Ya Bezzer!

St. Johnstone have lost 2 out of 13 home matches in 2015. Motherwell have lost 10 out of 13 away matches in 2015. St. Johnstone have scored in every match this season. Motherwell have failed to score in 50% of our matches this season. Doesn't look good does it? St. Johnstone have also conceded in every match but we've conceded 6 goals in the last 3 games so we are probably going to have to score twice to get anything out of this game. Would be happy with a point and then we really need to beat Kilmarnock at home. BTW John Sutton was dropped in favour of Steven MacLean last weekend who scored so I'm guessing MacLean will start again tomorrow although inevitably we'll see Sutton on at some point.

See St. Mirren fans are saying Craig Reid is being linked with a move there.

Michael O'Halloran is probably one of the quickest players in the league.

St. Johnstone have an excellent home record. They have only lost two home league matches in the last 10 months and the last team to go there and win, other than Celtic, was Hamilton Accies back in the first week of January. Before that you have to go back to October 2014 when Kilmarnock won there. They have a few injuries at the moment, particularly in defence but Graham Cummins has scored 3 in 4 so we'll need to keep an eye on him and of course they have Sutton who may or may not come back to haunt us.

As perhaps Gannon's chief hater on this board I'm saying that wasn't one of my major reasons to take agin him!

I'm sure I read on the Sheff Utd site that they had brought in 7 times what they paid for him.

I think we should be setting aside modest sums to bring in players if only to raise the general quality of the squad but I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'd be surprised if any of these players leave for a fee. If you want to sell players on, you need to develop them yourself. In fact if you look at the list of players we have sold for cash the vast majority of them were home grown and most of the rest were foreign players sold to foreign clubs. I remain skeptical about the likelihood of selling English players back to England which seems to be the plan at the moment.

There are far too many long balls being kicked from hand by the goalkeeper, we need to play it out from the back. We have two wingers that are rapid, a long ball down the middle isn't exactly playing to our strength.

Yeah, it is 8. I counted a draw as a win. But general trend is the same.

I'm keeping a goals conceded map this season and so far of the 6 goals we've conceded 3 have come from the right back position and none from the left back position. Draw your own conclusions. In any case Aberdeen are very strong down the wings, they will give most teams a roasting down the flanks I'd imagine. With the full backs pressing forward and the interchanging between the three attacking midfielders, our full backs often found themselves in the middle of a triangle with little cover from wide midfield players.

I was unhappy when Josh Law was given an new contract so my position on him is clear. We released better players than Law during the summer. However I don't think Baraclough is going to chop and change at this stage. We've got some difficult games out of the way and now he'll be looking to play what he sees as his strongest team against more manageable opponents. The fact that Law was given an contract extension, has played the vast majority of matches under Baraclough and started the season as a first team choice suggests he is going to be our right back for at least the foreseeable future.

Overall (since Pearson signing) P23 W9 D3 L11 WIN PERCENTAGE 39% With Pearson P16 W9 D1 L6 WIN PERCENTAGE 56% Without Pearson P7 W0 D2 L5 WIN PERCENTAGE 0%

Having just watched the highlights I'm afraid you have to say the last three goals we've conceded have been howlers by the goalkeeper. But then he's tall so that's OK....

Lasley was trying to compete against 2 or 3 midfielders on his own due to Taylor being an empty shirt. We were already a man down there due to the formations so we didn't have much chance with Taylor's failure to turn up. It's hard enough 2 v 3.

He might have tried hard but he seemed to me like a wee laddie playing with big men. Aberdeen defenders were throwing him about the place. Last week although he didn't get much service Fletcher you felt had something about him. Today I just didn't feel Moult offered much threat.

We need to do something sharpish about throw ins. Players need a kick up the arse for their disappearing acts every time we get a throw in. If they don't do it themselves they should be given strict instructions by the manager as what to do. Time and time again we win a throw in in the opposition half and nothing comes of it because players just aren't willing to look for the ball.

Dom Thomas did well when he came on but I thought Scott McDonald was our best player today.

I thought we were well outplayed today but even though none of our players really hit top form we battled away, created a few chances and were still in the match at the final whistle against a team that will finish Top 3 this season. However you'd have to say we've conceded two soft goals again. Some suggestion that the goalkeeper was fouled but I've said it before and I'll say it again, a goalkeeper, especially one the size of Ripley should be going right through any opposition, for me he's just been overpowered in the challenge. We scored against the run of play and Aberdeen really dominated us for most of the match although we improved when Dom Thomas came on. McLean, McGinn and Hayes all interchanged really well and they made good diagonal runs in behind our full backs. Felt a bit sorry for Lasley today, we played more a 4-4-2 and as a result we were over run in midfield. Taylor really wasn't in the match at all, McDonald was playing further forward so Lasley was 1 v 2 or 3. Also felt Moult didn't show much but McDonald looked a lot better today and was probably our best player. Johnson was very frustrating , I wonder what his pass completion was! Single figures? We weren't good enough today but we didn't fold. Now we need to start picking up points.

Aberdeen are so strong down the wide areas - Logan & McGinn, Shinnie & Hayes, and they have a nailed down goalscorer in Adam Rooney. Aberdeen also didn't have a midweek game which will surely give them a fitness advantage in the latter stages. Going to be very difficult today, would not be unhappy with a point but we'll see how it goes.

Murphy was a great player. Skill, pace, an eye for goal. Good luck to him, hope he does well as it can only reflect well on us.

I think Aberdeen have pulled away from the rest and will finish 2nd by a distance. Therefore it's going to be a very difficult game. McLean looks to have found form again and I think Graeme Shinnie is one of the best players in the league and was a superb signing. However we should be looking for 3 points every time we run out on to Fir Park. Just need to get the sleeves rolled up and give it everything and if you do that, you'll always have a chance.

You implied that Jake Taylor shouldn't have started the match last night. Since McDonald and Taylor are probably in the same boat fitness wise, I made the general observation that if we want these players to be match sharp later in the season we need to give them game time now.

The thing about McDonald and Taylor though is, pre-season is over. If we want these guys to get fit they need to play in games. If you have a problem with us playing these guys when they aren't fit, well it was a managerial decision to bring these players in late in the day. Personally, I'm prepared to take the gamble as we know about McDonald and Taylor seems to have a pedigree.

It's too early to be calling for Baraclough's head but at the same time he's not a new manager and has a poor track record leading up to this point. We've taken 27 points from a possible 75 under Baraclough and that just isn't good enough. He can't simple be judged on this season. Also, although we have hard opening fixtures I don't think its an excuse for performing poorly. Hopefully it doesn't come to this but if we were to lose the next two and end up with 3 points from 15 I'm afraid it doesn't cut it even if we played the top five teams in the league. If you want to even get into the middle of the table you have to scrap and battle your way to points. The league starts to sort its self out after about 9 or 10 games, so the next few games are going to be very important because we don't want to go into the second half of that important period with 4 defeats on the trot. Starting Saturday we need to really knuckle down and make sure if we are beaten, a team has to really give their all to get something from us. Unfortunately that is often not the case.

The season has barely started but we really need at least 3 points from the next two matches or we could be sitting on 3 points from 15, will probably be bottom or close to bottom of the league and then we are going into the so called 'easier' games on a downer with early season confidence on the wain. I think Aberdeen have opened up a bit of a gap between themselves and the rest of the teams outside Celtic so it's going to be a tough match but we need step up our performance.