Kmcalpin

Aparently Jack Vale will be available as his suspension only applies to league games. There is a possibility that Harry Paton & Liam Gordon might be fit.

If anyone is looking for parking on Saturday try the West Mains Avenue area south west of B & Q. 10 minutes walk from the ground.

Lets hope we have no more injuries or viruses this week. I'd imagine that Watt and Maswanhise are stick on to start, barring injuries. I believe that Matty Connelly won't be available for this game as he's cup tied. His replacement on the bench will be interesting. There's no point in playing for a draw so lets give it our best shot and adopt a more aggressive assertive game.

I agree with some of your points. In terms of attendances last season, yes, we were 10th. In terms of averages, St Johnstone were 1,200 below us, Kilmarnock about 800 above us; and St Mirren about 900 above us. If St Mirren have a poor season(or average for them) then watch their attendances drop. Yes, Falkirk does have quite a big support but teams winning the Championship generally do. If the Grangemouth petrochemical complex closes then watch their crowds plummet. Its always dangerous to quote one off figures, but our attendance against Aberdeen was badly affected by the weather that day. We are a bottom 6 club in the pecking order; but still one of Scotland's biggest clubs. Success for me this season will be 7th or 8th place, as that represents progress compared to last season and I agree with your general point about a top 6 finish. In terms of turnover, I don't know how St Johnstone do it. Yes, they cashed in on a dream move to McDiarmid Park but now "only" have £2.8m of that windfall left in the bank. In their most recent set of accounts, they achieved a turnover of over £6m with smaller crowds than us and no transfer income. They do have a thriving hopsitlaity stream but that wouldn't account for huge sums. I'm quite content to see us win and pick up points. Personally I'd be quite happy to for us to emulate Jim MacLean's Dundee United. 20% possession, 2 shots on goal, 1 goal scored and none conceded. In an ideal world I'd like to see us play open attacking football but that isn't always possible.

North Stand tickets now on sale.

That wouldn't surprise me Smiddy.

Maybe not an issue for many fans as they just want to support the team on cup day through thick and through thin and have a day out. Granted, its not the most the most attractive or romantic of ties but they'll still be there in numbers. St Johnstone should be making it as easy as possible for those interested, to buy tickets.

Main Stand seats now fully sold out. Presumably ticket sales now suspended until/if St Johnstone decide to open North Stand sometime tomorrow.

Main Stand seating now almost sold - about 4 seats left.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. He does seem to be on the small side for a Premiership goalie and doesn't seem to have progressed.

and more physicality. However to achieve that we'll need to shift some bodies out.

Well, its the cup next weekend. Our injury and suspension will severely limit our selection options but maybe thats a good thing. As someone on P & B pointed out some time ago, SK is at his best when our starting line up options are very limited and the team virtually picks itself. De facto, his scope for decision making is almost zero. As things stand our best starting line up for next week would seem to be Mair Kaleta Casey Balmer Blaney Wilson Halliday Andrews Sparrow/Davor Watt Maswhanise Thats assuming that we don't pick up more injuries during the week. A huge if.

In his defence, he's had to deal with an horrendous injury situation, some of which is of his own doing ie signing crocks. However if we lose both games to St Johnstone then the pressure will really mount on him.

I feared the worst when I saw the starting line up, so I'll take a 3-1 loss. However its very disappointing to lose McGinn to injury and Vale to a debatable red card. Why can't we just lose? No reason to panic but if the next 2 Saturdays bring poor results then the pressure will mount on SK.

I picked up the score just after half time and thought no red cards please as its that kind of day, but that was wildly optimistic.

Maybe something to do with the strong likelihood of Falkirk being promoted, as they also have a plastic pitch? Apart from that Killie have other priorities to spend their cash on.

I fully get that and we're not good at it. However, in order to retain possession , we have to win it in the first place and thats not something we're good at. Our midfield is simply too lightweight and thats true of our strikers to a lesser extent. I have no problem whatsoever in allowing the opposition to have possession so long as we close them down (which we don't) and force them into into passing sideways or backwards. In terms of retaining possession I used to love watching David Turnbull. Many opponents found that the only way to rob him was to hack, elbow, or outright assault him. He was physically strong enough to withstand 50/50 and even 40/60 challnges and still retain possession. Lennon Miller is improving in that regard but has a way to go yet. Its not nice to see, but of late we've seen a lot more nasty challenges on him as some opponents become frustrated, or just downright cynical, when they fail to beat him in a fair 50/50 tackle. Davor, although game is simply too easily battered and buffeted. Andy Halliday is too, although he's risen a bit in my estimation of late. If Paul McGinn can return to defence, along with Steve Seddon, and we can get Lennon Miller and Harry Paton fit; and bring in a big nasty defensive midfielder then our possession stats will rise. A big target man would also help when we decide to play hoofball. All thats a huge if.

We've had an injury crisis just about everywhere else so why not goalie too. It just gets worse and worse.

Thats true but, IF he comes this month, I suspect he'll be brought in to beef up the midfield i.e replace Davor. As its stands we badly need a physical defensive midfielder and a hulking target man, if we want to stick to Ketts' plan but make it more effective.

All 7 young lads [Wells, Ross, Ferrie, Connelly etc] have had their loans extended to the end of the season.

That was an interesting one. I've seen lines drawn on the image which shows the Killie player a very few centimetres offside. I've also seen another image (presumably not used by VAR) showing a couple of players offside, one by maybe 30 -40 cms off.

Good post. Pretty much how I feel as well. I wasn't there tonight but accept that it was a rotten performance. I've seen many such ones over the years going back to the 60s. In those days fans just accepted it for what it was and were just glad to avoid the shops. We had very modest expectations. We might read about teams like Manchester United or Liverpool in magazines and knew little about them. If we wanted to watch the likes of Eusebio or Albert Shesternev then we did so when they visited Hampden Park for an international. Nowadays of course, the English Premier League is afforded wall to wall coverage on the box and the same is true of European football. Last Sunday coming home from the game I reluctantly listened to BBC SCOTLAND Sportsound hoping to catch a quick interview with Stuart Kettlewell, which never came. However we were treated to constant updates of the Liverpool V Manchester United game. A right turn off. Expectations these days are far higher and the English Premier League is the yardstick - everything else gets compared to that and thats just unrealistic.

Definitely a factor Ally. A lot of our lads will be running on empty, quite apart from having to deal with injuries. I'm quite happy to play hoofball but please let us sign a big target man this month to allow us to do it effectively.

Any quick initial impressions of Andrews? What kind of midfielder is he? I know there's not much to go on.

A good summing up. An important point for us. If Killie fans were booing then they should aim that at their own team. At the end of the day their team simply wasn't good enough to earn the win. Yes we were poor but I don't, in any way, feel remorseful or guilty that Killie were robbed by us. If the tables were turned they wouldn't ask the SPFL to give us the 3 points would they. They've done a Dick Turpin to us in the past. Thanks for the point Derek, bring on Hibs.