, at least that I've seen. A goal in the second half would have topped it off but other than that we were absolutely fantastic. Brilliant in possession, defended well when we had to, didn't lose composure when Hibs tried to press us high up the pitch, some great bits of skill from Said, game management was excellent, we just looked like a team that didn't have any weaknesses and that with perhaps not an optimum starting XI. And kinda on that subject, I thought Oscar Priestman was absolutely fantastic tonight. Got to say he hadn't shown me much in his sub appearances but I thought he was our best player tonight coming in for his starting debut.

Hibs have scored 2 or more goals in 5 out of 6 of their previous matches. We've scored in our last 10 league matches. Gotta be a 0-0 then!

It doesn't matter what style of football you play fans like to moan. Even more so these days when pretty much everything is infused with a sense of entitlement. We put in a better performance against a better team in last year's semi final and the knives came out. It shouldn't surprise anyone. Right now we are Top 6 and got to a semi final. We are playing the best football since David Turnbull was in the side, which is 5 or 6 years ago now. The manager has less than 20 games in charge and we are a work in progress. There is areas we need to improve in but since football perfection can't be achieved by teams spending half a billion in the close season, why don't we just accept that and let the manager try to improve in those areas.

Last night I didn't want to go down the 'the ref was bad' route but..... How bad was Don Robertson in this match? There first goal comes directly from a refereeing mistake and he was just abysmal the whole match.

There was 21,277. Bigger than the attendance limit at Tynecastle, or Easter Road. No issue for me from an atmosphere point of view. As a proportion of seats there are probably as many empty ones at Fir Park most of the time.

As I’ve said before I don’t really agree with the ‘no cutting edge’ theory, we’ve scored plenty goals for a team with no cutting edge. Although there may be an issue with the centre forward though. For large parts of the game we were the better team but St Mirren were more composed, when we looked nervy. Did all the street smarts and dark arts better than us, were physically stronger and gave us a severe lesson in finishing as well as defending. We weren’t at our best in any area of the pitch today but the big issue was defensively. At 2-1 we should be right back in the match with 10 to play. Instead we instantly concede a trash goal. We really need to defend better cos asking for a cutting edge that scores 3 or 4 goals is a big, big ask.

We’ve played alright but St Mirren have given us a lesson in finishing.

Celtic have spent about £16 million on Trusty and Nawrocki. I know Nawrocki is out on loan also but you assume they would be the priority.

Quietly confident the likes of Longelo, Maswanhise and Said can do something on the wide open steppe. Also the chips are good at Hampden.

I saw that. Hopefully there isn't hundreds of folk with the same issue.

Only if my ticket actually appears in the app!

I thought I posted at half time but apparently not. We totally dominated possession in the first half but I honestly thought it was a snooze fest. Luckily we got the goal just before HT. Longelo coming a few minutes before gave us so much more attacking impetus. Second half was much more enjoyable even though Dundee Utd put us under pressure at times. The game opened up and we had the space to play into and sudden we looked a lot more threatening even though our dominance of the ball was gone. Thought we defended well tonight, although we got a stroke of luck when Dundee Utd hit the post when they should have scored. Thought going into these two games we needed 4 points just to steady us a bit and we've taken 6 so that's great. We've also kept a clean sheet and extended our lead in the second half when earlier in the season teams we're pegging us back. Pretty happy.

Well we've 14 goals off 32 shots on target which is pretty decent but there are a few penalties in there. EDIT - Also don't forget all the shots that weren't on target! 🤣

Just cos I was curious. Shots on target (average, league matches only) 1. Hibernian - 6.0 2. Hearts - 5.8 3. Dundee Utd - 5.6 4. Celtic - 5.2 5. Rangers - 4.8 6. Falkirk - 4.5 7. Kilmarnock 3.7 8. Aberdeen 3.6 9. Livingston 3.6 10. Motherwell 3.55 11. St Mirren - 3.0 12. Dundee - 2.4

This is the major reason I'm against VAR. The whole point of football is the joy of scoring a goal. That's what everything else builds up to. That has totally been taken away now. As for decision making I don't think much has actually changed. Mistakes get made with or without VAR. We all lived without it for pretty much our whole lives and somehow we still managed to love the game. It's entirely geared towards televised football.

You got the impression things had just turned a bit for us and not in a good way. This was a game we really had to win and we did. Dare I say it, the result was more important than the performance.

I wouldn't even think for a second about ditching VAR. It's a pox on the game.

We shall not be denied. Pending VAR check!!